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Splash Mountain falling apart (literally?)
- Thread starter MUTZIE77
- Start date
My family and I were at Disney on Nov 24-Dec1 and my wife and I both commented on how bad the ride looked. A LOT of the animatronics and effects weren't working, there was the aforementioned netting, and the logs were disgusting...dirty, mildew covered and full of trash. This was the worst we had ever seen our second favorite mountain. I'm really hoping the refurb will fix all of these issues!
Atomicmickey
Well-Known Member
For the love of Mickey, what is the point of being so obtuse about this?
Will the tarps be gone? Will it still be open to the sky? What?
Anyone, Bueller? Bueller?
ThankstoMOM
Active Member
I feel ya. So sick of hear the same old grip over and over, what 34 pages of it now. Can't wait to see what comes from this refurb. Long Live Splash Mountain
dreamscometrue
Well-Known Member
Yert3
Well-Known Member
You're very right. The 2010 refurb wasn't all that great. Still AA's out of sync (E.G: Br'er Frog prematurely looping Laughin' Place @ 4:32). It looks a lot better than it did right before it just now closed, but still not as great as it could be.Here's a video of Splash right after the 2010 refurb. I have a feeling this is what it will look like after this refurb. One thing I did notice is that the lighting is very good here though.
PeterAlt
Well-Known Member
Zi
Now sing that 10 times fast (I'm talking to the grumps out there) and maybe you'll be a little less grumpy!
I see now why DL is the "happiest place on earth" but not WDW... It's all about the people.
zippidy doo da zippidy day my oh my what a wonderful day! Plenty of sunshine, plenty of ???? Zippidy doo da zippidy day!
Now sing that 10 times fast (I'm talking to the grumps out there) and maybe you'll be a little less grumpy!
I see now why DL is the "happiest place on earth" but not WDW... It's all about the people.
PeterAlt
Well-Known Member
I see now why they're building Snow White's mine coaster! It's to keep 7,000,000 grumps happy.
(They'll still have something to complain about, but at least it will kept them in one location, where they can be grumpy together, complain to each other how the ride is not fast enough, that it was built on the cheap, that they remember a day when ..., that the effects aren't working, that it's all Eisner's fault, that this boring ride is way to long, how the last Splash Mountain rehab of 2013 wasn't really a rehab but was an excuse to make the gift shop bigger, that they think Snow White's been cheating on them, that the monorail should never be expanded...)
(They'll still have something to complain about, but at least it will kept them in one location, where they can be grumpy together, complain to each other how the ride is not fast enough, that it was built on the cheap, that they remember a day when ..., that the effects aren't working, that it's all Eisner's fault, that this boring ride is way to long, how the last Splash Mountain rehab of 2013 wasn't really a rehab but was an excuse to make the gift shop bigger, that they think Snow White's been cheating on them, that the monorail should never be expanded...)
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
You must not be aware of the fact that Disneyland went through much the same type of situation of horrible management prior to it's 50th anniversary that WDW is going through now, and people were definitely complaining about it then (I saw some older Al Lutz articles from prior to the 50th that showed pictures of some of the maintenance neglect of the time and people were mad as hell about it, probably even moreso than we are about WDW). The parks were cleaned up pretty thoroughly since then and people don't complain as much anymore (i've only really head any complaints about Indiana Jones and that apparently recently received a successful refurb that addressed some or all of the problems people had with it prior). It's very well known and they were very dark days. Apparently the poor maintenance reached such a level of negligence that the neglect actually caused the death of several guests (on Columbia and Big Thunder). Space Mountain apparently only narrowly avoided a similar situation.
There was apparently massive public outcry from both forums and in the real world about the problems and it wasn't long before Disney basically cleaned the place up. You don't see anyone complaining about maintenance much because there's said to be not all that much TO complain about anymore.
People are fairer than you give them credit for here. They'll complain when something needs fixing, but they'll just as readily pull a 180 and hand out the praises when it's fixed. And people in this thread have expressed cautious optimism about Splash's refurb. If this refurb is a success and fixed everything, you'll see me and i'm sure many other people praise it.
Either way, you're not really doing your argument any favors about remaining positive by making snarky and rude comments that are themselves negative by nature. You're simply derailing a constructive thread with negativity of your own. Hypocritical.
xdan0920
Think for yourselfer
Because he is full of.....
