When are you going to fix that yeti?

[Bocabear]

I heard there was once a Submarine ride in Fantasyland....lol

 

[Dinoman96]

Always remember: if it really didn't matter because you go by it so fast you can't even tell, they wouldn't have made it an animatronic in the first place.

This is something I've been musing about, actually. TBH even before it went into permanent B mode, I was always thought it was a weird decision to have this super advanced, lifelike audio-animatronic placed and positioned...at the very end where you go so fast you barely even get to see the Yeti. You'd think they would have instead put him where, like, the screen projection of 'em currently is within the center of the mountain, right before the big main drop. At least it'd give you time to look at him.

Jurassic World VelociCoaster is funny and also kinda sad in that when you actually come across the raptors themselves on the ride, they're just static statues that omit sounds. While disappointing, it does make sense from a practical standpoint because you're moving so fast you're gonna barely have any time to see them anyways.

 

[Purduevian]

This is something I've been musing about, actually. TBH even before it went into permanent B mode, I was always thought it was a weird decision to have this super advanced, lifelike audio-animatronic placed and positioned...at the very end where you go so fast you barely even get to see the Yeti. You'd think they would have instead put him where, like, the screen projection of 'em currently is within the center of the mountain, right before the big main drop. At least it'd give you time to look at him.

Jurassic World VelociCoaster is funny and also kinda sad in that when you actually come across the raptors themselves on the ride, they're just static statues that omit sounds. While disappointing, it does make sense from a practical standpoint because you're moving so fast you're gonna barely have any time to see them anyways.

I would imagine a huge cost/logistical difference between putting this AA ~25 feet off the ground vs 150+.

If they were designing it today, they probably would have built a full stop at the yeti then used either a tilt or drop track.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I used to high-five the Yeti when it swiped at us.

Afterwards, the Yeti and me would have a romantic meal at Chefs of France.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

The ride was much better when it worked…I realize the majority of people with “strong opinions” never actually seem to have actually saw the thing move…but that’s the truth

 

[John park hopper]

Disney just raised the parking fee on existing asphalt don't tell me they can't afford to fix the Yeti

 

[KDM31091]

Old Disney would have fixed it. They did think the details like this mattered. Nowadays I doubt they’d spend money purely for the experience. If it doesn’t generate more LLs they don’t care.

 

[James Alucobond]

Always remember: if it really didn't matter because you go by it so fast you can't even tell, they wouldn't have made it an animatronic in the first place.

I don’t think you’ll find many who genuinely argue that A mode wasn’t better. The issue is that, due to its placement, B mode is not obviously broken or diminished. When most animatronics break or switch into B mode, even casual observers can tell something is wrong. For Everest, I would be surprised if anyone without intimate knowledge of the park wonders why the figure isn’t moving. That doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t fix it at the very least as a matter of pride, but it’s also obvious why it’s uniquely ignorable.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Why would they need to worry about maintenance on a prop for a roller coaster themed to India or something?

 

[John park hopper]

That is exactly the point people visiting now don't know any better and just accept this new down graded norm. they play right into Disney's greed

 

[James Alucobond]

That is exactly the point people visiting now don't know any better and just accept this new down graded norm. they play right into Disney's greed

How do you expect people to know better and make a fuss? Again, a big part of the issue is that the malfunction is uniquely unapparent. Unless someone directly tells you that the yeti is supposed to move, it’s impossible to know, unlike with other animatronics. You’re putting the onus on the guest for accepting a mediocrity that they have no way of identifying as mediocre.

 

[donaldtoo]

Aren’t we approaching two decades of this thing being broken, at this point…?!
I’m old enough to have ridden it when it worked, and I can barely remember what it was like, as, IIRC, it was viewable for only about an instant, and they spent a ton of money on it for that short sighting.
I remember the Travel Channel shows from back in the day hailing it as the best thing yet.
The yeti in Matterhorn Bobsleds in DLR was more enjoyable to me back in 2010.
They, seriously, overthought the yeti in EE.
I get the attempt, but sometimes less is, indeed, more.

 

[Professortango1]

Aren’t we approaching two decades of this thing being broken, at this point…?!
I’m old enough to have ridden it when it worked, and I can barely remember what it was like, as, IIRC, it was viewable for only about an instant, and they spent a ton of money on it for that short sighting.
I remember the Travel Channel shows from back in the day hailing it as the best thing yet.
The yeti in Matterhorn Bobsleds in DLR was more enjoyable to me back in 2010.
They, seriously, overthought the yeti in EE.
I get the attempt, but sometimes less is, indeed, more.

