Hi is there anyway to temporarily disable the portfolio pages (that include the project detail/additional info) but keep the thumbnails on my main page?
Yes, you can do it by removing the link to these pages. You can do it either with custom css, or by editing theme files. I would recommend the css as it’s easier to reverse back in later times and it would not keep you from taking future theme updates.
Please send us your site’s url and let us know which of these two options do you want to perform.