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

[docnabox]

In Splash, you get that "uh-oh" feeling going up the lift hill, with this it seems like you get an "oh ok" feeling.

I get more of an "Oh good, it is almost over" feeling

 

[HonorableMention]

Daytime POV

I think I understand why DL enclosed their Slippin Falls now. That transition from daytime into the dark bayou is a little weird and there’s some odd light bleed going in.

That was a minor issue with Splash too but it didn’t matter as much since the show scenes were in the daytime too.

 

[Cliff]

Disney's sharp creative decline in the past 5+ years in both, the parks and the studios have been glaringly evident. A big reason for this is that way too many of Disney's best creatives were either pushed out or they got tired of the mess and just quit and were snapped up by other companies.

For those here who are sincerely shocked at how bad this attraction is and are shocked that Disney destroyed "Splash Mountain" to make this???..

Shame on you. You have NOT been paying attention closely enough. There is no excuse for anybody to claim that this attraction failure came suddenly out of left field. This is a clear trend that too many people are refusing to acknowledge.....

 

[Starship824]

IMO, the recent pattern at Disney seems to be blaming the consumers for not liking their "magical" products enough.

Especially since the old version of this attraction was viewed as "troublesome," it won't be hard for them to promote the narrative that the ride is perfectly fine and it's just the old, irrelevant, unmodernized crowd trying to poison the well.

I don't necessarily agree with this they have changed things when the vast majority of people don't like them. They completely destroyed Harmonious and didn't "blame the fans" for that. The idea that they're doing that is just not true imo, at least in the parks in recent years.

 

[WowFactor]

So, we've lost Splash and Tiana all at once? It's just sad...

 

[Phineas]

“We’re almost there”

Honestly I’m glad this ride is getting the bashing it deserved, people that said this wouldn’t live to Splash were called horrible things for years, said we only had issues with the new ride because it was about Tiana…

That’s the worst part though: my trepidation was never about Tiana! I adore her as a character, love her voice actress and her “I want” song is an instant ear worm. And she’s a great role model for young children watching-It’s great and wonderful to dream, but you have to help those dreams along yourself.

Princess and the Frog is a charming film, and absolutely deserves its own attraction. But what they’ve come up with is a strange, monotonous mess.

 

[Musical Mermaid]

The more I think of the plot for the attraction, the more confused I get. Looking in a bayou for musicians doesn't make sense to me as a story for a Princess and the Frog ride. I thought Louis was a unique circumstance, so wouldn't it be easier to find a human band? Maybe I missed the backstory and Tiana planned the party too late, so all the human musicians were booked at other Mardi Gras parties already.

I also started to think of what it'd be like if this is what they used as a plot for something like the Little Mermaid. For most of the ride the only characters are Ariel, Sebastian and random sea creatures. Let's find some ocean animals to play in Sebastian's concert. There is no Ursula anywhere. Maybe you see King Triton using some magic to make you smaller for some ridiculous reason and you pick up some musical shrimp, then voila, you are ready to get big again for the concert and finally get to see the rest of the characters in the finale. I find the idea lame.

I don't understand why they didn't use the plot of the movie. If they were doing a classic ride from scratch for Tiana, it wouldn't be nearly 10 minutes. It'd probably be closer to 3 or 4. The frog thing wouldn't be that big of a problem because they could still include at least 3 human animatronics of Tiana in different dresses: an "Almost There" scene, Charlotte's party where she meets Naveen, and a big finale in her classic green princess dress. They could also have a Dr. Facilier scene and a scene where Tiana and Naveen are frogs falling in love in the bayou. It's all from the movie and would've made a wonderful dark ride for families. We don't have enough of those.

I still think that this was the wrong property for Splash's bones, it shows with how contrived the story is, but they can't undo that decision. They should be thinking of a plan B now though to improve what was delivered.

 

[monothingie]

I don't necessarily agree with this they have changed things when the vast majority of people don't like them. They completely destroyed Harmonious and didn't "blame the fans" for that. The idea that they're doing that is just not true imo, at least in the parks in recent years.

Harmonious got tossed because it didn’t get the boost in revenue from merch, food, and beverage sales that was expected and because it was costly to operate.

TBA is a response to fix a problematic Disney Attraction because of social and political issues brought about by a small but vocal contingent of people on social media, who had probably never set foot inside a Disney Park. Given the way corporate reacted to that, I have no doubt they wouldn’t hesitate to start attacking the fans.

 

[Starship824]

Shame on you. You have NOT been paying attention closely enough. There is no excuse for anybody to claim that this attraction failure came suddenly out of left field. This is a clear trend that too many people are refusing to aknowledge.....

Really? A bit dramatic much. There have been PLENTY of people acknowledging the downfall of Disney creative especially in these boards. People were excited for this attraction based on what had been seeing about the ride for the last few months like the animatronics episode and little that was showed in the last episode, my self included. I can also see people thinking this attraction being good based the things we had been seeing in Tokyo with Fantasy Springs, yes OLC runs the Tokyo parks, but the same WDI makes the rides.

