Splash Mountain falling apart (literally?)

PeterAlt

PeterAlt

Well-Known Member
MerlinTheGoat said:
Haunted Mansion seems to be some sort of exception, and it even has some sort of reason that it gets more attention. I gather this is apparently due to the head of Magic Kingdom having a personal liking of the ride.

I don't know whether there is anything really broken about Mansion. Though it has been mentioned that the scrims in the graveyard scene are very dirty and hard to see through at the moment. Seems like most people are fairly pleased with the major overhaul it got a few years back. I'd at least somewhat agree it was a great one. I really like the Escher stairs scene a lot. The only thing I dislike is the new bride. The effect doesn't look good at all (very flat and fake, even the other much older projected faces look much better). Plus I don't like how corny they made her, she was just more effective before when all you saw were a couple of glowing eyes in a dark face and a beating red heart. I do like the portraits in the attic far better than the pop up ghosts though.

The subsequent additions are hit or miss among fans. The new hitchhiking ghosts are more dynamic but there's just something fake about them that can't live up to a physical animatronic. I haven't gone through the new queue yet. From my experiences with other interactive queues, they're very hit or miss. Pooh's is lovely but annoying to listen to, the rest around property just come across as cheap PC flash games.

Other members may have more info about problems at Haunted Mansion. Not my area of expertise. It certainly doesn't seem to share the horrible neglect Splash Mountain has at this time though.
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Thanks for this! Next, It's a Small World? How was that rehab?

See, Pirates and IASW were inherently better at DL because these were "complete" rides (while MK had the abridged versions). DL kept updating these over the years, while MK versions remained flat. So, you can't expect any WDW rehab of those rides to ever equal DL's version. What you could expect is the "newness" to be put back in and some overall improvements - which I believe those attractions got. Haunted Mansion got more than what is to be expected. Space Mountain should have gotten the full treatment - very disappointing. Splash Mountain should get the full treatment, as the WDW version has always been the best.

BTMRR is a tough call. I was lucky enough to ride it when all the effects worked. It was nice, but there was something un-Disney about it - compared to other Disney classics. I was disappointed when I rode it for the first time. The hype when it was being built made it sound like the effects were as good as Universal's Earthquake. The hype of it being an out-of-control runaway mine train made it sound like it was more thrilling than Space Mountain. What a letdown!

On top of that - if the effects keep breaking down and are costly to repair - for an experience that's not all what's its hyped up to be - I totally understand why Disney cut these!

Maybe in the future, they can figure out how to make this a truly immersive and realistic experience with modern special effects. Maybe in a future version of the ride or a new ride entirely.
 
Darth Sidious

Darth Sidious

Authentically Disney Distinctly Chinese
Bairstow said:
To give Disney World management the benefit of the doubt, a lot of people have speculated that Florida's much, much wetter climate may have something to do with the structural problems of the Magic Kingdom's Splash Mountain.

The animatronics, sound system, and fountains though? No excuse.
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If you talk to imagineers... The climate was taken into account when building attractions. They would simply be doing a bad job to ignore that. That's part of engineering.
 
Alektronic

Alektronic

Well-Known Member
MerlinTheGoat said:
I do know that with Big Thunder, numerous effects that were either broken or switched off prior to the refurb were still untouched during the downtime. Particularly the mess the third lift hill is in. Originally the sides of the walls were supposed to tremble to simulate an earthquake. And up top above the peak of the hill there was a falling rock effect. The falling effect was a physical one, apparently physical rock models were attached to a sort of track built into the wall. Pieces would "fall" along the track as you ascended the hill. After the train had cleared the hill, the rocks would quickly travel back up the track to reset to fall for the next car.

As of now (and this has been this way for years), the side walls no longer tremble and there aren't any rocks that fall at the top. I believe some of these aspects were removed because part of the scenery fell on the track at some point in time (this happened at Paris as well). Instead they replaced the physical falling rocks with an extremely bad looking digital projection. This projection was installed a fair bit before the refurb started. And to make matters worse, the animation is mistakenly running in reverse (either that or the projector was installed upside down), so the rocks appear to be falling UP instead of down. Martin also mentioned the rainbow cavern effects aren't working. From what Martin has said, I'm also to understand that several of the geysers that actually WERE fixed during the refurb have since either broken again or have been switched off. I also believe that at one point in time the town scene had more water rushing through it to add to the flooding effect. Not sure when this was disabled but I don't think it's working now anyways.

I don't know the extent of what was planned for Pirates but I do know the audio system wasn't replaced as it was at Disneyland. So the ride has very poor sound throughout and I've found it almost impossible to hear a lot of the dialog. Everything sounds very muffled. I believe it was said at one point an idea was pitched pitched to extend the ride slightly with a segment similar to Disneyland's ending, where guests go "up" the waterfall. I don't know how far this got, but it was likely scrapped due to costs and necessary downtime.

