In June 2020, Disney announced the beloved Splash Mountain attraction will be re-themed to a “Princess and the Frog” theme. In the statement, Disney said it will affect the Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida and Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California.

Writing on the Disney Parks Blog, Public Relations Director Michael Ramirez stated, “The theme is inspired by an all-time favorite animated Disney film, ‘The Princess and the Frog.’ We pick up this story after the final kiss, and join Princess Tiana and Louis on a musical adventure – featuring some of the powerful music from the film – as they prepare for their first-ever Mardi Gras performance.”

Two years later, there has not been much news coming from Disney about the transformation, which led some bloggers to announce that the retheming was not happening. They stated that the project “will not happen at all at the Disneyland Resort and it is very unlikely to happen at Walt Disney World.”

Then, as almost on cue, in a recent interview on “LIVE with Kelly and Ryan,” Anika Noni Rose, who voiced Tiana in “The Princess and the Frog” film and will reprise her role for the attraction, stated, “They are making a ride — it’ll be out in 2024. I’ve been involved in the beginning, just talking about how we want it to be, what we want it to do, but, if I were to tell you anything else, I would be sucked into the ground and you’d never see me again.”

“According to a Disney spokesperson, ‘timing has not been determined for opening the ride,” says EW reporter Joey Nolfi. “Though the company plans to share more details during the Essence Festival of Culture, which runs from June 30 through July 3 in New Orleans.”

Although there were not many details that came out of the Essence Festival of Culture, it was revealed that the attraction would be called Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Rose also got ahead of Disney and announced the opening date – sometime in 2024. Disney confirmed that by saying the attraction will open in “late 2024.”

On Wednesday, 28 July, D23 announced during the Disney Parks and Experiences Wonderful World of Dreams pavilion, “fans will discover behind-the-scenes glimpses of the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attraction coming to Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort …”

“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,” stated Magic Kingdom Vice President Melissa Valiquette in an interview with Dwayne Bevil, theme park reporter for the Orlando Sentinel. “I am 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. The sequence of these things sometimes is that the decisions of these things can be made many, many months even years before any of that will be seen on stage.”

Valiquette went on to say that “it’s going to take us a little bit of time to reimagine Splash Mountain, but I can tell you behind the scenes that terrific work has been done including some selections around music [and] around animatronics.” She said that she wants this story to be portrayed “honestly and accurately.”

She told Bevil that “guests are going to have to put a little bit of trust” in Disney. She said, “we won’t let you down.”