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

[ToTBellHop]

If it's been reported that this will be more expensive to maintain, that is news to me.

These AAs in a water ride will be very costly to maintain. And ride system maintenance will be the same.

 

[retr0gate]

As much as other attractions have offices in their queue. It’s not something you promote usually. Seems strange the things they are promoting about this attraction. We still have no real idea what it’ll actually look like inside. But we’ve been told plenty how it’s an old salt mine that’s now a food production factory?

They aren't "promoting" it? This detail about the offices comes from an article in which a reporter is literally just explaining what he saw while touring the queue / part of the ride. We've known for months that this is a food production facility housed in an abandoned salt mine. I agree, the PR for this attraction has been questionable at best but let's not pretend like the concept is that hard to grasp.

 

[monothingie]

Isn’t our Mansion a 19th century Lower Hudson Valley manor next to 18th century New England and Philadelphia?

Desert Inn to Vegetation Heavy Deep South Food Factory to Desert Mine. Definitely a smooth visual transition right?

 

[monothingie]

These AAs in a water ride will be very costly to maintain. And ride system maintenance will be the same.

WDI taking "new" AA and making them less reliable and more expensive to maintain than their 30+ year old predecessors.

But we all know they'll just turn them off and eliminate any maintenance costs.

 

[wdrive]

They aren't "promoting" it? This detail about the offices comes from an article in which a reporter is literally just explaining what he saw while touring the queue / part of the ride. We've known for months that this is a food production facility housed in an abandoned salt mine. I agree, the PR for this attraction has been questionable at best but let's not pretend like the concept is that hard to grasp.

I’m pretty certain anything a reporter puts out there is approved by Disney. He certainly wasn’t given free reign and free to report on anything he felt like.

I just find it all a bit odd

 

[retr0gate]

The exterior of the building was carefully and thoughtfully crafted to blend between BTMRR and the Pecos Bill Facade.

The current renovation does not not do that.

I think we often forget just how lush some parts of Frontierland actually are, especially along the Rivers of America. I mean you can make the argument that Big Thunder Mountain looks more out of place than Splash Mountain ever was considering all the foliage that surrounds it. Is this new look for TBA particularly distinct? Nope. But I wouldn't go as far to say that it's visually intrusive.

 

[retr0gate]

I’m pretty certain anything a reporter puts out there is approved by Disney. He certainly wasn’t given free reign and free to report on anything he felt like.

I just find it all a bit odd

You may be right, but again, what would you expect from an article documenting a tour of what's being built? They're just straight up describing what's there. Should they have just not brought it up at all? Genuinely asking

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Based on what they've done to the exterior of the ride, it's likely that aspect of the ride will degrade quicker and more noticeably than Splash. For Splash, the degradation largely affected the paint. But with Tiana, there's a ton of fake greenery adorning the mountain now. Weathering has the potential of making it look pretty worn down and faded quite quickly. That will probably be more expensive and difficult to repair than painted red clay. Plus Tiana's mossy rockwork will ALSO still need to be touched up every few years to keep it looking decent.

These AAs in a water ride will be very costly to maintain. And ride system maintenance will be the same.

The AA maintenance cost is going to depend on a few things-

1- The quantity of expressive figures. As of yet, no one seems to know exactly how many AA's there are going to be. I highly doubt it will have more than Splash. And there have been a few concerning claims indicating that they would be reducing the number. Especially with the rumors about the finale scene.

2- Whether the new technology going into these is more or less problematic to maintain than what they're replacing. I believe the figures in Splash were the old school hydraulic type, whereas the new figures are probably going to be full electric.

 

[wdrive]

You may be right, but again, what would you expect from an article documenting a tour of what's being built? They're just straight up describing what's there. Should they have just not brought it up at all? Genuinely asking

Probably.

Disney would have arranged this, it’s not like the reporter would have approached Disney and asked to be shown around a ride. And they choose to discuss relatively mundane parts of the new ride. The whole promotion of this attraction has been strange and a departure from what they usually do. I just find it curious.

 

[Brer Oswald]

Of all things to complain about, this is a bit much. All of the details released today are consistent with the story we already were told about (and, frankly, need to deal with) but reveal the quality will be better than many expected.

It seems some will only be satisfied if they say, “they are secretly rebuilding Splash Mountain on the inside!”

