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Did Tiana's Bayou Adventure open at Magic Kingdom in late 2024, as Disney said it would?

The Roadmap Reckoner · Tiana's Bayou Adventure, Frontierland, Magic Kingdom Park, Walt Disney World Resort (Orange County), Florida · last checked 2026-11-03

Verdict	DELIVERED ON TIME (early)
Promiser	The Walt Disney Company (Disney Parks, Experiences and Products), on the Disney Parks Blog, post of July 1, 2022
Place	Tiana's Bayou Adventure, Frontierland, Magic Kingdom Park, Walt Disney World Resort (Orange County), Florida
Promised	Late 2024 (a window): "Tiana's Bayou Adventure is coming to Magic Kingdom in Florida and Disneyland park in California in late 2024." (Disney Parks Blog, July 1, 2022)
Delivered / status	Opened June 28, 2024 (Disney Parks Blog: "opening today in Magic Kingdom"), 728 days after the promise (counted by the entry). June 28 falls earlier in the year than "late 2024"; Disney does not define "late"
Last checked	2026-11-03

Verdict: DELIVERED ON TIME (early). On July 1, 2022, Disney's parks blog said the ride "is coming to Magic Kingdom in Florida and Disneyland park in California in late 2024." [C4, C6] Disney's own post dated June 28, 2024 calls it "opening today in Magic Kingdom" [C34, C35]. That is 728 days after the promise (July 1, 2022 to June 28, 2024, counted by this entry), and June 28 falls earlier in the year than "late 2024". Disney does not define "late" on any page read, so "early" is this entry's reading of the calendar, not Disney's word. Only the Magic Kingdom ride is judged here; the promise also named Disneyland.

Last checked: November 3, 2026, in Florida (the ride page was read at 03:21Z on November 4, which was the evening of November 3 there).

The promise. Disney Parks Blog, July 1, 2022: "Guests are in for a true treat with local flavor when Tiana's Bayou Adventure opens in late 2024." [C7] The same post names the ride as the reimagined Splash Mountain [C5].
The wording moved three times. The window first widened: "late 2024" in a post dated September 11, 2022 [C41, C42], then "in 2024" in a post dated December 2, 2022 [C43, C44]. Then it narrowed, each time earlier and more exact. On February 13, 2024, Disney's blog said Magic Kingdom would open "this summer" [C18, C19], and Disney's press release of the same day gave "summer 2024" for Florida and "later in 2024" for California [C22, C23]. On May 12, 2024, Disney named the day: "Tiana's Bayou Adventure opens June 28 at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida!" [C25, C26]
The word "late" was gone by December 2, 2022. A Disney post dated December 2, 2022 says only "in 2024" [C43, C44], and so do three posts from February to April 2023 [C10 to C16]. The last "late 2024" read is in a post dated September 11, 2022 [C41, C42]. The posts read do not announce a change.
It opened on the date Disney gave. The post dated June 28, 2024 says "opening today" [C34, C35].
The cost. No cost figure appears on any Disney page read.
Where it stands today. A post dated June 18, 2026 says the ride is "now open at Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort" [C36, C38]. Disney's ride page, as read for this entry, says the ride "will temporarily close for routine refurbishment on November 2 and is expected to reopen in December 2026." [C40] This entry could not confirm that it closed. That is a separate matter from the 2022 promise.

The promise

Disney Parks Blog, "Tiana's Bayou Adventure Coming to Disney Parks in Late 2024", dated July 1, 2022 [C4]. The post reports that the name of the reimagined Splash Mountain was announced "during ESSENCE Fest in New Orleans" [C5]. The schedule is one sentence: the ride "is coming to Magic Kingdom in Florida and Disneyland park in California in late 2024." [C6] The same post repeats it as "opens in late 2024" [C7].

This is Disney's own blog, written in the company's voice. The words are a window, "late 2024", not a day. Disney repeated the window on August 23, 2022: "Tiana's Bayou Adventure is coming to Magic Kingdom Park in Florida and Disneyland Park in California in late 2024." [C8, C9]

The post says "Magic Kingdom in Florida"; Disney's ride page places the ride "in Frontierland at Magic Kingdom Park" [C39]. The earlier public step was June 25, 2020, when Disney said Splash Mountain at both parks "will soon be completely reimagined" [C1, C2] and that Imagineers would "develop a timeline" [C3]. No date was given then.

Timeline

Dates are the dates on Disney's pages. No row has a cost figure.

June 25, 2020. First announcement: Splash Mountain at both parks to be reimagined; a timeline still to come [C1 to C3].
July 1, 2022. THE PROMISE: "late 2024" for Magic Kingdom and Disneyland [C4 to C7].
August 23, 2022. Repeated: "late 2024" [C8, C9].
September 11, 2022. The last "late 2024" read: "when this exciting new attraction opens in late 2024" [C41, C42].
December 2, 2022. WINDOW WIDENED: "in 2024", without "late" [C43, C44]. The same post says Splash Mountain at Walt Disney World Resort "will be closed starting Jan. 23, 2023" [C48].
February 3, 2023. "in 2024", without "late" [C10, C11].
March 15, 2023. "in 2024"; "Construction on Tiana's Bayou Adventure continues to take shape" [C12 to C14].
April 12, 2023. "in 2024"; Disneyland's Splash Mountain to close May 31, 2023 [C15 to C17].
December 18, 2023. "later in 2024", for "the opening of Tiana's Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom Park" [C45 to C47].
February 13, 2024. REVISED, in a blog post and a press release: Florida "this summer", California "later in 2024" [C18 to C23].
May 12, 2024. REVISED: the day, June 28, shared on American Idol's Disney Night [C25 to C27]. Previews for Florida-based Cast Members, Annual Passholders and eligible Disney Vacation Club Members were planned before the official opening [C28].
May 14, 2024. Disney says opening day will use a virtual queue [C29].
June 20, 2024. Disney repeats June 28 and says water was added earlier in 2024 [C32, C33].
June 28, 2024. OPENED: "opening today in Magic Kingdom" [C34, C35].
February 25, 2025. Disney's dated update: a standby queue is now available [C31].
June 18, 2026. "now open at Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort"; "In the two years since Tiana's Bayou Adventure opened" [C36 to C38].
November 2. Scheduled start of a "routine refurbishment", with a return "expected" in December 2026 [C40]. The page gives no year for the 2; the year is this entry's reading, from the December 2026 return.

