Good God, can't they do this AFTER park hours?!!

[cw1982]

If this time it's not for lights, I wonder how long the cranes will be there?

 

[Goofyernmost]

Look, Walt made the parks install underground walkways so that people wouldn't be running into Captain Hook in Tomorrowland. He thought it was worth the extra expense and effort to hide the mechanics of Disney magic. TDO has NO excuse for this. If it had the brains and was willing to make the effort, it could have prevented such a cynical flagrant show of disregard for the park guests and the Disney legacy of quality - what's left of it.

Shameful.

Look, Walt didn't make anyone do anything, he had been dead for 6 years before WDW was even built. He suggested it a few years before, however, that's were the demand ended. I don't believe that they exist in Anaheim. Not to mention that there is a massive difference between daily CM traffic, thousands of them, and the occasional need to paint the castle once every 4 or so years. New attractions built in Disneyland and WDW weren't accomplished under the darkness of night. it was behind walls that were about 7 feet tall. everything above that was completely visible to all those precious Guests through the years. Get a grip! When the word quality is bantered about with construction, it has to do with the integrity of the building and the detail involved, not some Merlin the Magician approach to it. It requires workers of the human variety, skilled workers who do have some say in the kind of hours that they work and the conditions that they work under. The Pixie's went on strike years ago.

 

[Goofyernmost]

If this time it's not for lights, I wonder how long the cranes will be there?

They will be gone as soon as the painting is done. If you knew how much it costs to rent that type of equipment you would know that it won't be there any longer then necessary.

 

[Chef Mickey]

The lights have been gone since January. My goodness do you have any idea what kind of production would be involved with integrating the seasonal lights into the walls? How would you make them invisible the other 9 months of the year?

This is a refurbishment of the castle itself. Sorry, that it kills your buzz but, magic only exists in the minds of people. If you had looked around over the years you would have seen many times that workers have been working during show hours especially in detail paint work when the proper lighting is required.

I'd rather see stuff like that then paint peeling off the walls, so I guess we have to choose our evils. I would also bet that those "fat construction guys" could turn you into a pile of rubble fairly quickly.

LOL, excuse my insensitivity. However, I doubt it. I'm a true 6'4, run marathons, and played college basketball. Still, my comment wasn't called for, but was more in good fun.

Dude, I'm the biggest Disney apologist on this board. Disney is my favorite company, without thinking. I'm a customer and a significant shareholder. All that being said, it's really hard to defend this and your argument still doesn't excuse it. Disney is capable of thinking of a better way. I know because they've done it over and over again. Can't integrate into the castle walls? Fine, think of another way. Theme it. Do it at night. Put up a curtain. Break the schedule during shows. All of the above or any of them. (However, it can be done. I work for a Fortune 500 energy company with distributors for this exact thing).

This isn't just about the lights...painting, whatever it is. Anything is better than this mess and you know it too. Disney can and should do better. They just don't care in this case and it shows.

 

[Mouse_Trap]

They could at least stop during the show. That's what the crews building Transformers at USF did during Cinematic spectacular.

But isn't that at night?

 

[Mouse_Trap]

I remember the early days when the park first opened. All maintenance, including the gardening, was done out of site of the guests. After park hours was the norm. Management now does not see the magic the way Walt and Roy did.

You do have to allow some consideration that the infrastructure like the castle wasn't 30 years old at that point. Generally as things age, they will require most tlc and sometimes the very short closure hours are just not enough.

Personally I would be sympathetic that they need daylight for such work, though it's disappointing if it's during your vacation it's happening.

In some ways they can't win though, if they neglected it then people here would soon complain that it was dirty/paint peeling/colour faded and maintenance wasn't what it used to be.

 

[copcarguyp71]

They will be gone as soon as the painting is done. If you knew how much it costs to rent that type of equipment you would know that it won't be there any longer then necessary.

Almost makes you think that it would be cheaper to have lights embedded into the castle facade instead of a crane and operator four months out of the year (year after year) for stringing and removing lights huh???? But, I digress...

 

[mousehockey37]

Nope. It needs daylight to be done properly.

This is the price you pay when the park is open 365 days a year!!!!

 

[BigTxEars]

I have no ideal about lighting, painting or any type on construction.

But I do know poor WDW can't win. They do refurbs / constrution they get pounded by angry folks who do not want to see that stuff on their visit. They don't do refurbs /construction they get pounded for letting the parks go to crap. Seems to me they are just gonna get pounded regardless by angry guest.

