Splash Mountain falling apart (literally?)

[alphac2005]

That's good news. Disneyland made a stunningly fast turnaround from the dark Pressler/Harriss years. The turnaround started in the winter of 2004, and about 15 months later in May, 2005 it was complete.

More importantly, Disneyland management in the decade since then hasn't retreated on that newly raised standard, and in many places they have raised it further. The result is that the Disneyland Resort today looks even better than it did for the 50th in 2005.

The same turnaround can happen at WDW. And it appears it can't happen soon enough.

A footnote: The decline of Walt Disney World has been ongoing for a much longer period than the awful Paul Pressler shopping mall debacle years at DL. The varying degrees of decline at WDW stretch more than a decade and with so much property involved, it seems unlikely that they can whip things together nearly as quickly as Anaheim.

To be honest, the last time the property was in pristine shape, as had been their standard, was 1998 in Florida. It's a long road towards redemption here. More importantly, with the years of neglect, if we get to the point that a management team is put in place that cares and understands the importance of quality, like what DL got in Matt Ouimet, it will be interesting to see how vast in scale many of the projects will be with who knows what might be discovered, building by building with many issues due to the neglect.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

I did it the last time this spring, but I don't know the full roster of effects, only some of them, water cannon, bee hives, the water fountains. Colud someone tell me what effects are also existing but not working? It is the same with EE, if you don't know they exist, you don' t miss them.

Depends I guess. The video Marc Gil posted above is I believe a pretty good indication of what Splash should look like in working order.

I've said it before, but most of the animatronics were moving last I visited in February, though comments from people who have gone more recently have reported there are a number now that are not moving at all. The problem with the ones that are moving is that almost all of them are only moving at a fraction of their intended range. So certain appendages might not be moving when they should be, whether it's their heads, arms, legs, mouths, eyes, etc.

For example, there's a Brer Bear model right after the second drop. It's the one where he's wobbling around with a beehive on his nose. The video above is a good indication of his intended range of movement- not only does his entire body wobble on the ground, but his other limbs move as well (head, torso, and other parts). As of now (or rather, February as it's the last time I visited), the movement in all of his limbs are completely non functional (or switched off). The only movement is that his body still wobbles feebly against the ground, but it's a stiff and ugly looking effect without the other parts of his body moving as well. This particular figure has been broken since at least fall of 2010 (I started visiting WDW again at that time for the first time since 1997), though youtube videos I tracked down indicate he was working better as of 2008. So this specific figure broken sometime between 2008 and fall 2010. Should also be noted that Splash was taken offline for several months in early 2011 to install lapbars but nothing was done about the broken show elements within and it's gotten much worse since then.

There are tons of water fountain features non functional in the laughing place. Again that video shows some of them, jumping fountains as well as the small water spouts that the turtles are riding on (the turtle gag is completely ruined when there's no water to support them).

Obviously if you've never been on the ride (or aren't that familiar with what is supposed to function), you're not going to be as able to scrutinize what is broken. But guests not knowing what is missing is never an acceptable excuse for missing show elements. And if the neglect continues, more and more elements become broken so that even guests less familiar will start to notice things. For example, while this scene was fixed soon after it was spotted, I'd imagine most people would be able to put 2 and 2 together and tell something is wrong with this picture-


And here's a video that someone actually annotated to outline just a few of the broken elements (this video is rather old and some of the effects seem to work off and on, but many of them are still broken and more broken elements have been reported since)-

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

A footnote: The decline of Walt Disney World has been ongoing for a much longer period than the awful Paul Pressler shopping mall debacle years at DL. The varying degrees of decline at WDW stretch more than a decade and with so much property involved, it seems unlikely that they can whip things together nearly as quickly as Anaheim.

To be honest, the last time the property was in pristine shape, as had been their standard, was 1998 in Florida. It's a long road towards redemption here. More importantly, with the years of neglect, if we get to the point that a management team is put in place that cares and understands the importance of quality, like what DL got in Matt Ouimet, it will be interesting to see how vast in scale many of the projects will be with who knows what might be discovered, building by building with many issues due to the neglect.

