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

[Casper Gutman]

What I’ve noticed is a curious and sometimes baffling inconsistency in the quality of the Imagineers’ output. It seems to me what’s missing is strong creative oversight and guidance.

I’m afraid I disagree a bit. Yes, they’ve produced a few gems, but generally they’ve been VERY consistent. FEA, LM, RotR, Zootopia, GotG, even the new Fantasy Springs rides have VERY similar sensibilities. If, when it was first announced, this board had drawn up a plan for what the completed TBA would look like based on past experience, I think we would have gotten VERY close.

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

What about bookings? Is that a fair metric? By many accounts this is was pushed to open in summer so they had something to entice bookings this summer and fall.

Has the website crashed today?

No, not really, it isn't. Every ride is built with some degree of wanting to bring people en masse into parks, but not every one will not even the really good ones.

The metric is gonna be are people getting on it and are they enjoying it. That's pretty much the long and short of it. Bookings this summer aren't gonna mean jack when the ride is gonna be standing for decades. It's about how people feel once they get off of it, which is the true measure of success for every single attraction Disney or any other theme park for that matter ever build. But I've no doubt in my mind people will find a way to spend people riding it and loving it into some negative thing as well.

 

[SuddenStorm]

The metric is gonna be are people getting on it and are they enjoying it.

That is absolutely not how Disney is going to measure the success of this. New attractions are gauged on how many new bookings they drive to the park, and merchandise sales.

If this ride doesn't increase attendance this year and next relative to how many bookings Splash drove, and if it's merchandise doesn't take off Disney won't consider it a success.

 

[pigglewiggle]

It really doesn’t show that. I’m glad you think so positively of the online community and haven’t gotten into the weeds of hate brigading on sites like YouTube, Rotten Tomatoes, etc. But the likes and dislikes on videos like this, movie trailers, music videos, etc are not and never will be an accurate reflection of how people feel positive or negative. They visit these sites with an agenda be it a good or bad one.

Just needs to be repeated.

 

[the_rich]

That is absolutely not how Disney is going to measure the success of this. New attractions are gauged on how many new bookings they drive to the park, and merchandise sales.

If this ride doesn't increase attendance this year and next relative to how many bookings Splash drove, and if it's merchandise doesn't take off Disney won't consider it a success.

I'm obviously only one person, but I wasn't planning on going this year. Between wanting to see this and moana I decided to book an August trip.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Hey, why the heck are there no giant fireflies in the shrinking section? You know, the most visually unique and amusing designs in the franchise, linked to one of the most memorable characters?

 

[JohnD]

There’s just clearly way more fauna and flora than animals/animatronics. Definitely less exciting… also I personally don’t like how spotlighted Tiana/others gets versus softer lighting to blend into the scene.

Why at the very least they couldn't figure out there should be no less than a 1 for 1 replacement of AAs is beyond me. Instead, AAs are replaced with ... nothing.

 

[The Leader of the Club]

I don't think Maelstrom was anywhere near as beloved as Splash. I don't think any ride they've replaced thus far has been. We are in uncharted territory here.

Splash is the only attraction in my lifetime that I would say closed as an E-Ticket. The ONLY thing that MIGHT come close is the original Journey into Imagination, but that predates me by a few years.

 

[MK-fan]

Can someone explain this “shrinking part” for me. So the story is to find musicians for the party and they find all these critters to be part of the band and Tiana wants you to find more so she has Mama Odie shrink you to go into some log thing and find two frogs (all I saw) and then apparently that was enough so she makes you big again and has you go down a waterfall to get their quicker. Am I missing anything?

 

[Tha Realest]

No, not really, it isn't. Every ride is built with some degree of wanting to bring people en masse into parks, but not every one will not even the really good ones.

The metric is gonna be are people getting on it and are they enjoying it. That's pretty much the long and short of it. Bookings this summer aren't gonna mean jack when the ride is gonna be standing for decades. It's about how people feel once they get off of it, which is the true measure of success for every single attraction Disney or any other theme park for that matter ever build. But I've no doubt in my mind people will find a way to spend people riding it and loving it into some negative thing as well.

Well here’s a few other data points to use going forward. Will love to see how this stacks up!

Study says Splash Mountain is still Disney World's most popular ride, despite being shut down

MagicGuide's new study names Walt Disney World as the most popular park

www.orlandoweekly.com

 

[SpectroMan93]

The outdoor scenes before the indoor portion has absolutely nothing except for that trash sign. Splash had all the little critters houses, at least something to keep you entertained, for shame Disney, you dropped the ball on this one.

