Thunder Mountain is fun roller coaster to enjoy, if it is your first time riding a roller coaster of the 90th time, you will enjoy this ride. This ride may not be fast, but what it lacks in speed is made up with it's attention to scenery and theme. The intire ride takes place in the Mining town of Thunder Mountain complete with trains and all. Be sure to ride this ride.
Thunder Mountain Railroad is a very fun ride for everyone. If it is your first time riding a roller coaster or your 90th time riding one, Thunder Mountain will always thrill. Also unlike most roller coasters, Thunder Mountain is themed, you are actually riding a train through a mountain. Every twist and turn is an adventure. DO NOT LET THIS RIDES PAST HISTORY SCARE YOU! THE RIDE IS SAFE. While you are in line or even outside the entrance to the ride you will most likely hear people saying that someone died on the ride. Do not let that scare you, you will not get hurt on this ride and if you do it is most likely beacuse it is something that you did. Also do not waste your Fastpass on this ride. Thunder Mountain lines moves very fast. Only get a fastpass if the line is longer then 35 min. Also the sight of the line can make people think that it is longer then it actually is. If it is wrapping outside the ride entrance, get on anyway, the line goes by fast and it is entertaining, especially when you enter the town area. Also, Thunder Mountain has a height restriction, if you have a rider that is to short to ride, use the Disney Stroller Pass. This pass allows members of your party to ride the ride, upon exiting, the people who were waiting with the ineligable rider get to ride the ride WITH OUT WAITING A MIN. Thats right they put you right on the ride. There really is no exceptinally busy time for this ride, but the ride just like any other ride has a short line when the park opens.
Disneyland's version of the ride is the only one which has the town located right above the waiting line. There is a saloon, a hotel, and other buildings located right next to the track. Also, the waiting line is the opposite version of the Florida line. Guests go down into a small courtyard filled with mining tools and get to see the conclusion of the ride up close before going up into an open air boarding area, rather than starting up top and going down into a dark cavern to board.
The Minor Details of Big Thunder"
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad dates back to the wild and woolly boom town days when every prospector west of the Rockies was looking for gold. The following is the tall tale heard tell by one of those prospectors who got it second hand from old Sam, the last of the Big Thunder Miners:
Yes sir, it is 1840, and around these parts, things got prit' near quiet as the hangin' tree on Sunday after the Big Thunder Mine tapped out. One day there ain't none richer, the next, even a ghost wouldn't have much innerst in her.
Things got mighty busted up and rusted down inside Big Thunder, so Sam told me while sluggin' from a dusty bottle of Old Imagineer. He was the last prospector inside that min. Fact is, poor old Sam took a spill and done landed belly up in one of them ore cars. Next thing he knows, the car takes off like a skinny coyote after a plump hen!
Off he went, a headin' fer the mine, Seems like that old ghost mine came to life for Sam. He swears the rusted winch engine was a pumpin' and a wheezin' and just when he was thinkin' he must have bats in his belfry, there was bats! Then he sat up to see what he could see in the dark, and there was pools of rainbow water and waterfalls, and plenty of them rocks the schoolmarm calls "stalactites and stalagmites."
The walls of the canyon kept comin' in closer and closer at old Sam and he yelled until he couldn't yes no more. All of a sudden, the car thunders into a pitch dark tunnel, with Sam holdin' on for dear life. Comin' back out the other side, he spots a couple a danged skunks foolin' with blastin' powder, like to blow the top off a whole darned mountain! Little ways away, danged if'n there ain't Billy goat chawin' on a stick of the stuff! But Sam didn't have time to worry about that, 'cuz next thing he knows he's whippin' down Spiral Butte and headin' right back down into Big Thunder Mine. Sam figured he was goin' in and never comin' out this time, with all that rumblin' and shakin' and rocks comin' down all around him. he closed his eyes tight but the next thing ya know he was outside and high-ballin' down on the track again, right over the Bear River Trestle Bridge.
That ore car finally squealed to a stop right smack dab in the middle of Big Thunder Town. Sam just sat up, brushed off the dust and said, "I ain't had this much of a whoop and a holler since the Grub Grang hit town. I just barely got out with my hide!"
Sam's amazing ghost story was told and retold over the years, and because of it, no one was ever brave enough to even set foot near the mine-until the day a bold young Imagineer heard the tale and though it might be fun to take a ride on old Big Thunder himself. Sure enough, he did, and the train ride turned out to be so much fun he decided to officially reopen the mine. Folks soon heard the news about Big Thunder and began to arrive there to take their own wild ride on the legendary runaway train.
