Monorail system to close during non peak times for maintenance in early 2014

[deix15x8]

Disney should have given more notice with a no penalty for changing offer or some other perk for guests. I'm sure if anyone complains while checking in they'll be quick to grant them FP+ for their inconvenience though. I personally would not have a problem with this plan. I always got to the MK prior to opening and stayed to close. Even the rest of my group who would sleep in and have breakfast before coming to the park would not be impacted by the time schedule that Disney has picked. The only thing that would be effected would be going to dinner at the Polynesian and switching parks but those always required multiple hops so the buses make that just as easy if not easier for some. Certainly seems like a worthwhile temporary loss for hopefully a long term benefit.

 

[rudyjr13]

Disney should have given more notice with a no penalty for changing offer or some other perk for guests. I'm sure if anyone complains while checking in they'll be quick to grant them FP+ for their inconvenience though. I personally would not have a problem with this plan. I always got to the MK prior to opening and stayed to close. Even the rest of my group who would sleep in and have breakfast before coming to the park would not be impacted by the time schedule that Disney has picked. The only thing that would be effected would be going to dinner at the Polynesian and switching parks but those always required multiple hops so the buses make that just as easy if not easier for some. Certainly seems like a worthwhile temporary loss for hopefully a long term benefit.

Maybe I'll make a big deal about it at check in and see what happens...

 

[Fe Maiden]

So is the only real way to go direct to MK from BLT will be to walk during the down time? That seems a little over the top to me to require kiddos to walk or ride that far especially in potentially bad weather.

We stayed at BLT over the summer (august: hot, humid, rain) with three kids (youngest 4yo) and I can't think of an easier way to get to and from the MK than walking. It's right there.

 

[ford91exploder]

Disney should have given more notice with a no penalty for changing offer or some other perk for guests. I'm sure if anyone complains while checking in they'll be quick to grant them FP+ for their inconvenience though. I personally would not have a problem with this plan. I always got to the MK prior to opening and stayed to close. Even the rest of my group who would sleep in and have breakfast before coming to the park would not be impacted by the time schedule that Disney has picked. The only thing that would be effected would be going to dinner at the Polynesian and switching parks but those always required multiple hops so the buses make that just as easy if not easier for some. Certainly seems like a worthwhile temporary loss for hopefully a long term benefit.

I hope you are correct, However my inner cynic keeps suggesting that this is an experiment to see how guests respond to not having the monorail operating since they invested in the bendy buses. An interesting experiment would be to tag exposed screwheads with a UV marker and at night check to see whether they were moved or cleaned.

 

[fngoofy]

I hope you are correct, However my inner cynic keeps suggesting that this is an experiment to see how guests respond to not having the monorail operating since they invested in the bendy buses. An interesting experiment would be to tag exposed screwheads with a UV marker and at night check to see whether they were moved or cleaned.

The "monorail resort" is what justifies the CR, PV, and GF prices. Hopefully the cars will get a cleansing during the downtime (the need being shown in another recent thread.)

 

[ford91exploder]

The "monorail resort" is what justifies the CR, PV, and GF prices. Hopefully the cars will get a cleansing during the downtime (the need being shown in another recent thread.)

TDO does not like the Monorail and want it to go away, This is the proverbial Camel's nose what I would not give for a UAV or Satellite feed of the monorail shops while this 'maintenance' is going on. My money is the trains will simply be parked with nothing being done.

 

[Courtneylee212121]

Maybe I'll make a big deal about it at check in and see what happens...

Let me know wht happens! Planing on calling tomorrow or this weekend to possibly move our reservation to AKL ! (From contemp) hoping for no change fee or news that the monorails will be operating normally!

 

[psukardi]

TDO does not like the Monorail and want it to go away, This is the proverbial Camel's nose what I would not give for a UAV or Satellite feed of the monorail shops while this 'maintenance' is going on. My money is the trains will simply be parked with nothing being done.

I'd imagine that those that just purchased into GF will not like that.

 

[golden james]

I'd imagine that those that just purchased into GF will not like that.

Like me. I understand January is down time month but my wife and I have been going for the last five years and still not rode splash. Sadly for us jan is the only time we can vacation and don't mind the odd attraction being down but seriously??? The monorail going down? They didn't mention that last week when I paid nearly 100k for dvc at gf

 

[GhettoJetta5]

I am somewhat new to all of this, and I obviously know nothing about what TDO is thinking, however, if they want to remove the Monorail, why would they be putting a reported $75 million into automating it? Obviously many companies (Disney included) put money into projects then cancel them, but it would seem like an odd way to do it in this case.

 

[ford91exploder]

I am somewhat new to all of this, and I obviously know nothing about what TDO is thinking, however, if they want to remove the Monorail, why would they be putting a reported $75 million into automating it? Obviously many companies (Disney included) put money into projects then cancel them, but it would seem like an odd way to do it in this case.

