Zip-a-dee-doo-BLAH, let's track its progress

[Spike-in-Berlin]

I didn't see it mentioned, but Splash went down at least two times for extended periods on Monday. First at around 11:30 and again around 3:00 less than a hour after it was restarted. Both times I was about a boat or two away from boarding and it shut down. Finally rode it around 11pm and the CM on FassPass seemed to imply it went down at least a third time before it finally stayed open for the evening. Did notice some AAs out, but was more keeping fingers crossed I would make it though without ride stop and evac.

A little off topic - Monday was almost disastrous, only had a one day to spend at WDW after a cruise and in addition to Splash, Space Mtn was down several times, first in the morning, then again in the evening. On top of that Peter Pan went down for the afternoon.

During our last visit on the first saturday, first day in the parks, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain and BTMR all three broke down in a matter of minutes for partially several hours. It must have been the biggest nightmare possible for the park management, all three mountains out of order nearly simultaneously.

 

[djkidkaz]

Would have to contact this person to get wdwblues.com, which has expired. It will be available on June 30 if not renewed:
Sergei Ivanov
Jarvekula tee 67A
Kohtla-Jarve
Järvamaa,30395
EE
Tel. +372.397850

I think you should build and manage the site Edward. You handle yourself well on this site and have proven you are consistent with managing things as you have done with the permits thread. I'd suggest teaming up with Orlando theme parks news or mousesteps if they'd be interested as they are the two most consistent when it comes to photo updates. And if were pushing for the site not to be negative, why call it wdwblues? I'm just thinking it should be something more positive, especially if we start to see results from our efforts. Just a thought...

 

[Buried20KLeague]

I have zero talent for this kind of thing, but it seems the best way to do it would be multiple colums. The first column being the "effect". The second column being "status". Third column being "Since". I could see the "status" column being a checkmark option of "working" or "not working". If working was checked, the whole row for the effect would turn green. If "not working" was checked, the whole row for the effect would turn red.

That would show, in an easily viewable, color coded way, a quick snapshot of what worked and what didn't.

And maybe the column for "since" has a date format to it.


Maybe it could be user edited, like wikipedia.

Just my two cents. :wave:

 

[spaceghost]

Well, this is weird. After reading these boards for years and observing the ongoing conversations regarding the yeti, etc. I had the idea a few weeks ago of starting a site just like you guys are discussing. My idea was to create a way to track and quantify maintenance issues at WDW - from broken effects to blown out lightbulbs. My idea was to create a wiki as I myself have 0 inside knowledge of the parks and do not visit anywhere frequently enough to do regular, in-person updates. A crowd-sourcing approach would allow for, potentially, a wealth of knowledge from multiple parties.

At this point, I have only gotten the main page up (somewhat) and a master listing of parks, hotels, and other attractions. My thought was to have a list of reported issues per park, etc. I want to create a page template for new entries that would allow for a description of the item in question, pictures, a running history of the condition of the item, with the current condition clearly noticeable.

I do not currently have the time or skillset to devise a site from scratch, so I am using wikia. Not sure if I can post a link to it or not, but what I have so far (which again, is not much) is at wdwisbroken.wikia.com. In retrospect, I suppose that name sounds overly negative, but if you read my blurb on the main page, it is not meant to be. Feel free to check it out...

 

[Sir_Cliff]

Last time I went on Splash was a few years ago (December 2008), but even then I remember being quite shocked at how rundown the attraction (which is my favourite) looked. I don't remember many of the effects being broken, but you could see catwalks and other infrastructure and all the AAs just looked cheesy and kind of embarrassing. Really made me wonder how I ever liked the ride so much

I've been on Splash at DL several times since and this has made the MK version look even more like an attraction at a second-rate theme park trying to be Disney but dropping the ball with visible infrastructure, poor maintenance and less advanced effects. At DL, by contrast, you'd swear they blow dry the characters and do their laundry every evening! Over there it's still an amazing attraction, at WDW... not so much!

 

[the-reason14]

Last time I went on Splash was a few years ago (December 2008), but even then I remember being quite shocked at how rundown the attraction (which is my favourite) looked. I don't remember many of the effects being broken, but you could see catwalks and other infrastructure and all the AAs just looked cheesy and kind of embarrassing. Really made me wonder how I ever liked the ride so much

I've been on Splash at DL several times since and this has made the MK version look even more like an attraction at a second-rate theme park trying to be Disney but dropping the ball with visible infrastructure, poor maintenance and less advanced effects. At DL, by contrast, you'd swear they blow dry the characters and do their laundry every evening! Over there it's still an amazing attraction, at WDW... not so much!

