Splash Mountain falling apart (literally?)

[Captain Chaos]

Cat Can was designed to handle the water. Chick-a-Pin Hill wasn't.

Maybe it's just me but, are you saying, WDI created a water ride and didn't design the show building to handle, you know, WATER? Or are you just talking about the rock work? Either way, isn't that a tad careless?

 

[asianway]

Maybe it's just me but, are you saying, WDI created a water ride and didn't design the show building to handle, you know, WATER? Or are you just talking about the rock work? Either way, isn't that a tad careless?

I dont think Chick a pin hill comes in contact with the flume, its the irrigation system for the live plants. I saw them placing them the day before it opened in '92, so its not like they shouldnt have been aware...

 

[Yert3]

From what I believe has been said in the past (by either Martin or Lee, I forgot which), they do indeed just switch off parts of rides to save money. Parts that aren't broken in the first place. I believe it was stated not too long ago that they have been turning off lightbulbs on the Grand Floridian that aren't even burned out for example.

From the Dec 23 video you posted, there are a few effects working now that were either broken or switched off during my last visit in February (the leap day they were open 24 hours which was my final day on my AP). When I visited, there weren't ANY water effects working at the laughing place scene at all (neither the kind jumping over the track nor the more stationary ones off to the side). There are at least a few working in that video however which were definitely not when I visited.

Either they are fixing or turning on effects due to the extra time allotted by taking Splash off of Extra Magic Hours, or as RSoxNo1 suggested, they're simply switching the effects back on because it's the busiest time of the year and more people would notice things not working (they may turn them back off soon). I'm inclined to think he might be right on the matter, the timing is rather suspect and it makes sense that they'd just temporarily switch back on intentionally disabled effects for the Christmas holiday.

The ride is going down for refurb this month if I recall correctly, so we'll see fairly soon whether the fixes are permanent. Considering that Big Thunder came back from its extensive refurb with major show features still broken though (and some that were fixed are already broken again), I'm not getting my hopes up. Splash has even less time allotted for its refurb and is a far more complicated ride in terms of show scenes (lot more still broken about it as well).

Hmm. Well that's an all new low for me. I knew that for a while now that they haven't been fixing things that are broken. But to switch off effects that aren't broken to save money? The WDW I knew and loved is completely gone. It'll take a miracle to get it back to the way things used to be.

 

[marni1971]

Sounds more likely the drainage system got blocked and not fixed. Or the nozzles got mis aimed over time.

 

[Captain Chaos]

I dont think Chick a pin hill comes in contact with the flume, its the irrigation system for the live plants. I saw them placing them the day before it opened in '92, so its not like they shouldnt have been aware...

Which, if they knew they would need irrigation, then careless planning... I guess this one we can lay the blame on WDI..

 

[Fantasmic]

Video I took on the 23rd of Dec. Before all of the fixes I stated above.

That is quite bad show.... Not as bad as when I went in 2011, but still bad.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

Wait, so did the collapse not occur or is it that the tarps over the load area are unrelated and a collapse did occur somewhere?

???

 

[Yert3]

That is quite bad show.... Not as bad as when I went in 2011, but still bad.

I agree. It's amazing how Disney was able to get away with it being in bad shape for so long. I don't know how much they'll fix in this refurb or even what their plans are. After reading some of these forums for the past few months, I'm not really getting my hopes up. But IF they do fail to restore Splash Mountain to even 85% of it's original glory, I will personally lose all hope for WDW. I've been reading of some management changes soon? I don't know the full details on that. I heard that those were just rumors. How relevant are they?

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

I agree. It's amazing how Disney was able to get away with it being in bad shape for so long. I don't know how much they'll fix in this refurb or even what their plans are. After reading some of these forums for the past few months, I'm not really getting my hopes up. But IF they do fail to restore Splash Mountain to even 85% of it's original glory, I will personally lose all hope for WDW. I've been reading of some management changes soon? I don't know the full details on that. I heard that those were just rumors. How relevant are they?

The management changes haven't been formally announced yet of course. But we have it on good authority (Lee, WDW1974 and others) that if things go well, new management may be coming within months instead of years (so i'm guessing before summer at least). So I'm assuming that more than a couple of the executives at TDO will be replaced with potentially more competent ones. Lee has said that the intention (again if all goes well) is to have a sort of cleanup like Disneyland received for its 50th. We'll see whether this happens (he said it may also depend on nextgen failing as well I believe).

WDW1974 has also stated that George Kalogridis (current president of Disneyland) will be taking over the job of president of WDW, he'll be replacing Meg Crofton. This will probably be along with the other management changes at TDO.

Both Lee and WDW1974 have good sources within the Disney company and provide great information on what happens within. While things change daily within the Disney company obviously and not even Disney themselves say will happen is 100% guaranteed to happen, Lee and '74 accurately report information they receive from legit sources within the company. I'd imagine that a management change is pretty certain to happen. And with how sure things seem, George Kalogridis will probably be WDW's new president by summer (it's well known here that Meg Crofton was leaving soon anyways). We'll see whether these changes end up being good. WDW1974 has stated that George should be at least an improvement over the previous president.

 

[Yert3]

WDW1974 has also stated that George Kalogridis (current president of Disneyland) will be taking over the job of president of WDW, he'll be replacing Meg Crofton. This will probably be along with the other management changes at TDO.

Ya. I heard about that a few weeks ago. That would be really awesome, but I'm worried that if that happens, Disneyland may get someone who isn't as good as a replacement.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

Ya. I heard about that a few weeks ago. That would be really awesome, but I'm worried that if that happens, Disneyland may get someone who isn't as good as a replacement.

Possibly so, but one hopes they at least learned their lesson from what they did to Disneyland prior to its 50th. Of course then again with WDW in the shape it's in now, i'm not sure whether they learn anything until it's too late.

