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

[brettf22]

One question I had after my ride. We got stopped right before the shrinking drop, right past the sitting Tiana. I was directly across from the Louis animatronic with his head stuck in the ground. As we sat there, I noticed a vertical piece of tree/rock work directly off the right hand side of the vehicle that was so close, I could easily touch it with my whole hand, without leaning out at all. It was, at most, a foot from the log, at face level. Was this there during Splash? I can’t imagine why they would place something so close to the human envelope of the ride.

Another interesting thing was that the Tiana and Louis animatronics stopped talking after a minute or so of logs being stopped in this area. But they didn’t freeze. They just made subtle movements, bopping along with the music, as if they were just waiting for things to start back up. Very cool. The Mama Odie animation, however, never stopped.

 

[gerarar]

Recap on the second operational day for the public (technically APs..):

• 7am drop lasted for 24 mins, versus yesterday's ~2 hours. Seems like APs with a MK reservation were more proactive to getting a BG right away after yesterday's situation.
• 1pm drop only lasted for about 1 sec. This is somewhat of a surprise because there were no extended downtimes leading up to the 1pm drop. Maybe the afternoon 1pm drop really only has a limited allotment/supply to account for any downtimes in the afternoon.

Now for the downtimes:

• It failed to open with the official park open again at 9am. Opened for BGs at 9:39am.
• Then at around 1:45pm, it closed for another ~1.5 hours.
• Around 4:30pm, it closed for 30 mins.
• Then at 6:29pm, it stopped calling BGs and would not call anymore BGs for the rest of the night. The park closes at 11pm, so there was about another 4 hours of operational time. Could also be they ran out of BGs to call, but I doubt.

So in total, 376 mins, or ~6 hours 16 mins of total downtime today.
Magic Kingdom was open for 14 hours today, so it was closed for ~44% of the day.

A little bit better than yesterday's downtime of 7 hours, but still not good and ideal.
There are no AP previews tomorrow 6/15.

Day 2 Stats Recap in TBA VQ thread:

Final Day 2 Stats (6/14) [Day 2/6 AP previews]:
7am: 1413.2 secs, or ~24 mins
1pm: 1.4 secs*
*the morning 7am drop lasted longer than afternoon 1pm drop

BG 119 (+19) is the last BG called for the day at 6:29pm.

Notable stoppages:
9:00 - 9:39am
1:45 - 3:17pm
4:36 - 5:10pm
6:29 - 10:00pm (could be no more BG's left to call?)

Average pace: 5mins/BG until 5pm, 2mins/BG from 7pm to close.

VQ Drop Mean/Average:
7am: 24m -> 24m (+0)
1pm: 1.4s -> 1.4s (+0)

That does it for Day 2 of Tiana' Bayou Adventure!
View attachment 791930

 

[FinallyThereTiana]

Jennifer Lewis, Mama Odie's voice, got stuck on the ride and she ended up singing Dig a Little Deeper.

I love Jennifer Lewis and I love Mama Odie! I'm glad to see she's enjoying herself and enjoying the ride! Wish I was there with them having fun... *sigh*

 

[Tha Realest]

I love Jennifer Lewis and I love Mama Odie! I'm glad to see she's enjoying herself and enjoying the ride! Wish I was there with them having fun... *sigh*

Welcome to the boards! Enjoy your time here.

 

[easyrowrdw]

There were storms in the area in the early evening that shut down the outdoor rides. They cleared the queue at Tiana’s at some point. I was in the 6:29 callback group. When I arrived at 7:25 I think they had just reopened. It was essentially a walk-on. As I exited the ride I heard guests arriving at the line saying they’d been cleared earlier. I saw the line at 4:00 and it was winding all around outside. I wonder if they didn’t call more groups because so many people were sent off throughout the day?

 

[wdwgreek]

Two quick questions which I have not seen discussed. 1. Can you see the finale scene from the train station?
2. Have they updated the riverboat narrative to address the Salt Dome or Tinana in any way?

 

[Brer Panther]

In regards to everyone wondering if Disney will improve the ride or tweak it or whatever, I'm gonna go out on a limb and say no.

You're on thin ice Mr. Toad, Twilight Zone, Tiki Room, and Aerosmith.

You joke, but I'd be shocked any of those attractions survived under Iger's leadership.

