Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Opening Date UPDATE Plus NEW Look at Tiana Animatronic

Tiana's Bayou Adventure is the retheme of the former Splash Mountain into a Princess and the Frog theme with brand new animatronics, music, and a full redesign of the prior attraction. Imagineers and experts in New Orleans culture have been collaborating on this new version of Splash Mountain to celebrate Princess Tiana. We now have an opening UPDATE for both Walt Disney World AND Disneyland as we eagerly await the reveal of this brand new attraction.

It has already been confirmed by Disney that the new Tiana's Bayou Adventure will bring several Tiana animatronics along with more than 17 new animal characters. This also includes a Louis audio-animatronic! These are all brand-new Audio-Animatronic figures and are not repurposed figures used on Splash Mountain. Along with the news of an opening date, we also have the first look at the Princess Tiana audio-animatronic!

Keep reading for the first look at the new Tiana audio-animatronic figure plus OPENING DATE news for Walt Disney World and Disneyland!

NEW Princess Tiana Audio-Animatronic Revealed

We now have the FIRST LOOK at the brand new Princess Tiana audio-animatronic. This is the first official reveal we have seen aside from concept art. Based one earlier news updates, we knew that Tiana would be in a brand new outfit for this attraction (one we will also see coming to the reimagined 1900 Park Fare character dining) and now we have the official first look. See the TikTok video below that Disney Parks Blog shared.

@disneyparks FIRST LOOK 👀 at one of the new Audio-Animatronics figures coming to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure ✨💚 #Disney #DisneyParks #DisneyWorld #Tiana #TianasBayouAdventure #DisneyNews #MardiGras #Technology ♬ original sound – Disney Parks

I am impressed by the quality of this Tiana audio-animatronic and this bodes well for the technology for the rest of the attraction!

The detail on Tiana is extremely well done here especially when you look closely at her new outfit for the attraction.

Princess Tiana is not the only character we will see featured in the ride! We will also see familiar faces from the film including Prince Naveen, Mama Odie, Louis, Eudora, Charlotte, “Big Daddy,” the King and Queen of Maldonia, and Prince Ralphie.

We have been following the the creation of the new Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attraction very closely. In early 2023 we joined Walt Disney Imagineers in New Orleans to learn about the research going into making this new attraction highly authentic. Be sure to read all about that New Orleans Imagineering research trip and everything you need to know about the new Tiana’s Bayou Adventure ride here. And we have also been keeping a close eye on the Splash Mountain retheme construction progress on both coasts.

During this announcement of the date shift that we'll share below Disney also discussed the excitement we all have for the return of the classic log flume drop that we all got to know from Splash Mountain. It will be great to have that wonderful familiar thrill back in the parks.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure Opening Date Timeline Announced

UPDATE: Tiana's Bayou Adventure will be opening June 28th 2024 at Walt Disney World! Read more about the opening date and cast member previews here!

We have seen Disney bounce back and forth on the details for the 2024 Tiana's Bayou Adventure opening in Walt Disney World. In 2023 we have seen the timeline announced as “late 2024” before the “late” was dropped to make the opening timeline just “2024.” In our discussion of the Splash Mountain reopening timeline, we speculated if this meant we would see an earlier opening date for the attraction with our bet being placed on Summer 2024.

Well, our initial speculation was correct as Disney just revealed that Tiana's Bayou Adventure will open at Walt Disney World in Summer 2024. Aside from this confirmed timeline, we still do not have an official opening date but this is promising news which means that construction is nearing completion.

Summer is often defined by Disney as anytime between the months of May through August. I anticipate we could see an opening date as early as June with cast member, annual passholder, and media previews taking place in May. If Walt Disney World follows the same structure as the opening for TRON Lightcycle / Run then they will begin with cast member previews, followed by annual passholder and media previews before it opens to the general public. I imagine we will also see a virtual queue in place when Tiana's Bayou Adventures to control crowds as demand for this new attraction will be through the roof. This has worked fairly well for both Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and TRON.

@disneyparks JUST ANNOUNCED 📣 Tiana's Bayou Adventure opens at Walt Disney World in Summer 2024! 💚💜💛 #Disney #DisneyParks #DisneyWorld #Tiana #TianasBayouAdventure #DisneyNews #MardiGras ♬ original sound – Disney Parks

Disneyland Tiana's Bayou Adventure Opening Update

Walt Disney World’s Splash Mountain attraction closed to begin this retheme at the end of January 2023 while Disneyland’s closed on May 30th, 2023. You can see more details on the closing for the Splash Mountain retheme.

Since Walt Disney World's Splash Mountain closed first, we have known for quite some time that their version would open first. The announcement today from Disney also gave us an update on Disneyland's opening date progress! Disney has said that Tiana's Bayou Adventure will open later in 2024 at Disneyland so this is likely an opening date for the Fall or Winter. We expect it will be no earlier than Fall based on the construction progress we have been monitoring at the park. Again, you can see our full discussion of when Splash Mountain will reopen here for more thoughts.

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