MK Tiana's Bayou Adventure - latest details and construction progress

[MisterPenguin]

It’s Penguin. Him being critical of Disney is as rare as a week with two Mondays.

Thanks for acknowledging that I do indeed have critiques of Disney. Would you like to hear my TED-talk on everything horribly wrong with Nemo, Figment, and Ariel rides?

 

[pigglewiggle]

Secret Life of Pets is so much better than this.

Oh stop now.

 

[LittleBuford]

Guarantee it was only made to combat the arguments I (and many others) made in favour of Brer Rabbit’s historical significance outside of Disney.

I very much doubt that. Whatever Splash Mountain had going for it (and it had plenty), the argument that it was of educational value because of the folkloric origins of its characters was not, in my view, compelling.

 

[Brian]

No stakes?

Ok.

Carousel of Progress has no stakes.
Teacups has no stakes.
It's a Small World has no stakes.
Speedway has no stakes.
People Mover has no stakes.
The railroad has no stakes.
Dumbo/Carpets/Carousel/all spinners have no stakes.
Space Mountain has no stakes.
7DMT has no stakes.
Enchanted Tales with Belle has no stakes.
Pirates of the Caribbean has no stakes (for the guests).
Soarin' has no stakes.
Living with the Land has no stakes.
Test Track has no stakes.
Festival of the Lion King has no stakes.
K. Safari has no stakes.
RnRC has no stakes.
Navi RJ has no stakes.

Kilamanjaro Safaris has steaks if you know what you're doing and can be quick about it:

 

[mightynine]

Thanks for acknowledging that I do indeed have critiques of Disney. Would you like to hear my TED-talk on everything horribly wrong with Nemo, Figment, and Ariel rides?

Nah, we agree there!

Also, you forgot about the stakes of riding the Tea Cups after lunch and/or drinking around the world at Epcot.

 

[UNCgolf]

Teacups has no stakes.

Tell that to the parents whose kids throw up after getting off because they spun too hard!

 

[Surferboy567]

Kilamanjaro Safaris has steaks if you know what you're doing and can be quick about it:

View attachment 788848

We are really forgetting about poor ol Big Red.

 

[LittleBuford]

No stakes?

Ok.

Carousel of Progress has no stakes.
Teacups has no stakes.
It's a Small World has no stakes.
Speedway has no stakes.
People Mover has no stakes.
The railroad has no stakes.
Dumbo/Carpets/Carousel/all spinners have no stakes.
Space Mountain has no stakes.
7DMT has no stakes.
Enchanted Tales with Belle has no stakes.
Pirates of the Caribbean has no stakes (for the guests).
Soarin' has no stakes.
Living with the Land has no stakes.
Test Track has no stakes.
Festival of the Lion King has no stakes.
K. Safari has no stakes.
RnRC has no stakes.
Navi RJ has no stakes.

Different concepts and ride systems necessitate different kinds of storytelling. This one could have used some stakes.

 

[Homemade Imagineering]

Okay so, after watching the full POV I must admit that I was wrong in my previous initial review of the overall attraction. This on its own isn't a terrible attraction by any means. It is full of lush sets, advanced AAs that look phenomenal, and the critter designs are quite endearing on their own. Despite all of this however, it feels like an attraction designed for Fantasy Springs, and something that should've been a traditional boat ride attraction in the same vein as IASW or POTC. Splash's format doesn't work for the specific narrative TBA wants to tell, and if they really wanted to make it work they needed to include some sort of conflict within the story to build some tension. Whether that's a reintroduction of Facilier or introducing more aggressive critters is up for debate, but regardless this attraction really needed some semblance of a narrative, and there quite literally is none. Even when you are shrunken down to the size of a frog, there is zero concern over the matter and it is treated as this fun little shortcut where nothing can possibly go wrong. As much as I love attractions where the focus is on elaborate sets and AAs, the attraction TBA replaced was built and designed to include elaborate sets and AAs in order to drive a respective narrative. It was confusing to many here why Disney was so hesitant to reveal anything about the attraction's actual content, and now it all makes sense because there really was nothing to discuss other than what had been revealed the moment this whole thing was announced. This was always going to be a trip to a Mardi Gras party and nothing else. That is a fantastic narrative for a simple boat ride attraction and I am positive TBA would have been a home run if it had been adapted properly, but clearly the scale and scope of SM was far too great for this to succeed in the way Disney has framed and stuck to this narrative of zero conflict. I was willing to be more forgiving in this sense but now seeing as much of the kinetics of SM have been lost too long awkward stretches of nothingness is incredibly disheartening. Yes this is a log flume, but something that people have to remember is this isn't just a log flume, or a rollercoaster, or this/that, this is theater. Within theater there needs to be standards set for telling stories pertaining to a particular format. For some specific formats simpler stories work better, and for other formats more complex ones are needed in order to properly resonate with an audience. At the end of the day this is much less about losing the SOTS specific theme, and more about the fact that an attraction with a narrative structure and story beats was replaced with one that lacks all of those fundamental elements. On top of that, lackluster kinetics aren't going to bode well for the attraction either, and so in the end almost everyone loses. It is a shame because I seriously gave this attraction the benefit of the doubt. In the end this isn't a total lost cause. Disney can and absolutely should listen to reception from fans and critics, and if they do I have high hope that this can succeed with only a handful of changes, but for now it remains underwhelming.

 

[Tha Realest]

I wonder if any of this depending on how its received by the company, would result in last minute changes to California or too late?

Too late.

Not too late, thankfully, to cut losses here and keep Pecos Bills as is for the time being.

 

[Brian]

We are really forgetting about poor ol Big Red.

Yeah, the ride had stakes. But with the removal of the poacher subplot and not using the rocking bridge anymore, it's fair to say it's just an animal spotting ride devoid of much of a story at this rate.

 

[LittleBuford]

I want to be clear that my criticisms of this attraction shouldn’t be taken as an endorsement of the larger argument some here are making about today’s Imagineers. Rise of the Resistance and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway are, to my mind, very strong attractions indeed.

The talent and creativity are there, even if this latest offering falls a bit short.

 

[EricsBiscuit]

The only possible thing I can think of is that the camera for Disney’s POV video is fixed forward, limiting the scenery it can show us. If so, it is inexplicable why they chose to do a POV on a log flume this way.

 

[TalkToEthan]

. Tiana's Bayou Adventure, although having a plethora of flaws, will be higher quality then any dark ride in Epic Universe.

As of now(meaning based on projections) I don’t see it—- I don’t see any of it.

 

[wdwgreek]

I'll wait to ride to fully judge, but there seems to be a lot of blank areas....

 

[wishesnighttimespec]

Is the window for the train in the finale scene uncovered today?

 

[markham]

Too bad this scene was cut. I was kinda looking forward to boating by Louis in the water near us and I imagine this is where Prince Naveen‘s reported dialogue would have occurred.

 

[Coaster Lover]

Curious that they would release a full ride POV so early (I mean, this is before media previews, before DVC... pretty sure the only ones who have ridden this so far are Imagineers and TBA cast members). Just seems odd... I can't think of another ride that they released a full ride POV so early... wonder what the reasoning is...

 

[FettFan]

They cant build rides? That's absurd. Tiana's Bayou Adventure, although having a plethora of flaws, will be higher quality then any dark ride in Epic Universe. Disney still makes the best rides.

Disney USED to make the best rides, but they sat on their laurels, let the boardroom dictate what gets built in the parks, and ended up losing a lot of their Imagineering talent to Universal.

 

[Tha Realest]

I'll wait to ride to fully judge, but there seems to be a lot of blank areas....

Phase II plussing opportunities.