Rides tend to look better in person, what a shocker. Though actually, not always. Some actually look worse (Little Mermaid is one such example as all of the flaws with the lack of detail, exposed ceiling structure, poor scale of scenes/characters and lighting are magnified tenfold). And i've seen at least a few people who HAVE ridden TBA who say it looks worse in person. Flat video projection tends to look much worse in person, since it contrasts poorly and looks much more dim and blurry against 3-dimensional sets.

The complaints that most people have levied about the ride however are not things that would be improved by riding in person. You're not fixing the lack of AA's, basic moving props, empty stretches of nothing, the stupid dialog and story, worse songs etc by riding it in person.

Yeah, I'm not buying the "oh, you can't judge it from a ride video, you have to go on it!" excuse. The Ratatouille ride didn't look any more impressive to me when I rode it when it did in the POV. It feels like just another excuse for pro-rethemers to move the goalposts and shut up any criticism of the ride.

The animatronics are exceptionally impressive.

Yeah, the Louis ones, maybe. The miscellaneous animals are about as "impressive" as the ones in the Little Mermaid ride.

Nowhere do they talk about trying to make this ride more fun and entertaining than Splash Mountain.

Well said.

View attachment 791307
The original Mondo

Y'know what? A Princess and the Frog attraction in the style of "Timon and Pumbaa's Virtual Safari 1.5" would be a lot more fun than Tiana's Bayou Adventure.

Imagine it: Louis decides to build his own ride, and he invites us, Tiana and Naveen to go on it. The entire thing is filled with plywood cutouts and obviously fake sets, there are spoofs of other Disney attractions along the way, and none of the effects are working. And eventually the vehicle goes off the track and smashes through the wall and out of the building. But at least you get an on-ride photo!

That projection is complete cringe.

The way Tiana and Louis move their heads in that projection, and the looks they have on their faces, just looks weird. And definitely cringy.

The CG model of Tiana doesn't even really look like her, imo.

That CGI animation is so bad (even Chicken Little had better animation than that!). Tiana - both the animatronics and the CGI version on that screen - looks tremendously off-model. I'm beginning to doubt that Walt Disney Animation Studios actually did the animation for this ride like that one press release claimed.

 

[Incomudro]

Some people did it get it. Many did not, myself and my whole family included. And that’s even with my parents riding it in its opening year.

The storyline and events of Splash just were not all that clear to a large portion of the audience. Some got it most definitely, but I’ve experienced conversations with many people who were unaware there was even a through narrative and not just a bunch of disconnected vignettes.

I got it to the extent of that the rabbit was being perused by the fox and bear, and ultimately escaped and found his way to Home Sweet Home again.
I didn't get that he live in the briar patch and used reverse psychology on the fox to get tossed back into it again.
Chalk that up to the dialog not being clearly audible, and rides spaced a minimum of one year apart from each other.

 

[HonorableMention]

Can’t post the video here but a certain site uploaded a ridethrough yesterday and it had the most animatronic issues I’ve seen so far:

- First Louis and Tiana figures in the bayou didn’t trigger, and instead did their idle animations while their dialogue played (may have been intentional to help with sensor issues and to keep the ride operating)

- Finale Tiana only had movement in her head (which looks creepy)

- Finale Mama Odie was completely static

I really think Disney should reframe this as a technical rehearsal rather than an AP preview.

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

Should have built a different, or new, ride.

Or, figured it out over the last year and a half. Oh well.

Agree to disagree, I suppose.

I look forward to them getting it sorted and enjoying this the way its intended to be seen.

 

[ConfettiCupcake]

Technical rehearsal would imply this attraction isn’t always going to be running with some AAs and effects at less than 100%. I’m not sure this isn’t going to somewhat be the norm.

 

[DisneyHead123]

Random thought - I was watching the Imagineering documentary on D+ yesterday and saw the moving sparkly light effect in Mystic Manor. Wonder why they didn’t use that for the fireflies in TBA? It seems like an obvious fit. Also could have filled in some of the quieter areas with cool effects.

 

[EagleScout610]

Off a POV from today:

Goin' Down the Bayou

• Show lights are seemingly out where the geese were, leaving the scene very shadowy (Revenge of the shadow man?)
• Timoleon seems to not be rocking back and forth
• Beau the Possum isn’t rocking back and forth
• PawPaw’s hand is broken again (It was fixed in a different POV)
• Claude (father bear) is seemingly falling backwards and isn’t rocking back and forth as fast as he should be.

