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

[UNCgolf]

Surprised you all feel that way about Festival of the Lion King.

You know, an attraction that takes place *after* the movie and is a celebration of and by the characters, and recycles the music from the movie.

Or did y'all want just another 'Book Report' ride? Because, I hear a lot of derision on these forums about 'Book Report' rides that just rehash the plot of the movie.

What does Festival of the Lion King have to do with anything (which isn't even a ride so it's not exactly comparable)?

I said Frozen Ever After because I specifically meant Frozen Ever After. A ride with a few impressive AAs and literally nothing else; an overall design failure from start to finish. It's one of the worst rides at WDW. Is that what you want Splash Mountain to become?

 

[celluloid]

Been a mismatch since Splash opened. This is a chance to reset the area. And set the groundwork for expansion. IMO.

Mismatched in place? Yes because Frontier is typically the west in People's minds, but the time period is a lot.closwr that the 20s and the old farming/logging asethetic lends itself much better to the 1920s and a state and area known for being below Sea Level.

 

[Jedijax719]

I always found that the POTC Louisiana swamp theme to be out of place. I've never been to DL but my wife has and LOVES the Louisiana theme. But when you think of the pirates, you think of the Caribbean (hence the name). So going from the Louisiana bayous suddenly to the middle of the Caribbean seems like a stretch. It was find for the movies since they can cover a lot of ground.

But this is about Splash Mountain. The reason I bring it up is that I don't think re-theming POTC as part of a small French Quarter expansion is necessary. Instead, incorporating the DL POTC entry-way and the bayous would 100% fit with Tiana. They could essentially duplicate the beginning of the POTC ride at DL and put it in the beginning of the new Splash Mountain.

Is there enough room between Splash and Pirates to make a small French Quarter area? Or is that area needed for maintenance and other employee buildings/facilities?

 

[Homemade Imagineering]

WDW Pro (whose source was correct about Splash Mtn and other attractions being looked at for overhauls several weeks ago)

BUT, please don’t give much attention to stuff like CoP being demo-ed for being “too-white,” which reeks of being a honey pot.

According to Magic Feather, WDW Pro was incorrect about CoP being demoed, so in terms of other attractions getting the splash treatment, which was also proven to be false by Magic Feather, idk how much I want to trust him. I’m trying my best not to sound rude here, and I respect everyone on the forum, but I just want the absolute truth especially in this situation, so I thought I’d just mention this.

 

[DCLcruiser]

@Jedijax719 New Orleans is a port city that leads to the Gulf of Mexico which leads to the western Caribbean. It’s not a stretch at all and makes sense. Hence the DLR theming.

 

[InnKpr]

Just speculating.

I have the same hunch you do that the current riverboat is a goner from the ride. The riverboat used prominently in the movie is a back-wheeler, while the current Zip-a-Dee-Lady is a side-wheeler.
I know that sounds like splitting hairs, but if I was a betting man, I'd wager there will be a different, larger(?) back-wheeler in the ride, more reminiscent of the movie scenes... unless the ride takes place 100% in the bayou/Mama Odie's house.

 

[Jedijax719]

@Jedijax719 New Orleans is a port city in the Gulf of Mexico which leads to the western Caribbean. It’s not a stretch at all and makes sense. Hence the DLR theming.

Yeah makes sense. And there were (I think) such communities in Florida as well (correct me if I'm wrong). But nevertheless, I think that having that kind of opening for the new Splash Mountain would be really cool.

But back to my last question: is there enough space to do a Louisiana French Quarter area, albeit small, around where POTC and SM currently are? I looked at it with Google maps and there seems to be a strip of area between them that is wooded.

 

[jt04]

Expansion to a French Quarter would be wonderful. I hope they keep the old west feel of Frontierland though. However, I think they need something else within the Disney media to go with it. Maybe a new animated film set in the old west.

Not sure if that is what you meant though.

There's no shortage of land to redo the area in many ways.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

According to Magic Feather, WDW Pro was incorrect about CoP being demoed, so in terms of other attractions getting the splash treatment, which was also proven to be false by Magic Feather, idk how much I want to trust him. I’m trying my best not to sound rude here, and I respect everyone on the forum, but I just want the absolute truth especially in this situation, so I thought I’d just mention this.

It's a bit early for the other rumors to have had the opportunity to be proven right or wrong either way. I'm inclined to give it some time before jumping to conclusions as i'm unfamiliar with his longer track record. But getting the Splash Mtn info correct makes me not want to just discount it outright.

As I said, I heard from elsewhere that the budget is even lower, and it wasn't from WDW Pro. A small handful of others can also verify this, the.dreamfinder has already done so.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I have the same hunch you do that the current riverboat is a goner from the ride. The riverboat used prominently in the movie is a back-wheeler, while the current Zip-a-Dee-Lady is a side-wheeler.
I know that sounds like splitting hairs, but if I was a betting man, I'd wager there will be a different, larger(?) back-wheeler in the ride, more reminiscent of the movie scenes... unless the ride takes place 100% in the bayou / Mama Odie's quarters.

