Disney World's Splash Mountain Smashed Open Amidst Ongoing Renovation

By Stephanie Downs

As Disney World fans know, the ride that was formerly known as Splash Mountain is getting a major facelift. Walt Disney World News Today reported that renovations are fully underway where the ride once was. It will subsequently be known as Tiana's Bayou Adventure in a nod to the film Princess and the Frog. 

Splash Mountain was once one of Disney World's most bustling attractions. Now, the area surrounding the former ride is full of steel framework, scaffolding, and blue scrim. Construction crews have also cut a hole into the front of Splash Mountain near the tree at the very top of it. In addition to work being done on the ride itself, crews are also renovating the queue and the scenery around the ride. 

Splash Mountain permanently closed at the Florida theme park in January. The move comes three years after Disney announced that they would be closing the ride amid controversy. In 2020, they announced that Splash Mountain would be no more considering that the ride was based on the 1946 Disney film Song of the South, which is set on a Georgia plantation after the Civil War. The NAACP has said that the film depicts an "idyllic master-slave relationship which is a distortion of the facts."

As a result, Disney decided to completely renovate Splash Mountain so that it can be based on Princess and the Frog and subsequently renamed, "Tiana's Bayou Adventure." Charlie Carter, executive producer of relevancy activations at Walt Disney Imagineering, said that the new ride will serve as a sort of "love letter to New Orleans." She continued, "Like the musical city that inspired this attraction, Tiana's second act is about a community working in harmony to achieve something extraordinary. She reminds us of an immutable truth we can all relate to: 'if you do your best each and every day, good things are sure to come your way.' And that's a melody we can all sing along to!" 

After Disney revealed in June 2020 that Splash Mountain would be turned into Tiana's Bayou Adventure, Anika Noni Rose, who voiced Tiana in the animated film, released a statement to express her excitement about the move. Her statement read, "It is really exciting to know that Princess Tiana's presence in both Disneyland and Magic Kingdom will finally be fully realized! As passionate as I am about what we created, I know the fans are going to be over the moon. The Imagineers are giving us 'The Princess and the Frog' Mardi Gras celebration we've been waiting for, and I'm here for it!"

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