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

[Trauma]

The cohesiveness of the music is something that can't be fixed however. And this is an example of the main problem: at surface level, everything passes with a "meh". But the attention to detail has vanished.

You think they are making changes to the ride in the middle of the day when people are waiting to ride ?

That seems unlikely to me.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I genuinely don’t know why people use Twitter for anything other than Sports or niche communities like theme parks.

Any comment string is so overrun with bots, trolls, or toxicity, and that was even before Musk took over. It’s obviously become worse though.

Because it’s designed to be both dumbed down AND completely addictive?

You know what industry spends more on lobbying than any other in the US?

Hint…it’s not oil companies or doctors anymore

 

[Surferboy567]

Alright, I have officially ridden the attraction and have a lot of thoughts. Not sure how novel any of this is because the page count of this thread jumped by 70+ pages since I ducked out to avoid spoilers so I apologize for retreading any ground.

Where to begin? Perhaps a goods vs bads to lay everything out and then some final thoughts. I would also like to state that I was coming into the ride with moderate expectations leaning positive and attempted to view the attraction on its own merits separate from its history as Splash Mountain (but then found that harder and harder to commit to).

The queue is nice and I quite enjoy the radio loop playing. The radio in particular gives a vibe that a tiny slice of New Orleans Square has come to WDW and does a good job at establishing Tiana as an important public figure. I absolutely love the lush greenery of the interior sets and dark lighting. The critter bands are very cute and add a great bit of liveliness to the spots they appear. The A1000s of Tiana and Louis are all a treat to see in full motion. Upon first hearing the rumors that there would be a shrinking/transformation portion to the ride I was highly skeptical it would be a good choice, but I think it turned out well and was a fun way to display the animatronic frogs much larger, as well as call back to the film. The primary thing to praise here is the finale scene and original song. The energy in that scene is great and really delivers the most complete part of the experience.

I generally don’t think the screens in this ride are too egregious or overbearing - they are actually quite minimal - but the shot of giant Tiana and Louis looking at the riders in the shrunken portion is the worst visual offender of the ride. It genuinely feels out of place and their dialogue could have been delivered with audio only to convey the same thing. As many have mentioned, there are quite a few empty stretches along the ride between characters. Not every ride has to be filled with animatronics to be good, and not every animated figure has to have complex motion to be effective at conveying what it needs to, but there is still a lot to be desired from the emptier scenes. The space between the 2nd band and the transformation dip drop is particularly empty, so much so that while on the ride you just instinctively look to watch the boat ahead of you complete the dialogue with Tiana right before the dip drop, only to immediately hear it again directed at your own boat. Though the A1000s are lovely, they are mainly used to just look at the ride vehicles and gesture at things. The finale is the only scene where it feels like the any A1000s are actually doing something within the narrative like dancing or playing music. Perhaps the greatest flaw of the ride though is that it lacks any poignant stakes, dramatic tension, or low beats. When designing a linear narrative experience a writer will typically create a graph laying out where the emotional high and low points of a story will be so they can fluctuate in a logical and satisfying manner. It feels to me that if you were to make something like that for this attraction it would be super flat and monotone with a lone spike at the finale. And while it’s true that not every attraction needs a well executed narrative or complex emotional arc to be really good, the issue lies in the nature of the attraction being a replacement.

I really tried to let this ride live on its own merits separate from Splash Mountain, but the positive elements of this ride come at the expense of another attraction, and they extract a heavy toll. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is by no means a bad attraction and far from the worst retheme in WDW, but it does not live up to the narrative, emotional stakes, and technical feats of its predecessor. It’s very much like Runaway Railway in that sense; it’s quite enjoyable and a decent ride on its own, but it should not have been a replacement in a park desperate for additional ride-through capacity. Even with the social issues surrounding Splash Mountain and Song of the South, there could have been tactful methods of updating the plot and concept with different characters to deliver the same strengths of the experience.

TL;DR: Don’t give in to the hysterics of people saying this is the worst attraction WDI has ever produced because it is a decent ride; but it does not evoke the spectacle of its predecessor, making it hard to enjoy for those that know what came before.

I’m happy to read this, it will be quite a while till I am able to ride in person. Can only go off the POV but I hope I feel differently in person.

 

[Horizonsfan]

Is there a reasonable fix they could make in the coming years, to make the ride just a bit stronger?

This is what I keep coming back to, it seems the majority of the issues could still be rectified with modest prop additions and set tweaks like what happened to the mermaid rides after their opening.

 

[JoeCamel]

If it’s Imagineering that’s coming up with backstories that emphasize employee owned co-ops and not coming from their DEI department then Disney creative is in bigger trouble than I thought.

DEI isn’t a boogeyman but we know they have an, often unpopular with fans, influence on projects, putting constraints on creative people usually doesn’t produce the best results.

Just because they give them a nametag that says Imagineer on it does not make them one. All they have any more is a wow moment without repeatability. The ride gets boring once you know what happens unless there is wealth of supporting scenery to marvel at. That used to be understood but a wow moment for the guy from Denver is what gets built now, APs get bored with the same gag over and over again.

