We’ve been talking a lot about Tiana’s Bayou Adventure lately.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Magic Kingdom
The new ride is set to open on June 28th, but previews have already begun! Many people are finally able to ride the new attraction and see for themselves what has changed since the re-theming of Splash Mountain. However, even before previews began, Disney released a full ride-through video on YouTube! You can watch the whole ride before ever going on it to see everything inside. Unfortunately, A LOT of people didn’t have many positive things to say about the ride, and frankly, we’re not surprised.
We were so excited to get a POV video of the new ride in Magic Kingdom. While the ride is opening soon, this was a huge sneak peek we didn’t expect because Disney is usually very secretive about their new attractions. This ride is not a completely new system; it is simply a re-theme of the old Splash Mountain ride. This means that there is a new story, new animatronics, and new songs, but the ride system remains the same.
©Disney
Unfortunately, many people seem to be disappointed by the new ride based on what they saw in the video. Splash Mountain was a beloved, classic ride, so Disney had big shoes to fill. A few people are pointing fingers at Walt Disney Imagineering. One reader commented, “HUGE MISS by Imagineering on this. Why would they take away Splash Mountain, a very, very beloved ride just to replace it with an IP and put little to no effort into it?” While we aren’t surprised by this viewpoint and expected people to be mad about seeing Splash Mountain disappear, Disney wouldn’t have left the classic ride in the parks due to cultural insensitivities in the movie that Splash Mountain was based on.
The finale of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure ©Disney
A few individuals are concerned about the story. Many people have voiced concerns that the story is severely lacking and has no conflict and no “bad guy” to create suspense or energy. Reader, Conly, stated, “They have ruined this ride. There is no story, no suspense, no accomplishment, no iconic music, no energy, no characters, no soul, no charm.”
The ride’s new story is that Tiana is throwing a Mardi Gras party at her new restaurant but she’s missing an ingredient — a band! So you set off on a mini adventure to track down some critters to play the music at her party. You run into Mama Odie who shrinks you down to find some fireflies and you meet other characters along the way.
©Disney
However, Dr. Facilier (the villain in the movie) is not in this new ride since it takes place after the movie, The Princess and the Frog, and many people are upset by this, saying he would have given the story the excitement, conflict, and energy it needed, especially at the big drop. Another reader, Patrick, said, “That POV was a letdown, Imagineers really missed the mark by not having Dr. Facilier, at least in shadow form, before the drop.”
People were also sad to see that Ray the firefly is also not in the ride, even though he died in the movie. He was a wonderful character who is still missed.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Magic Kingdom
Another point that people are bringing up is that the ride simply looks boring. From the animatronics to the projections to the storyline, all around people are worried that this ride will be boring to ride other than going down the drop. A commenter on the YouTube video said, “Even Tiana’s animatronic looks bored on this ride. She sits on a stump and waits… and waits… and waits for you to finally get to her so she can drop one line. This is an “Adventure”?? It’s weird, sad, and most of all… boring.”
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure sign
We’re not surprised to see so many negative comments because as Disney fans, we often have a hard time with change, especially in the parks. We were also concerned, along with many others, about the storyline after the movie’s timeline, because we, too, love characters like Ray and Dr. Facilier.
With all these negative comments based on the ride-through video, we’re eager to find out what people’s reactions will be after they’ve ridden the ride themselves. Hopefully, perspectives will change then. Frontierland and the area past it are changing and evolving, and the summation of many fan’s opinions seems to be similar to that of Evan, a DFB reader, who commented, “At this point either scrap the whole story now or just tear the whole thing out for the Beyond Thunder Mountain Concept.”
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure FULL RIDE-THROUGH VIDEO! Watch Now!
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Disney World’s Magic Kingdom
Planning to ride when Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opens at Disney World. There are two ways to do so. You can either purchase Genie+ and make a Lightning Lane reservation for the attraction, or you can join the Virtual Queue at 7AM or 1PM. The Virtual Queue can be TRICKY, especially for brand new rides – learn all about it here.
Cast Member previews are currently happening at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure followed by Annual Passholders, DVC Members, and D23 members. We’ll likely hear more thoughts and takes on the ride soon! Until then keep following DFB.
Critical Detail About the Drop at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Disney World CONFIRMED
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Not surprised – my hunch is any of the comments come from people who were die-hard SM fans and did not want to see anything in its place. Walt Disney often said the parks were never done, and parks that don’t innovate die. I enjoyed SM, but am happy to see it get a new life as a ride for Tiana – the animatronics were showing their age and needed to be updated, and they look great! If you don’t like it, don’t ride! I on the other hand can’t wait to see it in person later this year!
Reminds me of Mexico Pavilion ride Gran Fiesta Tour……sorry but count me in as missing Splash Mountain……zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Wait…. you mean the negative comments were coming from people who HAVEN’T ridden the ride yet???
The “cultural insensitivities” are based on African stories that were told by sharecroppers. For gosh sakes James Baskett won an Oscar for his performance and Zip A Dee Do Da is one of the most Iconic Disney songs EVER! Even if you don’t like the ride, the VAST MAJORITY of people never even heard of the movie, let alone have actually seen it.
This was a HUGE MISTAKE, by Disney. They could have added a plaque or something to Splash Mountain, to teach about James Baskett and his Oscar and how he loved the part. They then could have built an entirety new ride for Tiana and done something special and worthy of Disney Imagneering.
