News Space Mountain and Disneyland Railroad closing for refurbishment in early August 2024

Disney Irish

Disney Irish

Premium Member
Phroobar said:
Where I work it is a big deal to move on to new operation systems when End of Life is approaching to stay compliant with licenses and patching. Disney's IT should be on it just to keep support and patches with Microsoft going. My guess is they are moving off of Server 2016 to 2019 or 2022. At least that is what I'm doing. There is no way anything at Disney is running Windows 95.

But then again when buying annual passes, I sware they are using a Commadore 64 on a 1200baud modem.
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I don't remember how long ago it was, but I want to say it was in the late 2010s when I saw several rumors of attractions including Space still running on old versions of Windows like Windows 95. If its a air gapped system and it runs software that doesn't run on modern OS' I can see any company still running on old systems like that. I personally know of PDP-11s still being used today by an organization.

But I imagine Disney has upgraded most of their systems recently to use newer Windows versions, maybe not the latest but a newer version.
 
Phroobar

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
Disney Irish said:
I don't remember how long ago it was, but I want to say it was in the late 2010s when I saw several rumors of attractions including Space still running on old versions of Windows like Windows 95. If its a air gapped system and it runs software that doesn't run on modern OS' I can see any company still running on old systems like that. I personally know of PDP-11s still being used today by an organization.

But I imagine Disney has upgraded most of their systems recently to use newer Windows versions, maybe not the latest but a newer version.
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I always wanted a PDP-11 just sitting on a self in my office randomly blinking lights.

iu

It's thinking.
 
P

Parteecia

Well-Known Member
Disney Irish said:
Early in my career (many years ago in the late 90s) I worked on a PDP-11, can't remember the exact model, that ran Unix.
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As a former VAX Admin, I salute you. I wish I'd snuck out some of our systems when they were being replaced.

On Disney topic: Anaheim DECUS conventions were the best. I swear there was maybe 2000 of us total at the DL private party, and almost no children.
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
Phroobar said:
I always wanted a PDP-11 just sitting on a self in my office randomly blinking lights.

iu

It's thinking.
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That's hysterical! That would be fun to put on a bookcase in your den, just sitting there blinking and blooping, while you give the mandatory house tour at the start of the dinner party. You could wave your hand towards it and say to your guests "And this is the electronic brain that keeps it all running!".

In the early 1980's, I had a wacky friend who had a big circa 1962 beauty parlor hairdryer in his dining room (I Googled up a close approximation of it below). But his had a blue plastic armchair, and was chrome and shaped to fit a ladies beehive hairdo just like this photo, and he called it his "Deprogrammer". After we'd all had a few drinks, he'd start insisting party guests sit in the chair as he lowered the dome over us so we could be deprogrammed one by one. What we were being deprogrammed from exactly was never explained (Reaganomics? The last vestiges of Disco? Soviet spies amongst us?) but it was a memorable party gag that I remember decades later. 🤣

IMG_0629.JPG
 
Disney Analyst

Disney Analyst

Well-Known Member
shambolicdefending said:
Haunted Mansion
Splash Mountain
Space Mountain

All closed for an extended period at the same time - in the middle of summer.

Doesn't seem like a great time to be a Disneyland guest. Reminiscent to me of the early 00s.
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Well since summer is the slower season these days…

But for real, I don’t fault them for doing refurbishments. Better than not.

I wonder if they hope to have Mansion up by then in holiday form?
 
trainplane3

trainplane3

Well-Known Member
Disney Analyst said:
Well since summer is the slower season these days…

But for real, I don’t fault them for doing refurbishments. Better than not.

I wonder if they hope to have Mansion up by then in holiday form?
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That's my hope. I'm bummed SM is closed for a first DL trip but if HM is opened, it'll be a decent make up. Regardless, there's quite a bit closed and even if it is "slow" they probably want to have some kind of extra capacity available.
 
PiratesMansion

PiratesMansion

Well-Known Member
I do think part of it is that summer is slower than it used to be. Each year it does seem like Halloween and Christmas get just a little more traction from a portion of the fanbase, and that seems to be coming at the expense of summer.

But I'm also starting to wonder if they're significantly down in maintenance staff, to the point that they don't have much choice but to do refurb work whenever they can, even if that means doing them in the summer.

It's worth noting that in the Tokyo parks, something is ALWAYS being refurbished. There is never a point when every attraction is open at the same time, and those parks don't have the ride capacity that DL park does, at any rate. They could be moving to that model, given that even Christmas last year had a few rides under refurb.
 
el_super

el_super

Well-Known Member
PiratesMansion said:
I do think part of it is that summer is slower than it used to be. Each year it does seem like Halloween and Christmas get just a little more traction from a portion of the fanbase, and that seems to be coming at the expense of summer.
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Late summer was usually much slower, even in the before times. The So Cal APs used to be unblocked the last two weeks of August and that always caused chaos. My guess here is that they want to make sure things are up and running for Halloweentime.


PiratesMansion said:
But I'm also starting to wonder if they're significantly down in maintenance staff, to the point that they don't have much choice but to do refurb work whenever they can, even if that means doing them in the summer.
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They might be, but it's important to remember that for major refurbishments, they will usually bring in an outside contractor to do that work. Then you become dependent on their schedule and availability. Doubtful they have the machinists and electricians responsible for ride maintenance coming in to replace the flooring.
 
tanc

tanc

Premium Member
Indy is closing September 9th, right before my trip. What a bummer, like DLR just has so many closures it's ridiculous. I wish they could announce all ride refurbishments like 6 months ahead like TDR does.
 
Disney Analyst

Disney Analyst

Well-Known Member
tanc said:
Indy is closing September 9th, right before my trip. What a bummer, like DLR just has so many closures it's ridiculous. I wish they could announce all ride refurbishments like 6 months ahead like TDR does.
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I get it, it's a total bummer! But I promise, even without Indy it's a great experience with so much to do.

We were there in June. No Mansion, Lincoln, Winnie the Pooh, or Splash/Tiana's.
 
Indy_UK

Indy_UK

Well-Known Member
D

DCBaker

Premium Member
Original Poster
In an updated statement, Disneyland has acknowledged the upcoming temporary closure of the Disneyland Railroad. A reopening date has not yet been announced.

Here's the statement:

Due to work in the area between Tiana’s Palace and the Haunted Mansion, the Disneyland Railroad station in New Orleans Square is unavailable for boarding and unloading, though the train will continue to operate through August 4th. Guests who require an accessible entrance to the attraction can use stations in Mickey’s Toontown and Tomorrowland. Beginning August 5th, the Disneyland Railroad will be temporarily closed.
 

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