The board depicts a ship with seven hatches. Around it, there is a course of fields, some of which have special symbols. The hatches are covered with tiles. These hide characters from the Disney movie.
The players roll dice and move around the course. The goal is to collect a set of three cards depicting Ariel's friends, then go onto the ship and flip over hatch tiles. When a hatch tile shows one of the friends, another hatch tile can be flipped over. When the witch appears, the player has to start collecting cards again. When the prince appears, the game ends and the active player is the winner.
While circling the ship, special symbol fields enable the players to draw cards, move forward etc. When a player reaches a field where (an)other player(s) is/are, he/she can steal a card from each of them.

Contents and description for the 2006 Jumbo edition of this game, from the Jumbo website:

Contents:
Game board 24 playing cards 4 Ariel characters 7 yellow cards Dice Rules of the game

ARIEL THE LITTLE MERMAID For 2 – 4 players From 5 years of age The game takes about half an hour to play.
On the board you see Ariel’s underwater world with the Prince’s ship. The aim of the game is to capture the Prince, who is on board the ship. The player who succeeds is the winner, but it is not as easy as it sounds! Before you can climb on board using the ladder, you have to collect Ariel’s three friends, make a journey through the underwater world and share your adventures with Ariel. In particular, make sure you avoid Ursula’s two dangerous ‘little darlings’, who are out to steal your friends!