Yeti news

[Zippity Boo Yah]

If they built it surely they can fully repair it.I expect it to take longer then any of us expect.Just bring yeti back to its glorious former self.:brick:

 

[IWant2GoNow]

Right on!

A standard guest has NO CLUE that there are different modes for the ride.

The problem is the design for the attraction. The few (or less) seconds that the Yeti actually is in view, there is no time to actually experience what is being offered anyways. They should have NEVER let the highlight of the ride be in view less time than it takes to sneeze.

The Mummy is an emersive experience where the AAs actually serve a purpose. Here, the Yeti isn't even wallpaper. The projection shadow has more viewing time than the beast.

Lee's assessment that the absolute lack of attraction offerings is more a problem than a 2 second event at the park.

Save the $$$ -- USE IT TO ADD VALUE TO THE PARK!!!

The fact that the park has skirted by for so long being held together by its size rather than its content will continue to be the main problem.

If the park literally took the attractions and populated them as densly as MK, the park would have to start closing at 3pm.

Am I the only one who really doesn't care much about the Yeti? I rode Everest when he was in A mode, and sure it was better than now, but it's like 2 seconds. Is it THAT big of a deal.

I keep hearing the arguement of "you're only able to see it for 2 seconds, if you see it at all".

My rebutal is this. If the Yeti were in fact REAL (which is what the Imagineers intended it to look like), I believe the "2 seconds" would seem much more exaggerated in a real-life situation.

Let's say you're driving in a convertible doing about 60mph when a vulture swoops down just about your head and then you both go about your day. Most of us would probably tell our family and friends about this. Although the actual happening lasted but mere seconds, the story may be told over a few minutes because of how crazy and thrilling the individual recalled it. This is what I feel the Imagineers had in mind when designing it. As close to an insane encounter with a mythical beast as you can get without seeing the strings that hold it together. Gives you an interesting story to tell others so that they "must go" to DAK to ride it. But it's downplayed a lot because everyone knows the Yeti is not real.

I'd like to think that there is an expansion coming for DAK ASAP, but if they let it fall to pieces the way they have E:E and Dinosaur I'd rather it not be built and spare the complaints later when the maintainence is unkept and the attractions become shadows of their former selves.

Generally I'm not this negative about things like this, but THIS really bothers me.

 

[captainkidd]

It is to me. The climax, the payoff of the ride is the Yeti. The story behind the ride, so carefully articulated in the queue, is never satisfyingly resolved. All we get is a too-obvious animation of a yeti tearing up some train track and maybe some strobe lights, and that's it. It's pitiful. I'm especially mad because I've never seen the yeti in full A mode - except on a hype piece on the Travel Channel, and that was just the yeti being tested - he hadn't been put in the mountain yet.

This failure is a massive indictment of the people running the parks. Combine broken Yeti with broken Dragon, PLUS the brilliance of Universal's Potter ride...and Florida, we've got a problem...

I rode it in "A mode" about 20 times, and honestly, was never overly impressed. I'm impressed with the ride and the mountain.

Then again, I wasn't all that impressed with the Harry Potter attraction either. I thought the castle and que area was amazing, but the ride was just OK.

 

[Tom]

I rode it in "A mode" about 20 times, and honestly, was never overly impressed. I'm impressed with the ride and the mountain.

Then again, I wasn't all that impressed with the Harry Potter attraction either. I thought the castle and que area was amazing, but the ride was just OK.

Supposedly, I rode EE twice while it was still in A mode. The first time I didn't even catch a glimpse. The second time I saw him but had no idea he was making any impressive movements.

Since then, I think I've ridden twice - both in B or "Dead" mode. I personally didn't notice a lot of difference.

But I'll never get too worked up over this because I probably won't ride EE anymore. It really wreaks havoc on my motion sickness, and it's just not worth the misery to me. I'll continue to vote for spending money on making AK a > 1/2-day park first.

 

[snowpony]

That's very upsetting news about the Yeti....I was hoping it would be somewhat fixed by the time I went in December.

I'd even settle for an ex-NBA player dressing up as the Yeti! :shrug:

 

[freediverdude]

This is the headliner animatronic for an E ticket ride. There is absolutely no excuse for it not working or being replaced with one that does work.

Animal Kingdom survived for 8 years before Expedition Everest was even opened. It would survive for a 6 month closure of the ride.

