Tiana's Bayou Adventure Is the Perfect Addition to Magic Kingdom for the Next Generation of Disney Fans

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As a lifetime fan of the Disney parks, there are memories from all stages of my life attached to everything about Disney World. I have childhood memories from my family vacations, memories of girls' trips as an adult and the trip my husband and I took with our wedding party the year we got married. More recently, there are memories of finally taking my own daughter and watching my favorite place become her favorite place, too. I leave a piece of me there every time a visit ends — and am always thankful to go back and find that piece waiting right where I left it.

All of that is to say that I get why people were concerned when they found out that Splash Mountain, a ride that opened in 1992 and has been regarded as a classic ever since, was closing and being re-themed. It's hard to let go of something that you loved and that you thought would exist forever, even a theme park ride. But now that I've ridden it, I can confidently say that those people had nothing to worry about.

As much as I love the Disney parks, I have never been blind to the areas where they could improve, and Splash Mountain has needed to be improved for a long time. Based on the 1946 movie Song of the South , a controversial movie that many believe glorified slavery and perpetuated racist stereotypes, it should go without saying that an attraction with those kinds of roots has no place in the Disney World of 2024.

Knowing this, it seemed like some kind of change to the ride was imminent for a long time, but some fans didn't expect that it would mean an overhaul of this magnitude. Now, it's Splash Mountain (Tiana's Version). The retooled attraction is based on Princess and the Frog , a movie featuring Disney's first Black princess, who starts out as a regular woman before she is turned into a frog on her journey to make her dreams of owning her own restaurant come true.

While I did experience a tinge of sadness that my daughter would never experience Splash Mountain as I did in my younger years (see: all those happy memories I mentioned earlier), that sadness quickly evaporated when Disney invited me to preview the ride before it officially opens on June 28. I discovered that not only has none of the magic has been lost — it's actually more present than ever before.

Tiana's Bayou Adventure Is All Joy

Between the immersive queue, the beautiful animatronics throughout the ride, and how clear it is that painstaking efforts were taken to ensure that the ride remained authentic to the story's New Orleans setting, there's a lot to love about Tiana's Bayou Adventure. The attraction picks up where Princess & the Frog left off and creates something new, rather than just existing in the world of it, adding a new chapter to a story that so many people not only love, but also identify with.

There's nothing scary about this attraction the way there was when it belonged to Br'er Rabbit, Br'er Fox, and Br'er Bear, but there doesn't need to be. This Magic Kingdom ride is filled to the brim with pure joy, and the water tower at the top of the building is the perfect reminder that we should "never, ever lose sight of what's really important."

During the media event for Tiana's Bayou Adventure, one of the biggest points that Disney Imagineers who worked on the ride kept coming back to was the fact that Tiana is everyone 's princess. There's something about her that everyone can relate to, which isn't necessarily the case when it comes to the other Disney princesses. (Are any of y'all reading this mermaids? Me either.)

As a white woman raising a white child, I cannot speak to the experience that Black Disney fans have when they ride the new attraction, but I can say that, as a little girl who grew up loving princesses, every child deserves to have a Disney princess (or prince) who looks like them and makes them feel seen. And of course, Tiana isn't the be all, end all solution, and neither is her ride. The work to make the world of Disney a place where everyone feels thoroughly represented is still being done, but this attraction feels like a step in the right direction.

My daughter doesn't know what Song of the South is, and she will probably never see the movie. But she loves Tiana and her movie, and that is who this attraction is for. Many of us who grew up loving Disney movies and coming to Disney World are now adults who are making our own new Disney memories with our children — isn't it better for the memories of the next generation of Disney fans to be rooted in this more inclusive, diverse version of the parks we love so much?

Tiana's Bayou Adventure Will Easily Become a Disney Parks Classic

Of course, there are still a few kinks to be worked out; the ride has been going down on what feels like a pretty frequent basis in the weeks it's been open for previews, though my ride through wasn't disturbed, and I do wish we would have heard more music from the movie. However, we do get a brand new song performed by Tiana's voice actor, Anika Noni Rose, called "Special Spice," so that makes up for it.

But overall, Tiana's Bayou Adventure isn't just a worthy replacement for Splash Mountain. It's better than the ride that existed before, which should always be the goal when re-theming attractions like this, and I can't wait to watch my daughter experience it for the first time.

*Note: I was invited by Walt Disney World to experience a preview of Tiana's Bayou Adventure, and they provided me with complimentary accommodations for this trip. I was not compensated monetarily, and all of the opinions expressed in this review are my own and were not influenced by Walt Disney World.

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