‘Save Splash Mountain’ Trended As The Longtime Disney World Ride Prepares To Close To Long Lines And Nostalgia

Despite being touted as the “Happiest Place on Earth,” some families are not happy about a certain change Disney World and Disneyland are making. That would be none other than the rebranding of Splash Mountain. While some fans have been vocal for months about the ride’s end, as the ride prepares to say goodbye at Disney World on January 23, fans have actually helped “Save Splash Mountain” to trend. 

As of the time of this article being written on Sunday, Splash Mountain was at a whopping 200-minute wait time. Waits of more than a couple of hours are usually reserved for brand new, high-octane rides. (Like what happened when Rise of the Resistance opened, for example.)  While Splash Mountain can be very popular in the parks on warm days, waiting more than three hours for the ride is not really common. 

In fact, Splash Mountain doesn't crack the Top 10 of longest Disney World wait times. But it’s certainly a high number today ahead of the ride’s official closing on January 23rd. 

The wait times should I suppose not come as a surprise, as people are seemingly really attached to the nostalgia of the ride, which Disney World and later Disneyland are planning to re-theme rather than tear down. The new theme will be based around The Princess and the Frog movie and will be called Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Though we have some questions about the Splash Mountain redo, given the nature of the drop ride, it will seemingly have all of the major ride facets its previous iteration will have, but that hasn’t stopped this “Save Splash Mountain” trend. 

On Twitter, some individuals (and one in particular) are imploring Disney parks in a last-ditch effort to save the ride, one of them using the aforementioned long wait times as evidence Splash Mountain must be saved.

To note, when failing restaurants announce an impending shutdown, the reservations before closure usually go very quickly. Splash Mountain is actually still a popular ride, so the analogy isn’t exact, but the point is that demand is high because supply is short. And a few individuals on Twitter are making a lot of noise hoping to keep it from happening at all. 

The impending closure hasn't stopped people from getting their nostalgia fix in one last time, as the long lines do support people saying goodbye to the longtime ride, which originally opened in 1989 at Disneyland. The Disney World iteration opened in 1992. 

One group is allegedly even staging a peaceful protest outside the park in order to make their voices heard before Splash Mountain is officially shut down. 

Meanwhile, others on Twitter are ready for the new plans to move forward. Disney World is making way for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure when the ride shuts down on January 23, 2023. Disneyland is following suit at a later date, possibly connected to Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye needing a refurb as well. 

The re-theme came about given increased focus on the Song of the South-based ride, in particular after a petition went around in 2020 asking to veer away from the original theme. Disney agreed with a Splash Mountain re-theme and swiftly moved forward. Swapping to a Princess and the Frog-related theme will allow the ride to increase diversity in the parks, and the Tiana's Bayou Adventure storyline sounds pretty cool. It might also give the ride the opportunity to fix issues like Disney World log flumes frequently sinking, who knows? 

Of course, it's going to take some time for the switchover to happen, and in the meantime, it sounds as if people will continue voicing their opinions about the change.