Tiana's Bayou Adventure: Disneyland Watch & Discussion

[EagleScout610]

Long wait times for a water ride on a hot day does not make the attraction loved. When Tiana’s inevitably closes, who will mourn the loss?

It's an interesting thought; once these new attractions inevitably come up for replacement or retheming, will they see the same level of fanfare and last day rushes to ride like we saw with Splash, DINOSAUR, Muppets, ect? Or will they just fade away into Defunctland? Time will tell

 

[donaldtoo]

It's an interesting thought; once these new attractions inevitably come up for replacement or retheming, will they see the same level of fanfare and last day rushes to ride like we saw with Splash, DINOSAUR, Muppets, ect? Or will they just fade away into Defunctland? Time will tell

I’m no soothsayer, but I’ll predict the latter…!

 

[GimpYancIent]

The theming has changed but the core ride has not. People enjoy the ride, the theming is just window dressing, a distraction, as the guests enjoy the ride.

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

Long wait times for a water ride on a hot day does not make the attraction loved. When Tiana’s inevitably closes, who will mourn the loss?

I have genuinely never met someone in real life who did not enjoy it. It's a log flume with a drop. It's hard for people to not be into that.

That is not to say those people are not out there, as I believe people here when they say it and i'm sure there are people who aren't here who also feel that way. But I really, really do not buy this narrative some people keep trying to make that TBA is this widely hated attraction, nor do I buy the narrative that everyone was sad to see Splash go in favor of it.

I think both of those groups are a pretty small, albeit vocal, minority of folks who're mostly concentrated in the Disney Parks fandom. I would put money on 9 out of 10 folks clicking into the parks on any given day are just excited to ride a log flume with a big drop and don't really care if it's Splash Mountain or TBA.

To that end, I think everyone who wants to ride a log flume with a big drop would mourn it. Would they be mourning Tiana's specifically? No, not at all. But I also don't think they're en masse mourning it not being Splash Mountain either.

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

Now that the dust has long since settled, is there anybody actually prefers Tiana's over Splash Mountain on non-ideological grounds?

To answer this question, I feel largely the same as another poster in this thread did in that I don't prefer it, I feel pretty much exactly the same toward it as I did Splash. It's a fun attraction that I'll do a couple times a trip and then leave it at that.

I don't view either one as good examples of WDI at their best, and view both as solid B tier attractions in their respective parks. And I'm fine with that.

I would've liked to have gotten an attraction I liked more than Splash, but I didn't get one I like less which I suppose is the next best thing. It was essentially a lateral move for me.

 

[Chester&Hester Enthusiast]

I don't view either one as good examples of WDI at their best, and view both as solid B tier attractions in their respective parks. And I'm fine with that.

This feels like quite a take to me. Splash is widely regarded as one of WDI's greatest artistic achievements. Genuinely curious, what made you feel that way about it?

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

This feels like quite a take to me. Splash is widely regarded as one of WDI's greatest artistic achievements. Genuinely curious, what made you feel that way about it?

I’m wondering if they never saw it in full working order? There were times it was in pretty sad shape.

 

[Professortango1]

I’m wondering if they never saw it in full working order? There were times it was in pretty sad shape.

Splash on a bad day was still better than Tiana's in its current state. Splash was a 9/10 for me in terms of a Disney E Ticket.

 

[mickEblu]

This feels like quite a take to me. Splash is widely regarded as one of WDI's greatest artistic achievements. Genuinely curious, what made you feel that way about it?

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but it’s hard to understand how one can come to that can conclusion unless it’s anything other than I LOVE PatF so therefore it’s better or I love PATF and songs so much that it makes up for TBA’s short comings so it’s a wash.

If you just were to go in objectively scene by scene I’m not sure how one can say Tiana is a wash or better. How can you lose tons of beautifully designed AAs for a few dozen limited motion figures (and a couple good AAs when they are working even if they re repetitive and Louis looks like a plushie) under a spotlight and say it’s lateral? The set design is also clearly inferior. How do you lose all of those AAs in the Laughing Place segment for four Frog figures and 2 screens (the Tiana Louis one which is awful and interferes with our ability to suspend disbelief) and say it’s a lateral move? How do you lose Zip a Dee doo dah for Secret Spice and say it’s a lateral move?

I guess it comes down to Same ride system + PatF IP/ songs (or whatever alternate watered down version of the IP we were presented with) = lateral move or better.

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

This feels like quite a take to me. Splash is widely regarded as one of WDI's greatest artistic achievements. Genuinely curious, what made you feel that way about it?

I think it didn’t do a great job of telling its story, firstly. It wasn’t until I was much older that I even realized it had a proper story and wasn’t just a collection of disconnected vignettes. The scenes themselves were pleasing enough, but they felt so loose and scattered to me that they never felt cohesive or properly together.

