Mermaid is not overrated, and is a great fit for Fantasyland... prove me wrong.

[aliceismad]

The original ride at Disney’s California Adventure was initially $100 million. That eventually ballooned to $150 million after it opened and Disney tried to fix the ride.

Which is especially crazy considering that the ride at DCA is just in a building. It's a nice building, but I much prefer the queue at MK.

Also I went on it shortly before it opened at DCA and got stuck twice. I think operational issues also soured some people's opinion early on.

 

[JustAFan]

Part of the issue is that it has one of the greatest queues in all of Disney world. It is absolutely fantastic. Then when you actually ride the attraction, it's just a bit of a letdown. You can tell the budget went to the queue and to Ursula. The rest was just pencil whipped.

I agree. Great queue. The ride itself is a letdown. To BHF's point, I think it's a perfect fit in Fantasyland. The ride itself is nothing more than a very simplistic summary, a book report ride. The under the sea room is visually stunning. The Ursula animatronic is one of the better ones in all WDW. Great colors, use of song, media in general. Absolutely no story. I rode it once and will be fine if I never go on it again.

 

[The Colonel]

The ending is sad. Ariel looks mental. Her mighty father looks guppy sized.

 

[erasure fan1]

I rode it once and will be fine if I never go on it again.

I think this kind of sums up why people are so disappointed in it. After all the build up for new fantasy land, people really expected more than, I'm fine if I never ride it again.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Ouch, OK, now I understand some of the criticism. For a standard Disney Fantasyland dark ride, it does about what I would expect, but for $100 million? Where did that money go? Especially considering that they really only needed to clone an existing ride.

Was part of that budget maybe the demolition costs for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea?

20,000 Leagues was demolished in 2004, 5 years before New Fantasyland was announced and construction started.

 

[choco choco]

But isn't that the norm for Fantasyland rides? Look at Pan for instance. You fly out over London, circle around Neverland, watch Pan and Hook cross swords for a moment and suddenly all the lost children are free and you're heading home. These Fantasyland rides are supposed to be cute fun, not monumental in detail and story like big names, PoTC, HM, SSE...

The strongest Fantasyland rides have a core gimmick or spark that underlines the whole ride. As long as that core is left communicated, there's no need for "monumental detail" or E-ticket aspirations. Many of these can be clearly pointed out: Pan is the sensation of flying, Mr. Toad's about a wild ride, Snow White used to be about creepiness. I would even argue Alice in Wonderland has the idea of disorientation underpinning it; represented onride by the optical illusions but, mostly, offride by the ride building's kinetic visuals - of catepillars going in and out and up and down (like they're crawling) outside the building.

Mermaid has no gimmick, at least one that it's able to clearly pull off. It's kinda sad, because it clearly had one at the start: the idea of going down under into the sea. This idea was beautifully executed in the proposed Paris version (videos are online) where there are a couple room where you are below the "water level" and yet able to look up at a later showscene above. Brilliant. Simple. Pulled off with great intimacy and economy - wouldn't have been very expensive at all.

The new mermaid feints at an undersea decent, and yet never sells the illusion. It's so perfunctory, I'm always wondering why they left that little slope in there. It probably cost more just to regrade land so that we can descent six feet for no benefit to the ride experience. It's little things like this. I would agree with you that Mermaid has ok production values, as far as Fantasyland rides go, but with a creative spark missing, there's a reason many people are left cold by it.

It bears repeating but, "Because people liked the movie" is not a good justification for a ride.

 

[ElvisMickey]

Maybe it's just me, but Mermaid seems to get some unnecessary, not really "hate" persay, but unenthused reactions from the fan community.
I agree, it is no HM or SSE when it comes to omnimover attractions, but is it really supposed to be? I think it fits in nicely when compared to other FL attractions like Pan, Pooh, and Philar. Not a mind-blowing E ticket, but a nice themed ride the goes with the land.

Somebody tell me if I'm over smoking the Pixie dust on this one, because I just don't see it as underwhelming for a Fantasyland dark ride.

I don’t get it either or the “book report” reference. For a park that has half the dark rides of the West coast version of Fantasyland at this point, just enjoy it.

