I mean, Splash Mountain was the best ride at the all of the 3 most popular theme parks on earth. For more than 30 years. People grew up with it. And it wasn't some niche attraction like Horizons where it didn't last long and superfans loved it but most people didn't and so on and so forth. So yeah, the backlash is partly due to the unique qualities of Splash Mountain as an attraction.
I'm perfectly aware of why the backlash has occurred. It's the loss of an iconic attraction, coupled with some unfortunate culture war-style push and pull that has further amplified the rhetoric.
But I dispute the notion that it was the best ride ever at three parks. It was not-it was simply the best ride
for you. Which is fine, and I cannot ever invalidate that. But it does frustrate me that many of the most fervent Splash fans cannot see, or do not want to see, that not every person thought Splash was the greatest thing ever. They act as if everyone else is in denial when people just have different opinions. It was/is undoubtedly a well done, iconic attraction. However, not everyone felt is was
the iconic attraction. Personally, while I always thought Splash was a good attraction, it was never one of my absolute favorites. Especially not at Disneyland, as I far preferred the subsequent versions of the ride, and only rode Splash once a trip because I always got drenched whether I wanted to or not. By comparison, I always do my darndest to ride Space Mountain multiple times a day and have frequently ended my Disneyland nights going back and forth between Pirates and Mansion, sometimes with Indy thrown in. I easily could have run over there and thrown Splash into the rotation, but never once did it seem like something I'd want to do. I can easily name ten attractions at Disneyland Park in particular that I think are more enjoyable/important to my day/trip than Splash Mountain. From my perspective it was easily the least important of the rides that might be considered 'sacred'. So that, coupled with the exhausting discourse of the past two years, means that I will shed no tears when it finally closes. I can't blame people who will be upset when it's closed for good, assuming they're not being a little extra, but for me Splash was never one of
my rides in the way that it clearly is for many, and I don't appreciate the repeated assumption on the part of many that
obviously everyone agrees that Splash Mountain is one of the top two/three/five Disney attractions ever made. I don't, and I know I'm not the only person on this forum who doesn't.
At any rate, how unique was Splash really? There were three of them and all steal pretty blatantly from the flume at Knott's. I'm not denying that it's one of the top watermarks of its type of ride, but with Pirates (or IASW, if you're so inclined) or Space, you really have Disney doing something at a new level in a way that hadn't been done before. With Splash, Disney just did a really nice version of what Knott's had done twenty years prior. And there's nothing wrong with that, but it's not really
unique.
Yeah, Splash has absolutely been a top 3 attraction. To pretend it wasn’t a classic is some next level revisionism. I think the only rides you’d probably get a similar reaction to would be Pirates, Mansion, and Small World. Fans would definitely go ballistic and make their dissatisfaction known. But Disney would never touch Pirates or Mansion because they are merch sellers.
Who here is saying it wasn't a classic? I don't see one person doing that. What
is happening is that not everyone agrees about the level of classic that it was, which is fine, but is being interpreted by some who view Splash as one of their definitive Disney attractions as something of a personal attack. From my end, Splash cannot be a top three attraction when you have named what are probably the actual top three, certainly from a historical perspective, in addition to being the three with the biggest impact on pop culture. At the very least, I would put all three of them above Splash Mountain for myself, and surely I can't be the only one who feels that way. It's fine. Doesn't mean Splash isn't a classic, just that not everyone would agree that it was a top 3 attraction.
Also, closing a theme park attraction isn't like anything that can happen in other realms of entertainment. When Splash closes, most of its fans will never get to experience it again, and that's kind of sad for some of us, though many would not admit it (being sad over a theme park ride, that is) -- I will though LOL. It's just a complete removal from the face of the earth, you can't do that with anything but theme parks really. Real, physical places.
Now, add onto that that the reasons for the ride's closure ar extremely controversial for reasons I won't speak on.... and voila. Makes perfect sense there'd be some backlash at its closure.
That said, can someone explain to me how Splash wasn't a merch seller? I mean did it really sell less merch than other popular Disneyland/WDW rides?
Except it's really not a complete removal from the face of the earth. Splash will continue to exist on YouTube, which is not something that could be said about a number of other closed rides and classics. And if that's not good enough, it will also continue to be rideable in Tokyo for the foreseeable future, which was always the best version of the attraction anyway. Maybe when all three close, if that even happens, then we can talk, but there's no indication that Tokyo's is closing any time soon.
So while I agree that the closing of a theme park attraction is a bigger deal than many other forms of entertainment, it's disingenous to say that Splash is uniquely facing a lot of memory-holing here that absolutely haven't applied to other attractions. Splash is actually better off here than most, because there will be plenty of videos to relive the ride, and a version of the ride that will literally still exist and be rideable in Tokyo. The ride course itself will be the same layout. It could easily be much worse than it will be for Splash.
