It’s finally HAPPENING! The newest Disney World ride is OPEN and we’re here to check it all out!

Splash Mountain in Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland closed about a year and a half ago, and Disney has been busy turning the ride into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. This updated attraction takes you on a trip through the bayou with Tiana, Louis, Mama Odie, and other characters (both familiar and new!). The ride officially opens TODAY, June 28th, and we’re taking you with us to experience it all!

We’ll be updating this post throughout the day as we experience all that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure has to offer and dig into the details and Easter eggs of this attraction. Stay tuned!

How To Ride

First, you need to know HOW to get on the ride! It came as no shock that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is using a virtual queue to manage guest demand. The ride also has a Lightning Lane. To ride for free, you’ll need to join the virtual queue. If you pay for a Lightning Lane, you’ll get to skip the standby line.

UPDATE: Around 1ET, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure was no longer boarding riders — likely due to inclement weather in the area. This is definitely something to keep in mind on your visit!

Virtual Queue

On June 28th, the opening day for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Genie+ sold out in one minute. Literally — sixty seconds! After refreshing the screen twice at 7AM, by 7:01, the virtual queue was full. The virtual queue for Tiana’s opens at 7AM and 1PM each day. To join, open the My Disney Experience app to its homepage and scroll down to find the “Virtual Queues” section. Click on “Join Virtual Queue.”

Go to the Magic Kingdom section and choose Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Hit “Join Virtual Queue.”

Once you’ve entered the information about who is in your group, you’ll be able to join! (You can actually expedite this process by confirming your party ahead of time, up to an hour before the queue opens.) You’ll get an assigned boarding group number, and when your number is called, you can return to the queue to hop in line.

You’ll receive a notification from the My Disney Experience app when your number is called, and at that point, you will have one hour to return to the ride.

Here’s everything you need to access the virtual queue through the My Disney Experience App:

1. A registered account on the My Disney Experience app
2. If you’re an Annual Passholder, a Park Pass reservation for Magic Kingdom is required for the 7AM drop.
3. For the 1PM drop, guests are required to be INSIDE Magic Kingdom.

You can read our step-by-step instructions for getting a spot in the virtual queue at the link below.

Check out our detailed guide to the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure virtual queue here.

Genie+ / Lightning Lane Multi-Pass

Disney Genie+ is an optional paid service in addition to the standard Disney Genie (which will be known as Lightning Lane Multi-Pass as of July 24th) Disney Genie+ allows you to bypass standby lines and enter the Lightning Lane (previously known as the FastPass line) at select attractions by paying a base price — and that’s another option for riding Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.

On opening day, the Multi-Park and Magic Kingdom Genie+ sold out within seconds, and the Lightning Lanes were booked for the day. To book the Lightning Lane for this attraction, you’ll need to have the My Disney Experience app downloaded on your phone, be logged into your account, and have your park tickets linked. For the full details, make sure to check out our guide to Lightning Lanes.

Learn more about Individual Lightning Lanes here.

Crowds

As you might expect, people are pretty excited about this ride, which means there are plenty of crowds in Magic Kingdom today!

Most of the chaos seems to be central to Frontierland, where Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is located, but we’re also seeing a general uptick in people all around the park.

There’s a bit of a bottleneck on Main Street, U.S.A. as well — thanks to the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure merchandise being sold at the Emporium only today. We’ll get to more details on that soon!

Let’s Ride!

The Storyline

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure picks up the story of The Princess and the Frog “after the final kiss,” and you get to “join Princess Tiana and Louis on a musical adventure – featuring some of the powerful music from the film – as they prepare for their first-ever Mardi Gras performance.”

Remember how, at the end of the movie, Princess Tiana makes her dream come true when she opens her very own restaurant? Well, the story of the attraction picks up during New Orleans’ Carnival season, and Tiana is hosting a Mardi Gras Party for the people of New Orleans — the community that has supported her successful restaurant. (The storyline is set about a year after the movie.)

But Tiana realizes that the party is MISSING an important ingredient, and she needs our help to find it!

You can check out our FULL ride-through of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure here!

Themed Snacks

It wouldn’t be a brand-new Disney World ride without a whole bunch of exclusive eats now, would it?! You can check out all the Tiana-themed eats and drinks at Disney World right here. We’ll be bringing you our full review of them all, but we’ve already had a chance to try Tiana’s Beignets, Shrimp Gumbo, Hot Honey Chicken, and more.

Disney giveth, and Disney taketh away. Forget about the fresh fruit waffle — there’s a new menu over at Golden Oak Outpost (with BEIGNETS)!

🍤 Shrimp Gumbo with Sweet Potato Fries — $11.99
🍯 Hot Honey Chicken with Sweet Potato Fries — $11.99
🐸 Tiana's Famous Beignets — $6.99 pic.twitter.com/SUIuEZVT2s

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) June 25, 2024

Stay tuned as we bring you our full reviews of all the new Tiana’s Bayou Adventure treats around Disney World!

See ALL the snacks coming to Disney World to celebrate Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.

Merchandise

There are two gift shops for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure — Critter Co-Op and Tiana’s Bayou General. However, for opening day and a bit afterward, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure merchandise will be available at the Emporium! Tiana’s Bayou General Store is open, but only to purchase on-ride photos. 

Disney is managing crowds for Tiana’s merchandise thanks to Cast Members manning a line and letting people preview souvenirs before officially entering the store. Keep this in mind if you’re looking to shop today, but we found that Cast Members were doing a great job of keeping things under control.

Luckily, a bit later in the day the line died down, and soon enough, there was no one waiting!

We got a chance to preview all of this merchandise before it was released and you can check it out here. Like many of Disney’s most popular attractions, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will have an on-ride photo.

As with Disney’s other on-ride photos, the image will be accessible through the resort’s PhotoPass Service’s all-inclusive digital download package, Memory Maker as well as a print from the Tiana’s Bayou General Store location.

But, our favorite souvenir just might be the Commemorative Print Package available at the General Store retail location. The opening day photo package is $32.95 plus tax, and includes an 8×10 print of your attraction photo, two recipe cards, a thank you note from Tiana for attending Mardi Gras, two specialty prints, and a digital copy of the attraction photo.

Check out ALL the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure merchandise right here.

And that’s a wrap on our adventure with Tiana through the bayou!

If you’re planning your trip to Disney World, make sure to check out our friends over at Small World Vacations. Their travel agents can take so much stress out of planning your vacation! And best of all, their services are completely free.

Stay tuned to DFB for more updates on the latest Disney World news!

Click here to learn more about Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Disney World.

Are you going to ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure soon? Let us know in the comments!