Popular Disney Ride Has Closed, and It's Getting 'Weird'

Splash Mountain has officially gone dry, at least for now. The popular log-flume ride in Disney World's Magic Kingdom, which opened in 1992, transported its last fans on Sunday, with the theme park shuttering the attraction to work on a reimagining of it. The new incarnation, set to open as "Tiana's Bayou Adventure" sometime in 2024, will be based on the 2009 animated movie The Princess and the Frog, Disney's only original film that has a Black princess as its star, notes the Wall Street Journal. On the new ride, visitors will follow along as Princess Tiana preps for a Mardi Gras celebration.

It's a stark contrast from Splash Mountain, which attracted negative attention in recent years for the fact that it drew inspiration for its theme from the controversial 1946 movie Song of the South, which has been slammed for portraying Reconstruction-era plantation life using racist stereotypes. Meanwhile, as Disney guests acclimate to the idea of a Magic Kingdom with no Splash Mountain, some fans are making sure they keep the ride's memory alive, and making sure they make a few bucks in the process. USA Today reports that posts are popping up on eBay selling plastic bags, bottles, and Mason jars filled with "authentic" water from the 30-year-old ride, some bragging the liquid was from the last day the ride was operational. Prices ranged from under $10 into the thousands.

One seller was even optimistic they'd be able to get more than $10,000 for their dented container. "The Disney community can be very weird sometimes," Adrian Vasquez, a 28-year-old Splash Mountain fan who's gone on the ride hundreds of times, tells the New York Times, which notes people waited in line for up to five hours over the weekend to go on the attraction. "I honestly don't know how else to put it." Visitor's to California's Disneyland can still ride that park's version of Splash Mountain until later this year, when it, too, will close to make way for the Princess Tiana update. It's not yet clear when exactly the last ride day will be, or if Tokyo's Disney park will be shutting down its Splash Mountain as well. (More Disney World stories.)