Why the hate for Little Mermaid ride?

Brad Bishop

Brad Bishop

Well-Known Member
Clamman73 said:
For me it has this machine-like predictability....It's fine for what it is and I always go on it for a good work out of walking through the queue, it's a sit back and relax ride in the AC and the Ursula AA.
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It really felt like WDW took a can of "dark ride" off the shelf and set it up. It's by no means bad. It's just not great.

With many of the traditional attractions you'll get people who can't wait to ride them. Think HM, Splash, Space Mountain, BTMRR, Pirates, etc. You get that with Peter Pan and even Pooh. TLM is more like, "OH, there's TLM... We're walking by and may as well step on."

I think people were hoping for more than that.

The coolest effect in the attraction is when you back down and watch the water level rise. Everything else is "standard Disney dark ride".

Actually.. Now that I think of it.. It's not standard Disney dark ride. Other dark rides immerse you into the theme. In the HM or Pirates (and others) you feel like you're in a totally different place. In TLM you feel like you're in a dark ride inside WDW. That's unfortunate.
 
ELG13

ELG13

Well-Known Member
Club Cooloholic said:
I think its a great ride. Not quite a must do but if you have toddler, grand parents and everyone in between it's fun for everyone.
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I'm with you....it's definitely not their best but my kids love it and I enjoy it enough to do it several times a trip. I wouldn't wait over 30 minutes for it...but it's good enough. I definitely think they could have done more with it. I feel like the idea was there but at some point they just decided what they wanted to do, and what they had time or desire to do just didn't align. After seeing the YouTube video of the ride concept, I get why people were so disappointed with it.
 
MrConbon

MrConbon

Well-Known Member
Seems to be an unpopular opinion but I like the ride. I wouldn’t say it’s amazing but it’s a fun little dark ride that has some nice animatronics that you get up close with. I would rather go on Mermaid than Peter Pan or Winnie the Pooh.
 
Lirael

Lirael

Well-Known Member
I like it as that ride you go when you're dead on your feet, outside is raining or extremely hot and you need somewhere you can sit for a bit with cool air without needing to think or pay attention, while still being able to tell yourself you aren't wasting time you could be on a ride.
 
MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Lirael said:
I like it as that ride you go when you're dead on your feet, outside is raining or extremely hot and you need somewhere you can sit for a bit with cool air without needing to think or pay attention, while still being able to tell yourself you aren't wasting time you could be on a ride.
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Imagine a Frozen omnimover dark ride where it's just projected snowy vistas, and light gentle A/C breezes, and relaxing orchestral instrumentals from the movies, and the vehicle has you reclining back a bit, and it was 15 minutes long. No FPs. Basically, a cool-off nap ride.

Would probably be the most popular ride.
 
T

Trackmaster

Well-Known Member
I mean... its not horrible. I can ride it and kind of enjoy it. While I think that it would be better to replace it with an attraction that people actually want to ride, in the absence of that, its nice to have sheer numbers at the park. By having the filler attractions that are relatively enjoyable, you can fill your day out more easily since you can't marathon the popular rides all day on stand-by, and you might be having trouble with FP+.

Mediocre rides like the Mermaid give lazy people the chance to walk up and ride something, or a chance to use their FP+ allocation if they're getting jammed up on everything else.

I'll ride the Mermaid on occasion. Again, if the park is incredibly crowded, and I'm waiting for come back times for better rides FP+ windows.
 
UNCgolf

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
Pooh.sHoneyHuntTDL said:
So in other words the Land.

That's where I go to take a nap. Nemo's and SpaceShip Earth are also a good nap ride.
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The Land and Spaceship Earth are way too interesting to take a nap; they're currently the two best rides at EPCOT. You could take a nap on Nemo, but it would be a really short one.

EDIT: Forgot about Soarin'. That's probably better than the Land, although the Land is still great.
 
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General Mayhem

General Mayhem

Well-Known Member
As someone who is a massive fan of the 1989 film I can try to help give you some perspective. I don't hate the ride but when you watch the 1989 film there are so many amazingly beautiful and interesting moments and places that you see and very few of those are explored in the ride. While of course everyone loves the musical sequences in the film, but they are held up by the other scenes, characters, and locations. When people thought of a ride through the world of the Little Mermaid they didn't want a jukebox ride that horrendously tries to retell a somewhat complex plot in 4 minutes and no context. I think Frozen Ever After does a much better job creating a ride through the world of it's IP. I think if they had built something closer to the 90's concept of the ride it would have been better received. Another problem is all of the scenes of the ride feel more like a Main Street Emporium window scene and less like an immersive ride. Below is one of my top favorite scenes from the film and it just shows off how rich the film is with scenes that transport you to another place. Something I wish the ride did too.
 
Mjt5126

Mjt5126

Member
My issue with the ride is the ending. Sure some of it is oriented for kids but would like to see more of the fight scene than a cardboard cut out of Ursula
 
UNCgolf

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
General Mayhem said:
I think Frozen Ever After does a much better job creating a ride through the world of it's IP.
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I think Frozen Ever After and Little Mermaid are comparable -- I may even give the nod to the Little Mermaid just by virtue of the Under the Sea scene, which is more elaborate than anything in Frozen Ever After (despite the fact that it looks cheap in places and should be much more than it is). Regardless, I agree in general that Little Mermaid fails as a cohesive experience.

I've said it in other threads, but Navi River Journey has all the detailing that FEA and Little Mermaid lack, but it lacks any attempt at a story to take advantage of that theming. FEA and Little Mermaid lack that intricate setting, but at least try to tell you some sort of story (although I think they both fail at that as well; it's more like a collection of random scenes with songs and characters from the film). FEA and Little Mermaid are just able to coast on the fact that nearly everyone riding them has seen the movie, and can fill in all the blanks themselves.
 
ELG13

ELG13

Well-Known Member
General Mayhem said:
As someone who is a massive fan of the 1989 film I can try to help give you some perspective. I don't hate the ride but when you watch the 1989 film there are so many amazingly beautiful and interesting moments and places that you see and very few of those are explored in the ride. While of course everyone loves the musical sequences in the film, but they are held up by the other scenes, characters, and locations. When people thought of a ride through the world of the Little Mermaid they didn't want a jukebox ride that horrendously tries to retell a somewhat complex plot in 4 minutes and no context. I think Frozen Ever After does a much better job creating a ride through the world of it's IP. I think if they had built something closer to the 90's concept of the ride it would have been better received. Another problem is all of the scenes of the ride feel more like a Main Street Emporium window scene and less like an immersive ride. Below is one of my top favorite scenes from the film and it just shows off how rich the film is with scenes that transport you to another place. Something I wish the ride did too.
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This is a great explanation! This is probably my favorite Disney movie and I remember thinking they missed so many amazing opportunities. The main musical scene on the ride "Under the sea" it feels very much like watching a show at Chuckie cheese or something. It's just animatronics...they couldn't even bother with anything but black track as the ground ....why not make it sand?! Even the lighting could be done better to make it feel more under water. It definitely feels like a ride they ran out of time on and haven't gone back to finish. Even with that we still love it. I just hope they make some changes and upgrades eventually...but with how busy they are with the 50th and tomorrow land, I think that is a far off dream of mine.
 

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