Splash Mountain Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom Florida

Details: By NavFile; 26 February 2019; Last Updated: 07 February 2023

This article and section of the site covers Splash Mountain, which is an attraction that is located in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. Bay Lake is a city located near Orlando, Florida. In addition, Splash Mountain is also a ride at a few of Walt Disney Parks and Resort’s theme parks. Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California and Tokyo Disneyland in Japan both have versions of Splash Mountain at their theme parks. Splash Mountain at Disney World (actually called Walt Disney World) is not exactly the same as the other Splash Mountain rides that can be found at those theme parks.

In this article, you will be able to get a good understanding of the features of the ride, the history of the attraction and some further facts on Splash Mountain in Florida.

Overview of the Ride

Splash Mountain is a water attraction or ride that features a “boat” or a log that travels in a water channel. The ride can be considered to be a log flume ride or a water ride. Guests board a log near the bottom of the ride and begin on a journey that takes them to the top of Splash Mountain. A good portion of the ride is spent inside of “the mountain” where guests are shown a story that involves three main characters, Brer Fox, Brer Bear, and Brer Rabbit. Their official names according to Walt Disney World are Br’er Fox, Br’er Bear, and Br’er Rabbit; however, many people have spelled their names without the apostrophe that appears in the middle of their “first” name. In addition, signs on the ride have “Brer” as the spelling of their names. The likely cause for the “misspelling” is the fact that it is easier to type Brer than Br’er. For the most part, you will see their names spelled in the non-official format in this article and on other articles found on the website. In addition, those characters are all from the Walt Disney film, Song of the South, which was created in 1946. The ride itself is based on a portion of the movie.

Above Splash Mountain Walt Disney World Florida photo by Michael Lowin on Wikimedia Commons. Modified by NavFile. Photo released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.

The Ride Experience

Splash Mountain is a water log ride that takes guests on a journey up and down a mountain. The beginning of the ride starts at the main loading area. The log transport vehicle then takes guests up a series of inclines to the top of Splash Mountain. Guests are then taken inside Splash Mountain where the story of the attraction is shown as guests travel down the mountain. To enter the mountain there is one minor drop that guests experience. Inside the mountain, there are two minor drops that occur before heading back up the mountain. Near the end of the ride’s story, guests are taken back up the mountain to experience the main drop. The main drop is approximately 50 feet and takes guests back outside Splash Mountain where the main splash is experienced. The water log then travels back inside the mountain where guests are shown the closing scene for the attraction and are then taken back to the boarding area to exit the ride.

To see a visual overview of the ride please visit our upcoming video page for Splash Mountain.

Splash Mountain Review

A quick review of the ride by our team indicates that this is one of the top rides in the Magic Kingdom and throughout Walt Disney World. The water log ride is one of the longest rides in the park and can be one of the scariest rides because of the large drop that occurs near the end of the ride. In addition, the ride layout and story line is interesting and the journey up and down Splash Mountain is set up particularly well. The only downside to this ride is the potential for long wait times. If you are in the Magic Kingdom this is one ride you do not want to miss. For most of our team members, this is a must ride attraction, unless it is a cold day in Florida.

Splash Mountain History

The Walt Disney Company started building Splash Mountain at Walt Disney World in 1991 and opened the ride to the public on July 17th, 1992. The original design of the ride was created by Disney Legend Tony Baxter during the late 1980s. Walt Disney Parks developed the first Splash Mountain ride for Disneyland and then developed versions for Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland.

Soft Open and The Full Open

The Walt Disney World version of the water ride opened to the public on July 17th, 1992, three years after the first version opened on July 17th, 1989 in Disneyland. The ride was opened to guests using a soft open strategy in which the ride is softly opened to the public by limiting access to the ride. Some sources report that the ride was fully opened to guests on October 1st or the 2nd of 1992.

Updates

There hasn’t been to many updates to the ride over the years. It was reported that a Splash Mountain update occurred on February 1st, 2011 when the company added lap bars to the ride. The queue area was also changed when the FastPass ride queuing system was added to the ride. Other than that, the ride has not significantly changed since its opening in 1992.