danlb_2000
Premium Member
I was thinking the same things about Flotsam and Jetsam. I can't image why they would duplicate everything else and not them.
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VIDEO - Take a ride through at Under the Sea - Journey of the Little Mermaid
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
I was thinking the same things about Flotsam and Jetsam. I can't image why they would duplicate everything else and not them.
Pixiedustmaker
Well-Known Member
Flotsam and Jetson didn't move when I first rode DCA's Mermaid shortly after it opened. I'm thinking they will eventually get movement.
The "Kiss the Girl" scenes is obviously not lit yet. You can't see the trees either. I guess that is why they call it a soft opening.
cba
Well-Known Member
I can see a bright Disney future ahead of her
.
AndyMagic
Well-Known Member
Surely you mean ONLY the surroundings and queue. There is nothing amazing about this ride. Disney should be commended for the astonishingly beautiful attention to detail in the facade and queue but to me it's the equivalent of standing in line for Indiana Jones and then boarding Peter Pan. Expectations will be raised tremendously by the immersive environment only for guests to be let down by the actual ride.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
So it is exactly what was said, a nice Fantasyland dark ride with a ridiculously over done queue that would not be utilized save for the fact that Walt Disney World will be artificially creating a standby wait.
Neverland
Active Member
1. Queue Scuttle and first scene Scuttle are in such close proximity on purpose. In the queue, he tells you he has a story he wants to tell you, once he remembers what it is, and that he'll see you soon. In the ride, he says things like 'there you are', 'you look kinda familiar', 'I've been waiting for you', etc. He also references sorting Ariel's human stuff, which is the interactive part of the queue.
2. Flotsam and Jetsam ARE animated AAs. They are shut off because the ride is still in tests and soft opening.
3. The moon in Kiss the Girl is there; it's more visible in real life. I think they are still working on lighting, though.
4. The turtle in the final scene was removed on purpose and will not be coming back.
5. The track is an exact copy of DCA's.
6. The entire queue was full today, with no FPs. I think the long queue will be put to use, especially when they get FPs in there. I know this was the big opening day, but most guests in the queue had no idea that the ride hadn't been open previously.
2. Flotsam and Jetsam ARE animated AAs. They are shut off because the ride is still in tests and soft opening.
3. The moon in Kiss the Girl is there; it's more visible in real life. I think they are still working on lighting, though.
4. The turtle in the final scene was removed on purpose and will not be coming back.
5. The track is an exact copy of DCA's.
6. The entire queue was full today, with no FPs. I think the long queue will be put to use, especially when they get FPs in there. I know this was the big opening day, but most guests in the queue had no idea that the ride hadn't been open previously.
BryceM
Well-Known Member
No... I meant the ride also...
Californian Elitist
Well-Known Member
Snobs in California? Oh, the irony. Give me a break.
doctornick
Well-Known Member
People are extrapolating far too much from DCA which is a completely different set of circumstances. Even ignoring the fact that FP will be in play here, this ride is going to be far busier than the one in DCA because of it's location -- in the busiest park, where a lot of the patrons have young children and spend a lot of time in Fantasyland and where LM fits in perfectly thematically (not to say it doesn't fit into Paradise Pier, but in FL there is such an emphasis on fairy tales and the classic movies and princesses and it's a big part of that).
I think this is a ride that guests are going to go on over and over and it will generally have a line. I expect it to be similar to Haunted Mansion actually -- relatively short in off-seasons, long but never terrible wait in prime times (especially when schools are out).
A lot of rides have different wait times in different parks. TSMM and Soarin' being worse in Florida come to mind and I expect this to be another example.
Adam5897
Active Member
Flotsam and Jetsam are not working yet
harveyt0206
Well-Known Member
No... I meant the ride also...
I agree with you Bryce, I think it looks amazing. Both the exterior AND the interior AND the actual ride. I watched both this video and the eight minute walk through video and I was laughing with excitement. I for one can not wait to see this entire area in person. Bottom line, Disney will never ever make everyone happy. Hopefully, more people will enjoy this area than not.
