Really? Wow!
I'd have to disagree about overall fx upkeep though. Aside from Splash and EE (disgusting) what about Dinosaur, BTM, POTC, Space, UOE, TT, Maelstrom, TOT...
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Zip-a-dee-doo-BLAH, let's track its progress
- Thread starter tirian
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I'd have to disagree about overall fx upkeep though. Aside from Splash and EE (disgusting) what about Dinosaur, BTM, POTC, Space, UOE, TT, Maelstrom, TOT...
Thrill Seeker
Well-Known Member
ToT is extremely well upkept. It certainly doesn't look like an attraction that is nearing it's 20th birthday...
GMR, however, looks pretty bad.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
I know about what's wrong with most of those, but what effects are missing from Tower of Terror or Maelstrom? In fact, what's missing from Pirates of the Caribbean or Space Mountain too? Last i went was in like the end of March or so.
Last i went on POTC, the effects all seem to be working. Went on it numerous times during my last trip. I think ONCE maybe the Davy Jones mist machine wasn't working, as well as the mist in the Wicked Wench scene (which btw, wasn't even there in the 90's if i recall correctly). Maybe during that time, the sparkling gold effect in the treasure room scene with Jack wasn't working either. All the other times though the stuff was working fine. Are there more things that break, or has the functional state of these things just gotten worse?
Space Mountain always seems the same, so i dunno what's different. Or are you referring to Mission Space?
erasure fan1
Well-Known Member
The maintenance problem of attractions is similar to the ticket prices going up and up and up. It will never really change until it starts to effect Disneys wallet. Why poor all that money into it if people continue to come? I think I will have a heart attack if the yeti gets fixed now that AK had a gain in attendance. I can hear TDO now, "AK had an increase? So why are we going to pour millions into this when people are coming anyway? I know its bad show but obviously the guests dont care." I just hope the upkeep issues are showpieces only and not on the mechanical side as well. If you start to see a rash of safety related issues, Disneys in a world of hurt. Being unsafe is a heck of a lot harder of a reputation to overcome than just being known as having bad show.
captainkidd
Well-Known Member
I'm looking forward to riding SM in a couple of weeks, but I agree, the last few times I've been on it, it's been an embarrassment to the company. It's along with Space Mountain, the super headliner of the park, and they take no care of it at all. It's starting to make Rip Saw Falls look good, and that's really bad.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
I agree, especially about the safety potentially becoming a hazard as well. I was freaked out by Everest shutting down last time i rode it. I was in line and the huge lift hill stopped with a train near the top. People were stranded up there for well over 15-20 minutes until they had to evacuate it (i didn't see how they did it, but the train was STILL on the hill after being emptied, so i would be freaked out to be stuck up there). Later rode it anyways after it started back up again, but i'd sort of fear to be stuck up at the top.
Splash Mountain makes a horrible screeching noise on the final lift hill whenever there's a backup of the logs waiting to ascent. It happens when the logs first start up but stop again while another log is about halfway up. When the conveyer belt moves again, it makes a loud grating noise, like metal on metal squeak. I'm not sure if it's always been that way (don't recall it being there when i was little), but i don't like it.
Splash Mountain is my all time favorite Disney ride (though Pirates in Paris probably rivals it). And in ideal maintenance conditions, WDW's is my favorite version of the ride. It's a shame to see it in the state it's in.
xdan0920
Think for yourselfer
This is really a shame. For anyone that would know, Tirian, Kevin, whoever, are these things that can be fixed without Splash going down for a refurb? Because with summer here, there is no way TDO is going to shut it down. So we would be stuck with a barely functioning mountain for a good long while.
Lee
Adventurer
Oh, they surely can...they just won't. Current management has no sense of "good show" or "show ready".
I would think so, much of it anyway. Several nights of third shift work, plus pulling some AAs and fixing them at Shops should definately help. It would at least be a band-aid.
Conversely, I didn't notice any effects not working at DLP last weekend. Most everything looked fantastic, and things that didn't (like the pirate ship at AI) was covered in tarps and scaffolding for refurb.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
Sorry for being late about this. And i'm not sure how well the staff here will take to posting full-ride through videos (i'm not posting it to try to bother anyone, but point out a flaw in an attraction). You can hear some of the audio issues i was referring to here-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTMp93efMLo
The place i'm talking about happens from 6:16-6:24, you can hear the messed up voice samples. Brer Bear talks and you can hear Brer Rabbit laughing (not the yell you hear when you go over, the manic laugh, sounds almost like a fly buzzing around it sounds so bad). Even the bee buzzing sample sounds messed up. It sounds even worse in person i might add. This has been this way from when i went last year in September to earlier this year in March. Went on the ride a LOT (i live pretty darn close so i went fairly often), and every time i heard this bad audio. It's rather grating. I have no idea how long this has been this way. Prior to my going last September, i had not visited WDW in over 10 years (1997 was my last trip IIRC). But it definitely wasn't that way when i used to go.
