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

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GimpYancIent

Well-Known Member
The sight of that 20k lagoon was life changing for me.
I ordered a slide viewer from Amazon which will be arriving tonight.
I'll be able to look at slides of my first (third grade age) trip to WDW in a way I haven't seen them in decades.
Do any "insiders" know why there is no 20K attraction at WDW? It's not that there are no natural bodies of water readily available for exploitation if excavating a lagoon would be a problem. To me it is a great memory and enjoyable ride.
 

FantasiaMickey2000

Well-Known Member
Ellen's Energy Adventure closed 4 years ago and they're still working on its replacement.

5 years is about the time it takes Disney to do anything these days.



This November is the 75th anniversary of Song of the South. How convenient for Disney Consumer Products and D23.
I may be wrong on this, but isn’t Disney no longer selling any Splash Mountain merchandise?
 

Bocabear

Well-Known Member
Do any "insiders" know why there is no 20K attraction at WDW? It's not that there are no natural bodies of water readily available for exploitation if excavating a lagoon would be a problem. To me it is a great memory and enjoyable ride.
Because it was expensive to maintain and TDO didn't want to maintain it any more... It was replaced eventually with Little Mermaid, 7 Dwarf's way too short coaster and and Belle's something or other meet and greet thing.
 

FantasiaMickey2000

Well-Known Member
DL is looking at next winter, probably soon after Christmas. I’ll be buying a farewell t-shirt this summer!
People who participate in those discussions.
This is always a discussion coworkers and I have on this vs next. When you say next winter do you mean December 2020 or 2021? I’d consider December 2020 to be this winter and December 2021 to be next winter but you said you’d buy a farewell shirt this summer so just want to clarify.
 

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
This is always a discussion coworkers and I have on this vs next. When you say next winter do you mean December 2020 or 2021? I’d consider December 2020 to be this winter and December 2021 to be next winter but you said you’d buy a farewell shirt this summer so just want to clarify.
I mean I expect it to close in 9 months.
 

yensidtlaw1969

Well-Known Member
I vaguely remember this being the talk with regards to Space Mountain too. This was mentioned way before the Splash overly was a mention publicly, Tron was to come into play so other rides come be refurbed.
Yeah, and Peter Pan's Flight is finally gonna get the big refurb it deserves when The Little Mermaid opens with New Fantasyland.

I'll believe Space Mountain is going down for a big refurb after TRON opens when I see it. Not that Space doesn't deserve and NEED a real, serious upgrade, just that Disney likes to dangle such carrots beyond shiny new projects opening, and then once they do they seem to lose interest in following through where they should.

At least in Florida.
 

Brer Oswald

Well-Known Member
There’s an interesting thought that crossed my mind, and it has little to do with the current theme. Who is the target audience for this attraction going forwards? We’ve long been looking at this with our own older perspective when we’ve needed to look at it with a child’s perspective.

It is true that PatF is far more relevant to younger children, but is a 50 ft log flume a great ride for young children. I imagine the target audience, specifically with the post ride merchandise, is going to be 3-10, same as most Princess attractions and Fantasyland attractions. But there’s a reason why most Princess attractions have been dark rides. When you get to a theme park, inclusivity isn’t just about background, but height, size, and thrill level as well.

The height requirement for the ride is 40”, which the average age for that height for both genders is 4-5. So far not too bad, but it’s likely a no go for the youngest side of the targeted age. But then you have the thrill level of the ride itself. It’s the most thrilling ride at the park, no question, and the scariest part is on full display. Many younger children (not all, I realize there are some daredevils) are going to be intimidated by the drop. This is going to be a very hard sell for anyone under the age of 8, as the ride has always been, and with less of that target audience going through the ride, less are going to get to go on the ride based around their role model, Princess Tiana, and less are going to go through that gift shop and buy toys and dresses.

So my question is, what do you think they can do to mitigate this issue? Will they tone down the drop? They did that from Maelstrom to Frozen, but that drop was also incredibly small to begin with. Will they create a supplementary Princess and The Frog attraction for intimidated youngsters? Maybe on TSI? Or a restaurant to replace Pecos Bill/Country Bears? Maybe they retheme the boat?
 

