Splash Mountain falling apart (literally?)

[wm49rs]

First I'm not even going to touch that Yeti thing. It was done wrong from the start, so it's a bad example.

Second, you're missing my point. You can have 100 guys going around changing lightbulbs, but when the wiring that provides the electricity to the lightbulbs if shorted because of age, you have a bigger more complex problem. My point is that as things age, (and invariably all the news stuff will not age as gracefully as the classic stuff ) "stuff" breaks down. ( "Stuff" that was put in 20 years ago was way more complex than "stuff" done 20 years before that). Even with the most loving of maintenance things will stop working and need significantly more attention than they may have need a couple of years before that. You can't expect Splash, with it's numerous updates and upgrades to over the last 20 years to need the same level of upkeep that it did when it was 2 years old.

Now if you think that that would be reasonable to shut the ride down routinely for a week or two every couple of months, or maybe for a day a week, you wind up with two things: unhappy guests, an excuse to defer larger refurbs. Yes, you may have some more animatronics that work, but you're really shortchanging yourself in the long run. It's an inefficient use of resources and wasteful. You wind up killing yourself trying to put out every spot fire, while ignoring towering inferno right in front of you. (I knew I could get a fire service reference in here, take that brothers at the firehouse)

First, the Yeti worked at the start. Worked well. So, no, it's not a bad example.....

And again, DL has attractions even older than WDW. And they have been able to maintain, and even preventively maintain, those rides and attractions over a longer period of time. WDW needs to look to their example and perhaps reconsider investing in said maintenance, perhaps even preventing the need for longer down time for rides and attractions.

 

[monothingie]

You are really going out of your way to defend the indefensible.

We have folks here, who have told us with certainty that maintence has been slashed. And that's why we have tons of show scenes all over property that are either broken, or shut off.

Why are you making excuses for that?

You're right TDO SUCKS!! Everything was better before!! Eisner lied lightbulbs died!!

But I prefer to think of my excuses as an attempt at a reasoned argument.


Now if you excuse me I need report back my findings to the overlords at TDO.

 

[monothingie]

First, the Yeti worked at the start. Worked well. So, no, it's not a bad example.....

And again, DL has attractions even older than WDW. And they have been able to maintain, and even preventively maintain, those rides and attractions over a longer period of time. WDW needs to look to their example and perhaps reconsider investing in said maintenance, perhaps even preventing the need for longer down time for rides and attractions.

uhhh yes it did work at the start, so well in fact, that it shook itself free of its footing.

 

[flynnibus]

But thats what refurbs are for. Do you think Pirates has the same ride control system that it did back when it opened? At some point daily maintenance can't keep up, and you need to do major work. Unfortunately, the more complex and/or older the ride is, the more complicated the work is. Its at that point that the maintenance model falls apart and becomes burdensome, inefficient, and insufficient.

And yet.. WDW has not done this to keep up. You're just making excuses, not actually vindicating their choices.

You say 'well they are old' - yet other parks have dealt with much older rides. You say 'they are old' - but flip-flop and say they upgrade the systems. So is it really that old?

You say 'that is what refurbs' are for - yet say they can't afford to take the major attractions down. Yet other parks do both.

You're so full of contradiction that you can't even get a stable platform to defend from.

Yes things age.. and yes things need refurbs to not only repair, but modernize. Something that all the parks do, including WDW, but WDW does it at an inferior rate and because of it the attraction quality suffers inbetween.

WDW has repeatedly put attractions through refurb and then opened them with show quality issues from day 0.

WDW has even opened BRAND NEW attractions with dirths of show quality issues (Test Track, and TLM)

WDW not only fails to maintain attractions during normal day to day ops... they fail to maintain them to acceptable standards when they do take them offline. And adding insult to injury, people argue they can't take attractions offline because of demand... yet other parks can take attractions offline without sending customers off the deep end.

It's excuse after excuse after excuse. The only thing that is consistent is WDW's willingness to push show quality aside for self-serving interests.

 

[wm49rs]

uhhh yes it did work at the start, so well in fact, that it shook itself free of its footing.

And they've let it sit that way ever since....

And kind of glossed over the other points. Par for the course, I suppose....

 

[flynnibus]

My point is that as things age, (and invariably all the news stuff will not age as gracefully as the classic stuff ) "stuff" breaks down. ( "Stuff" that was put in 20 years ago was way more complex than "stuff" done 20 years before that). Even with the most loving of maintenance things will stop working and need significantly more attention than they may have need a couple of years before that. You can't expect Splash, with it's numerous updates and upgrades to over the last 20 years to need the same level of upkeep that it did when it was 2 years old.

So things break to the point they can't be fixed overnight - Ok, then those are reasons you take the attraction offline for a bigger overhaul.

And know what.. these things have LIFECYCLES - you replace them BEFORE their limited lifespan is up so you don't have so many problems with things used before their lifetime is up.

But that requires doing things PROACTIVELY.

And you ignore that other locations with the same basic problem can actually manage to do things proactively so that these larger issues do not plague the attraction for months or YEARS before the company gets around to doing something about it.

 

[flynnibus]

I'm sorry, who confirmed the lack of third shift ride & show technicians? There's overnight techs that maintain the attractions at Universal and ticket prices are the same as Disney's. You can't be serious about their not being any ride technicians maintaining the rides after hours.

Would you like a published reference? Like maybe 'Realityland'? Or any other numbers of books that document the shift in philosophy of dedicated staff to area-based staff, and ultimately reduction in staffing and ultimately outsourcing in same areas?

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

You're still missing the fact that the other Disney parks around the globe don't have these issues. And it's largely because annual refurbs and night crews still exist for them. Compare pre-refurb Splash Mountain at WDW to its counterparts in California and Tokyo, the latter two are kept in proper condition. Disneyland's is even older than WDW's, and Tokyo's was opened at the same time as WDW's. And they're both in that great condition because they are still operated and managed in a similar or same manner to how ALL Disney parks (including WDW) used to be. Disneyland went through a similar phase that WDW now suffers from prior to its 50th. Not only did maintenance become embarrassing from a show quality level, but the neglect caused injury and death.

With basic annual refurbs and nightly maintenance, issues that have plagued Splash or other rides can be prevented altogether. Whatever the night crews can't handle with can be handled by taking a ride offline for a month or two per year. It was a practice done not long ago and still done in the other Disney parks besides WDW. Few people griped when a ride or two went down for refurbishment. And even when they did gripe, most still visit anyways. You see a huge quantity of Disneyland fans massively excited for refurbs and embracing them when they happen, they have learned the folly of expecting rides to operate all year without any maintenance. If more current guests knew what WDW should be like when kept in proper condition, they'd embrace proper maintenance as well.

Practicing proper nightly maintenance reduces the amount of work (and time) needed for when it does go down for its longer refurb. And bringing the ride down yearly and doing the work necessary means the problems won't pile on as much. THAT is how you run a park efficiently and properly.

It's like a car. You can take it in for a bit of routine maintenance and fix things when problems crop up. Or you can just let it deteriorate and run it into the ground, adding to the overall cost and taking even more time when you get to the point where you have no choice but to get it fixed up. Often allowing a problem to sit and doing nothing about it make the situation even worse, in some cases that problem actually causing other problems to crop up as well. The same is also true of any other type of possession such as furniture, a house, etc. And even health (probably the most important thing an alarming number of people routinely choose to neglect given the epidemic levels of obesity in the US)

 

[articos]

Would you like a published reference? Like maybe 'Realityland'? Or any other numbers of books that document the shift in philosophy of dedicated staff to area-based staff, and ultimately reduction in staffing and ultimately outsourcing in same areas?

Giving credit, if the OP is asking if anyone is saying there are NO R&S techs afterhours any longer, that's not the case. There is a full dept of techs, still, tasked with working 24 hours a day, including 3rd shift. It's just the techs are told to turn things off rather than fix them, they aren't given the resources to do their jobs at times and they have a fraction of the dedicated teams they used to have. Not to mention the outsourcing which has resulted in lower quality work.

 

[flynnibus]

Giving credit, if the OP is asking if anyone is saying there are NO R&S techs afterhours any longer, that's not the case. There is a full dept of techs, still, tasked with working 24 hours a day, including 3rd shift. It's just the techs are told to turn things off rather than fix them, they aren't given the resources to do their jobs at times and they have a fraction of the dedicated teams they used to have. Not to mention the outsourcing which has resulted in lower quality work.

They did say 'lack of' - not absence of The evolution of adding 'efficency' by breaking up the dedicated teams lead to the lack of focus that you've covered.. the move to area based techs instead of per attraction.. the lack of replacing key departures.. and ultimately a greater relianance on outsourcing in key areas all contribute to the change in capacity, quality, and output... all driven by business philosophies and emphasis from management.

