News Expedition Everest refurbishment in 2022

comics101

Well-Known Member
View attachment 585750The tenth Wonder of the World: the backside of Everest!

Sad part is how much better even this looks than the backside of:
  • Pandora
  • Galaxy's Edge
  • Nearly every fence in Toy Storyland
  • The backside of the Dumbo waiting room
  • EPCOT's GotG warehouse
  • The Harmonious barges
  • The part of Tron's show building that peeks out from behind its canopy

Hard to believe that once upon a time, sightlines mattered to Imagineering/management. It's incredible how far Disney has fallen in terms of show over the the last 15+ years.
 
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Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
So the article mentions that there will be work done on the ride system. Here is an excellent video that explains, accurately and very, very in depth, why Expedition Everest has such a crazy ride control system and offers some insight on why they might be addressing it.



(Great channel for coaster fans, by the way)

Summary: Basically, Expedition Everest was designed to run 4 trains at once, but has been modified to run 5 since 2007-ish for higher capacity. It can do this entirely safely as it has more than enough block zones for it. However, with 5 trains, this only allows for mere seconds of delay at load or unload before the ride goes into what's known as a "cascade stop", where the ride initiates an auto ride stop from trains being unable to advance to the next block zone. Part of this is because, to avoid the trains constantly slamming to a stop right before the yeti animatronic scene, the ride system is told to hold the train at the shadow projection until the vehicle at unload advances to load. Holding the trains longer at the shadow projection is better since they are already stopped at that point anyway. This programming results in the control room operator constantly resetting these auto ride stops, as the ride control system is not capable of auto-resuming ride motion after one has been triggered. So, it's possible that this is being addressed.

I thought Joe Rohde said in a video somewhere that it was incredibly hard to fix the Yeti. If they’ve been able to remove and put back the Yeti, what’s the reason they cannot fix him? What’s the major problem? Is it that the foundation is what needs repairing and not the Yeti itself?

He said something about how the yeti is a very complex machine, but was mostly beating around the bush for PR reasons. Marni is correct: both that the yeti figure has been removed on at least one occasion, and that the only reason a fix or replacement hasn't been done is because it was deemed unnecessary as Everest never lost its popularity. The B-mode strobe light fix was supposed to be used sparingly but ended up becoming the permanent solution ONLY because they never wanted to spring for a fix or take the capacity hit from shutting Everest down (though the quick removal of the figure suggests that a replacement wouldn't necessarily require significant downtime, if any).

I have never understood how fans could believe the rumor that the Yeti figure was too far out of reach to fix or that it could not be removed from its chamber. Disney's construction/engineering units may take a really long time to build new projects, but they're not stupid lol. Of course they're not going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a massive animatronic only to realize after the fact that if it ever needed fixing, it would be unreachable.

Bingo! The designers and engineers would had to have been unfathomably stupid to design such an expensive piece of equipment but not give themselves an easy way to work on it!
 

HauntedPirate

Park nostalgist
Premium Member
From the dusty recesses of my brain: The yeti AA was tearing itself apart. A lighter-weight AA replacement was designed but has never been approved. As Martin mentioned, the yeti has been removed several times. The foundation is fine. The underlying building structure is fine.

I doubt it gets fixed/replaced unless/until there is a massive exodus at all levels of TWDC management and the replacements value long-term ride experiences and guest retention over quarterly profits. This is just another example of "good enough" being the overwhelming and prevailing attitude within both TDO and Burbank for over a decade.

It's too bad, though, because A-mode Yeti is an awesome ride effect.
 

Bocabear

Well-Known Member
When it was working, and the steam effects were working as the train came into the station, it was a beautiful thing to behold...It really was so beautifully done... Sad that the full show lasted for such a short amount of time... The Yeti, the Hawk, and the steam...I think the last time I rode it the Chanting in the temples you pass through on the lift hill was not turned on either...all those little details are what made that such a great ride...and most especially the Yeti itself.
 

JustInTime

Well-Known Member
When it was working, and the steam effects were working as the train came into the station, it was a beautiful thing to behold...It really was so beautifully done... Sad that the full show lasted for such a short amount of time... The Yeti, the Hawk, and the steam...I think the last time I rode it the Chanting in the temples you pass through on the lift hill was not turned on either...all those little details are what made that such a great ride...and most especially the Yeti itself.
The bird was working the last few times I rode. Much to my surprise.
 

EagleScout610

Always causin' some kind of commotion downstream
Premium Member
This is a dumb question but what is wrong with the Yeti? Why did it break right after opening and no one caught it in testing? This is a real question
Untitled172_20210909122236.png

Long story short: Yeti is too powerful for its own good, nobody wants to pay for the repair
 

homerdance

Well-Known Member
So there is a small voice in my head wondering if this extended closure is partly being driven by the desire to reduce rides and increase revenue to buy FOP ll$ or ia$ or whatever it’s called

View attachment 585750The tenth Wonder of the World: the backside of Everest!
Not as bad as the backside of GE.
 

