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Westward Ho Is Gone: Magic Kingdom Tore Down the Frontierland Snack Stand, Opening a Clear View Toward Big Thunder
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Westward Ho Is Gone: Magic Kingdom Tore Down the Frontierland Snack Stand, Opening a Clear View Toward Big Thunder

Michael Travels
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The tree is still standing. The snack stand that stood beside it is not.

WDW News Today reported Sunday that Westward Ho, the little Western refreshment stand along the Frontierland promenade at Magic Kingdom, is gone. The outlet says the roof, the serving windows and the weathered Western front all came down with it. The large tree beside it survived. What the building left behind is a sightline. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad could already be glimpsed past the old stand, and with the site cleared, WDW News Today says the view over the walls is now unobstructed.

From last call to empty lot in about seven weeks

The Westward Ho Refreshments stand intact in Frontierland, a brown wooden building with a shake-shingle roof and its carved sign mounted on the ridge, closure notices on the themed Refreshments boards beside each of the two shuttered windows, a hot popcorn wagon and a cast member at left, and the red lattice boom of a construction crane rising past the right end of the building.
Westward Ho before demolition, its carved sign still up. The closure notice appears on the themed Refreshments boards mounted beside each of the two shuttered windows. A red lattice crane stands beyond the right end of the building. Image: WDW News Today.

Westward Ho stopped serving in late June. Blog Mickey noted that Disney had put closing dates on the three Frontierland kiosks in late April and gave Westward Ho a June 22 date, then checked the stand that morning and found it shuttered. WDW News Today, reporting the same day, said it had actually served its last guests the night before, after the park closed on June 21. Notices posted on the building told guests that "Westward Ho Refreshments is currently closed" and pointed them, with an arrow, to the popcorn wagon.

The digital cleanup started long before the last day, but it did not all happen first. Blog Mickey traced the three Frontierland kiosks coming off the My Disney Experience map back in early March. The webpage and the posted operating hours went later: WDW News Today and WDWMagic both found them gone on June 22, the morning after the stand served its last guests. Construction walls went up around the building afterward. By late July the large carved Westward Ho Refreshments sign had come off the roof and crews had started stripping the inside.

If you never got a last order in, the lineup skewed toward hot-afternoon snacking. Frozen lemonade and cold brew anchored it, with mini corn dogs and candied bacon among the hand-held items.

What the cleared site looks like now

The cleared Westward Ho site photographed over a tan fabric barrier, showing open mauve paving with orange traffic cones, a red extension ladder lying flat and a bundle of gray conduit, with construction wall panels and the Frontierland building facades behind them.
The cleared site shot over a fabric-covered barrier, with orange cones, a red extension ladder and a bundle of gray conduit lying on the open paving. Behind the wall panels are the Frontierland facades, including Prairie Outpost & Supply and the 1878 saloon front of Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe. Image: WDW News Today.

Seen from the opposite side, the footprint now reads as one flat, empty stretch of pavement. WDW News Today describes equipment, cones, cabling and other materials staged behind the barriers, and in the photo the neighboring Frontierland shopfronts sit directly behind the wall line. Guests are still held back from the work zone by the brown themed walls.

All of this is for Piston Peak National Park

A long run of brown themed construction walls along the Frontierland promenade, with two small story plaques and lantern fixtures mounted on the panels, a tall tree rising behind the wall and a guest in a pink dress walking past at right.
The themed walls along this stretch of the Frontierland promenade, with story plaques and lantern sconces mounted on the panels. Image: WDW News Today.

All of this clears ground for Piston Peak National Park, the Cars-inspired land replacing Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island. Two attractions are planned. The headliner is an off-road rally ride through mountain terrain, which WDWMagic describes as running past geysers and mudholes. The second is a blank: WDW News Today says Disney has released nothing at all about it, while WDWMagic calls it a family-oriented ride. Disney announced the land at the 2024 D23 Expo and still has not put a date on any of it.

Big Al's is expected to come down too

Frontierland's guest-facing footprint keeps shrinking one building at a time. Big Al's, the nearby kiosk that sold coonskin caps, cowboy hats and bubble wands directly outside Country Bear Musical Jamboree, closed permanently on May 11. When Westward Ho followed in June, WDWMagic noted that Disney had run the same quiet playbook both times: no formal announcement, the operating hours pulled from the app, and the stand's page taken off the Disney World site. WDW News Today expects Big Al's to be knocked down too as the work pushes farther along this stretch. The snack service has already scattered. The outlet says the churro, ice cream and popcorn carts nearby were all given new spots as the work zone grew.

What is left on that corner for now is mostly sky. Where the stand stood there is open pavement behind the walls, and from the promenade the line of sight over the wall tops carries clear to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Sources

Image credits: All photographs by WDW News Today.

Mentioned in this story

Check out our guides for more on each place in this story:

Magic Kingdom Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Country Bear Musical Jamboree Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe

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