Is the Little Mermaid ride coming to WDW in 5-7 years?

[minnie61650]

I read a Jim Hill article ( actually EUROPACL posted the link on another Forum-Thanks EUROPACL.) saying there is a good chance that the MK will get a LMM ride between 2012 and 2015.

I am really hoping that the MK does follow through and add the LLM attraction..
I suggested to an Imagineer back in the late 80's that the 20,000 Leagues ride should be replaced with something from the LMM. They did add Ariel's Grotto which gave me hope that an actual LMM attraction might be added in the future. I had almost given up hope until I just read the Jim Hill article.

Here is a post about my conversation with the Imagineers.
From this thread Post #25:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1131835&page=2

When my family was visiting Disney in 1987 or 1988 my sis and I decided to go see the EWP and left the children with our DH's. A young man sat on the bus beside me and said he was an Imagineer and asked if I was enjoying Disney and if I had any Suggestions. He said they were going to close 20,000
Leagues and asked what I thought they could put in there. My suggestion was something with Little Mermaid since she was popular at the time. (Ariel's Grotto is there now.) I also told the Imagineer that I thought the Dumbo ride needed more Elephants (they only had 10 at the time and now they have 16) I also told him they should add another ride very similar to Dumbo but not Dumbo in another land (Aladdin's Magic Carpet) so they could distribute the young children out in the park more.
I have no idea if he passed on my ideas or if another CM suggested similar ideas, but I always smile when I go to the MK and see these attractions. I say to myself "Yes, maybe I should/could have been an Imagineer. It is fun to see ones ideas at the parks even if those ideas were not mine alone.

Here is the link from the Jim Hill article:

http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_h...ecial-how-suite-it-is-edition-of-why-for.aspx

I am still hoping the MK gets a LMM ride.

 

[EUROPACL]

Now don't go and get your hopes up...2015 is a long ways off....don't go booking your ADR's now. I have little faith that DCA is going to see 1.1 billion and that has been announced. So I put this as more wishful thinking from Jim Hill and his contact at Disney. There is even sadder news though in that Jim Hill link in that it looks like AK is done with getting new attractions for a while. They've added their last half built and thought out attraction in EE.

 

[Another Voice]

There are other rumors floating about that, aftere the huge success of Disneyland's 50th Birthday in Anaheim, that Attractions Marketing is suddenly hot 'n heavy on the idea of celebrating WDW's 40th in 2011-2012. Having a couple small attractions like 'Mermaid' would fit in nicely. Second, it's now company policy not to build "one off" attractions anymore - any new ride has to open in two more parks at the same time. It's all marketing.

And don't get your hopes up too much for the new "Mermaid" ride-through. It is really being done on the cheap. It's rumored that the current buget uses the 'Finding Nemo' ride mover system - essentially a flat track stapled to the floor. Unlike other Disney Omni-mover system, this one doesn't allow for hills or declines; the 'Nemo' version doesn't even really allow for the cars to turn.

All of this is a far, far cry from what was supposed to have gone in the old '20,000 League' lagoon - a clone of Toyko Disneysea's Little Mermaid Lagoon. This would have been a full land on it's own - the entertance and a children's rollercoaster in the coral reef of the lagoon outfront with Ariel's "undersea" relam of rides, shops and a huge musical show all put in the old show building. You can see what could have been here at http://www.tdrfan.com/tds/mermaid_lagoon/impressions_of_mermaid_lagoon/index.htm#photo

 

[DancingBear]

So, Minnie is the one to blame for Alladin!

 

[MasterShake2]

I thought the budget for the little mermaid ride was something like $100,000,000. If that's the case i wouldn't call that cheap. If not, what is the current projected budget for this ride?

 

[Another Voice]

For $100 million you get 'Expedition: Everest' or the Tokyo DisneySea Lagoon ares. 'Mermaid' the ride will be in the $30 million range - about what 'Pooh' cost.

Get the "limited edition and we mean it this time until we start churning out these titles on Blu-Ray" verision of The Little Mermaid and watch the feature on Tony Baxter's version that was designed for Euro Disney. It was a very modest dark ride akin to 'Peter Pan'. Now cut the budget in half and you'll have an idea about what's announced for DCA.