Aye. It's going to be a massive undertaking getting WDW back in shape. There's four theme parks, not including all the many resorts and other elements across property. While I firmly believe a turnaround is perfectly possible with the right leadership, it's probably not going to end up being as fast as Disneyland's was. The faster the better obviously, and the faster new superior leadership comes along the better as well.

Prior to 2010, the last time I visited WDW was 1997. At that time the parks were still in pretty good shape maintenance wise at least. And when I visited again in 2010 I hadn't kept up with the latest news about what the parks were like anymore. I went from a WDW that was still in at least pretty solid shape to one that was was right in the middle of its full on nosedive in quality. You can imagine my disappointment and disgust. And unlike many of the people who have kept visiting the parks and experienced the decline in a more gradual way, I went from one extreme to the other like having a bucket of ice water dumped on my head. Things have only gotten worse since then, and the rate of decline has accelerated at a frightening pace as of late.

As I stated, I've halted any future trips to WDW for now. If and when WDW has an almighty turnaround like Disneyland, i'll be back in a flash. But first we have to wait for new leadership (while supposedly soon I expect it'll still be months away). And then we're going to be in for a massive uphill battle as the disgusting mess is cleaned up over the course of at least several years. And again that's assuming the new leadership actually DOES change anything, we'll see what happens. I await the day when we get a million topics in the news and rumors about broken things being fixed (as opposed to the multitude of topics about more decline).

When specifically is this "soon" in terms of a turnaround supposed to happen anyways? Even if you can't be specific, just a ballpark figure will do if possible.

 

[alphac2005]

And again that's assuming the new leadership actually DOES change anything, we'll see what happens. I await the day when we get a million topics in the news and rumors about broken things being fixed (as opposed to the multitude of topics about more decline).

When specifically is this "soon" in terms of a turnaround supposed to happen anyways? Even if you can't be specific, just a ballpark figure will do if possible.

Well said. I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but a change in management doesn't mean that things will necessarily turn around or by how substantial of a degree, or in a prompt timeframe as you questioned, etc. If there becomes a management team that is serious about restoring the property, it's reasonable to assume that there will be a substantial amount of time to just survey the state of pieces all over the property, seeing what needs to be done, and putting together the capital to get the projects complete.

 

[Beholder]

It's going to take a corporate mandate to effect the kind of change necessary for the maintenance/safety issues to become addressed. Either that or a headline making lawsuit. Standards don't fall like this in a vacuum, they happen when leadership FAILS to make basic practices a priority. Touch up paint, dead plants here or there, a little extra trash is one thing, but letting things get to the point where people can get hurt is 100% inexcusable. It's almost sickening considering it's a Disney park and the crowd they tend to appeal to. I don't get angry over what ride went where or where I can get my favorite cinnamon roll, but this just infuriates me. This is NOT how any company should run it's business, especially Disney! The people responsible for letting things get like this should be held accountable and made to answer to this. The top level, where this garbage comes from.

I apologize for the overly dramatic rant, but Disney (or TDO or whoever) should be ashamed and embarrassed over this.

 

[fw1987]

Splash Mountain at the Magic Kingdom is one of the best remaining Disney rides on earth IMO. To this day it remains a true E ticket when in proper show form. And when in proper condition it's one of the few Disneyland clones that ouclasses its original form in every aspect. I'd be sad to see it go, regardless of its questionable fit in Fronteirland. And suggesting that they should tear it down because it's "too expensive" is a horrible excuse to give a massively wealthy corporation like Disney.

