A little disappointed with new Little Mermaid ride....

[WillAustin]

After seeing the youtube video of Disneyland Tokyo's Pooh ride that someone else mentioned (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU88Bw_ivT8) I do find myself wondering why they didn't make TLM more like it. That looks like it would be fantastic, especially if they turned the Heffalumps and Woozles scene into an Under the Sea dance party.

That ride is a good example of what I was expecting as far as technology being used to better immerse us in the world.

 

[Caseheidi]

Well, it's too bad that the imagineers didn't produce a ride that adults would like. Fantasyland at Disney World shouldn't target the kid audience apparently.

Really people, you are complaining about a ride that is supposed to produce a smile on kid's faces and transport them to that world. It wasn't designed to be Expedition Everest.

Also, it's a dark ride that has been imagineered in the Disney tradition. If you look at the other dark rides in the Magic Kingdom it's easily #1 or #2, maybe only behind Pirates. Definitely better than Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, Pooh, IASW, and Splash. This was not designed as an E ticket attraction.

As for my opinion of it, and I'm a 44 year old father of two teen daughters, I love the ride. Very fun and upbeat, and the Ursula animatronic is amazing. Love the music and all the details, if you look for them. It's a great dark ride.

I agree with this. My Pre-schooler loves the ride, and she is the target audience. There are so many rides she cannot do, so I love that there is something just for her.

As for the technology, I totally disagree with the comments of how lame it is. Compare the animatronics from years past, and they are far superior. Ursula's movement is amazing, and the way Ariel's hair moves under water is awesome. I agree that there are times she looks off (I blame the huge bangs of hair) but overall it is one of the best dark rides out there. And isn't Disney famous for their dark rides?

 

[nfrank]

Well, it's too bad that the imagineers didn't produce a ride that adults would like. Fantasyland at Disney World shouldn't target the kid audience apparently.

Really people, you are complaining about a ride that is supposed to produce a smile on kid's faces and transport them to that world. It wasn't designed to be Expedition Everest.

Also, it's a dark ride that has been imagineered in the Disney tradition. If you look at the other dark rides in the Magic Kingdom it's easily #1 or #2, maybe only behind Pirates. Definitely better than Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, Pooh, IASW, and Splash. This was not designed as an E ticket attraction.

As for my opinion of it, and I'm a 44 year old father of two teen daughters, I love the ride. Very fun and upbeat, and the Ursula animatronic is amazing. Love the music and all the details, if you look for them. It's a great dark ride.

I don't know that I'd agree it is better than Peter Pan, HM, or Splash. I enjoy them much more. And it did seem like the LM ride sort of speed balled to the end of the story, which I didn't like. I totally agree about the Ursula animatronics and the music though.

 

[mad madam mim78]

That ride is a good example of what I was expecting as far as technology being used to better immerse us in the world.

Yeah. Too bad I won't be going to Japan anytime soon. That ride looks amazing. Great use of technology without being scary.

 

[DISHoppy]

However, to those who are unsatisfied with the new ride, I ask...What did you expect?

The expectations were set by Jay Rasulo when he billed it as an E-ticket attraction in 9/09 during the D23 FLE announcement. Fact. Also, the ride @ DCA was 'refurbed' to improve it. As I posted previously, it's not a bad ride, it just isn't E-ticket worthy as advertised. YMMV.

-Kevin

 

[rutgers1]

The good thing is, if you dont care for it, you dont have to ride it. We have been here for a few weeks now and we have ridden it several times and we love it.

I am not a fan of this type of response for one reason -- This is a message board designed for conversation, and this type of post basically serves to tell the original poster to keep his/her thoughts to himself/herself.

I come here for all viewpoints - positive and negative.

 

[tiffjoy]

I am not a fan of this type of response for one reason -- This is a message board designed for conversation, and this type of post basically serves to tell the original poster to keep his/her thoughts to himself/herself.

I come here for all viewpoints - positive and negative.

I agree. And it's not bashing to say you don't like something and explain why.

 

[luvthemouse71]

I rode this on Friday and thought it was very well done. I feel it was immersive. not sure what more they could have done. The people around me seemed happy with it as well.

 

[JDUCKY]

Don't get me wrong. It was cute. I just felt with all the amazing technologies we have today they really implemented none of it. Same ole animatronics, projectors, and wheels and pulleys spinning things about. No doubt a disney classic but I wish the imagineers would be more imaginative.

Me personally I would have done something epic with the end Ursula whirlpool scene. Maybe my imagination isn't in the budget.

We thought the same thing.


Why not make the blowfish, oh, I dunno....BLOW! it just sat there.

And some of the figures of Ariel were downright hideous!

And that last scene? Could have been great but it pretty much skipped the entire ending of the movie.

The best part was the few interactions with the animated crab in the queue.


Storytime with Belle was great, though.


So, coupled with Epcot's lame *** redo of Test Track, the Imagineers are 1 for 3 in new rides lately...at least as far as WDW is concerned.


fwiw, RSR in Disney's CA was awesome!!!

 

[leafE]

It was cute, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn't waited over an hour in line to ride it. I though that the line would be fast moving since it's a continuously moving ride, but alas, it was not to be.

