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

[JenniferS]

… and you'd eliminate things like the lift hill that was used to great effect in Splash but now doesn't really serve any purpose in moving the story along.

What story?

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

I thought it is just CM previews?

It is, and they are about as reliable as movie bloggers posting twitter reactions after they got an invite to an early screening of a movie that won't be out for another couple weeks to the general public.

Except that in this case, you don't have to wait another several weeks to see what this looks like. Since Disney posted a nearly full video themselves, and didn't prevent other riders from recording it themselves. We can see all of the dead empty space, sparse AA's and simplistic moving props, awkward CGI character video projections, dumb dialog, lackluster finale song, and all lack of tension or threat.

 

[BrerFoxesBayouAdventure]

See that is what is so interesting!

Every review I've seen on Twitter (by people who have ACTUALLY ridden it) has been relatively positive. They're not "shills", they're not "WOKE DEI enthusiasts," but they are normal park guests riding with their kids and reviews have been glowing.

Maybe we shouldn't take everyone who has the word "Br'er" in their usernames' opinions at face value?

That's exactly it, this steaming pile will do good with the average guest because they don't care so long as a recognizable face is plastered into an attraction. This isn't a ride for the superfans of the parks and their theming, it's for the parents who will put PatF on loop for their kids on D+.

 

[Ismael Flores]

Did you guys/gals see the Forbes article

Disney Spoils Its Own Ride And Pays The Price

Disney's theme park design division is famous for its secrecy. So when it posted a full video of its newest attraction a month before it launched it seemed to be the dawn of a whole new world. It may not last for long.

www.forbes.com

 

[Ismael Flores]

They can really help fix some of the issues by adding some more simple not fully movable critters in the dead areas of the ride.
They can start by doing that with the Anaheim version and slowly coming back and adding to the WDW version.

or since Anaheim usually has a bigger following fix that one before it opens and let WDW ride since their majority of visitors or tourist

 

[TP2000]

After encouragement from several folks over on the Disneyland forum, I just finished watching 4 hours tonight of that Jenny young lady on YouTube and her brutal and masterful takedown of the Galactic Starcruiser. That young lady is sharp!

I now can not wait to hear her summary and thoughts, including 2021-2023 public statements from WDI executives and Parks Blog posts, about Tiana's Bayou Adventure. It they aren't already scared of her in Glendale, they should be.

 

[Ismael Flores]

Sorry if this has been asked or answered but do we know why they did not include Naveen? I saw concept art where he was included but apprently he was cut somewhere along the line. Just seems like a weird thing to leave out. I mean besides you know all the other issues this ride has now lol.

Although some people say it was because of some possible controversy i really doubt it.

i have a feeling that it was because the lead imagineer wanted to focus on Tianas accomplishments of a strong women and therefore make the ride a sequel to the movie and just couldn’t figure out how to incorporate him into the whole convoluted story about spices.

By the way i find it interesting that depending on what story i read everyone has different ideas of what the story for the ride is.

The Forbes story says the ride is about Tiana looking for musicians for the party and then towards the end of it they mention something about finding the missing spice.
I can of understand the confusion because thru the ride Tiana just pops in and says something about inviting the band but then at the same time the finale is about us being the special spice

So what is it, seems like no one really knows

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

Why are you the only reasonable poster left on this thread?

LMAO I appreciate it. There’s a few folks here trying to be adults, including some I disagree with. Its just all lost in a lot of noise right now that will hopefully settle with time.

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

That's exactly it, this steaming pile will do good with the average guest because they don't care so long as a recognizable face is plastered into an attraction. This isn't a ride for the superfans of the parks and their theming, it's for the parents who will put PatF on loop for their kids on D+.

And you know what maybe those parents and their kids should be allowed to have that.

It isn’t like these parks aren’t spilling over the brim with attractions and pieces of the company’s history for the superfans to enjoy. It’s not like there’s not an insane amount of options for super fans to go to to find what they want out of Disney.

Not everything is made for the super fans. Nor should it be. Sometimes the populist option is the necessary one. We’re not the only ones who visit Disney and we shouldn’t expect to be who Disney caters to all the time.

