Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is officially opening at Walt Disney World on June 28th, 2024!
©Disney
This new ride has been under construction in Magic Kingdom since early 2023, but it’s set to open in just a few short weeks. A few lucky groups of folks — Cast Members, Annual Passholders, D23 Members, and Disney Vacation Club Members — get to experience this attraction early and we were fortunate enough to be part of it! So, come with us for a FIRST LOOK at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Disney World!
We’re checking Tiana’s Bayou Adventure out for the VERY FIRST TIME ahead of its official opening on June 28th and are sharing our first look with you! Spoilers ahead, so consider this your warning!
The Story
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure picks up the story of The Princess and the Frog “after the final kiss,” where you’ll “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.”
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at night
So, what exactly DOES happen “after the final kiss?” Well, when the film itself ends, Princess Tiana makes her dream come true when she opens her very own restaurant, Tiana’s Palace (just like the one that recently opened in Disneyland)!
The story of the attraction takes place during New Orleans’ Carnival season when 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.)
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
But Tiana realizes that the party is “missing a key ingredient” and she needs help finding it…
Something is missing
…that’s where you come in! “On Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, we’ll join Tiana and Louis on a trip to the bayou, where they meet all sorts of unexpected new friends who have a special role to play at the party.”
©Disney
That’s right! Get ready for a Mardi Gras celebration in Frontierland!
How To Ride
Disney World is using a Virtual Queue/Boarding Pass system for the opening phase of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, which is available via the My Disney Experience app. This means that a traditional Standby line is NOT being currently offered.
©Disney
Guests have 2 daily opportunities to request to join the virtual queue — the first is at 7AM, and the second is at 1PM. Guests trying to request to join the virtual queue at 7AM do not have to be inside Magic Kingdom. If you’re trying to join the 1PM virtual queue, you have to be INSIDE Magic Kingdom.
Genie+
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will also be available as an option on Disney Genie+. To ride, you can purchase Genie+ for Magic Kingdom (or get the multi-park Genie+ option) and reserve a Lightning Lane for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
Queue
The story of the attraction begins in the ride’s queue, where you’ll discover that Tiana wants to further bring the community together as she continues to grow her business, an employee-owned company called Tiana’s Foods.
Let’s get in the queue!
As a result, she’s bought and transformed an old large salt dome (that’s the “mountain!”) with the help of her mother, Naveen, Louis, and fellow owners of the cooperative where she and her employees work together to make food products (like Lousiana Tabasco Sauce!) and help members of the community become business people.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure queue
The land around the salt mine has also been renewed and now grows veggies, herbs, and spices for her famous recipes, and the familiar structures from the Splash Mountain queue will be transformed into the main offices for Tiana’s Foods.
The kitchen!
Beyond what you’ll see, Imagineers focused on the use of a New Orleans soundscape to make visitors feel like they’re actually there. Outside the barn area, speakers are playing “reimagined New Orleans classics performed by an assortment of local musicians gathered by multiple Grammy winner Terence Blanchard,” according to Imagineer Ted Robledo.
In the hallway
When you step inside the queue, you’ll find lots of nods to Princess and the Frog throughout!
Lots of portraits!
And of course, plenty of nods to Tiana’s cooking and her successful business!
Rows and rows of ingredients!
We could spend hours just reading all the signs and looking for hidden details in here.
Lots of hidden details
And now, onto the RIDE!
The Ride
The existing structure for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is a water flume ride featuring the thrill of a 5-story drop! As it was with Splash Mountain, the attraction lasts about 11 or 12 minutes. State of the art audio-animatronics of characters including Tiana (of course), Louis, the “critter band,” and MORE are featured throughout the attraction!
Ride vehicles
Seeing the animatronics in person is seriously impressive — their movements are so fluid!
We can’t get over the animatronics on this attraction! 💚 pic.twitter.com/Z7gFc58HgP
— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) June 7, 2024
Of course, we can’t forget about the awesome firefly effects throughout the ride — it wouldn’t be a trip through the bayou without them! We spotted them in multiple places in the attraction.
The fireflies on our way to see Mama Odie are also so cute! 🎶✨ pic.twitter.com/7NkqSlqw7D
— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) June 7, 2024
NOW, the moment you’ve all been waiting for…the DROP!
To the party we go! 👋 pic.twitter.com/ov8wru2Wzb
— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) June 7, 2024
We wrapped up the ride with a stunning finale scene, featuring a brand-new song recorded by Anika Noni Rose!
This song will be stuck in our heads the rest of the day! 🎶💚 pic.twitter.com/TRlQEDzUEH
— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) June 7, 2024
And there you have it! Our first look at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom. We’ll be bringing you EVERYTHING you need to know about this ride as we learn more, so stay tuned to DFB for the latest updates!
EVERYTHING You Need To Know About Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Magic Kingdom
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I cannot wait to be fussed at by Mama Odie! The whole place sounds so neat. We love high theming and hidden details! Thanks for the review!
The changeover to the new theme is impressive. But, there is one major fly in the soup. No one knows what the Frog and the Princess storyline is… I don’t, and my 34 year old daughter never heard of it growing up, and we were at WDW every year, multiple times for her entire life. There is no back story that guest can draw from or relate to. I am confused.
Waste of time. This ride is a
Flop.
I watched the Disney POV of the ride. I’m honestly disappointed. I know it would probably be better in person, but It just feels lackluster. We’re DVC members staying at the Polynesian in July, but haven’t decided if we’re buying tickets to Disney yet. We bought Universal tickets for the first time in probably 10 years. It seems like a much better value, and Universal is stepping up their game while Disney is coasting.
I don’t get it. All this money and time to create this ride that is not any better than Splash Mountain that it replaced and was so popular with the public. Not new and exciting. Disney lost its edge.
Naveen isn’t in this at all except for a picture. There is no drama in this story it is just fluff! What a waste. the black gaping spaces are a loss and the screen instead of a logical positioning of the characters is a cheap version. There isn’t any lead up to the flume and that is such a waste for the dramatic ending of the ride. I see this being a once and done ride for most people. Busy for the first 6 months and then a walk on ride after that.
Sooo, I’m supposed to tell the kids that this is a modern day working princess who owns a cooperative (have to explain what this is), and she is trying to bring more business to her community. She’s bought a salt mine and grows vegetables and makes Tabasco sauce—all of this will also need to be explained…they’re not yet putting tabasco on their nuggets…. but her business is super successful (not sure they will care). And the point is that they’re looking for a band for a party? This story seems like a hard sell for kids…and pretty lame for adults. Maybe the next Disney ride can be about investment banking or real estate–but with original music fun music?
We are AP holders and attended during the preview. We would be up for our boarding group when the ride went down. We were later able to get on when it went down yet again. The animatronics are good, but not worth waiting in line for hours to ride. It’s basically Splash Mountain with different critters. I wasn’t super impressed and I don’t think it’s worth all the fuss that’s been made about it. For as much as it breaks down they should have just kept Splash Mountain.
Tiana’s Brokedown Mountain