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

[danlb_2000]

Hey Dan! Does the plan call for the addition of trolley tracks down from liberty square to the annex around the hub like that looks like?

If so, it will be done either 2/11 or 12/4/2015. So you know.

Interesting questions, it does look like it in the plans but the area where they would join to the hub track isn't shown as being in the limits of work.

 

[Rescue Ranger]

Disneyland in 2004:

Wow....how long did this last for? I dunno how they get away with doing that without outrage. I can see families devastated at Guest Services.

 

[note2001]

Wow....how long did this last for? I dunno how they get away with doing that without outrage. I can see families devastated at Guest Services.

That must have been the reason they invented decorative scrims.

 

[RSoxNo1]

OMG....I am all for improvements and defend a lot of what they do, but covering up the statue?!?!?! That is like boxing up the castle. At least that's how I feel. For those many people who may only have one opportunity to visit, this is an ICON of the entire park/resort. Attractions being down is one thing, but this is a pretty big deal to just put a box over. I am shocked by this.

Maybe when the box is removed it will be a new statue of Iger & Elsa hand-in-hand!

Everything is an icon to the resort for some. They're not getting rid of the partner's statue, everyone can calm down.

 

[Admiral01]

From Saturday, January 10:

 

[The Visionary Soul]

I'm not sure if this has been covered, but my time is short so I will simply chime in to say this is all going exactly to plan, though they are running about 4 months behind schedule, mainly due to delays with railing installation and problems at the beginning phase damming the moat. I expect some new pathways to open in late Feb. As far as your questions about trolley tracks, they are not changing at all. The reason the hub itself is going under refurbishment is simply for what is called a "hardscape refresh." They are changing the railings and the concrete. That's basically it. Kodak's red concrete be damned. They are covering the statue to protect it. The other smaller character statues surrounding the Partners statue will be re-located around the new fountains.

 

[Mike S]

I'm not sure if this has been covered, but my time is short so I will simply chime in to say this is all going exactly to plan, though they are running about 4 months behind schedule, mainly due to delays with railing installation and problems at the beginning phase damming the moat. I expect some new pathways to open in late Feb. As far as your questions about trolley tracks, they are not changing at all. The reason the hub itself is going under refurbishment is simply for what is called a "hardscape refresh." They are changing the railings and the concrete. That's basically it. Kodak's red concrete be damned. They are covering the statue to protect it. The other smaller character statues surrounding the Partners statue will be re-located around the new fountains.

I'm actually happy to hear they're not gone forever. I'd like to see what the hub looks like when it's finally done.

 

[heath.sneyd]

Ooo I hope not. The whole point of the red concrete is because you, as a guest, are being shown the red carpet to the park. You are entering the "show" and the windows down Main Street are the credits.
Or so I've read. Pretty neat thinking from Walt there (assuming it's an idea from DLR).
Though I suppose once you reach the hub, you're into the first scene.

I always heard that the red was because it made for better pictures in contrast with the sky, etc.

There is truth to both explanations. They wanted the parks & the park icons (castle) to look great on film. Older technology in cameras meant that there was ALOT more thought that HAD to go into the color scheme of an environment to make photos look 'magical' and like no place else (because this wouldn't normally exist this way). One of the tricks was to choose to use colors that look great on film with the Florida sky as the backdrop. So, then red was a very real option and since they were already using theater techniques and thinking to bring guests 'into' the story/screen, red made more and more sense. So the 'red carpet' was 'rolled out'. It you want to validate this further look into the back story behind the American Adventure. There are MANY shades of white used on this building, so that it would look great on film. Both stories are right/true, which I think makes that bit of knowledge that much more interesting.

Yep, one word: Kodachrome. I've read/seen/heard about that concept for years. The red supposedly look amazing when you used Kodak film, or some capitalist propaganda like that.

 

[articos]

Hey Dan! Does the plan call for the addition of trolley tracks down from liberty square to the annex around the hub like that looks like?

If so, it will be done either 2/11 or 12/4/2015. So you know.

No new tracks.

 

[Disney Analyst]

OMG....I am all for improvements and defend a lot of what they do, but covering up the statue?!?!?! That is like boxing up the castle. At least that's how I feel. For those many people who may only have one opportunity to visit, this is an ICON of the entire park/resort. Attractions being down is one thing, but this is a pretty big deal to just put a box over. I am shocked by this.

Maybe when the box is removed it will be a new statue of Iger & Elsa hand-in-hand!