Magenta Panther
Well-Known Member
Well, the queue is absolutely gorgeous! The atmosphere is impeccable, and sets the mood for the ride perfectly. And it's so cool that Scuttle is there to chat with folks as they stand in line, rather like Mr. Potatohead in TSMM.
As for the actual ride, well, it's a bit hard to tell just from watching videos, but the lighting does look better in WDW's version than in DL's version. And thank god they fixed Neptune's beard and hair!!! Man, that furry stuff on the Neptune in DL looked like blighted kudzu or something. But it's a bummer about those static plastic fish glued to the walls. Couldn't they at least wave their tails or something? And you can still see the metal wheel attached to the fish rotating overhead in the "Under the Sea" scene. I think if the Imagineers had attached various-sized, light-up glass bubbles to the metal arms, that would have looked cool and helped hide the ugly lame construct that really takes you out of the moment. But I'll reserve final judgement when I actually ride the thing during my visit to the World in December.
As for the actual ride, well, it's a bit hard to tell just from watching videos, but the lighting does look better in WDW's version than in DL's version. And thank god they fixed Neptune's beard and hair!!! Man, that furry stuff on the Neptune in DL looked like blighted kudzu or something.
But it's a bummer about those static plastic fish glued to the walls. Couldn't they at least wave their tails or something? And you can still see the metal wheel attached to the fish rotating overhead in the "Under the Sea" scene. I think if the Imagineers had attached various-sized, light-up glass bubbles to the metal arms, that would have looked cool and helped hide the ugly lame construct that really takes you out of the moment. But I'll reserve final judgement when I actually ride the thing during my visit to the World in December.
Magenta Panther
Well-Known Member
Magenta Panther
Well-Known Member
You know, I get the same feeling - that the Imagineers splurged on a great AA - Ursula - and a few decent ones like the Ariels and the Scuttles. But that same level of artistry does not carry on throughout the ride. Painfully obvious shortcuts have been taken. It LOOKS like a ride whose budget was cut. And what a shame. It does have its moments, but the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean (especially the Disneyland version) and the Tower of Terror this ride is NOT.
EPCOTCenterLover
Well-Known Member
It's a "D" ticket ride with an "E" ticket exterior.
Pixiedustmaker
Well-Known Member
You do realize that you are in a sense "extrapolating" yourself, you are considering the circumstances specific to MK and basing ride predictions for MK's LM based on a better location and other factors. If you weren't "extrapolating" you would be simply judging LM based on its own specific merits, or at the other end of the spectrum, simply assuming LM would attract the same crowd in either theme park. We do have a data point from which to "extrapolate", i.e. DCA's Mermaid, and that is the baseline we are using for comparisons and predictions.
Graph Mermaid's rating in guest enjoyability on the x-axis, and the favorability of the environment on the y-axis and the third dimension would be wait time/popularity. In essence, when you consider FLE's benefit, and the extended queue for LM, you are extrapolating!
I think it would be better to plainly say that MK's LM has a greater opportunity to attract guests being in a more popular theme park, and due to the fact that LM's fits better thematically into Fantasyland than Paradise Pier, and that the extended queue helps immerse guests in the Little Mermaid's world before the ride.
Of course, wait time estimates and popularity are conjecture at this point.
One of the complaints about DCA's Mermaid, vs. rides like HM, is the lack of re-rideability, i.e. there aren't so many details that in a single day, visit, you want to ride it again and again.
Pixiedustmaker
Well-Known Member
You know, I get the same feeling - that the Imagineers splurged on a great AA - Ursula - and a few decent ones like the Ariels and the Scuttles. But that same level of artistry does not carry on throughout the ride. Painfully obvious shortcuts have been taken. It LOOKS like a ride whose budget was cut. And what a shame. It does have its moments, but the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean (especially the Disneyland version) and the Tower of Terror this ride is NOT.
I think Mermaid could have been a much better ride with just a little bit bigger budget. Months after Mermaid opened, Lasseter described a meeting in which a WDI exec proposed a ridiculously low budget (I am assuming for Carsland as he did have to fight to get Carsland a decent budget), and he told the exec that if he was "ok" with a ridiculously low budget then they would do it that way if the exec promised to wait at the exit of the ride and tell guests coming off the attraction what a big success the attraction was because they cut the budget.
