Continuing from Part 1, where we took a look at Enchanted Forest and Belle’s Village, we’ll move on to the Little Mermaid stuff.
Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid is the only new ride opening at the moment. The Mine Train is still slated for early 2014, though I would expect to see it open near the end of 2013.
As you’ve probably heard, it’s virtually a carbon copy of the attraction at Disney’s California Adventure.
The difference is the queue, which is beautiful at Magic Kingdom.
If I recall correctly, the building in California looks like an opera house or something.
My estimation is that it will look even better at night.
The level of detail is outstanding. Remember, this is brand new!
Though some aspects are an obvious ripoff of Spongebob Squarepants.
Just look at the water fountains.
The queue is slightly interactive with Scuttle’s Scavenger Hunt.
You may be able to see the projection of the blue crab on top of the book in the lower half of the cabinet.
Or in the jug on the left.
Otherwise, what you see is really neat. And I don’t throw around the word “really.”
My only concern is that there seemed to be gaps in the rockwork where water could stream in when it’s raining. Not much use in making an outdoor, covered queue with holes in it. In Florida. Oh, and one other concern. I’m not sure if it’s air-conditioned or the air-conditioning wasn’t operational. It was just as warm in the queue as it was outside, if not warmer, and that’s not a good sign.
Scuttle narrates the story and you’ll see him in animatronic form in the queue before heading inside.
This is where things get even cooler:
The background story is written and animated on the ceiling. The downside is that it’s hard to read because it’s so dark and the words are small.
Now we’re headed through a couple of switchbacks before boarding our clamshell.
The ride is basically The Seas with Nemo and Friends with Little Mermaid animatronics.
Here’s a few pictures to give you an idea about what to expect, but I wouldn’t watch any videos to spoil the attraction.
The animatronics are very well done.
And there are a ton of them.
It’s a traditional dark ride. Unlike something like Haunted Mansion, I’m not sure there’s a ton of re-rideability (if that’s a word). I wish the vehicles would go up and down hills or something to make it a little more interesting. That’s one reason why Haunted Mansion and Spaceship Earth are so neat I think. It feels like you’re traveling somewhere, even if you’re on a similar conveyor belt. Journey of the Little Mermaid basically feels like you’re riding past one animated set piece after the next.
There didn’t seem to be a ton of hidden or hard to see things either.
So once you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it.
It’s absolutely worth experiencing though. And you’ll probably want to ride twice.
I feel the same way whenever I’ve run out of scotch.
Happy ending.
I know I told you not to watch any ride videos, but I shot the last two minutes in case you’re worried that it’ll scare the kids. I don’t think it will scare anyone – but the Ursula section here is as bad as it gets. It’s nowhere near as scary as the Ursula scene over at Voyage of the Little Mermaid at Hollywood Studios.
Overall, Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid is a solid family-friendly dark ride. I don’t think it’s as revolutionary as it could have been. Not to mention it’s the same as what’s in California once you board your shell. But the queue is beautiful and it’s certainly a step in the right direction thematically. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but it’s no Harry Potter 2.0.
It’s so neat on the outside though. I love the waterfalls on the left and how aged the buildings look.
Rough waters, captain!
Over in California, Mermaid usually has 10 to 15 minute posted waits. Posted wait times seem to be exaggerated here in Florida at the moment. The first time I got in line at 12:58pm, the posted wait was 30 minutes. It took 17. The second time around when I got in line at 3:17pm, it took 22 minutes with the 45 minute posted wait. Unfortunately(?), the ride now offers FASTPASS, which are available at Mickey’s PhilharMagic. That’s going to slow down the standby queue. Moving forward, Journey of the Little Mermaid is not going to be an essential rope drop activity. It will certainly be more popular over the next 12 months, like any new attraction, but it’s going to be easy to FASTPASS in the afternoon. If you’re headed all the way back here to Enchanted Tales with Belle, I’d probably do Ariel’s Grotto next and then Little Mermaid after that unless you’re planning to come back here to look around later in the afternoon. It’s about as far away from the main entrance as possible.
At the end of this area, you’ll see Ariel’s Grotto on the left.
This is a pretty standard Meet and Greet. You get in line, circle back around, and then visit Ariel.
Luckily, there are two Ariels in operation. One to the left and one to the right.
On the plus side, they only let one group at a time into the grotto, so the interaction is among the most intimate available. Ordinarily, there would be 100+ people looking on. And while they probably don’t care what you’re up to, it’s not quite as personal. So that’s a nice bonus, even if it doesn’t stack up well against Enchanted Tales with Belle, which I think is the new gold standard in character interaction.
Posted waits have been 10 to 20 minutes, but I would expect them to go up as more people realize it’s over here.
You may recall that waits for Ariel in Adventureland were horrendous, outdoors, hot, and uncomfortable. However, there was only one of her over there and it was one of the most obvious Meets. With Ariel moving to the Grotto, she no longer appears in Adventureland and Prince Eric no longer greets at all.
In the morning, you could feasibly do:
- FASTPASS Peter Pan’s Flight on the walk to Enchanted Tales with Belle
- Enchanted Tales with Belle
- Ariel’s Grotto
- Journey of the Little Mermaid
- Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- Peter Pan’s Flight with FASTPASS.
But we’ll have to see what wait times look like moving forward. As I mentioned previously, my estimation is that Enchanted Tales is going to get backed up quickly. But the problem is that it takes a solid 15 to 20 minutes to complete, which is a sizable chunk of time in the morning, which is the best time to do virtually any of the major rides and characters. But if wait times are going to be 40 to 60 minutes all day from 9:30am onward, visiting first thing may be necessary to avoid the uncomfortable waits later in the morning.
