Disney World News: Slow Splash Mountain Reimaging, Purchase Limits, Figment Fab 50!

We’re back with a weekend Walt Disney World news & rumor roundup. This post shares a purchase limit on 50th Anniversary & Halloween merchandise, Figment’s Fab 50 statue, and the latest official update on Splash Mountain’s Princess and the Frog reimagining.

Per “tradition,” we’ll start with the latest release of new and extended operating hours, which just missed making the cut for our last update. All four theme parks have had hours for another week added to the DisneyWorld.com park hours calendar. The current calendar now runs through October 30, 2021. Here are the hours for most dates within the month of October:

• Magic Kingdom: 9 am to 9 pm
• EPCOT: 10 am to 10 pm
• Hollywood Studios: 9 am to 9 pm
• Animal Kingdom: 8 am to 7 pm
• Blizzard Beach: 11 am to 6 pm
• Disney Springs: 10 am to 11 pm (11:30 pm on Fridays & Saturdays)

As a reminder, Magic Kingdom closes at 8:30 pm on Disney After Hours Boo Bash nights that are after September 5. That event runs from 9:30 pm to 12:30 am up until that date, and from 9 pm until midnight after that date. Otherwise, no hours changes or extensions to report this week, save for a continuation of Epcot’s 10 am opening times and 10 pm closings daily during the month of October. This was an inevitability with both Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Harmonious debuting on October 1, as part of the World’s Most Magical Celebration. (See our Guide to Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary for more details.)

Next, we have more dates for the Extended Evening Theme Park Hours that will allow eligible guests to experience select attractions, shops, and dining after regular park hours–in select theme parks on select nights.

Current Schedule for Extended Evening Theme Park Hours*

Guests staying at Value Resorts or Moderate Resorts at Walt Disney World are not eligible for the Extended Evening Theme Park Hours. The Extended Evening Theme Park Hours perk is available to guests staying at Deluxe Resorts, Deluxe Villas, Disney Vacation Club units, or other select hotels (as of now, that means Swan & Dolphin or Shades of Green).

One such hotel that’ll be eligible for Extended Evening Theme Park Hours is the Walt Disney World Swan Reserve, the debut of which has been slightly delayed. Swan Reserve is now scheduled to open in late September 2021. Per the Swan & Dolphin: “Construction delays have shifted the opening from original target date and any guests with reservations impacted by this delay will receive communication directly from the hotel for alternative accommodations within our resort complex. More details on the opening will be shared as they become available.”

We had dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse last night, and got a good look inside while driving past the Swan Reserve on Epcot Resorts Blvd. While the exterior looks like a dull office building, there are some gorgeous details and light fixtures on the inside. There’s also a decent amount of work that needs to be done, but late September seems reasonable. We’ve noticed huge crews on-site lately and significant week-to-week progress, so here’s hoping!

Within the last several days, both Halloween and pre-celebration 50th Anniversary merchandise has been released at Walt Disney World. On any big merchandise release date, eBay pirates dock their ships and storm the stores.

If you’ve never experienced this, I cannot overstate how unpleasant it is. For some perspective, I’d rather watch back to back showings of Beauty and the Beast: Sing-Along than visit the Emporium on a morning when coveted new merchandise is released. (In fairness, I find the Emporium unpleasant even on a good day, and generally dislike in-store shopping.)

Normally, Walt Disney World has purchase limits of 10 items per person. (I have no clue whether these are even enforced.) However, for both of these new collections, Walt Disney World has implemented a strict limit of two items per guest. This is presumably due to the supply chain woes and merchandise shortages discussed in Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary Merchandise Collection Info–empty shelves but fully stocked eBay stores would be a “bad look” for Disney.

Regardless of the reason, this is a huge step in the right direction and something we hope to see continue. I want to be more optimistic about this, but the pirates code is more what you’d call “guidelines” than actual rules. Plus, pirates are incredibly resourceful and clever. They’ll probably find a way around this.

Disney Legend Tony Baxter has revealed that Figment is part of the “Disney Fab 50 Character Collection” that you’ll soon find across the four @WaltDisneyWorld theme parks during “The World’s Most Magical Celebration” starting October 1 #DisneyWorld50 pic.twitter.com/X1ORlVYZLi

– Disney D23 (@DisneyD23) August 13, 2021

I don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth, as my grandma would say, but I’m actually mildly disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really looking forward to the Figment statue and will spend way too long obsessively photographing it. But with 50 statues, it was a foregone conclusion that Figment would be among the characters featured. What I was really hoping for was a Figment and Dreamfinder statue.

