Darkness of rides worse than before. Covering up bad show or 'energy saving'?

TinkerBelle8878

TinkerBelle8878

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I just came back from a recent trip to WDW and I was surprised at how dark everything was. In Haunted Mansion where before I remember being able to see details and such of ghosts and AAs in the graveyard scene, now it was just dark with some glow. Hard to make out much detail with most of the whole ride. Had the same with TTA. Tunnels with nothing. When you used to drive into Space Mountain, you'd see the glow of the cars on the tracks and such. Now just a lot of darkness for two tunnels. These were the two where it was glaringly obvious that something was off. My first thought was that Disney figured, why throw more money into things, just make them dark to cover up all the flaws.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Also I've been going to WDW since I was less than a year old and never in all those trips had my family ever experienced rides going down. Yet this past trip, it happened 3 separate times for 3 different attractions/parks. Rat in Epcot, Runaway Rail in DHS, and Pirates in MK. Luckily we got out of line for Rat and Pirates after only waiting a few minutes before hearing about this..or rather seeing the swarm of people leaving the line from further up. Shouldn't there be a Cast Member telling guests before they enter these long lines that the ride isn't working?

Also in an unrelated note, thanks to Lightning Lane, the Navi River ride in AK standby line didn't move an inch for 45 minutes. Cast Members said that this was due to LL people being directed here from another closed attraction and Cast members being told they must allow on all LL riders first. Can we please get rid of this stupid thing?
 
Y

YouMakeTheWorldGoRound

Active Member
I totally agree on Haunted Mansion, was so ridiculously dark my last trip I could bearly make out the figures sometimes.

Same with some areas of indoors queues in Seven Dwarfs, Big Thunder and Ariel.
 
JIMINYCR

JIMINYCR

Well-Known Member
Several attractions have for quite a while been operating with a darker environment. HM has been one that’s been reported being darker obscuring the view of the ghosts. Many guests have noticed a difference from other trips. IDK if it’s a lighting issue that Dis hadn’t fixed or just how it’s operating now.
Sometimes there is a breakdown that can be resolved quickly and CMs allow guests to continue into the queue. If there is a breakdown that’s going to take time they do position people at the entrance to direct guests away. Maybe you got caught up between them knowing it was going down. It’s happened to us at times. Frustrating when any breakdowns close an attraction but it happens.
LL is like the FP where those guests get preference loading on. When there is a closed attraction it will dump a huge number onto a ride that wasn’t expecting a sudden influx of riders. It’s a profitable enterprise that Dis isn’t going to discontinue.
 
NickMaio

NickMaio

Well-Known Member
Let Disney know....
If they know enough people are noticing these things, they might actually do something.
 
MickeyLuv'r

MickeyLuv'r

Well-Known Member
TinkerBelle8878 said:
I just came back from a recent trip to WDW and I was surprised at how dark everything was. In Haunted Mansion where before I remember being able to see details and such of ghosts and AAs in the graveyard scene, now it was just dark with some glow. Hard to make out much detail with most of the whole ride. Had the same with TTA. Tunnels with nothing. When you used to drive into Space Mountain, you'd see the glow of the cars on the tracks and such. Now just a lot of darkness for two tunnels. These were the two where it was glaringly obvious that something was off. My first thought was that Disney figured, why throw more money into things, just make them dark to cover up all the flaws.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Also I've been going to WDW since I was less than a year old and never in all those trips had my family ever experienced rides going down. Yet this past trip, it happened 3 separate times for 3 different attractions/parks. Rat in Epcot, Runaway Rail in DHS, and Pirates in MK. Luckily we got out of line for Rat and Pirates after only waiting a few minutes before hearing about this..or rather seeing the swarm of people leaving the line from further up. Shouldn't there be a Cast Member telling guests before they enter these long lines that the ride isn't working?

Also in an unrelated note, thanks to Lightning Lane, the Navi River ride in AK standby line didn't move an inch for 45 minutes. Cast Members said that this was due to LL people being directed here from another closed attraction and Cast members being told they must allow on all LL riders first. Can we please get rid of this stupid thing?
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1A. Back in 2016, HM had a refurbishment. At that time, the graveyard ghosts were repainted, so it has been 7 years since they were repainted. If you saw them when the paint was fresh, they would have appeared brighter than they currently are.
1B. TTA- Others have commented, but Space Mtn was intentionally blocked off so space Mtn would be darker. The second darkness I'm not sure. Would help if you could be more specific. I didn't notice anything off a few weeks ago.

2A. Over the years, we have experienced many ride closures. We have even gotten stuck on a few rides. It was pretty common to get stuck on Splash. WDW is open 365 days/year and most WDW rides are 20+ years old. Ride maintenance is an issue. WDW could do better, but all parks have some downtime.

Usually if a ride goes down, the CM's know it will be down for a while, they DO make an announcement and close the queue. Sometimes rides have to stop because a rider did something very dumb, like climbing out of the ride vehicle. CM's also have to stop a ride if a rider happens to fall down when exiting the ride or has a medical emergency.

3. That sounds terrible and frustrating. Kali closes every year in January, and that has an impact on the park. If another ride also went down on the day of your visit, that would have a significant impact. Which ride was down?
 