Reading the dates. "Summer" and "late" are Disney's words and neither post defines them. Calling June 28 earlier than the window rests on June 28 not being late in the year; Disney itself treated "summer" and "later in 2024" as different windows [C20, C23].

Edit dates. The page data of the Disney pages read declares a last-modified date later than the date each post carries. By the date on the post: the June 25, 2020 post, December 30, 2024; the July 1, 2022 post, July 23, 2024; the August 23, 2022 post, June 7, 2024; the September 11, 2022 post, March 3, 2025; the December 2, 2022 post, June 3, 2024; the February 3, 2023 post, July 21, 2026; the March 15, 2023 post, July 15, 2024; the April 12, 2023 post, June 7, 2024; the December 18, 2023 post, August 18, 2025; the February 13, 2024 post, January 8, 2025, and its press release, May 17, 2024; the May 12, 2024 post, November 20, 2024; the May 14, 2024 post, July 21, 2026; the June 20, 2024 post, November 18, 2024; the June 28, 2024 post, July 21, 2026; the June 18, 2026 post, October 2, 2026. The words quoted are the words on the pages as fetched for this entry, so they may differ from the words of the day each post is dated.

What changed, and why, in the record's own words

The date. From "late 2024" [C6, C8, C42] to "in 2024" [C44, C10, C12, C15], then "this summer" [C18, C21], then June 28 [C25]. The first move widened the window. Each move after that was to an earlier and more exact time.
The reason. The Disney pages read give no reason for the move to "in 2024", for the move to summer, or for the choice of June 28.
The scope. Disney's posts describe the ride as it came together: "Dozens of New Audio-Animatronics Figures" [C24] and a ride that "crescendos with a 50-foot drop" [C30]. This entry does not compare these with a 2022 description, because the 2022 post did not list the ride's features.
The parks split. The February 13, 2024 post separates the two parks: Florida "this summer", California "later in 2024" [C20]. That is how the Magic Kingdom ride came to be dated ahead of Disneyland's.

What it cost

No cost figure appears on any Disney page read, and a full-text search of SEC filings for the ride's name returned no filing that names it. This entry makes no statement about the ride's cost. A news summary attributes an estimate to Forbes; that page was not read and the figure is not a claim here.

Where it stands today

Open. June 18, 2026: "now open at Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort" [C36].
Refurbishment. Disney's ride page says the ride "will temporarily close for routine refurbishment on November 2 and is expected to reopen in December 2026." [C40] The page used the future tense when it was read on the evening of November 3, Florida time, one day after that date, and this entry found no report from after November 2. It cannot say the ride closed.
Return date. A news report of October 9, 2026 gives December 18; that is not a Disney page and has no row. Disney's page read says only December 2026.

What this entry did not check

Whether the ride closed on November 2. The ride page [C40] is future tense, and no later report was found.
The December 18 return date. Disney's refurbishment calendar page would not load for the reviewer, and no way around that was tried.
When Magic Kingdom's Splash Mountain actually closed. Disney's post of December 2, 2022 gives a scheduled date: Splash Mountain at Walt Disney World Resort "will be closed starting Jan. 23, 2023" [C43, C48]. This entry did not check when the ride closed in fact.
Cost. No Disney page read gives one, and the Forbes estimate was not read.
Permits. No Orange County or district permit or notice of commencement for the ride was found in one web search. No county or district records system was queried, so the start of construction cannot be dated; Disney's page shows only that construction was under way by March 15, 2023 [C14].
Reasons. No Disney post read says why the date moved earlier or why "late" was gone by December 2, 2022.
Preview dates. Previews were planned [C28]; their dates were not read. June 28 is the official opening, not the first day anyone outside Disney's construction teams rode it.
Disneyland. Out of scope. The record read shows it open by June 18, 2026 [C36] and gives no opening date for it.
Whether the promise post's words were changed later. The page says it was last modified July 23, 2024, and its title still reads "Late 2024". The Internet Archive's copies of July 1, 2022 would not load for the reviewer, so the original text was not compared. The same limit applies to the December 2, 2022 post: its page data says last modified June 3, 2024, so its "in 2024" may not be its original wording.
Every Disney statement on the ride. Nineteen Disney pages were read, 17 of them cited, found through the blog's own search, links in news stories, and the fact check's list of 184 blog search results, of which three posts were read for this entry. A statement elsewhere, such as at a D23 event or on social media, would not appear here, so the posts cited are the ones read, not a count of all of them, and the entry fixes no exact day on which "late" first left a post.
No independent record of opening day. The opening rests on Disney's own posts; the news pages saved by the reviewer are not cited.

Sources

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