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What's being done at the Main Street Bakery?
- Thread starter wdw_nerd
- Start date
I realize you were exaggerating, but lets look at it like this:
From the point of view of rides ridden per ticket price, you are getting a deal going during the off-season, even with the down attractions and exterior refurbishments. Soarin, for example, had up to a 300 minute wait time over the holidays. Right now, it is down to a typical maximum of 75 minutes. So, in a way, you get 4 times more Soarin during the down period than you do during the high season. In monetary terms, on a $90, 1 day ticket, the 300 minute wait for Soarin costs you $37.50 of your ticket value. Right now, during the off-season, the 75 minute wait costs you $9.38 of your ticket value. So, that one ride is essentially 75% off right now as compared to during the Christmas season.
That seems to be well worth having some unsightly scrims and ride refurbishments in the parks right now. Besides, there are always, and will always be refurbishments going on in the parks. One of the joys of a WDW vacation is that if your favorite ride is being refurbished and/or your favorite picture spot sightline is obstructed during one trip, it gives you a reason to want to go back a second time at a later date.
As for Christmas decorations, for those who follow the Gregorian calendar and are of some eastern Orthodox faiths, Christmas can be as late as January 19 this year. So, in the interest of being open minded and all inclusive, we can deal with the decorations for a bit longer.
wickedfan07
Member
Yes, it does seem like there is an awdul lot of work being done all at once right now. I think that has all to do with the number of people who visit the parks on a given day in January/February compared to the number of people who visit in, say, July or the week between Christmas and New Years.
Imagine if Disney tried to take away part of the sidewalk on Main Street for this bakery refurbishment during the last two weeks of December? It would result in even more chaos than there is already is in those weeks. Or if Disney tried to take down Big Thunder at that time, or tried to repave Frontierland or whatever else is going on. There are certain times of the year where it is logistically easier to take a handful of things down or surround a few buildins with scrims. It is still affecting some Guests' visit, but it is affecting far FEWER people and causing fewer headaches or both Guests and Cast to do these things now rather than doing it in the summer.
The alternative would be to have each theme park rotate through an annual full-park scheduled downtime likle the water parks do. That would really get people going of they tried to close the MK for a a few weeks each year! But it would probably result in fewer downtimes and refurbishment scrims and construction wwalls while the park WAs open. But since they don't run the park that way, sometimes we have to deal with things that are a little less than ideal. I wish they would spread these things out a little bit and do more regular maintenance so that rides like Big Thunder wouldn't need 5-month refurbishment periods.
I've never managed a theme park, but I wonder if it would be really all that difficult to take each ride out of service for one week (Sunday to Saturday or whatever scheduling worked for them) and do routine maintenance on it. A week is not a lot of time, but at least everything would get touched up (and evaluated for possible extebded maintenance) once a year. If the schedule were set well in advance, people who were adamant about riding certain rides would have the chance to shedule their vacations around scheduled refurbishments. and, of course, big weeks like the first week of July and the last few weeks of December could be left off the refurbishment schedule for obvious reasons. This wouldn't necessarily help with the scrims on Main Street but at least it could help limit the complaints about ride maintenance and refurbishment schedules.
I haven't been to WDW since the Great Wall of Fantasyland went up. from pictures, though, I can see clearly that it takes away from the feeling of the area. Could they or should they have done something to do it dress it up a little? Yes, they could have, and it wouldn't have cost a whole lot more money to do it. Management is certainly not without blame for certain things, but they do have to work within the same reality that we all live in.
DubyooDeeDubyoo
Active Member
So, our first two pages was people like WDW74 complaining about the poor, non-maintained state of WDW where nothing is ever fixed or cared for. The next three pages are people complaining about maintenance interfering with their entitlement to park at 100%.
This thread has everything.