At any rate I do not think we should be giving Disney any ideas by suggesting it should be removed. Remember that this is current Disney we're talking about. If removed there is an almost certainty that it would be replaced by something nowhere near as good, or nothing at all. I'd love to see the Western River Expedition happen at WDW, but I'm actually guessing there's already enough room to build it on existing land without tearing anything down. I'm also realistic and would venture an assumption to say that if it were built, it wouldn't be anywhere close to the original concept. And I certainly wouldn't be satisfied if they tore it down and replaced it with a couple of rides on the caliber of Little Mermaid. I'm sad to say that I think the days of intricate POTC/Splash/Horizons/SSE/Imagination/WoM type attractions are gone and probably won't be back (long large scale rides with elaborate physical sets and tons of advanced animatronics). I'd like to be wrong here of course but that sort of thing costs money (something current Disney is ever happy to take but never happy to spend).


You were lied to, Disney would never want their cast members telling guests they're in danger of having rocks fall on their head. So of course it's going to be hushed up with a tale like that. It has been confirmed by numerous insiders here that a piece of the rockwork above fell and apparently landed somewhere in the loading area, that much is certain. The ride was closed, when it reopened the tarps were in place (which it's said won't be sufficient to stop a falling piece of the scenery, similar to the nets at AK).

There's a ton of rockwork hanging over the load/unload station. Here's an example (there's more even higher up overhanging the entire area)-

Thanks for the picture. I had forgotten about that rock-work, and it was hard to see with the tarp. The amazing thing was when they evacuated us from a breakdown, the cables holding up the tarps blocked off the evacuation stairs that can be seen in the right of the picture above (that go over the water), so the line had to back up through the queue.

I am amazed at the money that Disney is dumping into building new hotels and DVC expansion while not investing in the maintenance and new attractions of the very products that will fill those hotels. It's unbelievable.

Splash Mountain is considered by my large extended family as the best attraction anywhere in the world. 3 of my 4 sons are now adults and still will ride Splash repeatedly. It's the perfect combination of story, thrill, animatronics and song, and its loss would spell the end of WDW for us forever.

As a DVC member I'll be renting out my points or trading for trips to condos in Europe or out west for the foreseeable future. While those rented or traded points will be used at DVC properties in WDW, the people staying on my points will not be occupying a room in one of the other Disney hotels, and thus the WDW vacancy rate will go up.

I don't let my family know what I see with the fall in quality and lack of new attractions when we go to WDW because I don't want to ruin our trip. But I see it, and I control the purse strings.

TDO needs to focus all of its spending on the parks for the next decade. No new hotels and no new DVC properties. Maintenance and E-ticket attractions. Period.

 

[Spike-in-Berlin]

Obviously if you've never been on the ride (or aren't that familiar with what is supposed to function), you're not going to be as able to scrutinize what is broken. But guests not knowing what is missing is never an acceptable excuse for missing show elements. And if the neglect continues, more and more elements become broken so that even guests less familiar will start to notice things. For example, while this scene was fixed soon after it was spotted, I'd imagine most people would be able to put 2 and 2 together and tell something is wrong with this picture-


And here's a video that someone actually annotated to outline just a few of the broken elements (this video is rather old and some of the effects seem to work off and on, but many of them are still broken and more broken elements have been reported since)-

Oh I've been on the ride several times since 2007 and I filmed it at least 5 times. I will take a look at my WDW-trip videos and compare the ride experiences of 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012, now that I know more about what should work.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

The amazing thing was when they evacuated us from a breakdown, the cables holding up the tarps blocked off the evacuation stairs

Wait...what!? That's dynamite you posted right there.

To protect the guests from falling debris To protect WDW from negligence lawsuits TDO put up tarps. But these tarps block off an evacuation route!? (At least make it difficult to navigate)

This is trying to prevent the small disaster by increasing the likelihood of the large disaster in the hope that one will never happen.

 

[cupanudles]

Wait...what!? That's dynamite you posted right there.

To protect the guests from falling debris To protect WDW from negligence lawsuits TDO put up tarps. But these tarps block off an evacuation route!? (At least make it difficult to navigate)

This is trying to prevent the small disaster by increasing the likelihood of the large disaster in the hope that one will never happen.

It just seems to get crazier and crazier, don't it?

 

[Captain Chaos]

TDO where common sense (and creativity) go to die....