At this point we just need people at WDW who know how to run a theme park properly. It hasn't had those people in well over a decade or two apparently. But for the first time in a long while there might be some hope that things will at least improve within the near future. Too bad it took so long and got so bad before there was any attempt to fix things. But i'm still holding on to some hope for a change based on what certain people on these forums have said might happen.

 

[Yert3]

Possibly so, but one hopes they at least learned their lesson from what they did to Disneyland prior to its 50th. Of course then again with WDW in the shape it's in now, i'm not sure whether they learn anything until it's too late.

I didn't become a regular visitor to Disneyland until late 2010. I'll never know how bad it was in the early 2000's like many people on here say it was. But I've been a regular visitor to WDW my whole life. I'm stunned at how good Disneyland is right now. It seems light years ahead of WDW. My next trip to WDW is in March and it may just be my last until they get their act together.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

I didn't become a regular visitor to Disneyland until late 2010. I'll never know how bad it was in the early 2000's like many people on here say it was. But I've been a regular visitor to WDW my whole life. I'm stunned at how good Disneyland is right now. It seems light years ahead of WDW. My next trip to WDW is in March and it may just be my last until the get their act together.

I've yet to go to Disneyland myself, i'll remedy that as soon as possible (i've stopped going to WDW as of February and likely won't be returning unless things change). But I have read some reports about how bad things apparently were at Disneyland before its 50th.

From the pictures i've seen posted by websites of the time, WDW appears like it's in comparably bad condition to DL was show quality wise, if not worse. In terms of show quality, it wouldn't surprise me if WDW IS in worse condition. I was especially disheartened the other day when someone posted some very sad and nasty pictures of Maelstrom (which included heavily damaged rockwork in the ride and a rather disgusting mold infestation in the loading area that appears to have damaged parts of the ceiling as well as the beautiful mural.

The difference between the neglect at DL vs WDW is that the negligence at Disneyland is reported to have reached such a horribly low point that it caused death among guests (and may have ended up causing even more had new leadership not come along in the nick of time to fast track a massive property-wide cleanup). Thankfully poor management at WDW has yet to cause any deaths. Though with concrete rockwork having fallen in several guest-frequented areas across property (recently in the Splash loading area), perhaps it's just chance luck that has prevented anyone from getting hurt or killed. I hope no one ends up getting hurt before any sort of positive upturn happens in maintenance. It certainly seemed to have spurred serious action at Disneyland but it's sickening that things should get that bad before something is done in the first place.

 

[Bairstow]

That video has me feeling optimistic.
A slew of effects are still broken or missing, but it's looking much better than the last time I rode it (the morning the rockwork fell).

 

[Yert3]

I was especially disheartened the other day when someone posted some very sad and nasty pictures of Maelstrom (which included heavily damaged rockwork in the ride and a rather disgusting mold infestation in the loading area that appears to have damaged parts of the ceiling as well as the beautiful mural.

Ya. I saw that pic on another thread. I've been reading these forums for a few months, I just never bother to make an account until last night because I wanted to discuss this Splash Mountain issue. I was also shocked by that pic. How on earth did that even happen???

 

[Yert3]

That video has me feeling optimistic.
A slew of effects are still broken or missing, but it's looking much better than the last time I rode it (the morning the rockwork fell).

There were a lot more effects working two days after I shot that video.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

From the video, effects have both broken and been fixed since my Feb visit. As said, several of the water features in the Laughing Place scene weren't working when I was there but now are. So that's a plus. But the final scene has really taken a further nosedive. The alligators playing instruments look like they're all completely stationary, plus at least one or more chickens are actually missing from the riverboat (I forget offhand how many there are supposed to be but at least one of them is removed entirely).

Again i'm glad to hear they fixed even more effects over the course of your stay there. I just hope they remain that way and it wasn't just a Christmas thing. Still going to have a lot of work to do during the refurb coming up soon. Splash is one of my favorite rides on earth and it's pretty painful to see it in the condition it has been in for years now. It deserves to be in tip top shape.

 

[Yert3]

But the final scene has really taken a further nosedive. The alligators playing instruments look like they're all completely stationary, plus at least one or more chickens are actually missing from the riverboat (I forget offhand how many there are supposed to be but at least one of them is removed entirely).

They were completely stationary but they functioning two days later. There are two characters missing from the riverboat. One goose(?) from the top row and one chicken(?) on the lower right portion. The one thing that has always bothered me is how many lights are always burning out on that thing. Even when Splash was in it's glory days and everything worked, a bunch of lights on the Zip-A-DEE Lady were ALWAYS burned out. One of the things I heard about this refurb ( I actually read it on another thread on this forum. Can't remember which one though.) is that the ZIP-A-DEE Lady is getting a new light system to address this issue. I really hope that's true.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

I thought the riverboat was missing more than just one figure. That's pretty sad. Seems they've had particularly bad luck with this entire scene recently, especially after I think it was KevinYee who posted the video earlier this year of all the figures being broken looking. I hope the figures return, at least after the refurb.

I don't remember whether the lightbulbs were an issue back in the early 90's, at least inside rides. But lately Disney has gotten really bad about it (especially on the Grand Floridian). If there's a new lighting system planned then I'm guessing it'll be LED's so they'll last really long. Certain places throughout Magic Kingdom have been getting LED upgrades I believe. I think the Teacups roof got new LED popcorn lighting last year (though i've actually heard some of those lights are broken or switched off). I'm also guessing most or all of New Fantasyland has lots of LED lighting as well.

 

[Yert3]

If there's a new lighting system planned then I'm guessing it'll be LED's so they'll last really long.

Ya. Disneyland's Zip-A-Dee Lady got LED lights and they look fantastic. Really hoping MK's will be getting the same.