Expedition Everest effects status watch

[Cesar R M]

No, can't see 7 years and 113 pages dedicated to a hairy legged pirate. I'd bet money that a major fix comes after Avatar opens. Also, note how crowded each park other than AK was over the holidays. Wait times in excess of 2 hours for the e-tickets at each of the other 3 parks. MK had a partial closure, and Studios apparently ran out of parking space. Epcot was wall to wall people on New Year's eve, with long lines virtually everywhere for most of the entire week beforehand.

Yet at AK, it wasn't so bad. There's room for more guests, and it's headliner, EE, wasn't pulling them in. Why? Because its most unique and amazing feature is barely seen. Face it, AK is still a partial day park for most people, but a truly super EE would not only keep guests there longer, thousands more would be showing up everyday. And guests might book an extra day in the hotels to justify a full AK day. And guests would buy far more merch and eat far more meals on property.

A broken EE is the definition of lost opportunity for cashflow and profits, yet some on this thread want us to believe that Disney doesn't care. Of course they care, but they won't shut it down until Avatar is up and running,. A mediocre EE is better than no EE given the relative mediocrity of the rest of the park right now. Dinosaur is cool, but who rides it more than once? Festival of the Lion King is great, but nobody thinks of going twice. The actual animals are wonderful, but not much different from many zoos around the world. Kali is basically the same as dozens of other splash rides, only with good theming. Bug, Dinoland and Nemo are nice, but hardly headlining. Face it, without EE, AK is not that awe-inspiring, and with a mediocre EE, the park attendance surely suffers.

Of course, there's no way to prove this, but logic and common sense surely point to this syllogism:
1. EE would take a serious shutdown to fix.
2. A fully working EE would pull in great crowds and be very profitable for the company.
3. A mediocre EE is good, but a non-EE Animal Kingdom is a very mediocre park.
4. ERGO: Disney will continue with mediocre EE until the time is ripe for a full shutdown.
5. The opening of Avatar will ripen the time for the shutdown.
6. Until Avatar opens, mediocre EE will still help bring in enough guests to keep AK from being irrelevant.

Just to prove the point, it's 3:30 on January 3rd, and each of the other 3 parks has at least 2 attractions with 60+ minute waits. At AK it's 45 minutes for EE, while Kilimanjaro and Dinosaur lead the rest of the pack with 10 minutes. Meanwhile, the electricity is still on and hundreds of CMs are working there. A great EE would keep guests there. While the thrill-seekers wait to ride EE again, the rest of the family rides something else, goes shopping, or grabs a snack. A medicore EE is a ride-once-and-leave moment. And leave they do, with plenty of money still jingling in their pockets. And plenty of other potential guests not even bothering to show up at all.

Not crowded?
lol, you were not here, were you?
I was on AK on the 2nd and it was packed to hell.
IT was hard to move from certain parts... Festival of the lion king had a 2 hour wait which is insane for a show that eats so much people. the line went beyond the bathrooms and turned around..
It didnt helped that Dinosaur collapsed midday. (and took my FP with it )

All fps were gone and had long waits except Kali.
But then, the morning temps were 9C. And rainy.

Also, I always wonder why a lot of people in this forum just rate the parks based on their coasters.

Anyway I agree with the rest of you.
But I dont think we will see EE closing until.. 6 months or a year later after avatar.
It might attract larger crowds and the load will still be hard on EE.

 

[Ralphlaw]

Yeah, everything's crowded, but AK is far far less crowded than the other parks on those crowded days. Just compare the AK wait times with MK, Epcot and Studios. Again, a quick look at the wait times on the afternoon of January 3rd is very telling. A fully working and amazing EE would pull in more people and keep them there longer. I would assume that nearly everyday would tell the same story.

Money is not coming to Disney because of the non-working yeti, which means that it is super obvious that the bigwigs at Disney would want a fully functioning EE. Any insidious theory to the contrary, with all due respect, is preposterous.

 

[Ralphlaw]

I doubt 99% of the people who ride Everest are aware that the Yeti doesn't move, nonetheless care. Come on, guys.

When EE first opened, a bunch of us got there at rope drop and rode it 3 times in a row, coming back later in the afternoon for our paper fastpasses and sticking around at the end for an extra standby line. The yeti is the climax. You only see it for a second, but the whole ride builds up to it. It started with the marketing, the buzz, the promotion, the billboards, the line, and the "artifacts". And the yeti related merch flew off the shelves. Again, it's not like a stationary hairy legged pirate; it's the ultimate climax to AK's headlining attraction. Without it, yeah, it's a pretty good ride. But with it, it's an experience that you talk about, text about, and mark down as a big part of your trip.

