Disney Confirms Closure Date for Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island at Magic Kingdom

19 days ago in "Liberty Square Riverboat"

Posted: Tuesday June 3, 2025 11:07am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has officially announced that the Liberty Square Riverboat, the Rivers of America, and Tom Sawyer Island at Magic Kingdom will permanently close effective July 7, 2025, to make way for the new Cars-themed land.

Liberty Square Riverboat will close at effective July 7, 2025

The closure marks the end of an era for several of Magic Kingdom’s original attractions, many of which have been part of the park since its opening in 1971. The Liberty Square Riverboat has long offered guests a scenic journey around the Rivers of America aboard the Liberty Belle, while Tom Sawyer Island has provided an interactive, walk-through frontier adventure inspired by Mark Twain’s beloved stories.

Disney’s announcement confirms that this space will soon undergo a complete transformation as part of the largest expansion in Magic Kingdom’s history. The new Cars-themed land will replace the existing waterways and island, bringing a high-energy off-road rally experience featuring Lightning McQueen and friends into the heart of Frontierland.

Piston Peak will replace Tom Sawyer Island and Rivers of America

Imagineers have teased that the attraction will introduce a brand-new ride system designed to capture the feeling of navigating rugged terrain, hills, and rocky paths — a major shift from the smooth, water-based attractions currently occupying the space.

Cars Concept Art

Guests still have a few weeks left to experience the nostalgic charm of the Liberty Square Riverboat and Tom Sawyer Island before they close for good at the end of operations on July 6. Construction on the Cars project is scheduled to begin shortly after, with major site work already underway backstage.

Liberty Square Riverboat will close at effective July 7, 2025

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Cooldip7 hours ago

Liberty Square Riverboat has extended hours to 10am-8pm; Tom Sawyer Island is extended to 11am-7:30pm.

Smooth21 hours ago

Just paint the building blue 😁

TheRealSkull1 day ago

Cars shouldn't take itself too seriously either, which I don't think it will. The name Piston Peak is already enough to convince me they won't.

Tha Realest1 day ago

I think Disney has a “villain” problem. They’ve eschewed using conventional villains in many of their WDAS and Pixar films in recent years, and the Villains show feels very off tonally. I don’t know that they have the stomach to lean into the evil/badness of the characters, and as a result their recent attempts come off as toothless camp.

Animaniac93-981 day ago

People forget examples like Mermaid Lagoon at Tokyo DisneySea because they predate the trend set by Wizarding World, but my vote goes to Mysterious Island from the same park. "Immersive" by any definition with two excellent rides instead of one great ride and then one or two side dishes. Unless it doesn't count because it's not a super accurate recreation of any specific Verne novel and goes off script in adapting the 1954 Disney movie and mixing its sources. Arabian Coast is also wonderful, and all the better for not just being "Aladdin Land" and drawing from a broader set of influences.

meggo8191 day ago

Weird. All these features were open last Saturday when we were there.

JackCH1 day ago

We don't see totally eye-eye on SWL, which I think is a class above TSL and Avengers, but I broadly agree with you. Purely as a land I would give it to Diagon, but if we are also taking into account quality of attractions I rate RSR vastly higher than Gringotts, which would make me give the edge overall to Carsland. (I haven't been to Epic yet)

donaldtoo1 day ago

I think all the concept renderings I’ve seen have shown an outdoor attraction…? Also, I thought I saw way back in the thread that the new ride tech for this is already quite far along…? And another thought I just had is, if this was to become an indoor attraction, where would they need to put it to hide the huge ride building…? Just a few thoughts.

Casper Gutman1 day ago

I would suggest that perhaps a different theme might be chosen. Although the indoor portions are the absolute highlight of Racers, so…

donaldtoo1 day ago

A potential problem I can see with this is that it’s an outdoor off-road race. I guess they’d hafta’ try to make it a dark ride similar to the nighttime portions of the Baja 1,000…?! 🤔

donaldtoo1 day ago

I wasn’t a huge fan of it, but we sold a heckuva’ lot of Cars 2 merch when I was a CM at our local mall Disney Store.

Agent H1 day ago

Make it 6! I think it’s the best cars movie.

ChrisFL1 day ago

I dunno, I liked Cars 2 and there's at least 5 of us in the world that liked it 😅

Casper Gutman1 day ago

Another mad point about this project - if you have a severely limited space and you want to build a ride that maximizes the use of that space and hides the limitations, the FIRST thing you do is make it an INDOOR ride, which gives you a lot more control. Making this an outdoor ride is deeply foolish.