We also recently made the trek to DLR, and as a huge Little Mermaid fan, I would rate the three new attractions in order from first to worst as: Star Tours, Soundsational Parade and then Little Mermaid. All were good, but some were better than others. I think that we, as DISers and as APs (at least many of us are), are all so attached and have spent so much time watching these attractions grow from the ground up that in some ways they couldn't possibly meet all of our expectations after years of waiting.
We were lucky enough to get to ride ST 7 times over the course of 2 days and as both my DH and I won for different days. I got to see all 6 planets/destinations, but funnily enough we only saw the Millennium Falcon opening once and saw Admiral Ackbar every single ride. ST has ultimate repeatability. However, as a mom to a little one who was just barely above the 40 inch mark, I have to say that as much as I loved the fact that you didn't know what was going to happen each trip, my little one did not. In fact, he HATED the Naboo sequence and didn't want to ride anymore after that. We got him back on, but every time he was nervous that it was going to cycle to that trip segment again.
The parade was magnificent in every way and brought me back to the old parades that didn't have show stops and that were focused on the magic and showcasing Disney characters. And, while I love how the Christmas Parade and the Electrical Parade drum the same song into your head by repeating it over and over, I loved the way each new float unit brought a completely different and eclectic style of Disney music to the forefront. The attention to detail is stunning (look for a single little shrimp towards the back of the Little Mermaid main float) and the costumes are elaborate and over the top in all the right ways. I see myself wanting to watch this parade at least once every trip for the next several years.
As for LM, we arrived at DCA at 9 am on the first day of AP Previews (last Tuesday) and got in line for the park immediately. Once inside my DH headed back to the LM while I got Soarin' and WOC FPs for later. We were only about 60 people back from the front of the line and were on and off in time for me to hit the AP Pin Release at the Embarcadero and still meet my DH and DS for the 10:30 showing of Disney Junior Live. The ride was nice, but I could never see waiting an hour for it. In fact, later that day we were on our way to dinner and we hopped back into line because it looked short (the queue was routed completely different from the morning) and after 30 minutes and being less than halfway through the queue we slipped out. I love me some Ariel and Ursula, but I just wasn't committed enough to hold dinner off another 40 minutes to ride again.
