Tiana's Bayou Adventure opens officially today at Disneyland. With the ride's debut, the former Critter Country is now Bayou Country, creating a smoother thematic transition from New Orleans Square next door.
The former Splash Mountain's Chick-A-Pin Hill is now a salt mine for Tiana's Foods, an employee-owned company started by Tiana Rogers after the events of "The Princess and the Frog." Tiana and her husband, Prince Naveen, are celebrating their success with a big party for the people of New Orleans, and you're invited.
There's just one thing to do first, though, and that's to find a band. That search will send us into the bayou where we will encounter a new cast of musical critters. Throw in a touch of magic from Mama Odie, and we're ready to celebrate with our new friends.
We first experienced Tiana's Bayou Adventure when it debuted at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in June. [Review: Disney makes a better splash with Tiana's Bayou Adventure.] The Disneyland installation is a tighter edit of the story from Orlando. Disneyland's slightly smaller ride space puts everything closer to you, so characters and settings look bigger. It's all moving faster, too, amplifying the infectious zydeco beat of the ride's soundtrack.
The only exception to this brisker pace in Anaheim is the finale party scene. Orlando finally pushes you through that one, while California lingers for just a couple beats more, allowing you the time you need to appreciate the scene's abundant visual detail. I loved Tiana's Bayou Adventure at Walt Disney World, but I think it's even better at Disneyland.
I understand why so many fans loved Splash Mountain. But I hope that those fans will give Tiana's Bayou Adventure a chance. A all-inclusive celebration of joy, Tiana's Bayou Adventure is my second-favorite ride in the park right now, trailing only the best theme park ride in the world: Star Wars Rise of the Resistance. While Tiana's thematically lacks Rise's grandeur and emotional stakes, it's definitely more fun.
Want to experience the ride online? Here is the queue walkthrough, followed by on-ride highlights with me:
And here is my full on-ride POV video:
Entry to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Disneyland will be by either Lightning Lane Multi Pass or Virtual Queue only. The Virtual Queue will open in the Disneyland app three times daily: at 7am, noon, and 4pm.
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Looks like another bicoastal attraction where Disneyland has the superior version (just like MMRR, Pirates, BTMRR, arguably SM & Buzz). I agree with Russell that WDI should be doing something unique with the WDW installation or give it a different theme entirely.
I also wish Disney would throw in the towel on Bear Country/Critter Country/Bayou Country and annex it into Frontierland. Pooh doesn't make sense in Bayou country (unless Christopher Robin made a trip to Louisiana I don't know about) and TBA is already in Frontierland in WDW. New Orleans Square would still exist in its current form but function as a "portal" land (similar to Diagon Alley or the new worlds at Epic).
If they do annex Bayou country, Frontierland would lead into Galaxy's Edge (one might even call this the final frontier).
I think keeping the same reskinning of Tiana to WDW is better, easier than some original turn and still fits the area nicely.
Turn Pooh into an Ewok ride, and then we have a smooth transition to Galaxy's Edge, too, right?
For the record, I have not decided if I am kidding or not.
"Wicket's Stormtrooper Scout"
Sneak around the frontiers of the forest moon of Endor with the charming Ewok Wicket, alerting the Rebels to key Empire garrisons. But beware! Imperial Stormtroopers are on the hunt for seditious activity. You'll need to crawl, climb, and bounce with Wicket and his fellow Ewoks to avoid detection from Stormtroopers...and their fearsome vehicles.
No one cares. A politically correct version of the unracist former attraction. They should have left this alone but this is WOKE Disney.
Like everyone else has said, this definitely looks better than the WDW version. There’s a lot less dead space, and everything just flows a little better.
That being said, I did feel an indescribable sadness watching this video. Something about going through those orange hills and not hearing the instrumental version of “How do you do?” playing in the background still feels so wrong me, and having a whole thrill ride dedicated around a low-stakes peril-free scavenger hunt makes the whole experience seem a lot shorter and less iconic than Splash.
Sorry to beat a dead horse, but this genuinely just bummed me out. It’s one thing to know that you’ll never ride your favorite ride again, but it’s another to visually see it confirmed. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to ride TBA without Splash Mountain’s memory in the back of my head.
The queue is better that the previous Splash Mountain. Ride is kinda meh. Don't hate it, don't love it.
It's fine.
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WDI has more or less admitted that the reskinning of Splash was originally planned for Disneyland's installation and then retrofitted for WDW, which explains why the California version has been deemed superior by virtually everyone who has ridden both. Thematically, it works far better in Disneyland than is does in WDW, which begs the question why WDI could not have come up with something unique to reskin Splash Mountain at MK. WDI is in the process of creating a Lion King themed version of the attraction for Disneyland Paris, so I don't know why they couldn't have come up with something unique for WDW. Given the planned conversion of MK's RoA to Cars, TBA is going to seem like an ugly duckling in an area that will be completely transformed and refreshed 5 years from now - I know the decision to do TBA at MK was probably made long before they ever considered reworking RoA, but it's one of those situations that's probably going to create a lot of regret at WDI.