 

[pumpkin7]

ah, i wondered why it was so dark. although, it still scared the crap out of me.

 

[Slowjack]

I keep hearing the arguement of "you're only able to see it for 2 seconds, if you see it at all".

My rebutal is this. If the Yeti were in fact REAL (which is what the Imagineers intended it to look like), I believe the "2 seconds" would seem much more exaggerated in a real-life situation.

On the one hand, I would agree that seeing the Yeti for just a brief flash makes for a more realistic encounter. On the other hand, that's not a good justification for the design of a theme park attraction.

I have a friend that whenever were applying some sort of MMORPG is always making jokes about how tired are characters would be if the game were realistic -- "No way you could climb this hill carrying all this gear -- your lungs would be bursting by now!" Of course that's true, but any game that realistically depicted fatigue wouldn't be any fun.

So while I can understand the story decision to make the Yeti zip by in a flash, it still the case that they made an attraction leading up to an encounter that barely registers on most guests, and the ride is poorer for it.

 

[cheezbat]

I've ridden it both ways numerous times, and every time i ride it now I come off having enjoyed the coaster, but feeling cheated. That encounter with the Yeti is what REALLY makes the whole experience worthwhile. Get it fixed Team Disney Olando!

What they need to do is hurry up and build another E-ticket to counter closing Everest. They wouldn't have to worry too much about numbers dropping if everyone was sold on the new attraction.

 

[the-reason14]

I've ridden it both ways numerous times, and every time i ride it now I come off having enjoyed the coaster, but feeling cheated. That encounter with the Yeti is what REALLY makes the whole experience worthwhile. Get it fixed Team Disney Olando!

What they need to do is hurry up and build another E-ticket to counter closing Everest. They wouldn't have to worry too much about numbers dropping if everyone was sold on the new attraction.

I think this is the biggest issue and would be the best solution. MK can handle Splash mt. being down because of the ridiculous amount of other E tickets. Same thing with Space, Thunder, Pirates, and HM. AK doesn't have this luxury, but if it did it would be much easier.

 

[IWant2GoNow]

On the one hand, I would agree that seeing the Yeti for just a brief flash makes for a more realistic encounter. On the other hand, that's not a good justification for the design of a theme park attraction.

I have a friend that whenever were applying some sort of MMORPG is always making jokes about how tired are characters would be if the game were realistic -- "No way you could climb this hill carrying all this gear -- your lungs would be bursting by now!" Of course that's true, but any game that realistically depicted fatigue wouldn't be any fun.

So while I can understand the story decision to make the Yeti zip by in a flash, it still the case that they made an attraction leading up to an encounter that barely registers on most guests, and the ride is poorer for it.

In my eyes that's why they give you the 3 "encounters" along the way. The site of destruction with the track ripped apart, the silouhetted visual, and then the "real" deal.

But I understand where you're coming from. But the ride itself is already built. Whether the structure for building the ride around such an encounter is good or bad, they built it and now it is not what it was when it opened.

 

[JimboJones123]

On the one hand, I would agree that seeing the Yeti for just a brief flash makes for a more realistic encounter. On the other hand, that's not a good justification for the design of a theme park attraction.

I have a friend that whenever were applying some sort of MMORPG is always making jokes about how tired are characters would be if the game were realistic -- "No way you could climb this hill carrying all this gear -- your lungs would be bursting by now!" Of course that's true, but any game that realistically depicted fatigue wouldn't be any fun.

So while I can understand the story decision to make the Yeti zip by in a flash, it still the case that they made an attraction leading up to an encounter that barely registers on most guests, and the ride is poorer for it.

And by just seeing it for a split flash, why bother if it's working, or heck, even a monitor?

 

[raven]

QFT. Anyone seriously think Harry Potter at Universal had nothing to do with the giant Fantasyland overhaul?

I completly agree with that. I mean, Disney probably had the idea for the expansion ages ago, but the attendence at the Harry Potter park is probably what caused the "let's expand right now" mindset.

Not that this has anything to do with the Yeti subject, but no. FLE was developed and planned many years ago. And the HP addition to IOA has disapointed many friend of mine saying that Universal made a HUGE deal over it but in reality it's a very small area complete with cramped shops.

 

[Maerj]

Everyone who goes to AK needs to complain to Guest Services. If there are enough complaints maybe something will be done about it.

