Sentinel writes article on broken yeti!

[Thrill]

They should put the Yeti inside Stitches Great Adventure and see if he destroys that too.......

That's funny, because I hear that's in pretty bad shape too.

 

[IWant2GoNow]

From Screamscape...

Park News - (8/5/10) We’ve heard a rumor that Imagineering has built up some designs for a new version of the Yeti figure… however this one will only feature limited motion compared to the original. I not sure if this is intended as a temporary replacement while they work to fix the main figure, or if they have simply given up on ever repairing the original Yeti. Don’t look for a new figure to arrive until at least early 2011.

Not sure how I feel about this rumor, but it is just a rumor so...

I'd like it to be a temporary while the fix the full motion Yeti, but why do I see this as being the "cheap fix" for Disney? Not "cheap" as in money, but "cheap" as in cutting out the full experience. We'll see I guess...

 

[jakeman]

I'd like it to be a temporary while the fix the full motion Yeti, but why do I see this as being the "cheap fix" for Disney? Not "cheap" as in money, but "cheap" as in cutting out the full experience. We'll see I guess...

If true, then it can be taken two ways:

1. They put it in with the intention of fixing the real yeti and never do.

2. The real yeti's motions are untenable and this replacement is the only viable solution.

I know the fan community will always assume number one regardless of what the facts are unfortunately.

The only thing that would even remotely fix the black eye Disney has taken for this is a fully repaired yeti.

 

[wishesjake]

From Screamscape...



Not sure how I feel about this rumor, but it is just a rumor so...

I'd like it to be a temporary while the fix the full motion Yeti, but why do I see this as being the "cheap fix" for Disney? Not "cheap" as in money, but "cheap" as in cutting out the full experience. We'll see I guess...

:brick:

 

[IWant2GoNow]

If true, then it can be taken two ways:

1. They put it in with the intention of fixing the real yeti and never do.

2. The real yeti's motions are untenable and this replacement is the only viable solution.

I know the fan community will always assume number one regardless of what the facts are unfortunately.

The only thing that would even remotely fix the black eye Disney has taken for this is a fully repaired yeti.

Exactly correct.

What sucks is we'll never know what their intentions are because they refuse to even admit there's a true problem.

I know I've been pretty adamant about getting the Yeti fixed, as you all know. And I understand some people on here that say "Joe Schmo from Kokomo won't know the difference and people will ride regardless" but with the recent price increases on all of the parks how can even the lowest of Disney fan be okay with a themed attraction that has taken away so many effects?

I was upset with the fact that I probably won't be able to visit the World again until 2013, but now I'm thinking maybe I don't want to. Heck, by then tickets could be $90-$95 with an even MORE relaxed maintenance precedent in place.

This fan is losing patience quickly.

 

[jakeman]

And I understand some people on here that say "Joe Schmo from Kokomo won't know the difference and people will ride regardless"...

I find this as unacceptable as you do.

This is a headliner AA. It shouldn't be in this state.

I can understand why a swap out would occur and can even grudgingly accept that.

The time it has taken just to get to this point is unacceptable.

 

[IWant2GoNow]

I find this as unacceptable as you do.

This is a headliner AA. It shouldn't be in this state.

I can understand why a swap out would occur and can even grudgingly accept that.

The time it has taken just to get to this point is unacceptable.

Bolded for absolute, 100%, undeniable truth.

My fiancee made a good point last night. They had absolutely NO problem replacing the big Carnotaurus towards the end of Dinosaur with a giant dino head-on-a-stick until they got him back together. Why in the world didn't they bite the bullet back at the end of '07 and do this before the problem got even worse?

Two to three years is a ridiculous downtime for something that is supposed to be what the entire ride (storywise) is about.

I liken it to the build up of TT and then just before the barrier you do about 25mph until the end of the ride.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Exactly correct.

What sucks is we'll never know what their intentions are because they refuse to even admit there's a true problem.

I know I've been pretty adamant about getting the Yeti fixed, as you all know. And I understand some people on here that say "Joe Schmo from Kokomo won't know the difference and people will ride regardless" but with the recent price increases on all of the parks how can even the lowest of Disney fan be okay with a themed attraction that has taken away so many effects?

