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

[MagicHappens1971]

That seems likely. Gives them time to work out any kinks Tron might have.

No disrespect to you, but an attraction that has been running for a little over 5 years at another Disney park should not have any kinks. Just something to put out there

 

[Disney Maddux]

From what I’ve heard, TRON opens late Fall 2022, Splash has its normal winter refurb and stays open as Splash for 2023 before closing for the conversion starting Winter 23-24 (it’ll be closed awhile).

Two years like Maelstrom, or even longer?

(...please don't let what should be a relatively simple retheme take 5 years...)

 

[Brer Oswald]

No disrespect to you, but an attraction that has been running for a little over 5 years at another Disney park should not have any kinks. Just something to put out there

A new attraction is a new position for Cast Members. There may not be many technical kinks that will plague them for years (lol Rise), but there will be operational kinks that last a few months.

 

[Brer Oswald]

Two years like Maelstrom, or even longer?

(...please don't let what should be a relatively simple retheme take 5 years...)

It’s nowhere close to a relatively simple redesign. They have to demolish concrete sets and rebuild completely new ones that fit PatF. Unless you want another Journey Into Your Imagination tier “transformation”.

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

Nothing about this seems complicated or conspiratorial to me. The announcement to re-theme Splash Mountain was a political announcement. It was announced at the height of the George Floyd riots. To Disney it was more important that they get ahead of it and show that they're doing something as opposed to necessarily actually starting construction anytime soon.

 

[MagicHappens1971]

Two years like Maelstrom, or even longer?

(...please don't let what should be a relatively simple retheme take 5 years...)

It’s not a simple retheme, but I can’t imagine it would take anything less than 18 months and no more than 34 months. Just my guesses. I would imagine that the sets/animatronics are being prefabbed or at least long into the design process. If Disney wanted it to be I’m sure it could take a year at most. That’s not going to happen (at least in todays Disney)

 

[doctornick]

From what I’ve heard, TRON opens late Fall 2022, Splash has its normal winter refurb and stays open as Splash for 2023 before closing for the conversion starting Winter 23-24 (it’ll be closed awhile).

I can deal with that timeframe. That allows for a good bit more time for Disney to realize this is a dumb idea and waste of money and cancel this plan.

 

[EagleScout610]

Sorry to badger you, but, this brings up a lot of questions:

1. You originally said "insiders"... plural. You have more than one source for this, or, are multiple people relying on one source and they're repeating the one source?

2. Your insiders need to have some really high-up sources in order to know what projects are cut or not. Very few people have that kind of contacts.

3. Your insiders need to have high-up sources at WDW, DL, and OLC. So, it's even more rare to have a source that has first hand knowledge of what's what at three different parks and two different companies. Otherwise, it's just one person who's heard stuff second hand from what the other parks are doing and telling others, and they're all echoing the same source. Are you vetting your source properly that they have first hand knowledge, or, are just 'hearing things'?

4. If you have this kind of insider source, I'm surprised you haven't shared other stuff (or maybe you did and I missed it). Not that you had to, but, it would have helped to know the track record of your source in order to trust it.

5. We heard from our insiders here that OLC rejected changing their Splash because they just don't care. But your source is saying that they're now saying it's a cost issue because of other projects. So, there's an inconsistency here.

6. You're saying that MK's retheme *may* be off, and DL's retheme is definitely off. This is the opposite of what other insiders have said, namely, that the DL retheme was definitely on, but the MK's retheme that may now be off.

Curiouser and curiouser.

1. Multiple people
2. - 4. They wish to remain anonymous but they are informed.
5-6. I was told all 3 are off. I misworded my post

 

[MisterPenguin]

Well then, we have dueling sources with contradictory information.

 

[Midwest Elitist]

It's the bus drivers

 

[Brer Oswald]

Well then, we have dueling sources with contradictory information.

Tripling. Maybe even quadrupling.
We have some people saying:
- It’s happening, but not closing till end of 2023.
- It’s happening, and it’s closing within a few months.
- It’s having quite a few snags and will not happen as intended, as stated by Visionary Soul.
- It’s not happening at all.

My bet would be on the first, but what do I know?

