April 3! Annual Meeting of Shareholders. I'd say the date is almost guaranteed to be announced then.
FWIW, I knew we were getting an announcement today, but not if we were getting summer confirmed or a specific date. As you said, the May 24th date always seemed extremely optimistic, and at the very best, that's when previews will start. CMs who closed Splash have already got their assignments for when they'll be returning.
Looking back at HEA and TRON last year, it would only make sense for them to be at the same time - one big media push with everyone here at once, and as some have mentioned, I'm sure the goal is to have both open capacity wise.
Now, in terms to the date itself, this is 100% speculation, but I keep coming back to July 1.
April 3, the Shareholders Meeting, to July 1, is 89 days, which lines up with the booking window they have done in the past.
July 1 stands out to me for a few reasons: the start of Q4 FY24, it would increase capacity for the 4th of July crowds, and it would allow Disney to promote the opening all week at the Essence Festival in New Orleans.
We already know they used the Essence Festival in 2022 as the biggest promo at the time for this thing, so I could easily see a similar strategy now, except to promote its opening.
In regards to the construction currently, there's a couple VERY good signs for log testing, which lines up with the summer opening confirmed today.
100% of the scaffolding has been removed from the top of the drop to the splashdown area, even at the bottom of the drop itself. There were crews repairing the bottom where the scaffolding was set up, I believe DCBaker posted a photo of this, but now it's done and ready for testing.
At the millhouse, the flowers were purposely installed on the right side and completed first, also clearing the flume for testing. There is still scaffolding up for the left side, BUT, that is behind the wall with the gumbo mural, and can be completed after testing starts, if needed. It's very clear this work was done to clear the flume and that lift hill in the millhouse.
The last big thing is the tarps blocking the view of the finale from the railroad. They recently put up much thicker tarps secured by wood and nails to 100% block the view of the testing, and I'm assuming it's also a soundproofing measure to keep the music muted. I posted a video of it on my Twitter, but these new tarps are extremely secure, and the fact they just got installed says all we need to know in regards to testing and that finale being in "show mode."
I know that's a very long post, but I have been looking forward to today for a long time, so to see summer confirmed, get an incredible video of the Tiana Animatronic, and see work on-site line up with all of it is very exciting.
Now we wait for April 3!
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