Back in 2009, Black girls and women everywhere were delighted to have our very own first African American Disney princess. Princess Tiana will soon have her very own attraction. Disney Parks officially announced its newest attraction, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, which will open in late 2024 at Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort. Plus later this year, Disneyland is also opening a replica of Tiana’s Palace.
“It is really exciting to know that Princess Tiana’s presence in both Disneyland and Magic Kingdom will finally be fully realized,” said Anika Noni Rose, who voices the princess in the movie. “As passionate as I am about what we created, I know the fans are going to be over the moon,” Noni says. “The Imagineers are giving us ‘The Princess and the Frog’ Mardi Gras celebration we’ve been waiting for, and I’m here for it!”
The attraction will be a continuation of Tiana’s story, including the original cast, plus new characters and good ol’ authentic Nola culture!
“We’re bringing something a little magical that we call Bayou magic,” Charita Carter, Walt Disney Imagineering Executive Creative Producer, shares with RoyalTee during an exclusive media event discussing the attraction.
Here’s everything you need to know about Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
It will replace Splash Mountain, which will close in 2023
Inspired by the 2009 movie, The Princess and the Frog, the attraction will replace the longstanding Splash Mountain attraction, which sparked calls for change due to its racist ties to Walt Disney’s infamously 1946 film Song of the South.
A makeover of the ride was first announced in 2020 and the decision was made to transform it into Tiana’s bayou world.
Splash Mountain at Walt Disney World Resort will be closed starting Jan. 23, 2023, to make room for the new attraction’s development.
Expect to hear Zydeco music and see new characters.
On Friday, Disney Parks released a new image of the attraction that shows Tiana in her bayou element.
“What you can’t tell from this rendering – so you’ll just have to trust me on this one – is that beautiful zydeco music will fill the air. Zydeco is a special blend of rhythm and blues that was born in Louisiana, and when you hear it, you’ll feel like you’ve truly stepped into Tiana’s world,” Disney Parks explained in a statement.
Also new will be a band of fuzzy critters which include an otter, a rabbit, a raccoon, a beaver, a turtle, and others playing Zydeco music from instruments made of natural materials found in the bayou.
No word yet on if we will hear Tiana sing “Almost There” but we hope so!
The storyline picks up after Princess and The Frog movie
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will pick up where the animated movie left. Guest will join Princess Tiana, Prince Naveen, Louis the alligator, and others on a boat ride through the bayou for “a one-of-a-kind Mardi Gras celebration.”
“This is not a retelling of Princess and the Frog,” Walt Disney Imagineering’s executive creative director Ted Robledo tells RoyalTee.
Instead, the storyline will pick up a full year after Tiana and Naveen’s froggy adventure romance. Tiana is still the owner of the hottest restaurant in New Orleans, Tiana’s Place. She has also purchased an abandoned salt mine and turned it into a food processing company called Tiana’s Food, in which she employs local residents in the community.
Family, community, and entrepreneurship are two important elements Tiana has and the creators wanted to make sure those qualities were showcased.
“She is really grooming folks in the community to find their own dreams,” says Robledo.
Capturing the authentic NOLA culture.
News of Tiana’s Adventure was first announced during a panel at the ESSENCE festival this past July.
“If you have been to New Orleans you know this is true, that this is a magical place,” says Carter.
To draw inspiration, creators took several research trips to New Orleans to capture an authentic representation of the Crescent City and Princess Tiana’s story. Stops included the French Quarter, Congo Square, the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, Xavier University, a historically Black university, and the bayou, of course.
“We got to see the set design, props, and all kinds of things that are really appropriate for what we are trying to do in being authentic as we represent the city as part of our attraction,” said Carter.
Tiana is inspired by a real person and is being called A ‘love letter’ to New Orleans.
Believe it or not, there is a real-life Tiana in the Crescent City. Tiana is also inspired by the story of the late Chef Leah Chase. Known as the Queen of Creole Cuisine, Chase was the proud owner of Dooky Chase’s Restaurant in the New Orleans neighborhood of Treme-Lafitte until she passed away in 2019. Her daughter, Stella, said her mother loved her city and called the attraction a ‘love letter to New Orleans.’
“My mother was 96 when she left us and went on to glory and she worked all the way to 96,” Stella said during the panel. “And one of the things she said, she said ‘well I can’t retire I can’t give up, because I owe too much to everyone and she was a great ambassador.”
Stella continued, “So this is her way of still doing for our city, her community by giving back and as the inspiration for Tiana, we are so happy that her legacy of giving back and her concern for the community will continue because the community in New Orleans is a city that loves, loves everyone.”
Anika Noni Rose Reminisces on Playing Princess Tiana
During a recent interview on The Jennifer Hudson Show, Rose spoke about the continuous impact of playing Tiana on both her own life and other Black and brown girls.
“It is still one of the most amazing things,” Rose told Hudson. “The fact that Tiana, Princess Tiana, will be there long after I’m gone that, she will be a part of Americana…in a space that I don’t think any of us thought that we would be able to take up. It says a lot to children, it says a lot to brown children definitely that they can be princesses.”
She continued, “They have no question about it anymore, it says to their friends who don’t look like them, that they can be princesses and there’s no question about that. There’s no more pulling out your yellow towel to wrap it around your hair so you feel like you like a princess.”
When will Tiana’s Bayou Adventure open?
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will open in 2024 at Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando.
We’re almost there!
