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

[Casper Gutman]

Even before my source weighed in on the matter with their own claims, it was all of that blatantly empty space in the renders that made me doubt the final scene will be so sparse. The ride's restaurant facade also isn't a copy of the one from the film, it is fully unique with a different design and all of those empty spaces are unique to the ride.

Here's what that facade looks like in the film-

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Just the sidewalk and that one smallish balcony on the second floor. Now compare that to the brand new facade from SplashArchive's renders of the ride-

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It's a completely different design for starters, which is already odd. And it comes with a lot of very suspicious new "empty" spaces. Assuming the positioning of the figures in the renders is close to final (and I find that to be relatively believable at least, aside from the t-posing which is yet also another indication that these may not be final), the bottom level would contain Tiana, Louis, Naveen and Ralphie. Then there's a large empty balcony on the second level, larger even than the movie's. But most of all, a bunch of staircases and landings wrapping around the sides that weren't in the film's variant at all and look deliberately designed to contain animatronics. In fact, these staircases and landings are remarkably similar to the riverboat in Splash Mtn which housed so many AA's.

It's just really difficult to imagine why they would go to the trouble to create all of these unique platforms that look deliberately designed to contain AA's, only to leave them empty... Even the large structure on the left side (formerly where the Swamp Boys were) is much larger than what was there prior and appears to contain a ton of extra space for additional AA's beyond just Eudora and Charlotte. Plus the space over to the right where the cart and its figures used to be at DL.

My problem with this very logical take is that you could go through quite a few of WDW’s recent rides - for instance Frozen and Resistance - and point to all the spots and platforms where it seems like there SHOULD be figures. This is one of the defining characteristics of modern Disney I keep going on about - they don’t build scenes, they place isolated but advanced AAs that gesture at the guests.

 

[monothingie]

My problem with this very logical take is that you could go through quite a few of WDW’s recent rides - for instance Frozen and Resistance - and point to all the spots and platforms where it seems like there SHOULD be figures. This is one of the defining characteristics of modern Disney I keep going on about - they don’t build scenes, they place isolated but advanced AAs that gesture at the guests.

Is there any possibility that there will be screens used in these areas?

 

[Purduevian]

In this hypothetical, would there not be more dispatched per hour because logs were going through faster? Or is that negligible and just cause bigger backups at the station?

My understanding of the hypothetical was to either slow down or speed up the water jets to push the logs at a different rate throughout the ride.
However, as a log pulls into the station, it would still need to follow the same process as before:

1. Previous logs leave the unload/load station
2. New logs enter the station
3. Logs stop in the station
4. Safety bars unlock
5. Old riders get out of the boat
6. New riders get into the boat
7. New riders lower Safety bars
8. CMs perform checks
9. Logs are dispatched

One of those 9 steps needs to speed up to increase the dispatch time. What happens between the dispatch and Logs stopping in the station is irrelevant to the throughput of the attraction. The loading station is already a bottle neck (that's why logs pile up at the end of the attraction). If the jets were sped up, riders would just spend more time in the log jam at the end because they got there faster.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

My problem with this very logical take is that you could go through quite a few of WDW’s recent rides - for instance Frozen and Resistance - and point to all the spots and platforms where it seems like there SHOULD be figures. This is one of the defining characteristics of modern Disney I keep going on about - they don’t build scenes, they place isolated but advanced AAs that gesture at the guests.

Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway has a ton of platform space for additional animatronic figures. And it doesn’t use them. Modern WDI often increases space and scale without filling it in.

Mickey and Star Wars are modern trackless rides, and as such have a lot of empty corridors. There's definitely a sense of emptiness to them as a whole that i'm not happy about, but none of the empty space in them screams "looks exactly like an AA platform that was left empty", unlike the spaces in Tiana which definitely do appear to be exactly that. The scenery and few figures these rides have are all flattened tightly against the walls to allow the vehicles a wide berth. Especially with Mickey, we also knew from the very beginning that it would be a flat video screen ride with only a couple of physical figures.

Beauty and the Beast on the other hand DOES have a handful of platforms at least in the finale, some of which were occupied while other remained empty. But again the distinction is that this area was meticulously replicated directly from a setpiece from the movie. They could and should have added a couple of additional figures to fill these extra spaces (like Belle's father for one), but it's not like they were just random spaces that were built without reference material, they're movie accurate. And again, the space in the middle of the ballroom is completely occupied by the oversized ride vehicles. So all of the figures have to be shoved up against the walls.

Even Frozen doesn't have a whole lot of empty spaces that clearly looks like they were supposed to contain more figures, just a lot of flat narrow corridors. They also never advertised that they were including a massive cast of characters in this ride or the others mentioned. Unlike Tiana which will have at minimum 27 individual major character aniamtronics (10 returning from the film and and 17 new). A lot of them containing several duplicates throughout the ride, along with no doubt other non-central critters as well.

