DHS Firework Testing

[Gabe1]

My point being the street had a few mosques and no churches - the people who had the major land holdings were obviously muslim but investing in western consumerism (aka Christmas hype).

Possibly though doubtful. I have no frame of reference for Turkey's view on Christmas and am not likely to visit Turkey to know if Turkey is a fair comparison to Disney Worlds operational procedures, nor do I know why we would attempt to say as you are that Christmas has nothing to do with Christianity, it's all about makin-the-money, because that is how the Muslims operate in Turkey. Too abstract for me.

 

[GoofGoof]

We did two decades of Christmas at Disney through the early 2000's. We'd arrive a couple days before Christmas and stay through the first week of January, depending on Winter Breaks. We always had 3-4 days of the parks not having Christmas to end our trip. It was nice to see the parks return to normal during the trip. Now, they drag it out like they drag just about everything, it saves money, nothing more.

I was there twice in the 90s the first week of January as a young adult. We arrived January 2nd both trips. It was a great time to visit since I didn't have kids and all the schools went back so lower crowds and the prices were cheap. I do remember some Christmas stuff, but they were starting to take it down while we were there.

There is no down time at WDW anymore. They try to fill the former down periods with special events. It's why the Halloween parties start the last week in August when Southern schools are back and downtime starts. It's also why Christmas starts immediately after Halloween and is stretched halfway through January. They throw in food and wine in the fall and flower & garden and Star Wars weekends in the spring. I think stretching Christmas 2 extra weeks is more about making extra money than being cheap. They can market those weeks to a demographic (without kids) who want lower crowds but still want to experience the Christmas vibe.

 

[Gabe1]

I was there twice in the 90s the first week of January as a young adult. We arrived January 2nd both trips. It was a great time to visit since I didn't have kids and all the schools went back so lower crowds and the prices were cheap. I do remember some Christmas stuff, but they were starting to take it down while we were there.

There is no down time at WDW anymore. They try to fill the former down periods with special events. It's why the Halloween parties start the last week in August when Southern schools are back and downtime starts. It's also why Christmas starts immediately after Halloween and is stretched halfway through January. They throw in food and wine in the fall and flower & garden and Star Wars weekends in the spring. I think stretching Christmas 2 extra weeks is more about making extra money than being cheap. They can market those weeks to a demographic (without kids) who want lower crowds but still want to experience the Christmas vibe.

I appreciate what you are saying I just don't believe that guests on a whole are looking to book Christmas vacations in the middle of January. The vast majority of people I know are ready for the holidays be complete with the New Year give or take a day or two. Stretch it out another two weeks in any venue, malls playing Christmas Music mid January, Schools decorated and work themed to Christmas most are going to be annoyed over thrilled. Our opinions differ, I think it has everything to do with having less staff, taking longer to get it all down with less staff thus cutting over all costs.

 

[GoofGoof]

I appreciate what you are saying I just don't believe that guests on a whole are looking to book Christmas vacations in the middle of January. The vast majority of people I know are ready for the holidays be complete with the New Year give or take a day or two. Stretch it out another two weeks in any venue, malls playing Christmas Music mid January, Schools decorated and work themed to Christmas most are going to be annoyed over thrilled. Our opinions differ, I think it has everything to do with having less staff, taking longer to get it all down with less staff thus cutting over all costs.

I don't really think it's actually stretched out another 2 full weeks across the whole resort. I think the first week of January is still primarily people looking to squeeze in a less crowded view at the Christmas stuff. I think Osborne lights lasts until the middle of that first week and MK comes down shortly after that. By the end of that first week most of the hotels and a lot of the parks will have all their Christmas stuff down. Not sure why they delay at DHS. Someone mentioned earlier it's for the marathon. Maybe that's the case, or maybe they just do that park last. Either way I agree they could definitely take it all down in a night or 2 if they brought in a larger crew.

 

[xstech25]

Possibly though doubtful. I have no frame of reference for Turkey's view on Christmas and am not likely to visit Turkey to know if Turkey is a fair comparison to Disney Worlds operational procedures, nor do I know why we would attempt to say as you are that Christmas has nothing to do with Christianity, it's all about makin-the-money, because that is how the Muslims operate in Turkey. Too abstract for me.

It's not abstract it's really simple actually. What i'm trying to say is that Christianity is irrelevant to why WDW (or any other business) has celebrations going so long. They do it because it makes $$$.

 

[Gabe1]

It's not abstract it's really simple actually. What i'm trying to say is that Christianity is irrelevant to why WDW (or any other business) has celebrations going so long. They do it because it makes $$$.

When you cherry picked Turkey as the nation to set your bar to blast Christmas traditions at WDW, in the USA I was out.

 

[NearTheEars]

This decorations debate is great and all but .....
What are they testing the fireworks for? Any ideas since there is no regular show throughout the year.

 

[GoofGoof]

This decorations debate is great and all but .....
What are they testing the fireworks for? Any ideas since there is no regular show throughout the year.

I assume New Years Eve.

Maybe they will have a year round fireworks show soon. Gonna need something to draw people in when half the park is behind construction walls

 

[NearTheEars]

I assume New Years Eve.

Maybe they will have a year round fireworks show soon. Gonna need something to draw people in when half the park is behind construction walls

Didn't think about New Years. Thanks!