Needless to say the exec backed down.
I seriously think Lasseter had seen the problems related to the budget cuts in Mermaid, and he wanted to avoid the same thing happening with Carsland. What other ride opened months before that he could have been talking from experience about?
I can see Lasseter fighting for old time Disney quality in Carsland, after all, Radiator Springs is near and dear to his heart, so he might well have kept his powder dry for that battle. But with Mermaid, I think that the budget was axed as obviously the final scenes don't have that level of detail and polish expected in a Disney dark ride.
Hate to use a political metaphor, but is Mermaid's lavish queue just "lipstick on a pig?"
Its sad because Mermaid has some great animatronics, but, for example, the lighting on Ariel's face is from above and you get these horrible shadows. Ursula is a great animatronic, but it doesn't help that her cave is so small and she is so close to the ride vehicles, I guess due to limited space. Concept art revealed a gradual transition to Ursula's lair and a larger cave. I think it was little budget cuts like this that added up to a ride being much less than it should be.
The details aren't there for Mermaid, but I have hope they will be fixed in the future.
Uncle Lupe
Well-Known Member
This ride is like a great push-up bra. It looks to be holding something impressive from the outside. But little disappointing when you get past the exterior.
Pixiedustmaker
Well-Known Member
I disagree as DCA's Mermaid opened well before MK's, and Mermaid was designed with DCA in mind, and then retrofitted to MK. I got the "hey, you look kinda familiar" from Scuttle, but you have to really imagine that he somehow flew quickly over to the ride's first scene. Yes, there are more than one Ariel and Scuttle in the ride, but that is the narrative which is stretched out over time in a way similar to the film. I think that they added the, "you look kinda familiar" Scuttle line after the fact, and not that it was planned out that way, IMHO.
Disney blog released a phony picture of MK's LM's Kiss the Girl scene lifted from DCA, you can plainly see the moon and trees, and you can plainly see the moon in the background in the YouTube video of DCA's Mermaid. This fake "First Look" picture was actually from months ago at DCA, since then they have improved the lighting in the Kiss the Girl scene to be bluish in order to resemble the film and be more like real moon light. Plus, the removal of the glaring white light make's the plastic water spouts look less fake.
I think it is a no-brainer that MK's LM will make the same changes.
It was obvious to me, and others, that the turtle, lobsters, and even the twirling newts are simply duplicate low-budget animatronics from the Under the Sea scene. Will the removal of the turtle makes this less obvious? Not sure, now you've got the lobsters swaying . . . without the turtle you tend to look at them, and it looks like they are chanting or something. The best solution would have been to develop a completely new scene worthy of the ride's finale.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
California snobs?!? I resemble that remark!
This Magic Kingdom ride is an exact duplicate clone of the Disney California Adventure version from 2011, with the updates from the rehab the California version got in May, 2012. The queue at Magic Kingdom is lovely; it almost makes you think you are about to go on a better ride than what you end up with. But I have to wonder how much of a fabricated Standby demand they can actually create with an Omnimover that sucks up 2,000 people per hour? Pooh and Peter Pan have much lower hourly capacity, which is why the waits are longer.
At DCA the ride is just over one year old and DCA is now a very, very busy theme park. The Mermaid wait time is usually posted at "5 Minutes" at DCA on busy days and the actual wait time is about 30 to 90 seconds as you duck in the front door past 30 minutes of unused switchback queue now, at the exact same time the nearby Radiator Springs Racers wait time is posted at 120 Minutes.
But what really baffles me is..... Whatever happened to all those "insiders" who claimed the WDW version would be "lengthened" and "improved" and "much better" than the DCA version? If they were only talking about the Standby queue, then they were right. But if those suddenly non-existent insiders were talking about the actual ride, they were either lying or just making stuff up to try and impress people.
The Magic Kingdom's new Little Mermaid ride is an exact duplicate clone of California Adventure's Little Mermaid ride.