Splash Mountain has joined Tower of Terror as attractions taking advantage of Disney World’s reduced physical distancing policy as a means of increasing attraction capacity. According to Cast Members operating the attraction, a new policy went into effect today that allows for only a single empty row between parties. Previously, at least two rows were required, which made pairing parties difficult.
Previously, if your party required two rows (ie. 3 or more adults), you would get the entire log to yourself. The only parties that were allowed to be put together would be a party of two at the front of the log and a party of two at the back (or 3, if you had a child). With a configuration of four rows per log, it essentially meant that the attraction was operating at half capacity, or perhaps a little more if there were larger parties. Now, a 4-2 configuration is possible, meaning a party of four can be grouped with a party of two in the same log thanks to the new rule that only requires one row of spacing between separate traveling parties. Here’s a look at the change compared to the previous configuration seen above.
While we’re hesitant to call this a “boost” in capacity like what we saw at Tower of Terror, this is certainly an increase in capacity, and one that should bring some relief to an attraction with traditionally the longest Magic Kingdom wait in the pandemic-era.
Splash Mountain is going to transform into a Princess and the Frog-themed attraction in the future, but remains open at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland for the time being. Disney Parks President Josh D’Amaro said that the Splash Mountain redo was fast-tracked, but we haven’t seen any evidence of work taking place on the attraction yet.
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