Splash Mountain, the Rehab, and maintenance generally

[Eeyore Phan]

Let me begin by saying that Splash Mountain is my favorite ride at Walt Disney World. It's by far the ride I've gone on the most times in the 4 or so years I've been going. That said, I hope I'm not being too picky by bringing this up.

Has anybody noticed a decline in the maintenance of Splash Mountain or the rides/attractions/scenery in general over the past year or so? This thought really hit me when I rode Splash last Thanksgiving Weekend (in the midst of a busy time at the parks) and it was BY FAR the worst I've seen the attraction. The soundtrack stopped three times during the ride (due to Brer Bear and Fox causin' trouble upstream!!! :thumbsup:). On top of that, the Brer Rabbit that hops away behind a fence into some bushes near the beginning had no audio as it normally does. (On prior rides the previous March, the Brer Rabbit didn't even appear and was down that day).

There have been other aspects of the ride I've noticed missing here and there on other rides over the past year and such as well. It frustrates me that this is accepted by Disney. The attention to detail is what is supposed to separate them from the rest and what makes the place so magical, in my opinion. It's even more baffling that there would be any problems considering the ride was down for a month last Jan-Feb and now it is once again. Does anyone have any idea why this might be occurring? Did I just have bad luck on my rides?

[Disney-lovin' Dutchman]

I did see the problems you mentioned in 2006 but last Christmas when I rode it I think 3 times, there were no errors..Brer Rabbit did hop with audio, the music worked everywhere..But you are right, this is one of the best rides in the world!:thumbsup:

[DisFan01]

I thankfully have never experienced this much trouble on Splash Mountain. It did break down recently for just about 30 seconds, but nothing more than that. ;)

[#1donaldfan]

SM, one of our favs.....I'm glad we've never had to deal with that bad luck you encountered...I have noticed a tid-bit of a decline to the overall aspect of the ride, but never really gave it much thought....just hoped that maybe it was close to a "refurb", paintjob, something......I hope that this is not a trend.

[broadway_chick72]

Hmm, I've never seen any of that. I think they don't WANT to close that down much because that's one of the most famous rides there. It's different than Barnstormer or something.

Well, I would have been disappointed if I had been on that ride.

[chick20679]

I agree with you 100% about the generalized decline of this ride (compared with how it used to be), but (as one poster said), I'm sure it must have something to do with the fact that they don't want to have it closed for any large portion of the year sine it is a very popular ride and that has to affect the wear and tear. :unsure:
That said, I am SOOOOOOO disappointed that it won't be open for our trip in two weeks!!!!! :sob:
It is absolutely (bar none) my FAVORITE ride in WDW. I'd rather go on it with some wear and tear than not be able to ride at all. :(
Oh well, I guess that gives me another reason to go back. :yay:

[brogan54]

it is truly the best water ride. i love it. this past sept we were there for 2 weeks and we spent 4 days at mk and found that there was a lot of problems with the ride. twice we got stuck on the ride and had to be taken off. the only good thing with this was that we got to see some behind the scenes that you don't normally get to see. however we left this ride for the last of the night before we had to catch our flight and it went down for the night after we spent 40 mins in line we were next to go on. but at least we were at disney:mickey: