The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (192 page)

Because it’s a reasonably popular attraction that already has
Disney
theming,
King Triton’s Carousel
remained part of
Paradise Pier
and didn’t undergo any substantial changes.
Did You Know?
 
King Triton’s Carousel
is actually a misnomer.  Carousels are merry-go-rounds that feature
only
horses.  With nary a horse in sight (except the noble seahorse),
King Triton’s Carousel
is really
King Triton’s Merry-Go-Round
. 
FastPass:
  No.  But although it’s slow loading, since the carousel seats 56-plus Guests at once, and each ride only lasts about two minutes, there’s rapid Guest turnover and lines move in large increments.  The carousel can cycle through over 2,000 Guests per hour.

The Little Mermaid:  Ariel’s
Undersea Adventure

[
FastView:
 
This extensive dark ride is an absolute must for small kids and
Ariel
fans.  Others might give it a pass.  Short lines make boarding a snap.
]

Aspiring princesses who’ve always longed to be part of
Ariel
’s undersea world saw their wish come true on June 3, 2011, when
DCA
’s attraction
The Little Mermaid:  Ariel’s Undersea Adventure
finally opened.  Promising to be one of
Disney
’s most enchanting and immersive dark rides ever, this attraction is a great idea that’s been floating around for awhile.  In 2011 it finally launched at
DCA
; in 2012, a sister version opened at the
Walt Disney World Resort
’s
Magic Kingdom
.

The attraction’s grand opening
at
DCA
was held on June 2, 2011 with plenty of fanfare. 
Jodi Bension
, the actress who voiced
Ariel
in the 1989 film, sang the now-iconic
Part of Your World
.

The
much-anticipated
DCA
attraction is housed in an enormous show building.  To accommodate it, the 347-seat theater that housed the film
Golden Dreams
was torn down, as well as the adjacent rest room complex, and a large territory between
Paradise Bay
’s western shore and the southern stretch of the
Grand Californian Hotel
was fenced off, shielding Guests from the bustle of activity attending the frenzied
Little Mermaid
build.

Guests
who were interested in what the new attraction would be like viewed the
Little Mermaid
ride extra
Under the Sea Adventure:  A Virtual Ride Inspired by Walt Disney Imagineering
on the 2006
Little Mermaid Platinum DVD
.  Although it’s presented via fairly rough computer animation, the virtual ride steps viewers through a facsimile of a long-planned but never-executed idea for a
Little Mermaid
experience.  Guests also viewed illustrations at
DCA
’s
Blue Sky Cellar
.

The idea
for a
Little Mermaid
attraction originated in 1989, immediately after the immensely popular film was released, and was in development until 1992.  Quintessential
Imagineers
like
Tony Baxter
grasped the entertainment potential implicit in a
Little Mermaid
attraction, the wealth of immersive environments like
Ariel’s Grotto
and
Ursula’s Lair
that would do what dark rides do best:  Submerge Guests in amazing worlds that they’d heretofore only visited in films or dreams.

Talented
Imagineers
from diverse disciplines, including
Don Carson
(Show Design),
Joe Lanzisero
(Creative Development), and
Valerie Edwards
(Sculpture), collaborated on an experience that would bring together the look, feel, lighting, sound, dimensionality, and even scent of an underwater journey.  Fiber-optics would help to create the illusion of water in an environment that was actually dry.

Ride vehicles would be attached to overhead tracks
in the same way that
Peter Pan’s Flight
galleons are mounted.  But instead of simulating weightless flight, the aerial monorail conveyance in the
Little Mermaid
adventure would evoke the weightlessness of floating on and under the sea.

As the concept evolved, it was decided that the ride vehicles would be
Omnimovers
, just like in
Disneyland
’s
Haunted Mansion
, but painted pastel colors and shaped like clam shells.  Guests would begin their journey on the attraction’s second level, which would be dressed as the terrestrial portion of the show; the shell craft would then descend into the lower level of the attraction, “under the sea.”

The
attraction’s original proposed location? 
Disneyland
, the original
Disney Theme Park
.  But the idea was shelved in 1992 and never came to pass at
Disneyland Park
.

However,
Imagineers
never discard good ideas; even if it’s not their time today, you never know how useful the concepts might be tomorrow. 
The Little Mermaid
attraction idea would resurface over the years.  The next proposed location? 
Disneyland Paris
.  But the timing was wrong.  In the grip of budget issues and challenges that eclipsed the lure of a new attraction,
Disneyland Paris
ultimately passed on the
Little Mermaid
adventure.

Cut back to the
Disneyland Resort
in the new millennium, its new park
DCA
, and the hordes of unhappy Guests and critics demanding more
Disney
-themed, family-friendly attractions for the park in general and
Paradise Pier
in particular. 
The Little Mermaid
attraction’s moment had finally arrived; in
DCA
, it had found a home that desperately wanted and needed it.

Guests visiting
DCA
in 2009, 2010, and early 2011 often found themselves negotiating seemingly endless corridors of high fences along the western shore of
Paradise Bay
.  The fences along the bayside in 2009 and early 2010 screened the massive
World of Color
construction site.  The fences along the shore side concealed the extensive
Little Mermaid
build.

Navigating these narrow thruways, one sometimes felt like a
mouse in a maze.  And early in the morning on an off-season visit, lone researchers such as the author found themselves feeling like the only person in the park; you could travel from one end of the corridor to the other without encountering another Guest.  But all the disruption and disorientation was in a marvelous cause.  Guests were being given what they’d demanded.

The Little Mermaid
attraction is housed in a handsome structure with the elegant lines that
Imagineers
selected as the prevailing, unifying architectural style for the new
Paradise Pier
.  Meant to evoke an aquarium, the building retains the replica of the
rotunda
at San Francisco’s
Palace of Fine Arts
; although it was once feared that the
rotunda
would be demolished, it remains intact and has been redecorated to match the attraction’s theme.

Imagineers
stayed relatively true to the early virtual ride simulation depicted on the 2006
Little Mermaid
DVD. Guests can expect to be transported to the world of our favorite red-headed princess, the deep-sea beauty of
King Triton
’s kingdom, where little
Sebastian
the crab and his
Crustacean Band
sing
Under the Sea
, and then to
Ariel’s Grotto
, a
Sorcerer’s-Apprentice-Hat
-shaped place of inspiration and dreams, and then to the menacing gloom of sea-witch
Ursula’s Lair
.  The initial underwater scenes, and
Ursula’s Lair
, are impressively immersive.

Rising to the surface world,
Guests experience the enchanted lagoon of the film’s
Kiss the Girl
sequence, and then, finally, the shell vehicles carry Guests past
Ariel
and
Eric
in their wedding regalia, celebrate their marriage with friends, family, and fireworks.  And then it’s off to the unloading zone.

As mapped, it’s a satisfying
attraction with plenty of music, humor, drama, and romance, as well as strong effects.  The proposed ride was timed at about 4 minutes, and the actual journey, in both length and concept, hews closely the original plans.  Certainly no expense has been spared; the attraction includes fluid
Audio-Animatronic
figures–
Ariel
’s hair, driven by tiny motors, even appears to float in the water!–and a 65-piece orchestra recorded lush adaptations of the film’s original score.

I
n 2011, I stumbled into a
soft opening
of the attraction two weeks before the official opening.  I thought it was a test run incorporating Guests lucky enough to be in the park early that day.  It was actually a Cast Member-only test run–but I must have looked like a Cast Member, or simply blended in with the excited crowds in line, because no one stopped or questioned me.  It was a thrill to board one of the pastel-candy-colored clam shells and be whisked into the amazing, musical facsimile of
Ariel
’s underwater world.

Ursula
impressed me most–at 7.5 feet tall and 12 feet wide, she is truly menacing, and the terrified eyes of the “poor, unfortunate souls” she has captured blink at you as you exit her lair.  When I returned to the front of the line for a second ride, I was told that the test run was for Cast Members only.  Oops!  But I certainly didn’t regret the lucky misunderstanding that gave me that sneak peek.

On the resort’s summer kick-off
on June 3, 2011, I was back again with my niece and research assistant.  Even entering the park early as part of
Magic Morning
, we waited in a forty-minute long line that snaked back again and again along the attraction’s long façade, even winding across the street, down to the lagoon and back.

The lengthy wait gave us time to note the many subtle sea references layered into the queue’s design, from sea hor
ses and shell weather vanes to sea urchin post toppers, and fragments of real shells embedded in the pavement, not to mention
Hidden Mickeys
in the scrollwork.

It’s a beautiful building, a beautiful queue, and an attraction that a lot of
Imagineers
put their hearts and souls into for years.  Still … All is not well at the Little
Mermaid
attraction.  Wait times soon dwindled to 5-10 minutes after the grand opening, even during the 2011 and 2012 holiday seasons, and were still short throughout 2013.  Even on wildly busy summer weekends in 2013, for example, when it was tough going to navigate the dense crowds in the park, wait times at this attraction were only 5 minutes long.

Granted, the
Little Mermaid
attraction isn’t a thrill ride, but it’s enchanting, especially for children and
Little Mermaid
fans.  My eight-year-old nephew was mesmerized by the music and effects when he visited the attraction in October 2012.  “That was beautiful,” he told his cousin when the journey concluded—and many children echo that sentiment.

Why the low ridership, then? 
As
magical
as the attraction is for kids, it needs some changes to satisfy older Guests.  After the initial descent “underwater,” which is presented perfectly, the bubbles and cold gusts of air disappear, and the lights go up.  For a large portion of your underwater journey, the illusion is broken and it no longer feels like you’re underwater.  The biggest misstep was the
Under the Sea
segment, which was supposed to be the centerpiece of the journey, but did not feel in the least as if it was happening under the sea.

Nobody
controls an entertainment environment like
Disney
.  They can make it feel like nighttime on the bayou in the middle of a bright summer day.  They can even make it “snow” on
Disneyland
’s
Main Street
.  So they can without a doubt make the
Little Mermaid
attraction more immersive if they try.