News Splash Mountain retheme to Princess and the Frog - Tiana's Bayou Adventure

[MerlinTheGoat]

Concept art isn't necessarily going to accurately showcase the finalized placement of characters and setpieces. Though that is an interesting thing to note about the dock, because that does indeed look like something they could probably maintain in its proper place with your flip.

I could imagine Disneyland's Splash requiring less effort to convert since it already takes place in a dark swamp. Disney World however will need a lot more work because it doesn't share this setting. It's a bright sunny and hilly countryside with farmland and passing river. Even the tree foliage is completely different. Disneyland uses weeping willow vines along its ceiling, whereas WDW uses what appears to be maple trees. Some of the tree trunk structures could potentially be reused as well, but even those will need to be touched up to make them more swamp-appropriate. Pretty much everything on the shores, the tree foliage lining the ceiling, and the painted walls will all need to be replaced though. Perhaps this is also why WDW's variant is closing first, it will require more time to convert.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

They're using the normal refurbishment schedule to take it down for the retheme.

Wrong. Tiana will open "at some point" in 2024.

Seems like you are purposefully missing my point, which I would encourage you not to do.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Multiple major articles cite "late" 2024 as the opening date, but I'm not seeing a source for that on any official Disney website. I wonder if it will even make the 2024 deadline. It's a pretty substantial project for something that's only supposed to take less than 2 years. Even without the excuse of a pandemic, Disney is terrible at completing major projects in a timely manner. I'm also surprised they wouldn't target more mid-year date given that it's a very wet ride (even Florida can get pretty cold in December and also parts of November).

 

[DCBaker]

Multiple major articles cite "late" 2024 as the opening date, but I'm not seeing a source for that on any official Disney website. I wonder if it will even make the 2024 deadline. It's a pretty substantial project for something that's only supposed to take less than 2 years. Even without the excuse of a pandemic, Disney is terrible at completing major projects in a timely manner. I'm also surprised they wouldn't target more mid-year date given that it's a very wet ride (even Florida can get pretty cold in December and also parts of November).

See here -

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Coming to Disney Parks in Late 2024

Strike up the band because we’ve saved a seat for you on this musical journey with Tiana and friends! The name of the new attraction evolving from the reimagining of Splash Mountain was announced today during ESSENCE Fest in New Orleans: Tiana’s

disneyparks.disney.go.com

 

[thomas998]

"Bumpy" and "Unreliable" are very different complaints.

Generally I would agree... though if you look at the cars and all the hydraulics that make the fake bumps, those complications are going to increase downtime. Everything that gets added on to any ride increase the probability of it malfunctioning and going down.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Ah so that "late 2024" statement was from earlier in the year.

 

[thomas998]

Splash Mountain is not closing for Scheduled Maintenance this coming January - it is closing permanently to begin the transformation into Tiana's Bayou Adventure.

Not sure what your point is, I was responding to someone asking why they couldn't skip scheduled maintenance on a ride. Had nothing to do with whether they are closing for a refurb or not.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Generally I would agree... though if you look at the cars and all the hydraulics that make the fake bumps, those complications are going to increase downtime. Everything that gets added on to any ride increase the probability of it malfunctioning and going down.

You seem to have gotten away from your own point here . . .

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Not sure what your point is, I was responding to someone asking why they couldn't skip scheduled maintenance on a ride. Had nothing to do with whether they are closing for a refurb or not.

The point is that in the specific case that poster was referring to (Splash Mountain) there is no scheduled maintenance on the calendar, so introducing that hypothetical in this situation is confusing and unneccessary. I responded both to you and to that original poster clarifying that "scheduled maintenance" is no longer a thing in the case of WDW's Splash Mountain.

 

[larryz]

Speaking of Dr. Facilier, do we have an idea if the ride will have a villain/antagonist?

YOU are the villain, if you still have money in your wallet.

 

[IronRod]

Just wanted to share this. I read the blog entry and saw that the newly released artwork is intended to be the first show scene after we drop down into the showbuilding. From the image Disney shared, this may potentially involve partial if not full re-build of the sets, as if this scene is placed on the first "bend" in the attraction, there isn't any room there currently.

