By David Eckstein-Schoemann and Ava Eckstein-Schoemann

The new “Tiana’s Bayou Adventure” just opened at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, and while we are familiar with the track, the rest is all new. Sight, sound, smell, and touch can be overwhelming when you aren’t prepared. This is why we rode “Tiana’s Bayou Adventure” to give you the details to prepare your senses, and help you to enjoy the ride!

The Queue

The queue takes you through “Tiana’s Foods,” where they have collections of food supplies and memorabilia that references the original movie. We were then guided to the outer queue which was made to look like a makeshift garden used by the film’s characters. The biggest issue with the line is the sun! Florida heat is no joke, and the outdoor sections of the line have little to no shade. Get ready to get your fans and sunblock out, because you will get burned!

Another part to note with the queue is there are stairs. For guests who are unable to go up/down stairs or have a wheelchair, they do have accommodations! Right before you get to the stairs, a cast member will pull you aside if you have a wheelchair (or you can simply ask if you are not comfortable going up/down stairs), and they will put you into a separate line. This line does make you skip out on the line’s decor, and is also in the sun. To get on the ride, a cast member will guide you through the exit to the ride, where you will directly get into your ride vehicle. If you have a wheelchair, you can either park it at the exit (if you can walk a couple feet), or a cast member will take it from you in the vehicle and bring it to you once the ride is over.

The Ride

Now we are going to discuss the impact of the ride on four senses: sight, sound, smell, and touch. Each of these senses are stimulated on “Tiana’s Bayou Adventure,” but each at varying levels. In each section, we will explain what happens to impact that specific sense, and rank it based on how much it impacted our senses out of 5 (1 being low impact and 5 being high impact).

Sight: 4/5

Starting with the sense of sight, the ride has both indoor and outdoor portions. The outdoor portions are less overwhelming when it comes to sight. You mainly see garden decor, along with some great views of the Magic Kingdom Park. There is also little shade for these parts, so depending on the weather and time of day, be prepared for some serious sun!

Now discussing the indoor portions,  it’s important to note they are quite dark with lights that illuminate what goes on in the scenes. There is a mix of animatronics with screens that blend into the background. The animatronics consist of the characters from The Princess and the Frog that we all love, along with some new animal characters created for this ride. 

A very important sensory concern with the visuals on this ride comes with one of the drops. Previously mentioned, it’s quite dark inside, so there is a drop that you do not fully see coming. It’s the point when you see Mama Odie come on the screen above your heads (shown in the picture below). This drop is almost completely in the dark, as it’s pitch black but part way through the drop there is a bright light that shines directly at the vehicle. We didn’t expect it. As a result, it was a little disorienting. 

Sound: 1/5

The soundtrack from The Princess and the Frog is one of our favorites, so we were excited to sing along on this ride. The volume was very low (which didn’t stop us from singing). Unlike most Disney rides, the volume of the music was very low. During the outdoor portions of the ride, the music is at a decent level. Going from outside to inside, the music fades to more of a lyrical backtrack to what’s going on in the ride. Furthermore, the volume of the animatronics is also not too loud, with no sudden loud noises made from any of them. 

The only sound concern we do want to mention is at the beginning of the ride. After the first tiny hill, you pass by the vehicles going down the big drop at the end. This means there will be some sudden screams from guests, depending upon who is going down the drop as you pass this section of the ride.

 Smell: 2/5

Disney is famous for some of their scents, and we think this ride may have the next popular one and the next unpopular one. Starting with the unpopular one, the ride takes you through the bayou, so obviously Disney is going to make it smell like one. The only way we can think to describe this smell is wet grass. While we know some people like the smell of grass, we aren’t big fans of it so making it wet was not working in our favor. Fortunately, the smell is not too harsh and we quickly got used to it. 

Now what we think is the next Disney scent that’s worthy of being made into a candle is at the end of the ride: beignets. When we get to Tiana’s restaurant at the end of the ride, we are greeted with the sweet smell of beignets. Again, it was not a harsh smell, but it was just enough to get you craving one!

Touch: 5/5

Finally, we make it to touch. Given that this is the same track as Splash Mountain, we knew this was going to be a sensory concern. Before getting into it, you can control how much of a splash you get… to an extent. From our experience, the splash level goes front to back. In the front, you get the most splashed and, in the back, you get the least. This should be kept in mind as you continue reading this section. 

The splashing starts when you sit down, and what I mean by that is your seat will be wet. We recommend bringing a jacket or poncho to lay on the seat before you sit down (and if you don’t have either, you can ask a cast member in one of the gift shops for a gift bag and you can use that to sit on prior to getting in line).

After you sit down , the ride takes you down a series of hills and drops. Each one of them will splash you (especially in the front row). The worst part of the splashes is the delay. Especially on the smaller hills, the splash takes a second to make its way to you. So you may think you’re in the clear, then you get water droplets to the face. The drop inside ends more like a slide that leads into another hill. Given that I previously said this one is in the dark, you do not see the splash coming at all on this one. 

Bringing back up the fact that where you sit matters, if you sit in the front you will get soaked at least from the waist up. If you don’t believe me, just look at us in the picture above! So if you want to avoid being like us, either wear a poncho or ask to sit in a different row.

Final Recommendations

Here we give our recommendations for sensory concerns in one list.

• Poncho
• Something to sit on (jacket or gift bag)
• Change of shirt

And with one last goodbye from Mama Odie and her snake Juju, the ride is over. Go to our instagram (@sensethemagic) to see our reactions on the ride, and let us know what rides we should sensory rank next!