Official Fantasyland Expansion Q & A (Mickey gets evicted) PART II

[TinkerMouse]

Actually it's been under construction in California for some time! It was announced as an addition to California Adventure in fall 07 and is slated to open this year.

I know this. For all of my visits to DCA & DL in 2009 there were huge construction walls for Mermaid ride and World of Color. The DVD is older than 2007 since it came out in 2006 meaning that they most likely put it together in 2005. This could imply that they put the ride on the DVD in order to promote it early just as they did with the reopening of the Sleeping Beauty castle walk through back in 2008. So there is still a something teen year difference from when they first came up with the idea for the ride after the film became popular in the early nineties and 2007. My question is about this over a decade break between the conception of the idea and the execution of it.

More information about Ariel's attraction is in the first post. There is a video with an Imagineer talking about the attraction and some sneak peaks.

Thanks, but I watched the sneak peak video before I made my first post and it is essentially a much less detailed version of the DVD tour. The people presenting it didn't seen to mention the original conception of the ride's idea.

I don't have the DVD -- what's the virtual ride like?

The designs and colors are very cute. You essentially go through the entire movie. You're in your little clam shell car, go backwards into the "water" which is this area underneath this light up "water's surface" and because of this surface (I have no clue what it would be made of) it actually does kind of look like you dive underwater. For the "Kiss the girl" scene you come up out of the water and onto the surface which already has Ariel and Eric floating on it in their row boat. Just like the video linked on the page shows you also go into Ursula's lair and are there for "Under the Sea". I really liked it. I'm pretty sure the actual ride will be the same thing just as the Sleeping Beauty walk through ended up practically the exact same thing that was on the DVD.

Does this mean that no one really knows why there was such a break in the ride's production? I ask this because on the DVD they act as if they came up with the idea in the early nineties and talk about how it was a ride that never was.

 

[kaybird]

Can you currently see any of the construction while riding dumbo? I know they planted some trees a while back. We are going to WDW soon and I'd ride Dumbo if I could peek over the wall!

Here are some shots I took from Dumbo about Dec. 17th. Really exciting to see the progress...

 

[bytheblood]

nicely put together - good job.

 

[Berlioz70]

NEW Aeriel Photo: http://www.wdwmagic.com/Attractions...view-of-the-Fantasyland-construction-site.htm

First post updated!

nicely put together - good job.

Thank you!

 

[Lorilais_mommie]

hey everyone..
I posted this on the 1st thread but i wanted post it here..
So everyone gets a chance to read it..

Thank you again barlioz07 for starting Part II

now has for what i saw and hear from my trip..

you can see work being done from dumbo..
(sorry no pics DD wouldnt stop going up and down)

they seem to be doing most the work on TLM Ride..
I think they maybe trying to get the rides' frame work done by the time toontown closes..

I was able to talk to a few CMs, one of which really seem to know what was going on.. ( also the only cm i saw wearing a check blue shirt / soild light blue & nice black coat??? maybe a higher ranting CM?? ) anyone know?

He was able to talk to me from about 20min why DH was getting FP..

He told me about Tinkerbelle moving to DHS and then on the epcot..
This MAY NOT where they will end up... It made it sound as if the Pixie area was almost off table if not scrapped all together..
And that placing them in DHS and then Epcot was a way of testing to see how guests react..


Mickey and Minnies houses:
(Quote) " Mickey has house is in DisneyLand & would rather sleep in cinderella's castle on vacation. Wouldn't you??" (unquote)
he would say nothing else on that topic..
sorry i guess its a tight lip sercet..


Railroad..
I was told that they are doing everything they can to keep it open..
They DO NOT want to close it if they can avoid it..

That all i was able to get..
We have a great trip.. even if after everyone got sick... ( it must have been those 32 degree nights)

 

[julirina]

The designs and colors are very cute. You essentially go through the entire movie. You're in your little clam shell car, go backwards into the "water" which is this area underneath this light up "water's surface" and because of this surface (I have no clue what it would be made of) it actually does kind of look like you dive underwater. For the "Kiss the girl" scene you come up out of the water and onto the surface which already has Ariel and Eric floating on it in their row boat. Just like the video linked on the page shows you also go into Ursula's lair and are there for "Under the Sea".

RE: Ariel's attraction -- I watched the video -- does anyone else get the feeling that it's a lot like Nemo & Friends but without the real water & fish? Maybe it's just the clam-mobiles but I'm getting a kind of copycat feel. Is there anything to indicate that this will be a really fresh new ride? It seems surprising that a brand-new, expensive-to-build E-Ticket attraction would be basically the same thing that already exists just one park away.

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

RE: Ariel's attraction -- I watched the video -- does anyone else get the feeling that it's a lot like Nemo & Friends but without the real water & fish? Maybe it's just the clam-mobiles but I'm getting a kind of copycat feel. Is there anything to indicate that this will be a really fresh new ride? It seems surprising that a brand-new, expensive-to-build E-Ticket attraction would be basically the same thing that already exists just one park away.

