Day Two of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Sees Ride Closures and a Stall in Merch Sales

Theme Parks

Day one of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, despite ride closures and the lackluster attendance of the accompanying live show, was more successful than a lot of people thought it would be. The merchandise (which was sold in The Emporium, as the ride’s shop has not yet opened) seemed to be selling, and the ride had parkgoers giving it a spin, as you can see in the Park Hoppin’ livestream. Day two, however, has brought Disney crashing back to reality, with Tiana’s Bayou Adventure once again closing in the morning and into the afternoon. And you remember all that merch people flocked to The Emporium to snag, for which there were so many shoppers that there was a wait to get into the store? Those appear to have been mostly eBay orders; today, as reported by BlogMickey.com, there is no line to get into The Emporium:

With eBay orders fully satisfied, there is no line of guests waiting to get into The Emporium for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure merchandise this morning pic.twitter.com/OLxdvCMb0H

— BlogMickey.com (@Blog_Mickey) June 29, 2024

This indicates that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure was frontloaded, a new attraction that curious parkgoers flocked to see on opening day but are burned out on now. That doesn’t mean nobody wants to ride it, but the diehards have come and gone, as evinced by the lack of merch sales. Keep in mind that this is a Saturday in June, which should be one of Disney World’s busiest days, if not the busiest. And those who do still want to ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure are out of luck because, once again, it’s closed, likely for renovations. Yesterday, it was kindly assumed that it closed due to rain, but today, they don’t have that excuse.

This is bad for Disney, but it’s not the worst part: Tiana’s Bayou Adventure isn’t the only closed attraction today. Pirates of the Caribbean, the Astro Orbiter, and the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover (which sounds like a shuttle bus to the airport but evidently is a kind of automated tour of Tomorrowland) were all “temporarily closed” as well. It’s also not uncommon; it seems Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down quite often. How does a park with the resources of Disney behind it fail to maintain one of its most famous and, presumably, most frequently visited rides on a regular basis? Disney World’s Pirates of the Caribbean is over fifty years old; have they not figured out how to keep it working in that amount of time? This certainly puts the catastrophic release of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure into perspective; Disney doesn’t care about delivering for their customers in any regard, hoping to coast on their name – not realizing that they’re tarnishing their name more every day. Like the rides at a theme park, a reputation needs to be maintained.

There’s also the possibility, like WDW Pro said, that Disney World’s employees are increasingly leaving the park(s) for Universal Studios, which is currently preparing its Epic Universe expansion. That fits with a report that they’ve brought back one of their legendary “Imagineers” to train a new generation of designers: the cream of the crop are jumping ship for a theme park that looks like it’s actually getting better (despite getting rid of the Back to the Future ride; never forget what they took from you). Any way you slice it, Disney World is quickly becoming a laughing stock that fewer people visit and even fewer people want to work for, and considering what it once was, that’s a real shame.