This thread has everything.
zooey
Well-Known Member
They sort of go hand in-hand, because both are right. The long, drawn out refurbs wouldn't be necessary if WDW was on a decent refurb schedule like every other Disney park and not neglected for so long. If they just did short, yet frequent refurbs, everyone would be happy, except TDO because they'd have to spend slightly more money.
captainkidd
Well-Known Member
Including people not reading.
Many (myself included) aren't complaining about refurbs. What I'm complaining about is the TIME it now takes Disney to get refurbs done. It's been said already - The type of work it now takes Disney weeks or even months to do, they used to accomplish in a week, if not days.
Why wouldn't this annoy some people? If Disney never raised prices, sure, I'd understand. But that's not the case.
captainkidd
Well-Known Member
Sometimes. And sometimes they give you about 2 months of warning. I'd say the majority of people vacationing at WDW book their hotel and airfare way before that.
spaceghost
Well-Known Member
- You can't have your cake and eat it too.
- What inside knowledge do you have as to what is being fixed now vs. what was being fixed in the past to evaulate whether or not a reasonable amount of time is being taken?
- What historical data do you have that shows that comparable refurbs (not just to the Bakery) took much less time in the past?
DubyooDeeDubyoo
Active Member
There's also the gentle truths that the park is simply getting older. Somewhat telling is that most of these "eternal refurbs" take place at MK.
zooey
Well-Known Member
Disneyland is much older.
True, but Disneyland doesn't have to deal with the same weather as Walt Disney World. The humidity alone in Central Florida is so unlike anything that Southern California deals with on a regular basis...plus the additional rain that WDW gets, mixed with the occasional hurricane, and difference in temperature.
Disneyland is much older (and they do have the same sorts of refurbs...even more often), but when comparing Disneyland and Walt Disney World one must remember to account for the difference in climate.
DubyooDeeDubyoo
Active Member
This is the age when Disneyland started having unprecedented upkeep issues. A lot of it was the Pressler administration's fault, but all that meant was that DLR had extended, middle-of-the-day refurbs like this one when Ouimet came on board. The solution is to ratchet up your small refurbs so that these extended monster refurbs don't have to happen. They took DL's Pirates down for months and months and months to add the Depp AAs, and it's most recent refurb was shorter for it.
Likewise, the Matterhorn is getting a monster refurb there now too; and has always had it's track carefully restored even during the Pressler years of lean budgets. MK Space is basically a Matterhorn on steroids, and the refurbishment of 2009 focused on the pre-show more than the track. That might come back to bite them.
DLR has already had the thing where a tourist says "Working in the daytime, how gauche!" and the AP says "OMG they're doing work!"
jlevis
Well-Known Member
True, but that is why I said "if it is possible".
captainkidd
Well-Known Member
I think if you ask anyone who's been going to WDW for 25 years consistently, they'd verify this. I'm sure there is no "historical data" to be found, but I clearly remember being there in 1996 any they were doing work to the Emporium. It started after we arrived, and was done before we left. Now granted, it may not be to the same extent.
I've made this point several times. There is a new shopping area being built down the street from my house. They have built (from scratch) and opened restaurants and stores in less time than work on certain areas of Main Street is taking.
It's well known Disney lore that work similar to this used to be done overnight. They'd have huge maintenance crews simply for the purpose of painting, fixing chips on the sidewalk, things of that nature. It's no longer done like that. As a paying guest, I see nothing wrong with voicing displeasure at the fact that the company is taking the cheaper way out of getting things done, at the guests expense. I love WDW just as much as anyone on this board, but I have no quams about giving my opinion on matters such as these, whether they are pro or anti Disney.
JimboJones123
Well-Known Member
We fully expected Splash down this month. It wasn't. I count that as a surprise bonus for our trip.
Communicore
Well-Known Member
Sure is, but no stack sandwiches for some reason.
captainkidd
Well-Known Member
They'd never close (to my best knowledge) both Thunder and Splash at the same time.
Well, that's a pity. But still, better than mass hordes of workers on Main Street during the open hours.