Yeti indeed in new position on EE

[IWant2GoNow]

This is perhaps the funniest thing I have ever read on this forum. To somehow explain away the stagnation of the parks and the blatantly broken effects on a marquee attraction as, "new experiences," is just too rich. This woman should be given a dark brown medal with the letters BS on it.

Yea, I had to reread that part about 5 times before I believed what I was reading.

On the 2nd or 3rd read I almost figured she was trying to explain that there are other attractions in the park with new experiences and that these somehow offset the dilapidated E:E. Sort of a "don't look over there... look over HERE!" approach. But when I read it again it was clear that this was either a "pre-typed auto response" or they really are trying to pass off these defects and lack of effects as a "new experience". :brick:

Oh well, at least it was entertaining to get a response back from them like that.

 

[DisneyLeo18]

I think it is safe to say that the CM's in public relations have a real handle on the cut and paste feature.

If you're handy with outlook all you need to do is right-click and select the canned email you would like to send.:lol:

By the way did it say in the post above her name is Julie July???

 

[IWant2GoNow]

I think it is safe to say that the CM's in public relations have a real handle on the cut and paste feature.

Oh absolutely. Anyone in that type of field has to to get anything done during the day. It's the same type of responses I would expect on an Internet service providers "online chat support".

"Did you check all connections to the modem and computer?"
"Please unplug your modem and wait for 30 seconds."
"On the front of the modem, what lights are on/off/blinking?"

I would assume Disney has their "one click" responses for things like this.

 

[IWant2GoNow]

If you're handy with outlook all you need to do is right-click and select the canned email you would like to send.:lol:

By the way did it say in the post above her name is Julie July???

Sure did. :lol:

They either have quite a few made up names or possibly Julie is he real first name and they have you make up a last name so that they can't be held directly responsible for Disney's shortcomings. Or else we'd all be on a false witch hunt for Julie July.

 

[hokielutz]

I just created a Fix the yeti group on Facebook. here is the link for anybody who would like to join.

I already created one, but I guess the more the merrier.

 

[pax_65]

I was in the world last week. I got my entire family (8 of us) to chant "FIX THE YETI!" as the ride concluded. We were pretty loud. Most people looked at us with blank stares but some of the cast members smiled at us knowingly.

 

[Ziffell]

I was in the world last week. I got my entire family (8 of us) to chant "FIX THE YETI!" as the ride concluded.

What effect do you expect that to have?

 

[IWant2GoNow]

What effect do you expect that to have?

I made me laugh. :lol::lookaroun

 

[pax_65]

What effect do you expect that to have?

I figured blank stares, which is what I got... still, it gave me some degree of perverse satisfaction.

Seriously, though... what bothers me is that the vast majority of people have no idea what they're missing. This is probably a big part of the reason why Disney feels little pressure to fix it - most people do not complain because they simply don't know any better. The coaster ends with a ride through a dark cave. Whoopee.

My son wasn't big enough to ride EE when it first opened, so he has never seen the Yeti except on the "Must Do Disney" TV preview - which is like false advertising at this point (to be accurate, the screen should just go black for a few seconds). Still, he loves the ride, and he looks at me with amazement when I tell him what the Yeti is supposed to do. Like most people, he just has no idea...

 

[DisneyLeo18]

Sure did. :lol:

They either have quite a few made up names or possibly Julie is he real first name and they have you make up a last name so that they can't be held directly responsible for Disney's shortcomings. Or else we'd all be on a false witch hunt for Julie July.

Well if that happens to be her real name her parents are just cruel.

Although I did once meet a kid at WDW named Justin Case. :lol:

 

[BrerFrog]

I was in the world last week. I got my entire family (8 of us) to chant "FIX THE YETI!" as the ride concluded. We were pretty loud. Most people looked at us with blank stares but some of the cast members smiled at us knowingly.

I wish I had been on that train, I would have joined you. :lol:

 

[Ziffell]

I figured blank stares, which is what I got... still, it gave me some degree of perverse satisfaction.

Seriously, though... what bothers me is that the vast majority of people have no idea what they're missing. This is probably a big part of the reason why Disney feels little pressure to fix it - most people do not complain because they simply don't know any better. The coaster ends with a ride through a dark cave. Whoopee.

My son wasn't big enough to ride EE when it first opened, so he has never seen the Yeti except on the "Must Do Disney" TV preview - which is like false advertising at this point (to be accurate, the screen should just go black for a few seconds). Still, he loves the ride, and he looks at me with amazement when I tell him what the Yeti is supposed to do. Like most people, he just has no idea...

I agree they should fix it, but if other guests "didn't know what they were missing", why point that out to them by being obnoxious and "pretty loud" as you stated you were? Aside from giving you personal satisfaction as you stated it did, does that really accomplish anything other than annoying your fellow guests and making the ride end on an unpleasant note?

