by Beth Keating
News
DisneyBizJournal.com
May 14, 2024
The new “Tiana’s Bayou Adventure” ride in Disney World’s Frontierland will officially open to all visitors on June 28th, 2024. But a few groups will get a sneak peek ahead of time. Disney Vacation Club (DVC) members and Disney Annual Passholders will get to preview the attraction before it’s officially open to other park visitors.
While that’s not unusual for new rides, there are a few changes to the access process this time around. (And, spoiler alert, the process is not going smoothly on the first day of the sign-ups. Within mere minutes of the Passholder email hitting our inbox, Stitch was already showing up with “Somebody Ate the Page” messages for those trying to sign on to My Disney Experience to make park reservations, the first step in snagging a ride for Tiana’s new adventure. By 11:00 a.m., all the Magic Kingdom reservations were gone, and in trying to make a park reservation at another park, in order to follow Disney’s instructions of park hopping for access to the ride, we got a message that read, “Thank you for your patience. Please keep this page open and do not refresh it as you prepare to make a park reservation.… wait time more than an hour.” Hmmm… never had THAT happen when trying to make a park reservation before! Apologies to those unlucky guests who were just trying to make park reservations for other non-preview days, as the Tiana-wanna-rides brought the system to a grinding halt. Ah, Disney technology!)
In the past, Passholders have been able to reserve specific dates and times to jump on a new ride by signing up ahead of time at a designated link. While it sometimes meant hours of waiting for your turn in the online queue to reserve said space and use this special Passholder perk, you knew you had a guaranteed seat when you arrived at the park on your preselected day. And if you didn’t manage to snap up one of the limited number of spaces in the registration process, you knew you’d been shut out weeks in advance of the big day. This time, it’ll be more of a game of chance, with Annual Passholders, who still have to make park reservations on most days, using the park reservation system to gain access. Even after you have a park reservation, however, you will still be relying on the luck of the draw to get into a virtual queue that morning.
Most Passholders received an email from Disney this morning (May 14), detailing how the new process will work. Here are the important points:
• First, make a park reservation for Magic Kingdom Park on a preview date to have the opportunity to join the 7 a.m. virtual queue for that day. Or, you can make a Park reservation to any Theme Park on a preview date to have the opportunity to join the 1 p.m. virtual queue.
• Next, on the day of your park reservation, it's time to request to join the virtual queue using the My Disney Experience app. There will be two opportunities to join each day of previews.
• The 7 a.m. virtual queue will be available to Passholders with a park reservation to Magic Kingdom Park for that day.
• The 1 p.m. virtual queue will be available to Passholders with a park reservation to any Theme Park for that day. As a reminder, Passholders must enter the theme park where they have a reservation prior to visiting Magic Kingdom Park. Or, on June 13, 14, 17, 18 or 20, they can enter Magic Kingdom Park without a reservation after 2 p.m.
• Passholders do not need to have entered a Theme Park when they request to join the virtual queue.
(As a sidenote, you can also hold a TRON or Guardians virtual queue at the same time as the Tiana virtual queue during this event.)
Annual Passholder previews will take place:
• June 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, and 20
DVC previews will take place on two dates:
• Wednesday, June 12, 2024, from 1 PM to 4 PM Eastern Time
• Wednesday, June 19, 2024, from 9 AM to 12 PM Eastern Time
For DVC members, (who will also get an email from Disney with the specific details of their registration process), event registration via registration link access opens on Thursday, May 16th at 10AM ET. Pre-registration is required. DVC members must hold a qualifying Disney hotel reservation, using your DVC Membership, and must have valid park admission and park reservations to Magic Kingdom on the day of the preview events (unless otherwise noted on your admission type.) See your DVC email letter for the longer version of the details.
For all other guests:
When the ride opens to all guests on June 28, there will be two ways to ride: virtual queue, or Disney Genie+.
For the virtual queue process, guests can use the My Disney Experience (MDE) app to request to join the (free) virtual queue either at 7 a.m. or 1 p.m. You can check out more information about how the virtual queue process works at disneyworld.com/virtualqueue.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will also be included as a Lightning Lane entrance in the paid-for-service Disney Genie+. Prices for Genie+ are available on the MDE app on the day of your visit, and vary by date and park. Visit disneyworld.com/lightninglane for more details on using the Genie+ service. (The Individual Lightning Lane rides are not being used for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.) However, access is still not guaranteed with Genie+. When the slots for the day are gone, they’re gone, even if you purchased Genie+ for the day. You’ll just have to use Genie + for other rides in the park.
Disney notes that while a standby queue will not be available during the attraction’s initial opening days, they expect to open a standby queue soon after the attraction’s opening, once the initial swell of guests slows down.
So, with this somewhat convoluted data dump, we wish you more luck in getting to be among the first to head down the bayou than the success we had… We’ll be watching you from the sidelines apparently, with one of the brand new “Tiana’s Famous Beignets” that will be dished up at the Golden Oak Outpost in our hands. (Or maybe not, since those fluffy beignets will be limited time only as well.)
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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.
Get The Disney Planner: The TO DO List Solution by Ray Keating. More information at
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