Disney Previews Newest Ride Telling an Authentic ‘New Orleans Story’

Disney launched media previews this week for the newest addition to its Florida theme parks—Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, the latest ride at Magic Kingdom Park. The ride, officially opening on June 28, takes over what was Splash Mountain in the park’s Frontierland section.

The attraction celebrates Disney’s first African American princess with a new take on the Princess and the Frog story—the attraction’s storyline picks up about a year after the film ends, with Tiana hosting a Mardi Gras celebration in the bayou.

The ride is authentically New Orleans, a city that Disney has a long history with. 

Aside from the physical touches, including a setting inspired by Avery Island, Louisiana, the ride pays home to Leah Chase, the owner of Dooky Chase’s Restaurant, one of New Orleans’ most iconic restaurants that served as a community gathering place and inspired the feel for the ride.

The ride’s soundtrack also drew in some signature New Orleans people including PJ Morton and Terence Blanchard, two Grammy-winning musicians who are both natives of New Orleans. While the ride features some songs from the film, Morton helped create and produce an original theme song for the attraction called Special Spice.

What else is new at Walt Disney World
Jodi Bainter, vice president of domestic leisure sales for Disney Destinations, told TMR this week that, with the launch of Tiana and everything else coming to the parks and cruise line, this is “maybe the most exciting time” in her long Disney career.

“I feel so proud this morning listening to what’s coming as a cast member. It’s really special,” she said.

So what’s coming? Well, outside of the new Tiana Bayou Adventure at the Magic Kingdom, which will open on June 28, Disney has a host of new things coming to its Orlando resort as part of the $17 billion investment plan.

Bainter specifically pointed out the newly reimagined EPCOT, a longtime project that transformed the park, which finally saw “walls come down” this week.

The park now sports a lot of new touches, including the new CommuniCore Hall, the opening of Portraits of Courage at the American Adventure Pavilion, and ¡Celebración Encanto!, a new sing-along musical based on the 2021 film that will run at EPCOT through Sept. 26.  

Elsewhere, Disney is readying to launch the revamped Country Bears musical in the Magic Kingdom. Executives unveiled this week that the show will open on July 17 with a completely new look and design and a new soundtrack of Disney classics that pay homage to the long history of country music.

Another new show is coming to the resort, this one to Disney Studios. The Little Mermaid—A Musical Adventure will open “later this year,” executives said this week. The show is completely updated from the previous version, with an entirely new artistic aesthetic and a plot that’s focused on telling the class story from Ariel’s point of view and diving further into the character’s personality.

Disney is also bringing a brand new drone show to Disney Springs that will run through the end of the summer season called Disney Dreams that Soar. It features 800 drones that create 400-feet tall images of some of your favorite Disney characters from Toy Story, Coco, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Up, the Star Wars. It will run nightly from May 24 through September 2, 2024. 

There are some smaller updates, too—H20 Glow Nights, the nighttime events at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon, is back on select nights through the end of August. The Disney Dining Plan, a consumer favorite, is back for guests this year. “We were thrilled to reintroduce it,” Bainter added. “Travel advisors are excited about it.”

What else travel advisors should know
“Our travel advisors have become fundamental,” Javier Moreno, Disney Destinations’ senior vice president of sales, told the trade press during the preview this week. “We try to bring this to life for the advisors and then bring that to life for their guests.”

As part of Tiana’s media preview this week, many agency owners and advisors were invited down to Orlando, something that Disney does regularly to “bring things to life for advisors,” Bainter told TMR.

The team at Disney is also planning ongoing training on-site all summer—advisors should get in touch with their local BDMs (Disney has over 30 BDMs around the U.S.) to get more information on that training. 

For advisors either new to the industry or new to Disney, the place to start getting fully educated on the products and the team is the Disney travel agent portal, which includes the College of Disney Knowledge. That’s step one for any of those new advisors, Bainter said.