Any theories on why Disney poorly maintains many of their rides?

[Naplesgolfer]

Disney clearly has the money to maintain their rides but in many instances does not. They leave many things broken and wait far to long between overhauls.I wonder if it's not partly do to some internal struggle for funding between different departments. I really find it odd that TDO spends billions on new hotels and infrastructure to draw and funnel guest's to the parks and then don't maintain the attractions the people are coming to experience.
Any Theories ??

 

[muddyrivers]

"Meh, it's fine. We got these people's money already so why fix it unless it's a safety hazard and we could lose all that money in a lawsuit/settlement?"

I don't have a good answer though in seriousness.

 

[marni1971]

Pretty much money. They know what’s wrong. They are told what’s wrong. Cast report what’s wrong. They’re just selective in what’s repaired. Show quality wise Tower is bad but better than it was. SSE has some serious issues. Space Mountain is current abysmal.

 

[Naplesgolfer]

Pretty much money. They know what’s wrong. They are told what’s wrong. Cast report what’s wrong. They’re just selective in what’s repaired. Show quality wise Tower is bad but better than it was. SSE has some serious issues. Space Mountain is current abysmal.

I have heard you list the broken items on Tower. Many of those items don't seem like they would crazy expensive to fix. It just seem's so short sighted.

Do you think the average guest don't see most of these things and thus it doesn't show up in the surveys ?

 

[marni1971]

Do you think the average guest don't see most of these things and thus it doesn't show up in the surveys ?

Part that. Part they keep coming in. And part budget cuts.

 

[graphite1326]

My theory: Disney doesn't pay well at least a the level of a person who would maintain the rides. I would say they just can't get qualified help to properly maintain these rides. It isn't like you can just get someone off the street to maintain the complicated rides Disney creates.

 

[fradz]

Disneyland Paris used these maintenance budget cuts during the dire days, Philippe Gas leading (I don't blame him, he didn't really have a choice). Now they had to pay hundreds of millions to bring the show quality back to what was expected... This will come bite them back heavily in Orlando.

 

[Mickey5150]

Pretty much money. They know what’s wrong. They are told what’s wrong. Cast report what’s wrong. They’re just selective in what’s repaired. Show quality wise Tower is bad but better than it was. SSE has some serious issues. Space Mountain is current abysmal.

What are the issues on SSE and Space Mountain? I just rode SM for the first time in years the other day so don't know what it should be like.

 

[wdisney9000]

Pretty much money. They know what’s wrong. They are told what’s wrong. Cast report what’s wrong. They’re just selective in what’s repaired. Show quality wise Tower is bad but better than it was. SSE has some serious issues. Space Mountain is current abysmal.

My wife rode ToT a few weeks back and said that their drop sequence paused at the top (with the doors open) for several seconds. I have not experienced that in years. Is that part of one of the sequences? (I dont know the names of them)

 

[Damon7777]

Do you think the average guest don't see most of these things

Something is inherently off with that explanation.

If indeed Disney feels guests don't notice or appreciate broken effects on rides then why put them on in the first place?!?!
Something is sheerly incongruent here.

We have engineering, construction and time costs to get these features(AA's, lighting, sound, set pieces, fire, steam, stationary props.....almost anything under the sun) initially installed. So if they are unnoticed or underappreciated by guests then there would be absolutely no reason to add them in the creation of the project to begin with, no?

 

[xdan0920]

Something is inherently off with that explanation.

If indeed Disney feels guests don't notice or appreciate broken effects on rides then why put them on in the first place?!?!
Something is sheerly incongruent here.

We have engineering, construction and time costs to get these features(AA's, lighting, sound, set pieces, fire, steam, stationary props.....almost anything under the sun) initially installed. So if they are unnoticed or underappreciated by guests then there would be absolutely no reason to add them in the creation of the project to begin with, no?

Those little things do (should) matter to the imagineers. It's the Disney difference, after all.

Now, it's harder to get Jake and John from maintenance accounting to give a flying turd about those things. They don't care about theme parks, or guests, or the imagineers vision. They see maintenance for Space Mountain is "x" amount, but they need it to be y amount, so little things here and there don't get approved. "They are only tourists," after all.

 

[larryz]

Of course, "poorly maintains" is a relative term. They still, despite all the minor, petty issues, manage to jam a couple million people a month through the parks, and most seem pretty happy with what they're getting to do.