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

We have lost the crown jewel of the Magic Kingdom

Haunted Mansion is still there though, just right around the corner

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Haunted Mansion is still there though, just right around the corner

Splash Mountain was always a better attraction than Haunted Mansion. HM is great, but it is not AS great. The tampering that began at the Mansion in 2007 has also gradually made it worse over time. From Constance, to the exterior queue alterations, the CGI hitchhiking ghosts, and now an inappropriately placed figure next to the endless hallway. One that screws up not only that scene, but the entire progression of the ride. Now Disneyland's is receiving additional alterations of its own, and I don't hold out any hope they will be executed in a tasteful manner.

 

[Mr. Sullivan]

Splash Mountain was always a better attraction than Haunted Mansion. HM is great, but it is not AS great. The tampering that began at the Mansion in 2007 has also gradually made it worse over time. From Constance, to the exterior queue alterations, the CGI hitchhiking ghosts, and now an inappropriately placed figure next to the endless hallway. One that screws up not only that scene, but the entire progression of the ride. Now Disneyland's is receiving additional alterations of its own, and I don't hold out any hope they will be executed in a tasteful manner.

As I’ve been saying I welcome any and all opinions so I’m not at all going to argue with you and you make fair points!

My response to them was a joke truly to lighten the mood, but based in my true belief that to me personally, I think Haunted Mansion is and always been the best Disney attraction ever. I’ve on the other hand never thought Splash was even the best mountain.

But, truly, that’s why the parks are so wonderful. There’s something for all and everyone can likely point to something else as their masterpiece.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

The original pre-2006 versions of Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland and later Disneyland Paris are better than Haunted Mansion IMO (though unfortunately POTC is also an attraction that has been made gradually worse and worse after every new change). And i'd put Splash on a similar level to those attractions. Several of the original Future World E tickets (like the Cronkite and Irons versions of SSE, Horizons, Imagination v1 and World of Motion are also above HM for me personally.

I'm not dissing HM either, because it's still very much up there as a great attraction. And better than anything Disney has made in multiple decades. But I do think Disney has done better than it.

 

[duncedoof]

After encouragement from several folks over on the Disneyland forum, I just finished watching 4 hours tonight of that Jenny young lady on YouTube and her brutal and masterful takedown of the Galactic Starcruiser. That young lady is sharp!

I now can not wait to hear her summary and thoughts, including 2021-2023 public statements from WDI executives and Parks Blog posts, about Tiana's Bayou Adventure. It they aren't already scared of her in Glendale, they should be.

Love Jenny, but no, she won't be making a video on this.

 

[Centauri Space Station]

Peoplemover is the crown jewel of MK

 

[Drew the Disney Dude]

I'm awake at 3 am because I'm still thinking about the ride, but after going on it twice, I 100% stand behind every comment I made in the video I posted on Twitter after my first ride.

I respect everyone's opinions in here and I am happy to answer any questions about it since I was able to experience it during the day and at night.

I don't have to avoid spoilers anymore, so I'll be active on here again and will answer any questions anyone wants answered.

 

[LittleBuford]

I'm awake at 3 am because I'm still thinking about the ride, but after going on it twice, I 100% stand behind every comment I made in the video I posted on Twitter after my first ride.

I respect everyone's opinions in here and I am happy to answer any questions about it since I was able to experience it during the day and at night.

I don't have to avoid spoilers anymore, so I'll be active on here again and will answer any questions anyone wants answered.

So pleased to hear this, especially after all your hard work documenting the construction!

 

[SilentWindODoom]

I'm awake at 3 am because I'm still thinking about the ride, but after going on it twice, I 100% stand behind every comment I made in the video I posted on Twitter after my first ride.

I respect everyone's opinions in here and I am happy to answer any questions about it since I was able to experience it during the day and at night.

I don't have to avoid spoilers anymore, so I'll be active on here again and will answer any questions anyone wants answered.

I'm just happy for you, dude. I'm awake at 3:30am, but it's because I was so close and chasing being finally done with 80 pages that occurred in two days.

I just watched Fearless Leader's ride-through. Originally I was confused at how washed out Louis was before remembering the title said "low light". I was happy to finally spot the frogs on the logs. Could you see what was in the trunk beside Tiana? Are there any other small figures or effects in the bayou that are visible that we can't see on video?

