Just a couple of days ago, Disney announced that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will open on June 28th at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom! The attraction is a retheme of the Splash Mountain log flume and will take guests into the world of The Princess and the Frog. In this post, we’ll share details on how guests will be able to ride the new attraction along with other news about the ride.

Unsurprisingly, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will open with a virtual queue and Individual Lightning Lane. How long the former will last is up for question, especially with Tron Lightcycle Run already using the same system. We’ll dive more into that in the commentary.

Before we get to the news release, previews have been announced for D23, DVC and Annual Passholders. D23 has a hard ticket event that guests can register for on May 16th that includes multiple rides on the new attraction. Of course, that one costs money.

The DVC Member and Annual Passholder previews are on select dates but are free for those that it applies to. For the passholder event, guests will need a Magic Kingdom park reservation for June 13, 14, 16, 17, 18 and 20th. From there, the process is basically a virtual queue system. DVC Members can register (on May 16th) for one of two windows on June 12th and June 19th. If you belong to any of those groups keep your eyes peeled to your email or social media groups. Leave us a comment if you have questions.

Moving onto the news about the official opening of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, here’s the release from Disney:

1. Drop on in-to virtual queue…

When Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opens on June 28, it will use a virtual queue. Guests can request to join the virtual queue via the My Disney Experience app at one of two times: 7 a.m. or 1 p.m. While a standby queue will not be available during the attraction’s initial opening days, we expect to open a standby queue soon after the attraction’s opening.  

Visit disneyworld.com/virtualqueue for more details about how virtual queues at Disney World work and what you need to know before visiting Magic Kingdom.  

2. … or use Disney Genie+ service.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will also be included as a Lightning Lane entrance in Disney Genie+ service. Purchasing this service on the My Disney Experience app helps you get to some of your favorite attractions faster through Lightning Lane entrances and includes digital downloads of select Disney PhotoPass attraction photos taken in the park on the day of your purchase at no additional charge. Guests may check the app on the day of their visit for pricing and availability. 

3. Smile for the camera!

No party is complete without pictures. As you make your way through the bayou to get to Tiana’s party, Disney PhotoPass Service will serve up a special photo when you’re almost there.  

Want to download this attraction photo and your other magical moments? Try Memory Maker – with this all-inclusive photo package, you can download all of your Disney PhotoPass photos taken during your vacation.  

4. Be prepared to get wet!

At some point when you drop on in to Tiana’s party, there’s a strong chance riders may get wet. While most guests will appreciate the refreshing cool down, others may want to bring their rain gear.  

5. Shop new attraction merchandise

After riding the new attraction, we can bet you’ll want to take a piece of the bayou home with you.  

Starting June 28, you can find the collections for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and “The Princess and the Frog”-inspired merchandise at the Emporium at Magic Kingdom. And, shortly after the attraction debuts, the merchandise will hop over to Critter Co-Op in Frontierland.   

6. Try some of Tiana’s Famous Beignets!

A trip to the bayou is never complete without some good eats and sweet treats. Among the food and beverage offerings we look forward to sharing soon will be Tiana’s Famous Beignets, of course.  

Beginning opening day, Golden Oak Outpost and The Friar’s Nook will be serving up these light, sweet and fluffy beignets drizzled with honey and powdered sugar. These will be available for a limited time only so let the good times roll.

Commentary

There’s not much of a surprise here, at least not one equal to a 50 foot drop! The virtual queue will be in place to avoid waits over 4 hours, at least upon opening. The system is imperfect and a lesser of two evils situation in this case. We’ve all seen videos of extremely long lines and overcrowding in Disney Parks and having a virtual queue will usually avoid people posting screenshots of a 340 minute wait.

But with Tron already using a virtual queue in Magic Kingdom, being able to drop this system for at least one of the attractions as soon as possible should be a priority. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure has ample space when it comes to queueing and a log flume will be varied when it comes to when people get in line relative to a roller coaster. That leads me to believe that the virtual queue will be dropped for the new ride relatively quickly.

Having two virtual queues in one park would make the congestion in Magic Kingdom really frustrating. Heck, I find it frustrating without any virtual queues! I don’t know if the system would allow guests to register for both Tron and Tiana’s at the same time, I’m guessing no. But if it did, people could effectively be in 3 places at once. Having walked through Fantasyland at 2 PM in July before, I definitely don’t want more people doing that!

What I think is most likely is that the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will be drop the virtual queue by mid-July and then be an Individual Lightning Lane and very long standby queue for the rest of the year. Of course, that’s all conjecture and Disney could surprise us one way or another. With the attraction opening in just over a month, we’ll find out soon enough!

Are you excited for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure? Let us know, along with any questions you might have in the comments below! Planning a Disney trip? Check out our Travel Guides to help you along the way! We’ve also got discount tickets to both Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort. Thank you for reading Wandering in Disney.  Please subscribe to the blog and like our social media pages, all of which you can do on the right side of the page. Have a wonderful day!