GoofGoof
Premium Member
Wow. Good news across the board. I was going into this not expecting much in a short period of time. Sounds like we might be pleasantly surprised and get a mostly restored ride. I know there are some who will only consider it a success if all elements are back to original, but I doubt we'll ever see that. I personally think BTMRR looks pretty good. I know the falling rocks scene is not restored, but I doubt that is a budget thing. I think that has just been permanently removed. I hope the tarps meet the same fate
PeterAlt
Well-Known Member
No, what has happened in the past has passed. Dwelling on the past does not a good future make (in my Yoda voice). If the past has made you grumpy, by staying there, it will only create bad moods going forward. If Disney managers see this, they will take on an attitude that nothing they will do will make the fans happy; and, therefore why even try. In other words, grumpiness is a self-fulfilling prophecy, only creating more things to be grumpy about. Showing any positive response will encourage them to keep trying and to improve. A symbiotic circle is born and things keep improving. Positive feedback fuels it. Don't believe me? Look at CA. There's definitely a symbiotic circle going on there. Management builds, fans encourage it by responding positively, crowds come, revenue goes up, and the cycle repeats. That cycle is nonexistent in FL because the relation between grumpy fans and apathetic management is dysfunction.
RunnerEd
Well-Known Member
I would nominate the accounting department as the first place to cut in order to make this happen.
PeterAlt
Well-Known Member
Yes, I remember the problems there. I wasn't trying to be rude, by the way. Just injecting some humor into an otherwise serious subject. Don't take offense. I was generalizing grumpiness to the extreme degree and using the Grumpy character reference as an over-exaggeration in order to make a point with humor. No one is being singled out and no one is being compared to this fictional group.
If after this refurb Splash is shining bright, without a leaking lift hill, without black canvas bandaids stapled to the rockwork along the flume, with fully functional AA's throughout (especially the laughing place) and no tarps in load/unload, I would be happy to praise TDO. Until then they will get no praise from me, the ride should have NEVER been allowed to get to that condition.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
That's good to know.
Good work should be met with praise, I wouldn't question that. As I've said numerous times, i'm ready and willing to give this refurb praise if it turns out well in the end (as i'm sure many people in this thread would likely agree upon). But bad work is almost never improved by praising it. If you have an employee that does a bad job for example and dole out the praise to them, they'll likely see that as a signal that you're an easy target for manipulation and that they can get away with it plus still get paid (and they may get even worse at their job the easier you make it for them). Being hard on them tends to garner more results. The same results also apply to kids who either aren't performing well in school or whom won't behave and obeying their parents.
Walt Disney himself was well known to be hard on his own employees for the record. He had little to no tolerance for someone not doing their job as he wanted them to and would dole out harsh criticism to them when he felt like it. The results are unquestionable too, his perfectionism resulted in incredible quality in pretty much everything he was involved in.
GoofGoof
Premium Member
The accounting department has no control over spending, ride maintenance or even budgets. All the poor bean counters do is record revenues and expenses and report results. If you want real results create a system where executive bonuses are somehow linked to show quality. If quality slips too far the bonus pool dries up. The place would be shining like brand new in no time.
Can you send me a link to Al Lutz old articles? They sound interesting to read about the dark days of DL
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
Sorry to say that I didn't save anything. Perhaps someone else has some old links. Sometime in the past someone I believe posted one on these forums. No clue where though. I remember one of the pictures in particular though was of the Toon Town billboard and tons of peeling paint all over it. And it wasn't just something that the camera had to zoom in to see, there were pictures showing it from a distance and you could still see large parts of the damage clearly. I've looked for the pictures via google, found some threads about what I'm guessing is that exact scenario i'm talking about but the pictures seem to be down. The discussion is still there-
http://www.mouseinfo.com/forums/dis...aint-toontown-dlr-photo-update-8-16-03-a.html
Reading some of the responses on both sides of the argument is eerily similar to what's happening here in this thread and these forums in general. But essentially there was just as much badmouthing about Disneyland and its upkeep as there is now for WDW. Possibly more so given the rather hardcore fanbase that Disneyland has.
Partially unrelated, but in regards to some of the comments earlier in this thread here's something that kind of shows you how Disneyland fans are no less grumpy when their park is mismanaged by someone. Scroll down to the part involving Paul Pressler, it talks about how people defaced a paver dedicated to him-
http://www.mouseplanet.com/archive/update28.htm
I found another Al Lutz article that covers another part of the Pressler era. Again lots of parallels with what is discussed on these forums lately as well as some information about some apparent cleanups of certain attractions after they went through serious maintenance problems-
http://www.mouseplanet.com/archive/update28.htm
openendedsky
Well-Known Member
This has probably already been said by now, but if they can afford such expansions, common sense would rule that they can afford to maintain what they already have. If they can't afford to maintain, then they shouldn't spend on opening/expanding areas.