DINOSAUR closed for refurbishment July 25 - November 20 2016

[Kevin_W]

Ahh good to know. It was a bit run down when I was there around this time last year.

It was pretty run down in August. Glad it's getting some TLC.

 

[marni1971]

Think there's any shot of a soft opening. You seem to really know everything Disney

Martin really does haha.

I can jump in on the refurb thing, though - soft openings are generally for testing new attractions. They generally are not done for refurbs. It can happen, but they are generally tightly scheduled and there isn't a reason to soft open them in most cases. Any testing that needs to be done is done without guests. The point of a soft open is to gauge reactions more than anything else, most of the time, which a simple refurb wouldn't need.

This. Sometimes you'll get lucky after a maintainence project but mainly things reopen on time. Unless it's Dinosaur.

 

[jklakeview]

This. Sometimes you'll get lucky after a maintainence project but mainly things reopen on time. Unless it's Dinosaur.

Thanks. The little guy will just have to wait until next August.

 

[jklakeview]

This. Sometimes you'll get lucky after a maintainence project but mainly things reopen on time. Unless it's Dinosaur.

The only one that I can remember opening early was spaceship Earth after it's big refurbishment. We where there when it unexpectedly reopened

 

[marni1971]

The only one that I can remember opening early was spaceship Earth after it's big refurbishment. We where there when it unexpectedly reopened

Funnily enough it was late!

Then the date was moved to 2008 to cover theirselves. As you know it opened for the 2007 holiday season though work continued third shift.

 

[NothingRhymeswithOrange]

Does anyone have any kind of idea what they are doing exactly in this refurb? I know people have said fixing broken dinos, but is there any kind of word of what exactly they are doing?

 

[Jeff456]

Still one of my favourite attractions in WDW, I just hope this long refurbishment means it should definitely be open on my next trip!

 

[CanadianGordon]

My ride picture from last year shows my partner holding his glasses with his mouth open. I'm beaming. I loved this ride. Hoping it gets the love it needs.

 

[jklakeview]

Funnily enough it was late!

Then the date was moved to 2008 to cover theirselves. As you know it opened for the 2007 holiday season though work continued third shift.

Maybe the same will happen to Dinosaur!

 

[Professortango1]

It's better to realize what it takes to get it done right in the first place and set a refurb window that gives enough time to do it.

I'm going tomorrow. I had originally set AK up for the first park day of the trip. When the original refurb window got pushed back to October 17th from September, I changed my dining reservations around (some of which I had to wait a month to find a cancellation) to push my AK day back to the 20th so that we could ride it in post-refurb condition. All a giant waste of time.

I agree with you that it needs to be done right. It was supposed to be a 67 day refurb. It's now been extended 51 days past that window... at minimum. There's no excuse for missing by that much. At that point, you may as well say it's being closed indefinitely because at least then people won't build it into their expectations.

It's just frustrating, especially for a company that I hold (held?) to a higher standard.

Amen. It's rough with the Florida parks as they are so limited in attractions that having one be unexpectedly closed, really messes with the reason for visiting the park. We went to AK this summer and it just felt so empty with Dinosaur closed. We ended up riding Everest about 5 times because we had nothing else to see and explore, especially since the trails around the Tree of Life are closed and both animal trails had closed exhibits. Setting up a ring toss game doesn't fix the fact you have a half day park already, then you are closing one of the few major attractions longer than expected.

 

[PorterRedkey]

Disneyland Paris: The Most Unwanted Place on Earth.

When I think about how much money they've sunk into that, that could have been spent to finish out the World Showcase and properly update Futureworld... it makes me so annoyed. I wish they'd just sell it to the highest bidder and be done with it.

I think you should give DLP a chance. I was hoping to go, but the Terrorist activities in Paris caused my friends to more back to the States.
However, we are still planning on going in the next 2 years.

Sadly for this thread there is no Dinosaur in DLP.

 

[SplashJacket]

I think you should give DLP a chance. I was hoping to go, but the Terrorist activities in Paris caused my friends to more back to the States.
However, we are still planning on going in the next 2 years.

Sadly for this thread there is no Dinosaur in DLP.

I've gone to DLP twice and it is truly amazing, the main park has immense crowds in the busy season just as MK would. The first time I went was before the whole terror stuff went down and was in the busy season. It was a mosh pit. The second time I went was just before the busy season and in May of this year, all the terror warning up. After DLP we toured Europe etc. By the time we got home it was the busy season in DLP and the rides had insane wait times just as WDW does. DLP has some amazing rides such as their Pirates of the Caribbean, space mountain mission two, Phantom Manor, Big Thunder WHICH WAS CLOSED BOTH TIMES I WENT THERE :'(, Ratatouille, Crush's coaster, and the other copy and paste rides like ToT RRC Star Tours etc. I understand it is has been a money pit. It should have been put in Spain hands down. A lot of the environment is not Disney standard but is going to be soon. The second park was like HS when it first opened. Horrible, they have tried to add more to it and have come short but will be there soon. The main park is good but seems a little undermanaged. Though is getting many refurbs as said before. The entire left side of the park has scaffolding galore and a 13-Month refurb for Big Thunder. Rockin Roller coaster was also closed. The DLP resort is being refurbed which I stayed at because I got a really good deal. It feels dated as does Epcot, Tomorrowland, etc but it's getting its shine back to it. In conclusion, I have been rambling and I have had no point to be made besides I second the fact that you need to give DLP a chance. It is truly awesome and will soon be better and the money pit will hopefully be revoked and we will all live happily ever after. The end.

