Two "apparent" budget cuts noticed...

[JohnD]

The Friendship boat docks are being refurbished. They just recently finished the Eastern docks while only West boats were running. Now West docks are being refurbished (the are currently missing their roofs as they are getting total replacements. Once done both will be operating.

FYI there was another thread a couple weeks ago trying to say that the Eastern boats were closed forever due to budget cuts but nope! Just a phased refurb.

Thank you. Instead of asking why the Canada-Morocco boat wasn't operating, someone has to make a drive-by post that WDW had budget cuts. It wasn't working when he was there. What other possibility could it be? Such is the attitude of some doom-and-gloomers around here. All we needed was a simple explanation which you provided.

 

[JohnD]

I thought I remembered 2 friendship boats running over the summer...

People are so quick to defend Disney around here... The reason I posted this was to see if anyone knew anything about this.

I asked a character cm "is the line to meet Mickey 120 minutes because of budget cuts" and the reply was "yes" - of course there's know way I can know for sure but the line was 120 minutes everytime I passed yesrerday.

The fact it's 1 hour today seems right... It's a Halloween party day so probably lighter crowds which would mean less than a 60 minute wait with normal number of rooms open.

There's a difference in asking a simple question and waiting for the answer and automatically assuming that WDW was at their dastardly worst by imposing budget cuts because the boat you wanted wasn't working. Or there were longer hours than usual at a Mickey M&G.

 

[Disney-Trains]

I edited the title to "apparent" ....

As has been noted... 1 friendship boat was a budget cut... Just one that I hadn't noticed when all the docks were open.

I'm personally very sure that Mickey issue is a budget cut, but I'm happy to be proven wrong.

 

[No Name]

On a side note, what ever became of the rumor about impeding layoffs? Did layoffs happen?

 

[Bolt]

I edited the title to "apparent" ....

As has been noted... 1 friendship boat was a budget cut... Just one that I hadn't noticed when all the docks were open.

I'm personally very sure that Mickey issue is a budget cut, but I'm happy to be proven wrong.

25 minutes now, what else needs to be proven? Rides and characters have lines sometimes. It happens.

 

[DisAl]

Ashamed to say I didn't know that. I always thought it was one room to the left of the fireplace. Guess that is just my luck that I get in that room every time.

Only reason we know is because on a trip one Feb. there was no line at HM so we got right back on. Thought I was being smart going straight to the back where the door was. Only thing was the second time the door was on the left.... Two rooms lets them keep an almost constant flow.

 

[donsullivan]

I thought I remembered 2 friendship boats running over the summer...

People are so quick to defend Disney around here... The reason I posted this was to see if anyone knew anything about this.

I asked a character cm "is the line to meet Mickey 120 minutes because of budget cuts" and the reply was "yes" - of course there's know way I can know for sure but the line was 120 minutes everytime I passed yesrerday.

The fact it's 1 hour today seems right... It's a Halloween party day so probably lighter crowds which would mean less than a 60 minute wait with normal number of rooms open.

I'll speak only for myself here but it's not about defending Disney, it's about getting frustrated with people going off with negativity without facts.

If you noticed this, a post to simply ask "I noticed only one Friendship Boat and long lines today, has something changed?" can achieve the same objective but you went straight to the negative and 'budget cuts'.

Trust me, I've gone off on my share of rants over the years (See AP Preview of Pandora where I whined for a month) but it was always on something I had concrete facts about, not just negativity to get attention. I get that it's become the cool thing to do, to spread negativity about Disney, I just don't understand it and I never will.

And I also know that some will choose to attack me for 'complaining about the complainers' but it really does get old. We so often seem to lose the balance in the dialog- everything spins to the negative by default instead of trying to understand what might actually be happening in the real world that might cause something to happen.

 

[marni1971]

The Friendship boat docks are being refurbished. They just recently finished the Eastern docks while only West boats were running. Now West docks are being refurbished (the are currently missing their roofs as they are getting total replacements. Once done both will be operating.

FYI there was another thread a couple weeks ago trying to say that the Eastern boats were closed forever due to budget cuts but nope! Just a phased refurb.

West docks should be finished around now. The canopies missing are courtesy of Irma, if that has an impact on the planned return to service I don't know.

