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

retr0gate

Well-Known Member
Like I said, confirmation bias.
I agree that an insane amount of negativity has haunted this thread since it's conception (look at any of my old posts and you'll see me basically pleading for people to give the ride a chance) but I think it's unfair to dismiss anyone who has legitimate criticism of the ride by claiming "confirmation bias." I for one haven't ridden it in person yet so I'm reserving my judgement until I do (hopefully tomorrow). I've skimmed the POV out of curiosity and as somebody who's been looking forward to this ride for a while, I am cautiously optimistic. Back when we knew next to nothing about this attraction, a lot of the hate was unwarranted because there was not much to base it off of. Now that we have access to the "full" experience, the same cannot be said. If somebody is sharing their opinion and giving us detailed, reasonable explanations on why they feel the way they do, that's not confirmation bias, it's just their personal preference based on what's physically there.
 

_caleb

Well-Known Member
So then using that same argument, would it be fair to say that all the people who have previewed TBA and given it glowing feedback should not be counted on because Disney gave them special access and they may (likely) have to give positive feedback?
Yeah, maybe. The difference being that their biased opinions were confirmed by actual in-person experience (vs. a bad POV video).
 

JohnD

Well-Known Member
No.
It’s not impressive in the slightest and I don’t get why others are pretending it is. As you said, so much more space could have been used for more AAs.
That’s like counting the number of stars on Space Mountain and bragging about it because surely THAT is what will blow people’s socks off about the attraction.
Thank you!
 

erstwo

Well-Known Member
The text says "THE SWEETEST STORY EVER TOLD"
It's a Bing Crosby song

View attachment 790256 (via AI enhancement)
Specifically, it's 2:50 into the song. "For that's the sweetest story ever told"
Interestingly, "the sweetest story ever told" is often used to describe Cinderella, but this specifically is sheet music for the Bing Crosby song, which was released in 1945.

I love this. I hope the story of why it was included comes out eventually.

I'm a hopeless romantic, so I'm imagining it was someone's grandparent's favorite song, song at their wedding, or something along those lines. And they snuck a little Easter egg in the ride.

Maybe someone has already figured it out?
 

JohnD

Well-Known Member

Disney’s Splash Mountain Set to Reopen With Princess Tiana Theme​


Brooks Barnes, Todd Anderson


Black Disney Princess Ride Replaces Splash Mountain and Its Racist History​

The ride was closed last year because of its connection to a racist film. Disney overhauled it to focus on Tiana, Disney’s first Black princess, drawing praise and backlash.

Riders in a log flume raise their arms as they come down an incline.

Disney’s new ride, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, will open to the public at Walt Disney World on June 28.

In the summer of 2020, as a reckoning on racial justice swept the country, Disney said it would rip out Splash Mountain, a wildly popular flume ride with a racist back story.

Some people cheered, saying the move was long overdue: After 31 years at Disneyland in California and 28 at Walt Disney World in Florida, the attraction — with its animal minstrels from “Song of the South,” the radioactive 1946 movie — had to go.

But Disney also faced blowback. Last year, when Splash Mountain finally closed, someone started a makeshift memorial near its entrance — the kind that pops up at scenes of horrific crimes. Distraught fans spirited away jars of the water. More than 100,000 fans signed a petition calling on Disney to reverse its “absurd” decision.

Now, Disney is rolling out Splash Mountain’s replacement, which is based on “The Princess and the Frog,” the 2009 animated musical that introduced Disney’s first Black princess. The lighthearted new ride, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, will open to the public on June 28 at Disney World, with a similar version expected to arrive at Disneyland by the end of the year.


A wide view of a set designed to look like a bayou, with a water tower in the background.

The ride is the first marquee attraction in Disney theme park history to be based on a Black character.


One group of log flume riders entering a tunnel with another group beside them going down an incline.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure uses the same ride tracks as Splash Mountain.

It’s a historic moment for Disney: After 69 years in the theme park business, the company will have a marquee attraction based on a Black character. Disney has spent at least $150 million on the bicoastal project, analysts estimate. (A Disney spokesman declined to comment on the cost.)

