So... a Splash Mountain log sank..

[Tom Morrow]

Pretty good opinion piece on this: https://themeparkuniversity.com/dis...-do-not-get-out-as-splash-mountain-log-sinks/

The bigger deal here is the CM's awful response. It's easy to go "Wow, what an idiot!" Well, maybe. But you have to consider the average CM's frame of mind. The leadership at the Walt Disney World is disgustingly toxic and borders on cartoonish evil. The CM was possibly panicking, thinking about all the ways her leadership team could turn this situation against her and reprimand her for "not following established procedures."

 

[celluloid]

Even without the drowning aspect. They did the right thing by getting out. The next boat coming from behind could have bumped and gone over them with the current as it did not have the designed resistnce to more coming in. Then they could have been pinned, crushed and drowned among other things, people sometimes have conditions where they could go on a water ride but not be submerged in water due to risk of infection.

 

[Model3 McQueen]

How many more breakdowns and issues must there be before someone gets seriously injured?

 

[Figments Friend]

There’s a part of my brain that has an uncanny knack for forming conspiracy theories. The conspiracy outlines the possibility of Disney purposely sabotaging Splash Mountain to close the attraction indefinitely in order to cut costs... and eventually work on the Princess and the Frog retheme... whenever that plan comes to fruition.

This has happened before in the past with other WDW Attractions.
Attractions purposely 'sabotaged' to encourage closure and removal due to primarily cost concerns.

Three examples that immediately spring to mind where such questionable actions took place and resulted in closure / removal -

'20k Leagues Under The Sea'
The Original 'Journey Into Imagination'
'Horizons'

There are several others I'm sure, but those are the three I'm aware of that were specifically targeted and purposely made to appear 'run down' and 'no longer appealing to Guests' through shifty manipulative tactics.

-

 

[Tom Morrow]

This has happened before in the past with other WDW Attractions.
Attractions purposely 'sabotaged' to encourage closure and removal due to primarily cost concerns.

Three examples that immediately spring to mind where such questionable actions took place and resulted in closure / removal -

'20k Leagues Under The Sea'
The Original 'Journey Into Imagination'
'Horizons'

There are several others I'm sure, but those are the three I'm aware of that were specifically targeted and purposely made to appear 'run down' and 'no longer appealing to Guests' through shifty manipulative tactics.

-

Show-quality wise, Splash has been in a bad state for a while, and though I haven't ridden it yet, in the post-closure videos I've seen of it, it looks awful.

 

[Figments Friend]

Show-quality wise, Splash has been in a bad state for a while, and though I haven't ridden it yet, in the post-closure videos I've seen of it, it looks awful.

That is very disappointing to hear.

Not getting a good feeling about any of this...
I don't want history repeating itself and yet another elaborate, expensive to maintain, and beloved Attraction is closed and gutted because of such purposeful 'justification' showing it needs to.



-

 

[Model3 McQueen]

Show-quality wise, Splash has been in a bad state for a while, and though I haven't ridden it yet, in the post-closure videos I've seen of it, it looks awful.

What has to happen for TDO to start investing healthy amounts of funds into repairs again?

It's been like this for a lot of WDW attractions, even pre-closure.

 

[Tom Morrow]

What has to happen for TDO to start investing healthy amounts of funds into repairs again?

It's been like this for a lot of WDW attractions, even pre-closure.

Yeah, it's been pretty bad for a while, aside from a handful of attractions. Flight of Passage always looks great, for example.

However, at least the parks themselves generally look really good. Universal has the opposite problem - the show quality of the rides is typically better, but the parks themselves are worn, beat up, and grungy looking.

 

[Brer Panther]

The ride is revolting against the proposed retheme.

Here's hoping Chapek can defeat Iger and his plan to retheme the ride.

Five Chuck E Cheese tickets and a Dole Whip says it involves the Yeti

I now have this mental image of the Yeti's arm falling off.

So...where is all of our money going? They expect us to pay several mortgage payments to visit their resort but then dont give updates/raise the value to meet high prices (without taking 5 other things away) and dont do the maintenance required to keep us safe while were there. Given all the things that are coming to light both with Disney and with businesses/elites in general... this question is absolutely warranted.

