News New Haunted Mansion Grounds Expansion, Retail Shop Coming to Disneyland Resort in 2024

[Disney Irish]

It's one thing to make these next-gen fluid animatronics. It is another to maintain them for twenty years. Two completely different sets of people and skills. I bet these next-gen fluid AAs have a life expectancy of about six months before breaking and letting park ops figure out how to fix it.

You said the same thing about the Spider-Man stuntronic for Avengers Campus (I think you even said 1 month before it was dropped completely), and it has been running daily for almost 2 years.

How many years does it take to build a new Fantastmic dragon or even repair a train water tower building?

I don't think its a matter of time, its more complex than that. As I believe they could do both in a short period of time (weeks if not a few months) if they wanted to. There is probably many reasons not related to WDI or Ops why both aren't done yet or with Murphy specifically probably not coming back at all.

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

They both have Constance and ‘technically’ the same effect, but Disneyland’s feels a lot cheaper. It also is less successful because of the HMH overlay which removes and reinstalls the bride annually, causing her projection to constantly be misaligned. WDW can find the perfect position for the projector and just leave it there without the need to keep things semi-transportable

That makes sense. What makes the figure cheaper? Is it less detailed?

 

[zipadee999]

That makes sense. What makes the figure cheaper? Is it less detailed?

I wonder if it might be the mannequin itself. Again, they’re technically the same effect, but the WDW version, while still not great, at least feels semi three-dimensional. At DL, she just looks like a 2D film being played on a 2D surface. I also wonder if WDW uses more veils that just add a bit of depth. Either way, there’s just something off about the California version

 

[duncedoof]

I’ll tell you for certain that the original HHG Carousel mechanism was fully removed during this refurb.

I shouldn't be as deeply affected by this as I am. Oh well, thank you for the information!

 

[Nland316]

Surprised no visible construction has started on the gift shop. Have to assume it won’t be completed by the time HMH starts.

 

[mickEblu]

What sucks is we won’t even get to see the damage until January.

 

[duncedoof]

Surprised no visible construction has started on the gift shop. Have to assume it won’t be completed by the time HMH starts.

Maybe they thought that portion would get too busy between Mansion construction and Tiana's.

 

[Disney Irish]

What sucks is we won’t even get to see the damage until January.

Call me naive, and I know its a slim (very slim almost no) chance, but I still hold out hope for a July opening for regular HM before the switch to HMH.

 

[mickEblu]

Call me naive, and I know its a slim (very slim almost no) chance, but I still hold out hope for a July opening for regular HM before the switch to HMH.

Best of luck. Would you make a trip out?

 

[Disney Irish]

Best of luck. Would you make a trip out?

Possibly, I already have a trip planned sometime in the next month or two, so could just wait until July if it opens.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Call me naive, and I know its a slim (very slim almost no) chance, but I still hold out hope for a July opening for regular HM before the switch to HMH.

. . . I wouldn't hold out for a July opening. And certainly not with the regular HM show.

There's a lot of work to do and they're currently behind. They also haven't fully removed the Holiday show for this refurb - some pieces have been taken away for maintenance, but the plan was always to reopen with the Holiday overlay, so much of it was left in place.

 

[Disney Irish]

. . . I wouldn't hold out for a July opening. And certainly not with the regular HM show.

There's a lot of work to do and they're currently behind. They also haven't fully removed the Holiday show for this refurb - some pieces have been taken away for maintenance, but the plan was always to reopen with the Holiday overlay, so much of it was left in place.

My trip is not specifically planned around this, so if it doesn't open in July its not a big deal to me.

Though the overhauls you've referenced here, especially described by you as being "pretty extensive" and some scenes being described as being gutted by others, would seem to indicate they would need to remove most if not all of HMH to do that work.

Anyways we'll see what happens soon enough.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Though the overhauls you've referenced here, especially described by you as being "pretty extensive" and some scenes being described as being gutted by others, would seem to indicate they would need to remove most if not all of HMH to do that work.

Not really. You remove stuff from where you’re working and that’s it. How extensive the work is doesn’t really change that.

 

[JustInTime]

Call me naive, and I know its a slim (very slim almost no) chance, but I still hold out hope for a July opening for regular HM before the switch to HMH.

Zero chance, unfortunately

 

[Disney Irish]

Zero chance, unfortunately

I like how everyone here is an insider now and knows the exact timelines of projects with great details about what is being done lol.

Anyways, if it doesn't open with regular HM and opens in August or September with HMH its no big deal to me. I'm cool with HMH, it was just a hope for those that want regular HM in 2024. But it appears that is not to be. Oh well....

 

[JustInTime]

I like how everyone here is an insider now and knows the exact timelines of projects with great details about what is being done lol.

Anyways, if it doesn't open with regular HM and opens in August or September with HMH it’s no big deal to me. I'm cool with HMH, it was just a hope for those that want regular HM in 2024. But it appears that is not to be. Oh well....

You don’t have to be an insider to see the writing on the wall. You yourself said you were being naive.

The budget to uninstall HMH, install HM, uninstall HM and reinstall HMH is being used on this refurb. In no world does it make sense to bring back Mansion for a few weeks only to turn around and take it down again.

Trust me. I want HM in 2024. I’d prefer it to never leave again. Ideally, HMH would take a year off at minimum.

 

[Disney Irish]

You don’t have to be an insider to see the writing on the wall. You yourself said you were being naive.

The budget to uninstall HMH, install HM, uninstall HM and reinstall HMH is being used on this refurb. In no world does it make sense to bring back Mansion for a few weeks only to turn around and take it down again.

Trust me. I want HM in 2024. I’d prefer it to never leave again. Ideally, HMH would take a year off at minimum.

My response to that was they did something fairly similar back in 2020 after coming back from the pandemic closure. The discussion back then was again that regular HM also wouldn't be back for over a year. That they would never have HM only opened for a short period of time before switching to HMH, so they'll just keep it closed to reopen for HMH. And what happened, regular HM came back and was open for a short period of time before switching to HMH. So there is precedent for it to happen if they decided to make it happen.

Also the "naive" bit was really a joke, just a saying if you will. I'm aware there is pretty much a 100% chance of it not coming back in July.

 

[JustInTime]

My response to that was they did something fairly similar back in 2020 after coming back from the pandemic closure. The discussion back then was again that regular HM also wouldn't be back for over a year. That they would never have HM only opened for a short period of time before switching to HMH, so they'll just keep it closed to reopen for HMH. And what happened, regular HM came back and was open for a short period of time before switching to HMH. So there is precedent for it to happen if they decided to make it happen.

Also the "naive" bit was really a joke, just a saying if you will. I'm aware there is pretty much a 100% chance of it not coming back in July.

If you’re 100% aware then why the snark when people say it’s not coming back this year? I mean, you basically agree? It was just weird and unnecessary.

 

[truecoat]

It's one thing to make these next-gen fluid animatronics. It is another to maintain them for twenty years. Two completely different sets of people and skills. I bet these next-gen fluid AAs have a life expectancy of about six months before breaking and letting park ops figure out how to fix it.

The new AA's use electric motors and are more reliable than the hydraulic systems of the past.

 

[Disney Irish]

If you’re 100% aware then why the snark when people say it’s not coming back this year? I mean, you basically agree? It was just weird and unnecessary.

It was a dog pile effect, so sorry if it came across as snarky. Its one thing for an "insider" to say its not coming back, but it comes across as just dog piling for non-insiders to then come in just a couple posts later to say the same thing.