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

[Disstevefan1]

I beams being installed to support all the fake foliage added to the mountain salt mine.

 

[TheCoasterNerd]

I beams being installed to support all the fake foliage

Well, we wouldn't want it to blow downtown, would we?

 

[SilentWindODoom]

What is going on here? The reason for the colors is obvious, but what for? The bottom of some sort of small pool in the queue? Given the blue border, I'm assuming this is the final arrangement. Is it going to be glued into place and be a ceiling feature? I've no idea.

 

[EagleScout610]

View attachment 769941

Nothing exciting today, but they are slightly pushing back the walls near the entrance — seems like a ton of work for nothing.

If you look closely you can see the rare Albino Bayou Frog (Albinus frogeuos splashidownus)

 

[Drew the Disney Dude]

View attachment 769949

What is going on here? The reason for the colors is obvious, but what for? The bottom of some sort of small pool in the queue? Given the blue border, I'm assuming this is the final arrangement. Is it going to be glued into place and be a ceiling feature? I've no idea.

Your guess is as good as mine, but to your point, the blue border starting definitely means this is some sort of theming element. There's multiple interesting structures in the queue as of now (2nd photo), so I'm curious how the final look is going to be. At this rate, the queue won't be done until much closer to opening.

 

[tparris]

Logs are being cycled now

 

[aladdin2007]

Logs are being cycled now

so do we know yet if they are done or is the cheap patch job final

 

[Disstevefan1]

so do we know yet if they are done or is the cheap patch job final

In response to guest demand to open ASAP, and coincidentally to save costs, they will go with the cheap patch job.

 

[BrerFoxesBayouAdventure]

If you look closely you can see the rare Albino Bayou Frog (Albinus frogeuos splashidownus)

Are these frogs animatronic or statues?

 

[JoeCamel]

Are these frogs animatronic or statues?

Ribbit

 

[Homemade Imagineering]

I’m kind of surprised they decided to install the frog statues without paint, you’d think they’d want to complete figure finishing and hold off on installing something exposed to the elements until a handful of weeks before opening. I’d imagine they’re waiting until just before opening to paint em anyways, as it’d be pointless to retouch something guests aren’t seeing rn. On a side note, I would assume most of the attention is being shifted to the queue as I’d imagine it’s the most incomplete section. The interior is likely finished with all the testing going on, although by now I am sure it’s all about reconfiguring show elements to synchronize the vehicles. One thing I am curious about is whether they’ll begin testing exterior attraction audio during park hours

 

[zipadee999]

I’m kind of surprised they decided to install the frog statues without paint, you’d think they’d want to complete figure finishing and hold off on installing something exposed to the elements until a handful of weeks before opening. I’d imagine they’re waiting until just before opening to paint em anyways, as it’d be pointless to retouch something guests aren’t seeing rn. On a side note, I would assume most of the attention is being shifted to the queue as I’d imagine it’s the most incomplete section. The interior is likely finished with all the testing going on, although by now I am sure it’s all about reconfiguring show elements to synchronize the vehicles. One thing I am curious about is whether they’ll begin testing exterior attraction audio during park hours

For the audio, I wonder if they’ll keep the 3-song structure from Splash. The ride system was designed for it where each song coincides with a drop

 

[FerretAfros]

View attachment 769949

What is going on here? The reason for the colors is obvious, but what for? The bottom of some sort of small pool in the queue? Given the blue border, I'm assuming this is the final arrangement. Is it going to be glued into place and be a ceiling feature? I've no idea.

If I had to guess, it’s probably going to be exposed glass aggregate that will be embedded in the concrete pavement. Looking at the way this is set up, these appear to be panels that will be cast face down (so the colors can be arranged before the concrete is poured), and then once the panels have cured, they can be flipped over, moved into place, and surrounded by cast-in-place concrete to surround it.

Glass can be used to add a little bit of color and/or sparkle to otherwise-traditional concrete. It’s very durable and will hold up well to the constant traffic of a theme park. The concrete itself can be dyed or stained any number of colors to further accent the area (given the dark glass colors shown, I would guess something lighter, maybe yellow to fit the Mardi Gras color scheme).

