Disneyland's Matterhorn Is Being Refurbished

A Disneyland favorite is in serious need of repair, and the park has closed the ride down to try and make sure it lives to see another year. The Matterhorn has been closed for what Disney is saying is refurbishment, and it will need quite a bit of it according to recent reports (via SFGate.com). The ride has been an attraction at Disneyland since 1959, and because of its unique construction and architecture, it is a challenging ride to repair and keep maintained. The repairs it needs are significant, and those repairs are needed to solidify the infrastructure of the mountain.

"She's old and getting older," Disneyland vlogger and FreshBaked host David Erickson said. "I've heard from a few folks that there is decay happening on the interior. … The repairs needed are extensive." In fact, some pieces of the mountain exterior have fallen off.

That's why the Matterhorn is fenced off from guests in the park while construction is in process, and you can see construction materials in the ride tunnels through the fencing. Erickson speculates that the plan is to repair the ride in stages like they did in 2019. If that's the case it would close on weekdays and then open on weekends.

They would in theory added reinforced supports in stages, sticking the ride back up and then running it like normal for a few months and then taking it back down again to install more supports and repeat until all supports have been installed. They are also replacing track ties on the ride, similar to Big Thunder, and Erickson hopes that the Matterhorn will become a smoother ride because of the additions.

Erickson also addresses the possibility of building a completely new ride, but unfortunately, that is not possible. If they were to build the mountain to the same scale these days, the size footprint would be much bigger than the one we see today. It was built in 1959 after all, and if they were to build a new ride they would also have to close the other attractions nearby, including the Alice in Wonderland ride or perhaps the Nemo Lagoon. So, they have to repair it from the inside or they can't really repair it unless they want to change huge sections of the park.