I was thinking the same thing. I really hope there's more to it that we don't know about yet.

 

[Lillian Gracey]

I wouldn't say it's a copy-cat because TLM ride concept came first, but I can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

RE: Ariel's attraction -- I watched the video -- does anyone else get the feeling that it's a lot like Nemo & Friends but without the real water & fish? Maybe it's just the clam-mobiles but I'm getting a kind of copycat feel. Is there anything to indicate that this will be a really fresh new ride? It seems surprising that a brand-new, expensive-to-build E-Ticket attraction would be basically the same thing that already exists just one park away.

well, the idea of riding through an area while annimatronics, etc. tell a known story isn't really new (Peter Pan, Snow White, etc.) .... so I think it is the fact that the Nemo ride is still relatively new so it seems like two rides, built somewhat close together (from a timing perspective) and tell a story that involves being under the water and you ride in clam shaped "cars" does make it seem a little copy-catish

but, if it was something other than clams and if the nemo ride was built 20 years ago, I don't think we would think it was a copycat

 

[DanBoris]

I'm wondering if the Gaston's Tavern restaurant will have Gaston, the bimbettes and Lefou show up from time to time. I think that would be fun.

Does anyone know why the Little Mermaid ride took about twenty years to be made? The platinum edition DVD from years ago has a bonus feature that talks about the ride that never was and virtually takes you through the whole thing. When they first announced that they were making this ride I immediately thought about the DVD and thought "Wow so NOW they're going to do it". Why after two decades? I guess there is more incentive when there wasn't before. Anyway, I want to ride it to see if it's just like the DVD because the new pictures essentially say it is. I liked that virtual ride.

It's important to remember that the ride that is being built, althought it may end up having some similarities, is NOT the one on the DVD. The big difference is that the one on the DVD has the cars suspended from an overhead track like Peter Pan's Flight, but the one that is being built has been confirmed to be an omni-mover like Haunted Mansion.

Dan

 

[ValpoCory]

I don't have the DVD -- what's the virtual ride like?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBUMRk-nkdA&feature=related

 

[julirina]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBUMRk-nkdA&feature=related

That was cool...thanks for sharing. Seriously, if MK incorporates snail cars instead of clam-mobiles I would feel much better about it. I know, it's such a stupid little thing...but duplicating the clams just really bugs me. Maybe they'll keep the clams for DCA and WDW will get something different!

 

[Berlioz70]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBUMRk-nkdA&feature=related

Thanks for the link! I tried to find it when I first built this thread... I'll post the link on the first page!

 

[scarscar93]

Oh my, that video. Absolutely amazing. I can almost feel what it would be like to be on that ride.

Now I definitely need to make sure my class goes to Grad Nite instead of Grad Bash.

I'd hate for Snow White to close, it's just such a nice, classic dark ride.

 

[TinkerMouse]

It's important to remember that the ride that is being built, althought it may end up having some similarities, is NOT the one on the DVD. The big difference is that the one on the DVD has the cars suspended from an overhead track like Peter Pan's Flight, but the one that is being built has been confirmed to be an omni-mover like Haunted Mansion.

Dan

Ok. That makes sense, but I still can't shake the feeling that it's going to end up being essentially the same thing. Yes, the omni-mover makes it different, Scuttle narrating makes it different, and going backwards at some point makes it different but I don't see how they could honestly make it truly different since it's the exact same story. I guess we could say that from the ashes of the ride that almost was comes the new ride that opens this year. That still doesn't explain why there is over a decade between them. Maybe the original concept was too ambitious construction wise so they canned it until they could come up with the version that's opening soon. I hope it's as good as if not better than its ancestor on the DVD.

 

[girls]

I know Toontown will be closed in the fall. We were there last fall (Oct '10) and a good bit of Fantasyland was closed. There aren't plans to close more of Fantasyland before the expansion are there?

 

[mesaboy2]

I know Toontown will be closed in the fall. We were there last fall (Oct '10) and a good bit of Fantasyland was closed. There aren't plans to close more of Fantasyland before the expansion are there?

Nope, at least not on the same scale (Ariel's Grotto, Pooh's Playful Spot, Scuttle's Landing, etc). IASW was down during your visit, but that was not FLE-related. At some point Dumbo will go down to be moved, but that should be about it. If some rumors are true, then Snow White will eventually shut down permanently as well, but I don't put much stock in that just yet.

 

[AnthonyJPreston]

.

 

[Berlioz70]

Can I just say... I LOVE the new Pooh queue.

Speaking of Pooh, I also like this new poster for his upcoming movie (courtesy Stitch Kingdom)

 

[freepixie]

Subbing This thread is awesome!