Disney is serving us lots of BIG news this weekend at its biggest fan event of the year — Destination D23 in Orlando!

It’s Destination D23 time!

We were hoping for an update on a NEW attraction coming to Disney World, and now we’ve got one to share! We check out the progress every day on the Tiana’s Bayou Adventure ride coming to Magic Kingdom, and while we can see lots of updates to the outside, we just got more news about what the ride will be like INSIDE when it opens! Let’s check it out!

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will open in both Disneyland Park and Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom next year!

Construction at Tiana’s Bayou Adventure!

Disney had previously shared that the story of the attraction will take place about a year after the timeline of the Princess and the Frog movie, during New Orleans’ Carnival season, when Tiana is hosting a Mardi Gras Party for the people of New Orleans.

“Celebration of Family and Friends” –Attraction Model

But Tiana realizes that the party is “missing a key ingredient” and she needs help finding it…

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure model at the D23 Expo in 2022

We know that we’ll see many of the characters we know and love from the film, as well as 17 NEW characters we’ll meet during the attraction’s story. We already know that these 10 characters will be making an appearance — many voiced by the same actors from the movie: Princess Tiana, Prince Naveen, Mama Odie, Louis, Eudora, Charlotte, “Big Daddy,” the King and Queen of Maldonia, and Prince Ralphie!

Tiana & Naveen

But now, we’re getting a FIRST LOOK at one of the animatronics from the ride! During the Disney Parks, Experiences and Products panel at Destination D23, Disney Parks, Experiences and Products Chairman Josh D’Amaro shared a video that included a sneak peek of the Louis animatronic that will be added to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure!

Louis is taking shape! ©Disney

While the video didn’t show him in his completed form yet, Louis, the famous alligator musician, is starting to take shape!

Hey Louis! ©Disney

Disney shared a behind-the-scenes video, too!

@disneyparks

Get a first look from Imagineers at a new audio-animatronics figure coming to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure 🐊🎷🎶 @Disney D23 #Disney #DisneyParks #TianasBayouAdventure #BTS #Tiana #Imagineering #DisneyNews #SneakPeek #DestinationD23

♬ original sound – Disney Parks

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is set to open in late 2024!

 Keep following along with us for ALL the Disney news announced at Destination D23!

We’re LIVE From the Biggest Disney Fan Event of the Year!! — Click Here

What do you think of the new animatronic? Let us know in the comments!

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney World to attend the Destination D23 event. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