Look From Inside Tiana’s Bayou Adventure As It’s Being Changed From Splash Mountain

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I wish I had more photos to share with you, but instead, we have a first-person account from reporter Mike Scott at Nola.com. Scott was taken into the construction area for the upcoming Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attraction that was once Splash Mountain. He describes all the changes and discusses the upcoming animatronics that will be added. 

Scott was taken on a tour of the attraction by executive creative director of Walt Disney Imagineering, Ted Robledo. While the attraction is coming in 2024, we don’t yet have an opening date.

The tour started in the queue area.

This area has seen new pavers added and a large mural by Baton-Rouge artist Malaika Favorite. Favorite’s mural is on the side of the barn area, which now houses “Tiana’s Foods,” which is the theming for the attraction. 

Here is an image of the pavers being added. Credit to our friend La Reina Creole on X!

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Mural image by Jim Burke on X.

Also added to the queue are pole speakers that will “broadcast an old-timey radio show featuring reimagined New Orleans classics performed by an assortment of local musicians gathered by multiple Grammy winner Terence Blanchard.”

 
If you have ridden Splash Mountain, you know the queue leads to the ride vehicle loading area will mostly remain the same. The vehicles and ride track will remain the same. However, now there are cranes with pallets of crates marked “Tiana’s Foods” around the loading area. 
 

Inside the attraction

 
It seems that Scott had to move down a ladder to enter the interior of the attraction, after the small drops that will house the main showpieces, including several new animatronics of Tiana. These animatronics will have the advanced moving faces that we have seen with the animatronics in Hong Kong Disneyland’s “World of Frozen” attraction. 
 
Currently, stand-up figures are being used as placeholders for the animatronics as Imagineers dress the sets. They are using native Lousiana vegetation as the theming, including synthetic cypress trees and marsh grasses along with Spanish Moss.
The outside of the attraction has already undergone a change in the vegetation.
 

Here are some construction images from DrewDisneyDude on X:

Most of the ride’s boulders and structure were kept, with some additions made. The iconic tree on top of the attraction was sadly removed to make room for “added show magic.”

 
After the main plummet, the tour ended to save the ending for a “surprise,” but we know that there are bottle lanterns being hung at the top of the plunge thanks to DrewDisneyDude.
 

You can see the scene in the previously released concept art.

 
What awaits us after, we don’t really yet know. But the attraction is supposed to reopen sometime this year so we should know soon.
 
What do you think? Comment and let us know!




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