As Disney World continues to work toward a 2024 opening for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, new construction is taking place at the top of the iconic drop. As you may know, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure replaces Splash Mountain as Disney looks to cut ties with the problematic Song of the South movie that Splash Mountain was based on.
As part of the reimagining, Disney World has removed the tree stump that used to define the look of the mountain, and new steel beams have been installed to allow crews to round off the top of what will eventually be a salt mine, according to Walt Disney Imagineering. Here’s an overview of the backstory for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Backstory
Princess Tiana is the proud daughter of Eudora and James. Eudora influenced Tiana’s entrepreneurial spirit, while James instilled a deep passion for cooking. With its mouthwatering menu, exceptional entertainment, and warmhearted hospitality, Tiana’s Palace quickly became a treasured meeting place in New Orleans. Princess Tiana used her newfound success to support surrounding neighborhoods, which led to her role as a community leader.
From the success of her restaurant, Tiana expanded her business into an empire thanks to the entrepreneurial drive she got from her mother. Tiana opened Tiana’s Foods – an employee-owned cooperative. The endeavor began when Tiana purchased the salt mine and the area surrounding the large salt dome it operated from. With the help of her mother Eudora, Naveen, Louis and fellow owners of the cooperative, Tiana revived the old salt mine and the surrounding land, growing a wide array of vegetables, herbs and spices for her recipes.
This multi-faceted enterprise has turned the aging salt mine into a space that has come alive. Complete with a boutique farm and both a working and teaching kitchen, Tiana’s Foods is where Tiana and her colleagues create all sorts of new products that they are bringing to the world, including a line of original hot sauces.
With Tiana’s Foods established, the story of the attraction will take place after the final kiss as Naveen and Louis join Tiana on her latest adventure, hosting a one-of-a-kind Mardi Gras celebration where everyone is welcome.
Tiana wants to give a big thanks to her family and friends and the entire community for all the support they’ve given her by throwing an amazing party during Mardi Gras season. When it turns out there’s been a bit of a mix-up with the party preparations, Tiana invites us to meet her at Tiana’s Foods to help with the missing ingredient for the party.
When we arrive, we may see that Tiana spruced up the company’s facilities with vibrant art from local artists. Food for the party is being prepared and beignets are being loaded into crates for the celebration. All kinds of preparations are underway for the journey into the bayou with Tiana, along with new and familiar friends from the animated film.
While visiting Magic Kingdom recently, we grabbed some photos of the top of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and took a quick look around the mountain…er, salt mine. We’ll start with some wider shots for an overview of the work taking place. A secondary, large crane has been behind the construction site for a few days and is quite visible from other parts of Frontierland, Adventureland, and even Main Street USA at times.
Later this summer, the Tiana’s Foods water tower will arrive, and crews are preparing the area around the base of it now. A peek over the construction walls reveals that they are working on creating the faux rocks that will cover the base of the tower. These rocks should be ready in the next couple of weeks and then it shouldn’t be long until the tiara-topped tower is installed.
Steel beams are now installed on the top of the salt mine hill, and we expect rebar to appear shortly as crews work on rounding off the top of the mountain to match the concept art seen earlier in the article.
Over on the northern side of the salt mine hill, we can see the stark difference between a new, lighter color for the clay and the redder, darker color that defined the look of Splash Mountain.
Crews are working on some faux rockwork in this area, which looks to be shaped like a trough of sorts.
Over at the lighter clay area, the grass has been removed for the repainting. Some faux foliage is already installed, but we expect to see much more installed throughout the summer as work on the facade continues.
For a full look at everything we know about Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, check out our article below!
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