 

[wdwfan4ver]

I think the $100 million was building the entirety of New Fantasyland, not just that ride.

NFL includes:

• Mermaid
• Ariel's Grotto
• 7DMT
• Be Our Guest
• Enchanted Tales with Belle
• Winnie the Pooh
• Fairytale Hall
• Gaston's Tavern
• Big Top Circus (with Dumbo, Barnstormer, gift shop, and train station)

Winnie the Pooh ride opened in 1999 and shouldn't even count as part of the New Fantasyland due to the ride opened 10 years before the 2009 D23.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, New Fantasy land cost $425 million dollars.

Disney hopes ‘New Fantasyland’ keeps Magic Kingdom from choking on crowds

Heading into the summer earlier this year, the Walt Disney Co. cut the ribbon on a new “Cars”-themed land at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif., unleashing a wave of attendance and sp…

www.orlandosentinel.com

 

[tl77]

It's not a bad ride, but the beautiful queue seems unnecessarily long. I've never seen a time when any of the outdoor portion on the queue was being used, I've always walked the whole distance of it until reaching a rather short line inside the building, even on the 4th of July a few years ago.

When it was first announced, the Mermaid ride was the main attraction, and only "new ride" of New Fantasyland, so I guess that's why it has the giant queue, but I think that queue area would be better used as something like in indoor section of Mermaid Lagoon from Tokyo Disney Sea. Having a few extra spinner rides in the Air Conditioning would not be a bad thing if you got to WDW with little kids

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

The thing about Mermaid is that it cost as much as Expedition: Everest. Yes, literally.

And then they spent several dozens of Millions MORE to update it not very long after it opened, only for the ride to be, like, marginally better. Though I do prefer it WITH the updates than without.

This attraction is likely the single most expensive in The Magic Kingdom. All for a ride that is, in many people's eyes, bested by both Pooh and Pan, which both do more with waaaay less.

 

[WondersOfLife]

But in that regard, how is it any different than Pan or Pooh, as those also "book report" the story briefly, as you rush past standout scenes from their movies, not really telling the story but giving you a taste of the plot like Mermaid does?

It’s not any different. For the cost they spent on the attraction, that’s a problem. Lol

 

[celluloid]

It's a fine ride for its intent, it fits in Fantasyland, and it's better than having the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea lagoon sit empty. Not everything at a Disney park needs to hit a homerun constantly.

To be fair, 20,000 Leagues wasn't the most amazing attraction of all time either, but given the choice, I would take it over the Little Mermaid, mainly because those Nautilus vehicles were some of the best design work every built by the Imagineers. Whale of a Tale vs. Under the Sea? Whale of a Tale, please.

Plus the best rides are the ones where things happen to you. Eddie Sotto and Tony Baxter are big on this ideas as are others and I agree. The Little Mermaid ends up being a book report of the source material, and arguably not a great one. 20K was certainly a ride where things happened to you.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

It’s not any different. For the cost they spent on the attraction, that’s a problem. Lol

Exactly.

Mermaid cost about 5 times more than Winnie the Pooh (not adjusting for inflation, but . . . still). And Peter Pan cost PLENTY less than Pooh.

 

[Roy G. Dis]

Sometimes you can spend a lot of money and get a mediocre product. Just look at a lot of the Disney Hotels.

I'd still take Little Mermaid over Peter Pan though.. . Little Mermaid isn't overrated (because nobody rates it too high!).

 

[Goofyernmost]

Exactly.

Mermaid cost about 5 times more than Winnie the Pooh (not adjusting for inflation, but . . . still). And Peter Pan cost PLENTY less than Pooh.

