I will gladly explain. 1. The queue. 2. The entire outside stretch. 3. The former laughing place. The new scene feels much more colorful and the water effect actually works! And 4. The finale. As for the lack of wait times. Ha ha I wish.
1) The new queue feels incredibly cheap. I’ll be the first one to say that the Splash queue wasn’t the greatest, but it at least served a point introducing you to the story and the characters of the ride itself. You had these iconic custom signs and props, the wanted posters which promoted world building, the bird houses that featured conversations between the birds about the Brer Rabbit storyline, the character portraits, and of course the Brer Frog projection where he started telling the story to his kids (which leads into the animatronic telling you the story on the first lift hill).
Compare this to TBA which has replaced most of the unique custom props with stickers on flat plywood and props they bought off of Etsy. And of course the backstory it’s “telling” you is completely irrelevant to the plot of the ride.
2) The outside loop feels cluttered while not having any meaningful things to look at. The one moment I will give you is after the initial lift hill. The reveal of the water tower is actually pretty good, and you feel like you’re in a bayou for about 2 seconds. Unfortunately it goes downhill after this. The reveal of the drop is not as poignant as before, especially with the puke green splattered rocks. When you pass the interior barn hill, you’re welcomed by this incredibly gaudy Tiana’s food sign. Besides the charming Louis gourd statue, none of the crops are interesting or charming; they’re just pure filler. A disembodied Tiana voice is singing Almost There from the movie…for some reason. Then you have Mama Odie living in…a cave? If it wasn’t clear before, the outdoor loop makes it very clear this was budget overhaul, and that this ride was clearly meant to be something else.
Splash’s exterior “How Do You Do” loop was designed very strategically to transition you into the whimsically animated world of the critters. There weren’t thousands of filler flowers plastered on the rocks, however, there were several custom props created to enhance the world building of the fictional community the Imagineers created. “Critter Elixr”, “Brer Soap”, “Muskrat Moonshine”, all charming little details. Then you had the CUSTOM made birdhouses that emanated the singing voices of cute little birds. This continued with Brer Rabbit’s House where you could hear his voice echo. And Brer Bear snoring from his cave. He’s a bear so of course he lives in a cave. Haven’t even mentioned the music (highly sought after for a reason), the small broken bridge above the drop, or the fact that the critters actually named the transition drop as “Slippin Falls”.
3) Then comes the former Laughing Place. I agree, the lighting is much improved. It actually looks like the lighting in the former Disneyland Laughing Place. The problem is that there’s also nothing of value to look at. The new props are cheap. The frogs aren’t even animatronic. The screen is tacky. The best part of this scene are the elements that were left over from Splash. The amazing rock work. The jumping fountains (which did work btw, even in 2022). I miss the beehives, the Brer animatronics, the cartoon props, the weasels.
4) The finale is subjective. I do think it’s the one scene where they actually tried. The tunnel and home sweet home replacements are objective downgrades, however the main room is fine. It’s a small glimpse into what this ride could have been if it was built from the ground up.
TL;dr Most of Splash’s “weaker” elements were still filled with intentional details that actually ENHANCED the attraction’s story telling and world building. The same spots in Tiana are filled with mindless filler that most people won’t ever notice anyways.
