On January 22, Guests visiting Walt Disney World Resort rode the classic Magic Kingdom attraction Splash Mountain for the last time. After 30 years, Disney is closing the attraction at both Disneyland Resort and Disney World and turning it into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Throughout the day, wait times averaged more than three hours, with Guests even snagging water from the attraction to sell online. Cast Members were the last ones to ride the attraction, as a crowd watched and cheered.
Monday, January 23, was a sad day for a lot of Disney World Guests and fans, as Splash Mountain was closed and crews were already beginning their work on the retheme. One of Disney’s biggest rivals decided to give Guests a stark reminder of what Disney was taking from them. Many might not think that a place like SeaWorld could be snarky and savage at the same time, but it happened with just one tweet.
Splashing by to wish you a happy Monday!
Splashing by to wish you a happy Monday! pic.twitter.com/gFIgnBcdYi
— SeaWorld (@SeaWorld) January 23, 2023
If that wasn’t bad enough, they followed up that tweet with another one, making fun of parking lot signs. That was presumably a dig at the new parking lot signs that recently went up at EPCOT. The theme park parking lot recently put up new signs, representing a wide variety of Disney and Pixar characters — WALL-E, Moana, Dory, Eve, Rocket, Gamora, Hei-Hei, and Crush.
Whatever you do, don’t add parking lot signs.
Whatever you do, don't add parking lot signs.
— SeaWorld (@SeaWorld) January 23, 2023
Typically, Universal is the first one to throw a punch with its mouse rival, but it looks like SeaWorld wants in on the game. And boy, did they start in a big way.
Splash Mountain will be closed at Walt Disney World Resort for almost two years, reopening in late 2024 as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure to honor the popular animated film The Princess and the Frog. Splash Mountain will also close at Disneyland Resort and be rethemed into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, but a closing date has not yet been announced for the West Coast.
The retheme has been very controversial, but as Walt Disney once said, “Disneyland will never be complete as long as there is imagination left in the world.”