“For young Black children, it is, of course, a wonderful and amazing way to show representation,” Anika Noni Rose, who voices Tiana in the film and recorded new lines for the ride, said when the project was announced. “For children who don’t look like Tiana, it is a way to open their eyes.”

Disney has remade rides before, often to howls from devotees, but this particular overhaul is especially delicate. In recent years, Disney has found itself enmeshed in nationwide debates over diversity and inclusion initiatives, with prominent Republican politicians and conservative media pundits pointing to Disney as an example of corporate political correctness run amok.

The pressure has started to die down, in part because Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is no longer running for president and attacking “Woke Disney” at campaign stops. Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, has also repeatedly said he has moved Disney away from “agenda-driven” content.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure could drag Disney back onto the cultural battlefield. Or it could provide more evidence that the debate has moved on.

“Our parks are treasured, and our fans care deeply about how they evolve and change — just as we do,” Josh D’Amaro, Disney’s theme park chairman, said in an interview. “One thing fans always tell me is ‘If you change it, promise to make it even better.’ And I think we’ve delivered on that promise with Tiana.”


Spectators watch an animatronic show with a large alligator and a princess on a stage.

In the ride, Tiana and her trumpet-playing alligator pal, Louis, are looking to form a band.
Image
An animatronic statue of Tiana standing on a stage surrounded by trees and grass.

Out of Disney’s entire character roster, Tiana ranks No. 2 in popularity among Black women.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure uses the same ride tracks as Splash Mountain, and riders still travel in vehicles made to look like hollowed-out logs. But everything else has been redesigned. Instead of a suspenseful story involving Br’er Rabbit’s getting tossed into a briar patch, the new attraction focuses on a Mardi Gras party: Tiana and her pal Louis, a trumpet-playing alligator, are searching for critters to form a band.

Halfway through, the jolly Mama Odie, a voodoo queen in “The Princess and the Frog” and now a “bayou fairy godmother,” casts a spell, supposedly shrinking riders to the size of fireflies.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure also has a pointed new catchphrase: “Everybody’s welcome.”

As he rode Tiana’s Bayou Adventure with a reporter during a test-opening phase, Ted Robledo, the attraction’s executive creative director, pointed out numerous inclusive touches — decorative items in Spanish and French, reflecting the multicultural history of New Orleans; a diversity of music (jazz, zydeco, blues) playing on the sound system.

“That’s a nod to the Indigenous people in the region,” Mr. Robledo said, referring to a Choctaw stickball racket in a diorama near the ride’s entrance.


Ted Robledo, in a green polo shirt, stands in front of the leafy green outside of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.


“It had kind of run its course,” Ted Robledo, the executive creative director of the new ride, said of Splash Mountain.


Riders under a sign reading “Tiana’s Foods.”

The ride’s catchphrase is “Everybody’s welcome.”

“We’re always looking at ways to cast a wider net,” Mr. Robledo said. “With the old property, for a variety of reasons, it wasn’t that relevant anymore. It had kind of run its course.”

“The Princess and the Frog,” about a working-class woman who becomes royalty, was a box office disappointment. Tiana, however, has become crucial to Disney. In consumer polls conducted by the company, she ranks No. 2 in popularity — out of Disney’s entire character roster — among Black women. (Characters from “The Lion King” are No. 1.)

Disney has high hopes for merchandise tied to the new attraction, which expands the movie’s story. (There are two gift shops near its exit.) An animated Tiana series is coming to Disney+ and will continue part of the story set up by the ride.


A set that looks like a dining room with an old-fashioned typewriter on the counter in the background.

Jazz, zydeco and blues music plays on the sound system during the ride.


A jar of red chili peppers and a jar of green jalapeño peppers on a counter in front of a window.

There are numerous touches, including culinary, that nod to the characters’ New Orleans roots.

“Tiana is a modern princess who resonates with everyone,” Mr. D’Amaro said. “She wasn’t born into royalty, but her story of perseverance and pride is timeless. This enduring quality is crucial for our parks’ attractions, as they need to entertain across generations.”

Mr. D’Amaro likened complaints about Splash Mountain’s removal to a prior situation at the Disneyland Resort. In 2017, Disney closed the popular Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, a hotel with malfunctioning elevators, and remade it around Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy.” Fans booed — until they had a chance to ride the replacement.

