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

[Jedi14]

I don't suppose I can fairly give an opinion until I actually experience it, but no music from the film?!?! Holy smokes! PaTF has an awesome soundtrack! If ever there was a ride you could book report, this could have been it!

Most of the songs from the movie are in this with the exception of three.

 

[DisneyFanatic12]

I don't suppose I can fairly give an opinion until I actually experience it, but no music from the film?!?! Holy smokes! PaTF has an awesome soundtrack! If ever there was a ride you could book report, this could have been it!

I’m confused by this comment… there’s multiple songs from the film!

 

[DisneyHead123]

I don't suppose I can fairly give an opinion until I actually experience it, but no music from the film?!?! Holy smokes! PaTF has an awesome soundtrack! If ever there was a ride you could book report, this could have been it!

No I don’t think that’s correct. Unless the POVs I watched added their own soundtracks. Pretty sure the music is featured though.

 

[Incomudro]

I’m confused by this comment… there’s multiple songs from the film!

Not the best one though.

 

[Centauri Space Station]

Not the best one though.

Dig a little deeper is there

 

[dreamfinding]

Are they selling Mardi Gras beads and plastic trumpets in the gift shop? If not, Disney management is truly lost.

I can picture it now: glow in the dark Mardi Gras beads!

Also, why didn’t we get a Louis popcorn bucket?

 

[Incomudro]

Dig a little deeper is there

That's a good one.
Just not the best one.

 

[Jedi14]

That's a good one.
Just not the best one.

Almost there is in this twice.

 

[TheRealSkull]

One positive thing I can say is "Down in New Orleans" is a great song to play at the beginning. Really sets the mood.

 

[TheRealSkull]

I'll have stuff on my YouTube next week and I actually had a 2.5 hour conversation with Chris and George at OrangeGrove 55 last night. They are posting that video today.

The storyline is very simple, yet exactly what has been advertised. We are going into the bayou in a last-minute search to find the critters to perform at the Mardi Gras party.

This is set up immediately from the millhouse scene, where she says we need to meet Louis up ahead to find them.

The first indoor scene is the one we saw in December 2022, the zydeco band, with Tiana and Louis. The way this scene is staged was gorgeous, and it's my 2nd favorite behind the finale.

Then we find the next band, the Rara band, which is made up of foxes and bears. After that, we see Tiana in her solo scene, where she says we need to keep searching high and low.

Mama Odie shows up, which Tiana and Louis are not aware of, and she makes us as small as a frog. We find the frog band, Las Ranitas Verdes, when we are small, and then the fireflies guide us to the "shortcut" which is the 50-foot drop.

We are made normal size as we are going up the drop, where we see Mama Odie as an A-1000 animatronic, and then sent down the drop to the party with all of the critters performing.

Great episode you did with them. OrangeGrove55 is underrated, people. Go check em' out, they break things down really well and have softened my view on this ride. Gonna give it a chance once I ride it soon!

Also, here's OrangeGrove55's channel:

OrangeGrove 55

Daily Content On Theme Park, Film, TV , Music + MORE !!

youtube.com

 

[IronRod]

I wonder why they added an additional dispatch area with a cast member before the first lift hill. That’s new.

 

[DisneyFanatic12]

I wonder why they added an additional dispatch area with a cast member before the first lift hill. That’s new.

I haven’t looked at the POVs really, but my guess is so that they can dispatch the logs without checking the restraints? Similar to Dinosaur possibly? Someone else can probably answer definitively, but that was where my mind went when I saw it.

 

[DisneyFanatic12]

One positive thing I can say is "Down in New Orleans" is a great song to play at the beginning. Really sets the mood.

It’s probably my most listened to song on my Spotify playlist, it’s a great song!

 

[Bill Cipher]

Alright, I have officially ridden the attraction and have a lot of thoughts. Not sure how novel any of this is because the page count of this thread jumped by 70+ pages since I ducked out to avoid spoilers so I apologize for retreading any ground.

Where to begin? Perhaps a goods vs bads to lay everything out and then some final thoughts. I would also like to state that I was coming into the ride with moderate expectations leaning positive and attempted to view the attraction on its own merits separate from its history as Splash Mountain (but then found that harder and harder to commit to).

The queue is nice and I quite enjoy the radio loop playing. The radio in particular gives a vibe that a tiny slice of New Orleans Square has come to WDW and does a good job at establishing Tiana as an important public figure. I absolutely love the lush greenery of the interior sets and dark lighting. The critter bands are very cute and add a great bit of liveliness to the spots they appear. The A1000s of Tiana and Louis are all a treat to see in full motion. Upon first hearing the rumors that there would be a shrinking/transformation portion to the ride I was highly skeptical it would be a good choice, but I think it turned out well and was a fun way to display the animatronic frogs much larger, as well as call back to the film. The primary thing to praise here is the finale scene and original song. The energy in that scene is great and really delivers the most complete part of the experience.

