Living with the Land closes unexpectedly for a significant refurb

The Orlando Business Journal is reporting that the Living with the Land attraction in Epcot closed unexpectedly today to begin a lengthly refurbishment project. According to a statement from Disney, the attraction will re-open sometime this fall.

According to Disney's own operational updates page, the attraction is scheduled to be down through Halloween.

There are rumors that one possible reason for the refurbishment is so Disney can add larger boats to the attraction. Doing so would require the waterway through the greenhouses to be altered to accomodate the larger boats.

The larger question is why this refurbishment is needed. Based on my experiences, Living with the Land isn't so heavily visited that the larger boats would be needed to increase guest throughput. I can't recall seeing more than a 30 minute wait time, even during the most crowded of days.

The rapid and unexpected nature of this attraction also leads me to think that perhaps there was some sigificant malfunction that would take quite a while to repair and, at the same time, required a rapid closure.

That is, unless it's the Overtakers and then we're all in trouble! Have no idea what I'm talking about? Read the Kingdom Keepers series.

As for the Behind the Seeds tour, I am hearing that it will not be affected (see the comments), though I've got a question into Disney to confirm this.