Disney World has already announced a few refurbishment projects for 2023, but one attraction that we’d love to see pop up on the refurb calendar is Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid at Magic Kingdom. For months, there have been missing and broken animatronics in the queue and on the ride. We’ve been hopeful that Disney World would address the issues, but with no scheduled refurbishment and continued unaddressed issues, we’re losing a bit of hope.
While there are relatively minor issues such as the range of motion on animatronics and even not functional smaller animatronics, two of the major issues involve a missing animatronic and an obviously broken animatronic. We’ll start with the missing animatronic. Guests who are familiar with the attraction will note that Scuttle has been missing from the queue since at least last summer. Here’s a look back at the queue from July 2020 when we were documenting some of the physical distancing procedures. In the photo below, we can see an interior portion of the queue and the Scuttle animatronic in a show scene that works as the culmination of a game within the queue where guests are asked to help crabs sort out trinkets.
Unfortunately, Scuttle has been missing since at least August, which is when we first noticed he was removed.
A more noticeable issue is that Aeriel’s mouth/jaw is broken/not moving in her first physical appearance in the attraction. Here’s a look back at the animatronic when you could actually see inside her mouth.
More recently, Disney appears to have extended her teeth or made adjustments to hide the mechanics, but her jaw still isn’t moving after months and months of neglect.
Cast Members we spoke with did not know if or when Scuttle might return, and while they acknowledged Ariel’s broken jaw, they noted that a refurbishment of the attraction was not scheduled and that they were unsure if or when she might get fixed.
Other smaller issues like a non-functional tentacle for Ursula and a broken-looking neck for the finale Scuttle are hopefully easier to fix. Here’s a ride-through from a recent visit to Magic Kingdom.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!