Disney Made It More Difficult to Ride What You Want, Just in Time for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

If you’re going down the bayou to ride Walt Disney World’s Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, there’s a few things you need to know to make sure you’ll be able to experience the Magic Kingdom’s newest exciting attraction. It won’t have a traditional “wake up early and rush to the line” queue, but rather an online virtual queue you’ll have to wake up early to enter on the MyDisneyExperience app (with a second shot in the afternoon)—or as a pay-as-you go Lightning Lane, which has replaced Genie+ just in time for the in-demand ride’s opening.

When Does Tiana’s Bayou Adventure open?

Disney’s Orlando theme park has officially opened the long-needed replacement for the dated and problematic Splash Mountain with a property that fans love. The Princess and the Frog universe expands with a continuation in ride form following Tiana’s adventures through the swampy, magical land of New Orleans with the bones of Disney World’s iconic log flume ride. Soft previews in the past few weeks and first-day reactions are flooding the internet with praise celebrating the incredible animatronic work, sets, and music with Disney Animation’s original cast—including Tiana herself, Anika Noni Rose, singing the ride’s finale song. So if you’re heading to Disney World this summer, it’s not to be missed if you want to keep cool on a water ride and see Princess Tiana’s fairytale continue before her Disney+ animated series Tiana arrives.

How to Ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

Here’s the spice: in order to ride without any additional costs beyond park admission, make sure you have the MyDisneyExperience app downloaded before your trip. On the app, ensure that your entire party’s tickets are saved under the trip planner’s profile (pick the most tech-savvy person in your group to handle this)—but multiple people can try to book on the Virtual Queue for the entire group at the same time; you just have to make sure they select all party guests for your boarding group lottery.

Walt Disney World’s Virtual Queue is available twice a day, once at 7 a.m.(which can be done at your leisure from anywhere on property) and then at 1 p.m.—the catch at Magic Kingdom is that TRON Lightcycle/Run currently still only has virtual boarding groups, so you have to choose between Tiana and Tron. If you want to do both, you can try for Tiana in the morning but not get it, and then have a hard choice at 1 p.m. to try to secure the free boarding group pass for Tiana’s again (not guaranteed) or Tron (also not guaranteed). It’s worth noting that in order to try for a second time at 1 p.m., your party has to be inside of Magic Kingdom to be eligible—and you can only hold a boarding group once per day during the park’s operating hours.

It feels tricky—it is tricky!—but there’s another way to make sure you’ll get to ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Tron, or any high demand ride like Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind which is restricted to the Virtual Queue and does not have standby lines currently available.

What is the new Lighting Lane option at Walt Disney World?

Genie+ is gone! Poof! Disney Experiences’ pay-as-you-go option has streamlined the process by rebranding as simply Lightning Lane, the line that used to contain the free fastpass (RIP to that feature). It’s had multiple names since becoming a financial add-on at both Disney World and Disneyland but will now be known as Lightning Lane, broken down into Lightning Lane Multi Pass (a three-ride package) or Lightning Lane Single Pass for an individual ride.

Purchasing a Lightning Lane Multi Pass allows you to make up to three Lightning Lane selections in a theme park. If you’re staying at a Disney hotel or a participating neighbor hotel, you will be able to access this up to seven days before your trip to make selections, and you’ll be able choose available times as you make your ride choices. If you’re purchasing the Multi Pass the day of your visit, your selections will vary on availability. Your three ride selections will come from three levels: one from rides that have the highest demands like an E-ticket new attraction (think Tiana or Tron), and two that will be lower in demand level (think classics, i.e. Haunted Mansion). The cost of a Lightning Lane Multi Pass will vary depending on when you go, scaled between peak vacation days and the off-season.

If you only want to secure a single new Lightning Lane for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure or other in-demand rides or attractions, the same booking rules apply—and day of availability will vary, with the stipulation that you’ll only be able to buy into two single Lightning Lane options for your party.

This is what the options look like on Day 1 in the afternoon at Walt Disney World.

Don’t miss out on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure by not being in the know—and make sure you plan your Disney World vacation with the above in mind. And if you miss out or have a Disneyland trip planned this year instead, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will also open on the West Coast soon in Walt Disney’s original park in Anaheim, CA.

Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.

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