Disneyland and Walt Disney World are both on the verge of a major update to a key E-ticket attraction. Splash Mountain is soon going to become Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, and while exactly when the closure of Splash Mountain will take place is unknown, I would expect it to be soon based exclusively on the state of Splash Mountain at Disneyland. The ride is not in the greatest of shape.
I recently visited Disneyland and, having not ridden Splash Mountain in quite some time, and since it was incredibly hot for 8 am, jumped on the ride just to see what was up. What I discovered was an attraction that is the theme park equivalent of a senior heading toward graduation, it’s mostly checked out. While the majority of the ride is fine, there are a number of animatronics that aren’t in the best shape.
Splash Mountain is ready to be done. A couple of non-functioning animatronics are the most obvious, but the least of this ride's issues. It's clearly in the "ready to close" phase. pic.twitter.com/OS8FPnLVVsSeptember 7, 2022
This short clip clip from the end of the attraction isn’t much. It only shows a couple of non-functioning animatronics out of the dozens that are visible in this scene. However, it’s an example of a larger problem that plagues the rest of the ride as well. Many other animatronics are showing limited mobility, if they’re still there at all, some appear to have simply been removed, and the lights dimmed to make the missing items less obvious.
The announcement that Splash Mountain would be rethemed came more than two years ago. Since then fans have been waiting to see it happen. We’ve been given bits and pieces of what the new Princess and the Frog ride would be, but it’s all been very slow. Fans have often wondered if the Splash Mountain redesign would ever actually happen. When pressed Disney has confirmed that it will.
It’s not that surprising to see parts of Splash Mountain not working. While Splash Mountain did undergo regular maintenance recently, there’s not a great deal of value in spending the time and hours to fix parts of a ride that won’t be around for too much longer.
Of course, that assumes that the attraction won’t be around that much longer. We don’t know that for sure. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure has been confirmed to open at the end of 2024, but exactly when Splash Mountain closes has not been announced. Considering the sheer size of Splash Mountain, the redesign is going to take time.
There’s a safe bet we’ll get some sort of an answer this weekend at the D23 Expo. We’ll be getting updated on everything coming to the Disney Parks and some sort of Splash Mountain update could very well be part of that. Fans will want to know when their last chance to ride the current attraction will be, even if that ride will be on a ride that’s winding down.