I was disappointed to see the Louis and Tiana audios matching up to repeat the Zydeco band can play. Did you have any repeat lines that you could hear due to log jam? Did the audio bleed much from surrounding logs to yours?

Were there any animatronic hitches while you were on? I noticed not only the Louis mouth in his video, but Mama Odie seeming to be in B-Mode at the end where she just repeated one word instead of all the lines I'd seen on previous rides.

I'd mentioned in my appraisal based on post-official ride-throughs that the musical changes in the lengthy "dead" sequence with the creature sounds seemed to make it an engaging moment. Is it interesting in person? Are there any other interesting sonic moments or otherwise that we may not have gotten through a camera?

 

[LittleBuford]

My guess is it was designed by idiots that didn't actually bother to even watch the movie. It has several things that just don't make sense... like where you see the frogs and Tiana at the same time... For the most part it seems to have just taken random bits from the movie with no concern for the continuity of what happens first or second and then completely ignores the villain that would have been a much better character to put near the top of the big drop. It also had too much of the damnable LCD screens in it. I'm kind of surprised they didn't just remove everything and just use projectors throughout for the whole ride.

It takes place after the film, so Tiana and the frogs appearing at the same time is not a continuity issue.

 

[SilentWindODoom]

68 quoted messages! Oh jeez... This is insane. Well, usually a number get deleted as they're responded to in the interim so... let's see how many it comes out to...

Whoever lead Fantasy Springs should have been working on this...

WDI seems to be doing alright-- look at Fantasy Springs: it's evident that the American parks aren't given the budget necessary to match those kinds of experiences.

This is just flat out incorrect. Look at Fantasy Springs, World of Frozen, Pandora, Guardians, TRON, Zootopia, Rise of the Resistance etc.

Umm... I'm sorry, but this looks EXACTLY like Fantasy Springs. I don't understand the people holding up Fantasy Springs as an ideal that is wished for instead of what we got. Tangled doesn't have conflict. Pan has CGI screens. Everything has a feeling of plasticity to it except for beautiful naturescape. This being done by the same team makes 100% of the sense.

I dont understand why Mama Odie shrinks you?

Can someone explain this “shrinking part” for me. So the story is to find musicians for the party and they find all these critters to be part of the band and Tiana wants you to find more so she has Mama Odie shrink you to go into some log thing and find two frogs (all I saw) and then apparently that was enough so she makes you big again and has you go down a waterfall to get their quicker. Am I missing anything?

I need to rewatch it because I couldn’t tell if you’re there to find the musical fireflies or if that was a happy accident you stumbled across them.

We are looking for musicians, but during the shrinking scene we seem to be the musicians?

- Mama Odies "Think big! Go tiny!" Line comes out of absolutely nowhere. Tianas line right before it is "I hope they all come to the party! Let's explore!" Giving us no indication we need to shrink or are looking for anything small.

Tiana is looking for something additional. Mama Odie, the all-knowing mystic who lives in the bayou, is aware of the musicians and shrinks us half to help us find them and half for the lulz. Tiana is unaware this is happening and is audibly panicked. We find musical frogs, not fireflies. They're just jamming to the incredible jammable tune. Tiana refers to the sound as "ours" because we found them.

Kilamanjaro Safaris has steaks if you know what you're doing and can be quick about it:

View attachment 788848

Huh... And before now I thought Small World was the only ride people were itching to take a rifle on.

Not too late, thankfully, to cut losses here and keep Pecos Bills as is for the time being.

So is the Tianna retheme of the "problematic" Pecos Bill on hold now until things shake out with TBA?

Is Pecos Bill's a beloved institution? I've never once in my life hear anyone say anything good about it.

Well, now that I look, apparently the taco bar I thought people were talking about being in Tortuga/La Pirata Y El Perico was there. At least if Pecos closes they can move the Mexican food across the kitchen.

Nevertheless, I'm unsure why a change would matter whether this is successful or not. It's an IP they want to use and plenty of people would love to see the offerings the West Coasters get over here.

Pecos Bill's is "problematic"? We can't talk about Facilier, but can someone clue me into this?

They have denied me a ride where you can hear Keith David's voice everyday... Bob Iger may your pillows be cold forever.