 

[Trauma]

Just checked the Disney video again. The comments are getting even worse if that’s somehow possible.

They need to pull the video, this is going to start to be a massive PR hit.

I notice some bots there also ( you can tell because the comments are all similar followed by a string of emojis ) but they can’t keep up with the outpouring of anger and negativity.

Best thing Disney can do now is pull everything and pretend all is well.

 

[marni1971]

this is going to start to be a massive PR hit.

Too late…

 

[TalkingHead]

It's straight up gaslighting at this point.

Snake oil’s the new pixie dust

 

[DisneyHead123]

Yes, I’d definitely agree the video is not the best. Videos are never quite the same as an in person experience, especially regarding the lighting and direction of one’s eye, but there’s nothing particularly significant about the ride omitted from the video if that’s what you’re asking.

Not omitted, no - Drew seemed to feel the atmosphere wasn't captured via video. I get that as sometimes trying to take a picture of a natural scene makes the scene look flat and 'meh', when in person it's breathtaking.

Curious because on the negative side, I have heard a lot of people call the bayou only scenes either 'dead space' or 'Hobby Lobby decorations' (harsh!) with fake plants and string lights. On the positive side, I've heard comparisons to Na'vi River Journey and of course Drew's very enthusiastic report.

I'm fine with the 'vibing and soaking up the atmosphere' approach so if it's like a Lazy River through a gorgeous bayou, I think I'd really enjoy it.

 

[Trauma]

Too late…

Coming from a random poster this comment doesn’t mean much.

Coming from you it means we have full scale panic in Burbank right now.

 

[Meeko77]

I watched this video yesterday, and I was relieved that at least the characters did say different things and not always the same lines:

It was less jarring watching this than Disney's version with the cuts. It seemed to flow a bit better (but not that much).

 

[JoeCamel]

Snake oil’s the new pixie dust

Snake oil is so common, got this at Walgreens

 

[JohnD]

I watched this video yesterday, and I was relieved that at least the characters did say different things and not always the same lines:

It was less jarring watching this than Disney's version with the cuts. It seemed to flow a bit better (but not that much).

I'm happy for Drew liking it. But now I've seen several videos, not just Disney's. I don't hate it but I'm not excited about it either. I'll ride it in October and will like it for what it is but it could have been so much better.

 

[Trauma]

I can picture it all in my head.

Iger in his office, picking his cellphone up off his desk.

Checking the comment section of the YouTube video, he starts to scroll furiously looking for some sign of positivity!

After the initial wave of panic wears off he collects himself, slowly sets the phone down on his desk and lets out a long sigh.

He then returns in earnest to the difficult task of destroying the company.

 

[Midwest Elitist]

I can picture it all in my head.

Iger in his office, picking his cellphone up off his desk.

Checking the comment section of the YouTube video, he starts to scroll furiously looking for some sign of positivity!

After the initial wave of panic wears off he collects himself, slowly sets the phone down on his desk and lets out a long sigh.
"Yeah, I thought it was boring".
He then returns in earnest to the difficult task of destroying the company.

 

[HauntedPirate]

I can picture it all in my head.

Iger in his office, picking his cellphone up off his desk.

Checking the comment section of the YouTube video, he starts to scroll furiously looking for some sign of positivity!

After the initial wave of panic wears off he collects himself, slowly sets the phone down on his desk and lets out a long sigh.

He then returns in earnest to the difficult task of destroying the company.

Secret footage from Bob's office after he checked his phone for positive feedback about TBA (collected from an anonymous source who said she was not Willow Bay I'll take her at her word, she sounded nice but the voice was very familiar...):

 

[davis_unoxx]

Previews cancelled for whole day, some people were in line for 4 hours and then told to leave.

There's a rumor that were was a small fire somewhere on the attraction.

Tiana is closed rest of today...

 

[IanDLBZF]

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All the people that were gaslit for years saying that we were crazy for saying it won’t be as great as the predecessor, have finally been vindicated.

Does this remind me of the “sonic cycle“?

 

[Ayla]

Unfortunately that’s the truth. What is more puzzling is despite a large swath of the population understanding that, people still keep logging in. I wish more people would just break the cycle. There are so many communities like this from a wide range of topics that avoids the gamified-nature of the aforementioned social media platforms.

I deleted both Twitter and TikTok because of how much of a genuine waste of time they both are, and besides the annoyance of clicking on posts on this Forum because I don’t have an account, I’m actually living a happier, more productive life.

I noticed a huge decrease in my anxiety once I deleted my twitter account (never had tik tok).

 

[HauntedPirate]

Not to be outdone by his boss, someone recorded Josh D'Amaro's reaction when he saw the negative feedback immediately after hearing TBA has closed for the day:

Say... does anyone know if Tony Baxter has been spotted in the vicinity of Frontierland at WDW recently?