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

[WDWYankee15]

From today

Hoping to see some walls start to come down soon. It seems that they could just leave the ones up back by the train station where they are finishing up the queue work.

 

[Drew the Disney Dude]

Could today be announcement day?

Not today.

 

[Earlie the Pearlie]

Not today.

Could tomorrow be an announcement day?

 

[EricsBiscuit]

Could tomorrow be an announcement day?

I doubt on a Friday. More likely early next week.

 

[ToTBellHop]

I doubt on a Friday. More likely early next week.

Next week is apparently Halfway to Halloween. Then Mother’s Day.

 

[dothebrdwalk]

Would have been a great announcement day to try and throw off the Epic Universe Nintendo announcement.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Would have been a great announcement day to try and throw off the Epic Universe Nintendo announcement.

They had pre scheduled a Lookout Cay media day today.

 

[dothebrdwalk]

They had pre scheduled a Lookout Cay media day today.

Doesn't require a press conference. Usually just some social media posts and a blog post.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Doesn't require a press conference. Usually just some social media posts and a blog post.

Sure but they don’t want to overshadow their own marketing.

 

[EricsBiscuit]

Next week is apparently Halfway to Halloween. Then Mother’s Day.

Yeah there’s still plenty of time. Maybe late May we will get more info.

 

[Starship824]

Maybe the announcement day was the friends we made along the way.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Maybe the announcement day was the friends we made along the way.

There’s the energy we need.

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

To start, I realize what I'm about to say is a pipe dream... But, it sticks with me.

My biggest disappointment with this is the opportunity a new build could have been. Leaving aside the co-op story, the more I see of this - the more I wish this would have been MK's Blue Bayou. Having Tiana's Palace with a large "patio" overlooking the "Mississippi" or "Lake Pontchartrain" as it wanders off into the Bayou. Then an attraction like this mirroring the scale of DL's Pirates. It could have been the ultimate animated film dark ride, given another must do restaurant and given MK the "answer" to Pirates people always mention when comparing to DL. And, the stories and themes would have been different enough to not feel repetitive, especially if it anchored a NOLA land or mini-land.
I just think this would have been a true showcase for what PatF and Tiana could be. And, it's tough to not feel the shoehorn with this redo for me.

During my time "away" from this thread, I've been reflecting on this ride quite a bit, so my apologies for the long post. I'm going to put part of it in under the Spoiler button because I talk about the yet-to-be-opened Frozen attraction in Tokyo.

In a thread discussing the new Tokyo Frozen ride, we were talking about "book report" rides (which is what Frozen Journey is) VS "setting" rides, which rely less on strength of story and more on embracing the setting or place of the ride. I think the same discussion applies here.

PatF is a great story, with a great villain, a great setting, great music, etc. It is the ideal choice for a book report ride, particularly one that is overlaid on another ride with storytelling built into the track layout itself. Frozen (the movie, not the franchise), on the other hand, is not conducive to a book report attraction. The setting is great, but it's hard to structure a ride around the story (as we've seen from their multiple attempts). I'd much rather go on a bobsled through the hills of Arendelle than watch Anna and Elsa's misunderstanding begin, deepen, and be resolved. That's not an ideal theme park ride in my book.

Spoiler: Frozen Journey spoilers

For example, the new Tokyo ride has tons of great animatronics, including three of Elsa singing Let it Go. How do they pull that off? Well, you see her singing the first verse, then you see another one of her singing the next part, finally you see her once more, singing the refrain. But it's almost boring, which is weird to say because the animatronics are so stellar.

Back to PatF: While the setting of PatF is great, it's not necessarily enough to create a Navi River Journey-style ride that merely takes you around a cool place. A PatF ride should tell a story that leans into the setting. Some of you might say, "That's exactly what they did with TBA!" Well, they tried. While a PatF storytelling ride based on the film would have been epic, as many thought this retheme would be when it was announced, there were serious roadblocks to this ever happening, mainly related to how long Tiana spends as a frog as opposed to a human. So, they can't use the story that is tailormade for an attraction like this. So they set out to make a new story that really leans into the setting. The problem I see here is that they are leaning TOO hard on the setting while forgetting about what makes good attraction storytelling. The interiors might be beautiful, but why are we going down waterfalls? Why is the only option for party musicians an eclectic group of critters? What even is the point of all of this?

It didn't have to be this way, either. They could have come up with any excuse for Dr. Facilier to come back and cause a little mayhem. We didn't have to be chasing after ambitious beaver drummers. There is a kids book about one of Mama Odie's magic stones being stolen, and Tiana has to find it. Even that would have been more appealing.

Instead, they focused almost all their energies on immersing us in the bayou setting, which feels incomplete to me. It certainly doesn't do justice to the PatF IP.

We'll see what the final product looks like (I like the look of some of the lights, but I still think the top of the mountain looks like a bleu cheese salad), but for now, I remain skeptical that the storytelling on this attraction is done well.

 

[Disney Irish]

I'm still holding to the opinion that May 7th to coincide with the earnings call the opening day announcement will be made.

 

[LittleBuford]

Instead, they focused almost all their energies on immersing us in the bayou setting, which feels incomplete to me. It certainly doesn't do justice to the PatF IP.

None of us yet knows what the story of the ride is beyond its bare outlines. Whether it does justice to the IP or not is simply impossible to say at present.

 

[Professortango1]

None of us yet knows what the story of the ride is beyond its bare outlines. Whether it does justice to the IP or not is simply impossible to say at present.

True, none of us can know. But there is enough information available to speculate, which is what most do on these forums, either positively or negatively.

 

[LittleBuford]

True, none of us can know. But there is enough information available to speculate, which is what most do on these forums, either positively or negatively.

“It certainly doesn't do justice to the PatF IP” is not speculation; it’s a statement of fact.

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

“It certainly doesn't do justice to the PatF IP” is not speculation; it’s a statement of fact.

Nope, it's a statement of opinion! My entire post was my opinion based on what we know. And in my opinion, when they literally could have done any storyline about Tiana, this one that they chose doesn't seem to me to do justice to the IP.

 

[LittleBuford]

Nope, it's a statement of opinion!

That’s fair, but it’s an opinion stated as a certainty. It’s as if you’ve already made your mind up without so much as having seen the finished ride, let alone experienced it.

 

[Professortango1]

“It certainly doesn't do justice to the PatF IP” is not speculation; it’s a statement of fact.

We all know that this is conjecture and subjective based on the fact that it is criticism of art and of a project who we have not witnessed fully as of yet. Nobody is claiming to have experienced the attraction and is giving their opinion as fact.