I've not been on the new Country Bear Jamboree, but i've heard it has been heavily mutilated and shortened from other people (likely how the Tiki Room refurb apparently cut out parts of the original music and didn't re-implement the enchanted fountain).
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At WDW, refurb's are for the ride enhancements, replacements, or just repairs where it requires the ride being shutdown. They are all done by outside contractors and BVCC, rarely any show items are included unless it is funded by WDI. So all the show repairs should be done by the Attractions Maintenance team assigned to that attraction, so it is managements decision if anything gets done to the show items or not.
 
MouseGear

MouseGear

New Member
After getting off this abysmal ride last year, I had a right go at the lady stationed on the exit side... We had been 'stopped' under one of the many waterfalls for a good minute or so! I was not happy (soaked and a crying toddler in tow), and the rude woman turned away from looking at me, to then go ahead and start talking to another passenger! I was fuming. Not a happy camper that day!
 
Fantasmic

Fantasmic

Well-Known Member
MouseGear said:
After getting off this abysmal ride last year, I had a right go at the lady stationed on the exit side... We had been 'stopped' under one of the many waterfalls for a good minute or so! I was not happy (soaked and a crying toddler in tow), and the rude woman turned away from looking at me, to then go ahead and start talking to another passenger! I was fuming. Not a happy camper that day!
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Oh no... a WHOLE minute... gosh, you must have been positively damp!
Also... your toddler must have been REALLY tall!
 
Magenta Panther

Magenta Panther

Well-Known Member
marni1971 said:
Indeed. Haunted Mansion in WDW is considered on a par if not above DL now. The ride refurb was superb. What a refurb should be.
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AGREED! I rode the Mansion about a year before its refurb. Then I rode it afterward, and my god, what a difference! Superb job of bringing the mansion back to uh, afterlife. But then they had to go and add all the new graveyard junk to the entrance...and worse, replaced the Hitchhiking Ghosts in the Doom Buggies with those lame, unimpressive, obvious projections at the end...one step forward, one step back...sigh...
 
lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
PeterAlt said:
Seeing the quality and budget put into FLE, I see no evidence that they will cheap their way out of a proper Splash Mountain rehab.

I would like to know where all this pessimism is coming from. Someone, please explain! Anyone...
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Refurb decisions are not (yet) pushed on local management by corporate.
 
MouseGear

MouseGear

New Member
Fantasmic said:
Oh no... a WHOLE minute... gosh, you must have been positively damp!
Also... your toddler must have been REALLY tall!
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What's up? Did the nasty man say something horrible about the crummy old out of date ride?

Ok probably was longer than a minute (wasn't timing it) and yeah ok not a toddler (bad description) he was 4 years and 3 months

Is that better?

Still needs pulling down and something modern to replace it in my opinion
 
PeterAlt

PeterAlt

Well-Known Member
Fantasmic said:
Oh no... a WHOLE minute... gosh, you must have been positively damp!
Also... your toddler must have been REALLY tall!
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So, that's my point. HM = quality. FLE = quality. TT2 = quality. Yes, there have been a few misses, but there's also been hits. No call for pessimism unless someone know something that wants to leak something out and jeopardize their employment. Once info is made available and its bad news, then be pessimistic!
 
AswaySuller

AswaySuller

Well-Known Member
MouseGear said:
After getting off this abysmal ride last year, I had a right go at the lady stationed on the exit side... We had been 'stopped' under one of the many waterfalls for a good minute or so! I was not happy (soaked and a crying toddler in tow), and the rude woman turned away from looking at me, to then go ahead and start talking to another passenger! I was fuming. Not a happy camper that day!
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You want a classic e ticket what is considered by the majority to be a classic "pulled down"...... Alrighty then!

I'm not being difficult or trying to stir but you go on a water ride with several signs around saying "you will get soaked" and you're upset that you got wet? I'm guessing that's why your complaint fell on slightly deaf ears.
 
Fantasmic

Fantasmic

Well-Known Member
MouseGear said:
What's up? Did the nasty man say something horrible about the crummy old out of date ride?

Ok probably was longer than a minute (wasn't timing it) and yeah ok not a toddler (bad description) he was 4 years and 3 months

Is that better?

Still needs pulling down and something modern to replace it in my opinion
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Please, save being condescending for people who won't pick up on it. No... he complained about getting wet, on a water ride... I don't care what you think about Splash. That's your opinion, but to complain about getting wet on a water ride is ridiculous, like complaining that your hot coffee is too hot.
I'm sure I can imagine which waterfall it was... and, logs have been stopping there since 1992... it's kinda part of the fun of the ride.
 
lunchbox1175

lunchbox1175

Well-Known Member
Only my opinion and I am sure I will get blasted for it, but I just don't get the appeal of Splash, nor do I feel it is an E ticket ride. To me the 10 second drop is slightly thrilling, but to those who like to complain about it, if you don't like it, don't ride it, thats what I do.
 

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