Dig a Little Deeper

• None of the frogs in the former Laughin’ Place are working.
• Mama Odie resets twice (Seriously, why even include the leaves? Just have Odie out the entire time. It's just obvious she's resetting between lines.

Secret Spice

• Lottie isn’t swaying back and forth
• Eudora isn’t moving at all
• Tiana isn’t moving from the neck down
• Mama Odie seems to have had a stroke as her right side isn’t moving

 

[Tha Realest]

Off a POV from today:

Goin' Down the Bayou

• Show lights are seemingly out where the geese were, leaving the scene very shadowy (Revenge of the shadow man?)
• Timoleon seems to not be rocking back and forth
• Beau the Possum isn’t rocking back and forth
• PawPaw’s hand is broken again (It was fixed in a different POV)
• Claude (father bear) is seemingly falling backwards and isn’t rocking back and forth as fast as he should be.

Dig a Little Deeper

• None of the frogs in the former Laughin’ Place are working.
• Mama Odie resets twice (Seriously, why even include the leaves? Just have Odie out the entire time. It's just obvious she's resetting between lines.

Secret Spice

• Lottie isn’t swaying back and forth
• Eudora isn’t moving at all
• Tiana isn’t moving from the neck down
• Mama Odie seems to have had a stroke as her right side isn’t moving

It’s buggy everywhere and incoherent even when it fully works, but at least relevance has been activated.

What a sad joke.

 

[EagleScout610]

On a side note, I'm hoping for DL's that they remove the leaf transition with Odie right before the big lift hill.

I get its supposed to be her peering down at tiny us, but the swirling leaves give off a Power Point transition feeling between lines. Just have Odie looking down the entire time and going "Ah there you are!" when the log hits the senor.

 

[EricsBiscuit]

I rode the WDWRR recently and the shudders blocking the view of the finale look permanent. I hope that they open them up towards opening but it is worrying they haven’t done so already.

 

[dreamfinding]

Recap on the second operational day for the public (technically APs..):

• 7am drop lasted for 24 mins, versus yesterday's ~2 hours. Seems like APs with a MK reservation were more proactive to getting a BG right away after yesterday's situation.
• 1pm drop only lasted for about 1 sec. This is somewhat of a surprise because there were no extended downtimes leading up to the 1pm drop. Maybe the afternoon 1pm drop really only has a limited allotment/supply to account for any downtimes in the afternoon.

Now for the downtimes:

• It failed to open with the official park open again at 9am. Opened for BGs at 9:39am.
• Then at around 1:45pm, it closed for another ~1.5 hours.
• Around 4:30pm, it closed for 30 mins.
• Then at 6:29pm, it stopped calling BGs and would not call anymore BGs for the rest of the night. The park closes at 11pm, so there was about another 4 hours of operational time. Could also be they ran out of BGs to call, but I doubt.

So in total, 376 mins, or ~6 hours 16 mins of total downtime today.
Magic Kingdom was open for 14 hours today, so it was closed for ~44% of the day.

A little bit better than yesterday's downtime of 7 hours, but still not good and ideal.
There are no AP previews tomorrow 6/15.

Day 2 Stats Recap in TBA VQ thread:

I’m scheduled for the d23 preview next weekend. Disney was very specific in the verbiage that we are welcome to ride as much as we want during the event. Starting to believe that this is going to be an issue…

 

[dreamfinding]

I rode the WDWRR recently and the shudders blocking the view of the finale look permanent. I hope that they open them up towards opening but it is worrying they haven’t done so already.

They probably won’t do anything until the 28th

 

[_caleb]

Yeah, I'm not buying the "oh, you can't judge it from a ride video, you have to go on it!" excuse. The Ratatouille ride didn't look any more impressive to me when I rode it when it did in the POV. It feels like just another excuse for pro-rethemers to move the goalposts and shut up any criticism of the ride.

In my opinion, some of the best attractions at the parks would look less than impressive on POV videos.

• Tiki Room
• Swiss Family Treehouse
• Space Mountain
• Flight of Passage

If you can decide that a ride is bad based on a video that doesn’t capture even half of the ride experience, what are you basing your opinion on?

 

[splah]

Are the A1000s in Tokyo having these reliability issues?

Maybe the rapid pace was a detriment after all