(The "tunnel" before the fishing pond has a CM/Emergency walk way that comes out a little, right up on the trough on the right hand side, there would be no room for it as is.)

But then I thought about it for a bit, the dock in the image looks similar to the one that the three geese are standing on a little further into the show building. The issue is, this dock is on the RIGHT hand side of the track, while in the new image it's on the left. So I went ahead and mirrored the image out of curiosity:


View attachment 683331
The frogs in the image are situated where the bullfrogs on Splash are now. The same with the dock. If true...then I wonder why the image was revealed mirrored. I hope I explained that in a way that makes sense.

Now of course, this is likely me WAY overthinking it, and Disney intends on doing a full or partial gut. Just random speculation on my part.

What you said makes complete sense. I think you’re 100% right. I was trying to understand where that scene was occurring. I was thinking maybe it was right as you go inside, but that angle wouldn’t give you enough time to appreciate the animatronics.

 

[Buried20KLeague]

Just wanted to share this. I read the blog entry and saw that the newly released artwork is intended to be the first show scene after we drop down into the showbuilding. From the image Disney shared, this may potentially involve partial if not full re-build of the sets, as if this scene is placed on the first "bend" in the attraction, there isn't any room there currently.

(The "tunnel" before the fishing pond has a CM/Emergency walk way that comes out a little, right up on the trough on the right hand side, there would be no room for it as is.)

But then I thought about it for a bit, the dock in the image looks similar to the one that the three geese are standing on a little further into the show building. The issue is, this dock is on the RIGHT hand side of the track, while in the new image it's on the left. So I went ahead and mirrored the image out of curiosity:


View attachment 683331
The frogs in the image are situated where the bullfrogs on Splash are now. The same with the dock. If true...then I wonder why the image was revealed mirrored. I hope I explained that in a way that makes sense.

Now of course, this is likely me WAY overthinking it, and Disney intends on doing a full or partial gut. Just random speculation on my part.

This will be correct. I thought the same thing when I saw that dock and where it’s positioned in that scene.

No chance…. Absolutely no chance…. Are they doing anything with the trough.

They’re not gonna move that DOCK, let alone the trough. Lol. This is a redressing of the ride and nothing more.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

This is a redressing of the ride and nothing more.

Which makes sense when the timeframe from closure to reopening is under 2 years.

 

[EagleScout610]

They're using the normal refurbishment schedule to take it down for the retheme.

Which is the logical thing to do

 

[EagleScout610]

YOU are the villain, if you still have money in your wallet.

Oh hi Chapek. How's the post Disney life?

 

[Buried20KLeague]

Which makes sense when the timeframe from closure to reopening is under 2 years.

Well beyond that…. I wouldn’t know this for certain but that building was engineered around the weights and stresses of that trough. If you move that trough, you change those stresses.

Plus the most obvious point… There would be no storytelling reason that would make a trough change mandatory. If they can tell a story about catching a dinosaur and about Indiana Jones with the same ride path…

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Which makes sense when the timeframe from closure to reopening is under 2 years.

I still wonder if they'll meet the deadline. Maelstrom to Frozen took a similar amount of time, just a couple months shy of two years. Granted, Frozen did slightly extend/alter the track right before the lift (I assume Splash's track isn't being altered), which might have extended the timeline. But on the other hand, the Frozen overhaul was otherwise very lackluster and basic. They gutted all of the interior scenes and didn't really put much back in afterwards, it's a lot of minimally detailed flat walls and video projection. If Tiana is supposed to be a more impressive and physically detailed overhaul, I wonder if it'll make 2024.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I still wonder if they'll meet the deadline.

If they're not closing Disneyland's version until later in 2023, I don't expect it to be done by then.

For Florida? We'll see...

 

[Elijah Abrams]

I'm keeping fingers crossed for a mini New Orleans makeover to the area adjacent to the ride.

How about you don’t, because they might just merge Frontierland and Liberty Square into one Old America-themed area.

 

[Neaunderhill]

I think people should keep an open mind in regards to the storyline of the ride.

Especially since everyone has been begging for some non ip rides and more original concepts.

While this is based on current ip it sounds like an original story concept.

Therefore this could be considered as a middle ground between ip use and unique storytelling.