Right now, there’s a lot of construction happening at Walt Disney World. A Monsters Inc. land is replacing the Muppets at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Half of Dinoland U.S.A. is closed to be transformed into a Tropical Americas land, and the rest will be closing soon. However, the build that has everybody’s attention is the replacement of the Rivers of America at Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland. Now, fans are making the same comment due to a water-related development.
A section of Frontierland is set to become the Cars-themed Piston Peak and, as part of the redevelopment, the iconic Rivers of America were recently drained. Fans were sad when that happened, but were then recently happy again as the river was “magically” full again, following Florida rain. According to many, this is a sign from Mother Nature, or God, or the ghost of Walt Disney, and the fans really aren't holding back…
- Water has been re-added to the Rivers of America, we won! - @bigthunderzac
- They drained the Rivers of America. Mother Nature just refilled it. Call it a sign, an omen, or a curse. She refuses to give up the ghost! - @Mickey_Central
- Walt's revenge. - @Davided649
- I think this is a sign…. - @_ams7_
As somebody who is still torn on the Rivers of America, I can at least understand the sentiment. Many fans really feel that this Disney World-based change is more significant than the others. That's because the alteration deals with a part of the park that has been present since Magic Kingdom was first built over 50 years ago.
For those who don’t want to let the Rivers of America go (and there are a lot of them), this must have felt like some sort of sign. That said, I don’t think Disney Experiences management is going to scuttle their plans because they have to drain the river again.
It’s suggested by some commenting on the viral video that there wasn’t enough rain to fill the space, making this near-complete refilling strange. That said, I believe most water drains into the Rivers of America from elsewhere in the park, so this could be the collected rainwater of nearly all of Magic Kingdom.
There is still expected to be a water feature as part of the new Piston Peak land. However, different pieces of concept art have shown different indications of just how significant it will be. If the Rivers of America really are a significant basin for rainwater drainage, it's possible that a major water feature might actually be necessary to avoid reengineering the entire park.
If this were simply due to rainwater, then this is something that could potentially happen multiple times until the actual river area is completely removed. At this point, we have no idea when that will happen. This is going to be a major construction project that will probably take at least a couple of years to complete.
