Disney plans to reboot Voyage of the Little Mermaid stage show at Disney's Hollywood Studios

Dec 19, 2023 in "Voyage of the Little Mermaid"

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Voyage of the Little Mermaid overview

Posted: Tuesday December 19, 2023 6:40am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

UPDATE: Disney announces 'The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure' coming to Disney's Hollywood Studios in 2024

ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

Plans are underway to open a new version of Voyage of the Little Mermaid at Disney's Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World.

Voyage of the Little Mermaid overview

The original Voyage of the Little Mermaid stage show, which debuted on January 7, 1992, had its final performance in 2020 and did not reopen from the pandemic shutdown of Walt Disney World.

Disney has not yet confirmed the show's return, but we expect an official announcement of Voyage of the Little Mermaid's comeback very soon.

Despite being closed for more than three years, the Voyage of the Little Mermaid marquee has remained in place on the outside of the building. Some freshening up of the exterior and interior can be expected ahead of the relaunch.

Voyage of the Little Mermaid overview

Voyage of the Little Mermaid's imminent return will be a big boost for Disney's Hollywood Studios, bringing much-needed capacity to a park that has seen significant attendance increases since the addition of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and Toy Story Land. Disney sees adding more live entertainment as an answer to offering guests more to do between experiencing the high-demand E-ticket attractions.

While we expect official confirmation of Voyage of the Little Mermaid soon, there is still more to come at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Stay tuned.

Aerial view of Disney's Hollywood Studios

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Animaniac93-9819 days ago

And how much of these cheaper to produce products end up at character warehouse, CM stores and clearance sales because nobody wants them?

JD8019 days ago

Sure.

LSLS19 days ago

You mean, if they had an opportunity to make more profit. I don't think they stopped distinct products because it sold less, I think it's because it's much cheaper to produce the same stuff for everywhere.

Bocabear19 days ago

But do they? They definitely figured out how to move lots of cheap unremarkable product, but I think they could move better quality things, and attraction specific merchandise better if the went back to a destination shopping model...instead of homogenous. Our spending in the shops has been pretty non-existent in the last 7 0r 8 years mostly because the offerings are not great, the shopping experience is not fun like it used to be... I don't think we are the only people that have experienced this and have curbed their spending....

JD8019 days ago

I also dislike the homogenous shops all over property. But Disney knows merch so if there is an opportunity to sell more they will.

Bocabear19 days ago

It is sad when you consider that shopping was one of the things people enjoyed in the Disney parks... Discovery special things in each shop that were unique to the area/attraction... In this current money-grab world it is crazy that destination shopping has fallen by the wayside and replaced with lesser quality homogenous shops that all carry the same crap. They should really re-think that... This is one of the things that Potter does very well...

aladdin200719 days ago

adding in Writers Stop, the indiana jones store and outside merch camp, and even the movie store that was at the end of the tram tour in its final years. Even al's toy barn. I think thats what it was called.

BrianLo19 days ago

Oh trust me, it can still fall further.

Animaniac93-9820 days ago

Used to spend lots of time looking through Sid's, the animation gallery, the Villains store and now they're all gone. Every year I spend less and less on official Disney merch, but I guess someone else is picking up the slack.

MrPromey20 days ago

But now the rides that exit into those shops have to turn a profit to justify their existence, too. I'm waiting for the day they go full Roller Coaster Tycoon on the restrooms. Maybe it'll start with premium restrooms - cleaned more frequently and with bidets. Once they get people paying for those, they can slowly expand while reducing regular restrooms and allocating less staffing to maintaining the "free" ones. Wonder what the minimum legal requirements are for free publicly available restrooms in a facility with a capacity the size of MK offering food and beverages in central Florida. 🤔 In any event, nothing says "This is outrageous but take my card!" like lunch at Pesos Bills and a 40 minute standby wait for a toilet. 🤣

UNCgolf20 days ago

Yeah, Disney used to have shops that they didn't expect to turn a profit -- they existed for theme reasons. They had a holistic view. Now every individual location is treated separately, as though they're in a strip mall.

MrPromey20 days ago

Yup. I'm sure they've figured out it's more profitable to provide less compelling shopping options, even for the people willing to spend more for that, than to provide better options people would spend more for but spending more to do it. Sure they'd still make money and they'd have happy guests but if someone figured out they could make more money by doing less and have less happy guests, which way is this short-sighted group going to go? You want unique? Go to Disney springs and pay their tenants for that. The guest experience really seems to no longer be a serious consideration for managements choices. Lets not kid ourselves, this was always a for-profit-venture but current management has somehow found a way to completely divorce guest satisfaction from their business decisions on so many levels, it's crazy... actually, it's machiavellian.

UNCgolf20 days ago

I'm almost positive they could get people to spend more -- but not necessarily enough to justify the extra costs in production, stocking, etc. Which is probably what you were implying anyways.

doctornick20 days ago

There's also a CM cafeteria attached there so I would think using both Disney Jr and that food service to be combined into a new guest used Harryhausens makes a lot of sense.