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

In the Parks
No
Exactly. It’s much easier to execute and hide stuff you don’t want guests to see. Dark rides need to be dark. There’s a reason the daytime scenes come off as artificial and plasticky like the opening park scene or stampede scene on MMRR.

Even on WDWs Splash which admittedly was executed well for daytime scenes on a dark ride. It always kind of came across off odd to me dropping into a mountain and into a bright sunny day. Especially being a Disneyland guy. Ours was just a big Fantasyland style dark ride.
I actually disliked DL's Splash for the very reason you like it. Between the speed and the darkness, you couldn't see anything or make out what was going on. It never occurred to me that there was a disconnect between going into a mountain and being in daylight in WDW. I don't recall ever riding WDW's Splash in the daytime (I never waited more than 20 minutes for it).

DL's darkness was kind of creepy and gave off the impression of lights being broken even when they weren't (though, by the end, a lot of them actually were!).
 

Brer Oswald

Well-Known Member
I figured out what bothers me about MMRR on my last ride through in Anaheim.

They made most of the segments daytime- so it's beyond obvious where the ceiling is and makes it apparent you're in a building. If they reconfigured it to have it be a night time attraction they'd be able to better hide the fact you're in a show building.

There's a reason dark rides are mostly night experiences. Baxter talks about this in his Season Pass Podcast interview series- sharing that he got them to repaint Mr. Toad's in Florida to be a night ride instead of daytime prior to open for the same reason.

And of course, one of the MMRR people is leading this project and is replacing a Baxter led project so it doesn't bode well.
I think this specific problem will “thankfully” be avoided with TBA. Splash was already excellent with hiding the ceiling using foliage. Based on the one interior shot they showed, they’ve kept this the same, just adding a few flowers here and there. If this was purpose built new, I’d have no doubt this issue would have shown up.
 

Splash4eva

Well-Known Member
Right.

Florida has the 'blessing of size', and the Magic Kingdom is the busiest theme park on the planet. They need to be adding more attractions, not replacing beloved and established attractions. I don't think anyone would have complained about a new Tiana dark ride attached to a new sit down restaurant.

Disneyland could have redone the New Orleans Train Station area- turning it into an incredible complex with the station, a Tiana dark ride, and a proper sit down Tiana's Palace.

Now we're losing a beloved attraction for a bland dirt mound that looks straight out of Knott's. Nothing about the new facade says 'Disney'. The tiara water tower feels like a parody of what Disney would do.
How dare you say anything positive about Splash and not wanting it to leave. You may get suspended for this hot take ;)
 

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
Splash Mountain (and seeming TBA) was very thorough at filling out the ceiling with overhanging tree branches and dense leafy foliage. In Disneyland's (and Tokyo's) case, it was weeping willow vines and spanish moss. With WDW it was maple/oak leaves. Pooh's Hunny Hunt over in Tokyo also does the same thing in its first room. Navi River is another recent example (one that also uses a lot of UV light as well). It looks like they're retaining that ceiling foliage in TBA using magnolia trees.

One of the (many) problems with MMRR is indeed how exposed and tall the ceilings are. That's partially a flaw with using an existing inappropriately sized show building that it wasn't intended for, though they could have added more overhead scenery regardless.

Incidentally, someone over the past 5 years has swapped out the black lights in a number of major scenes on Peter Pan's Flight with regular bright spotlight. And it looks quite terrible given that the ride wasn't designed for use with those kinds of lights. Not only did they not repaint the figures for that new lighting, but the previously blacked out ceiling and walls that were hidden by the black lights become extremely visible under normal lighting. Here's one such example of the new lighting in Pan where the new spotlights added illuminate a ton of things that shouldn't be seen-

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It's made even worse due to the fact that WDW's Pan never received a substantial overhaul like the 1983 version at Disneyland, which covered the walls with fiber optic star curtains and detailed painted murals of distant vistas. So when this light reflects off the wall, it becomes entirely apparent that you're inside a big black metal box with some props thrown in the middle. It's getting to a point where it feels like some inconsiderate moron has their camera light on the entire time.

Again, i'm glad to see that they filled out the ceiling with tree foliage in that one shot of TBA we've seen. Hopefully the rest of the ride will adhere to that standard and keep naked show building elements well hidden as Splash did.
 
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MagicHappens1971

Well-Known Member
Todays CBJ suggests two things to me:

1) Tiana will open with CBJ this summer
2) Pecos Bill will close soon and reopen this summer with an appropriate theme given its proximity to TBA.
Was going to come on here to say the same. TBA & CBJ will definitely reopen together, and the late summer date puts us at an appropriate target of early to mid August. I’d think right before the first MNSSHP.

I’m personally still on the fence of what (if anything) they’re going to do to Pecos
 

Stupido

Well-Known Member
Was going to come on here to say the same. TBA & CBJ will definitely reopen together, and the late summer date puts us at an appropriate target of early to mid August. I’d think right before the first MNSSHP.

I’m personally still on the fence of what (if anything) they’re going to do to Pecos

Where are you getting the "late summer" date? The article says "later this summer," but I don't see any references to late summer. Just wondering if there was any tea I missed.
 

MagicHappens1971

Well-Known Member
Where are you getting the "late summer" date? The article says "later this summer," but I don't see any references to late summer. Just wondering if there was any tea I missed.
Many of us on here have been speculating a late summer reopen for TBA. Disney moved the Late 2024 date to “2024”. There’s no way they’ll get it open before June (in my opinion).
 

mattpeto

Well-Known Member
I generally think whatever timetable you have for TBA, you should pad by 3 months. I think October 1st would be a good bet for TBA.
 

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