I am again not just basing this on my own observations. I was definitively told by my source (who has an excellent track record and who claims to have very recently personally seen finalized full scene mockups of the entire ride) that these spaces would in fact be occupied by animatronics when complete. Take that however you like though. I'm also not the only one even in this thread who has heard from imagineers who claim this ride "won't disappoint" when it comes to a large quantity of AA's and when comparing against Splash.

 

[JoeCamel]

My understanding of the hypothetical was to either slow down or speed up the water jets to push the logs at a different rate throughout the ride.
However, as a log pulls into the station, it would still need to follow the same process as before:

1. Previous logs leave the unload/load station
2. New logs enter the station
3. Logs stop in the station
4. Safety bars unlock
5. Old riders get out of the boat
6. New riders get into the boat
7. New riders lower Safety bars
8. CMs perform checks
9. Logs are dispatched

One of those 9 steps needs to speed up to increase the dispatch time. What happens between the dispatch and Logs stopping in the station is irrelevant to the throughput of the attraction. The loading station is already a bottle neck (that's why logs pile up at the end of the attraction). If the jets were sped up, riders would just spend more time in the log jam at the end because they got there faster.

Obvious solution is to separate the load/unload

 

[Drew the Disney Dude]

Good morning

As promised, here's the videos from yesterday. I put them in a Google Drive folder and the link is public.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Construction - Google Drive

drive.google.com

 

[Purduevian]

Obvious solution is to separate the load/unload

There are quite a few "tricks" theme parks use to increase pph. Off the top of my head:

• Single rider line (Every log is full bringing the average people per log to the max)
• Separate load/unload so people loading don't have to wait for someone to move (see RnRC)
• Dual load stations (Big thunder/tron/ Guardians)
• More attendants doing safety checks
• Vehicle's enter/stop at their marks faster (look at guardians vs big thunder on the coaster pulling into the station)
• Synchronized movement, vehicle entering load area doesn't have to wait for the vehicle in front of it to completely clear the station (I think splash did this already)
• Updated safety check technology, a computer telling CMs if all restrains are locked

I'm sure there are more. However, while the load station is the current bottle neck, if the dispatch gets fast enough, there will be backups elsewhere on the attraction as each lift hill and each drop has a certain maximum logs per hour it can handle. I don't know what on splash is the next bottle neck, but I would assume it's the big drop as the ride can't drop the next log until it knows the log ahead of it is clear.

 

[Sectorkeeper71]

There are quite a few "tricks" theme parks use to increase pph. Off the top of my head:

• Single rider line (Every log is full bringing the average people per log to the max)
• Separate load/unload so people loading don't have to wait for someone to move (see RnRC)
• Dual load stations (Big thunder/tron/ Guardians)
• More attendants doing safety checks
• Vehicle's enter/stop at their marks faster (look at guardians vs big thunder on the coaster pulling into the station)
• Synchronized movement, vehicle entering load area doesn't have to wait for the vehicle in front of it to completely clear the station (I think splash did this already)
• Updated safety check technology, a computer telling CMs if all restrains are locked

I'm sure there are more. However, while the load station is the current bottle neck, if the dispatch gets fast enough, there will be backups elsewhere on the attraction as each lift hill and each drop has a certain maximum logs per hour it can handle. I don't know what on splash is the next bottle neck, but I would assume it's the big drop as the ride can't drop the next log until it knows the log ahead of it is clear.

I know I’ve had many times in the past where there’s a line of logs at one of the lift hills. The big drop is certainly the most common though.

Even something like pirates with a separate load/unload or small world routinely have backups into their end show scenes. When I went on pirates in November there was one time through that the boat wasn’t backed up far into the jail scene and that had to have been the first time in the last decade I remember that happening

Also I very much appreciate you breaking all this down. I’m a nerd who loves to know about all the ops factors that go into running rides, so I always enjoying learning more where I can

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

I’ve seen the source as it were and Merlin is accurately relaying the game of telephone. I’m optimistic and interpret it with more optimism. He is not, but also interprets it with optimism and the chain in the telephone game is also a usual pessimist. But they like Guardians and I take it you probably don’t?

All of which is to say you may still not like the finished product, even if the facts and figures sound great, it may misconnect. And I don’t think Merlin will be whatsoever at fault if it does, nor the source. So caveat emptor.

To confirm to others, yes we were both present to witness what was said (among a handful of others who have accounts here). One thing that was definitely not vague and unspecific were the claims they made about the amount of figures in the finale scene specifically.

