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

[MotherOfBirds]

Does anyone else feel that if Disney waits 2-3 years to move forward with this they may just trash the whole idea? Or by then maybe give it an appropriate budget? Option 1 would obviously be a PR nightmare, but so would not giving it a proper budget, to gut this attraction for the sake of erasing the racial prejudices that come from Song of the South and then replace a great attraction with a subpar one? I don't feel anyone really has a solid idea of what Disney's next move will be with this project.

When they announced Pandora in 2011, it was pretty universally panned and we all thought that would be enough to make it quietly go away. 6 years later, Dances With Smurfs opens, its construction seemingly driven by spite for the naysayers. Whatever your opinion is on the change, it feels like backlash only encourages WDI to persevere.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

When they announced Pandora in 2011, it was pretty universally panned and we all thought that would be enough to make it quietly go away. 6 years later, Dances With Smurfs opens, its construction seemingly driven by spite for the naysayers. Whatever your opinion is on the change, it feels like backlash only encourages WDI to persevere.

True, but lack of money will make it a lot easier to ditch. 2011 attendance, at the time, was all time high. If attendance doesn't return to normal post-COVID, I don't think anything that hasn't already been started will be built, including SM.

 

[jt04]

Noooooooo do not touch Pecos or BTM!!!! I say leave the exterior of SM looking as is and change the interior and perhaps queue that is not as visible from main walkway..... am distressed enough they are taking away one of my favorite well themed rides.... I for one want a Frontierland....not a hybrid New Orleans/ Western thingy....

They are already a hybrid without an effective transition.

If you travel north of N.O. you will soon intersect with the Red River which flows out of red-bed country of the southwest - not dissimilar from BTMRR. So PatF/New Orleans Square areas can easily blend these two diverse ecosystems with an imaginative transition.

Basically you could incorporate many of the best ideas from "Disney's America" theme park along the Rivers of America at the Magic Kingdom.

 

[𝐌𝖆𝖓 𝖎𝖓 𝐖𝖊𝖇]

Noooooooo do not touch Pecos or BTM!!!! I say leave the exterior of SM looking as is and change the interior and perhaps queue that is not as visible from main walkway..... am distressed enough they are taking away one of my favorite well themed rides.... I for one want a Frontierland....not a hybrid New Orleans/ Western thingy....

Not doing anything to address transitions would be worse, IMO.

 

[larryz]

Based on the concept art, the exterior seems to be changing quite a bit, as it no longer looks like a mountain (and honestly, shouldn't because it's New Orleans). Especially in WDW the exterior is particularly rockier than DL's version.

Here's a tall feature in New Orleans you could re-theme Splash's exterior to emulate...

 

[Disney Glimpses]

Based on the concept art, the exterior seems to be changing quite a bit, as it no longer looks like a mountain (and honestly, shouldn't because it's New Orleans). Especially in WDW the exterior is particularly rockier than DL's version.

I wouldn't put too much stock in the concept art. It was quite clearly thrown together quickly by a mid-level Disney artist in a couple weeks. Hence, it's literally the only concept art they have offered. This was a rush job and it will likely look entirely different when completed.

My guess: Splash Mountain will be painted from red/orange rocks to more muted colors. Mama Odie's tree will be created in a warehouse by WDI for 9-12 months and eat up a good chunk of the budget. They will lift said tree on top of Splash Mountain with a crane and call it done.

 

[larryz]

It would be nice to see them add a restaurant with Cajun and New Orleans style fare...Though it's a tight area and I am not sure it would particularly fit anywhere...

Once again, get rid of the steamboat, fill in the ditch, and repurpose the footprint into Tiana's and a Haunted Mansion restaurant complex serviced by a common kitchen.

 

[𝐌𝖆𝖓 𝖎𝖓 𝐖𝖊𝖇]

Once again, get rid of the steamboat, fill in the ditch, and repurpose the footprint into Tiana's and a Haunted Mansion restaurant complex serviced by a common kitchen.

Getting ride of the steamboat would be the next Splash debate. A sore subject for many. The idea of dual kitchen space for Tiana's Place and a "Sleepy Hollow" inspired-restaurant sounds doable though. Still, that's a lot of land for just a couple of restaurants.

 

[SirLink]

Once again, get rid of the steamboat, fill in the ditch, and repurpose the footprint into Tiana's and a Haunted Mansion restaurant complex serviced by a common kitchen.

Or build a fake steamboat like that of the Empress Lilly for a New Orleans inspired restaurant, but I? would advise they only do that if Ralph Brennan group runs it.

 

[SirLink]

Getting ride of the steamboat would be the next Splash debate. A sore subject for many. The idea of dual kitchen space for Tiana's Place and a "Sleepy Hollow" inspired-restaurant sounds doable though. Still, that's a lot of land for only 2 restaurants.

