Splash Mountain at Disneyland Not Closing Yet, Despite Controversy and Planned Replacement

Parkgoers heading to Disneyland still have some time to ride Splash Mountain before the iconic ride closes for a massive refurbishment project. As the Walt Disney Company prepares to begin work on a project that will transform Splash Mountain into Tiana's Bayou Adventure, another Splash Mountain ride at Disneyland Park's Critter Country does not yet have a closing date.

As of this posting, Disney has not announced a tentative closing time frame for the attraction, and the company also hasn't given a reason for the ride's delayed closure. Inside the Magic suggested that the decision to keep the Critter Country Splash Mountain open could simply be due to a number of other refurbishment projects set to take place in the coming months. Next month, Indiana Jones Adventure is set to close down through the spring of 2023, with both Haunted Mansion and "it's a small world" scheduled to undergo brief closures as the attractions shed their special Holiday overlays in January. It's possible that with all of these temporary closures, Disney simply doesn't want to take yet another attraction away from guests, meaning that it is possible the Splash Mountain ride in Critter Country will close towards the end of these other projects.

While it remains to be seen just when the Critter Country attraction will close, guests only have a handful of days left to ride the Splash Mountain ride in Magic Kingdom. The ride is set to temporarily close on Monday, Jan. 23, meaning the final day of operation will be Sunday, Jan. 22. The closure comes as Disney prepares to embark on a complete revamp of the ride, which first opened in Disneyland in 1989, three years after Song of the South's last theatrical release, and featured characters from the controversial movie. Amid controversy surrounding the ride and the controversial history associated with it, Disney confirmed in June 2020 that Splash Mountain would be reimagined as a ride featuring The Princess and the Frog characters.

Officially set to be renamed Tiana's Bayou Adventure, riders will be taken back to the year 1927, when Tiana is hosting a party for the people of New Orleans. She will need riders' help to find a missing ingredient. Members of the original cast will be reprising their voices as their characters for the attraction, with Bruno Campos returning as Prince Naveen, Michael Leon Wooley voicing Louis, Jenifer Lewis voicing Mama Odie, and Anika Noni Rose voicing Princess Tiana. The reimagined attraction is set to reopen in late 2024.