Replacing Splash Mountain with Tiana’s Bayou Adventure isn’t exciting everyone. Here’s what we could have had.
Please note, this article was scheduled to go up at 1PM EST today. Due to technical difficulties and travel, it was delayed. As a result it is missing some images and links. This will be updated later on the day of publication. Update: One photo and key have been added since publication.
The Walt Disney Company is not receiving the type of feedback they may have hoped for when they announced Tiana’s Bayou Adventure replacing Splash Mountain. Dislikes on the announcement YouTube video have widely outgrown the number of likes which have been submitted. Comments on the video have had to been disabled. Clearly this is not the way that you want to open with information about a new ride.
Whatever you may think about getting rid of the characters who currently inhabit Splash Mountain, it is hard to escape the reality that what we are receiving with Tiana is far less than could have been. One of the greatest needs at the theme park most visited in all of the world is greater capacity. Whereas the new Tron roller coaster provides that, switching out Splash Mountain with a new ride in its place does nothing for increasing how many people can attend the park. This was not what could have been for the ride and for a possible expansion. In this article I would like to talk about what could have been but what is not.
In discussing possibilities, please note that I will neither confirm nor deny that these options were ever blue sky or more considered projects.
Imagine for a moment that you arrive at Magic Kingdom at Park opening. You have reservations to board the Liberty Bell in one hour, along with many other guests who will be having a special meet and greet with Tiana. A small breakfast is provided while guests ride on the Liberty Bell atop the Rivers of America, a new destination ahead. You watch as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad fades away and the Liberty Belle turns into the Wilderness portion. However, up ahead is a new dock for the Mississippi ship, itself now serving as a mass-transit system to a new area. This area is known as the Bayou, or perhaps it is a New Orleans facade like at Disneyland. The area has Tiana’s restaurant as well as a new e-ticket attraction. Guests can arrive here either by disembarking at the dock, being dropped off at a new train station that was built while the railroad was not in use, or by taking two new bridges that were built connecting Tom Sawyer Island to this area, which also retract for water traffic.
Image Provided by Google Earth
Red – Area of Potential New Expansion
Purple – New or widened pathways
Brown – Retractable Bridges
Blue – New Dock
Gray – New Train Station
The new area is physically located north of the Haunted Mansion with a huge e-ticket show building hidden north of current fantasyland. But guests would have a difficult time figuring out where they are. Instead it just seems as if the adventures of a cartoon Louisiana naturally unfold in this place tucked away until now. The e-ticket attraction is all about traveling through the bayou with a cartoon alligator and a princess and a frog. Guests board boats that can at times get a little wet, but for the most part stay inside a beautifully lit interior bayou. The sights and sounds of Southern Jazz feel the air.
For the cost of stripping away and redoing Splash mountain, this is what we could have had. We could have seen a seldomly used attraction revitalized, a new e-ticket introduced, and an awe-inspiring restaurant added to the Magic Kingdom. We could have seen capacity greatly increased, as well as Tom Sawyer Island now given a new use as a halfway point between Frontierland and the Bayou. Unfortunately, none of this will happen and we will instead lose one of the most beloved attractions at Disney World, because of a hastily made decision in the midst of societal chaos intended to placate without planning deeply enough.
It is a shame… and it is yet one more example of Robert Iger leaving Bob chapek with an undesirable poisoned pill.
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