“It was a controversial decision at the time, but by introducing a modern story with different emotions, we created an entirely new experience,” Mr. D’Amaro said, noting that visitor ratings of the remade Tower of Terror soared.


A wide view of Disney’s Magic Kingdom park as seen from the top of a roller coaster.

Of Tiana, one Disney executive said, “Her story of perseverance and pride is timeless.”



Water splashes riders at the bottom of a log flume.

One devoted fan of Splash Mountain said the new ride was “just as great.”

This month, Disney posted a nine-minute video tour of the new Tiana attraction on the internet. As of Monday, it had been viewed 625,000 times, with 10,000 people giving it a thumbs up and 38,000 a thumbs down. The ride “seems to lack dramatical tension and stakes,” Jim Shull, a retired Disney parks designer, wrote on X, based on the video. A smattering of Splash Mountain die-hards nicknamed the new ride Tiana’s Bayou Blunder.

The reaction has been much more positive from those who have ridden the attraction, which is in a soft-opening period.

“I loved it,” Victoria Wade, a social media influencer from Baltimore, said on X on Thursday. “I love how this whole attraction adds more to the continuation of Tiana’s story.” She called the ride’s 48 animatronic figures “absolutely incredible.”

Drew Smith, 21, a self-described Disney “super fan” from Windermere, Fla., talked his way onto the ride during a testing phase. “Splash Mountain was my absolute favorite attraction since I was a little kid, and I’m extremely happy to say that the new ride is just as great,” he said in an interview. “Don’t believe the haters!”
Congratulations on the call out, @Drew the Disney Dude!
 

JohnD

Well-Known Member
Does anyone know if it's likely they would keep Tiana running in Jan/Feb, or if they'll shut it down for maintenance the way they used to Splash? Wondering since it's so new if they would just keep it up due to demand even though FL temperatures flucuate a little more during that timeframe.
Typically, the ride always goes down during that time for refurbishment. There is speculation it would stay open this time because it was closed for so long and hasn't run continuously as that ride system normally does. But we don't really know.
 

celluloid

Well-Known Member
I've seen this policy for travel agencies. I'm assuming it's something similar for popular influencers? They make money off Disney and are advertising Disney’s products so it doesn’t seem unreasonable to me that Disney would have rules for them. If I was an influencer I imagine it might be tempting to hold back any negative opinions I had toward the parks though.

It is similar in the nomenclature sense. The negative and positive transparency though... People just have to remember that Influencers are in it for their business as well. And under that, Disney is keeping them for The Disney company's interests.
 
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_caleb

Well-Known Member
I was extremely reasonable and relatively optimistic (if cautiously so) about this retheme prior to it opening. Anyone who has read my posts in this thread will know this. It utterly failed to live up to any of the moderate expectations I had in place.
Yes, I believe I've read all of your posts in this thread (and the one from which it proceeded). From my perspective, you started out pretty negative. Then, as you got more inside information, you became much more optimistic. Obviously, the number of AAs (and the degrees of articulation) were important to you.

And then that fixed-POV video was released and you were back where you started: negative. I'm not saying that your opinions aren't valid, or that you haven't been thoughtful in your interactions here. I'm saying I think what you saw on the video confirmed your initial biases against the ride, and played a big part in your current disappointment.

And it's not just you, I think this has been true of lots of folks here.

Because we're never going to get away from direct comparisons with Splash, I've been looking for a side-by-side video that ISN'T a fixed-view to compare the frequency and composition of show scenes between Splash and TBA. I haven't been able to find one, but I think it might help address what I see as uninformed criticism based on nostalgia-tinted recollections. I think it would also be interesting to compare AA dialog scripts. I'm very interested in WDI commentary on the ride, too. I'm not trying to prove anyone right or wrong, and I'm not defending the ride. I'm just curious and find this sort of thing interesting.

If anyone comes across any of these, please share them here!
 