 

[DisneyGentlemanV2.0]

Funnily enough it was late!

Then the date was moved to 2008 to cover theirselves. As you know it opened for the 2007 holiday season though work continued third shift.

The infamous triangles of hope...

 

[Gabe1]

May I ask why you think Dino but not thunder mountain. Dino is now set to reopen on the 20th and thunder is set to reopen the 19th. I actually figured thunder mountian would have a better chance for a soft opening than Dino since it's been delayed twice already

I believe both are kinda a shot in the dark. I was in the MK in 2014 when Thunder closed for like a 5 day rehab. Got on it at the beginning of trip and it was to be open on the last day which I had a FP+ for. They had a lot of interruptions for quick but intermittent rain storms. Rain and outdoor attractions rehabs can throw any rehab timeline off. It did open the day they said just about 6 hours later. Fortunate to be coming off Splash as it unexpectedly opened.

Dino, well considering the main issues are infrastructure with water pouring into the ride area frequently who knows what they kept finding as they kept digging though the issues. We've all dealt with plumbing issues and they are never as easy as we hoped for. We saw this with Splash Mountain cave in and Malestrom too. Dino is our favorite at AK and it was closed for us but I'd hope they have fixed it all by keeping it closed unlike Splash that took 2 rehabs to fix the vast majority.

 

[jklakeview]

I believe both are kinda a shot in the dark. I was in the MK in 2014 when Thunder closed for like a 5 day rehab. Got on it at the beginning of trip and it was to be open on the last day which I had a FP+ for. They had a lot of interruptions for quick but intermittent rain storms. Rain and outdoor attractions rehabs can throw any rehab timeline off. It did open the day they said just about 6 hours later. Fortunate to be coming off Splash as it unexpectedly opened.

Dino, well considering the main issues are infrastructure with water pouring into the ride area frequently who knows what they kept finding as they kept digging though the issues. We've all dealt with plumbing issues and they are never as easy as we hoped for. We saw this with Splash Mountain cave in and Malestrom too. Dino is our favorite at AK and it was closed for us but I'd hope they have fixed it all by keeping it closed unlike Splash that took 2 rehabs to fix the vast majority.

Did I miss something? Dinosaur has a plumbing issue? Was this reported somewhere?

 

[Gabe1]

Did I miss something? Dinosaur has a plumbing issue? Was this reported somewhere?

Yep buried in this thread likely somewhere. The main reason for the refurbishment was the infrastructure issues with the building. It closed frequently for water in the vehicle path. They actually sent excess CMs crosstrained out to help with other near attractions during clean up. Yes there are show issues but I doubt they would have closed Dinosaur until at least ROL or Avatar came online for just the show issues. Disney seemed to have learned their lesson with both Maelstrom and especially Splash what happens when you let the infrastructure go for too long without addressing. Hope Dino doesn't take 2 rehabs like Splash did, where they didn't get to many of the show issues until round #2 rehab.

Someone in here also mentioned one of the fixed lifts in Splash that was fixed is now having issues again.

 

[Bairstow]

Yep buried in this thread likely somewhere. The main reason for the refurbishment was the infrastructure issues with the building. It closed frequently for water in the vehicle path. They actually sent excess CMs crosstrained out to help with other near attractions during clean up. Yes there are show issues but I doubt they would have closed Dinosaur until at least ROL or Avatar came online for just the show issues. Disney seemed to have learned their lesson with both Maelstrom and especially Splash what happens when you let the infrastructure go for too long without addressing. Hope Dino doesn't take 2 rehabs like Splash did, where they didn't get to many of the show issues until round #2 rehab.

Someone in here also mentioned one of the fixed lifts in Splash that was fixed is now having issues again.

Pooling water in the vehicle path?
Well that would be about the only thing to explain why they chose to close the attraction before Pandoraland opened.

...though now that I think about it, a "fording the stream" element, Rhino Rally-Style would definitely enhance the ride.

 

[AEfx]

...though now that I think about it, a "fording the stream" element, Rhino Rally-Style would definitely enhance the ride.

LOL, I do wish some of the water elements had made it into the ride. That would have put it over the top.

 

[Gabe1]

Pooling water in the vehicle path?
Well that would be about the only thing to explain why they chose to close the attraction before Pandoraland opened.

...though now that I think about it, a "fording the stream" element, Rhino Rally-Style would definitely enhance the ride.

ba-dum-pump chsh!

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

LOL, I do wish some of the water elements had made it into the ride. That would have put it over the top.

Yeah, but then people would think "Hey is this that other ride 8.5 miles down the road in that other park where that E.T Feller flys?"