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

[MK-fan]

What I dont understand is the imagineers who worked on this ride. Are these Imagineers not fans of Disney’s best rides. Most of Disney’s best rides have an element of danger, it’s gives the ride a memorable trait. Is it just a job to them and they don’t know what makes a good Disney ride. It’s not like it’s a budget thing, the storyline is something you’d see on a Disney Jr kids tv show.

Is it a Disney animation thing? There are no Disney thrill rides based on their animated films or Pixar movies. The only one that comes close but not by a lot is Seven Dwarfs Mine train or slinky coaster but those are mild thrills that The whole family can go on these but they have no storylines because they’re outdoor coasters for the most part. Frozen rides are also a mild thrill with the small drop part and the storyline is paper thin with no element of danger. The big fall in Tianas adventure qualifies it more as a thrill ride while the lift hill provides a tense buildup and its as though they wanted to kill the element of danger and make it more kid friendly. Does the big Disney brass not want to alienate young fans of their animated movie franchises and not buy their merchandise or something? I have no idea what the endgame here is.

I don’t know where the issues are coming from. The big wigs? The imagineers?

 

[WDWhopper]

The answer is (sadly) that Disney isn’t as good anymore, as the original designers of these rides were. They now design by committee and the finished products come out looking like exactly what they are, a hodgepodge of too many executives and board meetings and not enough artists making creative decisions. They had better stop messing with their core classic rides. They no longer have the ability to compete with their former selves.

 

[Ismael Flores]

Nothing like that blast walking into a store in the dead of August.





A point I think gets lost is that in her human wedding, she opted for a dress more in style to the one in the finale. The big ball gown was a costume meant for sitting behind a table and selling food. When she chose what to wear for herself in a formal situation and to actually party, she didn't choose that.



And here we go...

what is up with that ugly wall with painted foods. what a way to cheap out on some proper theming there.

 

[WDWhopper]

As I watched the side by side POV of old Splash Mountain and the new Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, I kept thinking about the degraded masterpiece from the 1500’s that was “fixed” by a modern day artist.

 

[Ismael Flores]

The thing I hate the most about the change is the awful lighting package. Why do they think that everything needs to be saturated in colors that just make little sense to the setting. what is it about this bright purples and reds some of the night pictures of the outside of the salt dome or whatever it is seems overly done.

 

[Ismael Flores]

It is and it isn't. The AAs that exist are mega-upgrades to what was there before. But there are probably 1/3rd of the # of AAs in this attraction than in the one it replaced. And at this point, I think the vast majority of Disney superfans hate screens; we just do; they are lazy.

it really amazes me how this team of WDI did not keep most of those critters from Splash. All they had to do was redress a few of them and have kept the inside much more lively. Instead they lumped expensive AA's in certain areas where the logs pass by quickly and do not get to even enjoy them. That whole area with just a walled screen is just a bad choice

 

[GhostHost1000]

The thing I hate the most about the change is the awful lighting package. Why do they think that everything needs to be saturated in colors that just make little sense to the setting. what is it about this bright purples and reds some of the night pictures of the outside of the salt dome or whatever it is seems overly done.

That lighting package is what should be around Pandora more

 

[TomboyJanet]

Adventure.

A plot

 

[peter11435]

The thing I hate the most about the change is the awful lighting package. Why do they think that everything needs to be saturated in colors that just make little sense to the setting. what is it about this bright purples and reds some of the night pictures of the outside of the salt dome or whatever it is seems overly done.

 

[Surferboy567]

Strap on your VR headset if you have one

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Looking solely at the attraction, almost nothing they revealed mattered at all.
The Salt Dome, the employee-owned Co-op, the backstories for the critters, the New Orleans culture, etc. were all nonexistent in the actual attraction.

If Disney spent half as much time thinking about the story of the actual attraction instead of its backstory, we would have been much better off.

I think this is a very good point. It seems they spent a lot of time creating a whole backstory and universe for this attraction and a lot less time thinking through the actual experience of the ride.

It's very strange, but it relates to my sense about modern Imagineering that a lot of them seem to have taken creative writing classes and enjoy writing these long, elaborate backstories for their own sake that don't necessarily improve the end product (whether a ride or store). The backstories are increasingly treated as an additional element of the experience for fans to read and learn rather than to help Imagineers give internal consistency to what they are designing.

This might be the peak of that tendency in that they've created this whole world of a food co-op for riders to step into in the queue before getting on a ride that has almost nothing to do with a food co-op beyond the idea that the main character in that ride owns and works in one.

 

[Surferboy567]

It appears they cranked up the Dig a Little Deeper on the lift hill meaning you can actually hear it now. Definitely prefer that than the silence on the Disney POV. It also presents better in VR with scale, the fireworks in the background help as well.

Splash is still better but it improves things just a little.

 

[Trauma]

Is there a single shred of evidence to the story that Iger said this ride was boring?

If so how the heck did he allow this to open?

Who he the exec who took a look at this and said “this is amazing let’s open it up!”

I just don’t understand how this was allowed to happen.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

I genuinely feel if they kept true to OG Splash and followed the film’s plot, there’s no reason it couldn’t be better than Splash if the fantastic technology was just out to better use.