What's funny is that someone else recently posted a thread about their trip and complained about people being loud and chanting things to the annoyance of other guests. This person may have been on that EE train with you and considered you and your family to be among the disruptive guests they describe in their thread.

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=579001

 

[Tom]

I know everyone on here is furious that the Yeti hasn't been working right for years, but it appears that everyone is stuck in the "anger" stage of grief, and has been for far too long.

It's believed that the Yeti is causing undue stress upon the mountain itself - far beyond what the Structural Engineers accounted for, even in their probable 200% design safety factor.

They designed and built a giant moving "lever" (physics term) that's attached to the structural skeleton of a building (that's what the mountain really is). They THOUGHT they had accounted for the loads, stresses and forces when they designed the thing, but it appears now that they failed.

Fixing a problem like this takes a massive amount of research, analysis, investigation and re-design. They could have probably solved the problem a lot faster if they shut the entire ride down for a few months, but then everyone on here (and all the guests) would be screaming that they shut it down. So instead, they get their flashlights and climb in there after hours to look at things, run tests, take samples, etc.

It doesn't help matters any that they put the Yeti in what appears to be an inaccessible spot, or at least one that makes it almost impossible to replace/repair. This goes back to a lack of planning in the beginning.

If everyone wants to be mad at someone, be mad at the people who originally designed the ride. They failed. Joe got his way, and he has a giant monster inside a believable mountain - but function gave way to aesthetics (Architects/Visionaries always win over Engineers) and now we're left with a mess.

Re-engineering something that's already part of a building, and repairing something that's inside a steel cage is a daunting task. They have to analyze this problem from the foundation up to the Yeti, and re-calculate the stresses applied to each and every steel member in the building before they can even begin to propose a solution.

And for all we know, maybe they HAVE proposed a solution, and it's going to cost $25 million and force the ride to close down for 6 months. And maybe, if that's the case, Disney is taking a hit on the broken Yeti while allowing one of very few E-tickets in AKL to stay open.

Nobody knows, but we're quick to yell and point fingers at the people (i.e. CMs and Guest Services) who are quite aware of the problem but who have absolutely NO say or control in what is being done about it. I'm pretty sure the people responsible for the fix are well aware of the situation, and aren't going to risk skipping important steps in order to make some Facebook fans happier for 5 minutes.

Just my two cents.

 

[pax_65]

does that really accomplish anything other than annoying your fellow guests

Just to clarify... the chant was brief (and not THAT loud). I don't believe any other guests were annoyed.

Believe me, I'm very considerate of other guests in the parks... and actually found others were very considerate this trip too. Very little obnoxious behavior in the parks. A great time was had by all.

 

[Master Yoda]

I know everyone on here is furious that the Yeti hasn't been working right for years, but it appears that everyone is stuck in the "anger" stage of grief, and has been for far too long.

It's believed that the Yeti is causing undue stress upon the mountain itself - far beyond what the Structural Engineers accounted for, even in their probable 200% design safety factor.

They designed and built a giant moving "lever" (physics term) that's attached to the structural skeleton of a building (that's what the mountain really is). They THOUGHT they had accounted for the loads, stresses and forces when they designed the thing, but it appears now that they failed.

Fixing a problem like this takes a massive amount of research, analysis, investigation and re-design. They could have probably solved the problem a lot faster if they shut the entire ride down for a few months, but then everyone on here (and all the guests) would be screaming that they shut it down. So instead, they get their flashlights and climb in there after hours to look at things, run tests, take samples, etc.

It doesn't help matters any that they put the Yeti in what appears to be an inaccessible spot, or at least one that makes it almost impossible to replace/repair. This goes back to a lack of planning in the beginning.

If everyone wants to be mad at someone, be mad at the people who originally designed the ride. They failed. Joe got his way, and he has a giant monster inside a believable mountain - but function gave way to aesthetics (Architects/Visionaries always win over Engineers) and now we're left with a mess.

Re-engineering something that's already part of a building, and repairing something that's inside a steel cage is a daunting task. They have to analyze this problem from the foundation up to the Yeti, and re-calculate the stresses applied to each and every steel member in the building before they can even begin to propose a solution.

And for all we know, maybe they HAVE proposed a solution, and it's going to cost $25 million and force the ride to close down for 6 months. And maybe, if that's the case, Disney is taking a hit on the broken Yeti while allowing one of very few E-tickets in AKL to stay open.

Nobody knows, but we're quick to yell and point fingers at the people (i.e. CMs and Guest Services) who are quite aware of the problem but who have absolutely NO say or control in what is being done about it. I'm pretty sure the people responsible for the fix are well aware of the situation, and aren't going to risk skipping important steps in order to make some Facebook fans happier for 5 minutes.