 

[ParentsOf4]

TDO where common sense (and creativity) go to die....

I know it's fun to blame TDO, I do it myself. But if Iger changed the bonus incentives to be based on the uptime and condition of the attractions, I don't think we'd ever see a ride down.

 

[copcarguyp71]

I know it's fun to blame TDO, I do it myself. But if Iger changed the bonus incentives to be based on the uptime and condition of the attractions, I don't think we'd ever see a ride down.

True dat!!!!

 

[Buried20KLeague]

...and in my mind how can anyone throw their hard earned dollars into DVC and commit to 30-40 years of increasing mediocrity? Although I do not think it is quite as epidemic as some here there is definitely a declining trend. We were seriously on the edge of making the leap into DVC but took some good hard looks around the parks on our last two trips and decided that the ROI for our dollar just was not there.

This is DEAD on. This whole thread I just kept thinking "more of the same at WDW"... But this post made me scream out "YES!!!!"

We got so close as to have the paperwork delivered to us to sign and I thank my lucky stars I didn't put pen to paper.

 

[Clocker84]

It just seems to get crazier and crazier, don't it?

That's TDO over the past 5+ years. It just keeps getting worse and worse and just when you think it couldn't get any worse something like this happens. Such a damn joke. It's sad when you see parks like IOA, US and Sea World creeping up to Disney standards and I mean quick.

 

[HMF]

A footnote: The decline of Walt Disney World has been ongoing for a much longer period than the awful Paul Pressler shopping mall debacle years at DL. The varying degrees of decline at WDW stretch more than a decade and with so much property involved, it seems unlikely that they can whip things together nearly as quickly as Anaheim.

To be honest, the last time the property was in pristine shape, as had been their standard, was 1998 in Florida. It's a long road towards redemption here. More importantly, with the years of neglect, if we get to the point that a management team is put in place that cares and understands the importance of quality, like what DL got in Matt Ouimet, it will be interesting to see how vast in scale many of the projects will be with who knows what might be discovered, building by building with many issues due to the neglect.

To be completely fair though, despite the wonderful progress DL has made over the past 7 years, there are still issues Astro Orbitor is still grounded, empty peoplemover tracks overhead and the dominant feature of Tomorrowlands skyline is still the dressed up mechanical corpse of the Rocket Jets.

 

[Clocker84]

To be completely fair though, despite the wonderful progress DL has made over the past 7 years, there are still issues Astro Orbitor is still grounded, empty peoplemover tracks overhead and the dominant feature of Tomorrowlands skyline is still the dressed up mechanical corpse of the Rocket Jets.

Agreed, I'm sure if I visited Disneyland as much as I visit WDW then of course I'd notice some maintenance issues, but for now I have to take the overwhelming word on the street that Disneyland maintenance trumps WDW's.

 

[Frank Rizzo]

Yes I was there a few days ago and it shut down as we were in view of the loading area. Everyone got a free fast pass but it is still a shame that the ride had already shut down that day, and this was the second occurrence.

 

[HMF]

Agreed, I'm sure if I visited Disneyland as much as I visit WDW then of course I'd notice some maintenance issues, but for now I have to take the overwhelming word on the street that Disneyland maintenance trumps WDW's.

Those are more thematic issues than maintenance issues, but equally as important

 

[Longhairbear]

To be completely fair though, despite the wonderful progress DL has made over the past 7 years, there are still issues Astro Orbitor is still grounded, empty peoplemover tracks overhead and the dominant feature of Tomorrowlands skyline is still the dressed up mechanical corpse of the Rocket Jets.

You are very correct. We west coasters want to know what is going to be done there. There are no rumors that we've heard for that attraction that I know of.

 

[alphac2005]

To be completely fair though, despite the wonderful progress DL has made over the past 7 years, there are still issues Astro Orbitor is still grounded, empty peoplemover tracks overhead and the dominant feature of Tomorrowlands skyline is still the dressed up mechanical corpse of the Rocket Jets.

You're completely right.