With that out of the way, it’s awesome to see this announced by Tony Baxter–making it far and away the best Disney Fab 50 character reveal to date. I also appreciate that Baxter made a point of saying he holds a special place in his heart for the original Journey into Imagination. He hasn’t minced words about his disappointment about the current incarnation of the attraction and desire to redo Journey into Imagination, restoring the ride to its former glory.

Other statues revealed this week were Stitch, Dumbo & Timothy Mouse, Flounder & Sebastian, and R2-D2. (We shared the full list before that in our last WDW new & rumor roundup.) It would be nice to see more theme park specific characters going forward. Maybe Sonny Eclipse and Big Al, at the very least?

Also in Epcot, Scuba Mickey has made appearances in the Living Seas aquarium sporadically this past week. There’s no schedule for this and certainly no guarantee you’ll see him (to the contrary, the odds of that seem very low), but it’s nevertheless worth popping into the Living Seas and asking a Cast Member if Scuba Mickey is making appearances that day.

At the very least, more people asking signals to Walt Disney World that there is “guest demand” for this character, and maybe he’ll be out more frequently. See our Epcot Report: Magic 360 & Scuba Mickey for more photos and videos of his appearances on World Oceans Day!

Early last summer, Disney announced that Splash Mountain will be rethemed to the Princess and the Frog at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Not much was revealed about the new ride; just that it will pick up this story after the final kiss, and join Princess Tiana and Louis on a musical adventure as they prepare for their first-ever Mardi Gras performance.

Disney has been silent about the project since. The company has not released an official timeline for either Magic Kingdom or Disneyland, additional concept art, or any additional teases that would typically accompany a project actively in development. It wasn’t mentioned in last year’s holiday specials or anywhere else, to my knowledge.

Until now. During a recent appearance on the Orlando Sentinel‘s Theme Park Rangers podcast, Magic Kingdom Vice President Melissa Valiquette suggested that it could be years before the Splash Mountain reimagining is completed at Magic Kingdom. “When we are reimagining a new attraction or a new area of our parks, this can be a lengthy process. There’s a lot of work that goes into it,” she said.

“I’m in a lot of meetings right now around Splash Mountain, and of course, our guests haven’t seen any changes yet. That’s going to take some time,” Valiquette continued. “The sequence of these things is that sometimes the decision can be made many many months, even years, before any of that will be seen onstage. So it’s going to take us a little bit of time to reimagine Splash Mountain.”

Valiquette continued: “I can tell you behind the scenes that terrific work has been done including some selections around music around animatronics, and it is really an inspiring story.”

Disney Imagineers “have created something that I believe will capitalize on what was already special about the ride Splash Mountain, but will turn it into something that our guests will really cherish for generations into the future. This is one example of something where our guests are going to have to put a bit of trust into us, for a bit, because we promise not to let you down, we’re going to deliver a wonderful attraction that is inspiring and beautiful and worthy of Princess Tiana,” per Valiquette.

Readers have asked for rumors or insight about timeline for Splash Mountain, and I’ll copy and paste what I’ve said in past comments: the only thing I’ve heard—months ago—is that the plan was to reimagine Splash Mountain at Disneyland first, with Walt Disney World’s going down towards the end or even after that project.

Even at that point, it sounded like the timeline for these projects was years out. I’d be surprised if Walt Disney World’s Splash Mountain closes during Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary celebration (which runs through early 2023), but again, things could change and priorities shift.

The only thing I’ve heard about the Splash Mountain reimagining is that very vague and potential sequence of the two projects. The timeline is a complete guess on my part, more what I’ve surmised from the lack of rumors than any actual rumors. (Sometimes, the absence of information is itself illuminating.)

Normally, one year after the announcement of a project with this scope and scale, there would be no shortage of rumors. Various third party contractors and vendors would be involved (a common source of leaks) and permits would potentially be filed–there would be rumblings and insight to be gleaned. Not all of it would necessarily be accurate, but there would be something. The lack of all of that suggests to me this project is not particularly far into development, and the announcement was made earlier than normal. I wouldn’t read anything else into that–this feels more like the prolonged Pandora project than Disney’s America in terms of what’s (not) happening.

Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!

YOUR THOUGHTS

What do you think about all this Walt Disney World news? Excited for the Figment Fab 50 statue? Have you seen Scuba Mickey at Epcot in recent days or weeks? Pleased that Disney has finally instituted a purchase limit, or upset that this will stymie your swashbuckling? Expectations regarding the Splash Mountain reimagining timeline? Keep the comments civil, as this is not the place for politically-charged arguing, culture wars, antagonism, personal attacks, or cheap shots. We will be heavy-handed in deleting any comments that cross the line, irrespective of viewpoint. You are not going to change anyone’s mind via the comments section on this blog, nor are you going to change Disney’s priorities. If you wish to shout your outrage into the internet abyss, that’s why Facebook was invented.