How many animatronics do you see in Winnie the Pooh? Peter Pan was built in WDW in 1971 hardly a time to compare costs with current costs. Pooh wasn't a complete rebuild, it replaced the Toad. Disney created that cost by not really being serious about low bids. There are also a limited number of contractors that can pull of a Disney style attraction. A Disney theme park attraction is highly complex and highly electronic and require a high degree of artistic skill. Those are three very hard to find skills so they are at the mercy of the contractors for costs now. Not like originally when it was pretty much all built internally. I think people feel that building a theme park attraction is like building a house. All straight lines and engineered basically the same way since people moved out of caves and started building their own shelters.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

How many animatronics do you see in Winnie the Pooh? Peter Pan was built in WDW in 1971 hardly a time to compare costs with current costs. Pooh wasn't a complete rebuild, it replaced the Toad. Disney created that cost by not really being serious about low bids. There are also a limited number of contractors that can pull of a Disney style attraction. A Disney theme park attraction is highly complex and highly electronic and require a high degree of artistic skill. Those are three very hard to find skills so they are at the mercy of the contractors for costs now. Not like originally when it was pretty much all built internally. I think people feel that building a theme park attraction is like building a house. All straight lines and engineered basically the same way since people moved out of caves and started building their own shelters.

Point successfully missed.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Point successfully missed.

Well, then use your apparently superior communications skills and explain it to me. Keep in mind that I do not know how to read minds.

 

[lazyboy97o]

How many animatronics do you see in Winnie the Pooh? Peter Pan was built in WDW in 1971 hardly a time to compare costs with current costs. Pooh wasn't a complete rebuild, it replaced the Toad. Disney created that cost by not really being serious about low bids. There are also a limited number of contractors that can pull of a Disney style attraction. A Disney theme park attraction is highly complex and highly electronic and require a high degree of artistic skill. Those are three very hard to find skills so they are at the mercy of the contractors for costs now. Not like originally when it was pretty much all built internally. I think people feel that building a theme park attraction is like building a house. All straight lines and engineered basically the same way since people moved out of caves and started building their own shelters.

Disney doesn’t use design-bid-build project delivery.

There are plenty of contractors available and there are a variety of speciality vendors/contractors who specialize in things like ride and show controls or scenic elements.

Contractors and vendors fall over themselves to get Disney work and will take a hit in terms of compensation to get it or keep Disney happy.

Disney procures many materials that a contractor would typically purchase, allowing them to do larger bulk orders can control pricing.

The original Little Mermaid facility is mostly a box.

The Little Mermaid came shortly after Expedition Everest and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and cost more than each.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Disney doesn’t use design-bid-build project delivery.

There are plenty of contractors available and there are a variety of speciality vendors/contractors who specialize in things like ride and show controls or scenic elements.

Contractors and vendors fall over themselves to get Disney work and will take a hit in terms of compensation to get it or keep Disney happy.

Disney procures many materials that a contractor would typically purchase, allowing them to do larger bulk orders can control pricing.

The original Little Mermaid facility is mostly a box.

The Little Mermaid came shortly after Expedition Everest and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and cost more than each.

My point missed completely. I spent a number of years in construction with a company that built some pretty impressive facilities but wouldn't even considered a Disney park attractions because they didn't have a artistic connection so I think that there are fewer capable contractors for that kind of work than you are imagining, but whatever you say I'm sure is backed up somewhere. I already knew that they didn't use design - bid - build delivery and the is why it cost so much money to build now.

It appears that if contractors are falling all over themselves to make Disney happy, then explain why it is costing so much more. Shouldn't that keep prices lower? Or does Disney ignore contractors that they haven't used before?

Most all buildings start out in somewhat of a box and the exterior and interior is where artistry and skill is needed. Here's basically a rectangle, but it isn't the shape of the show building that matters is it?

I think a strong argument can be made that bulk orders are NOT keeping the cost down and apparently Disney will pay substantially more for experience than to use less expensive possibilities.

Built after Everest and still more expensive kind of props up the idea of supply and demand. If they could get it at a lesser cost, why don't they. It would surely make their stock holders happier.

 

[aliceismad]

Sometimes you can spend a lot of money and get a mediocre product. Just look at a lot of the Disney Hotels.

I'd still take Little Mermaid over Peter Pan though.. . Little Mermaid isn't overrated (because nobody rates it too high!).

I love Peter Pan for the sense of flying, and it's amazing what they did with the technology of the time. There's also enormous nostalgia with Peter Pan that isn't necessarily there for Mermaid. But in terms of operations, the low capacity makes it tough.