
Guests at Magic Kingdom were greeted with an unexpected “event” on Sunday, May 12. An unforeseen problem shut down a large portion of Frontierland for a few hours on Mother’s Day.
In the early afternoon, Disney World engineers started popping open manhole covers near the Frontier Trading Post and the home of the Country Bear Jamboree. Shortly after the manhole covers, a cast member was stationed on either side of the walkway to Frontierland, keeping guests out of the area.
Guests took to social media to speculate that American Idol was filming at the Magic Kingdom, but that happened earlier this week, and the episode is set to air on Mother’s Day.
Shortly after the event started, Disney World canceled the Festival of Fantasy Parade. Guests could still access Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Liberty Square, but most of the walkway in Frontierland was completely shut down.
And then, guests realized exactly what was happening and how gross it was. There was a sewer backup and a possible ruptured sewage line, and Disney World was bringing in the big guns to handle the problem.
Walt Disney World had to bring in a pump truck to clear the sewer line and ensure that the blockage was cleared and the line was still functioning. The entire incident closed Frontierland for a few hours on Mother’s Day, but by late afternoon, everything was back to normal.
With 50-year-old pipes at Disney Parks, this kind of thing is expected and has happened before. In 2023, a pipe burst and flooded a gift shop in the Magic Kingdom’s Storybook Circus in the new Fantasyland.
Perhaps one of the items on which the Walt Disney Company will spend its $60 billion in theme park upgrades is fixing the sewage system at the Walt Disney World Resort.
X (formerly Twitter) users had some jokes for the Magic Kingdom, including bringing up Uncle Eddie from Christmas Vacation (1989) and his famous “shitter’s full,” line after a photo surfaced of the pump truck in Frontierland.
https://twitter.com/orlandoparksguy/status/1789743565410566531
Cast members successfully managed the situation and the smell as they directed guests toward Main Street, U.S.A., and Adventureland and kept them away from Frontierland.
The shutdown of Frontierland takes some of the shine off of Walt Disney World’s big Sunday announcement. Earlier on Mother’s Day, Disney announced that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure would be opening on June 28.
Here’s your chance to make your best joke at Walt Disney World’s expense after Frontierland shut down because of a sewage leak. Whatcha got?
This post originally appeared on Inside the Magic.