Main Street U.S.A. hub redevelopment at the Magic Kingdom

[Goofnut1980]

Wow, this HUB is a mess! I can see them needing to get it done, but shouldn't you finish one area at a time. It has been 10 months or more since they have been doing the 1st section of the HUB, now you are going to add the center part.

I know that will probably only be replacing shurbs and installing new speakers and lighting, but this could have been done long before now.

HAWT mess! lol

 

[wogwog]

Are they replacing ALL of the red concrete in the hub area?

Yes. With a kind of light tan or sand color I would call it. But I'm a guy so.... we don't know colors so much.

 

[roj2323]

Yes. With a kind of light tan or sand color I would call it. But I'm a guy so.... we don't know colors so much.

I'd call it sandstone tan. The mix has color in it but not much. The main concern here is going to be maintaining a clean look. The red covers up a lot of pop and other spills. This new color is going to make little spills really stand out.

 

[TTA94]

I can't see the projectors moving. They've invested too much in the current location. There is one reason I won't go into they they might, but I'd bet against it. There's no pressing need to move them.

Sorry I haven't been paying to much attention to this thread so this might have been discussed already, with all the work they are doing in the hub, is there a new nighttime show in the works as well? I know it was a rumor awhile back.

 

[disneyworld07]

Hi All,
I am concerned about the state that MK will be in when we arrive mid-May 2015. Every article I have read on it simply says it is due for completion 'sometime in 2015'. Now we are at the beginning of 2015, I wondered if anybody had heard of a more specific date. I am not talking about the exact day, but is there even anything to say if it will be completed in Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter etc?

I would be devastated to turn up and find the hub still in pieces as it completely wrecks the MK experience.

Thanks all!

 

[Bolt]

Hi All,
I am concerned about the state that MK will be in when we arrive mid-May 2015. Every article I have read on it simply says it is due for completion 'sometime in 2015'. Now we are at the beginning of 2015, I wondered if anybody had heard of a more specific date. I am not talking about the exact day, but is there even anything to say if it will be completed in Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter etc?

I would be devastated to turn up and find the hub still in pieces as it completely wrecks the MK experience.

Thanks all!

Prepare yourself to be devastated. With the stage shows being down in May I assume that'll be the worst point of it all.

 

[dstrawn9889]

the CoW (commencement of work) 'permits' in WDWMagic-speak call for an end date in November.

 

[DisneyOutsider]

Hi All,
I am concerned about the state that MK will be in when we arrive mid-May 2015. Every article I have read on it simply says it is due for completion 'sometime in 2015'. Now we are at the beginning of 2015, I wondered if anybody had heard of a more specific date. I am not talking about the exact day, but is there even anything to say if it will be completed in Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter etc?

I would be devastated to turn up and find the hub still in pieces as it completely wrecks the MK experience.

Thanks all!

It honestly doesn't wreck the experience at all as it currently stands. They will be working on a different section of the hub when you go, so I'm not sure what it will look like then, but on the bright side there will be a completely new portion of the hub fully operational that you will have never seen before.

It's not like you are walking under scaffolding donning hard hats. They do a halfway-decent job of walling off the construction site without destroying the theme-ing.

 

[wogwog]

Hi All,
I am concerned about the state that MK will be in when we arrive mid-May 2015. Every article I have read on it simply says it is due for completion 'sometime in 2015'. Now we are at the beginning of 2015, I wondered if anybody had heard of a more specific date. I am not talking about the exact day, but is there even anything to say if it will be completed in Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter etc?

I would be devastated to turn up and find the hub still in pieces as it completely wrecks the MK experience.

Thanks all!

Wait until you see the AK walls. Studio walls may happen as well.

 

[DVCOwner]

Im not sure your analogies are very good. They're not building a house and they're not working on cliffs. While I suspect that there are restrictions as to what they can do during the day, there's plenty that they aren't doing. Truth be told, 90% of the pictures of seen of this project have been during the day where no one is working at all. I agree that there are limitations to this project that may constrain the times where certain types of work can be accomplished. But no one, absolutely no one, can sit here and tell me with a straight face that this 1yr+ uncompleted project is being done efficiently.

There's an old project management triangle that comes into play:

It is painfully obvious that TDO's real concerns are to ensure that 'Cheap' is one of the two constraints. While I am relieved that they appear to be selecting "Good" as the other....it still pains me that this company doesn't put any value on efficient capital development. Sure - spread it out over several budget years so we can make it look good to wall street. Who cares whether the guests have to deal with this eyesore for multiple years!!!

TDO could have thrown *alot* more manpower at this project and gotten it done inside of a year. They didn't. That was a choice. Don't, for one second, defend TDO by saying they couldn't do this any faster because the project particulars constrained them from doing so. Because that's just not true.

A women can make a baby in nine months, nine women cannot make a baby in one month. I think that the time it is taking on this project is not so much to keep it cheap, but to do it with the hub operating on a day to day basis and restricting most work to times when the park is closed. I would think that this would actually increase the cost of the project.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

A women can make a baby in nine months, nine women cannot make a baby in one month. I think that the time it is taking on this project is not so much to keep it cheap, but to do it with the hub operating on a day to day basis and restricting most work to times when the park is closed. I would think that this would actually increase the cost of the project.

That analogy makes no sense. There's practically nothing you can do to alter a fairly strict biological growth rate (besides an impossibly slow evolutionary change gradually changing over millions of years). A woman's body is designed to grow a baby in 9 months, there's only a relatively small margin of error in that time frame, otherwise the baby will run into serious health problems. Not much you can do to speed up the process substantially for a birth. A construction process on the other hand is capable of dramatically different speeds depending on the cash flow, man power and how often the workers work on the project.

