[Question] The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure Clamshell Speed

[EeyoreGetsMe]

I was recently riding The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure ride at Disney California Adventure. Every time I ride I think the Clamshells go way too fast through the ride to really enjoy the scenery. The story plot of the ride, the music, and the scenery is well done and a beautiful site to see but it is hard to really enjoy everything because the ride goes way too fast to enjoy and take in everything. I can understand the need for the Clamshells to go fast in order to take in many riders so the line does not get long, especially during the summer time. Is there any way that during the off season the ride could slow down? One time I went and there was no line, you could walk right up to the Clamshell and sometimes there were a few empty Clamshells going through the ride. When the park is not as busy as it is during the summer why would the ride need to go that fast couldn't Disney slow the ride down if they wanted during certain times of the year?

Does anyone agree that the Clamshells go too fast and it would be better if they slowed the speed?
Is there any way to give this suggestion to the Disneyland Resort?

Thanks.

[Rex Dopey24]

Re: The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure Clamshell Speed

in my opinion it goes both ways. i and rode it before and it is like an in between sort of thing. and i do like the ride alot it is very enjoyable

[frollofan]

Re: The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure Clamshell Speed

I heard that John Lasseter wanted the clamshells to be slowed down so guests could take in the scenes better, but they weren't in order to meet opening summer demand. I think the current speed is fine because if it went too slow, then one would start to hear lines and verses being repeated a lot.

[disneylandfan95]

Re: The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure Clamshell Speed

I heard that John Lasseter wanted the clamshells to be slowed down so guests could take in the scenes better, but they weren't in order to meet opening summer demand. I think the current speed is fine because if it went too slow, then one would start to hear lines and verses being repeated a lot.

Actual, it was an unanimous decision between John Lasseter, WDI, and TDA to slow down the speed of the clamshells. The original speed was considerably quicker and it wasn't nearly enough time to see the show scenes.

The clamshells go about as slow as they can go. If they go any slower, some of the dialogue becomes extremely repetitive, particularly with both Scuttles, Flotsam and Jetsam, and Ursula.

[frollofan]

Re: The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure Clamshell Speed

Actual, it was an unanimous decision between John Lasseter, WDI, and TDA to slow down the speed of the clamshells. The original speed was considerably quicker and it wasn't nearly enough time to see the show scenes.

The clamshells go about as slow as they can go. If they go any slower, some of the dialogue becomes extremely repetitive, particularly with both Scuttles, Flotsam and Jetsam, and Ursula.

Oh wow, if only I could imagine what it would have felt like if the clamshells went their original intended speed. Then the ride would have gotten even more complaints of the plot being rushed.

[ohmyjustin]

Re: The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure Clamshell Speed

Are the shells going the same pace as the buggies in HM? A lot of Ursula's song got cut and I feel Scuttle, Flotsam, and Jetsam all could say more anyway. It's not like they're stuck to a script from the movie.

[EeyoreGetsMe]

Re: The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure Clamshell Speed

Thanks for the information thus far. Would it work better if the ride went slower and there were speakers in each individual Clamshells that plays the music and dialogue so people in the other Clamshells would not hear the dialogue and music over and over? Or would it be so loud that others would probably hear the music from other nearby Clamshells?

When I go to California Adventure I have to ride The Little Mermaid Ride several times so I can fully take everything in as best as I can.

[Maleficent4811]

I vote to slow the clams down! It's too fast for me to point and smile at the fun details

[WDITrent]

Re: The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure Clamshell Speed

Funny, what I heard was that they DID slow down the omnimover speed during testing, but they found it became annoying as you would tend to hear repeated loops of music and dialogue multiple times through. Especially in the Scuttle intro, they thought, it didn't make sense. So they restored the ride to its original speed and it opened that way.