I'm thinking more along the lines of don't try to adapt each individual scene to The Princess and the Frog. My expectations are more for a gutting than an adaption.

 

[Magic Feather]

Re: Budget
Even is $50 M is the number (which I honestly don’t know, but it sounds a little too low to me).
Remember that the exterior isn’t even changing too much, and one of the reason Frozenstrom had issues was the ride infrastructure (which I believe Splash’s many refurbishments have already done the brunt of the work on).

 

[Phineas]

Surprised you all feel that way about Festival of the Lion King.

You know, an attraction that takes place *after* the movie and is a celebration of and by the characters, and recycles the music from the movie.

Or did y'all want just another 'Book Report' ride? Because, I hear a lot of derision on these forums about 'Book Report' rides that just rehash the plot of the movie.

I’d argue that the entirety of Splash Mountain is (mostly) a book report of the animated sections of Song of the South, just plussed and expanded upon. I wouldn’t mind this sort of treatment for Princess and the Frog, rather than the dumbed down version we got with Little Mermaid. My main sticking point is that setting it after the story ends potentially limits the use of two main characters- Facilier and Ray.

But, having watched Princess and the Frog last night, Facilier could absolutely come back from the other side.

 

[UpAllNight]

I don’t feel like discussions about budget are worthwhile all in all because there’s no context and none of us know the value of $50-75 million in designing these park rides. The hardware is there for this ride, they just have to gut some show scenes and change the exterior. I don’t know what a million will buy me in animatronics. I don’t know how much it costs to design and record a new score. I don’t imagine animatronics of the level that are in Splash now cost a lot of money. I’d rather see 300 of them than 100 and a few really good ones.

edit @Magic Feather beat me to it

 

[Disney Maddux]

According to Magic Feather, WDW Pro was incorrect about CoP being demoed, so in terms of other attractions getting the splash treatment, which was also proven to be false by Magic Feather, idk how much I want to trust him. I’m trying my best not to sound rude here, and I respect everyone on the forum, but I just want the absolute truth especially in this situation, so I thought I’d just mention this.

Where is he even saying that?

 

[DCLcruiser]

Yeah makes sense. And there were (I think) such communities in Florida as well (correct me if I'm wrong). But nevertheless, I think that having that kind of opening for the new Splash Mountain would be really cool.

But back to my last question: is there enough space to do a Louisiana French Quarter area, albeit small, around where POTC and SM currently are? I looked at it with Google maps and there seems to be a strip of area between them that is wooded.

You could use the path from POTC to SM where the fry cart and Pecos Bills. Convert it to a Cajun/Creole QS and the queue of SM can be a bayou shanty town.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Re: Budget
Even is $50 M is the number (which I honestly don’t know, but it sounds a little too low to me).
Remember that the exterior isn’t even changing too much, and one of the reason Frozenstrom had issues was the ride infrastructure (which I believe Splash’s many refurbishments have already done the brunt of the work on).

I don't know the exact budget for the Frozen ride. Photodave again said Frozen at Epcot was $75 mil back in 2014 (apparently after receiving a massive budget cut). I believe this included the restrooms and meet n greet next door, though i'm not 100% sure. I was just posting the $50 mil number as a ballpark figure for what seemed to make sense.

As I said, the other number I heard for PATF (which again didn't come from WDW Pro) was SIGNIFICANTLY lower than $50 mil. Even if the ride system doesn't really need any work, we're still probably looking at a gutting and replacement of at least 90% of the interior scenes and animatronics. The only scene I could see not really needing too much alteration is the Riverboat finale (the animatronics there will still probably be removed though).

Splash Mtn is much longer and contains far more scenes than Maelstrom ever did. The scenes are also way more detailed and packed with AA's than Maelstrom's. So it'll look even worse by comparison if the overhaul doesn't add back in a similar level of physical detail and figures to what it currently holds. Something that I feel is reasonable to say isn't possible with a $50 mil budget (let alone a lesser amount). Heck I think it's extremely unlikely they could do it on a $100 mil budget.

 

[Surferboy567]

This thread is about splash mountain’s changes let’s not start another thread down the path to debate.

 

[Jedijax719]

Most of the splash mountain ride is an animatronic Song of the South attraction which has almost zero relevance today (hardly anyone under 50 has even seen it outside of Disney fanatics). They can have an entire storyline of PATF play out in the attraction part of the ride, culminating in the splash leading to the big wedding and then restaurant the end.

 

[UpAllNight]

How can Thunder Mountain work with the discussed changes, given the layout in Orlando?

This seems Perfect for DL, but so so out of place in WDW.

 

[UNCgolf]

Re: Budget
Even is $50 M is the number (which I honestly don’t know, but it sounds a little too low to me).
Remember that the exterior isn’t even changing too much, and one of the reason Frozenstrom had issues was the ride infrastructure (which I believe Splash’s many refurbishments have already done the brunt of the work on).

Didn't they also redo the entire queue/boarding? As in, not just the theming of it, but where the queue actually went through the pavilion. That's another expense they shouldn't have for Splash Mountain.