As we say.. you reap what you sow!

But hey, they are so much more efficient now! Efficient in reducing costs by changing the standard of acceptable :/

 

[articos]

They did say 'lack of' - not absence of The evolution of adding 'efficency' by breaking up the dedicated teams lead to the lack of focus that you've covered.. the move to area based techs instead of per attraction.. the lack of replacing key departures.. and ultimately a greater relianance on outsourcing in key areas all contribute to the change in capacity, quality, and output... all driven by business philosophies and emphasis from management.

As we say.. you reap what you sow!

But hey, they are so much more efficient now! Efficient in reducing costs by changing the standard of acceptable :/

Yup. Efficiency equals bonuses. (Stupid efficiency!)

Yeah, they said lack of, but also "...can't be serious about there not being any ride technicians...after hours?" That's why I was unclear as to what they meant.

 

[xdan0920]

You're right TDO SUCKS!! Everything was better before!! Eisner lied lightbulbs died!!

But I prefer to think of my excuses as an attempt at a reasoned argument.


Now if you excuse me I need report back my findings to the overlords at TDO.

Interesting leap you took there. Try and reel in the emotion. TDO is a corporate entity, not your family.

Also, I never accused you of working for TDO. Odd that you would bring that up.

 

[monothingie]

Interesting leap you took there. Try and reel in the emotion. TDO is a corporate entity, not your family.

Also, I never accused you of working for TDO. Odd that you would bring that up.

Oh boy...

 

[monothingie]

And they've let it sit that way ever since....

And kind of glossed over the other points. Par for the course, I suppose....

Come on, Im trying. I'm only outnumbered 10 or so to 1, and there are only so many hours of the day I can argue with complete strangers on an internet message board regarding the finer points of theme park maintenance and corporate malfeasance.

 

[wm49rs]

Come on, Im trying. I'm only outnumbered 10 or so to 1, and there are only so many hours of the day I can argue with complete strangers on an internet message board regarding the finer points of theme park maintenance and corporate malfeasance.

Well, the indefensibility of the subject doesn't help either......

 

[DocAlan02]

We were there when Splash was going through it's original testing. We were sooooo jealous of the CMs that were getting to test it out.

I was one of those cast members. It is still my favorite ride, and that might be partially why. It was very cool to test it. Also tested Tower of Terror. After we rode that one, they closed it down for several months. That kind of freaked us out!

 

[the-reason14]

I hope when splash opens back up, it opens in pristine condition. And I hope that it keeps that stance for a good while so that I can see what new things you people complain about then. I'm sure even if it does open up in pristine condition, most of y'all would still be utterly disappointed because the pirate with all the hats is missing two of his hats. Totally unrelated, but people have to about something. I understand wanting disney to excel and be accountable for the standard that it set for itself, but about all it's shortcomings isn't gonna make them buck up and change. Simply ban together and stop going and giving them your money then maybe they will. It's counterproductive because what you saying to them is its ok to let things be the way they are or have been.

 

[flynnibus]

I hope when splash opens back up, it opens in pristine condition. And I hope that it keeps that stance for a good while so that I can see what new things you people complain about then. I'm sure even if it does open up in pristine condition, most of y'all would still be utterly disappointed because the pirate with all the hats is missing two of his hats. Totally unrelated, but people have to about something. I understand wanting disney to excel and be accountable for the standard that it set for itself, but about all it's shortcomings isn't gonna make them buck up and change. Simply ban together and stop going and giving them your money then maybe they will. It's counterproductive because what you saying to them is its ok to let things be the way they are or have been.

People are doing that with their money...
.. and you can't enlighten others if you keep your mouth shut.

 

[ty17]

FWiW, in November my family rode Splash 3 or 4 times. While it didn't ruin my trip I was very disappointed in the condition of the ride. I know they are animatronics but not exactly the Yeti as far as maintaining. How hard is it to get the laughing place right? nothing worked on that one scene. So here's hoping everything/mostly everything is working properly

 

[the-reason14]

People are doing that with their money...
.. and you can't enlighten others if you keep your mouth shut.

Enlighten? What else is there to enlighten? I think at this point people should be able to gather that wdws maintenance is at an all time low. It's discussed here frequently. It's like continuing to beat a dead horse and crossed over from enlightenment to a long time ago.