The only thing the details of today revealed was the placements of the animatronics we already knew about it. Based on the account, they seem to be much further spaced apart than the Splash ones were (roughly one main one per scene). Not sure how this addresses any of the concerns?

 

[MisterPenguin]

I’m pretty certain anything a reporter puts out there is approved by Disney. He certainly wasn’t given free reign and free to report on anything he felt like.

I just find it all a bit odd

He very carefully pointed out what they could show him and what they didn't.

He just mentioned in passing what he saw in the queue.

The conspiracy theory that Disney tells them what to write and what not to write would crumble under the first person to balk at that and report Disney is basically writing their copy.

You could have said, "Oops, I forgot that that was the reporters remarks and not Disney PR." But, instead you chose to back pedal, double down, and add in a conspiracy theory.

This thread is full of people assuming the worse. Then complaining bitterly about what they assumed was true whether it was true or not.

 

[wdrive]

You could have said, "Oops, I forgot that that was the reporters remarks and not Disney PR." But, instead you chose to back pedal, double down, and add in a conspiracy theory.

There’s no way Disney isn’t very very careful what on what info is released. All I’m saying is it’s very strange what they’ve released so far on this. It’s like promoting Expedition Everest before it opens and not mentioning the yeti but the office in the queue

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Based on what they've done to the exterior of the ride, it's likely that aspect of the ride will degrade quicker and more noticeably than Splash. For Splash, the degradation largely affected the paint. But with Tiana, there's a ton of fake greenery adorning the mountain now. Weathering has the potential of making it look pretty worn down and faded quite quickly. That will probably be more expensive and difficult to repair than painted red clay. Plus Tiana's mossy rockwork will ALSO still need to be touched up every few years to keep it looking decent.

This isn't necessarily true - part of the issue with Splash's exterior maintenance was the real foliage, which required irrigation systems and landscaping effort both to look good and avoid deteriorating the rockwork around it. This has now mostly been replaced with faux foliage, which is not the flimsy plastic kind you'll find at your local craft store but rather metal and fiberglass construction made to look natural while still surviving Hurricane winds. Same kind of methods used in New Fantasyland and Pandora on their rockwork, neither of which are showing any real signs of fading. Heck, when a Firework started a fire on the roof of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 10 years ago the fake foliage was fully replaced in a matter of days.

I don't know why you'd assume the mossy paint job would need any different level of maintenance than the red clay paint scheme. If anything the technology has gotten better over time at creating lightfast exterior paint. It does seem to require a little more artistic skill to paint, if that's what you mean, but the character paint department is fully capable of replicating their treatments more than once.

 

[retr0gate]

The only thing the details of today revealed was the placements of the animatronics we already knew about it. Based on the account, they seem to be much further spaced apart than the Splash ones were (roughly one main one per scene). Not sure how this addresses any of the concerns?

This also has me feeling a bit hesitant.. the concept art of the critter band was speculated to be the area right after that first drop, where the geese are now. The article also clearly states this. That art also shows Louis and Tiana in the same scene, which didn't seem very clear in this article. So now it's just a matter of who / what is exaggerating details. The art or the reporter?

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

There’s no way Disney isn’t very very careful what on what info is released. All I’m saying is it’s very strange what they’ve released so far on this. It’s like promoting Expedition Everest before it opens and not mentioning the yeti but the office in the queue

Expedition: Everest very famously kept the Yeti a closely guarded secret all through promotions, only once showing the figure very carefully lit in silhouette so that it would only be fully revealed once guests were riding the ride. It was known there would be *a* Yeti, but they very purposefully kept him mysterious despite being so impressive.

The article from today announces clearly that they're keeping the latter half of the ride secret due to "magic" they're waiting to reveal. We know Mama Odie will be present in that portion of the ride near the top of the drop because of the artwork they've already released. And we have a general sense of the attraction's progression before that - we start at the Tiana's Foods headquarters and head off into the Bayou where we encounter Tiana, Louis, and a bunch of critters on our journey.

It really isn't so uncharacteristic of Disney to be coy about their new rides. Cosmic Rewind had like 5 pieces of concept art ever released before the ride was open. Sometimes they play things close to the vest. And sometimes it's nice to have surprises left to discover when the thing actually opens.

 

[mickEblu]

You walk through *main offices* on the Men in Black ride which is one of the most immersive rides ever.