 

[ToTBellHop]

I appreciate what you are saying I just don't believe that guests on a whole are looking to book Christmas vacations in the middle of January. The vast majority of people I know are ready for the holidays be complete with the New Year give or take a day or two. Stretch it out another two weeks in any venue, malls playing Christmas Music mid January, Schools decorated and work themed to Christmas most are going to be annoyed over thrilled. Our opinions differ, I think it has everything to do with having less staff, taking longer to get it all down with less staff thus cutting over all costs.

I think you are reaching on the cost savings. How does keeping Christmas lights on and extra week or two save money? The total cost to dismantle doesn't really change as the number of man-hours required doesn't change. I guarantee you that more people like seeing the decorations in January than march to guest relations complaining that the parks are too jolly and bright.

 

[Gabe1]

I think you are reaching on the cost savings. How does keeping Christmas lights on and extra week or two save money? The total cost to dismantle doesn't really change as the number of man-hours required doesn't change. I guarantee you that more people like seeing the decorations in January than march to guest relations complaining that the parks are too jolly and bright.

Not thinking like me. If you use the same night crew and stretch recovery out over 2 weeks you have zero additional labor costs. If you strike them on the same night you are going to have to hire additional labor at overtime. It is the same way at the resort where theming use to come in and strike it. Now a little at a time it is taken down, piled and then picked up when it is all down from the resorts.

 

[Voxel]

Not thinking like me. If you use the same night crew and stretch recovery out over 2 weeks you have zero additional labor costs. If you strike them on the same night you are going to have to hire additional labor at overtime. It is the same way at the resort where theming use to come in and strike it. Now a little at a time it is taken down, piled and then picked up when it is all down from the resorts.

Think about the organization that has to go into putting four parks and X many hotels into storage for the next year on the same day. Your talking about work beyond what disney has employed to work on Christmas decoration (yes which is an individual department)
I would assume the test are generic, Disney has been pushing towards more Fireworks shows in DHS lately and perhaps they are just trying out new sequence/units to see how they would look in the limited viewing of DHS.

 

[Gabe1]

Think about the organization that has to go into putting four parks and X many hotels into storage for the next year on the same day. Your talking about work beyond what disney has employed to work on Christmas decoration (yes which is an individual department)
I would assume the test are generic, Disney has been pushing towards more Fireworks shows in DHS lately and perhaps they are just trying out new sequence/units to see how they would look in the limited viewing of DHS.

Yep I hit on their department which too is not immune to budget cuts. It is not like they take a wreath down and immediately put it in its resting place until October. Pulling, transport, cleaning, wrapping/crating etc. is far more complex than one would think. Pulling it down, save things like the castle and Osborne is the easy, quicker part.

They have had less decorations up for the last several years. They got them all down for years quicker when they had more. Less should not take longer like it has the last few years.

 

[Kman101]

LOL is there really a semi-debate on how long they leave their lights up? Let's round up every house in the world that has theirs up past a certain date. I don't see the big deal. It's complaining to complain.

 

[ford91exploder]

Yep I hit on their department which too is not immune to budget cuts. It is not like they take a wreath down and immediately put it in its resting place until October. Pulling, transport, cleaning, wrapping/crating etc. is far more complex than one would think. Pulling it down, save things like the castle and Osborne is the easy, quicker part.

They have had less decorations up for the last several years. They got them all down for years quicker when they had more. Less should not take longer like it has the last few years.

Well at least for the Osborne lights they can go into the metal recycling hopper this year since this will be the last year for the lights according to many insiders.

 

[Gabe1]

Well at least for the Osborne lights they can go into the metal recycling hopper this year since this will be the last year for the lights according to many insiders.

Oh wow! I did not hear Disney was throwing away the Osborne Lights. I heard it would be very different obviously, just like Osborne is very different now vs the original Osborne down Residential Avenue but I didn't hear they were putting it in a hopper. What a wasteful non-green thing to do.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Well at least for the Osborne lights they can go into the metal recycling hopper this year since this will be the last year for the lights according to many insiders.

They aren't throwing the lights out.

 

[ford91exploder]

Oh wow! I did not hear Disney was throwing away the Osborne Lights. I heard it would be very different obviously, just like Osborne is very different now vs the original Osborne down Residential Avenue but I didn't hear they were putting it in a hopper. What a wasteful non-green thing to do.

As far as I know they are not throwing them out, However after this year's display and the upcoming demolition of SoA there are NO PLANS to relocate them to another site in 2015 or any subsequent year according to well known insiders. Even @WDW1974 indicated that if you had not seen them this year will be LAST CHANCE.

So it's possible they MAY be scrapped I personally would like strong assurances that this WILL NOT BE THE CASE.

Its TDO so who the H--- knows.

 

[ToTBellHop]

As far as I know they are not throwing them out, However after this year's display and the upcoming demolition of SoA there are NO PLANS to relocate them to another site in 2015 or any subsequent year according to well known insiders. Even @WDW1974 indicated that if you had not seen them this year will be LAST CHANCE.

So it's possible they MAY be scrapped I personally would like strong assurances that this WILL NOT BE THE CASE.

Its TDO so who the H--- knows.

WDW1974 actually later stated that they would not be going away. They have Siemens/Sylvania as a sponsor now, so it is unlikely to go away permanently. It is very possible that they will go on hiatus for a year or two like they did when LMA was being built. It is a big money-maker for DHS.

 

[ford91exploder]

WDW1974 actually later stated that they would not be going away. They have Siemens/Sylvania as a sponsor now, so it is unlikely to go away permanently. It is very possible that they will go on hiatus for a year or two like they did when LMA was being built. It is a big money-maker for DHS.

Hope you are right as they are one of my favorites, I've even scheduled trips so I had layovers in MCO so I could see them.