Splash Mountain is a highly themed water flume ride located in Frontierland's west end in the Magic Kingdom.
Details
FASTPASS: Yes
Height/Age Requirement: At least 40" tall
Splash Mountain takes guests on an 11 minute ride through Walt Disney's 1946 classic "Song of the South", ending in a 40mph, 52.5ft (5 story) final drop!
Splash Mountain opened in 1992, and is one of the best-loved attractions in the Magic Kingdom. The huge mountain can be found in Frontierland, right beside one of the other famous Disney World Mountains, Big Thunder Mountain.
Featuring 68 Audio Animatronics, Splash Mountain has the largest animated prop in any Disney park. The Mississippi ShowBoat that is part of the final scene is 36ft long and 22ft high!
Height requirement: At least 40 inches tall.
Facts
Theme: based on Walt Disney's 1946 classic "Song of the South" the attraction follows the crafty Brer Rabbit as Brer Fox and his lumbering cohort Brer Bear chase him through twisting backwoods waterways and swamps into his "Laughin' Place." When caught Brer Rabbit begs Brer Fox not to throw him into the briar patch. The ride follows Brer Rabbits plunge into the briar patch from the top of Chickapin Hill and then enters the showboat finale.
Ride System: flume ride featuring 8-passenger logs (4 seats). Guests sit side by side. (Warning, you will get wet.)
Height: 87 feet
Size: Occupies a 9.2 acre site
Audio- Animatronics: over 65 total. Also features one of the largest animated props in the finale. The Showboat is 36 feet wide and 22 feet high and rocks back and forth as a cast of 12 audio-animatronics sing and dance to "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah."
Songs: featured in the attraction are "How Do You Do" "Everybody Has a Laughin' Place" and "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah"
Time: Approx. 11 minutes
Drop: The final drop is a 5-story, 45-degree waterfall
Speed: over 40 mph on the final drop
Secrets and technical details
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Splash flume holds roughly 965,000 gallons of water.
- Flume speed of water flow, roughly 28,000 gallons of water per minute.
- The entire flume system can be drained in 5 minutes and can be totally refilled in just over 20 minutes.
- The water reservoir (backstage) can hold right at 1 million gallons of water. The reservoir is approx. 50ft deep and 60ft by 60ft wide.
- There are two water zones feeding the ride; A & B
- There are a total of six water pumps feeding these zones, four of which are only used-with two spare (just in case) The tubes carrying water through the pumps are approx. two feet in diameter.
- There are two main ride control computers. If one more were added and linked, they would have enough computing power to launch a Space Shuttle. If the two computers don't both agree on the millions of the commands being sent to the ride, they will stop the ride, giving the operators what is called a "ride stop".
- There are 36 hidden cameras that the CM's can monitor the ride via.
- There is an infra-red intrusion system that once someone steps out of a log (anywhere), an alarm notifies the CM in the tower and automatically a camera shot of that area of the ride pops up on one of the eighteen monitors the CM in tower is watching.
- There are 15 exit doors throughout the ride (many of which aren't seen by guests).
- The lift motors are custom made for the Splash Mountains and are from Europe...not cheap in price.
- There are a total of five drops, drop 4 being the largest and drop 5 being the smallest.
- There are a total of three lifts- A, B & C
- The most expensive animatronic in the Splash show is the hopping Brer Rabbit, price tag-$1.3 milllion.
- Each log has a dead load of 1 ton.
- The "rocks" of the mountain when designed, were done by sculpting them in foam. A sophisticated computer program plotted points on the scale model of the "rocks" thus entering them into the computer. From that, These points were loaded on a machine that bent the supporting rebar to the exact, organic form of the scale model. Over the rebar, welded wire mesh was attached onto which gunnite (a sprayable concrete) was adhered. Thus, that's how the rock formations were done.
