After a quick break for the guts of the vacations, Walt Disney World’s arduous ticket occasion ‘season’ is as soon as once more underway with 2025 After Hours at Magic Kingdom. And in a shock twist, the park’s latest attraction won’t be open through the occasion. This covers how Tiana’s Bayou Journey has been faraway from the trip roster, potential the reason why, and impacts on technique.
Walt Disney World initially introduced that Tiana’s Bayou Journey can be open and supplied by way of a standby queue throughout After Hours. This was highlighted in each the authentic announcement and on the official After Hours at Magic Kingdom webpage. Nonetheless, a stealth edit was made to each to take away Tiana’s Bayou Journey from the lists–and the trip didn’t function through the first After Hours at Magic Kingdom, confirming that the edit wasn’t in error.
Frankly, that is irritating. Driving Tiana’s Bayou Journey with out hassling with the digital queue was a promoting level of the occasion, and other people undoubtedly bought tickets on that foundation. Positive, Magic Kingdom contains the boilerplate authorized CYA that choices are topic to vary with out discover (and many others), however that doesn’t make quietly eradicating rides the proper factor to do for a corporation that prides itself in distinctive visitor service. This isn’t even the primary time we’ve seen this occur! Tiana’s Bayou Journey ping-ponged on and off the attraction lists for Prolonged Night Hours and the Halloween/Christmas events final yr earlier than ultimately being faraway from the previous and added to the latter.
The elimination of Tiana’s Bayou Journey from the After Hours lineup can also be notable as a result of it primarily takes Frontierland out of play. With Large Thunder Mountain Railroad now closed till 2026, the one operational attraction in Frontierland throughout After Hours at Magic Kingdom in 2025 is Nation Bear Musical Jamboree. As a lot as I like the Bear Band, even I wouldn’t waste treasured After Hours time doing CBMJ.
That’s going to be the response of most friends, and there’ll not be an incentive to enterprise again into Frontierland. Relying upon the capability cap, this might have implications for looks like crowds all through Magic Kingdom throughout After Hours. Tiana’s Bayou Journey being down might additionally imply increased wait instances for the opposite high-profile headliners, together with Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare and TRON Lightcycle Run.
As for why Walt Disney World eliminated Tiana’s Bayou Journey from After Hours at Magic Kingdom, there are a couple of potentialities.
The primary is that it’s on a brief foundation, as a consequence of climate. A chilly entrance is passing via Central Florida and temperatures started to tank in a single day–proper as the primary After Hours started–with one of many coldest-feeling nights of the whole winter. Actually, a Chilly Climate Advisory has been issued by the Nationwide Climate Service for Orange County, as wind chills are anticipated to be 25 to 30 levels on January 7, 2025.
Tuesday temperatures will likely be sharply cooler, with afternoon highs solely reaching the higher 50s, which is about 15 levels beneath regular. At night time, it’ll be cool within the mid to higher 30s via midweek, leading to some frost in components of Central Florida. Though the dreaded Polar Vortex will miss Walt Disney World, the prolonged forecast nonetheless options days with lows within the 40s and highs struggling to interrupt out of the 50s. That’s exactly why we warned about Blizzard Seaside being closed a lot of the month.
Because it’s a water trip that may get you moist, demand for Tiana’s Bayou Journey drops precipitously with temperatures–particularly at night time. And After Hours is at night time, and on chilly ones for the rest of this month–in all probability a lot of February, too. So this might be a brief measure, with Walt Disney World realizing TBA is just not an precise promoting level of After Hours proper now and wanting to avoid wasting the working bills.
One other chance is that trip reliability and downtime are plaguing Tiana’s Bayou Journey to the purpose that Walt Disney World feels it’s higher to cope with complaints about it closed than complaints about friends getting caught in line or on the trip if/when it breaks down.
We reported that uptime was up significantly within the early fall of final yr, however my anecdotal experiences in November and December had been far much less optimistic. It’s potential I simply bought unfortunate, however that’s a number of dangerous luck. (I must dig into the info to see which is the case.)
A remaining chance is a mixture of the above. That the dangerous climate has introduced Walt Disney World with a possibility to take Tiana’s Bayou Journey down and do after hours (not capitalized) upkeep through the in a single day hours to aim to enhance its reliability and uptime.
