Tiana's Bayou Adventure Keeps the 50-Foot Drop and Adds Dozens of Audio-Animatronics Figures

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Disney has shared a first look at the new Tiana Audio-Animatronics figure and previewed five things guests will find on Tiana's Bayou Adventure when it opens at Magic Kingdom Park this summer. The list runs from a band of bayou critters playing homemade instruments to original music from PJ Morton and Terence Blanchard, and confirms the 50-foot drop returns.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure Keeps the 50-Foot Drop and Adds Dozens of Audio-Animatronics Figures

Disney has put a number on the Audio-Animatronics work going into Tiana's Bayou Adventure, and the number is dozens. With Mardi Gras season underway and the construction walls still standing, Disney previewed five things guests will find on the attraction when it opens at Magic Kingdom Park this summer, and released a first look at the new Tiana figure.

A boat ride attraction with a stone bridge passing over it is visible, surrounded by lush vegetation and illuminated structures against a twilight sky.
A boat ride attraction with a stone bridge passing over it is visible, surrounded by lush vegetation and illuminated structures against a twilight sky. Photo: Jeremy Thompson via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Key Details

A first look at the new Tiana figure

The Audio-Animatronics figures lead Disney's list, and dozens of new ones are going into the ride. Disney released images of the Tiana figure both mid build and finished, which is a rare thing to see before an attraction opens.

Close-up of the new Tiana Audio-Animatronics figure in a green suit jacket with a yellow collar and a printed scarf, one hand raised
The completed Tiana figure, in a green suit jacket with a yellow collar and a printed scarf, one hand raised.
A technician with purple dyed hair fitting an eye into the face of the Tiana Audio-Animatronics figure in a workshop
A technician fits an eye into the Tiana figure during assembly.

Disney has said the figure wears Tiana's adventure outfit, and that the bayou fills with familiar faces from the film alongside characters guests have not met before.

A band of critters with homemade instruments

The second item is the bayou band. A group of friendly critters joins Tiana, all of them musicians, and Disney says they built their instruments themselves out of materials found in the bayou. The critters were not a late addition: Disney first introduced them in a construction update in late 2022, well before the ride had a season attached to it.

Construction wall mural reading Come join the party, showing an alligator playing a trumpet with a saxophone, a drum and a parasol along a staff of music, and scaffolding covering the ride mountain behind it
A "Come join the party" mural on the attraction's construction wall, with an alligator on trumpet and instruments strung along a staff of music. Scaffolding covers the mountain behind.

New Orleans music from PJ Morton and Terence Blanchard

The score is the third item. PJ Morton and Terence Blanchard are writing new original music for the attraction, and both are New Orleans musicians rather than outside names brought in to suggest the city. Jazz and zydeco are the reference points Disney has named, and the new work sits alongside songs from Walt Disney Animation Studios' The Princess and the Frog. The ride gets its own score, in other words, not a replay of the 2009 soundtrack.

Attraction construction wall at dusk carrying a Tiana's Bayou Adventure Coming Summer 2024 banner with an alligator playing a trumpet, and a water tower marked Tiana's Foods standing above the wall
A "Coming Summer 2024" banner on the construction wall at dusk, with the Tiana's Foods water tower behind it.

The 50-foot drop stays

The fourth item settles the question guests kept asking through the conversion. The 50-foot drop returns, and it lands in the same water it always did. The attraction takes over the Frontierland log flume that housed Splash Mountain until January 2023, so the lift hills, the flume layout and the finale drop are the bones the new ride is built on. Everything above the track is new.

A wooden mill is nestled at the base of a red and grey rock formation with trees and blue sky visible.
A wooden mill is nestled at the base of a red and grey rock formation with trees and blue sky visible. Photo: HarshLight from San Jose, CA, USA via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Tiana's party, and why the preview lands at Mardi Gras

The fifth item is the story itself. The ride picks up after Tiana has made her own dreams come true, and stages a party she throws during Mardi Gras season to thank the family, friends and community who supported her as a business owner. That is also why this preview arrived when it did: Disney timed it to Mardi Gras season, and the construction wall art is already advertising the party in character.

A poster on a wooden construction wall reading Don't forget, book your bands for Mardi Gras season, with a water tower marked Tiana's Foods standing behind it
One of the in-story posters on the construction wall, advertising bands for Mardi Gras season under the Tiana's Foods water tower.

Summer 2024, with no opening date announced

What Disney has not given is a day. The window is summer at Walt Disney World Resort, with the Disneyland Park version following later in 2024, and this preview stops short of naming a date. Guests building a Magic Kingdom trip around the opening should watch for the announcement rather than book against the window, because a summer that runs from June to August is a wide target for a park reservation.

One of a series of family photos taken during a vacation, probably August 1972.
One of a series of family photos taken during a vacation, probably August 1972. Photo: Dada1960 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Originally reported by disneyparksblog.com. GenieGrove rewrote this story; the original reporting is theirs.