Smiley/OCD

Smiley/OCD

Well-Known Member
Take this explanation with a grain of Tiana’s salt…but when we were there at the start of the pandemic, when all the pre shows were closed (stretching room) I had noticed that all the rides seemed to be exceptionally dark.
I asked a CM and was told that since the pre shows were not being used, our eyes didn’t have the normal time to adjust…we were there last December and it was pretty much the same thing. All the pre shows were up and running. Now I think they are keeping it dark on purpose to hide the plethora of non working elements. It’s a shame…it really is…
 
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NickMaio

NickMaio

Well-Known Member
Smiley/OCD said:
Take this explanation with a grain of Tiana’s salt…but when we were there at the start of the pandemic, when all the pre shows were closed (stretching room) I had noticed that all the rides seemed to be exceptionally dark.
I asked a CM and was told that since the pre shows were not being used, our eyes didn’t have the normal time to adjust…we were there last December and it was pretty much the same thing. All the pre shows were up and running. Now I think they are keeping it dark on purpose to hide the plethora of non working elements. It’s a shame…it really is…
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Bingo
 
zipadee999

zipadee999

Well-Known Member
Definitely on to something about mansion, and it’s not just the paint on the ghosts wearing out. The raven on the fall into the graveyard couldn’t be seen because his lights were burnt out, the scary trees were hardly visible, and the grave keeper could barely be seen too. I would say that these are just burnt out lights, and they probably are, but the rest of the attraction was noticeably darker. I liked this in the first half, as you could still see the scenes but it added to the eeriness. The graveyard was in rough shape because it relies on the ambient lighting and this lighting was just too low to see the details
 
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NelleBelle

NelleBelle

Well-Known Member
I definitely have to agree about HM. My mom commented on it this summer when we were there. I have an extremely difficult time with my eyes adjusting from light to dark (I'm just about blind so going into the stretching room and loading area if I'm not hanging onto someone, I'm truly lost). I just thought the darkness was related to my vision issues and the graveyard was part of it, but my mom stated that she thought the whole ride seemed "dark". I do remember that the should popping up from behind the graves were difficult to see as well.
 
J

jimbojones

Well-Known Member
In August 22 I did not notice this issue. But our eyes become less sensitive to low light as we age. Lots of screen time exacerbates the problem. I have memories of the night sky as a child in the desert being an endless sea of stars, now I can tell its nicer than in the city but it looks nothing like my memories while my children oh and ahh at the endless stars, I just can't see like I used to when it is low light .
 
JoeCamel

JoeCamel

Well-Known Member
jimbojones said:
In August 22 I did not notice this issue. But our eyes become less sensitive to low light as we age. Lots of screen time exacerbates the problem. I have memories of the night sky as a child in the desert being an endless sea of stars, now I can tell its nicer than in the city but it looks nothing like my memories while my children oh and ahh at the endless stars, I just can't see like I used to when it is low light .
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The night skies worldwide have dimmed due to light pollution. A source from far away can scatter and disrupt starlight in a wide area and those distant city lights you see in the desert make it all the way to where you are. I get what you are saying, I'm old and don't like to drive at night but I do remember being blown away by the night sky at home. I can still get to places it is much better but it's too far to get to really dark. If you are north the aurora interferes and near the equator there are usually clouds. Happy memories
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
JoeCamel said:
The night skies worldwide have dimmed due to light pollution. A source from far away can scatter and disrupt starlight in a wide area and those distant city lights you see in the desert make it all the way to where you are. I get what you are saying, I'm old and don't like to drive at night but I do remember being blown away by the night sky at home. I can still get to places it is much better but it's too far to get to really dark. If you are north the aurora interferes and near the equator there are usually clouds. Happy memories
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Sure there's that, but it's not our problem. I'm sure our grandchildren and great grand children will find a way to fix it, assuming there still is oxygen left to breath. But, hey... it's not our problem is it? Keep doing what we are doing and there will literally be a much darker future. We'll all be dead by then so, who cares?
 
cjkeating

cjkeating

Well-Known Member
One thing I noticed in 2022 was how the majority of MK attractions still use non LED lights. As a Disneyland Paris 'local' they have been relighting all of their attractions with LEDs which to me gives off a far more consistent, bolder and brighter light which is also more reliable, I really noticed it on IASW where it felt like the ride was running on emergency backup lighting as it was so dark, dull and grey compared to what I had become accustomed to at Disneyland Paris.

I do also wonder if as LEDs are increasingly common in shops, trains, public buildings etc. it is becoming more noticeable that MK and the less modern parts of WDW haven't been upgraded to them?
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
I can't believe that anyone would even have a thought about how dark a dark ride should be. It's Dark and it's dark for a reason and that is mostly to hide things that would break the image immersion. How do you measure the degree of darkness anyway. We all see things differently with different tone and use of different receptors in our eyes. What do people want a brightly lit ride and call it a dark ride. Seriously, I am amazed by some of the things people seem to not get.

Personally, I think the sun is way to bright and a waste of energy and since we can't really look at it directly and clearly then what flaws is it trying to hide?
 

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