Splash Mountain Cost

[Juggalotus]

I tried searching, but turned up nothing, so maybe someone out there knows the answer.

How much did the building of Splash Mountain cost?

I'm curious to how it relates to other ride projects both at Disney and other parks.

Thanks

[lockedoutlogic]

I believe it was quoted in the 85-95 million dollar range.....

Which at the time made it the most expensive theme park attraction ever....

A title that Disney has, does, and will continue to own...apparently...to the armaggedon....

Even a supercoaster at a Six Flags or Cedar Point probably only costs in the area of 40 million these days....

Test Track...due to a stupid design and elaborate layout...cost reportedly 300 million when it finally opened.

The cost of Kilimanjaro Safaris was probably almost redonkulous as well....but hard to calculate exactly.

[Juggalotus]

Kingda Ka (SF Great Adventure) and Top Thrill Dragster/Millennium (Cedar Point) are the most expensive that I know of, and they only topped at 25 million.

On another board I use the discussion is about Cedar Points next attraction, and someone mentioned a SM style flume, so that's why I was wondering what the cost of it was.

Thanks

[Jasper]

It has been quite a while since I have seen any discussion like this so I don't remember any of the numbers. However, and I think this is important, I do remember that there was a disagreement about how the actual numbers were being arrived at. Some people were saying that the numbers Disney released at the time were for just the ride itself and others said the numbers included the ride system AND the theming. With that in mind it is easy to see how there could be a lot of disagreement over the real cost of a ride if you seperate out the theming from the actual ride system. Let's face it, if you are talking about the whole package then Disney's costs are almost always going to be much higher than similar rides elsewhere simply because of everything that goes into the theming. Most other parks best theming doesn't hold a candle to Disney's worst theming. Granted there are exceptions but those are rare.

Bottom line is that with all the different opinions out there combined with Disney's unwillingness to share a lot of this kind of info. you may very well never get a factual number. Of course, there as soon as someone like me makes a statement like that there is always someone who will come along and refute it!

[Main Street Jim]

I'm just throwing this out there for this discussion.

Disneyland, when it opened in 1955 (the entire park) reportedly cost Walt $17 million.

Big Thunder Mountain, when it was built at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, reportedly cost $17 million. So ONE ATTRACTION in 1980 cost as much to build as an entire park in 1955.

I worked out at Splash for a short time a few years ago, and its opening date is the same as Disneyland's, although 47 years later (July 17, 1992). I never really thought to ask if anyone knew what the cost was, but I would *speculate* that it was in the $75-100 million range at least, for the entire attraction. You have to remember a few things about Splash:

In order to facilitate the building of the attraction, that whole area where Splash is now had to be excavated and lowered (they dug a big hole). That used to be where the parade floats crossed the train tracks to get backstage.

The Frontierland train station was moved from its original location (near where the McDonald's Fry Wagon is) to its current one during the building of SM. The train tracks were torn up from about the Pirates tunnel all the way to the swing bridge (just past Thunder), and during that time, the train only ran from ToonTown (which was Mickey's Starland at the time) to Main Street and back.

The Briar Patch and Splashdown Photos are also part of the Splash structure, so I imagine that those would be figured into the cost of the attraction as well (although I'm not sure if Photos was an *original* part of the attraction, or when they were added if they weren't part of the original plans).

[WDWdriver]

The cost for Expedition Everest was $110 million for the ride system and mountain. The construction of the pathway past the mountain that now connects Asia and Dinoland was an additional cost, as was the expense for theming. The whole project took 14 months to complete.

[RBrooksC]

I'm just throwing this out there for this discussion.

Disneyland, when it opened in 1955 (the entire park) reportedly cost Walt $17 million.

Big Thunder Mountain, when it was built at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, reportedly cost $17 million. So ONE ATTRACTION in 1980 cost as much to build as an entire park in 1955.

This is not true. You need to take into consideration the Future Value of Money. $17 million in 1955 is quite a bit more than $17 million in 1980.