Public and private reactions to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure have company executives deeply concerned but limited in what they’re willing to do.
The problem with changing a very popular attraction is that whatever replaces it will be there for a long time. If you screw it up, people are going to know you’ve screwed it up for years and years. Not only that, but a bad attraction replacing an exceedingly popular attraction can throw everything off in terms of queue lengths and wait times for other rides. We’ve only seen this sort of thing really once before at Walt Disney World. In that case it was a redo of Journey Into Imagination. As a result of a botched “upgrade,” the pavilion has largely been turned into wasted space for more than a decade. Where it once helped pull down the wait times of other rides at Epcot, now it sits as a huge walk-on.
And so you’ll have to forgive Disney if they’re beginning to get very nervous. You see, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (the replacement for Splash Mountain), is getting a bumpy reception. That’s a generous adjective.
On the big reveal video of the replacement attraction, the dislikes are currently double the upvotes. There are only 555 likes at the time of publication compared to more than 1,000 dislikes. That’s a horrendous reception for a new ride.
A similar video that just shows the Imagineer team touring New Orleans has numbers that aren’t quite as bad, but they aren’t good either. And though Disney Parks is moving forward with efforts to change the attraction, upper level management can’t be pleased with how things are going.
Imagineering Begins Testing Faux Foliage for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Ahead of Magic Kingdom Installation https://t.co/MehxM8dYug
— BlogMickey.com (@Blog_Mickey) July 11, 2022
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure: Inside the Disney Princess’ bold new look: https://t.co/wJ1A9vUiQV pic.twitter.com/h6WhGS5dWE
— Disney D23 (@DisneyD23) July 8, 2022
Even Disney Parks’ marketing team is reportedly uneasy with Tiana’s new costume for the ride. Although it removes the princess aspects of the character, it also makes Tiana less recognizable in comparison to her traditional outfit at Walt Disney World. All of this is adding up to what could be a spectacular mess coming very soon to a Disney domestic park near you.
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