unkadug
Follower of "Saget"The Cult
No, but we don't call anything rides. We call them attractions.
But I digress into semantics.
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Little Mermaid Ride Adjustments
- Thread starter dreamscometrue
- Start date
No, but we don't call anything rides. We call them attractions.
But I digress into semantics.
Weather_Lady
Well-Known Member
_We_ call it maize.
(...if you don't get that reference, just run it by someone 20 years older than you...)
That was corny.
Weather_Lady
Well-Known Member
I know. I went far afield.
invader
Well-Known Member
It was a-maize-ing.
The Duck
Well-Known Member
For those who aren't 20 years older, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuOlD0JZhM4 Now I'M the one who feels old! BTW, how's THAT for a Pocahontas look alike?
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
I think it may well be the first. I can think of a few between the international resorts and US resorts, but not specifically between the US resorts.So, this thought just came to me...
The DCA and WDW versions of Little Mermaid will be identical from the load belt to the unload belt. The Omnimover has an identical footprint, and the ride's rooms and sets and animatronics are identical, with the WDW version getting the upgrades to animatronics and projections that DCA's version just got last week.
So... Is this the first time that a ride has been cloned directly for both Disneyland and WDW? I've only been on the WDW version of Midway Mania twice, but I seem to remember it was set up differently and the track in the beginning and end of the ride was changed noticeably. But other "cloned" attractions between California and Florida have noticeable differences to the sets and/or ride systems and tracks; Pirates, Mansion, Space Mt., Jungle, Small World, etc.
Is this the first time a ride itself, not counting the queue or building facade, has been cloned directly and precisely for the two coasts?
DisDadEddie
Active Member
Keeping my fingers crossed for an August soft opening.
Pixiedustmaker
Well-Known Member
Part of the history of DCA is that it was built below the Disney standards that guests have come to expect after over fifty years of the public enjoying Disney parks in the continental U.S.. The reason, let us be clear, why the LM ride was built was because what was there was uninteresting to the general public and DCA didn't attract big crowds.
I get the feeling that some think that Disney did us a big favor by replacing what was there with something that was better, even though it is considered by some to be below Disney standards, and that we should applaud this as an improvement of a certain degree. Well, as some observers have noted, the $$ allocated for the DCA fix have been scaled back, from something like 1.8 billion to 1 billion, and like a relapsing alcoholic, some think that they made the same mistake twice by going cheap with LM.
Every time I have ridden LM the expanded queue section sits unused on the side of the building, and much of the covered queue is unused as it was a walk-on. I don't think it bodes well for the attraction's longterm favorability among guests that the long queue appears to have been somewhat uneeded.
The queue for LM starts telling the story of LM before you reach the ride, and augments the ride. I do hope, for WDW guests sake, that the LM ride there is improved somehow from DCA's version and not merely a clone. If it's a clone, then the crown jewel of the new Fantasyland will be the Seven Dwarfs coaster . . . Which, if it fizzles, Fantasyland 2.0 will have no "must-see" attractions to draw in the crowds like Carsland in DCA.
bubbles1812
Well-Known Member
Completely agree with your last paragraph. LM seems like a B attraction at best but the ending of that ride is a real problem. It looks like they just totally half assed it between the cardboard cut out of Ursula, the lame silhouettes of Ariel and Eric, and then in the final wedding scene, using AAs that are doing literally the exact same things as in the Under the Sea thing. Those are things that are all pretty noticeable and just imparts that they were a bit lazy on ride design. The could have done such a cool scene where Ursula gets nailed by the ship...but no...
And the Mine Train ride, I'm pretty trepidacious on. It could be really good or it could not. I hope it's great but from the computer simulation, it looked like the roller coaster would pass through one scene with the dwarfs in the mine and other than that, you were just passing through grassy areas with trees...that doesn't strike me as something even the average guest will find that exciting. Hopefully they will put more in than just the once scene. Otherwise it will be no where near on par with the Carsland main attraction.
Disneyfanman
Well-Known Member
I hate to keep jumping here, but we all liked the LM very much at DCA. The problem is expectations. We all expected the Haunted Mansion because of the omnimover system, and the reported budget of 100 M. What we received is a very nice D ticket attraction that my whole family (who, other than myself pays no attention to fan sites) compared to Peter Pan, Snow White, Monsters, etc. Taken on those terms, it is a wonderful attraction. My teenage and young adult kids placed it in their top 10 attractions in the whole resort. My wife rode it over and over with me looking for hidden stuff. And small kids are enchanted without being scared due to the high level of lighting.
Are there problems? Sure. You never really feel immersed in the Under the sea middle. The ending is the weakest part of the attraction and it should be the strongest. In the end though, it's a fun, plussed up dark ride that we really enjoyed. And even though it's not a blow your socks off E ticket barnburner, we are really happy that it's at DCA and we will ride it every time we go. If it was a 45 minute wait, then we might skip it, but it's usually around 10 minutes, and I suspect it pours a LOT of people through it compared to other attractions.