The one in DL is definitely better maintained, as is a lot of other DL vs WDW attractions. But I wouldn't say it makes the one in WDW looks 'six flagsey' that's just stretching it. Disney just needs to get off it's rear and begin to maintain there stuff. I understand not wanting to close Splash down during the summer, but surely they could slowly fix things each night, until it's back to 100% again in a week or two.

 

[PurpleDragon]

If I'm not mistaken I thought I remember discussing this last year when I rode it. I think during the hot month of summer the humidity caused from the evaporating water begins to wreak havoc on many of the animatronics and cause parts to swell. This in turn affects the performance of the AAs or stops them from working all together. This would of course explain why some AAs are working one day and not the next.

I wouldn't be so quick to chalk this up to poor maintenance, it could be that given the circumstances, there isn't much that can be done from a maintenance standpoint.

 

[Tom]

Well, this is weird. After reading these boards for years and observing the ongoing conversations regarding the yeti, etc. I had the idea a few weeks ago of starting a site just like you guys are discussing. My idea was to create a way to track and quantify maintenance issues at WDW - from broken effects to blown out lightbulbs. My idea was to create a wiki as I myself have 0 inside knowledge of the parks and do not visit anywhere frequently enough to do regular, in-person updates. A crowd-sourcing approach would allow for, potentially, a wealth of knowledge from multiple parties.

At this point, I have only gotten the main page up (somewhat) and a master listing of parks, hotels, and other attractions. My thought was to have a list of reported issues per park, etc. I want to create a page template for new entries that would allow for a description of the item in question, pictures, a running history of the condition of the item, with the current condition clearly noticeable.

I do not currently have the time or skillset to devise a site from scratch, so I am using wikia. Not sure if I can post a link to it or not, but what I have so far (which again, is not much) is at wdwisbroken.wikia.com. In retrospect, I suppose that name sounds overly negative, but if you read my blurb on the main page, it is not meant to be. Feel free to check it out...

Very nice. Perhaps we can all just start up a network. Sounds like RSox will have a nice place to track status, you have a wiki, and we'll have a blog.

I'm afraid to go the wiki route, because, again, you lose control (since anyone can join and edit). We don't want this to get out of hand, or spin off onto tangents about how awful management is and that WDW is terrible. Everything that gets posted needs to be moderated and filtered.

Nice to see your work though. I setup MediaWiki once, and it was a chore.

 

[spaceghost]

Very nice. Perhaps we can all just start up a network. Sounds like RSox will have a nice place to track status, you have a wiki, and we'll have a blog.

I'm afraid to go the wiki route, because, again, you lose control (since anyone can join and edit). We don't want this to get out of hand, or spin off onto tangents about how awful management is and that WDW is terrible. Everything that gets posted needs to be moderated and filtered.

Nice to see your work though. I setup MediaWiki once, and it was a chore.

Thanks! I appreciate the feedback. This would be my first non-work (i.e. internal) wiki. It has a long ways to go and I won't have much time for it until mid-July or so, at the earliest. I do agree with the non-negativity sentiment. I would hope that users would self-moderate to a degree. I'm hoping a template for reporting items that sticks to strictly factual categories would cut down on that, but that may well be wishful thinking.

 

[tirian]

I wouldn't be so quick to chalk this up to poor maintenance, it could be that given the circumstances, there isn't much that can be done from a maintenance standpoint.

Yes, there is. You maintain it. Things can be fixed, and the ride operates just fine in Tokyo, which experiences similar humidity and heat during times of the year.

You have to understand, Splash Mountain is in terrible shape. I don't think I've ever seen any Disney attraction looking this bad. There's no acceptable reason for simple moving figures not to function. We're not talking about the Witch in GMR, or auctioneer in POTC.

 

[devoy1701]

Thanks! I appreciate the feedback. This would be my first non-work (i.e. internal) wiki. It has a long ways to go and I won't have much time for it until mid-July or so, at the earliest. I do agree with the non-negativity sentiment. I would hope that users would self-moderate to a degree. I'm hoping a template for reporting items that sticks to strictly factual categories would cut down on that, but that may well be wishful thinking.