Just my two cents.

I agree with 99% of what you said. As a structural engineer I know how hard it is to correct a mistake inside an existing structure. There is no question that correctly fixing the yeti is going to take time and a boatload of cash. The only critique I have of your 2 cents is about complaining to guest relations. Right now I am sure there is a tug of war going on at AK. One half wants to do whatever it takes to fix E:E. The other half wants to figure out a way to just let it be. The only ammo that the side that wants to fix the yeti has is guest complaints. If those do not exist in enough quantity then there is no incentive to fix the yeti. Now I am not saying that all of us should go into guest services with a sweat sock full of nickels and go all Mafia Wars on the first CM we see but we have to keep up the pressure or nothing will happen.

 

[pax_65]

Nobody knows, but we're quick to yell and point fingers at the people (i.e. CMs and Guest Services) who are quite aware of the problem but who have absolutely NO say or control in what is being done about it. I'm pretty sure the people responsible for the fix are well aware of the situation, and aren't going to risk skipping important steps in order to make some Facebook fans happier for 5 minutes.

Good post, but you had a lot of "ifs" and "maybes" in there. If someone from Disney would explain the situation with some certainty describing some of the scenarios you present, I might be more understanding.

To play devil's advocate, you could go the other way and say "Maybe it's a simple fix but Disney doesn't care enough to fix it." I don't believe that, but in the absence of actual facts conjecture and speculation takes over.

As far as complaining goes, I would happily contact whoever should be contacted to do the most good (and although I staged a brief, good-natured protest I didn't complain to a cast member or be negative in any way). But as you say, they are no doubt aware of the problem so I'm not sure how much good my letter will do.

I love EE, but if the Yeti isn't working it's really just a so-so roller coaster, not even as interesting or fun (IMHO) as Big Thunder Mountain. All of the amazing theme-ing they did on this ride - the construction of the mountain, the detailed queue, the wonderful storyline, all falls flat without the Yeti making his dramatic appearance on the ride. Honestly, I don't need to ever ride it again in its current condition.

The bottom line is this... with Harry Potter opening, I'm considering how to divide my time and money on my next trip. I can promise you this... unless something changes (new attraction or Yeti fixed) Animal Kingdom will not be in my plans next time. That's one less day of Disney passes I need to buy, and one more day I may spend at Universal.

 

[hokielutz]

I know everyone on here is furious that the Yeti hasn't been working right for years, but it appears that everyone is stuck in the "anger" stage of grief, and has been for far too long.

It's believed that the Yeti is causing undue stress upon the mountain itself - far beyond what the Structural Engineers accounted for, even in their probable 200% design safety factor.

They designed and built a giant moving "lever" (physics term) that's attached to the structural skeleton of a building (that's what the mountain really is). They THOUGHT they had accounted for the loads, stresses and forces when they designed the thing, but it appears now that they failed.
.................

Just my two cents.

One critique I have with your comments.... is that the publicly available information about the attraction is that there were three separate structures that make up the ride. All are independent of each other... except for the ground they are attached to. They are

• The roller coaster track
• The Mountain structure
• The Yeti animatronic & his stand

So unless the information that Joe Rhode and Disney Imagineering put out during the promotion of the ride was completely false, then I don't know how your thoughts make sense.
Now I would completely understand that the Yeti's structure and foundation cannot withstand the constant forces that are put upon it.

 

[Master Yoda]

One critique I have with your comments.... is that the publicly available information about the attraction is that there were three separate structures that make up the ride. All are independent of each other... except for the ground they are attached to. They are

• The roller coaster track
• The Mountain structure
• The Yeti animatronic & his stand

So unless the information that Joe Rhode and Disney Imagineering put out during the promotion of the ride was completely false, then I don't know how your thoughts make sense.
Now I would completely understand that the Yeti's structure and foundation cannot withstand the constant forces that are put upon it.

While they are indeed separate structures the support structure for the yeti can not simply not be removed and replaced like a wheel on a car. The only plus that this yields is that is isolates the problem to one structure and not the entire mountain.

 

[hokielutz]

While they are indeed separate structures the support structure for the yeti can not simply not be removed and replaced like a wheel on a car. The only plus that this yields is that is isolates the problem to one structure and not the entire mountain.

Completely agree.

I was just pointing out the fact that the mountain and track are not subject to the physical stresses/forces that the fully function Yeti causes. Unless the Yeti dislodges itself from its moorings and falls onto whatever surrounds it.

 

[Master Yoda]

Completely agree.

I was just pointing out the fact that the mountain and track are not subject to the physical stresses/forces that the fully function Yeti causes. Unless the Yeti dislodges itself from its moorings and falls onto whatever surrounds it.

Part of me wishes that they were. I'll wager that the yeti would be fixed by now if its malfunction did not allow trains to run.