Country Bear Jamboree closing for lengthy refurbishment in August

TalkingHead

TalkingHead

Well-Known Member
pumpkin7 said:
Some are saying it's to keep it fresh for todays audience and so it doesn't get boring. To me now it's more boring than it was before. I feel we've lost the connection with the bears. They don't talk and whatnot much now. Such a shame.
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Which is stupid logic. If you're gonna keep it "fresh," then you replace it with something new and impressive. My impression is people who don't like the show, don't like it because of its concept and premise. Robotic bears singing country music.

Well, you can edit the show in a choppy way but...it's still robotic bears singing country music...with choppy editing and bad pacing along the way.
 
Laufschneller65

Laufschneller65

Member
Pixiedustmaker said:
Disney dropped the whole ticketing of rides when Epcot opened, and ever since all management has had is daily ride counts and guest compliments/complaints.

Meaning that it is virtually impossible to figure out exactly how the Christmas overlay affects overall attendance at MK, we're looking at intangibles here. What is known is that MK is really a bunch of fiefdoms and the decision to close might have been to make one fiefdom look like it was saving money, though at the expense of overall park experience.

With modern computing power/technology, all the Christmas overlay should require is changing some costumes and adding decorations. Period. This should only take a couple weeks, maybe less. In reality, they should have a ton of different shows ready to go at the press of a button as the show was designed to be updated, IMHO.

Tokyo Disneyland has its act together and runs three different shows each year, the original, the vacation, and the Christmas show. Why would it be cost feasible in Tokyo and not MK??

There are guests that look (looked) forward to the Christmas overlay, so not having it decreases guest experience. Unhappy guests come less often, spend less, such as buying less merchandise. If they did the Christmas Show and sold CBJ Christmas sourvenirs and such it would probably help the overall guest experience at MK. Even if you're not a fan, you'll be able to dislike the attraction less if Disney put some care into it.

What if they finally produced that special CBJ Halloween show and offered special merchandise? They'd make millions. Certainly that would pay for such a show, and would offset criticism of this neglected attraction.

What's going to happen next, a Fantasyland manager shutdowns SWSA and replaces it with a meet and greet because it means less rides to maintain once the FLE is complete?

Oh . . . I guess that is going to happen.

My favorite holiday Layover is the Haunted Mansion Holiday in Disneyland. Besides big green plastic trees, WDW doesn't have as much magic as Disneyland when it comes to special holiday events, besides Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. Disneyland's Small world also has the awesome holiday overlay, I don't know if they do this in MK. It seems like management in MK is too lazy to do, or even care about, holiday overlays of rides.
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As much as I agree with you that I'd love to see more holiday overlays, there is one thing we are ignoring. Walt Disney World is NOT Disneyland. The major difference between the two parks, is that Disneyland's guests are almost always returning guests, or going to become returning guests. A majority of Walt Disney World guests are Once in a lifetime guests. The guests at WDW are coming from around the world, and the country specifically for a once in a lifetime vacation. Yes, it has a HUGE return rate. But still, that return rate is based on people getting to experience as much as possible. When you close an attraction, even for a short while, you cut off that experience to hundreds of thousands of new guests. This in turn has shown to decrease the amount of people willing to come back. When a new guest comes, and they see too many refurbishments, it dampens their experience and they are less likely to return.

I 100% see your point of view as an already returning Disney Guest. But to new guests, disney already lacks in amount of attractions compared to their local amusement parks (I know we would never compare the two), but to a new guest this is a big deal. When they come to WDW and see closed attractions, they feel cheated. And rightfully so.

Just a thought.
 
P

ptaylor

Premium Member
Well WDI made a complete hash of another refurbishment. Anyone know who the lead was on this project?

These cuts are not enough to make people who do not like Country Bears to like it, but there are enough cuts to upset the Country Bear fans. Nobody is a winner here.

So how much of this is about operations wanting to give guests using FASTPASS+ more available slots on their pre-arrival website?
 
J.E.Smith

J.E.Smith

Well-Known Member
Okay as much as I don't like the cuts, I should have mentioned that I do like the improvements to the AA movements, especially Henry. His new cosmetics make him look more like the Tokyo Henry AA, which I liked more. I guess I was so worked up I forget to give them credit for that.

I just wish we could have had all these other improvements plus the whole show...