I generally don’t think the screens in this ride are too egregious or overbearing - they are actually quite minimal - but the shot of giant Tiana and Louis looking at the riders in the shrunken portion is the worst visual offender of the ride. It genuinely feels out of place and their dialogue could have been delivered with audio only to convey the same thing. As many have mentioned, there are quite a few empty stretches along the ride between characters. Not every ride has to be filled with animatronics to be good, and not every animated figure has to have complex motion to be effective at conveying what it needs to, but there is still a lot to be desired from the emptier scenes. The space between the 2nd band and the transformation dip drop is particularly empty, so much so that while on the ride you just instinctively look to watch the boat ahead of you complete the dialogue with Tiana right before the dip drop, only to immediately hear it again directed at your own boat. Though the A1000s are lovely, they are mainly used to just look at the ride vehicles and gesture at things. The finale is the only scene where it feels like the any A1000s are actually doing something within the narrative like dancing or playing music. Perhaps the greatest flaw of the ride though is that it lacks any poignant stakes, dramatic tension, or low beats. When designing a linear narrative experience a writer will typically create a graph laying out where the emotional high and low points of a story will be so they can fluctuate in a logical and satisfying manner. It feels to me that if you were to make something like that for this attraction it would be super flat and monotone with a lone spike at the finale. And while it’s true that not every attraction needs a well executed narrative or complex emotional arc to be really good, the issue lies in the nature of the attraction being a replacement.

I really tried to let this ride live on its own merits separate from Splash Mountain, but the positive elements of this ride come at the expense of another attraction, and they extract a heavy toll. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is by no means a bad attraction and far from the worst retheme in WDW, but it does not live up to the narrative, emotional stakes, and technical feats of its predecessor. It’s very much like Runaway Railway in that sense; it’s quite enjoyable and a decent ride on its own, but it should not have been a replacement in a park desperate for additional ride-through capacity. Even with the social issues surrounding Splash Mountain and Song of the South, there could have been tactful methods of updating the plot and concept with different characters to deliver the same strengths of the experience.

TL;DR: Don’t give in to the hysterics of people saying this is the worst attraction WDI has ever produced because it is a decent ride; but it does not evoke the spectacle of its predecessor, making it hard to enjoy for those that know what came before.

A couple notes and addendums to my initial review after viewing some POVs and further rumination:

I was originally displeased with the lull section between the 2nd critter band scene and the scene before the dip drop for being too empty compared to Splash, but I'm beginning to realize this is supposed to be an intentional "low moment" in the narrative before the shrinking scene. The primary thing that suggests this is the lower-tempo audio loop next to the wooden shack. I think this actually a good spot to put a short atmospheric section (Splash did this as well) but I'm not sure it's the best execution. In this spot, my eye was instinctively drawn to the Tiana animatronic further down the flume as it's delivering dialogue to the boat ahead. The audio bleed from that dialogue stole my attention and I missed the ambient audio cue. Something more than the wooden shack to draw the eye to the left side of the track would do greatly for this scene. Just after the segment of Tiana sitting on the stump and Louis looking in the log, we see some stationary figures of the frogs before the Mama Odie screen and dip drop. I know the frogs are there to kind of foreshadow the next scene, but I think they would be better utilized just after the wooden shack in the ambient section. I overlooked the static figures there on my first ride because they were competing for attention with Mama Odie, but putting them just after the shack would allow the Tiana and Louis figures to move further back into their scene and create a better flowing sightline in my opinion. This is all sounding very nitpicky though.

The section between the first and second bands is meant to be a small "scene" where we follow the line of fireflies. There is an effect of fireflies flowing in a line depicted on the leafy canopy ceiling with fiber-optic lights. This is a really great effect, but the scene also suffers in execution because it competes with the screen at the far wall; which is more likely to grab your attention and leave the sides of the boat feeling rather empty. It would have been nice to see this fiber-optic effect on the sides of the flume, and maybe even have it weave around some additional critters. Again, a bit nitpicky.

Regarding audio, I'm now aware that several characters have variations on their dialogue to make audio bleed issues less awkward. This isn't something I picked up on during my first ride, but it's a nice touch nonetheless.

I do not understand the criticism from many that the plot of the ride is complicated or hard to understand. I understand why some might find the queue backstory hard to grasp (while I personally disagree) but the on-ride plot is incredibly simple and easy to follow. The first lift hill Tiana blatantly states she is looking for musicians to play at her party, and Louis in the garden does the same. Before the former slippin' falls drop an audio cue of Mama Odie states we can find the musicians in the bayou. Then, each following appearance of Tiana and Louis reiterate that the musicians they find will be joining them at the party. I can see why the shrinking dialogue from Mama Odie might be hard to hear and understand, but this is immediately followed by visuals of a giant bottle, key, and frog to suggest we shrunk. Then Mama Odie explains she will grow us again so we can make it to the party, all while the vehicle is stopped at the bottom of the main lift hill. Her animatronic at the top of the lift reiterates we're going to the party, and then after the drop we actually go there, completing the plot. If anything, I think the dialogue is heavy-handed and feels somewhat childish, but that doesn't bother me nearly as much as I thought it would. Clearly the dialogue wasn't dumbed down enough for some!

