When Does Splash Mountain Reopen as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure? Disney Hints at Date Shift

Splash Mountain is opening this summer at Walt Disney World and Disneyland later this year after it is transformed into the Princess and the Frog Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attraction.

I have been personally following the the creation of the new Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attraction very closely. Earlier this year I joined Walt Disney Imagineers in New Orleans to learn about the research going into making this new attraction highly authentic. Be sure to read all about that New Orleans Imagineering research trip and everything you need to know about the new Tiana’s Bayou Adventure ride here. I have also been keeping a close eye on the Splash Mountain retheme construction progress on both coasts.

Let’s dive into what we know about the reopening date for Splash Mountain that is now becoming Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Also see the below information updated with Walt Disney World's opening date announced!

When Will Splash Mountain Open Again?

Splash Mountain closed at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World on January 22, 2023 and at Disneyland on May 31, 2023 to be rethemed into Tiana's Bayou Adventure.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure will be opening June 28th 2024 at Walt Disney World! Read more about the opening date and cast member previews here! Disney also announced the Disneyland opening date for the attraction, which will be opening on November 15 at the start of the holiday celebration at Disneyland later this year.

We also have to assume that the construction requirements for the two attractions do differ because there are material differences between the physical structures of the two attractions. The log flume itself is actually structured differently at Walt Disney World than Disneyland. At Disneyland guests sit all in a row and at Walt Disney World guests sit side by side. Also, the show buildings and scenes are not identical even beyond the wider log flume.

All of that said, what have we seen from Disney? When the replacement for Splash Mountain was initially advertised, the opening date of “late 2024” was featured throughout the materials.

Over the last 6 months the Disney Parks media channels have all dropped the “late” description of the opening date. Now, the opening is just listed as 2024 for both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World versions of the attraction.

UPDATE! Recently Disney did use “later in 2024” to describe the opening for Tiana's Bayou Adventure at Disneyland while they are still using general 2024 for discussions of the attraction opening at Magic Kingdom. This confirms everything that we had stated below with the assumption that Tiana's will open earlier in Walt Disney World as we discuss below.

Walt Disney World just shared an update the attraction is opening in Magic Kingdom Summer of 2024. You can see the details on the opening date for Tiana's Bayou Adventure here.

Generally the Splash Mountain reopening is the big new attraction coming to both Walt Disney World and Disneyland in 2024 so we can also assume that there is pressure from the resort teams for the Walt Disney Imagineers to get the attraction ready to be open as soon as possible. With the pressure to turn around an attraction like this in under two years of construction crews on site, there is also lots of room for variability in when the opening will be. Disney could be aiming for a specific opening date and then have construction stretch on due to a last minute problem.

Previously Disney ran into this with the Rise of the Resistance attraction opening at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. At one point in that process it was reported that the Disneyland version of the attraction would open before the Walt Disney World version of the attraction but then the Walt Disney World version of the attraction was ready to open first due to construction schedule changes and required rework.

So, with that caveat we can now think about the individual Splash Mountain openings.

Magic Kingdom Splash Mountain Reopening Date

We expect that since Disney dropped the “late” monicker from the Splash Mountain replacement marketing materials that they are now aiming for a Magic Kingdom Splash Mountain reopening at least some time before the beginning of Fall 2024, likely during the summer 2024 period. It would be surprising if they could get this done earlier than that but there is always that chance that it could pull up to spring.

Disney is always a little bit loose with their use of descriptions of seasons and can end up pushing when something may actually open. In this case I think they would’ve kept saying “late” if they were still anticipating that both attractions were going to open around or after September 2024.

Also, Splash Mountain is a water ride so it would definitely be beneficial for the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attraction to open before the sweltering summer months at Walt Disney World. This would be a welcome water ride addition back to the parks.

That said, the fact that the attraction is a water ride isn’t enough to get it open immediately. Though Journey of Water – Inspired By Moana was a water experience and appeared to be done with construction towards the end of this last summer it didn’t open to guests until October. This was likely related to an operations decision due to the more limited capacity of that attraction, but take that as another example of how Splash Mountain could be delayed.

Also add into the mix that Tron Lightcycle run, the most recent new Walt Disney World ride, took over five years to complete. Caveat that the lockdown closures were right in the middle of that and that was an entirely new hardware construction, but even so completing Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in anytime under two years would be very impressive.

Disneyland Splash Mountain Reopening Date

There are a number of factors that will impact when Splash Mountain reopens as Tiana's Bayou Adventure at Disneyland.