 

[Damon7777]

Now, it's harder to get Jake and John from maintenance accounting to give a flying turd about those things. They don't care about theme parks, or guests, or the imagineers vision.

Help me understand this:

Disney hires and pays maintenance personnel but yet they refuse to maintain.
Got it!

If I were king for an afternoon I would have these cats in front if a firing squad by sundown.

I don't believe in capital punishment, ever, ........except for the those who get paid but don't maintain the parks and the gas station owner/manager who is so lazy and cheap by not keeping soapy water in the squeegee dipping container to clean our windshields.

Both are hanging offenses to be sure.

 

[Naplesgolfer]

Something is inherently off with that explanation.

If indeed Disney feels guests don't notice or appreciate broken effects on rides then why put them on in the first place?!?!
Something is sheerly incongruent here.

We have engineering, construction and time costs to get these features(AA's, lighting, sound, set pieces, fire, steam, stationary props.....almost anything under the sun) initially installed. So if they are unnoticed or underappreciated by guests then there would be absolutely no reason to add them in the creation of the project to begin with, no?

It wasn't a explanation. It was a question about a theory of how Disney possibly rationalizes not maintaining the rides a high level.

 

[WallyWorld]

I think infrequent visitors, myself included, would rather not have an entire attraction shut down (thus missing it entirely) vs. a few effects I may or may not notice anyway.

 

[xdan0920]

Help me understand this:

Disney hires and pays maintenance personnel but yet they refuse to maintain.
Got it!

If I were king for an afternoon I would have these cats in front if a firing squad by sundown.

I don't believe in capital punishment, ever, ........except for the those who get paid but don't maintain the parks and the gas station owner/manager who is so lazy and cheap by not keeping soapy water in the squeegee dipping container to clean our windshields.

Both are hanging offenses to be sure.

I am just taking an educated guess. It's not that maintenance refuse to maintain, it's that fixing "whatever" costs "whatever," and it doesn't get approved because of budgets.

As to the gas station question, you happen to be talking to a small business owner, of you guessed it, a gas station! I promise it's not cheapness that keeps suds away. It literally costs nothing to change out dirty water for clean soapy water. It's just that the minimum wage guy who's ostensibly responsible for changing said water is too busy day dreaming to bother changing it. 99.9% of the time the manager or owner (ME!) will take care of it whenever they notice.

Anyhoo.

 

[Shouldigo12]

I think infrequent visitors, myself included, would rather not have an entire attraction shut down (thus missing it entirely) vs. a few effects I may or may not notice anyway.

Agreed. I believe there was a thread awhile back where someone listed all of the animontronics that weren't functioning properly when they visited. IMO, if you're too busy cataloguing minor issues (and yes, I do consider a few broken animontronics on a ride to be minor. As long as most are still working it's hardly noticeable) to enjoy the rides, then maybe its time to take a break because the rides are clearly not entertaining you enough anymore.

 

[xdan0920]

I think infrequent visitors, myself included, would rather not have an entire attraction shut down (thus missing it entirely) vs. a few effects I may or may not notice anyway.

Agreed. I believe there was a thread awhile back where someone listed all of the animontronics that weren't functioning properly when they visited. IMO, if you're too busy cataloguing minor issues (and yes, I do consider a few broken animontronics on a ride to be minor. As long as most are still working it's hardly noticeable) to enjoy the rides, then maybe its time to take a break because the rides are clearly not entertaining you enough anymore.

And here is the real reason rides are not maintained properly. Guests like this. Why bother spending the money to keep up the attractions when guests like this don't care what works and what doesn't?

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

I think they have learned from Red Green's philosiphy..

 

[Shouldigo12]

And here is the real reason rides are not maintained properly. Guests like this. Why bother spending the money to keep up the attractions when guests like this don't care what works and what doesn't?

Ah, yes. The classic "its your fault I don't like how Disney World is managed". Look, I care about what works. But seriously, what do you think is better? Closing down the ride, forcing people who have waited potentially an hour or more to get out of line without riding and telling people who made a fastpass for it two months ago that, sorry, the thing that reserved you a spot on this ride? Yeah, you can't use it. A single animontronic in the background isn't waving his arm in time with the rest of them so we're closing it down for repairs. Or instead, whoever is in charge of ride shutdowns realizing that the enjoyment of the ride does not hinge on every single animontronic working perfectly and lets it keep running?