Disneyland in 2004:

Lest we forget...

 

[Wikkler]

Di sneyland in 2004:

How dare they!

They didn't have the castle painted on the tarps?

 

[xdan0920]

if you dont do the research, then this can happen

That's the same.

 

[Jose]

I'm not sure if this has been covered, but my time is short so I will simply chime in to say this is all going exactly to plan, though they are running about 4 months behind schedule, mainly due to delays with railing installation and problems at the beginning phase damming the moat. I expect some new pathways to open in late Feb. As far as your questions about trolley tracks, they are not changing at all. The reason the hub itself is going under refurbishment is simply for what is called a "hardscape refresh." They are changing the railings and the concrete. That's basically it. Kodak's red concrete be damned. They are covering the statue to protect it. The other smaller character statues surrounding the Partners statue will be re-located around the new fountains.

wait what? they are finally demolishing the red concrete!?

 

[Sage of Time]

Happy to hear that 'phase 1' with the new fountains will be up and open in late february... I think that's the biggest portion of the work, isn't it? The rest isn't nearly as intense.

 

[DVCOwner]

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.

Here is the point that I am trying to make. I have been in project management for engineering projects for 38 years. You cannot always just put more manpower on a job to make it go faster. A project like this requires much of the work to be done in stages. An example Is that you pour a concrete footer and you have to wait so many days for the concrete to cure before you can put anything onto the footer. I do not buy into that Disney is deliberately allowing projects to drag on for long periods of time in order to stretch the spending out. This would increase cost of the project.

Now I do think that Disney most likely is not doing some things that would decrease the construction time but would increase the overall cost of the project. Going back to my example, in order to place something on a footer sooner you could use early curing concrete, but that would cost more. So I think what Disney is being driven by two issues. First one being keep the area open to the public as much as possible during part hours and following the critical patch of the project to reduce overall project cost.

Could they do it faster...yes...but it is to save money overall and not spread the cost out.

 

[The Braveheart]

It's wrong to say I liked the Cake Castle isn't it?

Lest we forget...

 

[ParksAndPixels]

It's wrong to say I liked the Cake Castle isn't it?

 

[danlb_2000]

I'm not sure if this has been covered, but my time is short so I will simply chime in to say this is all going exactly to plan, though they are running about 4 months behind schedule, mainly due to delays with railing installation and problems at the beginning phase damming the moat. I expect some new pathways to open in late Feb. As far as your questions about trolley tracks, they are not changing at all. The reason the hub itself is going under refurbishment is simply for what is called a "hardscape refresh." They are changing the railings and the concrete. That's basically it. Kodak's red concrete be damned. They are covering the statue to protect it. The other smaller character statues surrounding the Partners statue will be re-located around the new fountains.

Since they are moving The Fastpass+ viewing areas to in front of Casey's Corner and the Plaza restaurant on 2/27 they would have to have those areas done by then for sure.

 

[Goofyernmost]

It's wrong to say I liked the Cake Castle isn't it?

Not to me it's not. All the whining about the castle cake is just that, whining. Combine that with.. Boo Hoo, Disney doesn't spend money on special things anymore and you have got a major contradiction in thought. I thought the castle cake was a fun and special way to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of WDW. It was a very temporary thing and it cost Disney tens of thousands of dollars to do it. Then all the whining started. I can hear them in the main office now saying... "Damm, we spend all that for a special effect and all we have gotten for our efforts is grief. See if we ever do that again." Now we get next to nothing. Sometimes I wonder if we don't just get what we deserve.

I have said that I hate the Hat and I do, but, if it had only been for that one year, I'd have thought it to be fine. But, it didn't work out that way. It overstayed it's welcome. The cake stayed just the proper amount of time and all that money spent became nothing but pieces of scrap fiberglass. I know that for some odd reason we aren't allowed to say that Disney is a business because I guess it isn't one. I'm not sure what it would be if not that, but, when it acts like a business everyone get mortally wounded. And they say that we have Pixie Dust in our eyes.

 

[Rasvar]

One reason they have to do the Hub the way they are doing it is the parade route. You can't have the entire hub closed without an alternate route. The section in front of Crystal Palace and Casey's Corner has to be completed before they can begin to work on the central hub. The area in front of Plaza has to be completed to allow foot traffic into and out of Tomorrowland. More manpower or money could have maybe improved things a little bit. Weather is another factor that can slow things down. Orlando had a record 23 days of measurable rainfall in September alone. Sometimes projects just fall behind.