Not really its just a boat plenty of new ones which are down in New Orleans

 

[Tinkwings]

We better hope they don't change the queue or exterior too much. The budget is going to be thin and that is a lot of ground to cover.

My thoughts were they may make the Briar Patch into Mama Odie's gift shop and sell little stuffed voodoo dolls.... ….could even repurpose Brer Bear, Fox, Frog, Rabbit dolls and sew X's over their eyes...... Yup it's that budget and sooo much to be done, that I fear for the quality overlay theming......just should leave it AS IS!!!!

And yes I am aware of the current discrepancy of SM in Frontierland, but somehow it works and doesn't shout at you.....sigh....many days I am just singing all the songs and envisioning all the little special details I will miss.....sometimes how I would redo, but mostly NOT. I am hoping they redo DLR first and it takes a few years at that, and thus delays WDW version......

 

[𝐌𝖆𝖓 𝖎𝖓 𝐖𝖊𝖇]

Aren't they close enough to be lumped together?

:shrugs: IDK, maybe. But the land needs more than a couple of restaurants.

I'd rather they theme the Splash-facing TSI area to a Tiana's Place restaurant and have that land then merge into a new land "Willow Way" or whatever for a Washington Irving-inspired mini land featuring Mr Toad Wild Ride attraction(bring it back!) and a Sleepy Hallow restaurant that then transition to HM/Liberty via a covered bridge.

 

[jt04]

Once again, get rid of the steamboat, fill in the ditch, and repurpose the footprint into Tiana's and a Haunted Mansion restaurant complex serviced by a common kitchen.

You could fit Disneyland in that space. Pretty much.

 

[jt04]

:shrugs: IDK, maybe. I'd rather they theme Splash-facing TSI to a Tiana's Place restaurant and have that land then merge into a new land Willow Way, for a Washington Irving inspired Mr Toad Wild Ride attraction(bring it back!) and a Sleepy Hallow restaurant that then transition to HM/Liberty via a covered bridge.

If they build critter country somewhere that would open the door for toad to return to his original abode.

 

[Jedijax719]

so many options. Seems the biggest issue is the placement of SM relative to Frontierland, especially Big Thunder Mt.

Here's a wild idea. Make the steamboat a Louisiana themed steamboat and build a Tiana restaurant on Tom Sawyer Island. (I know-crucify me for saying that lol)

Or have the wooded area behind Big Thunder built into a FQ with restaurant.

 

[jt04]

so many options. Seems the biggest issue is the placement of SM relative to Frontierland, especially Big Thunder Mt.

Here's a wild idea. Make the steamboat a Louisiana themed steamboat and build a Tiana restaurant on Tom Sawyer Island. (I know-crucify me for saying that lol)

Or have the wooded area behind Big Thunder built into a FQ with restaurant.

I have no doubt this is one of many options on the table.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

Are we all on the same page that if WDI has an appropriate budget for this attraction that it will be incredible?

The problem is, what are the odds they actually have said budget?

There are obviously a lot of opinions here re: should it be rethemed or not but the biggest issue is even for those who are saying it should be rethemed, do you still think so at the expense of the attraction? You'd rather it be quickly rethemed with 20 projector screens? Because that's what we're probably in for. That's the reason I don't want this, anyways.

I do love Splash as is, but more so I just don't think an off the cuff retheme while they are already in financial distress and other projects being shuttered is going to make anyone happy.

 

[GoofGoof]

My point was also just that that's not really what this thread is for. It was created specifically to talk about that attraction, not to speculate wildly about other things they could or couldn't do in all the surrounding areas.

This thread was created because people who wanted to talk about the actual change of the attraction itself were drowned out in the other thread by the same arguments over and over and over on why the change itself is a bad idea or good one.

It’s already confirmed that at DLR the ride gets re-themed and becomes part of New Orleans Square which is literally right next to Splash (HM is next building over). Not sure what they do with Pooh and the restaurant there, maybe stays Critter Country or maybe not. At WDW the ride is smack in the middle of Frontierland so a re-theme to a New Orleans style doesn’t seem to fit and its unlikely they do something different on each coast. A pie in the sky idea is to create a mini-land at WDW themed like New Orleans Square at DLR. They Could either re-theme some existing nearby buildings or expand backstage. The budget doesn’t seem to support that so it’s more likely the approach is just redo the queue, shop and rest room and be done. That has to be done at a minimum, you can’t leave that stuff the way it is. So outside of the AAs and show scenes changing there has to be some changes to part of the area outside of the ride.

 

[EagleScout610]

Interesting theres nothing on WDW's website about the retheme yet.

 

[𝐌𝖆𝖓 𝖎𝖓 𝐖𝖊𝖇]

Whoa. With those two images you can see how the DL version could easily be PatF'd up. The top image, not so much. Are the exteriors really that different?