Honestly that’s the part that devastates me the most. Splash was excellent at creating its world before we even dropped into the show building. The little homes, clothes out to dry, all these signs that these critters are here but just out of sight. Those little hints built so much anticipation while also immersing you in the story.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Can someone explain this “shrinking part” for me. So the story is to find musicians for the party and they find all these critters to be part of the band and Tiana wants you to find more so she has Mama Odie shrink you to go into some log thing and find two frogs (all I saw) and then apparently that was enough so she makes you big again and has you go down a waterfall to get their quicker. Am I missing anything?

Mama Odie was as bored as the guests. Gotta entertain yourself somehow.

 

[Ice Gator]

So I finally got a chance to watch the whole ride through. It’s pretty. But yikes.

- As I feared, SO much dead space in the attraction. Not sure why when we’re rounding up the critters for the party, they’re just playing music. We see them do that in the finale- so I feel like there was a huge missed opportunity for some visual gags or having the critters doing other things before we get to the party and see them jamming out together. The bears are a great example of this.

- In the “Down the Bayou” segment, do they use audio of Jim Cummings’s Ray singing the song? If so, then that totally goes against the whole “it takes place after the film”, and proves Facilier was just cut because he was deemed “offensive”. 0 stakes or sense of “adventure” in the actual ride. It’s nothing but censored fluff compared to the animated film it’s based on.

- The finale song sounds nearly identical to la track from the Super Mario Odyssey video game…no really, look it up. It’s got more of a modern j-jazz beat to it than classic American jazz music.

- Not sure why Tiana’s Foods was so hyped up. I get it if we’re embarking from her farm or something but it did not need to be hammered in as much as it was. It’s like after they went from “Louis’s missing trumpet/New Orleans party storyline” to “Employee Owned DEI checklist storyline”, they pivoted AGAIN and some Tiana’s Foods segments remained as leftovers (pun intended).

- I really dislike the artwork on the poster for the attraction too. Way too simple imo- I think an art style less modern and handdrawn would have fit better. I hope we get some variants of that at some point down the line.

All in all, I see this as a downgrade which is a shame. There are some great segments and effects, but I think there needed to be a clearer vision in place before they began work on it.

 

[Tha Realest]

Honestly that’s the part that devastates me the most. Splash was excellent at creating its world before we even dropped into the show building. The little homes, clothes out to dry, all these signs that these critters are here but just out of sight. Those little hints built so much anticipation while also immersing you in the story.

You don’t like Outdoor LWTL?

 

[Incomudro]

Can someone explain this “shrinking part” for me. So the story is to find musicians for the party and they find all these critters to be part of the band and Tiana wants you to find more so she has Mama Odie shrink you to go into some log thing and find two frogs (all I saw) and then apparently that was enough so she makes you big again and has you go down a waterfall to get their quicker. Am I missing anything?

The fireflies I guess?
Are they in the band at the end?
I think they shrunk us down simply because someone said "What if we shrink them down?!"
From what I see, it doesn't accomplish anything, or even make us feel much smaller.
Some tall mushrooms, a large frog, and the image of Tiana peering at us.

 

[MK-fan]

I guess Imagineering didn’t listen to Mama Odie on this one. She says you gotta dig a little deeper and they didn’t even scratch the surface.

 

[DisneyJayBama]

Ruined

 

[Tha Realest]

I guess Imagineering didn’t listen to Mama Odie on this one. She says you gotta did a little deeper and they didn’t even scratch the surface

Everyone go home.

 

[mightynine]

Can someone explain this “shrinking part” for me. So the story is to find musicians for the party and they find all these critters to be part of the band and Tiana wants you to find more so she has Mama Odie shrink you to go into some log thing and find two frogs (all I saw) and then apparently that was enough so she makes you big again and has you go down a waterfall to get their quicker. Am I missing anything?

I need to rewatch it because I couldn’t tell if you’re there to find the musical fireflies or if that was a happy accident you stumbled across them.

 

[Professortango1]

\

- In the “Down the Bayou” segment, do they use audio of Jim Cummings’s Ray singing the song? If so, then that totally goes against the whole “it takes place after the film”, and proves Facilier was just cut because he was deemed “offensive”. 0 stakes or sense of “adventure” in the actual ride. It’s nothing but censored fluff compared to the animated film it’s based on.

I mean, the music throughout has this problem. I hear Mama Odie singing Dig a Little Deeper on the lift hill despite her also having dialogue at the same time. I hear Tiana singing Almost There right after we see her.

Previously the music would play the instrumental version first to introduce it then build into a full musical number with characters actually singing the songs "in person." The outside set up How Do You Do which then paid off after the first splash which was a fantastic reveal. For DL, Laughin Place was set up with the buzzing area and then after the 2nd dip the song exploded into singing. Laughin Place then moved to minor chords and became Burrow's Lament, which started as music underscore, built to a lament being sung, which then built into full choral music making the lift feel epic. After the drop we get the instrumental of Zip to let us reset and introduce the finale song before diving into the final scene to see it explode around us.

Now, they just have music from the movie playing under difference sequences.