Has anyone ridden the Mermaid ride lately?

[Andrew25]

Fair point. And sadly, that last part is so very true.

Here's looking at you, Rise of the Resistance. Luckiest damn ride in the history of the parks when it comes to first-time riders not knowing what's supposed to work.

Yup - there are effects in ROTR that are impressive but don't necessarily take away from the experience overall.

Like the Yeti in Everest, yes I would love it if it worked... but the amount of resources/costs dedicated to it will probably be better utilized for a new attraction.

That is the problem with current management….their thinking is if it’s good enough, why bother to do anything

People are noticing

I will say, Disney management isn't as great as it used to be... but still leagues better than Universal even with all of the progress they've made. Jurassic Park River Adventure just finished a refurb that lasted nearly a year with some of the effects/animatronics completely missing while they kept the attraction operating. Poor show... but they don't have the rabid fanbase that would tear management to shreds like WDW.

Not excusing Disney, but I think sometimes us fans take things a bit to the extreme lol

 

[HauntedPirate]

Yup - there are effects in ROTR that are impressive but don't necessarily take away from the experience overall.

Like the Yeti in Everest, yes I would love it if it worked... but the amount of resources/costs dedicated to it will probably be better utilized for a new attraction.

Ehhh... having the right people work on software and sensors (from what I understand is the problem) shouldn't be prohibitively expensive. But it's WDI, who knows.

Luckily for Rise, some of the visuals and B mode effects are good enough to make it worthwhile for the first-timers even when things are 101. But when you see the whole package (except the moving cannons, obviously) it makes it that much better. Still not worth more than a 30-45 minute wait, tops, for me. Conversely, I'd stand in line at ToT for an hour any day.

 

[Purduevian]

Lots of little things have been broken my last few trips. I haven't seen the smoke ring on Winnie the pooh work in years and it's one of my favorite little effects (how hard is it to get a new smoke machine from Walmart in there)

 

[mf1972]

Lots of little things have been broken my last few trips. I haven't seen the smoke ring on Winnie the pooh work in years and it's one of my favorite little effects (how hard is it to get a new smoke machine from Walmart in there)

is that the smoke blowing circles out of the nose? i haven’t seen that work properly in years

 

[Doberge]

Not related to Ariel but a general question.

Obviously there are some maintenence issues and whether that's on budgets or talent or whatever is beyond what I can accurately speculate. But my question is how much, if at all, is maintenance involved in designing attractions? Does Imagineering approach maintainance to ask for input on feasibility, ease of upkeep, etc? Does maintainance sign off and say "yeah we can handle all of that pretty easily." Or is there little communication and Imagineering drops a project on maintenance, explains how to works, and gives a few well wishes running it? Like I said, I realize there are maintenance issues but I've wondered if Imgaineering sometimes over engineers and lesves maintainance difficult situations to resolve.

 

[WDWFREAK53]

We were there for a short trip after Thanksgiving...and while the parks themselves looked good (aside from the walls in Epcot), the attractions weren't in great shape.

Everest - Yeti (obviously)
IttBaB - No Hopper
Dinosaur - No Sauropod (which lead to an extremely long bit of darkness.) I also didn't notice the meteor that impacts right when you transport back.
Test Track - "Crash tests doors" were just open. The "car customizer" portion wasn't working. Some of the post-show elements were down or just static.
Frozen Ever After - Olaf wasn't moving
Spaceship Earth - Wow...does this one need help.
Rise of the Resistance - Cannons weren't moving. Guns on the front of the AT-AT didn't come down.
We spent quite a bit of time in Galaxy's Edge and saw Chewbacca and two First Order Troopers. It wasn't due to weather or anything.
Muppetvision - Water didn't spray during the "flower bit". The vacuum didn't have air blowing to replicate "being sucked up."
Rock n Rollercoaster - Lighting was out on some of the set pieces. The speakers were in awful shape.
Fantasmic - Went during some rain so we got the abridged version. One float with Belle/Beast even though the full music plays. Aladdin doesn't "jump." Maleficent grows but doesn't turn into a dragon? Talk about not making sense. If it's a safety issue, why would you have an actor go up the lift only to save the dragon? Why not just project the 'growing' on the screens and then have the dragon come out without having the actor go up the lift?
Haunted Mansion - No ghosts in the reflection mirrors at the end.
Pirates - I may have 'missed' this...but how long as the mist effect been gone? (Or was it just not working?)
Little Mermaid - Ariel as shown above.

 

[Purduevian]

is that the smoke blowing circles out of the nose? i haven’t seen that work properly in years

Yes... its such a simple fun effect that goes a long way to putting the rider into the action rather than just an observer (just like bouncing with Tigger or floating). Disney used to do the little things so well that you would never advertise, but help make a little magic.

 

[Dranth]

Just got back late Saturday and I can definitively say that Ariel was not doing well.

Didn't see many of the other problems people have been listing (outside of some of the long-term ones) so they must be fixing something on occasion but they certainly had not made it over to mermaid territory yet.

 

[Magenta Panther]

Unfortunately yes. Only us dedicated fans, a very small majority, notice these things.

I beg to differ. Take a look at the video I posted above. People on the ride are mocking and laughing at the Ariel figure. They certainly noticed it was malfunctioning.

 

[James Alucobond]

Even when working properly, that specific figure gets comments from guests because she's so poorly lit, creating tons of off-putting, uncanny shadows. The ride vehicle also passes way too far below her eye level, giving you that same unflattering angle of her that you get if you take selfies from under your chin height.

 

[Bocabear]

Even when working properly, that specific figure gets comments from guests because she's so poorly lit, creating tons of off-putting, uncanny shadows. The ride vehicle also passes way too far below her eye level, giving you that same unflattering angle of her that you get if you take selfies from under your chin height.

It is all about the staging...which was always the problem with this attraction... everything is too close to the ride track...with very short viewing windows... I was hoping they would have solved some of the ride's issues during the cloning to WDW...we did get a most excellent queue, but sadly the same actual ride....

 

[James Alucobond]

It is all about the staging...which was always the problem with this attraction... everything is too close to the ride track...with very short viewing windows... I was hoping they would have solved some of the ride's issues during the cloning to WDW...we did get a most excellent queue, but sadly the same actual ride....

They're definitely too close, but I also think they could resolve it somewhat by reorienting the rock and having Ariel lay against it at a sort of incline, similar to how she's shown below, though maybe switched so that she's on the rising side of the rock wedge rather than hanging over the edge. I think it would put the head of the figure at a better height and mitigate the issue of her seeming to lean precariously backward.