Tiana's Bayou Adventure construction progresses at Walt Disney World

Oct 27, 2023 in "Tiana's Bayou Adventure"

Tiana's Bayou Adventure construction - October 27 2023
Posted: Friday October 27, 2023 10:05am Et by WDWMAGIC Staff

Today, we have the latest look at the construction progress for Tiana's Bayou Adventure at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.





Three large tree trunks have arrived this week, taking up position on the right side of the mountain. There are connectors throughout the trunks to attach branches.



Scaffolding has been removed in some areas, giving a clearer look at the new greenery and paintwork.


At the main entrance, work is underway on new walkways and a small elevated structure. We also get a clear view of the new Malaika Favorite mural.









Magic Kiingdom's Tiana's Bayou Adventure was said initially by Disney to open in late 2024, but recent wording from Disney has dropped the "late." There may be hope for a slightly earlier-than-anticipated opening.

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Henry Mystic1 minute ago

I’m reserving full judgement until I ride it. But man, just every creative decision for this ride is just baffling and looks soulless. I was genuinely getting excited recently, so maybe my expectations were just too high, but it does give more Frozen: Ever After than Frozen Journey in its presentation. Also, I don’t feel like the Tiana animatronic looks like her at all, despite them all being impressive AAs. I genuinely feel if they kept true to OG Splash and followed the film’s plot, there’s no reason it couldn’t be better than Splash if the fantastic technology was just out to better use. They tried to reinvent the wheel for no reason.

Trauma2 minutes ago

Is there a single shred of evidence to the story that Iger said this ride was boring? If so how the heck did he allow this to open? Who he the exec who took a look at this and said “this is amazing let’s open it up!” I just don’t understand how this was allowed to happen.

Surferboy5673 minutes ago

It appears they cranked up the Dig a Little Deeper on the lift hill meaning you can actually hear it now. Definitely prefer that than the silence on the Disney POV. It also presents better in VR with scale, the fireworks in the background help as well. Splash is still better but it improves things just a little.

Sir_Cliff6 minutes ago

I think this is a very good point. It seems they spent a lot of time creating a whole backstory and universe for this attraction and a lot less time thinking through the actual experience of the ride. It's very strange, but it relates to my sense about modern Imagineering that a lot of them seem to have taken creative writing classes and enjoy writing these long, elaborate backstories for their own sake that don't necessarily improve the end product (whether a ride or store). The backstories are increasingly treated as an additional element of the experience for fans to read and learn rather than to help Imagineers give internal consistency to what they are designing. This might be the peak of that tendency in that they've created this whole world of a food co-op for riders to step into on the queue before getting on a ride that has almost nothing to do with a food co-op beyond the idea that the main character in that ride owns and works in one.

Surferboy56738 minutes ago

peter1143543 minutes ago

TomboyJanet2 hours ago

A plot

GhostHost10003 hours ago

That lighting package is what should be around Pandora more

Ismael Flores3 hours ago

it really amazes me how this team of WDI did not keep most of those critters from Splash. All they had to do was redress a few of them and have kept the inside much more lively. Instead the lump expensive AA's in certain areas where the logs pass by quickly and do not get to even enjoy them. That whole area with no was and just a walled screen is just a bad choice

Ismael Flores3 hours ago

The thing I hate the most about the change is the awful lighting package. Why do they think that everything needs to be saturated in colors that just make little sense to the setting. what is it about this bright purples and reds some of the night pictures of the outside of the salt dome or whatever it is seems overly done.

Ismael Flores3 hours ago

I understand the reasoning for people hating on Song of the South because of some of its writing. It also kind of saddens me that at the same time people hate on it they are literally erasing the legacy of the actor that play Remus. Movies in that era had lots of issues when it came to race but in my opinion deleting them completely from history is not the right choice. When it comes to Song of the South people either forget or do not realize that it was the first time in history that an African America actor, the brilliant James Baskett was the first African American actor to be recognised for his work and given an Honorary Oscar. by basically deleting from history Disney and those against the movie have at the same time erased his accomplishment.

Homemade Imagineering3 hours ago

To end on a more positive note, I am happy to see more constructive/civil discussions being held both on this site and elsewhere, following the release of the footage. The shortcomings of this attraction worry me for future discussions within the theme park community as it will inevitably hang over everyone’s heads as JII does to this day, with a far more political edge to it. It’s upsetting because the naysayers will only use it’s detriments as ammunition to parade their exaggerated agendas without giving any sensible reasons for doing so. Of course this only makes the rest of us look like a handful of pathetic crybabies in the eyes of the opposite extreme. Thus, making almost every conversation over splash inflammatory. At the end of the day SM is gone, it won’t ever come back and we have to accept it, so therefore this needed to have succeeded and it did not. Discussing the merits of SM and why it had to go only results in a deconstructive conversation, and I think more people need to instead focus on the fact that TBA has failed to meet the standards it absolutely needed to. If the conversation can remain skewed towards that idea, then I feel far more optimistic that positive change will come not only for this attraction, but also WDI.

WDWhopper3 hours ago

As I watched the side by side POV of old Splash Mountain and the new Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, I kept thinking about the degraded masterpiece from the 1500’s that was “fixed” by a modern day artist.

Ismael Flores3 hours ago

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