Memory 104 – Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid

** Binaural Audio **
Time: 24:50

Come and join us for another installment of the WDW-Memories podcast, where I try to make it possible for you relive your Walt Disney World Memories when you can’t actually be there.

Ok, so that trip report last memory took a long time to complete, and it was very long, but I hope all of you enjoyed it. Today, let’s get back to a bit more normal show. I’ll be digging into my backlog of requests and pulling out a show idea that came in a while ago that I’ve been sitting on because I had not had the pleasure of riding this new attraction yet. Today we’re going to head back the Magic Kingdom for a ride on the brand new Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid.

So like usual, our memory was requested by one of our listeners. Our request today came from Dan in Michigan, via Facebook. He wrote:

Hey Lou, I’m still a big fan of your podcast. My family and I are leaving for Florida on Thursday and are really looking forward to seeing New Fantasyland. I was just Wondering if you Have any audio from the Little Mermaid Attraction, that would be so Awesome! Please keep the audio coming.

Later, I also received an email request from Samantha in Massachusetts. She requested a comparison of the show in Disney’s Hollywood Studios with the new ride in the Magic Kingdom. Well we got the first half completed for her in Memory 098 – Voyage of the Little Mermaid, and now we’ll get the second half of that comparison complete.

So I went into this attraction with high hopes. This is the next generation of Dark Rides that Disney Imagineering was working on, and they were pushing the envelope a bit. Now remember, a dark ride is really a ride where they put some static figures, and waive them around a little bit. If you keep that in perspective, this attraction is HUGELY different. The characters lips move, their eyes blink, their hair waves, and their bodies twist. This is not some ordinary dark ride, this is that next level.

However, Disney has conditioned us to expect everything to be perfect, and sadly I was a little disappointed with some of the huge rooms. The smaller ones where story is being told are spectacular. If they had cut out some of the massive room for the Under the Sea song in favor of another story element room, I think this would have been perfect. I loved the intimacy of sitting in Ariel’s Grotto, entering Ursula’s Lair, or floating through the lagoon with Prince Eric and Ariel.

But armchair imagineering is easy, and really, this is a great attraction that deserves the praises it’s getting. Sadly, the lines have been short to non-existent so you don’t even get to enjoy the amazing work that went into the queue area either.

As always, I tossed it out to social media, and got the following responses. On Facebook, both Frederick and Diane wrote that they hadn’t experienced this attraction for themselves yet and were looking forward to hearing my memory. There were also a lot of likes or plusses, and that was about it.

So today’s memory is from this last trip in September 2013. It’s a very light day in the parks and we’ve only just arrived in the Magic Kingdom 30 minutes ago. We’ve seen Mickey Mouse, taken our picture in front of Cinderella’s Castle, and are making our way back through the New Fantasyland to catch our first ride of the day on Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid. Susie is excited to get to see Ariel. Mikey’s just happy not to have to sit in the stroller anymore. We’ll stop for a quick photo at the attraction sign, and then wind our way through the huge queue. Eventually we’ll make it to the loading area where we basically walk onto the ride. The four of us climb into our clamshell and our adventure begins.

Today’s memory is in binaural, so I’d suggest putting those headphones on to fully immerse yourself in the memory.

Now sit back. Relax. Close your eyes. And come with me as we go Under the Sea with a little red-headed mermaid.