Completely appropriate for a MIB ride. Not so much what people expect from a ride based on the PatF nor the setting the ride is located.

 

[Notes from Neverland]

Good riddance to animatronics with rear-projected faces.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

Completely appropriate for a MIB ride. Not so much what people expect from a ride based on the PatF nor the setting the ride is located.

I had a similar thought, the discontent over the office isn’t because it’s an office, it’s still a result of the ride being based on a co-op.

Walking through a skippers office, full of maps and navigational tools, sounds fun.

Walking though Indiana Jones office, full of artifacts, sounds fun.

Walking through the offices in Flight of Passage and MIB, full of aliens and technology, sounds fun.

Walking through a co-op office sounds boring, when I envision a restaurant or grocery store office I picture work schedules, invoices, bills… none of that sounds fun.

It’s not that the office is a bad idea, it’s basing a ride on a co-op that’s a bad idea, it just doesn’t sound fun or exciting.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

This isn't necessarily true - part of the issue with Splash's exterior maintenance was the real foliage, which required irrigation systems and landscaping effort both to look good and avoid deteriorating the rockwork around it. This has now mostly been replaced with faux foliage, which is not the flimsy plastic kind you'll find at your local craft store but rather metal and fiberglass construction made to look natural while still surviving Hurricane winds. Same kind of methods used in New Fantasyland and Pandora on their rockwork, neither of which are showing any real signs of fading. Heck, when a Firework started a fire on the roof of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 10 years ago the fake foliage was fully replaced in a matter of days.

The reason I didn't mention the real foliage on Splash is that there wasn't all that much of it, at least on the front of the mountain. The bulk of real foliage was placed along the flume bend between the mill lift and first drop. As well as a smaller amount used after the big drop near the cavern entrance to the finale. Over the past several decades, most of this foliage was also abandoned and left to die. Even in the otherwise fantastic 2013 refurb that got the ride mostly back to opening day condition again, they still didn't bring back a lot of the real plant life adorning those areas during the 90s. Nor did they attempt to replace it with fake foliage either.

The greenery used on the direct front facade and peak of Splash was always fake. And it did indeed very noticeably fade and wear down with age and had to be addressed when they gave the exterior a good overhaul. The difference however is that this grass was also still used in a more sparse manner than the curtains of vines and flowers they're covering TBA with.

The foliage they've been installing on the facade of Tiana mostly hasn't been that rigid durable type you've described either. There are closeup videos of the foliage in recent months, and it flutters even with a small breeze.

Fire damage is naturally going to be addressed much more quickly than something that has faded from age. It also helps that 7DMT is much shorter and with easier access to the roof, and the greenery is adorned in a somewhat uncomplicated manner compared to what they're doing for TBA. My concern is that they're going to just give up on maintaining this ride once it's open, similar to a great many other attractions at WDW. And with so much more foliage, its wear and tear is going to be all the more apparent than even Splash when it does start to show its age.

I don't know why you'd assume the mossy paint job would need any different level of maintenance than the red clay paint scheme. If anything the technology has gotten better over time at creating lightfast exterior paint. It does seem to require a little more artistic skill to paint, if that's what you mean, but the character paint department is fully capable of replicating their treatments more than once.

I said nothing of the sort, quite the opposite. I said it will require both that same level of care on the paint as Splash, but that the new foliage would add to its maintenance demands. The added foliage will also complicate things when they do need to touch up the paint because it will get in the way and either need to be carefully worked around or perhaps even removed. Probably the latter, because again that foliage is also going to need replacing after a time.

 

[mickEblu]

I had a similar thought, the discontent over the office isn’t because it’s an office, it’s still a result of the ride being based on a co-op.

Walking through a skippers office, full of maps and navigational tools, sounds fun.

Walking though Indiana Jones office, full of artifacts, sounds fun.

Walking through the offices in Flight of Passage and MIB, full of aliens and technology, sounds fun.

Walking through a co-op office sounds boring, when I envision a restaurant or grocery store office I picture work schedules, invoices, bills… none of that sounds fun.

It’s not that the office is a bad idea, it’s basing a ride on a co-op that’s a bad idea, it just doesn’t sound fun or exciting.

But the fact that I have to even mention that tells me I hold people in too high of a regard around here. I have to wonder just how many times I’ve unknowingly debated an 11 year old. We’re anonymous and on the Internet after all.