Essence Fest 2025: Disney Execs Sybil Crum & Aramide Boatswain talk about the safety of Tiana’s Bayou’s Adventure
During the 2025 Essence Festival of Culture, Disney hosted a special Princess Tiana-themed brunch experience at Dooky Chase's restaurant to showcase artwork of Princess Tiana, which was first explored in the Disney film “The Princess and the Frog.” The upcoming immersive exhibition, which also builds on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure ride, will launch at The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis on March 7, 2026, before traveling to 12 other cities around the country starting in 2027.
Afterwards, a conversation was had with several Disney execs including Sybil Crum is the Vice President of Marketing & Commercial Strategy for the Disneyland Resort and Aramide Boatswain is Manager, Marketing & Commercial Strategy for the Disneyland Resort.
And they can feel welcomed and invited. And then the most recent key that we added a few years ago was what I consider to be one of the most important is being inclusive. And so that has become a hallmark for how we do everything. It's actually the key that really fuels everything that we do, this notion of being inclusive and included.
How important is it for you all to make sure that every family member, no matter the age, feels comfortable at your facility?
Sybil Crum: What I'll say is it's paramount. For one, because our number one key actually is safety. Safety is what and how we do things. You think about the physical safety, but I think there's an intellectual, there's an emotional, there's a psychological safety as well. Disneyland is to all who come to this happy place, welcome. Disneyland is your land. We want you to feel like you are welcome and you're invited. But how do you feel if you can't enjoy an attraction or you can't enjoy a show or you can't see something because someone's standing in front of you? So it's that level of safety that becomes important to us.
What’s been the feedback for Tiana?
Sybill Crum: It has been outstanding. I will tell you, someone said to me, having been in both, they were like, the drops are more pronounced at Disneyland. So when you come out, like when you see people, you're like, does anybody pour a bucket of water over their head? And it's a joyful bucket, but it is. You're getting really wet. But I think it's the storytelling. When you see people and they come out and they are weeping, not just because they're wet, but because they are just the emotion of what this means, what the story means to people.
What's really amazing about Tiana is that there's so many transferable traits that you want for yourself, you want for your children, the resiliency, the passion, the connectedness to community and to family and also to friends. Think about who her bestie was. There's this love of all things kindness and respect and decency, and I think we need that, and we want to see that in our children. And so the response has been absolutely fantastic. We're super excited about it.
And for us at Disneyland, what makes it unique is it's a completion of a story, because we started a few years before that really expanding the story and the footprint of New Orleans Square, which is already a pretty popular area in our park. We started with Eudora's Chic Boutique, so her mother has her own boutique at Disneyland, and then we extended into Tiana's Palace. I will tell you, it's some of the best food you will find in Southern California, not just in the theme park.
Is Tiana international?
Aramide Boatswain: I think what's special about Disneyland, because I was new to it, is the intentionality between the work, the heart behind it. One thing I love about our part, particularly, is we don't think about the lens of the consumers, we just follow what you're looking for, but it's really about what drives that tradition and form, and when people come and walk through these doors, it's not just enough that it's welcoming, but you feel like this is where I'm supposed to be at, and when we truly extend that invitation to someone, it's not about just the magic, but all of the magic that our Disney ideas offer, and Disneyland has been able to do that.
How do you protect that space and make it such a safe space? What are some of the rules that are in place, but how do you protect that happy space in those walls?
Sybill Crum: If you think about it, crisis, trouble, challenge, pain are not new to this country. And I think about the last 70 years. If I were to go through every decade, you could probably name something that has been a critical conflict that this country's been involved in, and whether it's with other countries or it's within this country. And I think that what's unique about Disneyland being that happy place is that it's a place of respite. It's a place of peace.
I can tell you, when I've had a bad day, and even if not a good day, I've had bad days in the office, I will put on my good walking shoes and I will just go into the park, which is really amazing, too, because someone said, what's the difference between Disneyland and Disneyland having served it for so long? Someone said it best. They said Disneyland feels like a neighborhood. I can walk all of Disneyland. Now, I won't get many steps in there, but I can walk all of it because it's huggable. You can wrap your arms around it and you can experience the full breath and depth of it, whether you are staying in one of our three on-site hotels or at 40 within walking distance. And so it helps us from an accessibility, from a price point perspective.
What I think is really great about it is that it's that place of respite. And I think that the world always gives you reasons whether it's the current stuff, whether it's stuff in the past. But I think over the last seven decades, you have a place of respite, a place of space.