Are cold pillows not universally considered to be an enjoyable circumstance? People are always flipping and chasing that cool side of the pillow.

Another thing to point out, even FEA's drop has a better storyline point to it for going down, to get away from the giant snow monster thing or whatever he is that pops up.

Buh... But why does Elsa send her friends and guests flying backwards down a cliff?

and what is on the right side after the musical critters before you go down the first drop inside?

thanks but the opposite side of that, just darkness?

There is music and that area is an empty area of emergency exit pathway hemmed in by roots. You can see this construction in the original and before the release I watched a 360 ride of Splash and was curious what they would do with that. It remains the same, we can just see Louis's bright green through it.

Another thing: we are no longer in a flowing river through fields and woods. We are in a warehouse of screens.

This looks much more effective at selling a naturescape than the past ride did. It never sold depth or daytime.

Is the music supposed to be diegetic or not??? AHHHHHHH

This is a... really odd thing about this all, isn't it? Definitely was more happy in some videos where the lyrics seemed more restricted to certain parts. Maybe I'm not going insane... I keep watching and finding lyrics in places I swore they weren't before. Could they possibly be testing what works with when to have lyrics and when not? Or am I just my usual absent-minded self and thinking wishfully?

I'm just disappointed, both because most of the recent information had me relatively excited (I thought it was going to be clearly better than Frozen Journey and Beauty and the Beast in Tokyo, and I don't think it is) and because there are so many easily fixable issues.

I finally watched Beauty and the Beast... I now saw all the complaints people made about trackless rides. The immersive bayou scenes and closeness of it all seems to make this ride far bigger.

what is up with that ugly wall with painted foods. what a way to cheap out on some proper theming there.

The wall has been there for safety reasons. It is the one thing every single person agrees sucks.

When I first heard the story, I didn’t actually mind the “find band members” portion since the start of Splash was also pretty light-hearted. What I don’t get is the whole, “we will shrink you down for 90 seconds and then make you big again.” It is so forced and also doesn’t make much sense following a movie where it actually wasn’t that simple to get a small thing big again. Apparently Mama Odie can just do that?

Mama Odie seems quite powerful. Honestly... I'm pretty sure she could have just defrogified our heroes immediately. But she knew what would break the curse and saw that it was for the best for all involved and would teach them both a sorely needed lesson.

Although that means she's totally responsible for Ray's death. Huh. No wonder he wants revenge from beyond the grave.

The only reasonable explanation is they didn’t want to offend anyone and we scared Voodoo would do that.

Mama Odie's doing a whole crapload of voodoo in this ride.

Honestly ... I would have much rather them just stuck with an entirely original score for the attraction. The shoehorned songs from the film make no sense within the context of this new story. With the exception of DOWN IN NEW ORLEANS ... nothing else works. The soundtrack version of ALMOST THERE being played is bizarre.

The new song (while not groundbreaking) is at the very least tied in with the story. The music is such a key factor in these attractions. I can't help but feel the disconnect here is largely tied to the ride soundtrack being mostly incoherent.

Whether the vocals should be on the track or not are one thing, but the music seems to make sense...

The opening track of the film that welcomes to the setting at the start.

"Almost There" in anticipation of our drop into the bayou.

"Take You There" as the fireflies light our path through the bayou to the musicians.

"Dig a Little Deeper" as we investigate farther and find what we were looking for.

"Almost There" reprise as we near the finale.

Every time I do Jungle cruise I get unlucky and get a skipper with such crap speakers I can’t understand what they are saying.

Given my pathway through the park, this is always my first ride. One time we were so quick getting on that the skipper decided to go with a few of us since no one else seemed to be coming and opted to not use the radio because of the small crowd. Couldn't hear a word he said.

Did someone hand out talking points to the Sheild?

They all show up at once with:

The ride will have long lines so that’s all that matters.

Thru the eyes of a 4 year old the ride is great!

Those were for the most part things said by detractors, not by "The Shield".

While I could never know anyone's true motives, it did feel like a majority of the "we can't judge the attraction until we see it all" was aimed at observations that contained negative criticism rather than positive.

