In a somewhat surprising marketing move, Disney has posted a full on-ride POV video for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom. The 9-minute video showcases the updated attraction in its entirety.
Watch the full ride through below! We’ll offer our comments and initial impressions below. Big spoilers from here on out.
Overall, we’re holding our final review until we’ve experienced Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in person. But, since Disney is jumping out and showing the full ride before it opens, we’re going to give some thoughts. We’re going to try and review Tiana’s as a standalone attraction, though we know that’s impossible given Splash Mountain’s legacy.
We think there’s a lot of good and even some great elements in this POV of the ride. The animatronics are objectively awesome. Most of the lighting and landscaping looks terrific, especially in the dark. There’s some catchy music from the movie, and the new music seems to fit the vibe. The “fun” factor was never in doubt since Tiana’s maintains the layout and footprint of Splash Mountain.
Unfortunately, there’s some confusing decisions in Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Disney used a lot of time discussing and building up the story of what guests will experience in the ride. Honestly, they probably went overboard and made things too complicated. We’re not always proponents of the “book report ride” style of attraction, where a ride just retells a film, but here it might’ve worked really well.
We’re also wondering why there’s so many empty spaces along the ride. There’s lulls where there’s not much to look at. Splash Mountain mostly avoided this problem with its enormous roster of moving characters. There’s some obvious places where Disney could have, and should have, added something.
What do you think of this first full on-ride video?