WillWrambles

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
There’s an interesting thought that crossed my mind, and it has little to do with the current theme. Who is the target audience for this attraction going forwards? We’ve long been looking at this with our own older perspective when we’ve needed to look at it with a child’s perspective.

It is true that PatF is far more relevant to younger children, but is a 50 ft log flume a great ride for young children. I imagine the target audience, specifically with the post ride merchandise, is going to be 3-10, same as most Princess attractions and Fantasyland attractions. But there’s a reason why most Princess attractions have been dark rides. When you get to a theme park, inclusivity isn’t just about background, but height, size, and thrill level as well.

The height requirement for the ride is 40”, which the average age for that height for both genders is 4-5. So far not too bad, but it’s likely a no go for the youngest side of the targeted age. But then you have the thrill level of the ride itself. It’s the most thrilling ride at the park, no question, and the scariest part is on full display. Many younger children (not all, I realize there are some daredevils) are going to be intimidated by the drop. This is going to be a very hard sell for anyone under the age of 8, as the ride has always been, and with less of that target audience going through the ride, less are going to get to go on the ride based around their role model, Princess Tiana, and less are going to go through that gift shop and buy toys and dresses.

So my question is, what do you think they can do to mitigate this issue? Will they tone down the drop? They did that from Maelstrom to Frozen, but that drop was also incredibly small to begin with. Will they create a supplementary Princess and The Frog attraction for intimidated youngsters? Maybe on TSI? Or a restaurant to replace Pecos Bill/Country Bears? Maybe they retheme the boat?
For the attraction itself, I suspect these plans may have also influenced the greenlighting of the Tiana series for Disney+, which in turn will influence the marketing of the ride. Serialized shows such as that tend to skew towards the 6-11 demographic, with varying amounts of 12-18 as well, depending on themes and such, see Gravity Falls for an example. My guess is that the marketing of this retheme will also skew towards the 6-11 demographic, which I believe is, and correct me if I’m wrong, because I might be, the current demographic of Splash Mountain.
 

Brer Oswald

Well-Known Member
For the attraction itself, I suspect these plans may have also influenced the greenlighting of the Tiana series for Disney+, which in turn will influence the marketing of the ride. Serialized shows such as that tend to skew towards the 6-11 demographic, with varying amounts of 12-18 as well, depending on themes and such, see Gravity Falls for an example. My guess is that the marketing of this retheme will also skew towards the 6-11 demographic, which I believe is, and correct me if I’m wrong, because I might be, the current demographic of Splash Mountain.
The show was more than likely planned before, and is probably why the ride is happening.

Splash’s audience has always skewed older. Like teens to twenties. At the time of the ride’s opening, they would’ve been among the youngest to know what Brer Rabbit was. Of course, there’s always daredevil kids in single digit ages, but for a ride of that caliber, it’s going to be mainly double digits.

Changing the target audience of the property would be quite the challenge. You could say that serialized shows target 6-11, but this is a serialized Princess show, and so many 2+ year olds are watching videos on their iPads. I don’t think this is an issue that can be fixed by Disney+, especially with the merchandise they like to sell for Princess properties.

Modifications to the ride’s thrill level are a necessity.
 

WillWrambles

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
The show was more than likely planned before, and is probably why the ride is happening.

Splash’s audience has always skewed older. Like teens to twenties. At the time of the ride’s opening, they would’ve been among the youngest to know what Brer Rabbit was. Of course, there’s always daredevil kids in single digit ages, but for a ride of that caliber, it’s going to be mainly double digits.

Changing the target audience of the property would be quite the challenge. You could say that serialized shows target 6-11, but this is a serialized Princess show, and so many 2+ year olds are watching videos on their iPads. I don’t think this is an issue that can be fixed by Disney+, especially with the merchandise they like to sell for Princess properties.

Modifications to the ride’s thrill level are a necessity.
The hasty decision making everyone on these boards thinks that WDI is constantly doing actually happens at Animation. Frozen 2 getting constantly rewritten, even as close to two weeks before the premiere, is one example. The Tangled Series also flies in the face of this arguement, in terms of age and demographics, as it’s target audience greatly shifted older compared to the movie.
 
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