No Disney theme park project has generated more hot takes and fiery debates than Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
So let me add my own: I loved it and I think it unequivocally tops its predecessor, Splash Mountain.
You may now be ready to fire off expletive-laden emails or comments cursing my name or causing me a Disney shill for saying that. Maybe hear me out before you jump to conclusions?
A word about Splash Mountain
You can’t review Tiana’s Bayou Adventure without mentioning the ride that it replaced. After all, any Disney attraction that replaces another should reasonably be compared to what came before — and should be expected to be better.
It’s no secret that Splash Mountain closure and retheming around 2009’s “The Princess and the Frog,” Disney’s first animated film with a Black princess, sparked a culture war battle that rages to this day.
This review has nothing to do with those arguments. Instead, it represents my opinion on the actual quality and execution of the new ride, not any predetermined conclusion based on feelings about its predecessor.
Other reviewers are, of course, entitled to their own takes, but remember that many of the loudest voices bashing this attraction have either not actually experienced it, or may have decided to give this ride a negative review from the moment it was announced in 2020.
Before the ride
You’ll undoubtedly notice when walking up to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom (the Disneyland version doesn’t open until later in 2024) that the retheming has added more faux foliage around the ride’s iconic drop compared to Splash Mountain.
New scenery at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom (Theme Park Tribune)
That added scenery really pops with the nighttime lighting package, creating a blue and purple glow that puts Splash’s pedestrian after-dark look to shame.
The queue, however, could have benefited from a longer construction time for the overhaul.
Outdoor queue at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (Theme Park Tribune)
The extended queue is still almost entirely uncovered, lack any extra shade — another example of California-based Disney Imagineers ignoring the realities of Florida summers.
The interior queue offers some Easter eggs to both Splash and “Princess and the Frog,” including the backstory of Tiana’s successful employee-owned food co-op. None of it breaks new ground, as far as Disney queues go, but it will offer some fleeting distractions while you wait in line.
The ride
The “adventure” in Tiana’s Bayou Adventure may feel a tad misleading, because this ride is really all about the vibes, not any dangerous quest or journey. And that vibe is, in a word, partying.
Far from lacking a story, the ride offers a straightforward tale, and not a “book report” retelling of the film, either! Princess Tiana, one year removed from the events of “The Princess and the Frog,” is looking for a band for her Mardi Gras party. We’re going to help her and Louis, her jazzy alligator pal, find that musical talent from among Bayou creatures big and small.
One of the Tiana animatronics (Disney)
Basically, this is not a “something went wrong”-type attraction, nor a retelling of the movie’s events. It’s instead a simple story focused far more on fun and creating a delightful atmosphere than a complicated plot. And it worked on me.
The big reason it worked is the dazzling animatronics. Tiana, Louis and Mama Odie, especially, are far above from the limited-motion Splash Mountain figures; these are the kind of ultra-expressive animatronics that are on the level of the Shaman of Na’vi River Journey. While that ride’s payoff is essentially just the one animatronic, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure offers several figures at that same level, alongside a host of cute Bayou critters.
If one of your worries in losing Splash Mountain is that hosts of animatronics would be replaced by screens, worry no more. There are animatronics everywhere here — and higher-quality ones! — and the use of screens is for enhancement, rather than replacing, adding a twinkle or more lively background, or along an expressive character moment that an animatronic couldn’t handle.
The finale of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (Disney)
One of the common critiques given by negative reviews of the ride are claims that there’s “dead space” compared to Splash Mountain, with little going on. I don’t agree with that take at all, and I think it speaks more to people who judged the attraction based on Disney’s own POV video, which didn’t do many scenes justice by keeping a fixed perspective rather than showing a wider view.
If you view POVs of the two attractions side by side, you’ll often see that the busiest scenes from Tiana’s Bayou Adventure have more animatronics than Splash Mountain had in the same spot, such as one Tiana figure being placed in a spot where there were no figures in Splash.
In some cases, the liveliest parts of the two rides just happen to be placed in different areas. Charitably, perhaps Splash diehards perceive this redistribution of animatronics as creating “dead spots,” but no part of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure felt “dead” to me. Especially not the final party scene, which I think is one of the best finales on a Disney dark ride.
If you want to see the attraction without traveling down to Magic Kingdom, here’s a POV video. But be warned, not even the best POV comes close to replacing the actual ride experience.
Minor flaws
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is not a perfect attraction, though I think its minor faults lie mostly in it being a quick retheming of an existing ride.
The signature splashdown isn’t built up with a sense of danger, but rather more a jovial sense of excitement. It’s not the first Disney retheme to give its thrills a lighter tone in the attraction’s story — Todd Martens of the Los Angeles Times noted the similarities to Tower of Terror’s transformation into Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout at Disney California Adventure. Tonally, that sense of danger wouldn’t have right with the rest of the ride and would’ve stepped on the aforementioned party vibes, but it still makes the splashdown feel sort of…there.
Of course, the splashdown was always going to stay put, along with the rest of the existing flume path, due to the ride overhaul taking only 17 months. That’s lightning fast by Disney construction standards (looking at you, Tron), and I can’t help but wonder how much more could have been achieved with another year of work. More animatronics? Even larger scenes? Fixing that extended queue? I think in the long run, that extended downtime would’ve been worth some slight plussing.
The verdict
Despite its short construction time, and having a dedicated group of vocal naysayers basing their online personalities on its assumed failure, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure came out as one of the best family dark rides that Disney World has opened in years.
It’s a long ride filled with magnificent animatronics and infectious music infused with an atmosphere of fun and authentic joy. I don’t know what else Disney fans could want from an attraction — and if Disney built more rides like this, maybe its fanbase would lighten up a bit.
Grade: A-
Editor’s Note: This review is based on my own opinion and perspective. I paid for my own park ticket and was not granted any special access to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure to conduct this review.