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

[Trauma]

I’m happy for Drew.

All that matters is even the ones who say they enjoyed it admit that it’s not as good as Splash.

That means this was a giant waste of time and recourses.

Way to go Bob!

 

[davis_unoxx]

All the people that were gaslit for years saying that we were crazy for saying it won’t be as great as the predecessor, have finally been vindicated.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Exactly. That's the troubling thing - it's not that the Imagineers didn't have enough funds - not to mention a great baseline ride system and space - to make an exception ride. It's that they seemingly weren't capable of making something anywhere near as entertaining and engaging as Splash. Yes, it's a high bar to clear, but I think it unfortunately does speak more to the talent of the current crop of engineers than the resources they were given to work with.

The Imagineers did amazing work in Fantasy Springs which shows they still have talent, which leads to the question “why did TBA turn out like this?”, I think the obvious answer is the imagineers weren’t in charge,

They were given a specific list of things the new ride was meant to portray and told to make it work.

 

[davis_unoxx]

Love to see this! And the TBA defenders said yesterday that as days go on, the ratio of dislikes will go down. Nope!

When I first started tracking it was only 35% downvoted, love to see it! And if you filter by newest comments, not just ones at the top. Around 90% of the comments say this ride sucks!

 

[TheCoasterNerd]

The Imagineers did amazing work in Fantasy Springs which shows they still have talent, which leads to the question “why did TBA turn out like this?”, I think the obvious answer is the imagineers weren’t in charge, this change started in DEI and was likely managed by DEI, I doubt the Imagineers were ever in charge.

They were given a specific list of things the new ride was meant to portray and told to make it work.

This ^

 

[Ayla]

The up/down votes on youtube mean nothing more than certain factions are out in full force, directing their followers to these videos.

 

[davis_unoxx]

The up/down votes on youtube mean nothing more than certain factions are out in full force, directing their followers to these videos.

So the thousands of comments on this video, and others reacting to it are all orchestrated and not just people thinking this ride sucks?

 

[doctornick]

View attachment 789224
All the people that were gaslit for years saying that we were crazy for saying it won’t be as great as the predecessor, have finally been vindicated.

I legitimately can't tell if the Twitter post is intentionally trying to be sarcastic or is earnest.

 

[Midwest Elitist]

So the Chanda da of comments on this video, and others reacting to it are all orchestrated and not just people thinking this ride sucks?

It's straight up gaslighting at this point.

 

[davis_unoxx]

I legitimately can't tell if the Twitter post is intentionally trying to be sarcastic or is earnest.

Being serious, saying that we will complain about the new ride until it’s open then think Tiana’s is greatest ride in the world, calling us simple minded.

 

[doctornick]

The Imagineers did amazing work in Fantasy Springs which shows they still have talent, which leads to the question “why did TBA turn out like this?”

Ignoring the rest of your post, I'm not even sure I really agree here. I actually think Fantasy Springs seems to suffer from the exact same issues as TBA - what is there is beautiful, but probably doesn't utilize the space as well as it should and the attractions are pleasant enough but don't reach the heights of the gold standard storytelling/engagement of classic Disney rides.

 

[John park hopper]

In true form Disney turns a great attraction into a ho hum attraction
Look at what they did to AE
Because Alien Encounter was considered too scary and intense for kids, officials wanted to make the new attraction less scary and more family-friendly. Two days later, Alien Encounter would close to the public on October 12 and the Lilo & Stitch remodel was underway. Stitch's Great Escape! opened on November 16, 2004.

 

[davis_unoxx]

It's straight up gaslighting at this point.

This is what Jenny Nicholson said in her video, that influencers are paid or get to experience stuff by Disney by following strict rules such as using the elaborate names of these attractions, and other strict rules.


I posted earlier Disney is paying for ads for this ride on AI bots. I’m sure they’re behind this too.

 

[Midwest Elitist]

This is what Jenny Nicholson said in her video, that influencers are paid or get to experience stuff by Disney by following strict rules such as using the elaborate names of these attractions, and other strict rules.


I posted earlier Disney is paying for ads for this ride on AI bots. I’m sure they’re behind this too. View attachment 789228

Oh, so LLMs are just predicting what the next syllable will be based on the information you give it, and it's thrown into a MASSIVE probability matrix formula.
I don't think they're behind that, it's just predicting the most likely info you would want, and here it's pretty much calling a search engine.

Aside from that, yeah. People are well aware of how fake the Internet is now. I don't understand why they try, it's blatantly obvious.

 

[DisneyHead123]

Alright, I have officially ridden the attraction and have a lot of thoughts. Not sure how novel any of this is because the page count of this thread jumped by 70+ pages since I ducked out to avoid spoilers so I apologize for retreading any ground.

Where to begin? Perhaps a goods vs bads to lay everything out and then some final thoughts. I would also like to state that I was coming into the ride with moderate expectations leaning positive and attempted to view the attraction on its own merits separate from its history as Splash Mountain (but then found that harder and harder to commit to).