I mean, Matterhorn is still the superior version. Better pacing, three working AA's, racing coaster element. The queue and smoothness is better with EE, but that's about it for me.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I don’t think you’ll find many who genuinely argue that A mode wasn’t better. The issue is that, due to its placement, B mode is not obviously broken or diminished. When most animatronics break or switch into B mode, even casual observers can tell something is wrong. For Everest, I would be surprised if anyone without intimate knowledge of the park wonders why the figure isn’t moving. That doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t fix it at the very least as a matter of pride, but it’s also obvious why it’s uniquely ignorable.

Agree to disagree on this one…on about 10 different Levels

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

I mean, Matterhorn is still the superior version. Better pacing, three working AA's, racing coaster element. The queue and smoothness is better with EE, but that's about it for me.

The actual Matterhorn ride suffers in that it was built for those with their addresses on the yellow brick road

 

[doctornick]

Old Disney would have fixed it. They did think the details like this mattered. Nowadays I doubt they’d spend money purely for the experience. If it doesn’t generate more LLs they don’t care.

Current Disney is willing to spend money to "plus" attractions at WDW, so while I expect absolutely nothing to happen I think the odds of the Yeti being fixed is higher than at any point since it initially stopped working.

 

[WorldExplorer]

Current Disney is responsible for the pathetic display of Tiana's Bayou Adventure, where things break so often they couldn't scrape together any footage of it functioning perfectly for Disney Plus.

Current Disney "refurbished" Little Mermaid so well that Ariel's neck snapped like two weeks after. Has she started moving again yet? Last I checked they were running the ride with two broken Ariels (AND the less obviously broken Ursula). On a good day it's just the one broken Ariel and Ursula.

Current Disney can't be bothered to fix the stupid deer on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, a simple animatronic on one of their most popular rides which constantly takes in cash from LL sales.

Current Disney lets Dinosaur run in a downright embarrassing state.

("But WorldExplorer; Dinosaur is closing so it doesn't count!" Between the announcement and the closing, 2.5+ million people will ride it and those people pay full price. They deserve a fully functioning ride. And let's not pretend it was running tip top shape until the announcement; it's Disney's fault it got this bad to begin with.)

Current Disney isn't fixing the yeti. If anything, we're much further away than we've ever been from it getting fixed because now they've had 15+ years of positive reinforcement to not fix the yeti. The merchandise still sells, they're willing to put it in ads, and any time it comes up fans jump to the ride's defense to assure people it's still a good ride with a broken yeti.

 

[Bocabear]

The thing about the Yeti in A mode that was amazing was how unexpected and huge it was...Moving it was an OMG moment...then left with the..."What the heck did I just see?" moment and the desire to see it again....
now it is just something you pass quickly...the caverns are no longer lit the way they were in A mode....and now it is just a prop on a rollercoaster instead of the thrilling finale moment.
Seems like they could have at the least used the animation in the head and face if moving the whole body was causing too much torque on the structure....but then no one seems to really know what the problem was because there were so many rumors about it....

 

[flyerjab]

Obviously, and to continue with this fun terminology, current Disney is actually working to improve some things at WDW for once (beyond just new paint). BTMRR, Buzz, CBJ, FEA, TT, as well as CoP’s planned changes. I hope that this continues. I don’t know if something has changed to some degree within the machinations of the company, but one can argue that it is nice to see this. Who knows, maybe Vaughn is way better at highlighting changes to improve the guest experience. Or maybe Josh knows that parks are the big, continuous revenue stream for the company, and WDW is supposed to be the flagship resort so maybe we should treat it as such and put more money into it.

As far ads those that say WDI has had a huge drop off in talent, well…. Have you seen Frozen, Tangled and Peter Pan at TDS? They would like to have a word. WDI most likely had large and appropriate enough budgets for the Imagineers to really stretch their wings. I always laugh at that scene in the Imagineering Story when Eisner argues that instead of giving people huge sums of money to allow for creativity, he instead found it much better to place creatives in a box (i.e. limited funds) to force them to become more “creative” in their design approach. Spoken like a true company man lol.

As far as the Yeti goes, wouldn’t it be really expensive to fix/redesign? I’ve seen it discussed over and over within these very forums. Wouldn’t part of the ride’s foundation in this section need to be repaired also (or something like that - I am clearly not an engineer). I will say, in the current climate of some ride “plussing”, or as with BTMRR - a huge capital expense project - if this thing was ever going to be fixed, maybe it has a shot?

 

[John park hopper]

IMO Disney is working off of past glories. The Disney name used to mean excellence but the current corporate mentality is why spend the money to fix something-- new guests have no Disney memory of what was.