As we've been informed before by insiders here, Disney can and has in the past completed far more ambitious projects at an immensely quicker rate than what we've become accustomed to seeing today. Without compromising quality in the process (quite the opposite in fact). They have adopted the unfortunate habit lately of deliberately allowing a project to drag on for long periods of time in order to stretch the spending out. Apparently this makes their spending look better to the higher ups who don't know any better. It wasn't so awfully long ago that they built entire theme parks in the time it now takes to build a fairly insignificant sized and lower quality expansion. They even drag their feet on meet and greets and bathroom construction now, simply things that should be simple and swift by comparison.

 

[ABQ]

That analogy makes no sense. There's practically nothing you can do to alter a fairly strict biological growth rate (besides an impossibly slow evolutionary change gradually changing over millions of years). A woman's body is designed to grow a baby in 9 months, there's only a relatively small margin of error in that time frame, otherwise the baby will run into serious health problems. Not much you can do to speed up the process substantially for a birth. A construction process on the other hand is capable of dramatically different speeds depending on the cash flow, man power and how often the workers work on the project.

As we've been informed before by insiders here, Disney can and has in the past completed far more ambitious projects at an immensely quicker rate than what we've become accustomed to seeing today. Without compromising quality in the process (quite the opposite in fact). They have adopted the unfortunate habit lately of deliberately allowing a project to drag on for long periods of time in order to stretch the spending out. Apparently this makes their spending look better to the higher ups who don't know any better. It wasn't so awfully long ago that they built entire theme parks in the time it now takes to build a fairly insignificant sized and lower quality expansion. They even drag their feet on meet and greets and bathroom construction now, simply things that should be simple and swift by comparison.

True, and though I may be oversimplifying things a boat load, outside of curing time for concrete or time for paint to dry, in the realm of the hub construction, there's little throwing more manpower at it couldn't do to speed up the completion rate.

 

[PirateFrank]

A women can make a baby in nine months, nine women cannot make a baby in one month. I think that the time it is taking on this project is not so much to keep it cheap, but to do it with the hub operating on a day to day basis and restricting most work to times when the park is closed. I would think that this would actually increase the cost of the project.

This would only be an effective analogy if this project could only be worked on by one person at a time. Not true.

Linear production may work for reproductive growth. It makes no sense for large scale construction projects.

 

[Brad Bishop]

I completely understand why this project was needed. And I think it will look fantastic when complete and will definitely help with crowd control and flow. Just hope that they get it done quickly and that the landscaping looks nice. The water will still look good around the hub, if a bit reduced.

I'm with you on that.

I remember when they used to have trees (well, much larger ones) around the hub. I grew up with them and always loved them especially with their twinkling lights that kind of made it all look like fireflies.

When they got rid of them I was kind of disappointed. It made the hub seem, somehow, "less". After further thought, it was the right decision because people go there to see fireworks and the there are plenty of trees around WDW. The hub expansion makes a lot of sense, too.

I like the idea of the back path around Main St and hope they make that work and not just be a fancy painted back path. The two that they have for Tokyo Disneyland, I think, are well done and fit. I'm hoping they do something on that order for the MK.

 

[Blairnicol]

I'm glad to see them moving onto phase 2!

I just have to laugh though. People want things done in the parks. That requires walls. People don't want to see the walls. People don't think they move fast enough (well, they don't in a lot of ways). I just find it all sort of funny.

I'm excited about everything coming-so I don't mind the walls. But if you are a casual visitor & don't know about all the construction going on it can be a bit of a shock. Especially when you think that the hubs at DAK, DHS & MK all have lots o walls right now. For those of us that are excited about the changes, that's exactly what those walls mean. Although for people that only make it to WDW once every 5 years, walls don't make for the best photo ops. But I guess you could argue that those people should do more research??

I'm gonna guess they want this done by the first Mickey's not so Scary. That's nine months from now - they gotta be able to finish by then...

The first MNSSHP was Labor Day this year, so the 1st Monday in September, which would be 2 months before these permits end. They are probably looking more at having it ready by the start of Christmas season, if any 'season' or party is a deadline.

 

[Kman101]

Well, true. I get that, someone who doesn't always visit is disappointed to see so many things walled up, especially the hubs of three of the four parks. I guess they just don't really bother me all that much but not everyone thinks the way that I do. LOL

It's actually nice to see so much construction. When was the last time we had construction in MK (the hub), Epcot (Frozen & Soarin'), Hollywood Studios (the hat, then hopefully expansion), Animal Kingdom (the hub, Pandora) AND Downtown Disney (a big remodel)? No one can argue they aren't doing nothing anymore ... not saying all the projects are popular ones but things are at least happening.

 

[dstrawn9889]

if you dont do the research, then this can happen

 

[Goofyernmost]

This would only be an effective analogy if this project could only be worked on by one person at a time. Not true.

Linear production may work for reproductive growth. It makes no sense for large scale construction projects.

I don't think anyone involved in this particular Destruction project considers it to be a large scale one. It's a small scale in a relatively confined small area. All that more people would do is trip over each other. It has to be methodically taken down and only so many people can be doing that at a time, which brings in the 9 month baby process. It might take 50 people longer to do this job then 10 because they would always be in each others way.

Spreading this out over a longer period of time because of costs makes no sense either, which, I would guess is why they so promptly got started and have very visible display of progress in just a week or so's time.

 

[RAXIP]

Walls up around the Partners statue.

 

[Wikkler]

Walls up around the Partners statue.
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