Looking forward to Disney’s new deliciously musical and immersive Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

About a year out from opening, Disney’s new Tiana’s Bayou Adventure ride is shaping up to be an immersive love letter to New Orleans culture.

The log flume ride, announced as a replacement for Splash Mountain in 2020, is set to open sometime next year. The ride is themed after the iconic characters and locales in Disney’s The Princess and the Frog.

The story of the ride is set after the events of the film and brings back Princess Tiana, Prince Naveen, the jazz-loving alligator Louis and more favorite characters from the 2009 animated feature.

With Tiana’s Bayou Adventure replacing both Splash Mountain attractions at Disney World and Disneyland, the parks have been sharing detailed updates over the last few years. One of the biggest announcements came last week – Grammy award-winning artists PJ Morton and Terence Blanchard would collaborate to create the ride’s music.

That includes an original song just for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Morton has been the keyboardist for Maroon 5 since 2012 and is also known for his album “New Orleans” (2013) from Young Money Records. Blanchard, a trumpeter and composer, has composed and performed in dozens of film scores, including BlacKkKlansman and The Woman King.

Blanchard also played Louis the Alligator’s trumpet parts in The Princess and the Frog.

With the music helmed by two New Orleans natives and the overall ride showcasing the sites and sounds of the city, Disney is leaning heavily on building an attraction that celebrates an important era of Black history and culture.

While the structure and flow of the log flume ride will remain mostly the same, the new story theming is a welcome change after decades of Splash Mountain.

The previous ride opened in 1989 in Disneyland and 1992 in Disney World but was themed after 1946’s Song of the South – a film dubbed by historians and critics as racially offensive and full of Reconstruction era stereotypes about African Americans. Disney World’s Splash Mountain closed in January, and Disneyland’s ride shuttered last week.

Disney certainly can’t erase the racist history of the movie or Splash Mountain, but dedicating an attraction to its first Black princess and her soulful story is a step forward.

Like the movie, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is a celebration of the food and music of 1920s New Orleans. The ride’s music “will borrow from several musical styles that either originated or took up permanent residence in New Orleans,” according to Disney.

That includes energetic and history-rooted jazz and zydeco-style music, whose evolution was influenced by rhythm and blues and Cajun and Creole styles of sound.

“Like so many musical genres, zydeco brings together the sounds and styles of many cultures. We wanted that spirit reflected in this scene (and throughout the attraction) so that all our guests feel welcome to join in the celebration,” said Carmen Smith, Senior Vice President, Creative Development – Product/Content & Inclusive Strategies, in a release in December.

That scene shows guests floating down a river in a log flume and seeing a band of critters playing music using natural materials found in the bayou. Off to the side is Louis the Alligator explaining the tunes.

Another scene teased ahead of the ride’s opening is the return of Mama Odie, the eccentric “Bayou Fairy Godmother” voiced by Jenifer Lewis in the film and the attraction.

As for food, the heart of the ride’s story are the preparations for a big Mardi Gras celebration. Following the success of Tiana’s Place during the movie, the princess, her Prince Naveen, her mother and others repurposed an old salt mine into Tiana’s Foods cooperative.

Back in March, Disney shared an artist rendering of the tiara-topped water tower sporting Tiana’s Foods that’s being built on the ride in both parks.

The attraction’s queue is also shaping up to be an introduction to Tiana’s Foods – boutique farm, a working and educational kitchen and a community gathering space.

And for those who also love the smells of New Orleans food, Disney said the scent of sweet, fried beignets will be pumped into the ride’s queue.

Disney announced Tiana’s Bayou Adventure three years ago, and since then it has been one of the attractions it’s shared the most details about ahead of opening day.

With multiple Imagineering trips to New Orleans, commissioned art from local artists, the return of the film’s voice actors and the creation of a new and remix score, Disney is aspiring to make Tiana’s Bayou Adventure much more than a retheming of Splash Mountain.

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This article appears in May 31 – Jun 6, 2023.