 

[JDUCKY]

It was cute, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn't waited over an hour in line to ride it. I though that the line would be fast moving since it's a continuously moving ride, but alas, it was not to be.

In our case, the line was very slow-moving but once we got past the last interactive part of the queue, the line was totally empty all the way up to the loading area.

 

[Magical Kingdoms]

Me personally I would have done something epic with the end Ursula whirlpool scene. Maybe my imagination isn't in the budget.

A couple of years ago I got a special edition DVD with a virtual ride through of their planned LM ride (Which turned out to be this) and they actually did have a whole scene planned where we got to see Ursula's epic demise. When I saw an actual video of the ride at the MK I noticed that Ursula's scene was missing except for that tiny image of her and I was shocked.

I wish they would have done that. But I agree, the ride does look cute. At least from the video I saw.

 

[rjvose17]

Put a check mark for me under the "Think it's boring" category. We rode it during a preview back in October. My DD 6 & DD 9 liked it but didn't love it, and actually were irritated that I made them stand in line for an hour to ride it. DH and I both thought that while cute, it lacked. We feel the same as some on this thread that it just seemed to lack the power that Disney is capable of and magic they can produce is partially the reason why we bought into DVC and plan to go to WDW as much as we can. I know every ride can't please everyone but now we know we don't care for it. Perhaps if it's a short line we will go, but I would'nt plan to wait much more than 15 mins for it. We go back for a MINI vaca in January and plan to check out the fully open Fantasyland. We are pretty excited to eat at BOG. We LOVED the village and Lafleur's Brew very much. To each their own, we aren't big TT fans either but that ride always seems to be popular. That's why I love WDW something for everyone.

 

[Silock]

Ursula is the only part of the ride that's worth anything. Everything else is just . . . meh. Ariel looks incredibly soul-less. If there weren't Under the Sea music going, I'd say she would look downright terrifying.

Major, major disappointment.

 

[mousermerf]

I just got back from Disneyland and DCA.

The Mermaid ride in DCA is in much better condition than the one in Florida.

Flotsam and Jetsam -work- and also have show lighting. It's hard to explain just looking at the MK's version, but the show lighting makes a huge difference in the scene, on top of the animatronics actually moving and working properly.

Then there's rockwork in the ride itself. This is an area that was said to get upgrade shortly after opening at DCA. For whatever reason, there's areas in MK's version that lets you see backstage areas and mechanics that aren't present in DCA's version.

The eyes in the dark caves around Ursula are a perfect example of this. At MK they're boxes mounted on the rock wall, and very obvious if your eyes are adjusted to the light or someone takes a photo. At DCA they're recessed into the wall and the "box" of the lighting fixture is hidden, not just painted black. It's very strange it's not done the same way at MK.

Then there's all the mechanics of the Under the Sea room. In MK half the lighting doesn't work - in particular the disco ball which shines bubbles on the walls of the room. It's a striking difference if you ride the two rides within days of each other.

Then there's the Scuttle animatronics. The ones at MK are in pretty poor shape with chipped and faded paint on his eyes from where the mechanical bits have rubbed. At DCA, it's been repainted and fixed. Why not at MK? No idea.

Yes, DCA has a much plainer queue, but the ride itself looks vastly better. It does help that some of the projection effects are "faded" so they're not ultrabright and thus blend in better - the bubbles/waves when you go back to the surface for example. At WDW they're "too crisp" and that's just because the fixture is brand new and so it looks much more like a series of disconnected lighting effects that overlap. At DCA they've faded from day-1 installation and so they blend together better. But the vast majority of the improvements are from things being fixed, not from them wearing with time.

 

[mad madam mim78]

A couple of years ago I got a special edition DVD with a virtual ride through of their planned LM ride (Which turned out to be this) and they actually did have a whole scene planned where we got to see Ursula's epic demise. When I saw an actual video of the ride at the MK I noticed that Ursula's scene was missing except for that tiny image of her and I was shocked.

I wish they would have done that. But I agree, the ride does look cute. At least from the video I saw.

I will have to watch that and see if its similar to what I envisioned. I was sad to see that whole scene was reduced to a small painting on the wall.

 

[Stinky_Pete]

Well, I thought it was cute. It made me smile. No "E ticket", but I don't think all new attractions need to be. Very traditional dark ride-esque.

 

[Albytaps]

Love it. Maybe once you have "ridden" it some more you will change your mind.
I haven't got there yet....but from the you tube videos, I was thinking the same. I am sure we will like it since that's my fav movie, but you'd think the technology would be a little more up to date.

Also felt the same from watching the youtube videos. It's not that I'm going to hate it, just underwhelmed. Even if no new tech was added, I wish they would at least told the story better and as someone mentioned, added the epic scene at the end with the huge Ursula.

I'm still excited to ride it next week though

 

[chikita]

We rode on 12/4 and noticed one of the eyes was not lit up on Flotsam, thought it was wierd because the grand opening was about to happen. We rode again on 12/11 and the same eye was still burnt out. Not a real big deal but in the past this kind of thing would have been addressed right away.

Overall we were dissappointed in the ride. We were hoping it would be much more immersive.

 

[CentralFloridian99]

It has some pretty low re-rideability IMO. The queue is better then the ride itself!