I brought this scene up specifically to request clarification on whether Archive's claims and renders are accurate to the amount of characters present (I showed these renders to the source). They assured me that they were not, and that the finalized version of this scene has far more characters than what is seen in them. They also clarified that the entire ride would have a ton of AA's, but they singled out the finale specifically as having "easily as many AA's as Splash". And I trust them to know the difference between a sparse group of 9, compared with two or three times that number (WDW's Splash had approximately 17 AA's in that scene while DL had about 26).

 

[Drew the Disney Dude]

These are screenshots from a TikTok live so the quality is horrible, but scaffolding went up overnight on the left side. Looks like they are finally going to theme it!

 

[Disney Analyst]

View attachment 768785View attachment 768786

These are screenshots from a TikTok live so the quality is horrible, but scaffolding went up overnight on the left side. Looks like they are finally going to theme it!

Phew!

 

[EagleScout610]

View attachment 768785View attachment 768786

These are screenshots from a TikTok live so the quality is horrible, but scaffolding went up overnight on the left side. Looks like they are finally going to theme it!

I wonder if they left it for last because it requires the least amount of work to convert it from Splash, given it was re-painted during the last refurb Splash had.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

I wonder if they left it for last because it requires the least amount of work to convert it from Splash, given it was re-painted during the last refurb Splash had.

Work on other parts of the facade needed to be completed before ride system testing could begin.

Now that those parts are finished, ride system testing has started and work can begin on the parts of the facade whose scaffolding won't impact that.

 

[Purduevian]

Also I very much appreciate you breaking all this down. I’m a nerd who loves to know about all the ops factors that go into running rides, so I always enjoying learning more where I can

Theme park logistics/operations are fascinating to me. I recommend the YouTube channel ElToroRyan. I don't think he's done a Disney ride yet and is only focused on rollercoasters, but here is his video on Hagrid's
Problematic Roller Coasters - Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure - One Of The Most Complicated Attractions

Flume rides work very different in that most of the ride does not operate in "block zones" as logs are allowed to bump into each other, exceptions are the lifts and drops.

 

[Sectorkeeper71]

Theme park logistics/operations are fascinating to me. I recommend the YouTube channel ElToroRyan. I don't think he's done a Disney ride yet and is only focused on rollercoasters, but here is his video on Hagrid's
Problematic Roller Coasters - Hagrid's Motorbike Adventure - One Of The Most Complicated Attractions

Flume rides work very different in that most of the ride does not operate in "block zones" as logs are allowed to bump into each other, exceptions are the lifts and drops.

I’ve seen a few of his vids, he definitely does go into the nuts and bolts of some of that stuff which is super interesting!

And agreed, they’re sorta their own animal. I recall being on splash a bunch where we were pretty much bump drafting another log through certain scenes and then have to get held up once we got to a lift or drop.

 

[Brer Oswald]

Mickey and Star Wars are modern trackless rides, and as such have a lot of empty corridors. There's definitely a sense of emptiness to them as a whole, but none of the empty space in them screams "that clearly looks like a platform custom made for an AA but was left empty", unlike the spaces in Tiana. The scenery and few figures they have are all flattened tightly against the walls to allow the vehicles a wide berth. Even Frozen doesn't have a whole lot of empty spaces that clearly and specifically look like the were supposed to contain more figures.

Beauty and the Beast has a couple of these empty platforms at least in the finale, some of which were indeed occupied and others not. But again, this area was all replicated directly from a place in the movie. The ride system again fills up most of the ballroom floor and all of the other figures have to be shoved up against the walls to make way for the huge vehicles.

But I am again not just basing this on my own observations. I was definitively told by my source (who has an excellent track record and who claims to have very recently personally seen finalized full scene mockups of the entire ride) that these spaces would in fact be occupied by animatronics when complete. Take that however you like though. I'm also not the only one even in this thread who has heard from imagineers who claim this ride "won't disappoint" when it comes to a large quantity of AA's and when comparing against Splash.

The only one to show proof of anything is Splash Archives, so that’s who I tend to go with regarding info about this project. Not to say his info is infallible, but the track record for “unique” info has definitely been a lot better than other sources.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

The only one to show proof of anything is Splash Archives, so that’s who I tend to go with regarding info about this project. Not to say his info is infallible, but the track record for “unique” info has definitely been a lot better than other sources.

The source i've spoken with has an excellent track record as well. On both this attraction as well as many others. They were the one who broke that initial info dump I posted back in 2022. While everyone else was assuming this was still a low budget overlay with hollowed out sets and very few AA's. This includes the amount of new original major characters being created. And later (again before anyone else) that the AA's would not be face projected. I was also told in June last year that the attraction was going to open significantly earlier than originally planned, some at WDI pushing for 5-6 months earlier. That all ended up being spot-on.