They tried to reinvent the wheel for no reason.

I know this is wading into controversial territory, but...

I agree that this could have worked a lot better if they had of basically listened to Tony Baxter's description of how the plot of the original Splash worked to build up and relieve tension and then designed a PatF story with the same story beats. One of the reasons I think they did not do this is because they wanted this to be a much lighter attraction specifically to appeal to PatF's younger fans.

I know a lot of people will disagree with me, but I really feel that the big drop was more an obstacle or challenge for the designers of this ride rather than a feature because there is no way you would design a PatF-themed attraction from scratch that had such a big thrill element with the potential to scare younger children.

 

[ToTBellHop]

When I first heard the story, I didn’t actually mind the “find band members” portion since the start of Splash was also pretty light-hearted. What I don’t get is the whole, “we will shrink you down for 90 seconds and then make you big again.” It is so forced and also doesn’t make much sense following a movie where it actually wasn’t that simple to get a small thing big again. Apparently Mama Odie can just do that?

When I was told the story, I wondered aloud why they wouldn’t just have the story be:

1) help Tiana find members of her band (cute critters and fireflies)
2) boat accidentally transported into The Other Side during the double dip (keep the fun vortex effect they made)
3) replace Laughing Place with Friends from the Other Side
4) have that impressive Mama Odie AA pull guests out of The Other Side with that same vortex effect from the double dip used on the lift hill
5) end at the party you found the critters for

The “shrink for 90 seconds” portion is supposed to create some drama leading to a climax but 90 seconds isn’t enough time for that. They should have just used the demons from the film since the drama is baked in there. They don’t even need Facilier if they insist he’s dead even though they seemingly kept vocals from the very dead Ray in the ride.

 

[Surferboy567]

2) boat accidentally transported into The Other Side during the double dip (keep the fun vortex effect they made)
3) replace Laughing Place with Friends from the Other Side
4) have that impressive Mama Odie AA pull guests out of The Other Side with that same vortex effect from the double dip used on the lift hill
5) end at the party you found the critters for

They should have just used the demons from the film since the drama is baked in there. They don’t even need Facilier if they insist he’s dead even though they seemingly kept vocals from the very dead Ray in the ride.

This would of worked a lot better. It’s such an obvious choice I’m surprised they didn’t go for it. The only reasonable explanation is they didn’t want to offend anyone and we scared Voodoo would do that.

It’s a real shame we had to go for the safe story since no one could possibly be offended by the story we got.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Going back though old posts. This was very prescient.

100%…

Since when has this management EVER been quiet on something they could try to pump for cheap publicity/cash?

That was the canary in this salt mine

 

[enchantedteacup2]

what is up with that ugly wall with painted foods. what a way to cheap out on some proper theming there.

they commissioned several local new orleans artists for both the art and music-i think that was a mistake because they don’t really get that magic imagineering-you can incorporate local but it has to have edits https://travelnoire.com/a-love-lett...into-local-artists-for-tianas-bayou-adventure

A sneak peek at Disney World's New Orleans-inspired Tiana ride: murals, music and magic

ORLANDO, Florida — “Almost there.”

www.nola.com

this all feels like inclusion gone wrong because i love the addition of local flavor but….it just isn’t necessarily jazz age new orleans. and the artist i feel missed the mark.

they also traveled to new orleans for the food and mamma odes hot sauce is based on the recipe of a famous local restaurant-idk

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I remember being told multiple times on here that 'No matter what, it's the same long flume so it will be good because the log flume is what matters, not the theme'

I'd think this is exhibit A on how much the theme, music, set design contribute to making the attraction good- the ride system is only one part of a bigger picture.

That was foolish all along.

It’s like saying tower was essentially the same as the demon drop at cedar point…

Splash was WDI. There are ride systems that creates a mystique for Disney far beyond the 5-10 minutes someone spent on it on a given day…the “how did they come up with this?” Places.

Splash is one of those. I’d argue the best. And it was not about the thrill parts. Quintessential Disney is splash. Haunted mansion…pirates…20K and the Matterhorn…horizons…tower…kilamanjaro…

Nobody else would ever try it because there’s no point.

They just took one out that never needed to be touched. It’s a ridiculous unforced error.

Just another in a long list of failed management ideas from a group that tells their investors they get to tell the customers what they want instead of studying what they want.

The list is getting long and distinguished.

 

[docnabox]

It has been a long time since I have posted on this site and it is is good to be back. After having watched the ride video, I wanted to log on here and see what people were saying. Good to know that I am not the only one that is underwhelmed. They had to know with all the controversy behind closing Splash, this retheme would be heavily scrutinized and would be considered a failure by many if it did not live up to or surpass what it was replacing. IMO, they not only did not live up to it, they failed miserably for the reasons shared by so many already. The comments on Youtube are brutal.

Maybe it is because I had been reading some political news before I watched the video but the entire time I was watchig it, there was one exchange in a political debate that kept running through my head.

To paraphrase Lloyd Benson responding to Dan Quayle in a Vice Presidential debate all those years ago: Sir, I knew Splash Mountain, Splash Mountain was a friend of mine. Sir, you are no Splash Mountain.