Walt Disney World visitors splashed, hooted, hollered, waited and wished Sunday night, the final evening of operation for the Splash Mountain ride at Magic Kingdom.

The attraction is being closed and will be rethemed and renamed Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.

At some points Sunday afternoon, the queue extended from Splash’s Frontierland home as far as Liberty Square. Posted estimated wait times passed the 220-minute mark.

Katie Woodward, a visitor from Brooklyn, New York, sat on the bridge that spans Splash Mountain’s dramatic drop and made small watercolor paintings of the scene Sunday evening. She made seven pieces of art Sunday at Magic Kingdom, including three of the outgoing ride, she said.

When the wait estimate dipped below two hours, she got in line.

“It actually ended up being an hour. It moved quickly,” Woodward said.

She sat with her art supplies and a small lamp in a key spot for people-watching.

“It’s been really fun to watch the expressions on everyone’s faces … for a lot of people taking their last ride. It’s been really joyous and delightful,” she said.

Pedro Toledo, an annual passholder from Sunrise, avoided the long line by purchasing a Lightning Lane pass for himself and his 13-year-old daughter. They were celebrating another daughter’s 6th birthday.

“We were in line 10 or 15 minutes,” he said. “It was great to experience it for one last time. I’m looking forward to the new ride.”

Disney announced the closing of 30-year-old Splash Mountain in June 2020. The ride is based on characters from the 1946 “Song of the South,” which, for years, had been criticized for its portrayal of Blacks and post-Civil War plantation life. The Splash Mountain ride at California’s Disneyland also will be transformed into a Princess Tiana ride, although its closing date has not been announced. A Splash Mountain in Tokyo Disneyland will remain open.

The Tiana attraction, set to open in Florida and California in late 2024, will be based on characters seen in 2009′s “The Princess and the Frog.”

Kevin Koszola and his mother, Kathleen Koszola, annual passholders who live in Winter Garden, got in line for the last trip down Splash Mountain after dark Sunday. They waited 100 minutes in the standby line.

“It felt fun but a little bittersweet,” said Kevin, who wore a T-shirt for Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, a ride that closed at Magic Kingdom in 1998. “I’ll miss it because it [the film] represents something that Walt made in his lifetime.”

Kathleen Koszola felt sentimental about the ride, she said. She brought her son on Splash Mountain when he was 6 or 7 years old, she said. But she also worried about plans for the future ride and if it will include animatronics.

“I think it’s all going to all video, all digital,” she said, pointing to Mickey & Minnie’s Runway Railway, which replaced the animatronic-heavy Great Movie Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in 2020.

Disney has announced some details about Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, including that the story will take place in the period soon after the events of the animated film. In December, the company released artist concepts for a scene with swamp creatures playing musical instruments.

Folks also queued up Sunday for pressed pennies for Splash Mountain, one of the few remaining souvenirs. They also watched fireworks for the Disney Enchantment show, which itself is going away April 3. Disney set up PhotoPass stations for the last shots and guests posed with figures of the characters near the entrance.

At 11 p.m., the official closing time of Magic Kingdom, anyone in line were told they would be allowed to ride. The posted wait time then was 175 minutes. There had been a flurry of last-minute arrivals. There had also been some plotting to get into the last log in Splash Mountain history. (Social media reports showed Splash Mountain cast members to be the final passengers, coming down the 52-foot drop in the early hours of Monday morning.)

The scene already had turned boisterous at the ride’s splashdown area as folks on the ground chanted “Splash! Splash! Splash!” with the drop of each vehicle about 15 seconds apart. Passengers raised their arms in victory poses. There was a last-day of summer camp vibe.

“You see how crazy the line is,” Toledo said. “Imagine how it’s going to be the first day of the new ride.”

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