Hey! I brought a positive to the discussion!

 

[montyz81]

West docks should be finished around now. The canopies missing are courtesy of Irma, if that has an impact on the planned return to service I don't know.

Hey! I brought a positive to the discussion!

And it was at Epcot too. You are two for one!

 

[Disney-Trains]

Again... It's a Halloween party day and I'm not at MK to see what the crowd level is at.

I'll speak only for myself here but it's not about defending Disney, it's about getting frustrated with people going off with negativity without facts.

If you noticed this, a post to simply ask "I noticed only one Friendship Boat and long lines today, has something changed?" can achieve the same objective but you went straight to the negative and 'budget cuts'.

Trust me, I've gone off on my share of rants over the years (See AP Preview of Pandora where I whined for a month) but it was always on something I had concrete facts about, not just negativity to get attention. I get that it's become the cool thing to do, to spread negativity about Disney, I just don't understand it and I never will.

And I also know that some will choose to attack me for 'complaining about the complainers' but it really does get old. We so often seem to lose the balance in the dialog- everything spins to the negative by default instead of trying to understand what might actually be happening in the real world that might cause something to happen.

I'll agree with that... I could have titled this... "Are these budget cuts"

 

[Rider]

West docks should be finished around now. The canopies missing are courtesy of Irma, if that has an impact on the planned return to service I don't know.

Hey! I brought a positive to the discussion!

Yeah I was just there last night and they were still off. I'm pretty sure I saw the East canopies removed before Irma but I may be mixing up my visits.

 

[WondersOfLife]

Well, I learned something new. I didn't know they had two Mickey rooms. I did know they have two stretching rooms at the Haunted Mansion.

Which, in case anyone is interested, they were operating both! We went to the one on the right this past Monday (for the first time in my life!!)

 

[WondersOfLife]

October is the new July, dontcha know?

I agree. I went in July, and honestly, the July crowds were much better than this holiday weekend.

 

[Biff215]

We waited over 30 minutes for Mickey with a Fast Pass in August. The standby line didn’t look significantly long either. I doubt it was running at capacity.

 

[Sassagoula-Rvr]

There's a difference in asking a simple question and waiting for the answer and automatically assuming that WDW was at their dastardly worst by imposing budget cuts because the boat you wanted wasn't working. Or there were longer hours than usual at a Mickey M&G.

Exactly...Disney is not blameless (By a LONG shot)...however it is getting old to see everyone immediately jump to the negative on things...I swear if Disney announced they were handing out gold bars to guests...there would be a large crowd saying, "OLD disney would have handed out bigger gold bars...just another budget cut!"

But...given our current national climate...nothing like this should surprise me.

 

[Nubs70]

here for a quick trip this week and noticed the following...

- only 1 friendship boat operating at EPCOT from Germany to Mexico. No service from Morroco or Canada docks. This resulted, of course, in very long lines and standing room only on the one boat operating.

- 120 minute wait to meet Mickey mouse at Town Square yesterday at Magic Kingdom. The park was indeed packed (thanks to the back to back Halloween party days the two nights before I'm guessing) but I've never seen this kind of wait to meet Mickey even on New Years so I can only assume this was a budget cut (only one room open?).

New Filipino ferry boat experience

 

[Stitch_Fan_NJ]

Nothing you mentioned points to budget cuts. When I was there during the week leading up to Christmas we waited maybe 45 minutes tops to meet Mickey at townhall about 2 hours after park opening. And the friendship boat between Germany and Mexico was not operating that I noticed.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Indeed. The Mickey M&G often hits an hour wait and has for the longest time. But it does fluctuate through the day.

And if one set of docks is being refurbed, then they can only run one line. That is not a budget cut because they physically can't run the second line because of the refurb.

In fact, a refurb shows they're spending money to fix things up. It's the opposite of a budge cut.

 

[wdwmagic]

As far as I know, TST Mickey has 4 rooms, and they typically operate 2 these days.

 

[Biff215]

As far as I know, TST Mickey has 4 rooms, and they typically operate 2 these days.

Sounds about right, and I’d argue they need to operate 3 or 4 especially with a long asking character. Not only is demand higher once people know, but the experience typically lasts longer as well now. It’s really cool but not worth an hour plus wait IMO.