It's a bigger problem at WDW, because it's kind of being touted as the crown jewel of the expansion. Everyone is going to be extremely excited to go on it, and lots of folks are going to feel let down. I bet waits are 45 minutes on average days because there are a huge number of people at WDW who don't regularly go. If people are expecting Disney at its absolute best they WILL leave disappointed. Too bad because on its own terms we all think it is a lot of fun.
Are there problems? Sure. You never really feel immersed in the Under the sea middle. The ending is the weakest part of the attraction and it should be the strongest. In the end though, it's a fun, plussed up dark ride that we really enjoyed. And even though it's not a blow your socks off E ticket barnburner, we are really happy that it's at DCA and we will ride it every time we go. If it was a 45 minute wait, then we might skip it, but it's usually around 10 minutes, and I suspect it pours a LOT of people through it compared to other attractions.
It's a bigger problem at WDW, because it's kind of being touted as the crown jewel of the expansion. Everyone is going to be extremely excited to go on it, and lots of folks are going to feel let down. I bet waits are 45 minutes on average days because there are a huge number of people at WDW who don't regularly go. If people are expecting Disney at its absolute best they WILL leave disappointed. Too bad because on its own terms we all think it is a lot of fun.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
EXACTLY.
What is also a nice bonus for Mermaid at California Adventure is that it sits on the land that used to house a boring history movie that very few people attended. For California Adventure, it's a huge improvement over what was there before. That plot of land in DCA now hosts a peppy, musical, 6 minute long Omnimover ride through a famous Disney movie. And, since it doesn't have Fastpass and it's a high-capacity Omnimover, you generally wait 5 to 10 minutes (or walk right on in the evenings), and you can just slot it into your day easily and on a whim.
The reaction at WDW will be interesting to watch. It's being hyped as the BIG NEW RIDE at Magic Kingdom Park, in a park that hasn't had a new ride in 13 years (Winnie The Pooh '99). Then add Fastpass and XPass that will limit you to one assigned ride for the day, and the expectations for this ride are going to be very high.
If I were TDO, I would be toning down the hype on Mermaid immediately. It's a fun, peppy D Ticket Omnimover. It has an entirely different mission to carry out for Magic Kingdom Park than it did for California Adventure, and TDO should be very careful how they communicate that.
space42
Well-Known Member
It also doesn't help the fact that the exterior of LM here looks like it should contain an E-Ticket inside. When was the last time Disney has built such an elaborate facade for a nice little C+ ticket dark ride?
bubbles1812
Well-Known Member
Agree with everything you said. Watching videos of the ride in DCA, it's nice and I'll enjoy it, I love The Little Mermaid, but I can tell it's no Haunted Mansion or heck, I'm not even sure if its Pan. The really need to temper peoples expectations as I think they do for the Mine Train ride as well. No we don't know much about it but from the computer simulations, it seems much more a Barnstormer than an Everest or even a Big Thunder (unless they improve the theming dramatically and add more scenes from the movie than just the one of the dwarfs in the mine). But yeah, LM is no E ticket. MK could really use another E ticket though the same could be said of all the parks. And gosh, has it really been that long since Buzz was added in?
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
Technically the last new "ride" at MK was carpets in 2001 and Pooh opened in 1999. If you want to consider "attractions" then there's Philharmagic in 2003 and MILF in 2007.
bubbles1812
Well-Known Member
I think he was referencing "Big New Rides" ie E ticket rides. Not specifically what was put in there last. Carpets certainly isn't an E ticket ride. Carpets is in my "only ride them if the line is really really short because they sure aren't worth the wait" category. And I love Philharmagic, it's one of my favorites but it's not an E ticket either. Nor is MILF. The last time MK got a big new ride was Buzz though I'm not even entirely sure it qualifies as an E ticket. Though I guess it qualifies more than anything else they have added in the last 20 years...or for the next several as I don't think LM or Mine Train are going to qualify. Maybe Mine Train. But I think they need to do more than what I've seen of the plans for it to qualify as an E ticket.
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
The mine ride will never be an "E". More like a nice "C" at best. I would also never consider Buzz an "E" or "D" really since the ride has lost much of its uniqueness over the years (Boo Blaster's isn't much worse). I would consider Philharmagic the closest new "E" since New Tomorrowland with Alien Encounter and Timekeeper, but that's just me.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
Ooh, gosh, you are right about Pooh in '99. I fixed my post claiming it was Buzz Lightyear in '98.
But now I'm even more unimpressed. For the last 15 years all they've done with either Magic Kingdom or Disneyland is replace existing attractions with other attractions (Buzz, Pooh, MILF), overlay new stuff onto existing concepts (Philharmagic in MK, Tarzan's Treehouse and Pirate's Lair at Disneyland) or reactivate long mothballed or abandoned rides (Submarines at Disneyland).
Although Disneyland still has an additional 15 attractions, including three E Tickets, that Magic Kingdom lacks, both Disneyland and Magic Kingdom are long, long overdue for something brand new where nothing existed before!
