I don't know how it is at Disney, but at the typical corp that would just make it all the more difficult to spend the money. MK's VP needs to show improved profits every quarter, and his boss needs to show the same, and so on up. If they spend the money needed to catch up on maintenance (esp. if they hire more people...employees are a long-term, ongoing expense), then there's gonna be some splainin' to do.
It would take someone with some real cojones and excellent political skills to sell that up the food chain. Most middle managers would look at the risk/reward for that and decide it's not worth it.
We're talking about the same company that publicly announced DCA was a failure and is pouring over a billion dollars into it. Plenty of people at corporate know the parks division has suffered; the MK's FLE was basically forced onto TDO, as were the Star Tours and general maintenance updates. No one would be surprised if the MK "suddenly" needed more maintenance. For example, MS has been getting it for years.
I'm frankly amazed that certain people have been able to keep their jobs despite being overruled to bring quality back to the American and Parisian parks. I guess that's politics.
From a business perspective—and this is where I'm personally qualified to speak—the stale mantra of "increase profits no matter what!" needs to bow out to the old model of "decent profits combined with quality." Until the late 90s, things were run the "old" way and operated better than they do now. The mandate to constantly increase has given us ridiculously cheap travel packages, ridiculously inflated hotel and food rack rates, and ridiculously poor maintenance for being one of the most-visited tourist destinations on earth.
It's entertainment. It's not a Wall Street investment firm, it's not a core business, it's not solely a retail company. It's ultimately expendable, and only constant investments will keep it fresh and exciting.
Compared to the DL Resort makeover and TLC operations, TDO (and DLP) look like textbook examples of how NOT to operate an entertainment complex: from a textbook.
EDIT: To get back to Splash Mt: Everything could be conceivably fixed over the course of a month during third shift. The attraction wouldn't even need significant down time.
ANOTHER EDIT: Don't think I'm all doom-and-gloom. TDO does have some excellent managers and execs who
do care, who
do get it, who
do maintain. There's still plenty of good stuff in Florida. The problem is that with the exception of the Yeti on EE, Splash Mountain is the first headliner attraction to be in truly horrible condition, yet be allowed to operate anyway.
