Tiana’s Bayou Journey Experience Particulars and Evaluate

Tiana’s Bayou Journey formally opens at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom Park on June 28, and we had been among the many first visitors to expertise the attraction this week.

Disney first introduced that Splash Mountain at each Disney World and Disneyland could be reworked into a brand new “The Princess and the Frog”-themed journey in 2020. Almost 4 years and an entire overhaul later, Disney World’s model of the journey is “nearly there,” simply a few weeks out from its grand opening — and it’s a Mardi Gras-level celebration of the fan-favorite princess and New Orleans.

“Tiana was our inspiration as a result of Tiana is everyone’s princess,” Walt Disney Imagineering’s Charita Carter mentioned throughout an occasion celebrating the brand new attraction. “She comes from an actual place in America, she wasn’t born into royalty, she has a working mother, she has army ties, and there’s a lot about her life that’s relatable.”

The beforehand orange, rocky mountain lined in briar patches has been reworked right into a lush interpretation of the Louisiana bayou, full with colourful flowers and fireflies. And relatively than retelling the movie’s story, Tiana’s Bayou Journey picks up the place the movie leaves off, with lots of the unique voice actors, together with Anika Noni Rose as Princess Tiana, Michael-Leon Wooley as Louis, and Jenifer Lewis as Mama Odie.

The bones of the journey system haven’t modified a lot from Splash Mountain because the log flume attraction nonetheless carries visitors by twists and dips they usually sail by completely different scenes earlier than reaching the 50-foot drops and festive grand finale second. However past the bodily actions, the journey feels brand-new with 48 all-new audio-animatronics that includes beloved characters Tiana, Louis, and 19 lovely, musically gifted critters, and a pleasant soundtrack that includes songs from the movie.

The journey additionally contains a catchy unique music, “Particular Spice,” made particularly for the attraction.

Contained in the Experience

Because the story has it, after opening her restaurant, Tiana’s Palace, the princess-entrepreneur opens Tiana’s Meals, an employee-owned cooperative housed in a former salt mine that creates all types of native meals merchandise, from sizzling sauce to pecan oil.

Riders enter the queue and cross by Tiana’s workplace and kitchen, the place she’s cooking up a few of her tasty beignets (you might scent them earlier than you see them!).

The journey takes place through the Mardi Gras season of 1927 and Tiana is internet hosting a celebration to have a good time, however she wants visitors’ assist as a result of Louis hasn’t booked a band for the occasion but. Which means it’s time to board your log and go to the bayou with Louis and Tiana to spherical up some musicians. Cute critter bands enjoying zydeco, rara, and Afro-Cuban variations of songs from the film are an attraction spotlight, together with the extremely fluid audio-animatronics of Tiana, Louis, Mama Odie, and different favourite characters.

After seeing a number of the animal bands, Mama Odie makes use of a few of her magic to shrink you all the way down to the scale of the frogs earlier than restoring you to human-size simply in time for the Mardi Gras occasion — and the massive drop. The grand finale scene brings riders to the larger-than-life celebration with Lottie, Prince Naveen, and different famed film characters, plus the critter crew gathered all through the journey.

It’s a scene that you simply wish to final without end, with plentiful audio-animatronics, stunning set items whereas “Particular Spice” performs in background.

It definitely is joyful to see logs flying down that iconic Magic Kingdom hill once more, this time with a narrative that showcases Princess Tiana and the one-of-a-kind metropolis of New Orleans.

And naturally, because of their impeccable consideration to element, Disney Imagineers traveled to New Orleans and labored with Louisiana artists to verify the journey felt like a celebration of the town, from the meals to the music to the murals alongside the buildings. And the enjoyable doesn’t finish after you get off the journey; the present store sells a spread of specialty merchandise, plus a really particular spice with a deeper that means.

Leah Chase, the legendary New Orleans chef of Dooky Chase’s Restaurant and the “Queen of Creole Delicacies,” was a real-life inspiration for Princess Tiana, and her household was concerned within the growth of the attraction. Now, visitors may even purchase a number of the model’s spice mixes within the present store and take a little bit little bit of the New Orleans magic house with them.  

Know Earlier than You Experience

• Tiana’s Bayou Journey will use a digital queue when it opens, so you’ll have to request to hitch the queue by way of the My Disney Expertise app at 7 a.m. or 1 p.m. In keeping with a launch shared with Journey + Leisure, a standby queue is anticipated to open quickly after the journey opens to the general public, nonetheless a date was not launched. Visitors may even be capable of e book Lightning Lanes with Disney Genie+ service. 
• You have to be at the least 40 inches tall to journey. 
• You’ll spot a number of “You Could Get Moist” indicators in your means in — and I’m right here to say you’ll positively at the least get a little bit splash, and also you may even get soaked. I wore a rain poncho and footwear that had been okay to get moist, and I’d extremely suggest you do the identical in case you’re one of many fortunate visitors that get completely drenched. 
• It is a family-friendly attraction with a cheerful environment (no scares or issues going catastrophically incorrect right here!), however the drops could also be intense for some riders.