While not super common, they’ve used this technique in the parks before for accents here and there. Here’s a photo of something similar in front of Mission:Space:

I’m not sure that the aesthetic of this technique lends itself to either historic New Orleans or a rustic swamp, but I suppose it could be used as an accent in areas where they want people to pay a little more attention to their exact location, like at a FP touch point or queue entry under the attraction marquee.

 

[SilentWindODoom]

If I had to guess, it’s probably going to be exposed glass aggregate that will be embedded in the concrete pavement. Looking at the way this is set up, these appear to be panels that will be cast face down (so the colors can be arranged before the concrete is poured), and then once the panels have cured, they can be flipped over, moved into place, and surrounded by cast-in-place concrete to surround it.

Glass can be used to add a little bit of color and/or sparkle to otherwise-traditional concrete. It’s very durable and will hold up well to the constant traffic of a theme park. The concrete itself can be dyed or stained any number of colors to further accent the area (given the dark glass colors shown, I would guess something lighter, maybe yellow to fit the Mardi Gras color scheme).

While not super common, they’ve used this technique in the parks before for accents here and there. Here’s a photo of something similar in front of Mission:Space:
View attachment 770093

I’m not sure that the aesthetic of this technique lends itself to either historic New Orleans or a rustic swamp, but I suppose it could be used as an accent in areas where they want people to pay a little more attention to their exact location, like at a FP touch point or queue entry under the attraction marquee.

That seems to be it. The material around the circumference looked far too flimsy for permanent construction, especially if water were involved, but as a concrete form to be pulled away afterward... it just makes perfect sense.

While the buildings are historic and rustic, they're being repurposed and we've seen what was done with the old building that became Tiana's Place. Perhaps the center of the mill entrance if that's redone? Or it could just be at a major junction or such.

 

[TheEPCOTHistorian]

I wish WDI would stop trying to fit modern and contemporary design into attractions that take place in eras which wouldn’t have featured these installations.

It’s a commonly recurring situation that continuously leaves me puzzled. You’re going through the trouble of fully immersing me Iin an employee owned food co-op in 1920’s New Orleans, yet presenting the space with numerous features that take design queues from… the later 1900’s. Yeah. That makes sense.

 

[peter11435]

I wish WDI would stop trying to fit modern and contemporary design into attractions that take place in eras which wouldn’t have featured these installations.

It’s a commonly recurring situation that continuously leaves me puzzled. You’re going through the trouble of fully immersing me Iin an employee owned food co-op in 1920’s New Orleans, yet presenting the space with numerous features that take design queues from… the later 1900’s. Yeah. That makes sense.

Are you referring to the unfinished concrete forms?

 

[bmr1591]

That waterfall has a low setting that they would switch to either in the colder months or whenever a boat halted there for more than a few seconds. It doesn't really get people wet at that setting, and i'm fine with it remaining in such a case.

I'm more curious whether they've removed the soakers that would drench the boats between the first and second lifts. Those I hope they leave off, or again switch them permanently to the low setting they would often set them to so they don't reach the boats. I haven't spotted any of the pipes in any of the construction photos yet, though getting angles of them is tricky.

They should do what Japan does and have a line to get really wet in that has it spray a lot.

 

[Tha Realest]

I wish WDI would stop trying to fit modern and contemporary design into attractions that take place in eras which wouldn’t have featured these installations.

It’s a commonly recurring situation that continuously leaves me puzzled. You’re going through the trouble of fully immersing me Iin an employee owned food co-op in 1920’s New Orleans, yet presenting the space with numerous features that take design queues from… the later 1900’s. Yeah. That makes sense.

Are you referring to the unfinished concrete forms?

I don’t want to speak for him/her, but probably talking about stuff like this

 

[peter11435]

I don’t want to speak for him/her, but probably talking about stuff like this

View attachment 770159

I meant in regards to Tiana.

 

[Tha Realest]

I meant in regards to Tiana.

Again, not to speak for them, but the mural artwork and other design/narrative choices seem incongruent for the ostensible time period.