Tiana's Bayou Adventure (Now Open)

[PerceptiveCoot]

I wonder if they’ll keep the current riverboat and make it the boat from the movie where Louis played and Naveen had that rooftop dinner with tiana... a ton of jazz players on it would be awesome

That would be cool. If they wanted to do a restaurant though, I do think they might just retheme the Hungry Bear Diner. It's not really a distinctive restaurant otherwise, and I suppose its placement makes sense with how Tiana's restaurant is depicted in the movie. It's not right on the water anymore, but it's close enough.

 

[WaterToWade]

That would be cool. If they wanted to do a restaurant though, I do think they might just retheme the Hungry Bear Diner. It's not really a distinctive restaurant otherwise, and I suppose its placement makes sense with how Tiana's restaurant is depicted in the movie. It's not right on the water anymore, but it's close enough.

oh, i was talking the boat ON splash mountain towards the end. Onto your restaurant point, Tiana’s Palace has been at the top of my list for dream ip restaurants brought to a park for as long as i can remember, so i’m absolutely pro bringing it to real life. I just wonder if they’d be willing to go for the scale and the live action entertainment from the movie.

 

[Dr. Herbert West]

I'm very excited to see how this turns out. Even setting aside Splash 1.0's troubling source material, the DL version has been in a state of disrepair for so long its gonna be great just to see everything working and the lighting refreshed at the bare minimum. My only concern is they won't include Facilier and minimize any kind of threat ala The Little Mermaid ride. But if Friends on the Other Side really does replace the Laughin Place, count me hyped.

 

[rcoasterdude]

If you look closely at the concept art, the log is coming directly out of the tree with the boat in it. Currently Splash Mountain comes out just below the tree stump, so i’m guessing that the mountain will become a little shorter to make room for the tree.

Edit: The mountain also seems to be getting a more realistic paint job, going away from the orange-brownish look

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

I'm very excited to see how this turns out. Even setting aside Splash 1.0's troubling source material, the DL version has been in a state of disrepair for so long its gonna be great just to see everything working and the lighting refreshed at the bare minimum. My only concern is they won't include Facilier and minimize any kind of threat ala The Little Mermaid ride. But if Friends on the Other Side really does replace the Laughin Place, count me hyped.

Definitely, the music from The Princess and the Frog absolutely slaps.

 

[Allison]

What do you even mean by this? Who said changing it alone to be more inclusive is ruining it? I’ll judge it on its merits when it’s done, but Splash, on any given forum, and on any poll, is renowned as the quintessential ride of its type on the planet, so you'll have to excuse any scepticism that this hastily announced project is going to live up to expectations.

You literally said...

It’s just a ride. A good one, that I’d be upset to see ruined.

You’re deeming it ruined before it’s even started. Now, I apologize if I misunderstood you but you made a post essentially saying in so many other words since black people have ridden it that doesn’t make it racist, so maybe you can see why I’d think your calling it “ruined” before you’ve even experienced it could be taken the wrong way.

Just because you think it’s a good ride as is, it’ll be hastily put together, the retheming won’t meet your expectations, etc., etc., etc., doesn’t mean that there’s no way it can possibly be even better once it’s redone.

All said & done, it’s like you said yourself-it’s just a ride-if it’s something you’re not looking forward to, you don’t have to go on it.

 

[Magic Feather]

If you look closely at the concept art, the log is coming directly out of the tree with the boat in it. Currently Splash Mountain comes out just below the tree stump, so i’m guessing that the mountain will become a little shorter to make room for the tree.

Edit: The mountain also seems to be getting a more realistic paint job, going away from the orange-brownish look

I’d say that the boat would be about where the top of the current stump is, with the “roots” starting a little further down on the mountain than before. That said, I’d still expect the overall structure to be taller post-transformation.

 

[WaterToWade]

Question: if they DID make a Tiana’s palace, do you guys think they’d be willing to break the “park princesses can’t sing” rule to have Tiana preform live?

 

[April]

Question: if they DID make a Tiana’s palace, do you guys think they’d be willing to break the “park princesses can’t sing” rule to have Tiana preform live?

I feel like they’d do it at Disneyland, since they have it in Magical Map. But I feel if they did it in WDW, they’d just track it. But maybe they’ll surprise us.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Im surprised I never knew this was happening tbh especially if they’ve been working on it for over a year, maybe a well kept secret idk.

I think this has potential for a real great ride though. Tron and eventually this will be really nice for Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately only 1 adds capacity but it fast pass is gone I think lines would actually not be as horrendous at Disney

 

[RonaldsModernLife]

They're adding a boat to the top of the mountain (tree?)

That might be our biggest loss here: Magic Kingdom is gonna have one less mountain.

