Early reviews for TLM ride?

[TP2000]

Seriously?
No ride is worth a line like that. That's just silly.

I agree. My line threshhold is a bit shy of 60 minutes these days, even for the best of the best. However, that massive line taking up all of the formal interior/exterior queue and then snaking through the World of Color viewing area was pegged at 90 minutes, but folks were reporting it was actually more like a 60 minute wait. Don't forget, it's a high capacity Omnimover with no Fastpass and easy wheelchair loading, and the line is always shuffling along. Still just above my threshhold for waiting though.

Here's another unique picture of the Mermaid queue on Friday the grand opening day, from high atop Mickey's Fun Wheel.

Little Mermaid Queue, Friday morning 6/3/11

And here's another line on Friday to be let in to the brand new gift shop, Embarcadero Gifts, to be allowed the privelege of buying mermaid souvenirs across from the entrance of Little Mermaid.

Meanwhile, at the same time on Friday over at Disneyland, the line for Star Tours had spilled completely out of Tomorrowland and had filled up the Hub in an endless maze of roped-in switchbacks taped onto the pavement.

Star Tours Queue exits Tomorrowland and heads into Hub switchbacks, Friday morning, 6/3/11

And once they had nowhere else in Tomorrowland or the Hub to put the Star Tours queue, they aimed it down Main Street and towards the back of the Mermaid line that was already heading towards the front of DCA. :hammer:

Never, and I mean NEVER, underestimate the power of one million SoCal AP holders when there is not one, but two, major new attractions grand opening in Anaheim on the exact same morning. And all about three hours after a Grad Nite had just ended. The Anaheim team handled it all efficiently and graciously though.

Actually more like Quarter One of 2013, which puts it somewhere July-September next year.

Ah, you were talking in fiscal year quarters and not calendar year quarters. If I remember it right, Disney's fiscal year starts in October, so wouldn't that make it an October-December of 2012 window for the Mermaid opening at WDW if it's "Quarter One of Fiscal Year 2013"? And now I'm confused again... :lol:

Still, it should be interesting to see how TDO handles the marketing and public introduction of FLE with this phased opening approach they've got planned from calendar year 2012 into 2014. I wonder what their strategy will be on that?


All images kindly from Dateline Disneyland. http://datelinedisneyland.smugmug.com/DisneylandResort/06-03-11/17382014_GFqvQ2#1321600144_km73LSG

 

[Lee]

Meanwhile, at the same time on Friday over at Disneyland, the line for Star Tours had spilled completely out of Tomorrowland and had filled up the Hub in an endless maze of roped-in switchbacks taped onto the pavement.

Yeah...Star Tours hit 240min for a bit. Have to be insane stay in that line...:hammer:

Ah, you were talking in fiscal year quarters and not calendar year quarters. If I remember it right, Disney's fiscal year starts in October, so wouldn't that make it an October-December of 2012 window for the Mermaid opening at WDW if it's "Quarter One of Fiscal Year 2013"? And now I'm confused again... :lol:

Yeah...typo. I fixed it.:wave:

 

[jakeman]

Back then the rides were not required to tell literal stories.
http://imagineerebirth.blogspot.com/2006/11/myth-of-story.html

I've decided that every time you link that silly article (which by now I think you must have the url printed on index card and even when you hear the word "story" out in public you fling them at people, Gambit-from-X-men style) I am going to link a random picture.

We'll start with a classic today. A bunny with a pancake on his head:

 

[dreamscometrue]

Didn't see this posted, but admittedly, I did scroll relatively quickly through all 17 pages on this thread.

From the MousePlanet article linked below:

Nikolai noted that these last two scenes were the ones most reworked during the ride development. He said, "We had a hard time" [with the Ursula scene] "because we wanted to show how Ursula had been defeated, but it was a weird story line. Again, you're compressing an hour-and-a-half movie into five-and-a-half minutes. You just have to hit the key story points.

"We had 'Kiss the Girl' and the finale, which was a happy ending, and right in between them we had this dip with Ursula getting her comeuppance. It just felt funny in that compressed time, so we decided instead to keep it all on an up level, so we created that scene where they are kissing and she gets her voice back. Even though it's not in the film, you get those important story points.

"Later, we decided that we missed seeing what happened to Ursula—we saw her earlier, what happened to her—so that little animated figure of Ursula in the background there showing she's been defeated was the last thing that we added."
http://www.mouseplanet.com/9643/The_Little_Mermaid__Ariels_Undersea_Adventure

 

[RSoxNo1]

The peak times I saw on the www.touringplans.com lines app was 120 minutes for Little Mermaid and as Lee mentioned 240 minutes for Star Tours.

There must not be much of a queue area for Mermaid if all those people represent a 120 minute wait. I guess they expect this to be one of those attractions that tops out at 30 minutes or so.

 

[NoChesterHester]

The peak times I saw on the www.touringplans.com lines app was 120 minutes for Little Mermaid and as Lee mentioned 240 minutes for Star Tours.

There must not be much of a queue area for Mermaid if all those people represent a 120 minute wait. I guess they expect this to be one of those attractions that tops out at 30 minutes or so.

Or they just flat don't have the space to dedicate to a queue. I don't know California Adventure Park so I'm just guessing.

 

[WondersOfLife]

Looks like Florida's version will be a bit better, so glad because we actually need it.


-WondersOfLife

The last original pavilion :king:

 

[RSoxNo1]

Or they just flat don't have the space to dedicate to a queue. I don't know California Adventure Park so I'm just guessing.

Space is a huge issue in California. It's a big reason why Fastpass isn't used as much.

 

[TP2000]

There must not be much of a queue area for Mermaid if all those people represent a 120 minute wait. I guess they expect this to be one of those attractions that tops out at 30 minutes or so.

There isn't much queue, and they do max out at about 30 minutes when they are using all of their "dedicated" indoor and outdoor queue around the big Mermaid building.

In addition to the rather long walk through a switchback from the Rotunda on the east side of the building to the other end and then back towards the glass entry doors, there is a small garden of ramped and wide switchbacks on the west side of the building. The garden queue is behind those trees on the left of this picture below, before the queue dives back under the blue awnings and towards the center of the building.

During my two soft opening rides on Memorial Day weekend, the queue nearly filled up the entire dedicated space and I waited about 25 minutes each time. Unlike the WDW version, there is no Fastpass offered for Mermaid and it's a high capacity Omnimover. The line shuffles along constantly and you are continually moving forward.

The entire east side of the building is taken up by a long row of planters that are dedicated stroller parking, which is nice because it's the side you enter on so you park your stroller as you approach the Rotunda and queue entrance.

The FLE blueprints for Mermaid clearly show a Fastpass entrance and a rather large switchback Standby queue with a separate entrance, so while the ride inside is identical the WDW version of Mermaid will need a much larger queue space to accomodate the Fastpass system.

DCA's Toy Story Midway Mania also does not offer Fastpass, so Mermaid is yet another example of the Anaheim version of a new ride declining to use Fastpass while the WDW version builds in Fastpass to the facility. :shrug:

 

[David]

Opening day we stood in line over an hour, partly due to the fact that the ride stopped running for about 20 minutes. I had seen some local news coverage of the ride and I was worried becuase I did not see anything that really excited me, but I thought they may be witholding fotage of "wow" factors and did not want to give away anything.

I wish that had been the case.

We got off the ride and everyone said "That's cute" or "That's colorful" but NOBODY said "I want to do that again!" We were completely underwhelmed and I remember thinking "They paid 100m for THAT?" Some of the animatronics motion could be found on PPF.

I love Disney and am not an overly critical quest, but I hope improvements are made before it opens at WDW.