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

[Epcot82Guy]

Less Splash Mountain, more Splash Lump.

They made a mole hill out of a mountain.

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

First positive thing I have to say about this: they actually did make it look more like Avery Island (to the extent they can make a mountain look like this), at least according to this model of Avery Island at the Tabasco Museum located there:

 

[mickEblu]

(We're getting really off-topic by this point but this will be my last thing on ToT), I grew up going to Disney World every summer, and WDW's ToT was my first experience. I went to Disneyland the year their ToT opened, and as a seven-year-old I could already tell it was inferior. The "wave goodbye" and the lack of Rod Serling's final address before you fall stand out as the big issues, but by far the most egregious is the fact that once the elevator doors open and you're about to board, you step first into a hallway rather than the elevator itself. It made no thematic sense whatsoever.

You are missing out on DHS' ToT. It's a masterpiece. I cannot say that enough.

I can agree with all of this. Still better than Mission Breakout though.

 

[EricsBiscuit]

Speaking of riverboats... Frontier Land's riverboat docks in Colonial Liberty Square. The name of the attraction is Liberty Square Riverboat. All maps put its dock in Liberty Square.

But it's a Mississippi Riverboat. What's it doing docking in Philadelphia?

The number of anachronisms and contradictions strain the "realism" you claim is present in Magic Kingdom.

And a water tower isn't even anachronistic or a break in reality. Maybe the crown on it is. But we'll let the singing bears explain it to you.

So the first real steamboat in America was 1807~. The story of the ride is you see the westward expansion of America and the progress of time. You start out in colonial America, and move towards St Louis in the 1840s~ with the Diamond Horseshoe. You cross the Mighty Mo into Frontierland and you’ll see the dates on the buildings gradually tick up towards the 1870’s ~. In effect, the Liberty Belle is a time machine, showing you America’s development westward over time through its rivers. It’s much more detailed then most people realize.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

So the first real steamboat in America was 1807~. The story of the ride is you see the westward expansion of America and the progress of time. You start out in colonial America, and move towards St Louis in the 1840s~ with the Diamond Horseshoe. You cross the Mighty Mo into Frontierland and you’ll see the dates on the buildings gradually tick up towards the 1870’s ~. In effect, the Liberty Belle is a time machine, showing you America’s development westward over time through its rivers. It’s much more detailed then most people realize.

Exactly. I find it extremely insulting to the early imagineers to act like details and realism don’t matter at the DL / MK parks.

 

[LittleBuford]

Exactly. I find it extremely insulting to the early imagineers to act like details and realism don’t matter at the DL / MK parks.

It's not that details don't matter; it's that people exaggerate the level of authenticity that the early Imagineers were going for, often repeating well-worn myths. I've shared photos of Main Street from the '70s with very anachronistic signage, and I've also shown that some of the most treasured theming-related "facts"—the supposed "river of poop" in Liberty Square, the intentionally wonky windows in the same land, and the avoidance of real flags on Main Street—have little to no basis in fact.

 

[Casper Gutman]

The original Imagineers (and many of their skilled successors) weren’t going for real, they were going for hyperreality, the realer than real, a copy of a place that never existed except in the collective imagination. If you have to argue that design elements like the Louisiana mountain or the mural or the posters are accurate if you really get down into the details, the reality nobody knows, you’ve failed MISERABLY. Hyperreality is absolutely fundamental to the parks.

 

[Disney Analyst]

Lots of activity today - color has been added to the cap on top and work is ongoing adding branches and leaves to the new tree trunks. Photos from today.

Oh wow. Some amazing progress. Honestly it feels like the outside could be done soon.

 

[Incomudro]

It's not that details don't matter; it's that people exaggerate the level of authenticity that the early Imagineers were going for, often repeating well-worn myths. I've shared photos of Main Street from the '70s with very anachronistic signage, and I've also shown that some of the most treasured theming-related "facts"—the supposed "river of poop" in Liberty Square, the intentionally wonky windows in the same land, and the avoidance of real flags on Main Street—have little to no basis in fact.

I get what you're saying.
Magic Kingdom was in ways not designed for the full on realism exhibited in World Showcase or Animal Kingdom.

 

[LittleBuford]

I get what you're saying.
Magic Kingdom was in ways not designed for the full on realism exhibited in World Showcase or Animal Kingdom.

And even those parks are more hyperrealistic than realistic (to channel the distinction drawn by @Casper Gutman).

