Disney sets Tiana’s Bayou Adventure debut
“People gonna come here from everywhere, and I’m almost there.”
Tiana’s prescient lyrics are about to become a reality at Walt Disney World.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will open June 28 at the Florida resort, Disney announced Sunday during Disney Songbook night on ABC’s “American Idol.”
The opening date is almost exactly four years after Disney first announced that it would be replacing Splash Mountain with a story inspired by “The Princess and the Frog.” The reimagining is also underway at Disneyland in California, which will open its Tiana Bayou Adventure later this year.
Here’s what travelers should know about the highly anticipated ride:
It’s not a retelling of “The Princess and the Frog”
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is set after the events of “The Princess and the Frog.”
Having achieved her dreams, Tiana is now giving back to her community through a new co-op called Tiana’s Foods, which is built into a new incarnation of Splash Mountain’s mountain. Guests will learn all about it in the ride’s queue, which will smell like beignets.
Guests will travel along the bayou as Tiana prepares to throw a big Mardi Gras bash and 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,” Walt Disney Imagineering Executive Creative ProducerVP Charita Carter said in 2022. She hopes guests from Louisiana will ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and say, “Yeah, this feels right.”
Will Tiana’s Bayou Adventure have animatronics?
The cutting-edge audio-animatronics created for Hong Kong Disneyland’s World of Frozen, Shanghai Disney Resort’s Zootopia and Tokyo DisneySea’s Fantasy Springs are coming to Disney’s U.S. parks in Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
In sneak peeks shared by Walt Disney Imagineering, Tiana, Mama Odie and Louis the Alligator are seen fluidly moving their arms and swiveling their heads and hips with ease. In addition to familiar characters from the film, the attraction will feature new musical critters created just for the attraction.
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.
That June, Disney announced plans to reimagine Splash Mountain at Disney World and Disneyland with a “Princess and the Frog”-inspired theme, noting plans had been in the works since 2019.
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.”
The attraction remains open at Tokyo Disney Resort, which is owned by The Oriental Land Co.