Tiana's Bayou Adventure is the newest ride to open in Walt Disney World. It officially opened in Magic Kingdom on June 28, 2024, and replaces fan favorite Splash Mountain. I was in Magic Kingdom 1 week after Tiana's opening day, and it was surprisingly easy and fast to get on the ride. That alone should tell you how little guests are thinking of this brand-new ride.
When new rides open in Disney World, fans have grown to expect amazing, innovative technology and creativity that leaves them feel wowed and wanting to ride again. We've seen this in all of the new rides to open at Disney World in the past decade- Guardians, Rise of the Resistance, Flight of Passage, Tron. Tiana's fell extremely short of the high standard expected in a Disney ride, particularly one that replaced such a beloved and classic ride as Splash Mountain. Disney had big shoes to fill to appease guests who still had bitterness from the removal of Splash Mountain, and boy they let everyone down.
When I visited, Tiana's is still operating on a virtual queue (it has since moved to a top tier ride with Lightening Lane Multi-Pass). Typically, a virtual queue can be difficult to get. For example, the Guardians virtual queue is very competitive to actually get a time slot. I had no trouble at all booking a slot for 5 people during the 1pm Tiana's virtual queue in the 1st week that the ride was open to the general public. This was an early indicator that this ride may not be as popular as other big new rides.
We arrived at the ride a couple of hours after our call back time, and were still allowed to enter the queue and there was no line at all. Compare this to the 30 minute to 1 hour wait with a virtual queue for Tron or Guardians. Tiana's was a walk-on.
The outside queue area leading up to the ride was practically identical to the Splash Mountain queue. It only really changed when you went inside the building. This area is all new, transformed into the kitchen of Tiana's Foods, featuring her famous beignets. The back story surrounds around the opening of her restaurant. The theming made me question once again why Princess and the Frog was the movie chosen for this ride's re-theme, as there are much more popular Disney rides that would deserve a coveted ride spot in Magic Kingdom. This fact feeds to the questionability of the whole ride experience.
When you reach the boarding dock, you board a log boat, essentially the exact same as the logs on Splash Mountain. As you begin your journey through the Bayou, you will very quickly realize there is no story of any substance. You are essentially floating through the Bayou watching a bunch of animal animatronics play musical instruments. Where there are no animatronics, there is dark forest surrounding you, adding to the feel that there is nothing really happening during this ride. It was pretty boring. It truly felt like Disney knew the pressure of having one of the major rides in Magic Kingdom closed for over a year, and quickly slapped something together to get it back up and running.
To top it all off, the animal animatronics are less believable and impressive than the 1989 animal animatronics from Splash Mountain. There was a rumor that a lot of the animatronics from Splash Mountain were reused in Tiana's Bayou. However, I did not see any familiar looking critters. The animatronics featured on Tiana's Bayou look unnatural, like giant stuffed animals with strange looking fur. I was not a fan. In some spots Disney resorts to video playback of characters rather than even utilizing animatronics, which seemed liked an easy way out.
Now on a more positive note- the ride track and experience itself is very much the same as Splash Mountain. In essence, it is a slow-moving, floating log ride through a mountain-esque enclosure, with several drops throughout, culminating in the iconic giant drop at the end of the ride. One fun change Disney made to the track, is changing one of the drops to a double drop. This gave a roller-coaster feel for a few seconds, that was different and unexpected.
Another positive note- I quite enjoyed the area outside the bayou, immediately following the drop. The theming of the trees, lily pads, and low growing water grass feels very authentic and you forget for a moment that you are in Magic Kingdom. This outdoor area can be admired from the bridge across from the ride as well, so you don't even have to ride Tiana's to appreciate the theming. It also continues to fit in with the theming of Frontierland without completely throwing off the vibe of the land. That is a plus for me, because Frontierland is my favorite land in Magic Kingdom.
It is hard for us Disney adults to not remember what used to be on Splash Mountain while riding Tiana's and at times I found myself thinking "this used to be the laughing place" or "this is where the singing bird and brer rabbit was." Tiana's Bayou Adventure will likely be loved by younger fans or first time Disney World visitors because it is all they have ever known. They never experienced Splash Mountain and will have nothing to compare it to. However, for those who can remember Splash Mountain, it is guaranteed to be a disappointment as Disney fell flat in reimagining this ride to anything with substance.
All I can hope for is a lengthy refurbishment in a year or so, where Imagineers add elements that they did not have time to add before the grand opening. I highly doubt the high criticism of Tiana's Bayou would lead Disney to convert the ride back to Splash Mountain, and admit that this all was a terrible decision. For now, Tiana's Bayou is the only option for the 3rd mountain in Magic Kingdom, and fans will have to accept the inferior ride or skip one of the biggest rides in the park.
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