Tom, I think maybe we should/could combine efforts with Spaceghost here. I know you're not crazy about the Wiki Idea but looking over at my Initiative thread (Spaceghost I suggest and kindly ask that you check it out as well!) this seems to be a concept that a lot of people are rooting for.

All of the ideas being offered over there can very well be overwhelming for you, myself, and Daniel to operate alone, but if we compartmentalize this effort, it can infact be very managable!

I've started working on 3 articles alone for the Blog page that I should have over to you this weekend for critiquing and expanding on the ideas. I also think that if we focus solely on the blog portion of this initiative we can give our readers the opportunity to submit ideas and thoughts for developing the next article, and if they have the idea thought out enough, we can offer guest spotlight articles. And combining (or linking) the blog to the effects tracker either here or the one that Rsox is working on could also help suggest what the next Blog article should be able based on the effects that are being commented on or the # of missing effects on a particular attraction.
Btw, I'm really digging Richard's idea for a GPS App that will help with the verification of information submitted.

 

[tirian]

Still in terrible shape. :-(

This afternoon:

Nothing on Splash has been fixed.

The Cousin Orville, daughter "exercising," and Rumpus Room scenes are completely unlit in COP. Combined with the low audio quality throughout the attraction, I'll sadly acknowledge that unless it's refurbished, the COP has no reason to exist. Its script, sense of humor, and maintenance are so far out of touch with modern sensibilities that I can't think of one redeeming feature except Walt made it. So what? He also oversaw the original, boring Jungle Cruise and promptly recruited Marc Davis to fix it. Walt was a master showman, not a sentimental, doddering relic like the show has become. It needs a refurb ASAP.

I won't be going back to the MK until after the summer heat and humidity have passed, so if anyone can provide an update on Splash's maintenance, please post it. I don't expect the thread to last long on page one because it isn't about the FLE. :lol:

 

[The Duck]

Back in the 80's, my family and I were approaching POTC only to find a CM advising us that the attraction was closed. He told us that one of the pirates wasn't operating correctly so the ride was probably going to be closed for the rest of the day. Assuming that his info was correct, they were willing to dissapoint thousands of guests on a busy day due to a single pirate malfunctioning. From what we've been reading, thousands of guests are being dissapointed (or at least, confused) by several malfunctioning AA's on Splash. Here's hoping that TDO's sensibilities will be restored and soon.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Back in the 80's, my family and I were approaching POTC only to find a CM advising us that the attraction was closed. He told us that one of the pirates wasn't operating correctly so the ride was probably going to be closed for the rest of the day. Assuming that his info was correct, they were willing to dissapoint thousands of guests on a busy day due to a single pirate malfunctioning. From what we've been reading, thousands of guests are being dissapointed (or at least, confused) by several malfunctioning AA's on Splash. Here's hoping that TDO's sensibilities will be restored and soon.

A while ago Lee posted the operations manual for Pirates and it listed multiple figures that when not working properly would cause the attraction to go 101 (close). Some of the ones I remember were the Auctioneer and the Mayor in the well

 

[Magenta Panther]

This afternoon:

Nothing on Splash has been fixed.

The Cousin Orville, daughter "exercising," and Rumpus Room scenes are completely unlit in COP. Combined with the low audio quality throughout the attraction, I'll sadly acknowledge that unless it's refurbished, the COP has no reason to exist. Its script, sense of humor, and maintenance are so far out of touch with modern sensibilities that I can't think of one redeeming feature except Walt made it. So what? He also oversaw the original, boring Jungle Cruise and promptly recruited Marc Davis to fix it. Walt was a master showman, not a sentimental, doddering relic like the show has become. It needs a refurb ASAP.

I agree with all of the above.

 

[Amused to Death]

A while ago Lee posted the operations manual for Pirates and it listed multiple figures that when not working properly would cause the attraction to go 101 (close). Some of the ones I remember were the Auctioneer and the Mayor in the well

Heh. Not too long ago I was on Pirates and the entire auction scene—both sides of the room—was completely down, with the Auctioneer bent so far forward that his face was touching the floor, and no one cared to close the attraction. I notified a group of claw-holders chewing the fat outside of Pirates and they just shrugged their shoulders, smiled, and went back to gabbing amongst themselves.

