On...But Disney, I Love It: The New Voyage of the Little Mermaid

Bit of a longer post this week, but if you know me,  you know that The Little Mermaid has always been one of my absolute favorite Disney movies. Tiny Me was the target audience for its original release, and whatever the online discourse about it, I have continued to love it. 

Is it a perfect movie? No, and I'd be the first to admit that. But I fear it has a chokehold on me that will never let up. 

Luckily, there's always been a lot of Little Mermaid representation in the parks: 

• at the Art of Animation hotel, the standard rooms have Little Mermaid theming 
• you can meet Ariel at various character dining throughout the parks -- including Akershus in the Norway pavilion at Epcot, Cinderella Royal's Table in Magic Kingdom, and formerly at Trattoria al Forno at the Boardwalk 
• at Magic Kingdom, you can meet Ariel in her grotto and go 'under the sea' on the Journey of the Little Mermaid ride (also at Disneyland) 
• and at Hollywood Studios you can meet 2023 Ariel at Walt Disney Presents and see the Voyage of the Little Mermaid musical experience

Opened in 1992 at MGM-Studios park, The Voyage of the Little Mermaid closed with the rest of Disney World in March of 2020 due to Covid. Over the next few years, there were reports of mold infestations and rumors that the show would be going away completely. Then, around the time of the live-action release in 2023, Disney announced that they were bringing back a refreshed version of the show -- and I have been counting down the days until I had a chance to go and see it. 

Luckily, I had that opportunity this summer -- and I kid you not, I saw this show 3 times in one afternoon. Was it because this offered an air-conditioned respite from the Florida heat & humidity? Maybe. 
But did I also love it? Yes. 

On...New Beginnings & Constellations

Welcome back! It's the start of another academic year at Duke -- but this year brings something new to Duke's curriculum. 

Launching this semester -- Fall 2025 -- is the **Constellation Experience** for incoming freshmen. 

What does that mean? 

Excellent question. According to the website, constellations are:

...year-long, multidisciplinary, first-year experiences designed to build communities among first year students. They comprise interconnected courses that explore a topic from multiple perspectives and feature small group learning.

 Personally, I love the inter-disciplinary approach; since each constellation is comprised of multiple courses from a variety of different departments, it means that there's a real potential benefit in understanding how different disciplines not only *see* each question, but how they approach it. It's the "intention" that I find really helpful -- it's really easy to move through academic life with your disciplinary blinders on, and I'm excited for the possible collaborations. 

The constellation I'm a part of is the Innovation and Creativity one; it initially also had "curiosity" as a part of the description, so I've kept that aspect of it in my course. Our guiding question is:

What drives us to Innovate & Create?

Decoding Disney is, to me, a logical fit here. After all, innovation & creativity are at the heart of the Disney Company, however you feel about it. And curiosity too. One of my favorite Disney quotes addresses all three of these things in a concise way:

The 2007 film Meet the Robinsons ends with this quote -- and before we fade to complete black, Walt's name appears at the bottom, and the words "We keep moving forward" (the motto of the film) are emphasized as the rest of the quote fades away. 

Which part of the quote --if any of it -- is directly attributed to Walt Disney isn't quite clear. That is, "moving forward" was absolutely a part of his philosophy when it came to the parks and films, but this quote is most likely not by Walt himself. According to a Reddit post (not the most verifiably credible of sources, I know), the Disney Archives credit these words to WED Enterprises, aka Disney Imagineering. 

What drives us to innovate and create?

To Disney, the answer seems to be curiosity. 

Is it any more complicated than that? That's what I hope to find out this semester with my students. Come back each Wednesday -- hopefully! 😅 -- for thoughts on Innovation and Creativity! 

To ALL Who Come To This Happy Place:

Yesterday -- May 7, 2025 -- was National Tourism Day. This was news to me -- apparently, it was established in 1980 to "establish the cultural and economic importance of tourism" -- and something I only learned about because of The Big News that Disney dropped:

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A post shared by Disney Parks (@disneyparks)

 

Initially, this was news that I was moderately excited about -- from the moment I watched the initial announcement video, I had a curious swirl of emotions. So much so that I felt like I had to write down the thoughts that were currently zooming around in my mind and dusted off my old trusty blog. Do we even blog anymore? I don't think so. But the long-form medium has always been more my speed, and I write for me, not for clicks and likes.