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Animal Kingdom’s Primeval Whirl Opening Earlier than Expected

Animal Kingdom’s Primeval Whirl Opening Earlier than Expected


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Primeval Whirl’s seasonal operation begin sooner than expected!

A few weeks ago, we reported that Primeval Whirl would be opening for the week of Thanksgiving. With Thanksgiving week being one of the busiest weeks of the year in terms of crowd levels, it makes sense to open in order to accommodate more guests.

Now, it looks like they are opening a day earlier than previously announced. Instead of operating from November 24 to November 30, it will open November 23 to November 30 for guests to enjoy.

On November 23, hours will be from 9 AM to 8 PM with Extra Magic Hours available for onsite guests from 8 AM to 9 AM. At the time of writing this article, there are no other Extra Magic Hours from November 24 to November 30.

It will still close on December 1.

Why is Disney's Animal Kingdom's Primeval Whirl closed?

Primeval Whirl is a spinning wild-mouse style roller coaster that dips, dives, jerks, and spins aka it gives you motion sickness and/or an awful headache. It seats four guests per car with two double pull-down bar restraints.

The ride has been closed since May of 2019 when a boy was critically injured riding a very similar ride known as Twister at Lightwater Valley Park in the United Kingdom. Both rides were designed and built by the same company.

More information about this incident, incidents involving Primeval Whirl, and Kenny’s best guesses regarding the future of this ride can be found HERE.

Given that safety is a top priority for Disney, they decided to close the ride to be inspected. It was scheduled to re-open on two separate occasions but remained closed.

All rides have to pass safety inspections, so there is no doubt since Disney is opening the ride for guests that it has passed all tests. It has been scheduled twice before so whether it actually operates during the week of Thanksgiving remains to be seen.

What do you think of the re-opening of Primeval Whirl? Do you have plans to ride it?

-Monica S.

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