How Has Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Done So Far?
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure officially opened at Walt Disney World on June 28th.
Of course, by that point, thousands of guests had already experienced the attractions thanks to extensive sneak previews.
(Olga Thompson, Photographer)
What we didn’t know during the sneak previews was how the attraction would perform once fully open to the public.
Now we have nearly three weeks of data to evaluate. So, let’s discuss the early days of the Tiana ride at Magic Kingdom.
An Okay Start
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
As previously discussed, I fully expected Tiana’s Bayou Adventure to experience some hiccups during its first few months.
The sheer complexity of this attraction virtually assures that it’ll experience downtime.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
Disney added state-of-the-art Audio-Animatronics (AAs) to the attraction, and it also upgraded the underlying tech.
The floats ride along tracks with modern sensors, which are likely to cause issues as well.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
Anytime a boat isn’t at the right spot, the sensor will identify the error, which could cost a complete, albeit temporary ride shutdown.
Some of what I’m saying is speculative, as Disney hasn’t provided full details of its tech.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
I presume part of that is to protect proprietary tech, while some of it may come out during future episodes of We Call It Imagineering.
The point is that plenty can go wrong on an attraction like this. It’s not your grandparent’s Splash Mountain.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
During the downtime of the ride conversion, Imagineers modernized the attraction.
In the process, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure became a significantly safer ride than Splash Mountain.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
However, downtime is inevitable. Of course, those of you with long memories understand that the same was true with Splash Mountain.
At times, the attraction was notorious for inexplicable outages since it “seemed” like such a simple ride on the surface.
Tiana’s Foods Truck
That’s part of the reason Disney wanted to do the re-theme, although that part of the story gets drowned out.
Remarkably, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure has performed better than expected, particularly lately.
Tiana by the Numbers
Growing crowds
I’ll use Thrill Data as my source since its information is publicly facing. You can read the specifics here.
I realize some readers don’t like the way the site does things, but let’s just assume it’s simple to know when an attraction is offline.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
According to Thrill Data, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure averaged 14 percent downtime during its first 19 days in operation.
What does that mean? Since Magic Kingdom opens for 13 hours a day during the summer, Tiana goes down slightly more than an hour a day.
Entrance gates
I’m being fully transparent – and you can read the hiccups article to verify – that I was braced for much worse.
The sneak previews for Tiana were kinda messy, and they lowered my expectations for the opening week.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
Sure enough, the ride’s first three days featured downtime more than one-third of the time.
In the immortal words of Archer, that’s…too much.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure sign
Something funny happened during the week of July 4th. In truth, it was the opposite of what I expected.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure grew much more reliable during a time when holiday crowds were surging.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
The ride only experienced downtime of more than 17 percent once that week.
Overall, the average daily downtime was slightly under ten percent. If we take out the high and low, it’s still around nine percent.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
In short, Tiana started rough, but it has been perfectly fine on 12 of the last 16 days.
Of course, I’m typing this on July 16th, which has been an absolutely brutal down day.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
The attraction didn’t open on time and has suffered the largest percentage of downtime thus far in July.
So, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure remains a work in progress with regard to uptime.
Solid Boarding Group Performances
We’ve got another two aspects to consider, one of which is the virtual queue. The other is how well the virtual queue executes.
Stating the obvious, you must act quickly to book a virtual queue for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
Like, this isn’t hyperbole. If you sneeze at exactly the wrong moment, you may be out of luck.
The virtual queue can book in as little as two seconds, although that was more of a concern at the start.
Lately, the virtual queue has lasted as long as a minute, at least with the 7 a.m. window.
Guests are reporting substantially better success at the 1 p.m. window, which makes sense.
Photo: Disney
People must be physically inside Magic Kingdom to schedule the 1 p.m. virtual queue. You can do it from anywhere at 7 a.m.
Circling back to Thrill Data, their data indicates that the average sellout time is 7:14 a.m.
Photo: Disney
Here’s an indication of why some people don’t trust the site. I presume that’s including some sneak previews or something.
If the virtual queue is still open at 7:05 a.m. on the morning of your visit, consider yourself VERY lucky!
Photo: Disney
As for Boarding Groups, Disney is averaging 134 daily sets. Obviously, there’s plenty of variance, though.
In July, the number has risen to 141 Boarding Groups serviced per day.
The overall total has only been above 140 on ten of those dates and over 125 on 14 out of 15 dates.
However, I can go ahead and tell you that July 16th isn’t even getting close. I dunno what happened today, but it was a struggle.
Final Thoughts
Photo: Disney
So, here are the main takeaways from Tiana’s Bayou Journey thus far.
If you want a 7 a.m. virtual queue, don’t blink. Have everything set up two minutes before 7 a.m.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
I’m talking about logging in and clicking around My Disney Experience to make sure everything is working.
Then, at 6:59 a.m., start refreshing the screen like there’s no tomorrow.
Photo: Disney
If you don’t have a virtual queue by 7:01 a.m., your odds aren’t good. At 7:10 a.m., you’re likely out of luck.
When you are assigned a Boarding Group, anything under 125 should be fine.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
Things get dicey from Board Groups 126 through 140, but the odds are ever in your favor.
If you have something above 140, you must hope that nothing goes awry.
Photo: Disney
A lot of this applies to Disney Genie+ or what we’re about to call Lightning Lane Multi Pass as well.
Based on Disney Genie+ stats, if you don’t book Tiana’s Bayou Adventure by 8 a.m., you’re probably out of luck.
Photo: Disney
I presume that once the advanced booking window opens next, it’ll be a while before Tiana offers consistent same-day availability.
Still, Disney deserves plenty of credit here. Everyone was braced for a debacle.
Instead, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure has performed at a relatively stable rate during its first three weeks in operation.
Even better, other than a blip on July 16th, the attraction has been trending in the right direction.
We’ve had less downtime and more Boarding Groups serviced.
Of course, the one thing directly impacts the other, but you get the point.
Are there hiccups? Sure. Are they as bad as I’d feared? Not even close!
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