Does anyone ever want someone to quit being optimistic? As long as it's harming someone, I'd react to someone saying "Everything's gonna be great!" with "Right on!" and sorta pat them on the back and let them be on their way.

Throw in a Giant Squid, a Brontosaurus, and an evil Alien while we're at it.

And don't forget a Disco Yeti.

Choose film versions of all of them! Make it so that we can journey into the movies!

When I call this forum an echo chamber the shield tells me I’m crazy.

That seems to suggest you think this place is an echo chamber of positivity. You've had a different experience than me.

Everyone's complaining about the lack of Facilier, and that's fine since he's probably the best Disney baddy since Ursula and would have added much needed tension.

Don’t you remember Covid?

It seemed a number of people forgot it was happening while it was happening and suggested it was a flimsy excuse for things not getting done.

I hope they’ll update some other woefully outdated attractions next, like Peter Pan and Jungle Cruise (at least give us better speakers so we can better enjoy the humour).

It sure worked out for them though when they did the same to George Lucas

Did you see his plan for the sequels?

One thing someone else brought up on social media was the idea that for maintenance/upkeep costs they possibly wanted to keep the animatronics to certain areas for easier access. I would not doubt that at all, however, counterpoint is there is still a lot of decoration and theming throughout Splash that weren't necessarily animatronics but added to the experience.

Static frog figures would be a big plus and not requite any movement whatsoever.

• In this video, it seems Mama Odie gets short shrift. The boat missed the part of the video that Mama Odie shrinks you. Before the final drop, the video hadn't yet reset to where Mama Odie says she's making you large again. And the final time you see Mama Odie before you exit, the boat in front gets Mama Odie talking to you. But as this boat passes, she's stationary.

The timing in her videos seems to be one of the worst aspects. I hope they get it figured out in the next couple weeks.

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.

I honestly felt the atmosphere came through on ride-throughs with decent audio, even through a screen. Seems like one of the best parts of the new version.

Well in person reviews from the Cast are more positive than the response to the video. Tiny sample size given breakdowns.

Really struggling to not watch the video…

I don’t actually think the ride is a sparse as some suggest. Dark videos perhaps don’t show it well, but everything is pretty lush. A far cry from the literal dark emptiness of Dinosaur, for example. I’d like more critters, of course, but there should be something to look at the entire ride. Arguably more to look at for the first few minutes than the predecessor had.

Does this mean you've ridden? Or have you caved? I was going to suggest if you do cave to watch the Virtual Disney 360 and ensure you don't watch the official one.

The ride is easily salvageable. Add in some more critters and NAVEEEN during the "Going Down the Bayou" section.

And most importantly, add in some type of tension.

Honestly, just moving Big Poppa frog down to the lower level and leaving us alone with Tiana's anguished cry of us going missing would do wonders to add some tension to dispel with the surprise of the frog band.

Can't use Facilier. Deemed too problematic

Can't use Facilier. Dead.
I know. I know. We've covered that, but couldn't help but chuckle at the idea of stating it so tersely.

Here is our video from today's preview

The timing on so many things is just... so bad. I hope they're working these things out. Did you get a cycle of Mama Odie before the lift hill in that cut? I also find it odd to hear Mama Odie repeat her line before Slippin' Falls while other videos showed she had two. But there was no logjam. Perhaps it's programmed to say more lines when there's people waiting? I'm just glad they fixed the jumping fountains' flow problem on the first squirt that was happening during initial unofficial ride-throughs.

You know, they say it's the human drive to never be satisfied - that once we have what we wanted, we want new things.

Next, she'll want to be president, then she'll want to rule the world. After that, she'll set her sites on the galaxy... and that's when Marvel will take over the storyline.

And then she will move on to another galaxy... far, far away...

Really great video - while I'd like to see some timing tweaked, especially with Mama Odie at the end, she feels like she kinda... dies between boats.

It's weird that Mama Odie seemed to be in B-Mode. I've seen her move and say numerous lines. In this video she just kept repeating "Juju..."

Could they not have just filmed the AAs for the projections, would that look too uncanny valley? I almost feel a filmed AA would love better than the CGI versions of Tiana and Louis...

That feels like it would show every imperfection and seam.

Holy crap... I can finally sleep. Hooray.
The final tally was 44.