It’s also possible that “not happening as planned” could support any of the other three. Could mean a change in theme. Could mean an incredibly low budget poorly executed ride. It could mean a reuse of existing sets that don’t make much sense with the theme.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

Tripling. Maybe even quadrupling.
We have some people saying:
- It’s happening, but not closing till end of 2023.
- It’s happening, and it’s closing within a few months.
- It’s having quite a few snags and will not happen as intended, as stated by Visionary Soul.
- It’s not happening at all.

My bet would be on the first, but what do I know?

The first is what I have heard until recently. It's possible they want it closed TWDC 100. Pretty thin argument though.

 

[Comped]

Tripling. Maybe even quadrupling.
We have some people saying:
- It’s happening, but not closing till end of 2023.
- It’s happening, and it’s closing within a few months.
- It’s having quite a few snags and will not happen as intended, as stated by Visionary Soul.
- It’s not happening at all.

My bet would be on the first, but what do I know?

It’s also possible that “not happening as planned” could support any of the other three. Could mean a change in theme. Could mean an incredibly low budget poorly executed ride. It could mean a reuse of existing sets that don’t make much sense with the theme.

As little as my word counts here, I've heard that it is either not happening as intended or not happening at all.

 

[Disney Glimpses]

When it comes to "sources," Disney will often have teams working on things that have absolutely no idea that what they are working on will never see the light of day. One day, they will just get word that the project has ended. Just wanted to point that out. May not be relevant here, but it also might be.

 

[Incomudro]

When you consider the implied "financial benefit" to spending millions upon millions of dollars on changing an already popular, well-loved attraction, announced stupid early which should be out of character for a supposedly well-ran company.. this whole scenario really should raise a few eyebrows.

If I didn't explain that right.. what i'm trying to say is that they're about to blow a ton of money by taking, what I think is, an incredibly stupid risk. And they announced it before even being remotely ready.

They announced it to appease the mob - take the heat off.
The mob is never satisfied.

 

[Kirby86]

It’s nowhere close to a relatively simple redesign. They have to demolish concrete sets and rebuild completely new ones that fit PatF. Unless you want another Journey Into Your Imagination tier “transformation”.

They will just repaint the sets halfway like they did for the outside mountain and easy to reach places like they did for the briar patch during the last refurbishment.

 

[Midwest Elitist]

Apocalypse theme?

No need for upkeep!

 

[Casper Gutman]

In the current hostile and unpredictable environment, why would a responsible company invest in Orlando at all? And if they WERE going to invest, WHY would they invest a huge amount of money into a project that would only create an irresistible new target for the folks currently attacking the company at the state and federal levels?

 

[Animaniac93-98]

In the current hostile and unpredictable environment, why would a responsible company invest in Orlando at all? And if they WERE going to invest, WHY would they invest a huge amount of money into a project that would only create an irresistible new target for the folks currently attacking the company at the state and federal levels?

There's no way that Disney could have known 2 years ago that their political situation in Florida would sour so much, but it does illustrate something about how Disney operates.

This is a company that's notorious for its bloated bureaucracy, indecisiveness and prolonged development cycles. Disney tackling this project to stay on top, or stay ahead, of social trends was basically doomed from the start. They're rarely good at striking while the iron is hot when a new hit comes along, and it doesn't seem that the urgency of gaining good will with their audience has helped to solve any of their internal issues with getting things off the ground.

By this time this is all finished several years from now, there could be a major re-evaluation of PatF as a piece of representation, a decline in merch sales related to it, a change in public perception of Disney's corporate responsibilities, or some other new movie may get released that proves to be more popular and held in higher esteem.

It's likely that the end result won't really move the needle on the attraction's attendance or guest satisfaction scores, but it does look like this is a sunk cost fallacy that will somehow, some way get done because so much time, money and emotion has been invested.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I think Frozen Ever After may be one of the few times they acted quickly to build a ride based off a recent hit.

Frozen was released Nov 2013. Less than a year later, Maelstrom was closed to start its change.

I don't think the decision was a good idea in terms of location, capacity or saving that much time/money, but less than 3 years after the initial release, they had a ride open based on it.