My son and wife had lunch with an Imagineer last week, and the subject of the yeti came up. Apparently Joe Rohde is very upset with it (figuriatively, or perhaps literally, cries in his beer every night). The problem, as everyone surmises, lies with the foundation. It was built too small and the yeti was too big. Some unnamed techie apparently miscalculated, and redundancy was not built in.
Imagineering has been exploring every option, including a projection ala the castle show. The problem is that even installing the projection equipment would require several weeks of down time, and DAK can't afford down time on its headliner attraction, at least not until Avatarland opens up.
I rode it the next day, and no one seemed disappointed. It's a great roller coaster, and everyone was laughing and screaming and couldn't wait to go on again. Honestly, the yeti makes it a premiere attraction, but even with disco yeti, it's still pretty good, just not a super wow. I've been to DAK half a dozen times before, and it's a truly beautiful park. One disappointing yeti should not ruin the experience.
Seriously, those of us who live and die by WDW should get some perspective. There have always been problems and malfunctions, it's just that the internet provides kindred voices to our gripes. Imagine what lambasting Walt himself would have suffered if the internet had been around in 1955 when the disastrous grand opening of Disneyland happened. Or even when some brilliant fool decided in the 1980's to turn the castle into a giant cake. Or when Disney MGM studios opened in 1989 with only 2 attractions. Sometimes, I think we really need to get a life and focus on more important things.
