Small fire starts on roof of Magic Kingdom's Little Mermaid ride, started by fireworks

This doesn't surprise me at all. The amount of smoke and debris caused by Wishes every night is epic. I've been driving a few times around the perimeter road, between Storybook Circus and the monorail/train shop, and stuff just rains down.

Side note: During the show, I've noticed they spray water on the roof of Columbia Harbor House, and presumably other buildings, where some of the pyro is launched from within the park.

I always thought Ariel was hot, but this is ridiculous.

It hurts to snort a potato chip shard out one's nose, Mike. Thanks for that.

I'm glad the ride didn't burn down and everyone was safe, of course, but...

We FP+'d Little Mermaid and I wish we hadn't wasted it. Not the best Disney dark ride out there, IMO, and is one and done for me.
We got delayed twice during the ride and it became apparent it wasn't a rider-caused delay, but was loooong malfunction-type lengthy. The first time we were in the big party scene and stopped right in front of dancing Ariel and heard that 45 second loop of Under the Sea for what seemed like thousands of times. The second time was right in front of Ursula and her song snippet, my favorite number from the show (formerly I should add) was even longer. "Do I help them? Of course I do..."
The nice thing about the ride was the outdoor theming, queue and all that.
Fantasyland Forest is really pretty and well done, it will be great once the walls come down and the place has a more grown-in look. I'm surprised, but I think for now my favorite part of it is the Storybook Circus. So cute and totally thoughtful.

I've always thought Disney was a little risky with the fireworks. The shows are spectacular (love me some Wishes) but they do seem to come awfully close to buildings and spectators. It's interesting to know about the water, makes sense.

The problem with that ride to me is that only one of the three Sebastians has the animated eyes right now, and the other two have been replaced with static somethingorothers. The first time I did that and he blinked while looking around, it blew my flippin' mind.

As far as the new dark rides are concerned, I will give extra points for improved animatronics. Gone are the Mr Toad days of flat, cutout dark-glo props and the Country Bear days of blah-blah-blah lip synching. And that's a good thing, but to me the new rides lack story and content.

Since I got to study Ariel's act for a loooong time I noticed her choreography was fairly non- repetitive within the loop of the song and her motions went right along with the tempo and the lyrics. Her eyes were very expressive and her perma-smile mouth moved to the words with accuracy. With Ursula it was the same thing, her big ole fat lady arms were seamless with the right amount of jiggle, and every time she sang "that one wants to get the girl" her eyes shot a look directly at me.

It would've been very easy for the animators/imagineers to have cut corners in this area, as in normal circumstances the clamshells are sliding by these figures in huge show rooms that are chock full of things to look at. Usually, the rider gets only a small portion in the loop of the character's act. I suppose I should remember the audience for a ride like this is fankids, and the abbreviated, choppy storyboard that I object to is the likely trade off for improved art. And maybe kids don't care, they just want to see their favorite characters, after all, and the careful animation is something to keep mom and dad from feeling like they didn't waste the 45 minutes spent waiting for the ride.

Not trying to sound like an over critical Disneyphile, or anything. I just thought Little Mermaid, especially for the money spent, could've used a little more oomph in the story telling and in the end was kind of a snooze.

It's definitely a ride that kids love more than adults. I've heard many kids demanding to ride again, so it's working in that regard. I enjoy it, too, for some of the better animatronics at least.

I think the big flaw in the ride is that the climax of the movie was cut sometime during the years and years of planning. The original concept was released as a cgi ride-through on one of the Little Mermaid dvds. Instead of the awkwardly rocking cut-out of Ursula being electrocuted, there was going to be a big confrontation with a huge sea-witch.

Watching the video again, it reminds me of my biggest problem with the ride, it's not immersive at all. You can always see the ride floor, and scenes don't flow together well. The ride could really use being a little darker, in multiple ways.

My 2½ year-old thought it was great. When we entered the big dance room he exclaimed "WOW!" and his eyes were huge the whole time.

Therefore, I like it.

People around or approaching 30 seem pretty keen on it, as it Mermaid was one of "their" movies from childhood. Regardless of what was spent, it's clearly a crowd pleaser.