- The Drop 4 runout zone (under the bridge) has a braking system that can stop a dead load log going 40+mph to Zero mph in 1.4 seconds. (hence the need for a stringent height requirement)
The ride is designed to run a certain number of logs at once. The least they can run is 50, the max being 54. The reason, in some areas, the logs stack up is because in actuality, the ride was designed that way-the have "stack zones" as we call them. It is a way of the ride control computers (both of them) to keep track of the number of logs in the system, where their exact location in the ride is, and another reason is for possible e-vac purposes. The stack zones created, allow easier evacuation of guests in the event the ride would need to be e-vac'd. Behind those stack zones are direct exits to the outside of the building. The stack zones also allow the logs a grouping point for the lifts, which each only allow a certain number of logs on them at one time, i.e. C-lift (longest one just before the big drop) only allows three logs on it at once. The stack zones and the bunching of logs also allow for easier confirmation count by the CM's when they may need to reset the ride. If the ride goes down, CM called runners at this point, are sent to the different stack zones to confirm the exact number of logs in the flume so it can be correctly entered into the computer just before it is reset. If an incorrect log count is given to the computer, which it already knows, that in itself will bring down the ride and a swift restart won't take place.
The Story
Brer Rabbit’s quest for adventure and his rival’s plot to do him in launch Walt Disney World guests on an action-filled journey with a thrill-packed, five-story “splashdown” finale on Splash Mountain in the Magic Kingdom.
Based on animated sequences in Walt Disney’s 1946 film “Song of the South,” the 87-foot high Splash Mountain boasts one of the world’s longest flume drops and promises guests a 40 mph descent -- faster than any other attraction in the Magic Kingdom.
The attraction, which opened in summer 1992, occupies a 9.2 acre site next to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in Frontierland. It features special effects that give the show its animated quality and heighten splashdown into the briar patch during the ride’s heart-stopping finale.
Splash Mountain features Disney’s FASTPASS, an innovative system -- free to park guests -- designed to reduce waiting times at popular attractions in all four Walt Disney World theme parks.
Splash Mountain stars a cast of 68 Audio-Animatronics® characters -- one of the largest groups of animated figures ever assembled in a Walt Disney World attraction.
To begin the 11-minute adventure, guests climb aboard eight-person logs (hollowed out by sharp-tooth beavers, as the story goes) to travel the canals of the flooded mountain.
Soon, they join Brer Rabbit, who is looking for some fun on a “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” kind of day. But his antagonists, Brer Fox and Brer Bear, are scheming to catch the happy-go-lucky hare and put an end to his carefree rambling.
All three principal characters from “Song of the South” appear by means of an advanced version of the Audio Animatronics technology used in newer Walt Disney World attractions such as The Great Movie Ride at the Disney-MGM Studios.
To bring the classic Disney story “Song of the South” to life, wizards at Walt Disney Imagineering -- the company’s creative design and engineering division -- created a magnificent mountain chock-full of backwoods swamps, bayous and waterfalls.
As guests proceed on the log ride, they meet the show’s stars and a number of critter characters who help weave the tale of “Song of the South.” Against the advice of Mr. Bluebird, Brer Rabbit leaves his briar patch home in search of adventure. Brer Fox and Brer Bear seize this opportunity and begin their legendary pursuit of the rabbit.
Along the way, the guests’ boats dip and turn through brilliantly colored scenes featuring musical selections that include “Laughin’ Place” and “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah,” one of Disney’s most familiar tunes.
Spooky caves, hollowed trees and skulking silhouettes of Brer Rabbit’s pursuers lend mystery and magic to the show as the story unfolds.
At first, the clever rabbit outsmarts his bumbling pursuers, but as guests proceed along the winding flume ride, they soon discover Brer Rabbit is heading for trouble.
The rollicking adventure is loaded with twists, turns and splashes of excitement. It culminates when guests, tucked into their flume logs, plunge over the top of a steep spillway, whizzing from the mountaintop to a briar-covered pond five stories below.
From the start, guests are drawn into the Splash Mountain legend when they enter an old critter building -- part barn, part silo. From there, they wind their way to a secret passageway leading to the Critter Cave.
After meeting Brer Frog, who begins to narrate the tale of Splash Mountain, guests board their flume logs to complete the exciting journey.
Along with the special effects and state-of-the-art animated characters, the attraction features one of the biggest animated props ever. The showboat in the rousing final scene is 36 feet wide and 22 feet high and carries 12 animated characters singing “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah” as the ship rocks in time to the music.
When guests disembark, they’ll find the Briar Patch merchandise shop -- a rustic retreat tucked into the mountainside and themed as Brer Rabbit’s cottage.
Splash Mountain is located in Frontierland’s west end, between Pecos Bill’s restaurant and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.