So that’s a pretty good look at what’s just opened in New Fantasyland. Obviously we’ll be back and I’ll keep a close eye on wait times at Belle and Mermaid.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
I can’t wait!! Only 3 more weeks!! Thank you for the pics! I didn’t even realize that it would be open so soon.
These last two posts have got me all excited about WDW again. Great covergae. Looks like they killed it.
Well, the wait for Under the Sea is significantly better than DCA, where you only go back and forth and have zero theme. Unfortunately, it appears that the ride is the same. We rode it 2x when it soft opened in ’11 and Josh is right, twice is (more than) enough. Don’t know why Disney didn’t do more with it, but Josh’s description is spot on.
Now THIS is exciting to me since I have always been a huge fan of The Little Mermaid (she’s a fellow ginger, afterall!)
LOVE the queue!
You make a good point about Spaceship Earth and the Haunted Mansion. It really does feel like we’re going somewhere (even though you basically start/end in the same place. I think some hills would be nice in this ride too. But…I’ve been wanting a Little Mermaid ride for so long that I’ll take what I can get.
thanks for the video portion. Ursula scares me a little bit too.
For me, Friday was one of those ‘ahh ahh ahh, ahh ahh ahh” moments (cue the sound of the Little Mermaid getting her voice back)! I had selected Friday as our second full MK day due to Josh’s (magnifique!) calendar (to also bust out some random French). Imagine my surprise when we walk through Fantasyland as we are completing SoMK and spot the entire new Fantasyland area open! My mom, who was visiting Disney for the first time ever, had no idea why I was suddenly so très excité (to continue throwing random French). I had completely given up on the idea that we would see any of Fantasyland open.
Some observations:
1) In Belle’s Tales, my DD was chosen as “Chip” and yes, even my mother, who had turned 65 this trip, got chosen as the armoire. The boy who was chosen as the Beast totally hammed it up, and it was clear that the CM has gotten very good at ‘casting’ the players. My mom looked like the perfect armoire and my dd was truly the ‘Chip’ of that group. They pretty much had a ‘role’ for all the young kids in our group.
2) Seating at Gaston’s Tavern was very limited, and since it’s so nicely themed, I can imagine that everyone will want to sit down and enjoy the delicious Le Fou’s brew (an excellent snack credit). It may be tough to find a spot during peak times, especially during the first months.
3) Little Mermaid indeed has a beautifully-themed queue, but the ride itself needed an element of surprise (any element!). I wish they would have incorporated some of the interactive crab idea into the ride itself. That crab thing was too cute, but we were moving too quickly to be able to play.
Finally, I had the chance to briefly meet Josh in person, completing my unexpected delights for the day. As I walk out of Gaston’s, I see Josh standing there, also soaking in the wonderful theming of the bathrooms. He looks exactly like the pictures – tall, with his (big) camera, dri-weave polo, cargo shorts (holding all the necessary accoutrements for a day at the park) and sneakers. Thanks Josh for all the great info on this site. Now that our trip is over, I’ll still be reading your blog to help remember our week.
Thanks for this blog!! I can’t wait to get there in a few months.
Typed all this up once and Disney wifi at Art of Animation dropped it on me! Anyway, we were in the park for RD today at 8. Started my plan. Went to Pan. Ended my plan when we were told that Belle was open and looking for people! Went there…then to Merida for the 9:15 opening. Got in the first group in. LM still not open, so went to Dumbo, Barnstormer, Pete’s characters (all walk-ons with less than 5 min wait). Sat and enjoyed popcorn snack. Now, back to Pooh. NOW LM was open. I went to check the fastpass times (at Philharmagic). It said 5 minute standby, so we went there without a FP. When we got to the ride, it said a 20 minute wait, but I don’t think it was more than 10-12 tops. After that, went straight to meet Ariel. Only waited about 10 mins. Then, after a restroom break, saw Gaston hanging out in front of his tavern. No wait. Next was It’s a Small World (kids had to see it). ALL of that by NOON!!!! Awesome. But Josh, can you cool it down a few degrees for us?!?! Lunch at Pinnochios (or whatever that place is called. Haunted Mansion (10 min wait thru the cemetary). Over to FP Thunder Mt. (40 min wait). Pirates of Caribbean. Tried to get on Alladin, but it seemed to be having tech difficulty. Back to Thunder Mt w/ FP, only to get dumped from the queue just 2 trains before loading. At least we got a super fastpass out of it. A frozen lemonade and a shady spot in front of Peso’s (is that the name?). Parade. Back to user super FP on Splash Mt. Walked right on.
@two pearls: whats a super FP?
Yes the line que for the Voyage in California Adventure is definitely not as immersive as this one is. It is in a building that use to house a film(that I never bothered to see). I can say that is it a ride totally worth doing once but I would not repeat it unless I had a small child that just *had* to go on it again.
One nice thing about this version is that the indoor queue and exit prevent the light leakage they get in the DCA version.
HI! We were there in the 12th as well. Went in line around 5:00 or so and came out about 5:30. And I have to agree with you Josh – there was not air movement in the queue inside and it was very warm in there. Hope they get that fixed. Overall it was a nice ride and very colorful! We didn’t visit Ariel, so we’ll have to do that on our next visit1
Thanks for a great recap, Josh!
We were there last week. We got to see most of the area on Sunday, but LM was down the 3 times we attempted, so we bailed. On our return to MK on Thursday, it was open, and we thoroughly enjoyed it! However, I absolutely agree with you about the feeling of riding on a belt past the scenes. The dip below surface through the bubbles was very cool, so why not more of that type of illusion. If Peter Pan’s ships can fly over London, then our Clam should be able to “swim” under the sea.