Just tell them that not having the Yeti makes you mad! Baby throwing, bus driver attacking mad!!







:lookaroun

 

[Tom]

Everyone who goes to AK needs to complain to Guest Services. If there are enough complaints maybe something will be done about it.

Just tell them that not having the Yeti makes you mad! Baby throwing, bus driver attacking mad!!

Instead of that, I'm going to go to AK Guest Services and tell them I want a new land with one E-Ticket attraction, a D-Ticket attraction and at least one more QS dining location

 

[KaneMarko]

We talked about this back on Episode 35 of my show. This was spawned by the Jason Garcia article in the Sentinel.

You can listen to my show here. It starts out with an interview with Jason Garcia, and then we discuss some of our own conclusions.

In my opinion, the cost to fix the Yeti is not the issue, it's the predicted drop in attendance. I figured that the drop in attendance at the park could easily cost them $50 million. Disney only has themselves to blame for this because as Lee said, they've underbuilt the park to a point where they can't afford to take Everest offline for 6 months.

I offered my solutions:

1. Put DINOSAUR down for a refurbishment to upgrade that into a major E-Ticket.
2. Add show elements to Discovery River, and re-open the Discovery River Boats
3. Break Ground on whatever they're putting in Camp Minnie Mickey.

They could do 1 of those 3 things, and have the opening coincide with the refurbishment of Expedition Everest.

Then, to acually sell the public on the Everest refurbishment - add more to the ride. Improve show scenes (if possible have the Yeti projection room involve some sort of shaking or teetering of the track for example). Make it more than just "fixing the Yeti".

In theory, you could refurb Dinosaur and prep the Discovery River Boats for re-opening at the same time. Once that's done, you close Everest, the attendance doesn't take as big of a hit, and when it Everest re-opens the park as a whole is substantially better.

Only thing I can say to that is....BRILLIANT! Great ideas.

 

[KaneMarko]

Personally I think the yeti not functioning is a HUGE deal despite only seeing it for a relative couple seconds. The whole marketing for the ride was an encounter with the mythical guardian of the moutain. It was supposed to be the most impressive AA disney ever engineered from what I can tell. Now, basically we have a really expensive statue at the end of the ride.

As has been mentioned in this thread and others, TDO kinda painted themselves in a corner with this one. AK doesn't really have a lot of E-Ticket options to absorb a lengthy repair to EE like MK does if it had to take down one of the Mountains. Or how DHS could if it had to take down either ToT or RnR. Etc. Having said that, as has also been mentioned, AK survived years prior to EE opening. So perhaps, in theory, the hit in attendance wouldn't be as bad as many think if they had to take EE offline for a period of time.

I have heard that Ak has plenty of room to expand should TDO decide to add to the park. Perhaps is time they do that.

 

[RSoxNo1]

I looked at the potential drop in attendance that would result from a 6 month closure of Expedition Everest. I estimated (with no actual knowledge of Disney's books) that it could easily set them back $50 million.

The problem is that's $50 million that the park isn't earning, not $50 million that the park spent. So, if they invested $50 million to prevent the attendance drop while Everest was down, the park would be that much better once it reopens, and potentially see a gain in attendance once Everest re-opens.

 

[docandsix]

This makes me absolutely furious.

There are much, much more important things in life, yes. But the Disney that brings (or brought) me so much joy and inspired my professional dreams and my hobbies in such a profound way seems to be dying of self-neglect, of an utter lack of its own origins, of what made it great in the first place. It's not Expedition Everest, per se, though I really do enjoy the ride immensely when it's working as it should. It's the symbolism made visible in this pathetic acknowledgement that the principles that Walt Disney instilled in his own company are being flushed in the name of the dollar.

It's not a perfect comparison, I know, but remember how Apple rushed out to apologize and to correct the problem immediately when the flaw in the iPhone 4.0 was discovered? They really put their tail between their legs and reached out to their customers to make it right. Disney does nothing of the kind these days. To me, this pattern says, "We know your expectations. We know why you came to love our theme parks so much. We just don't care anymore. Give us more money."

 

[Mickey is King]

QFT. Anyone seriously think Harry Potter at Universal had nothing to do with the giant Fantasyland overhaul?

I don't.. Disney plans of years before they put in an attraction, never mind expanding an entire section of a park.

That being said , I think it brought the FL expansion to the front burner though. But I bet it would have happened anyway.