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EagleScout610

Owner of a RKF - Resting Kermit Face
Premium Member
12. It's Trump's fault.
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The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
This is where logic breaks down, Marni. If it was easy, they would have done it already. I just can't believe that they don't care about the ongoing negative publicity that this situation generates. I have no answers, just common sense.
For twenty years the steamboat in my avatar lacked the two most essential identifying elements of a paddle steamer: a paddle and smokestacks for steam.

For twenty years, two companies, one a 70 billion dollar multinational, the other a 700 million dollar restaurant operator, looked at each other with stupid looks on their face insisting the other pay the handful of pennies it costs to make this steamboat restaurant - one of the top ten highest revenue restaurants in the US - look like a steamboat. A few days of revenue would've sufficed.


I won't put anything beyond Disney. If fixing the Yeti costed five dollars and took twenty minutes that could still be a reason for Disney not to fix it. Never mind if two competing departments want the other to foot the $5 bill. Disney is that mean, sorry and driven by extreme business mentality.
 

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
^ and that further demonstrates my frustration with this thread and the misinformation it perpetuates. If the purpose of leaving this stickied for a decade is to "stick it" to Disney, then said misinformation, that the attraction would have to be partially dismantled and the mountain structure literally cut open to remove the yeti, only ends up working in Disney's favor. It implies that absolutely nothing could be done without a massive undertaking, and that is absolutely false.
 

Ralphlaw

Well-Known Member
For twenty years the steamboat in my avatar lacked the two most essential identifying elements of a paddle steamer: a paddle and smokestacks for steam.

For twenty years, two companies, one a 70 billion dollar multinational, the other a 700 million dollar restaurant operator, looked at each other with stupid looks on their face insisting the other pay the handful of pennies it costs to make this steamboat restaurant - one of the top ten highest revenue restaurants in the US - look like a steamboat. A few days of revenue would've sufficed.


I won't put anything beyond Disney. If fixing the Yeti costed five dollars and took twenty minutes that could still be a reason for Disney not to fix it. Never mind if two competing departments want the other to foot the $5 bill. Disney is that mean, sorry and driven by extreme business mentality.

Now I'm curious. Was that the restaurant at Downtown Disney? I agree that such a standoff appears idiotic, akin to the south-going Zax and the north-going Zax from Dr. Seuss. More detail, please. Corporate idiocy is a passion of mine. My favorite is the tragic tale of corn brewed Schlitz from the early 80s. New Coke ranks right up there as well.
 

The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
Now I'm curious. Was that the restaurant at Downtown Disney? I agree that such a standoff appears idiotic, akin to the south-going Zax and the north-going Zax from Dr. Seuss. More detail, please. Corporate idiocy is a passion of mine. My favorite is the tragic tale of corn brewed Schlitz from the early 80s. New Coke ranks right up there as well.
Yes, I am taking about Fulton's Crap House.

From 1977 until 1996 Lillian Disney's boat had several restaurants ran by Disney itself.

(Can't resist the temptation! This is what fine dining at WDW used to look like. All for a fraction of the cost of what you pay nowadays. Back when the magic of Disney dining was defined as placemaking, pristine environments, and fun recreations of nostalgic times and places. Instead of involving screaming kids, 6000 calorie desserts and tarted up college kids playing dress up in Belle and Cindy costume for photo ops with rich trash' snowflakes. Style and elegance, where one wouldn't want to be caught dead without tie:

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)​

Then in 1996 Levy Restaurants took over the exploitation of the Empress. For twenty years, from 1996 to 2016. The name changed to Fulton. For the change of theme and interior into 'standard mediocre seafood joint that however will be able to seat more guests' the ship went into refurbishment, and was stripped, the stacks and paddlewheel removed for replacement. Then both Levy and Disney, from what I've gathered, both expected the other party to pay for the upkeep of the exterior of the boat. Disney claimed the stacks and wheel etc belonged to the responsibility of the boat's exploiter, while Levy claimed it belonged to Disney to take care of the themed environment whereas they Levy merely exploit the restaurant and everything related to that.

The two massive behemoths never did manage to just sit down and work it out as adults. Or even as two corporations with mutual interests. Instead they left this embarrassment out in the open for two decades. Neither the seafood restaurant exploiter nor the world's biggest themed environment exploiter thinking anything of a 220 foot paddle steamer looking nothing like that. Both simply walked out of the refurbishment midway.

And why not? The punters keep coming, in record numbers, and they keep paying, record price increases. There is no incentive. Not even one of pride, or dignity - both deemed less worthy than even a few pennies pocket change; in Disney's defense, this is universal to modern American management.
 
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Ralphlaw

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the history lesson. Sounds like some very shoddy lease-writing from the legal department(s).

It's all a symptom of too many people willing to spend far more money than they would at home for the same stuff, yet I am as guilty as they are. When on vacation, budgeting doesn't happen. The causes of the huge influx: cheap flights, better wages for those with good jobs, the lowering of proper dress standards, etc . . .

I happen to see quite a few weddings a our local courthouse, and you would be appalled by what people wear. Sweatpants and shirts with team logos and other writings on them are not uncommon. No wonder the marriages don't last if you can't even put on some decent dress up clothes for the biggest day of your life. We are a society with lower standards but enhanced accessibility. Thus shoddy people show up in droves to max out their credit cards for a restaurant that has incomplete theming.
 
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Incomudro

Well-Known Member
I guess it's a product of the times. People just aren't fancy anymore like how people seemed to be in the 70's. But i think i would take a Pink Floyd shirt and some jeans over an over priced suit to just wear to eat at a restaurant in Disney.
I'm with you there.
Walking around Disney, it's often hot, often humid, and you may get rained on.
 

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
So if it doesn't take that much to fix it, then why hasn't Disney already done it? I feel like theres more to this that either you or i will know. Oh and please contact Mr. Johnson in the control tower to confirm your flight to the moon!
The answer is it would require the ride to be down for a little while - note that I said little and not the massive "half the mountain would have to be dismantled" undertaking that the circulating rumors suggest. That, plus money, and the fact that they don't necessarily have to do this because it has consistently still been the most popular attraction in the park, are the reasons it hasn't been done yet.

I keep telling them I already confirmed my flight!
 

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