I just got back with my family plus an exchange student. Yesterday morning, we each made a list of our top ten favorite things at WDW. Other thrill rides made the lists, but EE was noticeably absent. No one named it. With the yeti, I guarantee it would have been on them.

 

[Doug Means]

the number of people that care must be low, or this thread would be 1113 pages long by now. i am fortunate to have seen the moving yeti when i rode it right after it opened. it is hard to remember though and i would love for it to work again

 

[lukacseven]

the number of people that care must be low, or this thread would be 1113 pages long by now. i am fortunate to have seen the moving yeti when i rode it right after it opened. it is hard to remember though and i would love for it to work again

I vaguely remember the moving Yeti the first few times. If I hadn't seen the "making of" show on TV, I may not have been as impressed. I recall the arm motion swinging at the car to be a great effect, but given the complexity of the Yeti, the lighting and the speed of the train made it difficult to appreciate what was really going on.

 

[PizzaPlanet]

I doubt 99% of the people who ride Everest are aware that the Yeti doesn't move, nonetheless care. Come on, guys.

99% of people cant see the darn thing

 

[G00fyDad]

99% of people cant see the darn thing

They cant see it..... now. We used to be able to see the Yeti.

 

[Incomudro]

99% of people cant see the darn thing

I've posted this before, but I must have ridden EE my first two times without seeing the Yeti, while thoroughly enjoying every aspect of the coaster.
I did not know that the AA Yeti was so large and looming over the tracks, and thought he was a more gorilla sized AA that I kept missing.
I thought the animated Yeti was the highlight.
I had to ask my sons if they saw the Yeti, and one of them told me he was over the tracks.
The next time around my son pointed him out.
I'm sure I would have noticed the AA had it moved, but not seeing it did not negatively effect my take on the ride at all.
I believe that once Pandora is up (that's two new rides, plus the land itself) Disney can turn its attention to Everest and take the risk of shutting the ride down to work on the AA.

 

[G00fyDad]

I've posted this before, but I must have ridden EE my first two times without seeing the Yeti, while thoroughly enjoying every aspect of the coaster.
I did not know that the AA Yeti was so large and looming over the tracks, and thought he was a more gorilla sized AA that I kept missing.
I thought the animated Yeti was the highlight.
I had to ask my sons if they saw the Yeti, and one of them told me he was over the tracks.
The next time around my son pointed him out.
I'm sure I would have noticed the AA had it moved, but not seeing it did not negatively effect my take on the ride at all.
I believe that once Pandora is up (that's two new rides, plus the land itself) Disney can turn its attention to Everest and take the risk of shutting the ride down to work on the AA.

Once again....

They will not need to shut the ride down. People have that misconception because they A) listen to people that don't know what they are talking about. B) think that the reason Disney has waited so long is because of a need to shut the ride down. Disney could do this if they wanted to without any downtime at all. They don't do it because of apathy.

 

[PizzaPlanet]

Once again....

They will not need to shut the ride down. People have that misconception because they A) listen to people that don't know what they are talking about. B) think that the reason Disney has waited so long is because of a need to shut the ride down. Disney could do this if they wanted to without any downtime at all. They don't do it because of apathy.

They installed these beauties in one of the most unpopular rides on property:

Why wouldn't they fix or replace a broken animatronic in one of the most popular rides on property?

 

[Master Yoda]

They installed these beauties in one of the most unpopular rides on property:

Why wouldn't they fix or replace a broken animatronic in one of the most popular rides on property?

There is a slight difference in installing 3, run of the mill AAs and replacing the largest, most complex AA ever built.

 

[marni1971]

Money is not coming to Disney because of the non-working yeti..

Rubbish. Go back in September - the slower season - when the waits an hour.

If the AA has been removed twice over the last few years why wait to close the ride down?

Not to mention Joe public and first timers don't even know it's meant to move.

 

[danyoung56]

They don't do it because of apathy.

And I just won't believe this.

 

[G00fyDad]

And I just won't believe this.

Well that's as good of an explanation as any right now. They have the means, money, and accessibility to do the refurb. They choose not to do it because they just don't care. And why should they? The vast majority of people at this point think the Yeti is supposed to be hidden on the ride as if you might get caught by him but you never quite get a good glimpse of him. It's pathetic, but it's also a reality. It has not worked for around 7 years now. Too many people are "fine" with EE the way it is (not me). They have 0 incentive to make the change.

 

[danyoung56]

They have the means, money, and accessibility to do the refurb. They choose not to do it because they just don't care.

