Well I don't think a ride being fundamentally flawed excuses not keeping up the effects it does have. If that were the case then the yeti should be excused as well. And weren't most if the turned off dinosaur effects also canned because of feasibility/practicality (compies, teradactyl,)
Ellen always makes my heart hurt in ins post curtain status. Though it seems to me it's state can be blamed largely on multiple anticipated refurbs that never happened. But it seems the exception rather than the rule.
I'm not trying to say that Disney's maintenance is perfect - it just doesn't seem like Universal's is any better. Having a better philosophy doesn't count for much if it's not stuck to.
I think you misunderstand me... when I say "fundamentally flawed," what I mean is, "even if this attraction is running 100% to design, it still looks like crap." This is the case with Mummy, in my opinion - the newer lighting package they switched to a few years after opening makes the scene all too bright, robbing it of any dread or intensity and exposing much of the mechanics of the animatronics. Indeed, Imhotep I was switched from hydraulics to pneumatics, piece by piece, to be more reliable... and it looks terribly, even when everything is "working." Even when every single effect on Dudley Do-Right is working, it still looks like a mediocre carnival mess of a flume ride. So, under this pretense, Everest is not excused for its broken Yeti.
As for Dinosaur... I don't buy that the compies and pteradactyl were turned off for "practicality." Both are capable of movement. When I say "feasibility" as I do when I refer to the swinging doors on Dudley, I mean things that are physically impossible - those doors were simply not able to open and shut fast enough between each log without slowing down the overall dispatch time. The dinos you mention are completely capable of movement and aren't exactly complicated effects... it reeks instead of poor maintenance, laziness, and possibly legal paranoia. Dinosaur is also missing (usually) all of its laser effects, crashing meteorites, full animation in its first few dinosaurs (such as the swallowing beast)... everyone now knows how much of the scenery for the ride never got installed, and I'll knock Dinosaur for that, too. (In fairness, I'll also knock Dudley Do-Right for rushing its opening instead of actually finishing the ride as planned.)
Any other examples? I find this kind of stuff oddly fascinating.
In case you're interested, the purple swinging doors are still in place on Dudley, just vaulted open - you can make out the indentations of Bear and Beaver in each (as if they slammed into them). Look to your left and right as you pass through the structure directly before the drop.
As for other turned off effects... there aren't a super lot I can immediately think of. I'm sure you know about the extra legion of dementors hiding in plain sight just before the third dome screen in Forbidden Journey (can't fault Uni here - WB/JKR refused to let them keep the effect on due to "intensity"). Men in Black has a couple - Kap hits on several of them, but the most notable persistent one is the "drop down bugs" (the little guys illuminated by strobes that shoot at you right after the scanning checkpoint) no longer "drop down," for unknown reasons. While not necessarily an effect, Dudley Do-Right (very) briefly had a sapling placed on the roof of its show building, only viewable when you passed the "overlooked scenery" hole on the final lift. Most of the park's rides actually still operate at full functionality... ET, Disaster, Spider-Man, etc... I can't think of any effects that were abandoned or just turned off.
Admittedly, it's been a while since I've rode it, but MIB always used to be notorious for stuff not working. Half the animatronics would be still, the ambushes wouldn't happen, the queue elevator would be still with both doors open, the scan of the opposite car wouldn't happen, and there would never, ever be fog in the final big bug scene - ruining the illusion when it was over as you'd still see the city scene behind you.
As far as I know some of those effects are now back on, but I think the end fog still doesn't work.
The mummy in the mummy only works about half the times I've ridden it.
I've seen disaster/earthquake run often without the collapsing street and tanker as well.
Over at Ioa poseidon's water tunnel was turned off for years, though I think I heard it might be finally running again.
The fountain outside of sinbad hasn't had its proper squeaky voice in years.
Sorry for the typos. Courtesy of my phone.
Men in Black is in *much* better shape these days. All animatronics are consistently working - the only chronically problematic one is the green armored alien on the corner of Time Square (in the last stretch), the one that trash talks you as he's hit. The audio still plays and he often shakes around a little, but his mouth rarely moves and his functionality is very clearly reduced... he needs a good refurb. The only time the queue elevator preshow isn't used is HHN, as far as I've seen, and even the only on peak nights when they desperately need to keep crowds moving. The fog in the final scene still doesn't work... why, I'm not sure, but I agree that it's extremely problematic.
Imhotep I actually is far more reliable these days and pretty rarely goes down. He used to be way more of a nuisance (you may have been visiting while he was a hybrid, part pneumatic, part hydraulic, which inevitably led to increased downtime). That animatronic in particular has quite the history, with pretty sad origins.
I've never seen Disaster run without the tanker... I imagine it'd be significantly less exciting.
Poseidon's Fury water tunnel was, as others mentioned, a boneheaded budget cut courtesy of "we don't care about show" Blackstone - and was thankfully restored and now runs daily.
I'm a bit confused by the "squeaky voice..." I've heard the Mystic Fountain do its thing for years and it always had different voices as far back as I can remember. Can you elaborate on this?