Actually, I’d be completely wonderful with this. I hoped that Tiana’s Bayou Journey would obtain a winter refurbishment. It could’ve been good if Walt Disney World would’ve snuck one in earlier than Large Thunder Mountain Railroad’s year-plus refurbishment. And even carried out them concurrently! A little bit of short-term ache (refurbishment) can be price it for the long-term achieve (reliability).
I’m not even certain that’s the proper phrasing. Personally, I’d quite have TBA taken off the desk fully than get caught in that queue but once more. Whether or not Tiana’s Bayou Journey is a internet optimistic for the park proper now could be debatable, and relies upon upon whether or not you haven’t any points with downtime and expertise it in flawless type, or when you have complications with breakdowns or trip with AAs on the fritz.
If Walt Disney World is taking Tiana’s Bayou Journey out of play for After Hours so as to have extra time for upkeep, I’ve zero subject with that call. On the contrary, I’d really applaud it! My drawback is that they didn’t talk this to friends, and as a substitute made a stealth edit to web sites as a substitute of providing an precise replace that Tiana’s Bayou Journey will not be obtainable through the occasion.
Past this After Hours replace, the closure of Large Thunder Mountain Railroad plus Tiana’s Bayou Journey plus TRON Lightcycle Run nonetheless not being open (at the least formally and persistently) for Early Entry leaves us in a tricky spot with Magic Kingdom touring recommendation. I’ve been ready till issues “settled down” earlier than making main updates, however who is aware of when that’ll be.
Walt Disney World initially indicated that Tiana’s Bayou Journey would solely use a digital queue for the attraction’s preliminary opening days earlier than switching to standby. And precisely that has already occurred at Disneyland, the place the identical trip opened a number of months later, and ditched its digital queue after lower than a month.
Fortunately for Walt Disney World, the attraction’s “preliminary opening days” is imprecise and open to interpretation. Whereas I could contend that window has already handed, they may nonetheless argue that they all the time meant the digital queue would final till, I dunno, September 2025. That this was the plan all alongside! I wouldn’t purchase that, but it surely’s actually an argument they may make.
My view is that the “preliminary opening days” assertion was made on the premise of anticipated demand quite than downtime. Disney figured opening week can be very busy and didn’t need an awesome line clogging up Frontierland or getting in the way in which of the parade route. Keep in mind, this was introduced earlier than previews even began, so Disney was in all probability assuming that Tiana’s Bayou Journey can be at the least as dependable as Splash Mountain.
Clearly, it isn’t. Whereas the downtime state of affairs had seemingly been enhancing, the progress hasn’t been with out setbacks. So one thing continues to be fallacious. It may be a two steps ahead, one backwards sort of deal–however regardless, the trip is just not persistently dependable.
This may additionally clarify why the Disneyland model already dropped its digital queue. It could appear that classes had been realized from the Walt Disney World model, and the additional 5 months to arrange for the California model’s opening gave Imagineering and upkeep groups time to implement fixes earlier than opening the attraction. That has clearly paid off, and is one more reason why Tiana’s Bayou Journey at Magic Kingdom would profit from a winter refurbishment.
At this level, the protected prediction is that Tiana’s Bayou Journey will use a digital queue for as lengthy at it’s stricken by downtime woes. Digital queues provide a method of pulsing demand and are the imperfect answer to operational woes. That’s exactly why Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance debuted the trip VQ again in 2019. (Additionally notable is that Rise of the Resistance equally obtained a number of in a single day upkeep to enhance its reliability.)
In the end, I nonetheless don’t have any clue how lengthy the digital queue will final for Tiana’s Bayou Journey. What I can say is that I used to be beginning to lean in the direction of “any day now” as a consequence of an enhancing uptime streak. That was doubly true with Large Thunder Mountain Railroad taking place, because the standby line would assist soak up crowds.
Switching to standby is contingent upon the present issues plaguing the attraction being mounted, although. I assume we’ll see what occurs–possibly this After Hours elimination will find yourself being a internet optimistic, and Tiana’s Bayou Journey will go lacking from the occasion for the following couple of months to perform in a single day upkeep and implement fixes, and return to the lineup in March when it’s extra dependable.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Ideas on Tiana’s Bayou Journey being faraway from the After Hours at Magic Kingdom trip roster? What’s your plan of assault for minimizing issues with Tiana’s Bayou Journey–will you purchase making an attempt for the digital queue, shopping for Lightning Lane entry, or each? Are you excited to trip Tiana’s Bayou Journey or fearful concerning the every day downtime and different points? Do you agree or disagree with our evaluation? Any questions we may help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even once you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
