First logs take the plunge at Tiana's Bayou Adventure as ride system testing begins at Walt Disney World

Feb 14, 2024 in "Tiana's Bayou Adventure"

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Tiana's Bayou Adventure coming summer 2024 mural

Posted: Wednesday February 14, 2024 7:20am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Ride system testing has begun at Tiana's Bayou Adventure in Magic Kingdom as logs are once again taking the 40mph, 52.5ft plunge from the top of the former Splash Mountain.

Following yesterday's announcement that Tiana's Bayou Adventure will open in the summer of 2024, Walt Disney Imagineers began testing the logs last night.

Last night's test is the first time the ride has cycled since the closure of Splash Mountain in January 2023.

While the logs are carried over from Splash Mountain, the only visible change is that Br'er Rabbit has been removed from the front of the ride vehicle.

With the ride system remaining unchanged from Splash Mountain, the height requirement at Tiana's Bayou Adventure remains 40 inches, with a ride time of around 11 minutes.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure coming summer 2024 mural

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EagleScout6109 hours ago

I completely forgot they're planning on closing Big Thunder. That'll be disasterous for Frontierland if Bayou can't operate for a full day and BTMRR is down.

monothingie10 hours ago

BTM is planned to be closing for an extended refurbishment imminently. TBA as a new ride was unlikely to close this winter. Without TBA you have an entire land without a major attraction and a severe hit to capacity. They've painted themselves into a corner in terms of what they can do.

Mike S13 hours ago

Finally rode it myself. What a downgrade. Splash Mountain was a ride I could go on again and again every trip. This? Once is enough if I’m even feeling like it. Can’t wait to go to Tokyo one day just to see it again.

EagleScout61014 hours ago

The way I see it, they have two options - A. Shut down TBA less than a month after opening it to fix the bugs B. Wait until winter (when they would usually refurbish Splash) to take it down and fix it then. The issue becomes, do they admit their new ride can't function properly when the old one worked (admittedly less so at the end), or let it close multiple times a day for a good chunk of its debut season?

EricsBiscuit15 hours ago

IIRC it took them a while to fix FEA too. Within a couple months they’ll fine tune it.

monothingie18 hours ago

The problem with TBA is that they are unable or unwilling to fix it at this point. Unable because the problem can not be resolved without extended downtime. Unwilling because shutting it down for a month or more would be a tremendous embarrassment. Ironically I think more guests would be less critical of an unplanned refurbishment to get it working properly, than to have it breakdown for half the day on a constant basis. But I guess that would bruise some pretty inflated egos at the company.

EricsBiscuit1 day ago

FEA is a very apt comparison. Both rides are enjoyable but had rough openings and are objectively not as good as what they replaced.

co100641 day ago

This attraction’s opening reminds me of FEA in so many ways. I wasn’t following the opening of FEA very closely, but I remember there being substantial downtime and ride evacs early on. I don’t know what changed to get the ride more reliable, but hopefully they can fix it soon! It’s very disappointing when you plan to experience a new attraction on a (very expensive) vacation but don’t get that opportunity.

MisterPenguin1 day ago

BrerFoxesBayouAdventure1 day ago

One can only hope DL's version isn't as pitiful in terms of operation.

lightningtap3471 day ago

This is egregiously bad too as today's a day where we didn't have any rain. Today was the day NOT to have this happen.

monothingie1 day ago

7 hours of total downtime today. Just the latest continuing example of a day in which the ride was down just as much as it was up. They can’t fix this thing and they can’t shut it down for an extended refurbishment so soon, so they’re just going to let it limp along and get progressively worse and downplay any vocal complaints about these problems. This was so predictable. Shame on the shills who gaslighted anyone critical of this mess. Congratulations Disney you built a mediocre attraction\