My guess is so they can run them around like a toy train - giving the appearance that the Monorail is operating but not actually providing transportation for a year or so. Then declare them 'obsolete' and remove them. You have to remember that head of Disney transportation is a former big city bus line manager - so the solution to all transit issues are buses.

 

[Tom]

Like me. I understand January is down time month but my wife and I have been going for the last five years and still not rode splash. Sadly for us jan is the only time we can vacation and don't mind the odd attraction being down but seriously??? The monorail going down? They didn't mention that last week when I paid nearly 100k for dvc at gf

$100k worth of points? It'll be tough to use that many points just in January...

But regardless, it will be down for a few hours a day for a couple months. They're not going to make a big deal out of it, and open a can of worms, for a short term partial outage.

We'll be at the DVC@GF the first week in March and I'm sure we'll be affected. We'll manage though.

 

[Brian Noble]

My guess is so they can run them around like a toy train - giving the appearance that the Monorail is operating but not actually providing transportation for a year or so. Then declare them 'obsolete' and remove them. You have to remember that head of Disney transportation is a former big city bus line manager - so the solution to all transit issues are buses.

There are a lot of high-quality tin-foil-hat-type conspiracy theories on this site. But, this one is special.

 

[ford91exploder]

There are a lot of high-quality tin-foil-hat-type conspiracy theories on this site. But, this one is special.

It's no secret that TDO wants to discontinue the monorail it's expensive to operate, If they did so immediately the outcry would be enormous and even TDO could not withstand the outpouring of negative publicity. The $75M is a drop in the bucket if they can 'save' a couple hundred million over 5 years and/or eliminate the CAPEX for updated monorails.

This way TDO 'automates' the trains, Puts them into testing mode without passengers - hence 'Toy Train Mode', Declare that the tests have failed for 'safety' reasons and the monorails have been too extensively modified to reset them back to manual control thereby creating the perfect excuse to permanently discontinue monorail operation.

Add to that the addition of high capacity 'bendy buses' with direct service to the 'Monorail' resorts. Based on this its hard to come to any other conclusion.

I seriously recommend Sun Tzu's the 'Art of War' in analyzing actions of any given corporation. In the case of TDO does any action reduce either CAPEX or OPEX if it does even if not immediate TDO will probably take that course of action. Removing monorails would reduce CAPEX and OPEX so it's likely that it is a intermediate term strategy to remove them from the parks. Guest satisfaction no longer figures in TDO's calculations.

Samuel Lau is head of transportation, He ran San Francisco's bus system and before that Santa Clara's Details in link.

http://disneybythenumbers.com/blog/blog_files/c1075c14570dd7d334f73b0f0856fd4c-996.html

If you like the monorails enjoy them while you can, I do not think they will be a part of WDW much longer.
http://disneybythenumbers.com/blog/blog_files/c1075c14570dd7d334f73b0f0856fd4c-996.html

 

[Figment2005]

Okay for clarification, the downtime starts on the 21st to the end of march. The downtime will be on WEEKDAYS from 11:30am to 7:00pm. That means weekends will operate normally.

 

[ford91exploder]

Like me. I understand January is down time month but my wife and I have been going for the last five years and still not rode splash. Sadly for us jan is the only time we can vacation and don't mind the odd attraction being down but seriously??? The monorail going down? They didn't mention that last week when I paid nearly 100k for dvc at gf

Why would they - all TDO wants is your money, It's up to you to ask insane questions like how long will Monorail be around!

 

[soarin' cisco]

This isn't the only money that has been poured into the monorail system since Samuel Lau started though. Remember in 2011 they added that small maintenance spur by the TTC. That was over a year after Lau started as the head of transportation. If they really wanted to get rid of the monorails why would you build something like that? The whole reason for that spur is to park the tractor there for better response times to a broken down monorail. If I wanted to get rid of something I wouldn't have put money into that, and just kept doing things the old way. That is because even if the old way wasn't great, it worked and I didn't spend money on a system I would be getting rid of.

 

[orky8]

Why would they - all TDO wants is your money, It's up to you to ask insane questions like how long will Monorail be around!

TDO would also like to get rid of the parks altogether and just charge exorbitant hotel rates for no reason. But, they can't. The monorail is safe and, unfortunately for TDO, is as much an iconic part of Disney World as Epcot itself.

 

[rudyjr13]

Let me know wht happens! Planing on calling tomorrow or this weekend to possibly move our reservation to AKL ! (From contemp) hoping for no change fee or news that the monorails will be operating normally!

You would really move to AKL and have to sit on a bus for what, 25 minutes to get to MK instead of taking a boat, a 2 minute bus, or a 5 minute walk? I won't complain about it until check in if I do at all. It's not that big of a deal.

 

[lazyboy97o]

I hope you are correct, However my inner cynic keeps suggesting that this is an experiment to see how guests respond to not having the monorail operating since they invested in the bendy buses. An interesting experiment would be to tag exposed screwheads with a UV marker and at night check to see whether they were moved or cleaned.

This isn't the first time day service has been unavailable.