Even though on the whole I prefer Splash Mountain as an attraction, I think it's disingenuous and in bad-faith to call Tiana's Bayou Adventure "soulless" as many have jumped to claim. While the direct plot of the ride is very simple to appeal to younger demographics, there is a surprising amount of subtext here. The attraction feels like a love letter to New Orleans and Louisiana as a whole. The different critter bands playing different styles of music pioneered by African-American artists represents bringing different people in a community together to create something no single person could have created themselves. This parallels the inception of jazz music, which many consider to be the heart and soul of New Orleans. The original song Special Spice also draws this as a parallel to New Orleans cuisine (also considered the city's heart and soul) which uses an eclectic array of ingredients to create its unique flavor. The ride is showing the creative intersection between the culinary and musical arts in a city prolific for both. It drives home that creating something alongside others will result in something none of the parties involved would have ever created on their own. Many are quick to say this ride feels like it was designed by committee, but it seems clear to me that was deliberately the intention. Whether or not one prefers that approach is entirely subject to opinion, but it's not devoid of character or clever design.

 

[Bayou]

I understand where you’re coming from with this but what’s the use in citing Tokyo Disney in comparison? Disney has no control over Tokyo, as we all know, they are owned by OLC who have deep unlimited pockets full of cash to spend on anything. The pockets of the Disney company and the 10 parks they own don’t go nearly as far. Disney’s favorite word is budget and it’s usually the final say on anything the Disneyparks brand puts out.

Because American Imagineers designed it. Also, Disney does have more control over Tokyo than people realize.

 

[SuddenStorm]

The like / dislike ratio just keeps getting worse for Disney.

 

[MK-fan]

Because American Imagineers designed it. Also, Disney does have more control over Tokyo than people realize.

Im in no way saying that the imagineers aren’t talented, they are amazing but in the end, it’s the Disney company who gets paid by the OLC who rent out their imagineers. OLC will provide the necessary budget for these imagineers to do amazing things, the Disney company won’t.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

This ride's problems were seemingly not due to it being underfunded. You don't have to believe me on the matter, several other reputable insiders on this forum have confirmed that it had a very healthy budget. The issues do seem to have been a result of gross mismanagement and just plain incompetence on the part of the team who designed this ride. And WDI lacking the talent necessary to pull it off.

Fantasy Springs has been in the planning phases since before 2015 when it was first announced (in a somewhat different form). When it was formally reannounced in 2018 and began construction shortly after, there was a final plan that had been settled on. Still years before Tiana's Bayou Adventure would even be announced, and even longer before TBA itself had a finalized plan and began construction. Fantasy Springs also had a different team than TBA. It also didn't help that a lot of people at WDI were fired or resigned during Covid and Chapek. I think even Fantasy Springs was affected by some key people departing while it was being built, but at least they had finalized plans that the remaining people could work with.

TBA i'd imagine was probably hit harder by the changes at WDI since they were happening while the project was still in its infancy and well before they had a settled on plan. But again, pretty important to stress that these were still very different teams working on the two projects regardless. Bob Iger also reportedly stuck his nose in TBA far more than was ordinary from park projects, so i'm curious if that meddling also affected the end results.

 

[Captain Neo]

Scorpion king era CG giant Tiana bopping her weird head up and down will forever haunt my nightmares

 

[EricsBiscuit]

This ride's problems were seemingly not due to it being underfunded. You don't have to believe me on the matter, several other reputable insiders on this forum have confirmed that it had a very healthy budget. The issues do seem to have been a result of gross mismanagement and just plain incompetence on the part of the team who designed this ride. And WDI lacking the talent necessary to pull it off.

Fantasy Springs has been in the planning phases since before 2015 when it was first announced (in a somewhat different form). When it was formally reannounced in 2018 and began construction shortly after, there was a final plan that had been settled on. Still years before Tiana's Bayou Adventure would even be announced, and even longer before TBA itself had a finalized plan and began construction. Fantasy Springs also had a different team than TBA. It also didn't help that a lot of people at WDI were fired or resigned during Covid and Chapek. I think even Fantasy Springs was affected by some key people departing while it was being built, but at least they had finalized plans that the remaining people could work with.

TBA i'd imagine was probably hit harder by the changes at WDI since they were happening while the project was still in its infancy and well before they had a settled on plan. But again, pretty important to stress that these were still very different teams working on the two projects regardless. Bob Iger also reportedly stuck his nose in TBA far more than was ordinary from park projects, so i'm curious if that meddling also affected the end results.

I think they have talent at WDI but they are handicapped by a design by committee method which is grossly inefficient. Contrast that with the Universal Creative of at least a couple years ago. It’s also probably why the international parks, especially TDR, have better quality attractions.