I'll reiterate that I think the renders Archive posted do originate from Disney, not fanmade fakes. My contention is the way in which people are trying to extrapolate information and jump to conclusions based on what is and isn't present in them. These renders are extremely simplistic and were clearly being used for internal testing for certain figures and angles, they're not in a remotely complete enough state to be making any concrete assertions about how many figures will be present in the final show-ready scene. Whether these assertions are from Splash Archive, or from his friend who got ahold of the renders and was simply relayed their own claims, I do not know. But I suspect there is some mistaken information involved here.

When Archive first posted about these renders on Twitter in July of last year, he claimed that it would only have six animatronics, as the official finalized number. That post is still up for reference-

When Archive was informed that he was missing three additional characters that had already been confirmed over two months prior to this tweet, he changed the number to 9 in a post on this forum. And he said that 9 was now the true final number with no chance of any additional figures beyond that. Something i'm inclined to believe is not the case. I suspect that Archive's numbers were inferred based on counting how many characters physically appear in the renders, and that they adjusted that number after they discovered that Disney had already confirmed there were more.

To reiterate, the fact that every one of these renders demonstrates a different combination of characters (one of them without any characters at all, and another showing two in a basic t-pose stance) should at least serve as a warning not to jump to conclusions about what the final count will be.

At this point, I am not the only one on this forum who heard that the ride will have a very impressive quantity of AA's. I don't think anyone has been told a specific number yet, or they're keeping things close to the chest if they have been. But several people with good track records here have independently heard from their own sources that the "dozens" claim by Disney is the real deal. And not just a meager 24 or even 36, but considerably more still. Allegedly something that should satisfy people who valued that particular aspect of Splash.

 

[Disney Analyst]

The source i've spoken with has an excellent track record as well. On both this attraction as well as many others. They were the one who broke that initial info dump I posted back in 2022 when everyone else was assuming this was still a low budget overlay with hollowed out sets and very few AA's. This includes the amount of new original major characters being created, and that the AA's would not be face projected. As well as the fact that the attraction was going to open significantly earlier than originally planned.

I'll reiterate that I think the renders Archive posted did originate from Disney, not fanmade fakes. My contention is the way in which people are trying to extrapolate information and jump to conclusions based on what is and isn't present in them. These renders are extremely primitive and being used for testing internally, they're not in a remotely complete enough state to be making any assertions about how many figures are to be included. Whether those assertions are from Splash Archive, or from his friend who he says got ahold of the renders and simply relayed their own claims.

When Archive first posted about these renders on Twitter in July last year, he claimed that it would only have six animatronics, as the official finalized number. That post is still up for reference-

View attachment 768840

When he was informed that he was missing three other characters that had already been confirmed nearly three months prior, he altered the claim to state that there would only be 9 figures. And THAT was now the true final number with no possible chance of any additional figures. This to me indicates that Archive's numbers are based on what either he or his friend are seeing from the renders, along with whatever else Disney has confirmed to the public so far.

To reiterate, the fact that every one of these renders demonstrates a different combination of characters present (one of them without any characters at all, and another showing two in a t-pose) should at least serve as a warning not to jump to conclusions here.

At this point, I am not the only one on this forum who heard that the ride will have a very impressive quantity of AA's. I don't think anyone has been told a specific number yet, they're keeping things close to the chest if they have. But several people with good track records here have also now independently heard from their own sources that the "dozens" claim by Disney is the real deal. And that it doesn't mean a meager 24 or even 36, but considerably more still. Allegedly something that should satisfy people who valued that particular aspect of Splash.

I just wanted to chime in and state you have explained your reasoning very clearly, and you don't owe anyone further explanation.

I also agree with you that there are far more AAs than some on here want to push, and now we just wait to see who was right all along.

 

[TomboyJanet]

I’ve seen a few of his vids, he definitely does go into the nuts and bolts of some of that stuff which is super interesting!

And agreed, they’re sorta their own animal. I recall being on splash a bunch where we were pretty much bump drafting another log through certain scenes and then have to get held up once we got to a lift or drop.

I like to yell things out like where'd you learn to drive nj?

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

I just wanted to chime in and state you have explained your reasoning very clearly, and you don't owe anyone further explanation.

I also agree with you that there are far more AAs than some on here want to push, and now we just wait to see who was right all along.

I'm not at all unwilling to admit to being wrong and apologize if it turns out I am. Just relaying what it currently looks like to me, as well as what was specifically told to me by someone I have a lot of longstanding trust. They have already gotten a staggeringly large amount of details on this ride correct so far. And in this instance, the details on the AA's were stated to be backed up with strong visual evidence very recently provided by imagineers working on the ride right now.