Disney just announced the new Pixar Fest coming to Disneyland this summer and Star Wars Season of the Force in the spring as part of their lineup of 2024 Disneyland special events. That season is always dominated by the Food and Wine Festival in Disney California Adventure but it also often includes some other limited-time offering. Last year the Disney100 celebration filled this void.

I don’t expect to see a fast turn around for the Disneyland attraction and do expect that we see the Walt Disney World version reopen first. So, likely no Tiana-fest at Disneyland which means we will see some other celebration fill that void. Maybe something with the return of Fantasmic! at Disneyland.

At Disneyland we could see the attraction opening slide into late summer (September!) or fall. I bet they are working hard to even get the attraction open in 2024. This is a scenario that the resort planners can’t be thrilled by. Over the last couple of years October has become the most popular/crowded month to visit Disneyland. We break it all down in our crowded months to avoid Disneyland article. November and December are soon to follow. This is related to the impressive Disneyland Halloween and Disneyland Christmas offerings, but also to the ever-increasing amount of schools that offer fall breaks in October.

So, all of that said the reopening of Splash Mountain as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Disneyland would be much more beneficial to have a spring opening rather than a late September or October opening. That way Disney would have perhaps gotten another trip out of guests who want to see the attraction but are also drawn yearly to the holidays. Now there will be an additional draw to the parks during the holidays, a time when Disney doesn’t struggle to sell out reservations. So, throwing in a curveball scenario maybe Disney says we either get the attraction out the door by September 1st or we push opening until January/February to drive 2025 demand.

Disney just reiterated for that the attraction will open “later in 2024” at Disneyland.

That said, Disney doesn’t have much choice on the opening based on how the schedule has shaken out. If there were another new Disneyland ride on the docket and if this was all happening in a Disneyland-specific vacuum I wouldn’t have been surprised if they had pushed out both the Splash Mountain closure to winter 2023/2024 and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opening to May 2025 to match the previously standard Disneyland opening schedule.

If just looked at from a ride operations perspective, it was peculiar that the Splash Mountain water ride that is most crowded in summer was closed just before the busy summer season and will now likely reopen headed into colder and busier months. This all feels like the final (hopefully) residual impacts from the lockdown and Imagineering furloughs which disrupted the master planning for Disney resorts globally. See what Disney is saying about their big focus to turbocharge Disney theme park growth with a $60 billion investment here.

What work is needed to turn Splash Mountain into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure?

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is the new ride replacing Splash Mountain. The Splash Mountain ride system and build will remain the same same great thrilling, fun, water ride that has been in place for years with Splash Mountain.

Now though the attraction will be dramatically enhanced with dozens of next generation Audio-Animatronics, visual effects to enhance the storytelling, and the fantastic music from the Princess and the Frog films. So, the main changes being made to the ride are to change the exterior of the Splash Mountain building to allow for a better telling of the Princess and the Frog story and the addition of all the elements throughout the attraction. I know that Disney feels the pressure to deliver something really special here and am excited to see how all of these additions turn out.

Imagineers were riding the attraction quite a bit even before it closed to work on the musical score and different elements. Cleary there is a lot of work going into trying to make this transition to the new attraction as quickly as possible. Hopefully all of the elements were ready to go to get into the attraction to limit the required Splash Mountain closure time.

Visible progress is being made on the exterior of the Splash Mountain building – I spied the new colorful mural at Walt Disney World recently – and we can expect that similar progress is being made inside the structure as well. The key work inside the structure will be getting all of the figures in place and the new technical elements.

It will be a great sign when we see the log flume refilled with water and boats beginning to test the attraction. I don’t envy the Imagineers needing to test the water ride late into the night during the upcoming Florida winter months. Contrary to popular belief, Florida does still get very cold in the winters. I’ll point to my Disney World trip weather last January as proof.

So, in summary Disney has a bit of work to go on building the new Tiana’s Bayou Adventure that is replacing Splash Mountain but since they are not building any new physical structures the work should be able to be completed quickly if the Imagineers do not hit any snags in their plans.

Tokyo Disneyland Splash Mountain Closure?

There are currently no plans to change the Tokyo Disneyland version of Splash Mountain. That version of Splash Mountain remains open and will not be converted to the Tiana's Bayou Adventure version of the attraction. I have ridden that Splash Mountain and am super impressed with the winding queue and entire area around the attraction which is actually themed to the briar patch.

No other Disney Parks around the world have versions of Splash Mountain.

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