Ride system testing at Disney World's Tiana's Bayou Adventure

Incomudro3 hours ago

It makes me think how this current crew would bungle the queue of Expedition Everest - which I view as one of the very best queue's in all of the parks - were it a new attraction and they were tasked with the design.

KDM310914 hours ago

It just doesn't have the "wow" factor to me, looking more like an overgrown hill than anything. But it is what it is, and at the end of the day I'll be glad to have a water ride option back, since WDW as a whole could always use more options for cooling off.

roro4945 hours ago

you're totally right, i was thinking it was closer to mill than it is lol

Ayla5 hours ago

Camera for drop?

tanc5 hours ago

Cinco de Mayo might give a release date?

roro4945 hours ago

what the heck is this thing next to the mill? is it a light? has it always been there?

Epcot82Guy7 hours ago

The theme for the mental health/Inside Out/Cranium Command redo confirmed.

Epcot82Guy7 hours ago

Agreed. It feels more like interior design than actual theme. It's like how you would go about designing a museum display, not thematic place setting. The pieces of place setting have a sense of logic and purpose. It's never been perfect by a long shot, but that seems to be eroding outside of major IP projects like Galaxy's Edge. Then again, it makes for good clickable stories. So I see the pull of it. I just wish we could have both. I think most of the newest projects could have been much more successful with a simple story/premise rewrite.

Sir_Cliff7 hours ago

I tend to think this project is combining a lot of the issues WDI has had in recent years (decades?) in a particularly visible way. On the one hand, there is the inconsistency in quality that we often see from one project from the next. Imagineering is still capable of great work which displays a clear attention to detail, but then they'll turn around and do something like stick a clearly contemporary computer-generated image in the queue of The Jungle Cruise that looks completely out of place. Here, the latter seems very frequently pasted onto the former in a way that makes you wonder whether this project is lacking a clear creative leader to oversee the whole project. The other issue is Disney's quite literal approach to 'story' for new attractions, stores, and theming in general which involves writing an over-complicated story that you'd really have to read for everything to make sense. In some cases (like the "Sweetest Spoon" story incorporated into the renovated Main Street Confectionary), it possibly takes away a little from the theming as it feels clumsy and shoehorned into a space that just has to read as a confectionary store from a period in time but now has all this text and images pasted up that actually don't feel authentic to a confectionary store from that period. In other cases, it probably neither adds nor subtracts much from the attraction. We'll see what happens here, though I feel like the queue is already appearing very heavy-handed with the food co-op story and I hope the attraction leans more on just being fun and entertaining.

MisterPenguin8 hours ago

Don't do it!!

James Alucobond8 hours ago

85-90% of my issues at the moment could be fixed with paint and a pair of scissors.

LittleBuford8 hours ago

I think the exterior is a success overall. Some of the details, mainly pertaining to text and signage, are egregiously bad, but the sum total works better than I expected (at least to judge from the photos). I do hope they eventually redo the weaker elements, though I doubt they will.

Magicart879 hours ago

So as things seem to be wrapping up I feel like I can give a fair enough assessment of the overall aesthetic without having actually visited in person yet. It's clear it's not as cohesive or as unified as one would have hoped. Looking back, I was definitely too harsh on the Tiara Tower critique as it's perhaps the best example of how WDI should have tackled the entire project. It better exemplifies the merging of two mismatch styles into a singular, unified concept. There's a story there. It's a bit of old mixed the right amount of Tiana glam. Unrealistic, but still a proper combining of the two styles as if Tiana took over the old mine and put her personal touches on it. The rest of the overhaul has been incredibly inconsistent with that notion as "things" appear too new and anachronistic. Typeface issues abound. Odd banner choices, etc. It's a rehash of opinions at this point but my hope is that WDI actually looks back on this and does a better job for the DL overhaul. Maybe in time, things will change but as-is, the exterior just isn't very successful. Credit where due, the change from briars to swamp is successful. Though I find it oddly morose and unenchanting during the day.

Ghost939 hours ago

I think when the team did their research trip in New Orleans they got emotionally attached to too many different ideas and were unwilling to let any of them go when actually designing the ride, queue and backstory. That's probably why everything feels overcomplicated.