O.K., so most rumors have pointed towards a TLM attraction in Fantasyland, so I made a prediction as to how it would come out, a trackless ride similar to Pooh's Hunny Hunt retelling the story of everyone's favorite mermaid. Enjoy!
Facade
Where the Ariel meet-n-greet is now, the facade would look like a shipwreck (i.e. Eric's ship). It would consist of the bow of the ship sticking out of the ground as well as some assorted side pieces covering the show building, along with the current foliage.
Queue
Starting from the old meet-n-greet, it would consist of a small outdoor portion for busy days with lush foliage and ivy sprawling down rock formations. Small waterfalls with beautiful fiber-optic lighting embedded into the rocks and waterfalls would give the area beautiful ambiance at night. You enter the show building from a large hole in the crashed bow. Inside that small area are some shelves and supply boxes scattered around. You then enter the main queue which is themed after a beach, similar to the new The Seas with Nemo and Friends queue. There are no signs of humans except for the line barriers (themed after large wooden poles and rope looping them together) and large pieces of crashed ship, which also act like barriers. The lighting is similar to that in the daytime, with the sun beating down and a slight breeze. Further into the queue you can see the Prince's castle in the distance on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Venture even farther into the beach, and see a sand dune with a large wooden pole in it. Perched on it is no other than Scuttle! He's a Autonomatronic and he talks using pre-recorded phrases. He always comes around to the fact that the shipwreck is of Prince Eric's ship. When he can't interact with people, he has a pre-recorded set of phrases. While walking through the beach, you can find Eric's dog, Max (also an Autonomatronic) llooking at the people on line and panting, wagging his tail, etc. Finally you get to the load area.
Load
The load is right at the edge of the "ocean", so the floor is blue. Remember, no track. Behind the load is a cave. A large entrance into the cave is covered by a waterfall that changes different colors of blue ala the Little Mermaid Show at DHS. You can see 3 ride vehicles at a time enter the cave as the waterfall stops flowing and reveals an opening door with a projected bubble pattern on it that changes different colors of blue. (Yes, a real waterfall. I’m not sure if they can do this, but it’s been done in Universal’s Barney show and I can’t see why it couldn’t work here. Perhaps the waterfall’s trough could move up as the doors open?) A large sand dune obscures something behind it as three vehicles at a time turn to face it on the other side just after they exit the load area. More on that later. The cars themselves resemble Shell Chariots, as there is a large shell “flair” in the back of the car and 3 rows of 2, therefore each car holds 6 each. 3 cars go out at a time, so capacity is very good.
Soon we’ll hop into one of our own Shell Chariots and journey under the sea with Ariel and her friends. STAY TUNED!
Facade
Where the Ariel meet-n-greet is now, the facade would look like a shipwreck (i.e. Eric's ship). It would consist of the bow of the ship sticking out of the ground as well as some assorted side pieces covering the show building, along with the current foliage.
Queue
Starting from the old meet-n-greet, it would consist of a small outdoor portion for busy days with lush foliage and ivy sprawling down rock formations. Small waterfalls with beautiful fiber-optic lighting embedded into the rocks and waterfalls would give the area beautiful ambiance at night. You enter the show building from a large hole in the crashed bow. Inside that small area are some shelves and supply boxes scattered around. You then enter the main queue which is themed after a beach, similar to the new The Seas with Nemo and Friends queue. There are no signs of humans except for the line barriers (themed after large wooden poles and rope looping them together) and large pieces of crashed ship, which also act like barriers. The lighting is similar to that in the daytime, with the sun beating down and a slight breeze. Further into the queue you can see the Prince's castle in the distance on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Venture even farther into the beach, and see a sand dune with a large wooden pole in it. Perched on it is no other than Scuttle! He's a Autonomatronic and he talks using pre-recorded phrases. He always comes around to the fact that the shipwreck is of Prince Eric's ship. When he can't interact with people, he has a pre-recorded set of phrases. While walking through the beach, you can find Eric's dog, Max (also an Autonomatronic) llooking at the people on line and panting, wagging his tail, etc. Finally you get to the load area.
Load
The load is right at the edge of the "ocean", so the floor is blue. Remember, no track. Behind the load is a cave. A large entrance into the cave is covered by a waterfall that changes different colors of blue ala the Little Mermaid Show at DHS. You can see 3 ride vehicles at a time enter the cave as the waterfall stops flowing and reveals an opening door with a projected bubble pattern on it that changes different colors of blue. (Yes, a real waterfall. I’m not sure if they can do this, but it’s been done in Universal’s Barney show and I can’t see why it couldn’t work here. Perhaps the waterfall’s trough could move up as the doors open?) A large sand dune obscures something behind it as three vehicles at a time turn to face it on the other side just after they exit the load area. More on that later. The cars themselves resemble Shell Chariots, as there is a large shell “flair” in the back of the car and 3 rows of 2, therefore each car holds 6 each. 3 cars go out at a time, so capacity is very good.
Soon we’ll hop into one of our own Shell Chariots and journey under the sea with Ariel and her friends. STAY TUNED!
. Now I know that's not what happened in the movie, it moves the story along. If we explored every nook and cranny of the story we would have a ride 2 Splash Mountans long! So, without further ado, I give you the conclusion to Voyage of the Little Mermaid!!!