Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is under fire once again as Disney Parks fans claim that set pieces and marketing material for the rethemed Splash Mountain attraction contain plot holes and inconsistencies in the ride’s storyline.
Splash Mountain Retheme
In 2024, the original Splash Mountain attractions at Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort reopened as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. The Princess and the Frog (2009) replaced the controversial, banned film Song of the South (1946) as the theme of the iconic log flume ride at Disneyland Park and Magic Kingdom Park.
The new ride is set after the events of the Walt Disney Animation Studios film. It takes guests on a journey through the New Orleans bayou as they assemble a crew of musicians for a party with Princess Tiana (Anika Noni-Rose), Prince Naveen (Bruno Campos), Louis (Michael-Leon Wooley), and Mama Odie (Jenifer Lewis). The Disney Princess now owns not only her own restaurant but an entire co-op called Tiana’s Foods.
As with any ride retheming at the Disney parks, Splash Mountain’s transformation into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure was controversial… especially when the theme it replaced was widely considered politically incorrect and racist. Now, though, almost two years after Tiana’s Bayou Adventure debuted, Magic Kingdom Park guests are noticing some inconsistencies in the attraction’s storyline.
Fans Critique Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
Earlier this year, Disney Parks fans on Reddit discussed some conflicting information on set pieces in the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure queue at Walt Disney World Resort. u/EnriqueLaser shared several photos of a French-language newspaper and an image of Tiana’s father receiving a medal.
Inconsistency at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
Inconsistency at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
byu/EnriqueLaser inWaltDisneyWorld
The problem? The French news article claims her father received the award posthumously, but the photo shows him receiving the medal…very much alive.
“Only noticed it because we were stuck waiting,” the Redditor wrote. “Decided to actually read the art they put up. Level of detail and creativity the Disney imagineers put into the spaces around the queue is awesome.”
Several Disney Parks fans commended the guest for noticing the plot hole.
“It says at the bottom of the picture that he is being presented with that medal,” u/CountofZen commented. “Very good catch, OP.”
Still, others suggested that the specific medal referenced in the ride queue can be received multiple times.
“So while I usually enjoy seeing little errors and easter eggs like this—a little bit of googling has informed me that the Croix de Guerre or war cross was often awarded multiple times for different actions, could be awarded as a group or individually, and had different forms for different meanings (i.e. different types of stars that denote different levels of valor),” said u/fishofhappiness. “It would be entirely possible to be awarded this medal multiple times, and uniform regulation from the time even stated that multiple of war crosses could be worn at once.”
“The Harlem Hellfighters received a unit Croix de Guerre with silver star for their 191 days on the front line which was a record for US units,” u/NowMuseumNowYouDont added. “After that 171 members received an individual CdG for heroism. So it’s possible the photo is him with his fellows receiving the unit CdG and then the article is about him receiving an individual one after his passing for heroism.”
Walt Disney World Resort hasn’t commented publicly on these allegations of inconsistency in the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure queue.
Do you think these Tiana’s Bayou Adventure story details add up? Let Disney Dining know your take in the comments!
