Disney reveals new storyline details for Tiana's Bayou Adventure at Walt Disney World

Feb 04, 2023 in "Tiana's Bayou Adventure"

Posted: Friday February 3, 2023 7:00pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has today released new details on the storyline for Tiana's Bayou Adventure - the new attraction that will replace Splash Mountain at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

This overview of the story is described by Kevin Rafferty, Jr., Communications, Walt Disney Imagineering.

At a young age, Tiana developed a deep passion for cooking, and began to dream of one day owning her own business. Her father, James, taught her that good food brings folks together. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is going to show us where Tiana’s life has taken her following the success of Tiana’s Palace, a restaurant she had dreamed of owning and worked so hard to make come true.

Within the attraction queue, guests will discover that she continues to grow her business with Tiana’s Foods – an employee-owned cooperative. Combining her talents with those of the local community, Tiana has transformed an aging salt mine and built a beloved brand.

The endeavor began when Tiana purchased the salt mine and the area surrounding the large salt dome it operated from. With the help of her mother Eudora, Naveen, Louis and fellow owners of the cooperative, Tiana revived the old salt mine and the surrounding land, growing a wide array of vegetables, herbs and spices for her recipes.

This multi-faceted enterprise has turned the aging salt mine into a space that has come alive. Complete with a boutique farm and both a working and teaching kitchen, Tiana’s Foods is where Tiana and her colleagues create all sorts of new products that they are bringing to the world, including a line of original hot sauces.

Tiana wants to give a big thanks to her family and friends and the entire community for all the support they’ve given her by throwing an amazing party during Mardi Gras season. When it turns out there’s been a bit of a mix–up with the party preparations, Tiana invites us to meet her at Tiana’s Foods to help with the missing ingredient for the party.

When we arrive, we may see that Tiana spruced up the company’s facilities with vibrant art from local artists. Food for the party is being prepared and beignets are being loaded into crates for the celebration. All kinds of preparations are underway for the journey into the bayou with Tiana, along with new and familiar friends from the animated film.

Picking up where that story left off, Tiana continues bringing people together with Tiana’s Foods, another treasured meeting place to spend time together and celebrate a diverse community. Tiana is also working with cooperative members to teach gardening and cooking to children of all ages, and inspiring other women to run successful businesses as the brand grows nationwide.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure will open at Magic Kingdom in late 2024.

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MaximumEd9 days ago

Just got back from a trip and got to ride this several times. I noticed in the mill scene where the first Tiana is located that there seemed to be some loud machinery noise in there like a bad bearing in a pump, or something like that. Don’t remember this in Splash. Anyone have any info?

bpiper18 days ago

From Touringplan's Sept 4 Disney Data Dump blog article. This for the period Aug 27 thru Sept 2. Attraction Downtime Worst Offenders For the third week in a row (and with no prospect for getting knocked off its pedestal any time soon), the worst offender of the past week was Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, which was unexpectedly down for an astounding 41% of the week – its worst week since we starting tracking it. The worst day for Tiana’s was clearly on August 27th, when the ride was down for 82% of the day. But it was also down for more than half of the day on August 28th. On average, Tiana’s didn’t open until 11:15 am this week. But on two different days it was down until significantly into the afternoon.

Bocabear20 days ago

Disneyland Paris' early struggles were never related to the design of the park....and I agree it is the most beautiful park. From what I have been told the real problems were related to overbuilding resorts that were not necessary at the time it was built. I think now it is more widely accepted , but on it's opening, the crowds were not there yet.

TrainsOfDisney20 days ago

More like Rocket Rods… (I love Tony but… )

Vegas Disney Fan20 days ago

Wonder if it was fallout from him being the lead designer of DL Paris (EuroDisney) and its early struggles? Which coincidentally is still the most beautiful Disney park in my opinion.

mickEblu21 days ago

Thank you. It’s annoying being able to read right through people that avoid critiquing (or go much softer than they would if they were being completely honest) TBA as they are afraid of being associated with those “crazy” Splash Mountain fans so they become hyper focused on the technical issues as if those are the only problems.

SuddenStorm21 days ago

If everything else was flawless, I'd be all for critiquing the Tiana animatronics and the terrible CGI depiction of Tiana in the Laughin' Place. But on the hierarchy of issues with the ride, the order is something like- 1. Splash was way way way better, so WDI really dropped the ball 2. The scene staging is elementary 3. The story is elementary. 4. The sound design is elementary. 5. The attraction is horribly unreliable- but even if it ran perfectly, we'd still have issues 1-4. 6. 7. 8. 9. WDI did a poor job translating Tiana's likeness to a 3D animatronic.

Ghost9321 days ago

Tiana's Bayou Adventure has many problems (mainly a terrible story). But Tiana's appearance, weight and "attractiveness" is not one of them. The adventure outfit feels like a big departure from the movie, but she looks a lot like Tiana in the final "special spice" scene.

SuddenStorm21 days ago

I'm 99% sure he was the creative lead for Disneyland in the '90s and early '00s? I could be wrong. His popularity within Disney's leadership plummeted in the late '90s and '00s and as far as I know never recovered. I think Kim Irvine has done a better job internally of remaining popular- but she also comes across as more of a 'yes' person who is willing to toe the company line.

mickEblu21 days ago

How did that not happen?

SuddenStorm21 days ago

Baxter's affinity for Disneyland park is second to none. They should have just given him creative control of the place and been done with it.

FettFan23 days ago

Tha Realest23 days ago

It opens before time

WorldExplorer23 days ago

Marsh canonically has a history of saving struggling businesses. Maybe Tiana should hire her. For one thing, Marsh's company tends to open on time.