In June 2020, Disney announced a major change that few expected, while all six of Disney’s U.S. theme parks remained closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the next few years, both Splash Mountain attractions (at Disneyland since 1989 and at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom since 1992) will shed their names, stories, and ties to the beloved show. Controversial 1946 film connections Song of the South. Instead it’s based on the 2009 Rebirth ride princess and the frogbringing Disney’s first black princess to the parks via major e-tickets…just not new one. Here’s our review of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Disneyland!
Yes, in the 21st century tradition of EPCOT’s Frozen (building on the classic Maelstrom) or Californication’s Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! (a redesign of The Twilight Zone’s Tower of Terror), Imagineers will keep the tanks, vehicles, layout, and scenery structure of Splash Mountain and just transform them into something new. Trade the fable of Boer Rabbit for a trip to the saltwater wetlands of Louisiana, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will become a new classic and a must-see as Disney continues to modernize its park-enhancing properties.
Now listen – there’s no doubt this shift is divisive. Countless Disneyland fans have weighed in on the numerous controversial aspects of this decision. There’s been a lot of discussion about whether a redesign is needed, and frankly, it’s beyond the scope of this article to delve into the multifaceted discussions about racism, inclusivity, representation, and the inevitable comparisons between audio animatronics count or song selection. Instead, I’m going to share some top thoughts on riding the Tiana Bayou Adventure at Disneyland on opening day, November 15, 2024.
1. The Disneyland version also has problems
Devoted fans of Splash Mountain gloated when the Magic Kingdom version of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure suffered from lackluster reliability when it opened. Rides can last for hours or days without stable operation and constantly experience “wood jams,” system damage, and evacuation. Whereas physical It’s the same ride as Splash Mountain, and fans can’t quite figure out why this ride that’s been running for thirty years has suddenly turned into an operational nightmare…
As the story goes, the culprit was not the ride system but the show controls. Rather than looping guests through “cocktail party” style scenes, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is designed to make each scene come to life When entering in a vehiclethe animatronics speak directly to guests (and even follow them with their heads and eyes!). But unlike tracked dark rides, where the vehicle’s movements can be precisely understood and communicated to the control system, Tiana’s free-floating log disrupted the system, leaving a large Backup, because the animatronics caught fire, causing downtime.
It turns out these issues are inherent to West Coast riding, too. On opening day of the Disneyland version, Tiana didn’t start calling back the virtual queue group until 11:30 (three and a half hours after the park opened). After running for two hours it shut down again and stayed off for a few hours. That wasn’t the first impression Disney made of its new e-tickets on its much-hyped opening day.
The good news is that when I rode (in group 20 around 3pm), all of the ride’s animatronics were working – even if some of the mouths didn’t work. But I guess that’s what you get when you put a dozen of Disney’s incredibly complex next-generation audio-animated animatronics into a water ride.
2. The “story” is rather incoherent
Especially over the past decade, Disney Imagineers have insisted on the concept of “story” to guide everything they do. (Apparently, they never visited Pixar Pier.) For Tiana, insiders believe that commitment to “the story” is the reason why the villain doesn’t appear in the movie (he dies in the movie, after all), and why Tiana Reasons that never appear in her movies. The instantly recognizable costume (she’s now a business owner), and why when we hear songs from the movie, it’s through an old radio and not the character herself.
A lot has been said about this, but I’ll reiterate it: aside from some place-making in the queue that reminded us of a party Tiana’s house invited us to, we entered the ride fairly unsure of what the “story” was. Destined. Unless you dig into the Disney Parks blog posts, it’s unlikely that you’ll understand your “motivations” in a Shakespearean way in your journal.
The first episode is an audio animatronic of Tiana on the first elevator hill, and she makes a sweeping announcement that we should be looking for Louis the Crocodile up ahead, as he’s looking for the band. Then we set off. Theoretically, searching for band members is why we floated through Tiana’s Food Garden, why we splashed into the bayou, and why Audie Mama “shrunk” us mid-stream (lest we overlook any of the amphibian-sized instrumentalists) )). Still, I’d bet that at least 50% of the riders couldn’t tell you this “plot,” even though every character interaction we had along the way amounted to a character reminding us to find the band members.
Now, to be fair, I think if you told 90% of Disney guests that Splash Mountain has a story, they would be shocked, let alone a moral lesson about reverse psychology, so maybe these high-powered flumes aren’t great transportation Used to convey plot. With that in mind, Tiana’s is probably pretty simple.
3. Cycling requires more energy and personality
As far as this indicator is concerned, it is difficult to no Compare this ride to Splash Mountain, which features over 100 singing, hand gestures, lip-syncing, and beautifully styled audio animatronics singing very catchy songs in real time that absolutely fills the dark ride’s Every square foot. Apparently those very spectacular figures didn’t jump to Tiana’s (to be fair, they did Originated from “New American Song” in 1976, when they were almost 50 years old).
But it’s somewhat disappointing that the 19 “critters” found on Tiana are almost all simple “electromechanical” figures – in other words, they rock side to side or back and forth, but nothing more. We couldn’t hear their voices or any personality, especially as we drifted quickly past them, wood bouncing chaotically off the sink walls. The whole dark ride is basically us floating through a small group of simple animals playing instruments while Tiana’s (impressive) animatronic says something like, “Boy, they really can play!” and then she somehow beat us around the corner Next As she said, “We have get Let them join the party! ”
Disney makes an effort to “introduce” the critters (such as an accordion-playing raccoon, a trumpet-playing bear, and a harmonica-playing turtle) in advance in social media posts and fills its gift shop with stuffed animals. But since we never really get to know any of them, their names are only known through printed legends, and their characters are fairly simple, it’s unlikely anyone will buy their merchandise unless it’s because they’re cute. This is great! But there seems to be a chance that Disney could play a fictional character, Albert, or Chandu here, but the animals are just a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo.
So how do the rides at Disneyland compare to those at the Magic Kingdom? Please join us on the next page for our official call…
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