I was upset with the fact that I probably won't be able to visit the World again until 2013, but now I'm thinking maybe I don't want to. Heck, by then tickets could be $90-$95 with an even MORE relaxed maintenance precedent in place.

This fan is losing patience quickly.

Disney has acknowledged that the Yeti is broken. But what they've said is that they're still researching the way to approach it. That can mean any number of different things.

If the screamscape rumor is true, it is probably a bandaid solution, and indicative that the structure is the issue and not the animatronic itself (this is also what is widely believed). Limited motion is better than no motion, but what it also does is further delay the full refurbishment to fix this.

We'll be going into further detail on this topic on my show this week. I've already conducted the 23 minute interview with Jason Garcia which will also be featured on the show that comes out on Sunday.

 

[IWant2GoNow]

Disney has acknowledged that the Yeti is broken. But what they've said is that they're still researching the way to approach it. That can mean any number of different things.

If the screamscape rumor is true, it is probably a bandaid solution, and indicative that the structure is the issue and not the animatronic itself (this is also what is widely believed). Limited motion is better than no motion, but what it also does is further delay the full refurbishment to fix this.

We'll be going into further detail on this topic on my show this week. I've already conducted the 23 minute interview with Jason Garcia which will also be featured on the show that comes out on Sunday.

I've not scoured the Internet, but the only time I've heard them talk about it was with Jason here recently. My thought is if he hadn't even done the article, we would have never heard an official statement or anything regarding its condition or a fix for it. I believe, as most have said on here, that Disney would have just continued running Disco Yeti because it will still drawing a big crowd. I really wouldn't blame them, but it took them 3 years to say "Yes there's a problem. And we've been stumped on it for 3 years."

Now I'm not saying any time something is wrong with an attraction Disney should just announce it to the world. But something like this should have gone down for a total refurb already and then explained to the public why.

I'm pretty interested to listen to your interview with Jason. He seemed like a really nice guy when we talked on the phone. :wave:

 

[MythBuster]

Here is my take on the situation since I know a lot of the people involved at DAK. I find it funny when people use the term TDO, (like everyone is together on the same team) There is a lot of office politics involved like most corporations. It is more like WDW AES vs WDI. Everyone is pointing fingers at each other.

They have been fighting ever since DAK opened. That is why DAK is in bad shape maintenance wise. They blame everything on WDI and say it was a bad design or bad product. WDI says it was fine when it was installed and DAK maintenance failed to maintain it.

So mainly it comes down to money. Who is going to pay for the repairs WDW AES or WDI? So mainly the attempts at the repairs is just locally a quick fix. That is why Dinosaur is such bad repair. They just turn it off instead of fixing it. If they could just pull the Yeti out of the mountain in one piece and send it back to Tujunga, they probably would.

 

[AEfx]

This whole thing just highlights the original design problem of an AA you go past at XX-MPH anyway. Even in A-mode, you still had to know what you were looking for to see him and you go by so quickly that it was very easy to miss.

If it were up to me I'd just keep disco Yeti and spend the money to at least try to theme the backside of the mountain.

 

[Atomicmickey]

This whole thing just highlights the original design problem of an AA you go past at XX-MPH anyway. Even in A-mode, you still had to know what you were looking for to see him and you go by so quickly that it was very easy to miss.

If it were up to me I'd just keep disco Yeti and spend the money to at least try to theme the backside of the mountain.

Well, you can't see the backside except from far away--and having stood at the top of Summit Plummet and stared at it, I think it looks pretty good from there. I think they did an OK job painting it to look like some sort of mountain mud buildings. If Asia or anything ever expands past it, then of course.

Point being, it isn't seen and doesn't really affect the experience unless you go out of your way to look for it.

 

[RSoxNo1]

A few things, the attendance at the Animal Kingdom increased 1.3 million via from 2005 to 2007 (the last full year before Everest, and the first full year with Everest). It's reasonable to believe that closing Everest for 6 months to fix it would cost them 500,000 guests in attendance. That's probably at the very least $40 million in revenue, but probably substantially more.