I just don't believe that this is true. I'd believe it if I head Joe Rohde say it, but that's what it would take. To read it online, from folks like you or even marni1971 (who, with all due respect, comes across as a mostly reasonable and knowledgeable chap). . . well, for me there's just not enough credibility there to make me feel this way (no offense intended). I continue to believe that there is either an operational reason or a very large financial reason why he isn't fixed. Maybe someday we'll all know the truth, but I don't think anybody is on the inside enough to know the real reasons.

 

[Ralphlaw]

Well that's as good of an explanation as any right now. They have the means, money, and accessibility to do the refurb. They choose not to do it because they just don't care. And why should they? The vast majority of people at this point think the Yeti is supposed to be hidden on the ride as if you might get caught by him but you never quite get a good glimpse of him. It's pathetic, but it's also a reality. It has not worked for around 7 years now. Too many people are "fine" with EE the way it is (not me). They have 0 incentive to make the change.

They don't do it because they can't close it down for an involved, and probably lengthy, refurb because attendance would drop too dramatically. Without EE, AK is a very mediocre partial day park. With a yeti-less EE, it's at least got a headline attraction that keeps attendance up enough to keep the guests and cashflow going. With a fully-working EE, I can guarantee you that attendance at AK would be markedly higher, guests would stay longer, more money would be spent, and overall the WDW resort would probably have many people sticking around for an extra day. They clearly took the middle road, and the needed shutdown won't occur until well after Avatar is up and running. Closing it down now would be akin to short-term suicide for the park.

I must 100% disagree with your assertion that Disney has "0 incentive to make the change." Such an assertion does not make any sense to me from an economic, logic, marketing or business incentive. Feel free to disagree, but I believe some kind of anti-business, anti-bigwig, anti-Iger bias is clouding many people's judgment on this.

 

[G00fyDad]

I just don't believe that this is true. I'd believe it if I head Joe Rohde say it, but that's what it would take. To read it online, from folks like you or even marni1971 (who, with all due respect, comes across as a mostly reasonable and knowledgeable chap). . . well, for me there's just not enough credibility there to make me feel this way (no offense intended). I continue to believe that there is either an operational reason or a very large financial reason why he isn't fixed. Maybe someday we'll all know the truth, but I don't think anybody is on the inside enough to know the real reasons.

To each their own I suppose. I will believe that it's apathy because they have the money to fix it. To say otherwise is just plain foolish. They have the capability of fixing it without taking down the mountain because it's already been pulled out twice. The only excuse left is apathy. After all, why spend money to fix something that ain't broke? Like I said the vast majority of people don't even realize it was ever even supposed to move or that it's even there. Why would they want to spend money to fix something that isn't going to affect most of people that ride the ride anyway?

 

[G00fyDad]

They don't do it because they can't close it down for an involved, and probably lengthy, refurb because attendance would drop too dramatically. Without EE, AK is a very mediocre partial day park. With a yeti-less EE, it's at least got a headline attraction that keeps attendance up enough to keep the guests and cashflow going. With a fully-working EE, I can guarantee you that attendance at AK would be markedly higher, guests would stay longer, more money would be spent, and overall the WDW resort would probably have many people sticking around for an extra day. They clearly took the middle road, and the needed shutdown won't occur until well after Avatar is up and running. Closing it down now would be akin to short-term suicide for the park.

It's been taken out twice already. Do you remember them shutting down EE for it? I don't.

I must 100% disagree with your assertion that Disney has "0 incentive to make the change." Such an assertion does not make any sense to me from an economic, logic, marketing or business incentive. Feel free to disagree, but I believe some kind of anti-business, anti-bigwig, anti-Iger bias is clouding many people's judgment on this.

Disagree all you want, but facts are facts. Too many people are "okay" with the ride as is. Financially why would Disney ever want to spend money to fix something that the public does not see as broken?

 

[Ralphlaw]

Rubbish. Go back in September - the slower season - when the waits an hour.

Not to mention Joe public and first timers don't even know it's meant to move.

Two points:
1. When the EE wait in September is an hour, I would assume that the waits for Rock N Roller, Tower of Terror, Midway Mania, Test Track, Soarin', Space Mountain, Peter Pan, Splash Mountain and a bunch of other attractions are well over an hour. Check the app.

2. They don't know what they're missing, which is why most Joe Public's ride once, say "meh", and are out of the park by 3:00 pm. A great EE would attract more people and keep them there longer.

'Nuff said. I'm done with this for now.

 

[Tom Morrow]

Hey since this thread won't ever go anywhere, can we change the title to "Everest: No, the ride would not have to be shut down for extended periods to fix the yeti"?