 

[JustInTime]

I’ve got a feeling this will hit different when experiencing in person.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I don't necessarily agree with this they have changed things when the vast majority of people don't like them. They completely destroyed Harmonious and didn't "blame the fans" for that. The idea that they're doing that is just not true imo, at least in the parks in recent years.

Nah…this has been going on for quite sometime

Everytime something doesn’t go well…it’s either silence or shade thrown at the audience

Far too many high profile examples.

Also…harmonious was stupid…like 8th grade with an Erector set and a high budget. Nothing to “destroy”

 

[Incomudro]

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.

Disney needs to get over the idea that giving kids a thrill/scare is a bad thing.
So do parents of kids.
The whole basis of their animated classics revolved around overcoming such a thing.
It's the journey, reward, growth of conquering such a thing that worked so well.
And conquering a "scary" ride does that too.
I remember the feeling very well with my son's at Expedition Everest for instance when they were perhaps 8 years old: "Whoa, are we up for this?" I still have the picture on my bedroom wall.
And going down Summit Plummet.
We (my son's are twins) didn't do it the first year, but the next year we did it!
I remember how they came up to my wife and cheered "We did Summit Plummet!" So thrilled!

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I’ve got a feeling this will hit different when experiencing in person.

None of the criticisms had anything to do with the video.

1. There’s no story/suspense in the ride
2. They don’t have enough AAs/characters in the scenes
3. It doesn’t make any sense.
4. It’s a bad use of PATF

But have fun believing all that “experiency” stuff they pump relentlessly…it’s not like you were cancelling the next trip or anything

 

[Surferboy567]

I think I understand why DL enclosed their Slippin Falls now. That transition from daytime into the dark bayou is a little weird and there’s some odd light bleed going in.

That was a minor issue with Splash too but it didn’t matter as much since the show scenes were in the daytime too.

Ah, that makes sense

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Disney needs to get over the idea that giving kids a thrill/scare is a bad thing.
So do parents of kids.
The whole basis of their animated classics revolved around overcoming such a thing.
It's the journey, reward, growth of conquering such a thing that worked so well.
And conquering a "scary" ride does that too.
I remember the feeling very well with my son's at Expedition Everest for instance when they were perhaps 8 years old: "Whoa, are we up for this?" I still have the picture on my bedroom wall.
And going down Summit Plummet.
We (my son's are twins) didn't do it the first year, but the next year we did it!
I remember how the came up to my wife and cheered "We did Summit Plummet!" So thrilled!

Summit plummet is a bad example…the park is never open so NOBODY has to worry about that anymore

 

[Starship824]

Nah…this has been going on for quite sometime

Everytime something doesn’t go well…it’s either silence or shade thrown at the audience

Far too many high profile examples.

Ok, name one in the last five years in the parks specifically, yes I know there a few examples on the studio side, but where is this "blaming the fans" because I haven't seen it recently.

 

[shambolicdefending]

I’ve got a feeling this will hit different when experiencing in person.

I suspect it may actually be worse in person. Most people will ride it in daytime when the cool exterior effects aren't visible. And in person you won't be able to screen cut through the empty parts.

 

[dreamfinding]

That lighting package is what should be around Pandora more

The lighting package that guests never see because the park closes at 7 PM?

 

[shambolicdefending]

Disney needs to get over the idea that giving kids a thrill/scare is a bad thing.
So do parents of kids.
The whole basis of their animated classics revolved around overcoming such a thing.
It's the journey, reward, growth of conquering such a thing that worked so well.
And conquering a "scary" ride does that too.
I remember the feeling very well with my son's at Expedition Everest for instance when they were perhaps 8 years old: "Whoa, are we up for this?" I still have the picture on my bedroom wall.
And going down Summit Plummet.
We (my son's are twins) didn't do it the first year, but the next year we did it!
I remember how they came up to my wife and cheered "We did Summit Plummet!" So thrilled!

The emotional complexity of the original is a big reason this ride became so iconic, IMO. Having my dad drag me through the queue and force me to ride it (as only a wise, caring dad can) is a low-key formative memory of my childhood. I will never forget the feeling of triumph I had when I survived the big drop the first time.

I got to recapture that moment every time I rode it later in life, including with my own kids who were anxious and scared the first time.

I'm afraid the TBA sanitization has ruined the riders' ability to create that same level of emotional experience.

 

[docnabox]

I decided to sit through watching the ride through video one more time to make sure I was not being overly harsh in my initial assessments and criticisms. Sadly, I was not. To use a New Orleans themed metaphor, this attraction has all the charm and appeal of a baked beignet rolled in artificial sweetener. There is no flavor, the consistency is all wrong and after you are done with it, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.