Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid closing for month long refurbishment Feb 2-Mar 6

[Kman101]

I agree. I was actually watching a video of the ride yesterday and was commenting to myself on how fluid the animatronics really are.

 

[JWG]

Can someone answer this:
When you first board and the clam shells make their turn backwards so you can go underwater, there is what appears to be a show scene space on the right (when backwards) just after the turn from load. It has a plywood wall that is painted the same color as the rock facade, but if you look closely you can see the 2x4s it is screwed to near the floor. It looks like they intended to put something there and decided not to, but wanted to leave the option.

Anyone else notice this or know what it is?

 

[flynnibus]

Good theory but since the DCA one is the exact same ride and came first minus the facade it doesn't hold up. This was just a poorly designed ride through and through.

uh.. the problem would be the same there too..the ride had a budget it had to be constructed under.. and they didn't spend do it uniformly. It's not that they were time constrained and then had to rush to figure out the rest.. It's one of those you decide you want these three things.. and then they tried to fit the remainder around it. Prioritizing and not spending equally. Elements like the big under the sea segment and Ursela seemed to be there through all the early shown models.. while other lessers changed as they adjusted the ride length, etc.

 

[cjk0318]

Do we know the details of this long refurb for MK yet? Hopefully it will include all of the DCA changes, if not more.

The details are just fixing up elements in the Under The Sea room to hide clearly visible infrastructure and show lighting, as well as addressing other show issues. DCA has yet to receive all of their new touches, so we won't be receiving any more than the black light package.

 

[Jose]

The details are just fixing up elements in the Under The Sea room to hide clearly visible infrastructure and show lighting, as well as addressing other show issues. DCA has yet to receive all of their new touches, so we won't be receiving any more than the black light package.

and the plastic hair (sea effect) and real hair (earth effect)

 

[marni1971]

Can someone answer this:
When you first board and the clam shells make their turn backwards so you can go underwater, there is what appears to be a show scene space on the right (when backwards) just after the turn from load. It has a plywood wall that is painted the same color as the rock facade, but if you look closely you can see the 2x4s it is screwed to near the floor. It looks like they intended to put something there and decided not to, but wanted to leave the option.

Anyone else notice this or know what it is?

It's hiding the actual show building external wall.

 

[JWG]

It's hiding the actual show building external wall.

So why not a permanent wall? Why plywood that's clearly noticeable as part of the "rock" work?

Interesting as it looks unfinished.

 

[marni1971]

So why not a permanent wall? Why plywood that's clearly noticeable as part of the "rock" work?

Interesting as it looks unfinished.

A cheap alternative?

 

[JWG]

That fits the TDO theme.

 

[Scuttle]

The lighting upgrade is going to do wonders for this ride. I can't wait personally because this ride does have a ton of potential, finally that might be realized.

 

[Magenta Panther]

Seems like they have already started tests:

Looks great, but I wish the fish had movement. Just having them bob up and down a little would help so much.

 

[Magenta Panther]

I think a good example of a "story recap" ride that puts you into the story is the Winnie the Pooh ride. It recaps the Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day short, but it tries to have you interact with the characters (the scene where you bounce with Tigger).

As for the complaints about the ride's rather arupt ending... Honestly, I have a theory that the Imagineers blew half the budget on the façade and Audio-Animatronics, and then had to make due with what little they had left.

Exactly! They blew the budget with the awesome Ursula AA...and then cut corners. AND IT SHOWS.

 

[Magenta Panther]

Disney did that. For example, the original Snow White's Scary Adventures. People kept asking, "Where's Snow White?" (They were also no doubt asking, "WTH? Did we... did we just get murdered by the Witch at the end there?!?")

It was still pretty cool, though...

 

[RSoxNo1]

If it were truly the dark ride it was meant to be, it would need about 2 more scenes at the end that actually show some of the more scary points of the film and the demise of ursula. Not a foolish cardboard cut out. Ugh. So anticlimactic.

You're right, it needs the full story... Like Peter Pan's Flight #sarcasm

 

[Mike S]

You're right, it needs the full story... Like Peter Pan's Flight #sarcasm

Peter Pans Flight does have full figures of the Crocodile and Captain Hook at the end though, not some cheap cutout. Same thing with the Witch at the end of Snow White while it still existed.

 

[cjk0318]

and the plastic hair (sea effect) and real hair (earth effect)

The details are just fixing up elements in the Under The Sea room to hide clearly visible infrastructure and show lighting, as well as addressing other show issues.

I said a condensed version.

 

[Jose]

I said a condensed version.

 

[Sped2424]

uh.. the problem would be the same there too..the ride had a budget it had to be constructed under.. and they didn't spend do it uniformly. It's not that they were time constrained and then had to rush to figure out the rest.. It's one of those you decide you want these three things.. and then they tried to fit the remainder around it. Prioritizing and not spending equally. Elements like the big under the sea segment and Ursela seemed to be there through all the early shown models.. while other lessers changed as they adjusted the ride length, etc.

Rockwork is far more expensive than retheming some elements to a building. At DCA They had to work with a pre existing building. But not here, they had to construct a new show building which could have resulted in a better version of the attraction but it didn't. Not to mention the under the sea scene and the ursula scene were taken straight from the Tony Baxter attraction. So if those elements are strong there is the reason, they took popular elements from Tony's non omnimover ride condensed his story to crap and then turned it into an omnimover. If that doesn't scream crappy design then I don't know what does. Not to mention the obvious and glaring show issues.

 

[ToTBellHop]

I actually think Mermaid is perfectly fine as a Fantasyland dark ride (especially once it gets the lighting upgrades). For me, it suffers more due to being marketed as something bigger than it is and the fact that it has a beautiful E-ticket queue.

 

[flynnibus]

Rockwork is far more expensive than retheming some elements to a building. At DCA They had to work with a pre existing building. But not here, they had to construct a new show building which could have resulted in a better version of the attraction but it didn't. Not to mention the under the sea scene and the ursula scene were taken straight from the Tony Baxter attraction. So if those elements are strong there is the reason, they took popular elements from Tony's non omnimover ride condensed his story to **** and then turned it into an omnimover. If that doesn't scream crappy design then I don't know what does. Not to mention the obvious and glaring show issues.

The structure repurpose at Dca would look like a choice... Not really a requirement. It was the site's size that was far more important. The building is effectively an whole new one with some walls reused

The origin of the elements is not important to the point... The point is they prioritized some show scenes and not others. It's not like they didn't know this... They just made choices based within their constraints. The mk rock work, etc is a whole other discussion because it's clear modifying the ride was not on the table... And spending on the exterior and queue was not an 'either or' for changing the ride