In Search of a New Magic : Splash Mountain, Next Attraction at Disneyland, to Have Many Twists; Staying Dry Isn’t One of Them

Disneyland’s customers aren’t the only ones who have to wait in line.

The Magic Kingdom’s newest attraction, Splash Mountain, had to wait years before it made its way into the park.

But today, construction of the multimillion-dollar ride is well under way in Bear Country at the Magic Kingdom. Based on characters from Disney’s 1946 film, “Song of the South,” Splash Mountain will be the world’s longest flume ride when it opens in January.

But what really should bring a flood of new business, according to its creators, is the ride’s built-in surprises that are aimed at unsuspecting--but ride-wise--customers.

With about 50% of its admission tickets bought by local, repeat patrons, Disneyland visitors have come to “know our rides--and know our tricks--as well as we do,” said Bruce Gordon, Splash Mountain’s producer. “We’re always trying to outsmart our local customers” by doing the unexpected, Gordon said.

At a recent news conference to mark Mickey Mouse’s 60th birthday, Gordon and John Stone, the project’s designer, talked at length for the first time about the ride and how it came about.

With constantly growing competition from everybody from Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia to Sea World in San Diego, Disneyland needs to lure back patrons with constant additions and upgrading of attractions. And a new ride, after all, can make turnstiles click at least several hundred thousand times more during the attraction’s first year.

The result is that Disneyland--as well as its competitors--generally adds a flashy new attraction every other year.

With a format similar to Disneyland’s most popular ride--Pirates of the Caribbean--getting approval for Splash Mountain should have been a cinch, right?

Not exactly. First--like everybody else at Disneyland--Splash Mountain had to wait its turn.

“We were up against Star Tours in 1983. They had a little bit of a head start because they got to the gate before us,” recalled Gordon, a show designer with Walt Disney Imagineering.

Gordon soon became Splash Mountain’s chief lobbyist. “I’d drag the story board around. As soon as I saw anybody important coming down the hall, I’d say, ‘Hey, have you seen this ?,’ and bring it out.”

Gordon’s pitch for the ride goes something like this: “Everybody keeps saying, ‘When are you going to do another Pirates. That was the pinnacle. This takes all the elements--a drop at the beginning, the big thrills and the show elements that are some of the best things we’ve ever done.”

In Splash Mountain, the thrill comes from the rising, then lurching forward into a 10-minute trip through a splash pond, the old mill and into the briar patch. Patrons will plunge and yaw up and down hills into the “dip drop,” “the Laughin’ Place” and finally a five-story plunge down into the darkness.

At one point, the ride’s eight-passenger logs will be the fastest ride in the park, moving at 40 m.p.h. More often, though, passengers will be bouncing through the mostly free-floating ride at about 3 feet per second--or about the same speed as a brisk walking pace. Along the way, they’ll be able to reach out and touch tree roots, rocks and logs while cruising down the river.

The flume starts by interrupting the lazy afternoon of a gaggle of geese and an alligator--all Audio-Animatronics characters singing “How Do You Do” from “Song of the South.” As the log boats enter the swimming hole, patrons will see cunning Br’er Fox screaming at a 10-foot-tall Br’er Bear that they’ve “got to catch a Br’er Rabbit.”

The rest of the ride is basically a 3-D version of the movie, with songs telling the story of how Br’er Rabbit outsmarts Br’er Fox and Br’er Bear.

For thrills, there are black-light water effects and five plunging drops--the last one from the top of Chick-a-Pin Hill, the five-story hill topped by a hollow tree that will be Disneyland’s next landmark.

The big surprise comes at the end, when patrons careen 40 feet down a flume toward a thorny briar patch, expecting to stop abruptly in middle of the patch.

Instead, the logs continue plunging at a 45-degree angle, ending up about 15 feet underground, where a musical extravaganza features more than 30 characters in a rocking showboat, silhouetted on the bayou by a stunning sunset--all singing “Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah.”

“It’s a different twist,” explained Gordon. “We want them to think the ride is over. . . . Then they reenter the show for a musical finale.”

The ride will carry 2,400 passengers an hour--just a few less than Pirates, which carries 2,800. And like any log ride, “You’re going to get wet,” Stone said.

Which makes Splash Mountain a splashy new ride in more ways than one.