What Disney did was accomplish three things, and they all fail.
They took away the most popular attraction from the park, they did a disservice to Tiana by giving her a haphazard ride that makes no sense and they upset their most loyal guests.
Can’t understand why so many people dislike this new ride. Easier to relate to Tiana, Moma Oda and Louis than to a rabbit, a bear and whatever that wolf was supposed to be. Better music, better lighting, better animatronics. You Americans aren’t happy unless you can complain. This is more of a family ride mow.
These comments from people who have not ridden Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. I’ll wait to see it for myself. I understand Disney’s need to change Splash Mountain and this seems a good use. I am sad so many people are writing to ruin the fun for others.
I didn’t really think Splash Mountain was “exciting’. It was nice a calm while you went around and they told a story and then you hit that drop. Seems like the same thing here. I haven’t ridden it so I really shouldn’t do any comparing yet, but I do stand by my first line about it not being exciting before.
Well I guess I will not ride it, no way for me to get on, no standby. Beyond that, this is just another example of Disney Imagineering missing the mark by taking n iconic ground breaking attraction and turned it into a ride.
Let’s review, Test Track, both versions missed the mark when re-imagined from the Original factory-track attraction which was ground breaking out of its the box Disney thinking at is best. Honey I shrunk the Audience, Enchanted Tiki Room Under New Management and the list goes on and on. Now we guests are being threatened with a re-do of the Tree of Life and “A Bugs Life” attraction. Doomed to be another walk around attraction like Moana at Epcot. WED Enterprises was on an incredible streak of successes at Epcot, The Studios and AK. I pray for a rebirth of WED on the next re-firb
I loved Splash Mountain, but got to ride Tiana’s Bayou last week and it is beautiful!! I think they did a great retheme and you get to interact with Mama Odie and Louis the horn playing alligator, my two favorites. That big green cutie just wants to play in the band! ?
You are missing the point. The ride did not change only the scenes changed. People rode because it was a flume ride where you would get wet at the end. Please explain what progress has been made in this ride. Change for change’s sake, or in this case for political reasons is not change. Just like the changes to Pirates people are going to go ho hum and wish the original ride was back since the design did not change only the political correctness changed.
I love Tiana and all the characters in her movie but have to say Disney and its supporters on this don’t seem to realize part of the problem is how they villainized Song of the South as racist and hurtful. It is the opposite! It is a marvelous collection of stories in the style Africans told in history including a clever main character and harmless fun (not to mention wonderful humor and music). This sours the excitement a lot of us would’ve had for a new Tiana attraction even if it’s just okay as this Bayou Adventure is. I rode it and liked it but honestly will not bother to ride it again even if and when it has short standby wait times.
I hate getting wet on rides, so I rarely rode Splash Mountain. This new theming of the ride to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure looks nice from the videos I’ve seen but I’m in no rush to do the ride. I’ll wait for the lines to get lower before I will even bother with it but I do want to see it myself at some point.
I kind of get it I skipped through most of the ride through because the video was sooo boring. But I expect it will be a relaxing pleasant ride through to be there in real life. Reserving judgement until I see it for myself.
RIP song of the south
Tiana is trying to replace the best ride in WDW and that was not a smart move. The excuse that Splash Mountain was based on a movie that Disney is trying to ignore is not even believable. I would assume that a huge majority of people that rode Splash Mountain couldn’t tell you the name of the movie the ride was based on and have never seen Song of the South.
I loved all that I saw in the video. It had just enough story based on the movie, the animatronics were unbelievable and the ride as whole was paced very nicely. This is not Splash Mountain because the story from “Song of the South” was deemed insensitvie to African Americans. I can accept that. It is not as thrilling as Thunder Mountain nor Space Mountain, but I can ride those as well and still enjoy Tiana’s. I think that it will be a cool and relaxing ride just when we will need one.
Bob Iger said it was boring and he saw it in person. Boring or not, it apparently has spent more time broken down than operating so far. That’s not a good first impression.
Kenp I agree with u so much Disney has messed up so much and destroying all those attractions when something isn’t broke don’t fix it and they fixed it now it’s broke what is wrong with these morons doing this and look what they did to journey into the imagination just to name more than a few and then had. benches on Main Street and the full circle with trees n front of the castle with benches another stupid removal
Also when they got rid of the Osborne Xmas lights that was so great to go to and the list keeps going we started going to Disney when it was only the magic kingdom and had to use e-I tickets and still have some of them and they had little booths where we could buy more r trade with other people that wanted to trade for another at
They were called e-tickets and one of the greatest things that happened to me and my husband ever at Disney is when we were ask to b grand Marshall’s n the Main Street parade it was my birthday and was approached when a cast member saw my birthday pin
So, love the outside and all the bright colors inside, but I was a bit underwhelmed as I rode the ride. Sure the animatronics and colors are great but there were quite a few empty areas on the ride, And I get the story line but it seems to need a bit more. Definitely fun ride, though
We will still ride it the next time we go to the park. But it will never top what I considered the best ride ever. The ride had been down for a couple of hours. My wife and I just happened to walk by when the ride opened up. No line for us. We were in the second group to ride. We get started and noticed all of the animatronics were working, but zero sound. It was eerily quiet except for the clicking of the animatronics. Very unique ride that time. Shut down once again afterwards.