 

[disneyidol]

This afternoon:
The Cousin Orville, daughter "exercising," and Rumpus Room scenes are completely unlit in COP. Combined with the low audio quality throughout the attraction, I'll sadly acknowledge that unless it's refurbished, the COP has no reason to exist. Its script, sense of humor, and maintenance are so far out of touch with modern sensibilities that I can't think of one redeeming feature except Walt made it. So what? He also oversaw the original, boring Jungle Cruise and promptly recruited Marc Davis to fix it. Walt was a master showman, not a sentimental, doddering relic like the show has become. It needs a refurb ASAP.

This.

I know that I don't post on here much, I'm more of a lurker, but I have been following this thread the last few days and feel it of note to actually open my mouth and add to the conversation.

The main reason I feel that lack significant upkeep of attractions is notable is because the downhill spiral of many of these attractions DOES take away from a guest feeling they got their money's worth on their trip. I haven't been to Disney since 2007 and have been dying to go back, but I feel like if I did I would be sorely disappointed. I was disappointed continuously on my trips over the last decade (about 4 or 5) as I've seen the lack of maintenance start to build. It may seem like nothing if it's one or two things on a few random attractions, but once you start to notice little things, even if you're not a regular guest, you start to feel cheated. That tarp at BTM is abominable and don't even get me started on COP, since this poor, though beloved attraction deserves the TLC it needs, as does GMR and many others.

Having worked in the entertainment industry for many years, I know what it is to put on a good show with very little money. And trust me, even people who've never been to your establishment before will notice when you don't pull all your resources to put together as good a show as possible. In all honestly, I would feel better if they didn't have any new or exciting attractions for a while just so they could focus on fixing some very glaring problems property wide. Especially since these "new and exciting attractions" over the last 10 years have been less than thrilling overall to me, with maybe a few exceptions.

It's ignorant business-wise to spend your money on new capital projects when you haven't spent anything on current capital maintenance. TDO needs to think timeless not timely.

 

[BigThunderMatt]

A while ago Lee posted the operations manual for Pirates and it listed multiple figures that when not working properly would cause the attraction to go 101 (close). Some of the ones I remember were the Auctioneer and the Mayor in the well

The Auctioneer yes, the mayor, no. Now it's mostly the Jack figures. And it also has to be x amount of them.

 

[SDav10495]

I know there have already been 10 pages of similar sentiments, but I'd encourage everyone here to read this piece over at Imagineering Disney Blog. I read it when they posted it a few months ago and it's stuck with me ever since, particularly the last paragraph:

http://www.imagineeringdisney.com/blog/2010/2/20/why-the-decline-in-park-maintenance.html

"Itʼs hard to care about something your superiors couldnʼt care less about. It hurt to care and after a while he couldnʼt care anymore..."

 

[tirian]

In all honestly, I would feel better if they didn't have any new or exciting attractions for a while just so they could focus on fixing some very glaring problems property wide. Especially since these "new and exciting attractions" over the last 10 years have been less than thrilling overall to me, with maybe a few exceptions.

It's ignorant business-wise to spend your money on new capital projects when you haven't spent anything on current capital maintenance. TDO needs to think timeless not timely.

Very wise words. Back in 2004-2006, this was the company's opinion, too. They were supposed to refurbish everything in the MK before adding anything else, including the FLE. IASW was first, followed by POTC, then Mansion; then it was JC/BTMRR/Space/Splash in no particular order. They got as far as Mansion and started cutting the budgets for everything else.

Business picked up and the MK couldn't handle the pre-9/11 numbers because too many restaurants and attractions had been closed since the 90s. FLE was fast-tracked and the necessary refurbs were shelved.

I'm not saying FLE doesn't warrant the expense, because the MK should have built it over a decade ago; but there's no good reason to suspend maintenance on the rest of the park while FLE is being built. They're two separate budgets; it's not as if nothing else can get fixed in the meantime.

I know the online community is quick to blame MBAs and execs with no park experience, but the current state of ride maintenance goes beyond that. I can't think of one MBA program or book that would suggest running a business's product into the ground with as little investment as possible in order to make money. It goes directly against everything MBA students are taught about product quality, brand loyalty, and demographics.

This isn't just a business move. It's stupidity.