I don't wanna see that mess on my trips either but if I do I will take a breath , realize they are improving the parks and move along with my day.

All that being said, they should stop while the show is going on. And they need to make sure none of the workers have plumber crack, that would be bad juju in the background of family pictures.

 

[Father Robinson]

Since they use them constantly, you'd think Disney could theme the cranes - maybe Pete's Dragon or something. So it at least looks like something fantasy-inspired in peoples' photographs.

I was thinking the same thing today!!

 

[Goofyernmost]

Almost makes you think that it would be cheaper to have lights embedded into the castle facade instead of a crane and operator four months out of the year (year after year) for stringing and removing lights huh???? But, I digress...

It really isn't four months out of the year. At most it is usually just two and most of the time except for seeing the crane sit there, the work is done at night, this time they are doing work on the castle itself and the lights have been gone for at least two months, there were finished with that the last week in January.

 

[BigTxEars]

I was thinking the same thing today!!

That is an awesome ideal.

 

[Goofyernmost]

LOL, excuse my insensitivity. However, I doubt it. I'm a true 6'4, run marathons, and played college basketball. Still, my comment wasn't called for, but was more in good fun.

Dude, I'm the biggest Disney apologist on this board. Disney is my favorite company, without thinking. I'm a customer and a significant shareholder. All that being said, it's really hard to defend this and your argument still doesn't excuse it. Disney is capable of thinking of a better way. I know because they've done it over and over again. Can't integrate into the castle walls? Fine, think of another way. Theme it. Do it at night. Put up a curtain. Break the schedule during shows. All of the above or any of them. (However, it can be done. I work for a Fortune 500 energy company with distributors for this exact thing).

This isn't just about the lights...painting, whatever it is. Anything is better than this mess and you know it too. Disney can and should do better. They just don't care in this case and it shows.

There really is nothing that can be done that won't be a problem for some people. Curtain? Do you remember the uproar when the bakery was covered? Can you imagine the fuss that would be made if the Castle was covered. There would possibly be mass suicides. My arguments do not have to excuse it, reality does. Some things just have to be done a certain way. No amount of imagination can hide it without distorting something else.

I was, of course, joking about the contractors leaving you as a pile of rubble, however, if reality is once again used, your 6'4" would be no match for a gang of "fat" construction workers. At least, if it came up for betting, I would put my money on them no matter how much college basketball you played. Just saying!

Spoiler: However

You probably could outrun them!

 

[joanna71985]

They usually stop during Dream Along. That's odd that they didn't.

Heh, not even close

 

[TubaGeek]

@marni1971, is this something that has happened historically? Why wasn't there this outrage four years ago, or whenever it was?

 

[Disneyhead'71]

But isn't that at night?

Yes, but Transformers was on a 24/7 construction schedule. That is how they got it done in 11 months. So during Cinematic Spectacular, they would turn off the work lights and wait until the show was over to resume working on the outside of the attraction.

 

[Chef Mickey]

There really is nothing that can be done that won't be a problem for some people. Curtain? Do you remember the uproar when the bakery was covered? Can you imagine the fuss that would be made if the Castle was covered. There would possibly be mass suicides. My arguments do not have to excuse it, reality does. Some things just have to be done a certain way. No amount of imagination can hide it without distorting something else.

I was, of course, joking about the contractors leaving you as a pile of rubble, however, if reality is once again used, your 6'4" would be no match for a gang of "fat" construction workers. At least, if it came up for betting, I would put my money on them no matter how much college basketball you played. Just saying!

Spoiler: However

You probably could outrun them!

Just saying...if they at minimum limited it to NOT during a show, that'd be a positive. Disney is just lazy and cheap in this case. I agree there is not a magic, perfect way to do it, but it could be better than this.

And you never mentioned a gang of construction workers!

 

[gitchard]

If they covered the castle up like they do the buildings, then they would probably have to cancel Celebrate the Magic show until they were done.

 

[cheezbat]

I think this is poor show indeed, but what really kills me is how long there have been cranes and work going on the castle...3 months now! How much longer? I wouldn't think a paint job would take more than 2-3 weeks on that thing.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I'm a solutions girl. Let us think up what alternatives could be. Yep, I'm sure halogen lights would be harsh. But haven't they figured out how to simulate sunlight for animal habitats? What about the lights that simulate sunlight for parts of the world where they have weeks of darkness? What if the paints, colors, and texture techniques were worked out during daylight then applied large-scale under halogen flood lights?