Splash Mountain has been shutdown by The Walt Disney Company. On January 23rd, 2023, the attraction was closed down in preperation to be transformed into a new theme based on the movie Princess and the Frog.

Splash Mountain is one of the Magic Kingdom’s top rides. Versions of the ride can also be found at Disneyland California (the original version) and Tokyo Disneyland. This article covers the construction of Walt Disney World's Splash Mountain and the potential for closures due to refurbishment or maintenance.

Splash Mountain Construction

Splash Mountain was developed by Disney Legend Tony Baxter to create a water log flume ride based on some of the company’s entertainment properties. Song of the South’s cartoon stories were selected to be used for the ride. The Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah song and Brer Rabbit’s journey to escape from Brer Fox and Brer Bear were selected as the focus points for the ride’s story.

Construction of the Walt Disney World version of Splash Mountain started in 1990. To make room for Splash Mountain, the train station was moved. This required the company to close the Walt Disney World Railroad temporarily. Walt Disney World reopened the railroad before construction was completed by running the train from Main Street USA to Mickey’s Starland (now the Toonland area) until Splash Mountain construction was complete.

After approximately 2 years, Splash Mountain opened to guests on July 17th, 1992. The July 17th opening was a soft opening, in which the ability to ride the attraction was limited. Splash Mountain was fully opened to the public on October 1st or 2nd of 1992.

Below you can view some pictures of the ride while it was under construction in 1991.

A photo of Splash Mountain under construction from a walkway in Walt Disney World

Above Splash Mountain Construction photo by Scott Miller on Flickr. Photo enhanced by NavFile. Image is released under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.

A photo of splash mountain construction in 1991 from the side at Walt Disney World

Above Splash Mountain 1991 construction photo by Scott Miller on Flickr. Photo enhanced by NavFile. Image is released under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.

An image of Splash Mountain under construction from the front in Walt Disney World

Above Splash Mountain front view construction photo by Scott Miller on Flickr. Photo enhanced by NavFile. Image is released under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 license.

Splash Mountain Closed & Closure

From time-to-time, Splash Mountain had closed down for refurbishment or maintenance. The last time Splash Mountain was closed was from January 8th, 2018 to February 1st, 2018.

As of the date of this article, Splash Mountain has been closed for good. Updates on the new version of the ride will be provided in the future.

To learn more about Splash Mountain, visit the other pages about the ride that are on the site.

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