By the way, the video didn't get all of Come Again. Were they any cuts to that song too?
 
scoobygirl39541

scoobygirl39541

Well-Known Member
From a non-fan perspective... I saw the show once 11 years ago and always skipped it after that. This referb isn't encouraging me to see it again, so i doubt it will bring in new fans. Shortening it didn't accomplish anything except disappointing the loyal CBJ fans which is really sad. While I didn't care for the show, I know it had a decent following and I really feel for you guys! You all got the short end of the stick and that's a shame :( At least the AA's got some TLC though!
 
RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
It sounds like this was a refurb that wasn't requested by anyone at imagineering. It sounds like this was something that Park Ops looked at as an area of weakness and they went to Imagineering to make some cuts/changes. They probably had requirements like "we need to get in 10 more shows a day".
 
pumpkin7

pumpkin7

Well-Known Member
I'm glad the general concensus is that this refurb hasn't pleased the fans or the people who don't go and see it very often. An epic fail in my eyes and a big waste of time. (Apart from the upgraded AAs and costumes... )
 
TalkingHead

TalkingHead

Well-Known Member
RSoxNo1 said:
It sounds like this was a refurb that wasn't requested by anyone at imagineering. It sounds like this was something that Park Ops looked at as an area of weakness and they went to Imagineering to make some cuts/changes. They probably had requirements like "we need to get in 10 more shows a day".
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That thinking should give everyone pause.

Need more cycles for a show that rarely has waits exceeding "minutes to next show."

The only thing that makes sense is that the need for more cycles is preplanning for FP+, suggesting Ops think wait times will increase as a result of the new system.

Makes me wonder just how concerned they are about FP+ making a mess of wait times...
 
GLaDOS

GLaDOS

Well-Known Member
TalkingHead said:
That thinking should give everyone pause.

Need more cycles for a show that rarely has waits exceeding "minutes to next show."

The only thing that makes sense is that the need for more cycles is preplanning for FP+, suggesting Ops think wait times will increase as a result of the new system.

Makes me wonder just how concerned they are about FP+ making a mess of wait times...
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I've been thinking about the same thing. It doesn't paint a rosie picture of the post FP+ world, does it?
 
RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
TalkingHead said:
That thinking should give everyone pause.

Need more cycles for a show that rarely has waits exceeding "minutes to next show."

The only thing that makes sense is that the need for more cycles is preplanning for FP+, suggesting Ops think wait times will increase as a result of the new system.

Makes me wonder just how concerned they are about FP+ making a mess of wait times...
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We've established our concerns about FP+, putting Fastpass on your phone and allowing for scheduling is a great idea. Adding minimal visible infrastructure so that additional attractions can participate in this FP+ scheduling on an as needed (seasonal) basis is also a positive. Screwing up the way people tour the park and scheduling attractions before stepping foot into the park is a horrible idea and is causing more problems than it's worth.

There's more than enough time to scale back the concept of Fastpass+ while still selling it to the public as an added convenience. I sincerely hope Disney takes that opportunity.
 
elchippo

elchippo

Well-Known Member
Watched the two videos side by side....

I think I know a contributing factor to the changes that nobody has mentioned....the structure the Five Bear Rugs come in/out and back/forth on probably got a lot of wear with the frequency it moved in the old version....the new version minimizes their movement....think about how heavy that is and what it does to the mechanics over time. I hate that anything got cut, but perhaps it needed to re-tool in order to extend longevity of the mecahnics and while they were at it, decided to trim some fat. It all reduces longterm operating costs. Just a theory.
 
J.E.Smith

J.E.Smith

Well-Known Member
I think I may have overreacted in my initial post. While I'm still very disappointed with the cuts,saying I'll never see the show again or film it was too much.

While I may not keep track of every single new CBJ video that goes on YouTube from now on, I may still swing by and catch the bears if I'm ever at WDW again, even though it won't be the same. Personally, if Devilish Mary was cut, why couldn't they have replaced it with Rockytop from the Vacation Hoedown? That number's shorter.

I think I would have been more okay with it if they hadn't cut the finale in half, since that was my favorite song in the show. I mean if they wanted to shorten it, couldn't they have just kept the first verse and just cut out the bears hollering in the middle? That would have been better.
 
asianway

asianway

Well-Known Member
So efficiency trumps show again. I can't imagine workIng front line at WDW having to deal with the hypocrisy dished out by "leadership"
 
pumpkin7

pumpkin7

Well-Known Member
So disappointing.

Here, I hope Disney have kept the original tapes and recordings. I was going to say because they'll realise their mistake and change it back!






But then I remembered the Tiki Room. :(

Have the sun bonnets had new eyebrows? They look uber big and bushy!
 

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