 

[mickEblu]

Wouldn’t romanticized be better way to describe somewhere like Main Street? I’d reserve “hyper real” for places like Galaxies Edge.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Wouldn’t romanticized be better way to describe somewhere like Main Street? I’d reserve “hyper real” for places like Galaxies Edge.

Agreed. “The Hollywood that never was and always will be”

I still think a tiara on a water tower, in a swamp, in front of a salt mound is a strange design choice.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Agreed. “The Hollywood that never was and always will be”

I still think a tiara on a water tower, in a swamp, in front of a salt mound is a strange design choice.

Hyperreal (or simulacrum) is the academic term. It’s been quite widely discussed in post-modern theory.

 

[_caleb]

Hyperreal (or simulacrum) is the academic term. It’s been quite widely discussed in post-modern theory.

Yep! Hyperreality is "what is generally regarded as real and what is understood as fiction are seamlessly blended together in experiences so that there is no longer any clear distinction between where one ends and the other begins."

 

[MisterPenguin]

Agreed. “The Hollywood that never was and always will be”

I still think a tiara on a water tower, in a swamp, in front of a salt mound is a strange design choice.

I wouldn't argue with anyone calling the Tiara strange.

But we've seen people try to claim the water tower itself doesn't fit. <roll eyes>

I get people are angry over reasons. But there's no need to create made-up stuff to justify the anger. Just own the anger for what it is. People can feel what they feel. Criticisms or applause for the elements we can see can happen in a calm, measured way. Anachronistically stylized posters don't require setting everything on fire.

The Tiara is a portent of what's to come: Singing animal friends of a princess who spent some time as a frog. I would expect some spill over from the fantasy inside the ride into the hyperreality outside.

There is an actual above-ground salt dome along the Louisiana Gulf Coast that's about twice as tall as this ride-building. Sure, it's not adjacent to NOLA, but this is hyperreality in which such distances are waved away because it's not actual reality that's being attempted to be re-created.

Of course, attempting hyperreality can strain credulity at times if one tries to present it as actual reality (which it isn't) or go too far into the fantastical that it looses any connection with the reality.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

But we've seen people try to claim the water tower itself doesn't fit. <roll eyes>

That was me, I don’t think it fits in a swamp in front of a salt dome, it could potentially fit, along with the modern murals at the co-op.

I’ve googled and googled and tried to find photos of an actual salt mound in Louisiana - I see references to them but yet to see photos. One day! Haha.

“Tiana’s Salt Mound Splash” should be the new title haha

 

[Casper Gutman]

I wouldn't argue with anyone calling the Tiara strange.

But we've seen people try to claim the water tower itself doesn't fit. <roll eyes>

I get people are angry over reasons. But there's no need to create made-up stuff to justify the anger. Just own the anger for what it is. People can feel what they feel. Criticisms or applause for the elements we can see can happen in a calm, measured way. Anachronistically stylized posters don't require setting everything on fire.

The Tiara is a portent of what's to come: Singing animal friends of a princess who spent some time as a frog. I would expect some spill over from the fantasy inside the ride into the hyperreality outside.

There is an actual above-ground salt dome along the Louisiana Gulf Coast that's about twice as tall as this ride-building. Sure, it's not adjacent to NOLA, but this is hyperreality in which such distances are waved away because it's not actual reality that's being attempted to be re-created.

Of course, attempting hyperreality can strain credulity at times if one tries to present it as actual reality (which it isn't) or go too far into the fantastical that it looses any connection with the reality.

You’re missing the point of hyperreality. Yes, there’s a salt dome in Louisiana, but no one’s idea of Louisiana involves mountains or even hills. It’s bayous, New Orleans, etc. If your response to someone saying, “This mountain doesn’t feel like New Orleans,” is “Well, TECHNICALLY…” you’ve already lost. The point is to evoke a time and place, not pick outlying elements and try to legitimize them through pedantry.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I’ve googled and googled and tried to find photos of an actual salt mound in Louisiana - I see references to them but yet to see photos. One day! Haha.

Gothya covered here:

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

There's probably nothing as tall as Splash Mountain in Louisiana anyway... Check out the dumpsters on Bourbon St early Sunday morning.

forums.wdwmagic.com

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I still think a tiara on a water tower, in a swamp, in front of a salt mound is a strange design choice.

Agreed. No matter how good the ride itself is, its biggest flaw will be how they decided to redress the exterior with various bits of ornamentation and props. Less would have been more in this case.

 

[TheCoasterNerd]

Still mad they didn't make the full tree on top like originally planned. I don't mind the water tower but the tree would've been so pretty