Latest look at Tiana's Bayou Adventure construction at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom

Apr 14, 2023 in "Tiana's Bayou Adventure"

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Tiana's Bayou Adventure construction - April 13 2023

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Posted: Friday April 14, 2023 9:52am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Here is the latest look at the progress on transforming Splash Mountain into Tiana's Bayou Adventure at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure construction - April 13 2023

At the top of the mountain, the tree stump has now been completely removed, leaving quite a large space surrounded by scaffolding.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure construction - April 13 2023

Moving to the bottom of the mountain, Imagineers and construction crews are working on new rockwork at the splash-down of the flume.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure construction - April 13 2023

Tiana's Bayou Adventure is set to open at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in late 2024.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure construction - April 13 2023

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WorldExplorer1 hour ago

God, can we all just take a moment to appreciate the sheer impressiveness of Splash Mountain making an indoor scene set on a bright, sunny day in an outdoor area? I'm pretty sure it was the only ride that did that in all of Disney World (the screens on Three Caballeros is the only other example I can think of, and it feels pretty clashy with the real scenes). Maybe all Disney parks, I haven't seen another one in all the videos I've watched. It's easier to hide things and direct the eye when more things are dark, so you can see why normally they go with that. Then Tiana's comes along and really sets the tone for the whole retheme by going right back to night scenes.

Tony the Tigger1 hour ago

So you’re saying it’s bad because it’s too similar to the previous version, which was somehow good despite those similarities?

Tony the Tigger1 hour ago

You mean because his story ended when the movie ended, and this takes place after that?

EagleScout6101 hour ago

Once you turn the lights on, the half baked nature of the retheme really show through. Take Tiana in the first scene - Keep in mind, that set replaced Br'er Rabbit with Mr. Bluebird and the briars behind him with two trees and fake grass. Another example is the critter band 3 feet away where Br'er Fox and Bear were: God, I could write a book about how badly they messed this overhaul up.

Comped4 hours ago

Was never an option to include him when, I cannot lie, certain elements within Disney were afraid of offending voodoo practitioners with his inclusion.

Jedi145 hours ago

From what they had said about the show, it was to be set after TBA and partially about Tiana’s new role as a community leader and future queen.

LindseyDisney9 hours ago

I posted this on reddit and I thought I would share my thoughts on here. I'm curious what everyone thinks? This is just my own wild theory, but I’ve always thought the characters we’re seeing in Tiana's Bayou Adventure were originally meant to be introduced in the canceled Tiana series. Since that show was scrapped, I can’t help but wonder what the future holds for Tiana's Bayou Adventure. My guess is that in the next 10 to 15 years, Disney might end up tweaking the ride's storyline. While they’ll definitely keep the Princess and the Frog IP, I could see them changing the narrative. Or potential inclusion of Dr. Facilier. With the upcoming Villains Land in the parks, how can they not include him? I’m almost imagining a scenario like Journey into Imagination. where we end up with two different Princess and the Frog storylines / rides in the parks.

EagleScout61017 hours ago

Even as someone with a Splash poster 10 feet from my desk, and Br'er Bear and Rabbit funkos among the many on my desk, I get the annoyance, but it's pointless to rehash the Splash argument again. Splash is gone, and now we can just make fun of how bad Bayou is

HMF17 hours ago

For my own sanity I mostly avoided the Splash threads from 2020 until it opened and then rendered my opinion.

HMF22 hours ago

I remember thinking in the early 2010s Things at WDW probably could not get any worse, I was wrong about that.

WorldExplorer23 hours ago

And now we're supposed to do all of this all over again. I don't normally quote myself, but I feel like I really got the Piston Peak situation down pat a year ago;

Splash4eva23 hours ago

Exactly. We saw the same playbook with GMR. Sadly no matter what shape Splash was in and towards the end and even other times its was rough with many things not working but end of day the ride was still the best and a classic. One where you can sing from start to finish and have an absolute joyous time on.

Tha Realest23 hours ago

I’m old enough to remember one of the main justifications for this “reskin” was how poor a shape that Splash Mountain was in, the decrepit state of the AAs, and the need for constant maintenance. Glad those issues have completely gone away.

Dreamer191 day ago

This is the thing. It was not only needlessly destructive to Splash, but it was also only partially destructive. They half-assed it. If they were dedicated, they could have demolished what was there and started from scratch and built a REAL Tiana ride. I would have hated losing Splash, but at least they wouldn’t have used the corpse of Splash Mountain to gloat about the companies “values”. Furthermore, something tells me all those extra “research” trips to New Orleans could have covered the cost of the demo.