The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure is a new attraction at Disney California Adventure that officially opens on Friday, June 3. It has been in soft opening for about a week, and I had the opportunity to ride it last Thursday.
Ariel’s Undersea Adventure is a classic dark ride that takes us through various scenes that tell Ariel’s story, very recognizable to anyone who has seen the movie. You’ll also hear the original versions of songs from the film like “Part of Your World”, “Under the Sea”, “Poor Unfortunate Souls” and “Kiss the Girl”.
The ride uses the continuously moving omnimover vehicle technology like the Haunted Mansion, except that guests ride in colorful clam shells. It’s about 5 minutes and 30 seconds long.
My impressions? It’s absolutely charming – cute and colorful and fun. It’s not the ultimate in audio-animatronic technology, but they’ve still done some very nice work in bringing this wonderful animated feature to life. I think most people are going to really enjoy it. There’s a short dark section with Ursula and her two hench-eels, but it’s not too dark, and kids who were riding it the day I was did not seem to find it scary at all.
The attraction is fully ADA-compliant: there are two wheelchair/ECV accessible vehicles (“King Triton’s Chariots”) available to guests. The attraction also offers audio description and assistive listening for those using Disney’s handheld device.
There’s a short “downhill” section where the clamshells turn backwards as you travel under the sea, and a short uphill section when you ascend back to the surface.
After we rode, members of the media had the chance to talk to Imagineers Lisa Girolami and Larry Nikolai about their work on the attraction – things that were changed along the way, challenges they faced, how they decided what to include or not, etc.
One has to remember that technology is not always better. Disney has maintained a very wholesome personal environment in an age when there is very little of that…..due to technology. I have not yet been on the ride but am quite sure that I will not be disappointed. The Imagineers have a standard to maintain and they know that. And lets not forget, Disneyland is for the young and the young at heart…not those who set standards that they themselves could not maintain.
That’s.. …Well, it’s cutesy enough I guess, but I won’t be wasting my time with it. It looks like some cheap company tried to imitate what they thought a Disney ride might look like. It’s very choppy, very cheap, very small, moves very fast and if you don’t already know the story, there’s not exactly a lot of substance there.
Like someone else said. The technology looks like it was made in the early 90’s. And I’m not talking about making everything so you have to wear 3D glasses, either. Maybe they’re just neutering the Imagineers on this one.
Maybe it’s better in person, but I think it looks horrible. Hugely disappointed. This was one of my favorite movies when I was younger.
It looks beyond adorable. Nothing unexpected, nothing earth-shattering… but really cute. Sure to become a favorite with my niece. I do wish two things, though:
1) Disney would start thinking forward and not wait years to open attractions based on movies.
2) They REALLY need to step up their game in using new technologies and developing attractions beyond the family market. This is a big, fat, expensive kiddie ride that doesn’t really advance much on the technologies they’ve used within the parks for years. Small World. Haunted Mansion. Winnie The Pooh. At least with Peter Pan, we get the whole flying sensation.
Thanks for sharing this!
Tralfie/Richard
This looks great! Can’t wait for this to open at WDW!!!