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

I find it very funny that posters on WDWMagic are asking for Chapek to cut the budget on this ride.

EDIT: Life comes at you fast.

 

[belloq87]

I don't even know how I feel about potential budgeting for this. One one hand, part of me thinks that if they're going to do this, they need to go all-out, razzle-dazzle.

One the other hand, the lower the budget, the more likely it is that more of the animatronics will remain. And I'd like whatever this ends up being to remain an animatronics showcase.

The fact that the Imagineer running this project also ran Runaway Railway, plus Trowbridge... makes me a little concerned. Hopefully Tony Baxter's presence, if it's anything more than an in-name-only thing, will keep this rooted in a much more classical tradition.

 

[StarTrekGeek]

I for one am excited for this change. I enjoyed the original ride, but I think it's about time they change it's "Song of the South" theme.

I hope we get some awesome jazz music for the ride. I also wouldn't mind Dr. Facilier making an appearance. :grin:

 

[WaterToWade]

I wonder what the queue will be like... i just want Ray to be everywhere he feasibly can within this attraction

But seriously, if this follows Tiana and Naveen after their de-frogging kiss like the article says, it has to start in the bayou, right?

 

[Nick]

For those worried... if someone described the basic story of Splash Mountain, they could do it by saying “a bunch of talking animals successfully evading evil while you float through the bayou as they sing and dance to southern music.”

Tell me PatF doesn’t slide into that perfectly. It seems to me like they can probably do this with relative ease and a lot of things may even remain.

 

[belloq87]

That sounds like a ride I would absolutely enjoy, yes.

But they need to do it well.

 

[Skold]

Makes total sense, even if it did take a while. This was a top 5 Orlando ride for me though.

I will miss "How do you do"!

How do you do? Mighty pleasant greetin'
How do you do? Say it when you're meetin'
How do you do? With every one repeatin'
Pretty good sure as you're born.

 

[yankees13]

Well, I will not get political here (try not to at least), out of respect to the site and the mods.

Very mixed feelings here. Upset more than anything. Splash Mountain is my favorite ride. It has been since I was a kid. I went to Disney/Universal every year for my pre-teen/teen years. As I got older, it was just Universal for a long period of time. So I’d say I have been coming to Orlando from NY every year for the better part of 20 years now (however with probably an 8 year long Disney drought).

I’ve seen Universal evolve firsthand going every year and seeing the new attractions built, ride closures etc. So while Universal has evolved, so have I into adulthood. I used to love going in my younger years for the rides, getting soaked on Popeye, riding the Mummy infinite times in a row. Now I love going for the scenery, eating out, drinking etc. Adult stuff

However, in recent years I’ve gone back to Disney. And being back there was almost like being a kid again. There was some changes here and there, but Magic Kingdom has largely stayed the same. So the nostalgia is always real. That always starts with Splash Mountain for me. The characters, the music, scenery. Heck, even the queue. It’s like boom, I’m 11 years old again.

Its unfortunate the source material is what it is. Can’t defend it. I feel the ride did a good job of taking the characters and creating it’s own story. So I see the stance of calling Disney hypocritical for erasing the movie from its library, but still opening the ride, profiting of the characters etc.

My biggest issue is the reaction to the people who are not happy about this (and I apologize guys if I’m going down the path I said I wouldn’t go down at the beginning of my post).

This is a civilized forum so that’s why I like to post my theme park thoughts here as opposed to Twitter. I’m seeing people react negatively to this only to be called out as a racist, a bigot, a MAGA. That’s just unfair. I laid out the reasons why the ride is special to me. It’s possible to love the ride AND understand the source material is racist.

Thats all I got. Sorry for the long post. Had to get it off my chest somewhere

 

[P@n!K_Sw1tC#]

You literally said...



You’re deeming it ruined before it’s even started. Now, I apologize if I misunderstood you but you made a post essentially saying in so many other words since black people have ridden it that doesn’t make it racist, so maybe you can see why I’d think your calling it “ruined” before you’ve even experienced it could be taken the wrong way.

Just because you think it’s a good ride as is, it’ll be hastily put together, the retheming won’t meet your expectations, etc., etc., etc., doesn’t mean that there’s no way it can possibly be even better once it’s redone.

All said & done, it’s like you said yourself-it’s just a ride-if it’s something you’re not looking forward to, you don’t have to go on it.

I have a problem with your response because he/she said that they *would* they didn't *deem* anything ruined. People are allowed to be skeptical about stuff like this. Splash Mtn isn't Maelstrom, its one of the BIG THREE at the two most visited theme parks in the world. I empathize with this member's hesitation because this is not only a big change for the ride, but a big change for the park.