Reason the Wand may come down?

[mousermerf]

I stumbled across a bit of info..

Rumor has it that the reason for the Wand to finally come down is because it costs too much to maintain. It's said that the storms and extended life beyond the original plans for Millenium have taken their toll on the structure - and if they don't tear it down, it would cost a small fortune to keep it up.

Food for thought..

 

[fizzle75]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

Finnally a good reason for them to break that freakin arm off of SE..I also hope that Siemens also said that as well since the rehab of the attraction. Also the top of it really needs a scrubdown.

 

[PhotoDave219]

Only way that thing will come down is metal fatigue and it becomes structurally unsafe.

So Merf's reasoning may be correct, assuming that point has actually come - which i doubt it has.

 

[imagineer boy]

Oh god, I hope you're right on this merf. Is it time when we finally see the wand go?

One problem though, what will we do with the big ball/wand thread? :lookaroun

 

[saltmom1]

I stumbled across a bit of info..

Rumor has it that the reason for the Wand to finally come down is because it costs too much to maintain. It's said that the storms and extended life beyond the original plans for Millenium have taken their toll on the structure - and if they don't tear it down, it would cost a small fortune to keep it up.

Food for thought..

:sohappy: :sohappy: :sohappy:

 

[SeanC]

cool...where's this rumor coming from?

 

[askmike1]

The wand has been up for 7 years and through numerous direct hurricanes. If it's going to come down, I highly doubt it will have to do with money or storms.

 

[FigmentJedi]

Please let it come down. Spaceship Earth's like Chickenfoot, afflicted by a curse that's really only a really ugly costume that won't come off. Smash the wand and "The curse is lifted!"

 

[goofyfan13]

Oh god, I hope you're right on this merf. Is it time when we finally see the wand go?

One problem though, what will we do with the big ball/wand thread? :lookaroun

The great thing about that thread, is the real conversation about the wand went away at about page 4, and the rest was just innuendos and trying to make sentences out of the word. :lol:

 

[Valawen9]

I'm so used to seeing it there that if they took it down it would look so bare over there.

 

[ToTBellHop]

I HIGHLY doubt this. There is no way Disney would build ANYTHING that couldn't survive a Cat. 5 Hurricane (the parks would surely be damaged, but I would not expect to see any rides blown away). For one, it'd be a safety hazard since it is possible that there could be guests in the parks during bad weather (admittedly, Disney tries to prevent this during major storms, but there is a chance), and for the other, it's built on top of Spaceship Earth. If this came crashing down in a storm, there would be MAJOR damages to Spaceship Earth, so there's no way they built it so poorly. I doubt the maintenance costs are very high. With the way Disney works these days, if there were ever any expensive damages, we would see them working on it during the day, which we don't (and we'd likely see a crane if it were major). I think it just sits there calmly, and will continue to.

 

[CThaddeus]

Tell me the same thing about the stupid Hat and you will have made my millenium. Maybe that could be Disney World's promotion for 2008: Year of the Bare Ball and Unobstructed Views. Not as catchy as Happiest Homecoming on Earth, but then not as dumb as Year of a Million Dreams either. I'd buy the t-shirt...

 

[Figment1986]

the wand is made out of steel, but might have been designed to last a period of time.. and last so much... it would make sence from what it been through it might be nearing the end of it's approved life...

if this is true i want to be there when the crain comes in and takes down E... and the steel.. not to mention think how much that steel is worth now.

 

[mousermerf]

I HIGHLY doubt this. There is no way Disney would build ANYTHING that couldn't survive a Cat. 5 Hurricane (the parks would surely be damaged, but I would not expect to see any rides blown away). For one, it'd be a safety hazard since it is possible that there could be guests in the parks during bad weather (admittedly, Disney tries to prevent this during major storms, but there is a chance), and for the other, it's built on top of Spaceship Earth. If this came crashing down in a storm, there would be MAJOR damages to Spaceship Earth, so there's no way they built it so poorly. I doubt the maintenance costs are very high. With the way Disney works these days, if there were ever any expensive damages, we would see them working on it during the day, which we don't (and we'd likely see a crane if it were major). I think it just sits there calmly, and will continue to.

I think you're forgetting the extensive damage some structures in WDW have suffered during the previous storms, none of which were Cat 5 over WDW.

A building can be designed a certain way, but over time things begin to fail. I had friend who worked for a firm whose job it was to find out "why the building fell down" so to speak, i think it's called forensic architecture. Anywho, learned a lot about how things can go wrong in a building or structure. The ground can shift (think cracks up the side of house), or the weather can do damage - but also contractors are often to blame. For example, a warehouse owned by a airplane building company collapsed one day during the rain. Turns out that the contractor installed smaller-then-specification drains on the roof, so it filled with water like a giant swimming pool, until the weight caused the entire structure to fail. The roof caved in an area, then the walls in the building were pushed out one by one like dominos from the force, until the entire thing fell down.

Back at Disney, the Living Seas sustained some damage during the last storms, and during the Nemo installation you could often see them working on sections of the roof and walls of the building (removing and replacing whole portions even) - areas that the ride on the interior has nothing to do with.

 

[dcibrando]

Most of you might think I'm crazy... but with a little redesign and the EPCOT text in the actual futuristic EPCOT font (rather than whatever the heck font it's in now) might look kinda cool.

Maybe even do something fancy with the lighting of it (maybe random changing colors) rather than a constant glow? :shrug:

 

[marni1971]

How ironic..... a structure I don`t like comes down due to one of the core things about the company I don`t like :lol:

 

[wdwmagic]

I would go with the notion that the wand structure is engineered to a very high level. It's proximity to Spaceship Earth and to guests would mean that it's structural integrity would be taken very seriously. I can't beleive it would fail. If it ever is removed (which I dont think it will be), I think it will be due to some other decision, other than structural failure.

 

[marni1971]

I think Merf means it`d be cheaper to remove it than to keep maintaining it.

 

[Legacy]

I think Merf means it`d be cheaper to remove it than to keep maintaining it.

That's true of anything though. Everything is cheaper when you don't have it. Not to sound like a jerk, but that's not exactly the greatest revelation of business practices...