The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel's Undersea Adventure Early Reviews
Page 1 of 1
The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel's Undersea Adventure has had a couple of previews already in anticipation of its June 3rd opening. Some on our Discussion Boards have been lucky enough to get a ride and their reviews are pretty positive.
Note: This article does not contain any spoilers but some of the full reviews linked to do
SpookerJones posted their review (light spoilers). Here's a portion:
It isn't in 3D.
It isn't interactive.
You can't shoot at anything.
You can't view your high score at the end.
It makes minimal use of projections.
There aren't multiple experiences or random scenes designed to placate $15/month annual passholders so they can ride over and over and over again.
What it is is a truly modern dark ride in the tradition of Fantasyland. It is what Winnie the Pooh should have been. In the realm of Disney dark rides based on their classic animated films, this is one of the best.
Long-time posted Westsider also has a review (posts #74 and #80) (heavy spoilers). Here's a clip without spoilers:
This is a darn good dark ride. The narrow sea caverns that you descend and ascend through at the beginning and end of the ride is surprisingly effective. The projections and lighting effects in these sections are the best I've seen in any Anaheim attraction. The animatronics of Scuttle are great, Ariel comes across best the first time you see her a few moments after the ride begins, and her watery hair looks the best there as well.
and
I give the actual ride inside an 8 out of 10, but I give the facility as a whole a 10 out of 10 for its attention to detail and money spent on surfaces and textures. The ride is better than any Fantasyland-style dark ride anywhere (over twice as long too), but not quite as good as It's A Small World.
Another long-time reader karlg also posted a short review (post #91) (light spoilers) with a fun anecdote about riding with a child:
The best part was that their energetic little girl of 7 (squarely the target demographic) was in the car with me and another friend. This little girl was ecstatic and pointed out characters from the movie (which helped me who had not seen the movie in many years) and she was demanding to go on it again (which we did). After leaving she cried because she forgot to say "goodbye" to Ariel.
Here is a video from a couple of weeks ago from the Official Disney Parks Blog taking you inside the Little Mermaid - Ariel's Undersea Adventure with the Imagineers
Have you been able to ride DCA's newest attraction yet? What did you think?
Discuss It
-- Posted May 23, 2011