_caleb

Well-Known Member
I agree that an insane amount of negativity has haunted this thread since it's conception (look at any of my old posts and you'll see me basically pleading for people to give the ride a chance) but I think it's unfair to dismiss anyone who has legitimate criticism of the ride by claiming "confirmation bias." I for one haven't ridden it in person yet so I'm reserving my judgement until I do (hopefully tomorrow). I've skimmed the POV out of curiosity and as somebody who's been looking forward to this ride for a while, I am cautiously optimistic. Back when we knew next to nothing about this attraction, a lot of the hate was unwarranted because there was not much to base it off of. Now that we have access to the "full" experience, the same cannot be said. If somebody is sharing their opinion and giving us detailed, reasonable explanations on why they feel the way they do, that's not confirmation bias, it's just their personal preference based on what's physically there.
I agree with this! I did not intend to be dismissive at all, just to point out that I see that fixed-POV video as being a key factor in shaping initial impressions; for many (that I've seen)–but certainly not all–it sort of just confirmed whatever they initially thought.

To be clear: "There are long empty stretches" is a perfectly valid criticism from someone who came to that conclusion by watching ridethrough videos that showed all the show scenes. That same criticism from someone who's only seen the fixed-POV video (as we saw in the flurry of posts after it was released, but before any other, non-fixed POVs were available) seems less valid to me.
 

Professortango1

Well-Known Member
Why do you say this? The queue backstory is entirely divorced from and irrelevant to the story of the ride.

I suppose it is what you would call the "queue backstory." If the backstory is the backstory behind the creation of the queue as in Tiana's dad is a vet and the ride and food processing plant are located on and in a Salt Dome, and it is a Co-Op....then yeah, all of that doesn't matter to the ride at all.

If we are talking about the plot elements set up by the queue like Tiana hosting a party and inviting folks and people being assigned tasks like finding musicians, then it does tie into the ride.
 

Disney Analyst

Well-Known Member
Scott’s review:



“Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is a win for Magic Kingdom Park and Walt Disney World. Here are my overall thoughts, but a warning — my praise for the ride far outweighs my criticisms. I'm a big believer in not shaming others for their lived experiences, so I'm not here to make a case for or against anything. Just my thoughts.

I loved the critters. They bring a classic Disney theme park charm to the ride. I wish Disney had used some of the space in the ride to give us more of the critters. Maybe show us some of the critters' homes? Maybe a log full of critters? Or maybe find a way to weave more of the story in Critter Co-op into the attraction itself.

The animatronics are exceptionally impressive. I loved Splash Mountain, but seeing these advanced AAs on a log flume is still mind-boggling. Disney is still working on audio timing and sync (the ride officially opens on June 28) -- but even with those hiccups, the AAs never failed to impress. I'm still blown away by Mama Odie.

Many people have said this, but the ride feels similar to a classic Fantasyland dark ride but on a thrilling log flume attraction. As someone who loves both of those things, I'm not sure why that's used as a criticism by some - but it's an accurate observation. And I know some fans feel the ride needs a villain - and while I would have loved to see Dr. Facilier featured in the attraction, the attraction doesn't *need* a villain. The ride has plenty of thrills and fun without a good vs. bad dynamic.

The story does feel unnecessarily bloated, often jumping around more than any of the frogs you see in the attraction. I wish Disney had kept a simpler narrative instead of trying to combine two or three stories, but that's just me playing armchair Imagineer. Even with narrative nitpicks, the story works (even if you might need to explain to your kids that we've been shrunk down to the size of a frog).

Looking ahead vs. looking around: On Splash Mountain, you're constantly looking around at the scenes and scenery that surround you. On Tiana's Bayou Adventure, you're often looking ahead at upcoming scenes. The scenes in Tiana's Bayou Adventure are often packed with multiple characters (like the zydeco band) -- but when you're looking ahead instead of around, I get why some people have said the ride feels shorter than Splash Mountain (even though it's the same length).

The POV video released by Disney did a disservice to the whole attraction experience. At the very least, Disney should have filmed and shared a detailed look at the impressive attraction queue. If you're leaning into a bloated storyline, the queue serves a huge purpose — and the ride (like most) is a lesser experience without the story-building in the queue.

Overall, the attraction is a win for Disney. My kiddos gave it a 10/10 and loved everything about it — the story, the music, the critters. All of it. When we were riding through the second time, I was ready to start nitpicking when my 10-year-old read aloud the quote on the back of the water tower: "Never, ever lose sight of what's really important." I quickly unfolded my arms and was ready to party.”
 

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