The queue is nice and I quite enjoy the radio loop playing. The radio in particular gives a vibe that a tiny slice of New Orleans Square has come to WDW and does a good job at establishing Tiana as an important public figure. I absolutely love the lush greenery of the interior sets and dark lighting. The critter bands are very cute and add a great bit of liveliness to the spots they appear. The A1000s of Tiana and Louis are all a treat to see in full motion. Upon first hearing the rumors that there would be a shrinking/transformation portion to the ride I was highly skeptical it would be a good choice, but I think it turned out well and was a fun way to display the animatronic frogs much larger, as well as call back to the film. The primary thing to praise here is the finale scene and original song. The energy in that scene is great and really delivers the most complete part of the experience.

I generally don’t think the screens in this ride are too egregious or overbearing - they are actually quite minimal - but the shot of giant Tiana and Louis looking at the riders in the shrunken portion is the worst visual offender of the ride. It genuinely feels out of place and their dialogue could have been delivered with audio only to convey the same thing. As many have mentioned, there are quite a few empty stretches along the ride between characters. Not every ride has to be filled with animatronics to be good, and not every animated figure has to have complex motion to be effective at conveying what it needs to, but there is still a lot to be desired from the emptier scenes. The space between the 2nd band and the transformation dip drop is particularly empty, so much so that while on the ride you just instinctively look to watch the boat ahead of you complete the dialogue with Tiana right before the dip drop, only to immediately hear it again directed at your own boat. Though the A1000s are lovely, they are mainly used to just look at the ride vehicles and gesture at things. The finale is the only scene where it feels like the any A1000s are actually doing something within the narrative like dancing or playing music. Perhaps the greatest flaw of the ride though is that it lacks any poignant stakes, dramatic tension, or low beats. When designing a linear narrative experience a writer will typically create a graph laying out where the emotional high and low points of a story will be so they can fluctuate in a logical and satisfying manner. It feels to me that if you were to make something like that for this attraction it would be super flat and monotone with a lone spike at the finale. And while it’s true that not every attraction needs a well executed narrative or complex emotional arc to be really good, the issue lies in the nature of the attraction being a replacement.

I really tried to let this ride live on its own merits separate from Splash Mountain, but the positive elements of this ride come at the expense of another attraction, and they extract a heavy toll. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is by no means a bad attraction and far from the worst retheme in WDW, but it does not live up to the narrative, emotional stakes, and technical feats of its predecessor. It’s very much like Runaway Railway in that sense; it’s quite enjoyable and a decent ride on its own, but it should not have been a replacement in a park desperate for additional ride-through capacity. Even with the social issues surrounding Splash Mountain and Song of the South, there could have been tactful methods of updating the plot and concept with different characters to deliver the same strengths of the experience.

TL;DR: Don’t give in to the hysterics of people saying this is the worst attraction WDI has ever produced because it is a decent ride; but it does not evoke the spectacle of its predecessor, making it hard to enjoy for those that know what came before.

Thanks for the detailed review! Curious - have you watched the Disney POV video now? Do you agree with Drew's assessment that the video doesn't do the ride justice? (Even if your overall assessment obviously wasn't as positive.)

 

[SamusAranX]

Did you expect a person who spent almost every day at the MK documenting every single thing happening to have a different reaction ?

Gonna have to say this is a bit of flirting with a line here….Drew seems like good people and if he liked the attraction, more power to him.

 

[monothingie]

The up/down votes on youtube mean nothing more than certain factions are out in full force, directing their followers to these videos.

Or it's not and it's actually a relatively accurate metric of its popularity.

Anytime something is ratio'd on that scale it's way more than a bunch of angry basement dwellers.

Don't believe me, look at the ratios for Indy, Wish, The Marvels, etc. they were very much an accurate reflection of their respective subject matters popularity.

 

[JohnD]

It's straight up gaslighting at this point.

These two said exactly the same thing and in the same order. Just a few words vary here and there. What a coincidence!

 

[Trauma]

These two said exactly the same thing and in the same order. Just a few words vary here and there. What a coincidence!
View attachment 789231

I guess it cheaper to post fake reviews than to build a good ride.

Pathetic.

 

[JohnD]

This is what happens when tasks are given to the regulators rather than the creators. This attraction was not built to create an impressive story or an immersive environment, but simply to check a bunch of boxes and meet regulations set forth by the HR division, DEI division, and executive division. These departments are not designed to be creative, but simply to reel in and regulate the creativity of other departments. This is when we end up with bland, soulless junk like TBA, because it was created merely to check a list by uncreative people. I’m really starting to wonder how much control imagineering really had over this project, because it feels like a step down even when compared to other recent stateside attractions.

They say "Stories matter". Well, it doesn't appear that way from the attraction. So maybe imagineers had less input after all which could be a reason Baxter left.