Iger has to pay for his new car SOMEHOW, ya know.

What has to happen for TDO to start investing healthy amounts of funds into repairs again?

Who knows? Was attraction maintenance even this bad in the post-Disneyland Paris Eisner days?

 

[peter11435]

Who knows? Was attraction maintenance even this bad in the post-Disneyland Paris Eisner days?

Well considering splash logs have been known to sink even back then... yes.

This is nowhere near the first time this has happened and the cause is not exactly what you would think.

 

[esskay]

Yeah this isn't new for Splash at all, it's just had a few years of relative stability. It wasn't long ago we were having a similar conversation over a rock falling in the loading area, issues with the lifthill, constant closures etc. Every 8 years or so it seems to get into a really bad state and we're just about there again.

It got bad enough that they had nasty cloth barriers over the loading area.

 

[mf1972]

i thought the haunted mansion was looking for “volunteers”?

 

[EdnaMode]

I wish the carousel ponies would all hop off the base and go off into the park on a jaunt.

 

[John park hopper]

I wish the carousel ponies would all hop off the base and go off into the park on a jaunt.

Maybe they do like in Night at the Museum we just don't see them

 

[rk03221]

This is why all the projects Eisner took on all those years ago have really hurt the parks long term. He bit off way more than he could chew and this is the result, not enough money to maintain certain parks. Compare Disneyland to WDW and it’s night and day between how well DL is maintained/kept up compared to wdw. Aside from DL, Disney should seriously consider selling all their parks to a third party like Tokyo

 

[lazyboy97o]

This is why all the projects Eisner took on all those years ago have really hurt the parks long term. He bit off way more than he could chew and this is the result, not enough money to maintain certain parks. Compare Disneyland to WDW and it’s night and day between how well DL is maintained/kept up compared to wdw. Aside from DL, Disney should seriously consider selling all their parks to a third party like Tokyo

Disney has plenty of money for maintenance.

 

[BubbaisSleep]

This is why all the projects Eisner took on all those years ago have really hurt the parks long term. He bit off way more than he could chew and this is the result, not enough money to maintain certain parks. Compare Disneyland to WDW and it’s night and day between how well DL is maintained/kept up compared to wdw. Aside from DL, Disney should seriously consider selling all their parks to a third party like Tokyo

What's next? Are they going to wait until Space Mountain causes an accident before they have to redo it cause it certainly feels like it's heading that way. It's sad rides like BTM still don't have an actual ending after how many years? Disneyland couldn't let such a big finale effect sit like that for so long.

When I had my first WDW visit a few years ago the maintenance & lack of updating caught my eye immediately. Walking around parts of MK and Future World literally looked like no one has touched up anything since the early 90's. We've had bad times before too though (Pressler era).

 

[celluloid]

I would compare it to Pressler era of Disneyland. Many seem to forget or not know how bad Disneyland was in upkeep for a long time. People literally had to start dying(a few gruesome no guest at fault incidents) and the effects took awhile to get back to where they should.

WDW has been dabbling in that path for some time now. This is WDW's pressler era. The effects have been showing signs of neglect for over a decade and eventually, if a company is willing to have cuts that you see, there are many more you do not.

Haunted Mansion
Jungle Cruise
People Mover
Splash Mountain

were the ones we know about in the last six months and the park was not even open for three of them.

 

[Disney Maddux]

Yeah, it's been pretty bad for a while, aside from a handful of attractions. Flight of Passage always looks great, for example.

However, at least the parks themselves generally look really good. Universal has the opposite problem - the show quality of the rides is typically better, but the parks themselves are worn, beat up, and grungy looking.

Universal's rides always look good because there's little to nothing to maintain.

 

[Tom Morrow]

This is why all the projects Eisner took on all those years ago have really hurt the parks long term. He bit off way more than he could chew and this is the result, not enough money to maintain certain parks. Compare Disneyland to WDW and it’s night and day between how well DL is maintained/kept up compared to wdw. Aside from DL, Disney should seriously consider selling all their parks to a third party like Tokyo

WDW had comparatively excellent maintenance under Eisner. What are you even talking about?