Some other problems with the park is that the current trend in Disney is to build attractions simultaneously for two parks. But Animal Kingdom's theming is so different than any other park (Epcot has the same problem). Animal Kingdom is the only Disney Park in the world that has never had a clone built for it. It has had two of it's attractions cloned (it's tough to be a bug and Festival of the Lion King), but it has never received a cloned attraction. It has to foot the bill for all of the development costs, so things get pushed to the back burner.

Add in the fact that Africa and Asia are so ridiculously well themed that anything less than that level of theming stands out even more. So "Bandaid solution for Capacity Issues Land" Aka Dinorama stands out as the worst themed land in any park in Disney history, and it's in the same park as two amazing Asian villages and an amazing Africa village.

The last thing is that the expansion pads in the Animal Kingdom require several things to happen.

To expand behind Kali/Anandapur you need to rework the train tracks and/or Maharajah Jungle Trek

To expand in the Camp Minnie Mickey land you need to move Festival of the Lion King

To expand near Dinorama would likely mean leveling Dinorama.

 

[AEfx]

Well, you can't see the backside except from far away--and having stood at the top of Summit Plummet and stared at it, I think it looks pretty good from there. I think they did an OK job painting it to look like some sort of mountain mud buildings. If Asia or anything ever expands past it, then of course.

Point being, it isn't seen and doesn't really affect the experience unless you go out of your way to look for it.

Do you ever use the AK parking lot?

You don't notice it if you take a Disney bus, but it's glaringly awful looking if you park in the AK parking lot. It's been a year or two since I've seen it, so perhaps they have "plussed" it, but last time I saw it from the parking lot walking over it looked terrible.

It's not a huge deal, but I'd personally rather see it themed better than replacing a Yeti that, no matter how well it works, you don't see very well anyway whizzing by at 50mph.

 

[MKCP 1985]

Has Joe Rohde weighed in on this subject?

I'd really like to read or hear this thoughts about the current status of his baby. Or has Disney corporate told him to keep quiet on the matter?

 

[Grizzly Hall 71]

This whole Yeti situation reminds me of the plot of JAWS.

The mayor of Amity doesn't want to shut down the beaches to fix the shark problem because of the dependance on income. TDO doesn't want to shut down Everest because of the huge draw that it is.

Just like it in JAWS, it's going to take something big for them to realize they need to fix it.

I don't know know what it will be, but something will makes change their minds soon.

 

[officeboy]

Here is my take on the situation since I know a lot of the people involved at DAK. I find it funny when people use the term TDO, (like everyone is together on the same team) There is a lot of office politics involved like most corporations. It is more like WDW AES vs WDI. Everyone is pointing fingers at each other.

They have been fighting ever since DAK opened. That is why DAK is in bad shape maintenance wise. They blame everything on WDI and say it was a bad design or bad product. WDI says it was fine when it was installed and DAK maintenance failed to maintain it.

So mainly it comes down to money. Who is going to pay for the repairs WDW AES or WDI? So mainly the attempts at the repairs is just locally a quick fix. That is why Dinosaur is such bad repair. They just turn it off instead of fixing it. If they could just pull the Yeti out of the mountain in one piece and send it back to Tujunga, they probably would.

Ah. Conundrum. That makes sense. One could view this as "We built this and it was fine when we left. The 'warranty' ran out and we are no longer monetarily responsible. Happy to help fix 'your' problem, but it will cost you. Would you say this concept is similar to the issue currently in play? It sounds more complicated that that, but that was my best shot at Walmarting it...

 

[Clever Name]

...it's going to take something big for them to realize they need to fix it.

I don't know know what it will be, but something will makes change their minds soon.

The Yeti will fall down and go BOOM!

 

[wdwfan94]

Has Joe Rohde weighed in on this subject?

I'd really like to read or hear this thoughts about the current status of his baby. Or has Disney corporate told him to keep quiet on the matter?

They probably tied him up and threw him in the basement of the TDO building.

 

[Grizzly Hall 71]

The Yeti will fall down and go BOOM!

Maybe.