I also found the ride to be very belabored. I love an attraction that has moments of pure scenic enjoyment, but I felt there was a few too many moments of this, especially toward the beginning of the attraction, and it gave the ride a very strange pace where sometimes there was lots happening and sometimes there was very little or nothing happening. I always felt this was a symptom of the ride being a bit too big.

My other big strike against it is that I didn’t feel there was any real emotional connection in the attraction. Sure, it did have a moment of tension on the lift, but I didn’t feel that through the rest of the ride. Up to then, it felt very much like the Fantasyland dark rides in that I was passing by pleasant scenes but felt no real emotion or feeling as I did. There was a disconnect between the attraction and myself, and I mostly credit this to my earlier point of saying I just don’t think it tells it’s story well.

I think TBA has pretty much all of these same problems, which is why I consider it a lateral move from Splash.

I’m not sure why Splash was ever considered one of WDI’s finest achievements, and really never have been sure in all my time being in the parks fandom. I think it was a perfectly good no great attraction that was fun but was always vastly eclipsed by things like Haunted Mansion, Pirates, and Spaceship Earth which J do point to as examples of WDI at their absolute pinnacle.

I’m not sad existed, but I’m also not sad it doesn’t either. TBA gives me basically the same experience, with the same things I walk away liking and the same things I was always critical of.

In my view, Tony’s claims to fame are Imagination, Big Thunder, and Indy. Splash being what everyone credits him most for has always felt like an underwhelming reflection of his talent to me.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

In my view, Tony’s claims to fame are Imagination, Big Thunder, and Indy. Splash being what everyone credits him most for has always felt like an underwhelming reflection of his talent to me.

Big thunder provides thrill, and an immersive environment but it doesn’t tell a complete story and it’s relatively short.

Indy is definitely close to the winner but it has moments that are not fully immersive- you often know you are in a theme park / movie set experience.

Imagination l never experienced in person but it didn’t provide thrill.

Splash - told a story, was a long ride, had thrill, and was a completely immersive experience.

 

[britain]

PatF is a favorite in my household. Hand-drawn animation and Randy Newman at his best.

TBA is a pretty darn good ride. My kids liked it. But Splash Mt. used to have a grip on the imagination that TBA doesn't quite have.

If you looked at Splash Mt's peak, with the angular giant dead tree, it almost did what Walt didn't want Haunted Mansion to do: It looked scary. It played up the "Oh no, that looks intense" nature of the flume ride. It visually said "Beware!" And it did so in an instantly iconic design. A child could draw Splash Mt by simply doing an orange hill, somewhat pyramid shaped with a brown angry-looking dead tree at the top, and a waterfall down the middle.

Now it's all greenery, I can't tell you what shape the hill has. A kid would need to draw a green clump with a waterfall and a watertower.

And none of it says "beware!" anymore. It's all "isn't the bayou a nice place"? That's the message from the first impression, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, all the way to the end.

A lot of the TBA hate is way overblown. But that might simply be because a lot of people can feel that the ride lost some striking characteristics, and they can't put their finger on it. It's still a really good ride.


But...

Imagine taking the original Tower of Terror. And then you "restore" the crumbled parts of the decaying hotel. You remove the lightning scorch marks, remove the overhanging portions on the top right and top left which give it an iconic profile, and paint it in nice neutral colors (totally NOT what Mission Breakout did). It's now a pleasant looking building with polished fixtures and a dash of floral color on some of the window sills - with a thrill ride inside.

It's kinda like that.

 

[EagleScout610]

PatF is a favorite in my household. Hand-drawn animation and Randy Newman at his best.

TBA is a pretty darn good ride. My kids liked it. But Splash Mt. used to have a grip on the imagination that TBA doesn't quite have.

If you looked at Splash Mt's peak, with the angular giant dead tree, it almost did what Walt didn't want Haunted Mansion to do: It looked scary. It played up the "Oh no, that looks intense" nature of the flume ride. It visually said "Beware!" And it did so in an instantly iconic design. A child could draw Splash Mt by simply doing an orange hill, somewhat pyramid shaped with a brown angry-looking dead tree at the top, and a waterfall down the middle.

Now it's all greenery, I can't tell you what shape the hill has. A kid would need to draw a green clump with a waterfall and a watertower.

And none of it says "beware!" anymore. It's all "isn't the bayou a nice place"? That's the message from the first impression, the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, all the way to the end.

A lot of the TBA hate is way overblown. But that might simply be because a lot of people can feel that the ride lost some striking characteristics, and they can't put their finger on it. It's still a really good ride.


But...

