BIG UPDATE About Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, the Splash Mountain Retheme in Disney World

Splash Mountain will soon be rethemed to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and we’ve got a BIG update about the project.

Thus far, we’ve got the opening timeframe for the ride at Disney World and Disneyland (late 2024), plus we got the chance to see a model of the ride during the D23 Expo and we’ve seen some art that is inspiring the Imagineers working on the ride. But now we’ve got some NEW info!

The Notice

On October 13th, 2022, Disney filed a Notice of Commencement for what appears to be upcoming work on Splash Mountain.

Let’s start with what a Notice of Commencement is. Essentially, it is meant to provide others with notice (of course) that an improvement is going to be made on a particular property.

In this case, the notice lists Walt Disney Imagineering as the owner and Balfour Beatty Construction LLC as the contractor.

Balfour Beatty has been listed on other permits filed by Disney in the past, including for some work related to the Play! Pavilion, according to Spectrum News 13.

The address listed for the property is 4955 Caribbean Way, Bay Lake, FL 32830, which does appear to be tied to where Splash Mountain is located.

The general description of the project is very vague. Sometimes we see descriptions that say a sign or design elements will be installed. This time it merely states “Project CY1899,” which we expect could be a reference to the ride retheme.

The other big detail in this notice of commencement is its expiration date. Normally, an expiration date would be 1 year from the date of recording, unless otherwise specified. The end date for this permit is June 30th, 2024.

Again, that would lean in favor of this permit being related to the retheme, as the rethemed ride is expected to open in “late” 2024. If this were a permit for ordinary refurbishments or miscellaneous construction, the expiration date could be much sooner. But this late of an end date, and one that would line up closer to that “late” 2024 opening timeframe, seems to indicate (again) that it could be for the retheme.

Again, this is our understanding of the permit filed, but Disney has yet to give more specifics about the project. They have not announced when Splash Mountain could close at Disney World or Disneyland to enable the retheme to take place, or an exact opening date for the new attraction.

Here’s a full look at that notice of commencement in case you want to take a peek.

What We Know So Far

So what else do we know about Tiana’s Bayou Adventure? Well, as we mentioned above, it’ll be a retheme of the existing Splash Mountain rides that exist in Disneyland and Disney World. The rethemed attraction will open in late 2024 in both locations.

The ride will bring back several of the voice actors from the original The Princess and the Frog movie, including Anika Noni Rose as Tiana, Bruno Campos as Naveen, Michael-Leon Wooley as Louis, and Jenifer Lewis as Mama Odie.

Thus far, we’ve seen what the ride will look like after dark…

We got another look at plans for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure! #D23Expo2022 pic.twitter.com/R3umowtUrr

— AllEars.Net (@AllEarsNet) September 11, 2022

…a peek at Tiana’s new costume (which takes inspiration from military and equestrian clothing)…

…news about NEW characters that will be involved in the ride…

…and more! During the ride, guests will pick up Tiana’s story from the end of the original film. Tiana, Naveen, and Louis are going on an adventure through the bayou as they prepare to host a “one-of-a-kind Mardi Gras celebration.” The ride will also feature original music inspired by the songs from the movie.

Click here to get a full look at the model of the ride shared during the D23 Expo

What Next?

And now…we wait! We’ll be on the lookout for any updated details from Disney about this refurb and we’ll let you know what we see. With TRON construction coming along, and construction at EPCOT also making progress, we expect news about Tiana’s Bayou Adventure might be coming soon.

For more news from the Disney parks, check out the links below.

And stay tuned for more updates!

Tell us your thoughts about the Splash Mountain retheme in the comments below.

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