Disney’s Tiana’s Bayou Adventure to open this summer
Nearly four years after announcing Splash Mountain’s retheming, Disney revealed the opening timeframe for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
The “Princess and the Frog” inspired attraction will debut at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom this summer and “later in 2024 at Disneyland Park in California,” Disney said in a press release on Fat Tuesday. Disney initially said Tiana’s Bayou Adventure would open at both resorts in late 2024. However, in December 2022, Disney World told USA TODAY there was no need to say “late” anymore.
It’s no coincidence the latest announcement comes during Mardi Gras. Disney has previously called Tiana’s Bayou Adventure its “love letter to New Orleans” and said it would culminate with the “ultimate Mardi Gras party.”
Here’s what else fans should know about the coming attraction:
The animatronics are next-level
Walt Disney Imagineering released a new video Tuesday, giving fans a peek at a new Princess Tiana audio-animatronic created for the attraction.
Tiana waves her arms fluidly as she appears to talk and turn her head and upper body around with ease, like the Anna and Elsa audio-animatronics created for World of Frozen, which opened at Hong Kong Disneyland in late November.
“Every time we make an advancement in the way that we bring a ride to life or the way that we bring animatronics to life, all of that gets then used to make every single place that we make even better than the last one,” Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro told USA TODAY at the time. “And so absolutely, yes, we will continue to evolve animatronics, ride systems, interactivity, making that experience even better and pulling people deeper into the stories.”
Disney says Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will feature dozens of new audio-animatronics, including familiar characters from “The Princess and the Frog” and new critters created just for the attraction.
New story inspired by a real place
The attraction is set after the events of the beloved film.
Having achieved her dreams, Tiana is now giving back to her community through a new co-op called Tiana’s Foods, built into a new incarnation of Splash Mountain’s mountain. Guests will learn all about it all in the ride’s queue, which will smell like beignets.
The attraction will take guests through the bayou as Tiana prepares to throw a big Mardi Gras bash, to which everyone is invited.
From the music to the art to the inspiration for Tiana herself – late James Beard-award-winning Chef Leah Chase of Dooky Chase’s Restaurant – Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will pay tribute to the spirit of New Orleans.
“She’s fantastical, but she came from a very real place,” said Walt Disney Imagineering Executive Creative Producer Charita Carter.
She hopes guests from Louisiana will ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and say, “Yeah, this feels right.”
Why did Disney close Splash Mountain?
Splash Mountain’s Br’er Rabbit story was inspired by “Song of the South,” a 1946 Disney film, which had long been criticized for its idealized portrayal of plantation life.
Disney has not tied Splash Mountain’s closing to “Song of the South,” the way an online petition garnering more than 21,000 signatures did in 2020.
However, when Disney CEO Bob Iger was asked at a shareholders meeting that March if the film would be added to Disney+, he said, “I’ve felt, as long as I’ve been CEO, that ‘Song of the South’ was – even with a disclaimer – was just not appropriate in today’s world.”