Voyage of the Little Mermaid is done, won't reopen with the parks.

[lazyboy97o]

The Little Mermaid ride cost $100 million?!

At first, it ended up costing $150 million.

 

[bryanfze55]

At first, it ended up costing $150 million.

That’s a relatively expensive attraction. Could’ve been so much more if the money had been spent in the right way.

 

[UNCgolf]

At first, it ended up costing $150 million.

How much more did they spend on the one in New Fantasyland? The elaborate facade and queue don't exist in DCA, correct?

 

[bryanfze55]

How much more did they spend on the one in New Fantasyland? The elaborate facade and queue don't exist in DCA, correct?

Queue and facade cost at DCA would’ve been minimal. They refinished an existing building.

 

[UNCgolf]

Queue and facade cost at DCA would’ve been minimal. They refinished an existing building.

That's what I thought. I'm sure they spent at least a few million more on the one in New Fantasyland to design/build the facade and queue.

 

[lazyboy97o]

How much more did they spend on the one in New Fantasyland? The elaborate facade and queue don't exist in DCA, correct?

I don't know.

Queue and facade cost at DCA would’ve been minimal. They refinished an existing building.

Only the Palace of Fine Arts dome, the attraction entrance, was reused from Golden Dreams. Everything else is new.

 

[bryanfze55]

Whatever the final price tag was, they clearly ran out before the ride was finished and had to go to Dollar General to get sea creature toys.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Could’ve been so much more if the money had been spent in the right way.

That is true of almost every ride Disney has built in the last 15 years.

Disney's inability to control costs affects both the quantity and quality of the new things we get.

 

[bryanfze55]

That is true of almost every ride Disney has built in the last 15 years.

Disney's inability to control costs affects both the quantity and quality of the new things we get.

Kind of runs contrary to the single-factor analysts that they simply don’t spend enough money.

I just think they spend money in the wrong ways. Perhaps Imagineering is somewhat at fault, rather than just management? I don’t know.

 

[WondersOfLife]

It was a $100 million attraction when it opened at Disney's California Adventure. Then over several refurbishments Disney spent an additional $50 million trying to fix it. You don't do that for an attraction that is working.

Oh wow. Honestly I did not know those figures.

but with that in mind what about a comparison... how much money did Universal’s “Fast & Furious” ride cost? Or Runaway Railway at HS?

for personal comparisons.

 

[bryanfze55]

Oh wow. Honestly I did not know those figures.

but with that in mind what about a comparison... how much money did Universal’s “Fast & Furious” ride cost? Or Runaway Railway at HS?

for personal comparisons.

About $3.50

 

[DVCakaCarlF]

Wasn’t EE $100 Million? That makes Mermaid look like a scam...even with disco yeti.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

New Fantasyland, as a whole, was supposedly over 400 million. Which is just crazy for what they got.

 

[Jones14]

Winnie the Pooh is English, not American. Your general thesis is correct, though... the park was heavily altered for Chinese sensibilities... which is fine and all. But I can maintain that it’s too different from what a Disneyland park should be.

I don’t necessarily disagree, but I think some of that has to do with the fact that each new castle park is gonna drop some older things in favor of what’s interesting at the time of their development.

Magic Kingdom was built without Matterhorn or Pirates, Tokyo without Big Thunder, Paris without Space Mountain, and Hong Kong was missing just about everything. Shanghai’s still young, and there’s plenty of time to fill in those gaps.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

You don’t spend an additional 50% over several attempts to try to fix an attraction that is working.

Is that how much they spent on Mermaid's refurb?

What did they change, Ariel's Ice Cream Swirl Hair, a couple wigs, a few new static fish, and blacklighting the Under the Sea scene?

This ride already cost way too much for what it is, how is it possible they spent half that much on such relatively minor changes?

It needed help, but yeesh.

 

[Benjamin_Nicholas]

Nothing beats the tech package used on Tokyo's Little Mermaid show.

Would love to see that transfer, but no dice.

 

[marni1971]

It's hard to find good numbers (maybe @lentesta or @marni1971 knows?).

Still looking.

 

[lentesta]

It still doesn't make sense that they spent so much money and took up so much space building a gigantic queue if it's almost never used. It's one of the biggest queues anywhere at WDW in terms of space used.

Also, despite the omnimover status, it may not have that high of an hourly capacity? It's hard to find good numbers (maybe @lentesta or @marni1971 knows?), but what I can find suggests it can move about the same number of people per hour as Splash Mountain and Space Mountain, and less than both the Haunted Mansion and It's a Small World (much higher than Pooh and Peter Pan, though). I have absolutely no idea if that's accurate, but it sounds plausible based on the size of the ride vehicle and length of the ride. In my experience the wait is usually less than the wait for IASW, but even if it was comparable IASW doesn't take up nearly as much space for the queue.

We think it tops out around 2,000 guests/hour. We've counted around 1,840/hour at Space (in DLR).

 

[djkidkaz]

Little Mermaid queue in WDW is amazing though. It has to be up there as one of my favorites! The ride itself...meh, it’s ok.

 

[rreading]

It was a $100 million attraction when it opened at Disney's California Adventure. Then over several refurbishments Disney spent an additional $50 million trying to fix it. You don't do that for an attraction that is working.

I'm not surprised by much about how much Disney spends on things (one would hope that the Incredicoaster conversion was not expensive but...) but I am very surprised about those numbers. iirc, they redid the hair on one of the Ariel animatronics and adjusted lighting. I do not recall any substantial modifications after opening. Care to enumerate since Marni doesn't recall/can't find numbers to support you statement.

I don't really care as it is what it is, but sounds like you're just making things up