Imagine taking the original Tower of Terror. And then you "restore" the crumbled parts of the decaying hotel. You remove the lighting scorch marks, remove the overhanging portions on the top right and top left which give it an iconic profile, and paint it in nice neutral colors (totally NOT what Mission Breakout did). It's now a pleasant looking building with polished fixtures and a dash of floral color on some of the window sills.

It's kinda like that.

Splash, as said a billion times, made the drop something special. Plummeting out of the dark cave at the top of the hill in the shadow of Br’er Fox's lair in the gnarled tree into a briar patch that looked so close you could actually get clobbered by a briar on the way down (I thought i was at risk of getting hit, and I'm sure many others did over the years). It contrasted so beautifully with the cheerful area music around it that it made a "What the heck is going on there?!" moment that paid off after the drop and made you want to go again.

Tiana's is just "Happy happy happy, here's a happy drop. Whee" and it lacks the "What the heck" moment.

 

[coffeefan]

To answer this question, I feel largely the same as another poster in this thread did in that I don't prefer it, I feel pretty much exactly the same toward it as I did Splash. It's a fun attraction that I'll do a couple times a trip and then leave it at that.

I don't view either one as good examples of WDI at their best, and view both as solid B tier attractions in their respective parks. And I'm fine with that.

I would've liked to have gotten an attraction I liked more than Splash, but I didn't get one I like less which I suppose is the next best thing. It was essentially a lateral move for me.

I feel similarly. That's why TLK Mountain can't come soon enough. I think it will put this conversation to rest if it delivers.

 

[britain]

Splash, as said a billion times, made the drop something special. Plummeting out of the dark cave at the top of the hill in the shadow of Br’er Fox's lair in the gnarled tree into a briar patch that looked so close you could actually get clobbered by a briar on the way down (I thought i was at risk of getting hit, and I'm sure many others did over the years). It constrated so beautifully with the cheerful area music around it that it made a "What the heck is going on there?!" moment that paid off after the drop and made you want to go again.

Tiana's is just "Happy happy happy, here's a happy drop. Whee" and it lacks the "What the heck" moment.

Yes, and because the first impression of Splash Mt. is “beware that scary drop” it makes a kid feel like quite the conquering hero to brave that drop, and then you get to do fist pumps in the air in celebration.

With Tiana’s, there’s a perverse “Nothing scary is going to happen” gaslighting being fed to the kid! “This is just fun and happy! Don’t tell me you’re feeling scared about the upcoming drop - everything is FINE!”

You make it through the drop and to the party - which doesn’t feel like a celebration of surviving death, but it’s those happy folks, still happy and glad you conceded to be happy too!

 

[Pizza Moon]

Now that the dust has long since settled, is there anybody actually prefers Tiana's over Splash Mountain on non-ideological grounds?

IF they did it right and gave us Dr. Facilier!

 

[EagleScout610]

 

[Mortimer Mouse]

I would put money on 9 out of 10 folks clicking into the parks on any given day are just excited to ride a log flume with a big drop and don't really care if it's Splash Mountain or TBA.

The success of Disney parks over the competition is proof theming, storytelling and experience matters.

Of course anyone on a hot day is going to get excited for a log flume ride.
But what keeps guests coming back through repeat visits, visiting fan forums and buying merch? Theming, storytelling and experience.

 

[Brer Oswald]

This feels like quite a take to me. Splash is widely regarded as one of WDI's greatest artistic achievements. Genuinely curious, what made you feel that way about it?

Some rides just aren’t for everyone, and that’s okay. That includes some of WDI’s masterpieces. Not everything is always going to click.

Where these people tend to lose me is the sense of entitlement they have. “This isn’t my favourite attraction so there’s no way it could be millions of other people’s favourite attraction”. There’s tons of other attractions at a similar quality level to Splash that I’m not crazy about (such as Kilimanjaro Safari or Rise of the Resistance) but I would never want not expect Disney to close them because I know they mean a lot to many people.

 

[Brer Oswald]

I feel similarly. That's why TLK Mountain can't come soon enough. I think it will put this conversation to rest if it delivers.

TLK ride will probably be a technical marvel. I have no doubt it will have some of the finest animatronics and it will be themed to a film almost everyone on the planet loves. And even with all this said, it’s never going to inspire the imagination and wonder in the same way Splash Mountain did. People are eventually going to have to concede that they just don’t make attractions like they used to. You can have all the bells and whistles in the world, but there’s a level of soul and artistry that can never be recaptured. The first and second generations of Imagineers were a different breed, and Splash featured the combined efforts of both. People feel similarly about the classic Epcot attractions which were worked on by the same two generations. There was a direct link to Walt and the origins of the company that is now long lost.