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Master Yoda

Pro Star Wars geek.
Premium Member
The Yeti used to move and would grab at the coaster as you flew by as best as I remember. However, the Yeti animatronic proved too heavy? and/or the force of the repetitive motions caused stress on the surrounding beams, braces, and I think the foundation and they needed to stop the motion of the figure to prevent further damage to the ride which would have compromised the structural integrity. Rumor is the costs associated with fixing the show element are too great to implement. So now we get a strobe light instead to have a disco effect but the Yeti no longer actually moves. It's really sad because it was a really well done animatronic and it fit the show and theme really really well. Truly a loss. Glad I got to experience it a few times.

Disney pros, did I get that basically right?
Pretty close.

The quote below is as close to an official explanation as we will ever get. It is also worth noting that @RedDad is a professional engineer.

The short version is as follows...
1. The stresses in the arm were under-calculated.
2. The solution was to increase the maintenance interval on the shoulder joint.
3. The increased maintenance schedule was never done.
4. The yeti done broke and the finger-pointing to who gets the bill started.
I've been meaning to post this for quite a while, but just haven't had time. Thanks to a recent reminder from @Master Yoda to try and shed some light on the Yeti debacle....

Ok, so back in September I was at a conference at WDW, and the wife decided to book a Dine With An Imagineer lunch at DHS. I skipped one of my educational sessions to do this, and we ended up with a 2-for-1. The main imagineer was a Show Design and Production manager, who was a DWAI veteran (and most recently involved in the Frozen Ever After project); the other guy was a mechanical engineer in charge of show quality, who was a newbie-in-training, at least when it came to these dinners. He explained to us that it was his job to do periodic "reviews" of the rides, and point out areas where show quality is falling below certain standards. He's also heavily involved in maintaining ride systems and animatronics. It was a fantastic experience, and we learned a lot about how things work behind the scenes, but nearing the end of our time, I (obviously) couldn't resist bringing up the Yeti.

Immediately upon my mentioning the Yeti, I could see that it was an obvious a sore spot for him. He stated that there have been multiple proposals put forth for repairing it, but none of the "big shots" have been on board. As for the specific problem, he mentioned that there are a couple of factors: flaws in the original "design calculations" (these were his words), particularly with regard to operational and maintenance conditions on such a large animatronic, and inability to perform proper maintenance on the Yeti. No mention of "shifting/failed foundations" as is often suggested. As a practicing structural engineer, I wanted to know whether this was the problem, and he indicated that the main issue is the animatronic itself.

The other factor is the ability to perform maintenance on the animatronic. I think this is the source of rumors that they "can't replace /fix it without opening up the mountain" rumors, but it's actually much simpler, and this issue ties into the first. He specifically talked about unanticipated stresses in parts of the animatronic due to lack of maintenance in other parts. If one of the motors in the yeti's elbow wears out or isn't functioning properly, but they continue to operate under those conditions, then higher stresses are transferred to the shoulder and chest, etc. My best guess regarding his comments about "incorrect calculations" is that he was referring to fatigue related problems in the robotic parts, and possibly in other structural supports.

The other major factor is that things have changed dramatically at WDW in the last few years regarding their compliance with OSHA standards for maintenance and fall protection. Any new work done to get the Yeti operational means that they have to update the design to meet these standards, so that ongoing maintenance on the animatronic can be safely performed. This would involve major upgrades to allow compliance with fall protection and other things related to maintenance workers.

It was encouraging at least to see how much it bothered him that it didn't work. He brought up the Universal dig re: their Kong animatronic (it moves...) and said that he and his colleagues all read blogs and other social media comments for research and to pick up on things they miss in their reviews. So, there you have it. Take it for what it's worth, but this guy was no bus driver...;)
 

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
Pretty close.

The quote below is as close to an official explanation as we will ever get. It is also worth noting that @RedDad is a professional engineer.

The short version is as follows...
1. The stresses in the arm were under-calculated.
2. The solution was to increase the maintenance interval on the shoulder joint.
3. The increased maintenance schedule was never done.
4. The yeti done broke and the finger-pointing to who gets the bill started.
And then 14 years passed.
 

HauntedPirate

Park nostalgist
Premium Member
When it was working, and the steam effects were working as the train came into the station, it was a beautiful thing to behold...It really was so beautifully done... Sad that the full show lasted for such a short amount of time... The Yeti, the Hawk, and the steam...I think the last time I rode it the Chanting in the temples you pass through on the lift hill was not turned on either...all those little details are what made that such a great ride...and most especially the Yeti itself.

I was lucky enough to be there right after it opened, in May 2006. Full effects - Steam, falcon, A-mode Yeti. I’ve said before - It felt like you could almost touch the yeti’s paw as it swipes at you. I believe it was in A-mode still in January 2007, but by October it wasn’t. I don’t recall if the strobe light was in use then.
 

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