Ariel's Undersea Adventure

[Cadaverous Pallor]

You're telling me there's NO THREAD for this ride? I don't care where everyone else's posts are buried, this ride deserves its own thread.

There be spoilers here so if you don't want to be spoiled, do not continue.






FANTASTIC. Amazing mix of AA and projection technologies. Brought the movie to life in surprising and fun ways. The motion on some of the AAs was easily the best I've seen, especially Ariel's moving "underwater" hair in the first AA. This ride is going to be the benchmark for many years to come.

We've been telling the muggles for years that Winnie-the-Pooh is a cheapo craptastrophe and they always say things like "it's cute, it's just a ride, etc." Ariel seems to be very similar in layout and ideas but you can see the massive difference a budget makes. It's such a shame that Pooh didn't have any money to make it a ride for the ages.

I really hope they have learned their lesson from this.



The line was 2 hours when we showed up a half hour after opening, with the queue snaking down to the Corn Dog Castle, all the way through the World of Color viewing area, more switchbacks in front the building, then around the side past Grizzly and practically to the beginning of Condor Flats. We wandered off disappointed, as there was no way Theo would put up with the wait (or that we would, either). We messed around in the Challenge Trail for a while, and when we came out, a lady asked us if we'd ridden the Mermaid ride yet. When we said no, she offered us her hotel fastpasses, as she was leaving. Just like that, we were able to skip the brutal line and be on in 5 minutes. One hell of a lucky day!

[flippyshark]

I'm glad to hear this! I won't be able to go on the WDW Mermaid ride for another 14 to 18 months. (It's fairly likely I'll ride y'all's first.)

[scaeagles]

That is awesome! I love giving away fastpasses to random people...always makes their day and it is at such a small (well, none is small) cost to do it. They were as blessed as you were I'm sure.

[katiesue]

We really liked it as well. Last weekend the posted wait time was 45 mins and it did wind all over but it was pretty much shuffling along the whole time. We definitely want to go on again to see what we missed the first time.

I did wonder if, in disney fashion, there is a tribute to California Dreams in there somewhere?

[Ghoulish Delight]

Theo was definitely not in a state this morning to have put up with even a 1 hour line. I was not in a state to have put up with the 2 hour line.

Had I waited an hour...I think I STILL would have felt it was worth it (I can say that easily now, of course). I have a real attachment to The Little Mermaid. My sister and I had a really fun day when we saw it in the theater originally, we bought the VHS and the soundtrack together and memorized both. It was a blast to see it "in person" like that. Like CP said, they did a great job balancing the classic simple effects with the cutting edge modern. Top notch dark ride all around.

I think my only real issue was with the dancing Ariel in the Under the Sea scene. The one with the hair pillar. That just looked to me like she was stuck on a fork lift and was being shaken up and down. Oddly off putting. But that's a minor quibble.

[CoasterMatt]

4 rides on it on a couple different days, longest wait so far - 15 minutes.

Fun ride, with a gorgeously decorated queue and show building.

[innerSpaceman]

I'm so glad someone else noticed the similarity between Pooh and Little Mermaid. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about the layout and sensibility struck me as the same - even though Mermaid succeeds while Pooh fails miserably. Perhaps it was the "get it" room, which in this case was the Under the Sea number. A great room, but the trajectory of the ride path was so similar and though the set was fantastic, they made little effort to disguise that it was a "room." (For a room where everyone was singing Under the Sea, I thought bare and obvious office ceiling was a little bit of a cheap-out.)


Don't get me wrong. I love the ride. It's adorable and fun. Ursula is great. The Prince Eric AA's are strangely hot for robots. And I like the departure in dark ride storytelling, in that this seems to be revue of the movie's musical numbers - which tells the story in an awesome way - but very different from, say, Peter Pan or Snow White.

The queue and ride building details are beautiful, too. Can't wait to see the place at night.


Oh, and while it might be advisable to pass this by while the mania lasts, I found it to be the fastest moving line in the entire resort - being the only solely omnimover ride currently in operation. This bodes well for everyone's long-term enjoyment. This will be a fast wait on a regular basis.

[Ghoulish Delight]

It's funny, I got the same "office" or "warehouse" feeling...but I liked it. Small World is nothing but a storage warehouse. And even Pirates' battle scene show piece screams "You're in a building!" But what's happening in that building is wonderful enough to overlook that. Maybe that's too forgiving, it has been 40 or so years since then perhaps they should be better at disguising that by now. But for me it just triggered something akin to nostalgia.

[innerSpaceman]

I definitely thought "Small Worldish" in the Under the Sea room. But of course, it's a small world was the pioneer in "exhibit-type" environments that went on to populate Epcot. The idea was not to create a completely enveloping environment, but to suggest one and allow the (obviously practical) elements of walls and ceilings to exist and be noticed.

Pirates is not quite the same, imo. Though it's pretty obvious there are walls and ceilings, I don't believe office-standard ceiling tile is visible (or, if so, was not attempted to be hidden or softened at all). And the cloud projections are clearly meant to mitigate the "room" effect of walls and ceilings on that ride.


I'm fine with some real-world walls and ceilings on a dark ride. But, nitpick though it may be, I would have rather they'd gone with a fantastic ceiling in the underwater spectacular room of Under the Sea.


I love the Little Mermaid ride. Can't wait till the wait times are manageable. It will be a part of every foray into DCA. It's rad.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Anyone else think they made a conscious decision to make the Ariel AAs look more childish than sexy?