I wasn`t going to mention GMR since it`s way past a full makeover considering it was once the parks flagship.
Towers audio is so up the creek it`s painful. Ever since they went from laserdisc to solid state there have been timing and level issues in virtually every shaft and showscene. 3rd shift tried. WDI tried. There now seems to be a walk-away-it`s-good-enough mentality.
Maelstrom - the smoke system hasn`t worked for years. I won`t mention the Tessla Coil or rain fx since these seem to have been operational decisions.
Pirates - as you said, the smoke blanket for the bombardment scene is mostly MIA. Animatronics that don`t have full motion. A 1973 audio system that is so mismatched to the 2005 version.
Space Mountain - without mentioning the makeover farce, the lifthill signs are already breaking, and bowing. You can see light leaking from the edges. Star projectors are hit and miss with their motion. Timing of the re entry tunnel audio so far as I know is still out. And on the thorny subject of audio... how can something less than a year old be worse now than in August?
Maybe I`m being picky in certain places. But effects were installed to work, not to be left broken.
janoimagine
Well-Known Member
Keep being as picky as you want, I agree with you completely, Disney made us expect the best, it is not our fault if they are no longer living up to there bar.
xdan0920
Think for yourselfer
So there is hope that they will get it back into working order. That's good.
Picky is good. You are right, these effects are part of the show, and meant to work. Without them, we are not getting the intended experience, and the intended experience is what we are paying for.
Alektronic
Well-Known Member
Maintenance Management definitely knows the difference between a "good show" and a "bad show", but do they care? Not Really. The only priority is the ride, get and keep the ride running. Operations only cares about hourly rider counts.
There are many, many problems due to bad management with a lot to do with lawyers and bean counters.
Manpower is a big problem, everytime someone retires or leaves the company, they don't replace them, there is a lot of job openings but they just keep minimum personnel. They try to replace some positions with apprentices or helpers which are lower paying jobs with little or no experience.
Every dept has a big backlog of work orders of things need to be repaired, awaiting parts, or things just being shut off just to save money. But show items are just a low priority and as long the ride is running then they are happy.
3rd Shift is when they do most of the ride inspections and then they don't have enough people and they pull people from other jobs to do ride inspections even if they aren't qualified to do them, so the show quality always suffers and they don't care about it.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
I can't recall ever seeing the ABS Cone effect working in Test Track.
WorldKey
Member
I need an updated acronym list because SWSA and WTP are not on it.....??
SeaCastle
Well-Known Member
Perhaps there will be a point, if we have not reached it already, where the WDW parks can't get any worse. Then, there will be nowhere to go but up. The more awareness that is raised about the issue, the more likely management is to do something about all of the broken effects and poor maintenance, which is deplorable by any standard.
I daresay that WDW is almost as bad as Disneyland was back in the Pressler days, and something radical will have to happen in the boardrooms of TDO to get the parks back to where they need to be.
I daresay that WDW is almost as bad as Disneyland was back in the Pressler days, and something radical will have to happen in the boardrooms of TDO to get the parks back to where they need to be.
With the exceptions that always have issues, every other attraction is operating reasonably well. Broken animatronics have been removed from the other rides; I assume it's for servicing, but who knows how long that will take? Remember the Italian gondolier in IASW?
BTW, Maelstrom had plenty of fog yesterday, as did SSE. The ABS cone on TT is sporadic. I'm not sure about UOE because I'm sick of Ellen. :lol:
I'm surprised a major news outlet hasn't picked up on this yet: Disney raises its prices, yet won't keep the staff required to maintain the attractions it has. I would expect an editor at any non-ABC source to jump all over that.
Snow White's Scary Adventures and Winnie the Pooh. I rode SWSA one last time and expected it to be run down since it's closing in a few months anyway. I was surprised to see everything well lit and working properly. (Not that it has any AAs.)
dizneeboy
Active Member
Just there TH and FR and splash was indeed in bad shape. Hardly nothing moving at all to be honest except for hopping brer rabbit which ironically wasn't working for the longest time. ITs still a fun ride with the music an drops but looked really sad.
There were a few other things that seems to be in disrepair (like the WTP queue) but otherwise, the parks looked great!
There were a few other things that seems to be in disrepair (like the WTP queue) but otherwise, the parks looked great!
Buried20KLeague
Well-Known Member
Maybe someone should reach out to Jason at the Orlando Sentinel. Someone here :lookaroun did that for the broken yeti article he did that finally got Disney to at least go on record about the thing.
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