Now that I have a little more time to post, I finally got to ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure on the 11th. Man that ride needs to be renamed the McDonald’s ice cream machine because this dang ride was almost always broken. Tried twice to ride it earlier in the day and it was down. Waited 45 minutes in line and then they evacuated the line from it being down. Finally rode it towards the end of the night and didn’t have to wait long. Thank you single rider. Oh, and speaking of single rider….
I really liked how they built a new hallway specifically for single riders. It's very nifty the way they laid it out. They built a ramp that cuts up to the exit ramp and then they built a small passage that takes you right over the bridge where it normally. Big improvement of line management there.
Although I have already made up my mind from the POV, now that I actually went on it, I will go over what I liked and then didn't like. Okay, now for the good:
-Like the new single rider queue
-Animatronics are really good. When they're working (Final Tiana at the finale looked like they put something in her beignets). Though I think they move too much like they've had a little too much of that special spice in whatever they had. I feel like the wailing movement was just to show "Yo! These things can MOVE!"
-Really liked how they covered up the splashdown of the first drop with a tunnel. This keeps the lightbleed out.
-I like how the the bayou scene has more walls and more backgrounds. One of the things I didn't like about our version of Splash was how there were literally no backgrounds and the lighting didn't feel natural.
-Looks fantastic at night (Which is when I got to ride!)
Okay now the bad:
-The story (Or lack thereof) was awful. There was no conflict, no tension over the final drop, no interesting action.
-It was very discouraging to see so many spaces that were once occupied by a plethora of AAs replaced with literally nothing or just a screen. It made the ride feel even more lacking. They should've just retold the story of the PatF and have Facilier at the end.
-I understand the Marc Davis AAs are old af but you really couldn't refurb them and reincorporate (At least some of them) into ride? There is a lot of sentimental value behind those AAs with Marc Davis being behind them and they could've easily fit in the ride. You seriously had to get rid of ALL of them?? They could've fit in those empty spaces well.
-The mountain now looks smaller with the redo. Don't like this.
-Songs are fine....I just don't think they're memorable.
-IDK what the heck happened but this thing keeps. Breaking. Down. All. The. TIME. Was Rise's reliability even this bad when it opened??
As I already mentioned, although there are some good things about this ride, but I think this is an overall downgrade. They really needed to go all-in on this concept but they didn't. If they had a good story (Just retell the movie), reincorporate a lot of the Marc Davis AAs, actually have Faciulier in the ride, have a tone of dread going over the drop, and keep the name Splash Mountain but with the subtitle of Tiana's Bayous Adventure, I can guarantee you would win a lot more of the SM apologists over. Sigh.
Well, I guess I better focus on the few good things I like about this ride because now we're stuck with this for the next thrirty years until the get the funding to do it right this time.