Exactly^ I am more than thankful that this thing keeps getting refurbs, the more they try to fix all the mistakes they made the better. That to me is something to be proud of on their part, yes they messed up, but they are willing to do something about it and acknowledge that they did. I doubt whoever designed this ride is going to get to direct any other project any time soon.
Yeah, this is one of the real problems of Fastpass, which Fastpass Plus makes even worse: potentially endless self-debates on strategy. At least with Fastpass Classic, it sometimes worked liked this: go to ride X, see the huge line, decide to get a Fastpass and come back later.
I think the ride is pretty good. Maybe the queue is the biggest problem. Most Fantasyland rides are just basic switchbacks, and even the Pooh queue is just a switchback with some doodads along the way. The Mermaid queue is so good it sets expectations the ride doesn't match.
That's possibly the best way I've seen this put. I love the ride myself. It's not ground breaking or earth shattering (though Ursula is damn impressive in my opinion) but it's fun and even my son loves it. In particular we love the effect of going under the water. Simple yet it works! The queue however is pretty dang cool and you're right, it maybe is setting an expectation that the ride will impress you as much as the queue did. That said though, the two times we've been on it we've barely got to experience the queue. The first time we got on just as it opened and there was no wait. The second time we had a FP+ selection and walked right on as well.
I'm not sure how I'd rank the four current Fantasyland dark rides, but if I took nostalgia and sentimentality out of the equation, Mermaid and Pooh would probably be 1st and 2nd or 2nd and 1st. They both benefit from being decades newer than Small World and Peter Pan's Flight, though. A Peter Pan or it's a small world designed and built with 2012 technology would likely blow Mermaid out of the water though. Hypotheticals are fun and that pun was totally unintentional.
It's to the right before you get to the new stone entrance. BOG is down and past IASW. It's before you get there.
Behind the carousel are the new walls into the new area of Fantasyland. You head through those (to the left of 7DMT typically as they occasionally close the other entrance when working on things) and head toward BOG (Beast's Castle up in the distance). Walk past BOG and Gaston's Tavern (big fountain with statue of Gaston) and you'll see lighter toned stone structures and a large shipwreck with Ariel on it (entrance to Mermaid). If you start seeing circus themed stuff on your left you've gone too far.
Geez it's no wonder I can never find the place. If the castle didn't stick out above the horizon I would never locate it......or maybe it's just me...I get so turned around in FL now. I can find my way in and out on IASW side and most of the time by Speedway. But once inside FL I can't hardly find any of the new stuff without the map in hand....
