** There is an update as of August 19th, 2024 to the 8-Design Pressed penny machine. It was originally located near the Restrooms, but has been moved to inside the Tiana’s Bayou General Store. This is the little shop you walk through as you exit the attraction. The reason for the movie is due to a new 4-design penny machine being released. I’ve included information at the bottom of this post just so all the new Tiana coins are listed in one post, but will also create a separate post that can be found here.

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On June 28th, 2024 the fan favorite attraction known as Splash Mountain had reopened with a fresh coat of paint, new characters and new theme. Now known as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.

The ride has remained mostly unchanged. It’s still a log flume style water ride with a 50 foot drop towards the end of the attraction. However the characters and story have been converted. The story picks up after the adventures in animated movie The Princess and the Frog.

Tiana as taken over a farm and co-op to grow and supply her restaurant with the required product. This is all part of her ever growing Tiana’s Food company. Then you follow her on a log ride through the Bayou just in time to join her for a Mardi Gras celebration.

The main queue for the ride has seen a lot of changes. Not just the layout, but also due to the story which begins in the queue as you walk through part of Tiana’s garden, into the main office, and even past a kitchen. Eagled eyed guests may even spot a copy of Daddy’s Gumbo recipe displayed proudly on the wall.

Once you load into the familiar but slightly updated ride vehicles you are taken on a wild and wet adventure. The updated animatronics are really well done including a few different Tiana’s located throughout the ride.

Even Mama Odie makes a few appearances including the above once with a mouth watering pile of beignets nearby.

Louis the lovable gator also appears in a few different scenes, and even plays his much loved trumpet in the final Mardi Gras scene. Speaking of that final scene it’s incredible, with fantastic music, and a huge collection of characters all enjoying the party.

After getting off the ride you will eventually come to the Photo Viewing area with a bunch of monitors on the wall where you can see your on-ride photo. Tucked away in the corner is the Medallion machine.

The machine cabinet is plain wood with a stain job that appears to be appropriately done in a quick / unprofessional manner. I’m assuming this is to try and make it fit in with the hand made style you might find on a farm.

The front side of the medallions has designs of Tiana, Prince Naveen and Louis with It’s a Joyful Celebration, Mama Odie and her Snake, a Family of Bears playing some instruments and The Bayou Where the Music is Magic, and my favorite Tiana with a plateful of Beignets.

Something that is a bit interesting is that the back designs are not all the same. The one with Tiana, Prince Naveen and Louis as a back design of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure 2024. The other three designs do have the same reverse image of Tiana, Louis and the ride vehicle filled with a few of the characters from the attraction.

If you continue walking past the photo preview area, you find yourself inside what I assume will eventually be a small gift shop, for now it just has a few murals for the ride that you can take photos in front of. Along one of the walls is the 8-design pressed penny machine.

The designs in this set are really great and all themed for the new attraction including some familiar faces and some new ones created just for the updated ride. There is also one right in the middle that is dated for 2024 so you know that one won’t be around for long. I’ll be curious to see if in the future they just change out that one design, or because each die ring has 4 designs, maybe we will get 4 new designs next year. We will be sure to keep checking back on this for updates.

Then as you exit you will pass by some restrooms, and then back into a courtyard. This is where you will want to turn to your left (opposite from the ride outside queue area) and you will see a new 4-design pressed penny machine tucked away near some water fountains.

I do like that the machine cabinets are all similarly designed with the wood carving This machine was a bit of a surprise as it was released a few weeks after the medallion and 8-design set.

These designs are really great and have so much detail to them. I hope we continue to see new designs like these moving forward.

For anyone that is interested I really enjoyed the new updated attraction. I think the story, music and new characters are wonderful and I’m looking forward to being able to experience it again in the future. For these medallions I really enjoy them as well and since one of them is dated for 2024 I’m thinking we can assume this will change at some point. Every year? That I don’t know. I feel this may be an “opening year” version, and it will change to something that will be around for a longer period of time at some point in the future. But either way I’ll keep an eye on it, and will report back with any changes.

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