Disney gives reporters a first look inside Tiana's Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom

Jan 17, 2024 in "Tiana's Bayou Adventure"

Posted: Wednesday January 17, 2024 3:30pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney is entering the final stages of transforming Walt Disney World and Disneyland's Splash Mountain attractions into Tiana's Bayou Adventure, and a few lucky reporters have been given a hard-hat tour inside for a look at the progress.

First look inside Tiana's Bayou Adventure

Mike Scott from NOLA.com was one of the reporters to go inside Tiana's Bayou Adventure, and you can read his full report at NOLA.

Here are some takeaways from the tour, led by Ted Robledo, Executive Creative Director of Walt Disney Imagineering.

Concept and Design: The retheme starts from the ride queue area, with storytelling elements integrated throughout. A mural by Malaika Favorite and various New Orleans-inspired artistic touches are featured. The first floor of the barn, that was the entrance to Splash Mountain, now houses the main offices for Tiana's Foods business.

Malaika Favorite mural at Tiana's Bayou Adventure

Integration of New Orleans Culture: The attraction includes a soundscape with New Orleans music, scents like beignets, and contributions from local artists and musicians like Terence Blanchard, Darryl Reeves, P.J. Morton, and the Chase family. In the outdoor queue, speakers will broadcast an old-timey radio show featuring reimagined New Orleans classics.

Ride Changes and Features: The ride maintains the same track and ride vehicles as Splash Mountain but incorporates new elements like native Louisiana flora, animatronic swamp animals, and scenes involving Tiana and other characters from the movie.

First look inside Tiana's Bayou Adventure

The loading area where guests board the ride vehicles includes cranes hoisting pallets of crates marked "Tiana's Foods," reinforcing the notion that it is a working food operation which Tiana founded after the events of The Princess and the Frog movie.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure set-piece delivery

Advanced AA Technology: The attraction uses advanced animatronics similar to those in Hong Kong Disneyland's World of Frozen, meaning we should see real physical faces, not projections. Tiana will make multiple appearances, seeking guests help to find a missing element for a Mardi Gras celebration she's planning.

Louis Audio-Animatronic figure at Walt Disney Imagineering

Tiana's Bayou Adventure - Concept art of first drop into the bayou

Preservation and Adaptation: While much of the interior architecture will be retained from Splash Mountain, new additions have been made. According to Walt Disney Imagineering, the tree trunk from the old attraction was removed to accommodate new elements.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure construction - January 10 2024

Final Surprise: Reporters were not allowed into the finale scene, and the tour stopped just before the Laughing Place scene. Robeledo said, "I'll just say it's got a lot to do with magic. It's a magical moment that happens down there."

Tiana's Bayou Adventure opens in 2024 at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. The earliest and most optimistic estimates place opening around Memorial Day (late May) at Magic Kingdom, but Disney has yet to make any announcement beyond "2024."

Tiana's Bayou Adventure logo

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SamusAranX4 days ago

….by the Imagineers? lol

ᗩLᘿᑕ ֊ᗩζᗩᗰ4 days ago

That would have required an inordinate amount of thought and imagination.

SamusAranX4 days ago

I always said that they should have done a Tiana’s Western Expedition fusion sort of ride. You can still have the missing ingredient theme, she’s hunting out west with her New Orleans pals, only to find a familiar face from the past has also followed them….

Tony the Tigger4 days ago

We’ll have to wait for him to explain how it works. Seemed pretty busy today. I’m sure there is a reasonable reply on the way.

Brer Oswald4 days ago

Does he have someone conducting exit polls in the gift shop? Funny, nobody asked me of what I thought the 3 times I went on the ride.

Brer Oswald4 days ago

It was always going to be a weird fit. You’re taking a rustic cavernous structure themed around small woodland critters and shoving humans in their place. Granted, they could have done a better job with it than they did. What we got was basically the worst case scenario. I doubt they’ll fix it so long as it’s “serving its purpose” as a flume ride.

SamusAranX5 days ago

Disney isn’t retooling it unless the next CEO decides to pull a drastic (positive) culture shift of even higher, well placed investment. Think ala Igers original mandate to correct their “brand withdrawals”. Which he did with DCA. Then they promptly decided to completely overhaul their overhaul.

TrainsOfDisney5 days ago

Agreed. Not sure why we have to settle for “bushes” at Tiana, “snowflakes” at Frozen, and plastic “fish” at mermaid.

RosR95 days ago

I feel like they don’t even have to do that much if they really wanted to do the bare minimum, like even just add a few basic sets so we’re not floating by nothing for 90% of the ride. Like I can’t imagine making and placing a couple little critter houses is that hard or expensive

TrainsOfDisney5 days ago

If they ever rework Tiana it still has lots of potential- it’s not terrible.

TrainsOfDisney5 days ago

any guest rating is tricky - if I leave a Broadway show and someone asks me for a poll right after I would certainly rank it very high even if it was just average. (An average broadway show is still excellent). But will I revisit the same broadway show multiple times on future visits? That’s another question.

HauntedPirate5 days ago

4.5 from guests, based on what Len stated previously (and the same ratings they got for Splash) vs. 4.3 on the site is something being "easily skewed"?

Tony the Tigger5 days ago

I’m totally guessing, but he’s probably talking about polls taken in the park, those on his site are reviews by people who choose to leave a review, easily skewed. I could certainly be wrong.