Of course, people are already calling this "DCA's Disney Decade" and that is not a good thing.

 

[minnie61650]

There are other rumors floating about that, aftere the huge success of Disneyland's 50th Birthday in Anaheim, that Attractions Marketing is suddenly hot 'n heavy on the idea of celebrating WDW's 40th in 2011-2012. Having a couple small attractions like 'Mermaid' would fit in nicely. Second, it's now company policy not to build "one off" attractions anymore - any new ride has to open in two more parks at the same time. It's all marketing.

And don't get your hopes up too much for the new "Mermaid" ride-through. It is really being done on the cheap. It's rumored that the current buget uses the 'Finding Nemo' ride mover system - essentially a flat track stapled to the floor. Unlike other Disney Omni-mover system, this one doesn't allow for hills or declines; the 'Nemo' version doesn't even really allow for the cars to turn.

All of this is a far, far cry from what was supposed to have gone in the old '20,000 League' lagoon - a clone of Toyko Disneysea's Little Mermaid Lagoon. This would have been a full land on it's own - the entertance and a children's rollercoaster in the coral reef of the lagoon outfront with Ariel's "undersea" relam of rides, shops and a huge musical show all put in the old show building. You can see what could have been here at http://www.tdrfan.com/tds/mermaid_lagoon/impressions_of_mermaid_lagoon/index.htm#photo

Thanks for link about what could have been.
I had seen it before and I too wish the full scale version had been made.

I did read in the Al Lutz article that athe new LMM ride at DCA is supposed to be a brand new Omnimover ride and have a a budget in the neighborhood of $100 million. If the MK gets a duplicate LMM than it could have the hills and declines which should make the ride more enjoyable than a flat track ride.

Let us hope they do not end up doing it on the cheap

 

[Another Voice]

The area that has been identified for the ride is very small - and it's currently a movie theater. I guess the pad is about the same size as a typical Fantasyland dark ride. The "$100 million" figure is not coming from Disney, it's oozing out of the ether on the Internets - the same place that 'Fire Villian Mountain' came from. Even a look at the quick rendering from Disney shows this attraction is far less ambitioous than even the Paris version of "Mermaid" shown on as the DVD extra.

 

[MJMcBride]

here's a mouse extra blurb on this

http://www.mouseextra.com/2007/10/18/would-the-new-disneyland-concepts-work-in-florida/#comments

I think the ride would work great over by Nemo at DAK to open up a Seas area. Mermaids fit into the legendary animals bit.

 

[raidermatt]

I'll just say this. $100 million is a LOT of money for an attraction that doesn't have some kind of new expensive ride system.

That's not to say it NEEDS to cost $100 million to be a good attraction. But leaking to the public that you are building a $30 million dark ride doesn't quite get the same reaction as leaking that you are building a $100 million dollar attraction.

And since Disney didn't actually give an amount, just like they didn't give an amount for the entire expansion, they aren't lying if the leaked figures aren't true.

I'm guessing questions about how much all of this is going to cost will be asked on the next earnings call in a few weeks. Hopefully we'll get a straight answer.

 

[SoCalKDG]

The area that has been identified for the ride is very small - and it's currently a movie theater. I guess the pad is about the same size as a typical Fantasyland dark ride. .

Actually the area reserved for the show building is larger than Peter Pan, Toad, and Alice combined. A quick glance at Google Earth would have shown you that.

 

[raidermatt]

I agree it looks bigger than a single dark ride pad, but I don't agree at all that it looks bigger than the Pan/Toad/Alice building. That's assuming that the map found here is accurate.

 

[minnie61650]

I agree it looks bigger than a single dark ride pad, but I don't agree at all that it looks bigger than the Pan/Toad/Alice building. That's assuming that the map found here is accurate.

Thank you for posting that map.
I had seen the map on another website.
It does seem like (as you said if the map is accurate) that the new building could hold a larger than normal size dark ride.
Looking at the map the area looks almost as large as the area set aside for Toy Story Mania and it looks almost twice as large as the Walt Disney Life Story Theater.

Just my observations.

 

[YoHo]

Actually the area reserved for the show building is larger than Peter Pan, Toad, and Alice combined. A quick glance at Google Earth would have shown you that.

Yeah, no.

Looking at google, this is clearly not true.