PDA

View Full Version : Is it me? Or is this a good idea?



BrerFox
08-12-2003, 02:00 PM
O.k.......Im not on this website half as much as I want to be. And I'm not able to read every single thread. But just stop reading this thread if it seems "old" to you.
Apon viewing a post from our friends over at miceage, I read one thing that first startled me but then sliped me into deep consideration.
The rumor was that the whole 50th ann. celebrations might be diffrent than what we were ment to believe. What I mean is the opening of a brand new Space Mountian and possible a Buzz-lightyear ride to fill the gigantic void left by the line area of the rocket rods.
But the news I heard was that the park would close its doors for a.......Big ol' honk'n rehab!
Now this was the news that got me.
And I thought, "Why thats absolutly insane!! Nearly 50 years of fantastic service and only shuting its doors when it was completely nessasary!"
Then I stewed on it for a while. And thought......thats not such a terrible idea after all.(insert IASW joke here)
what I mean is, all the pictures I see now a days are soooooo depressing! There all highlights of a great parks' slow decay. If anything what this park needs is a Whole lot of TLC!
Mean with DCA doing as it is.....whoa.....not all that bright and shiney for our favorite place on earth.Imean updates for the major attractions! Ship some people working at WDW to help out in all of this!
5-7 months of well organized hard core rehab seem like a solution most of us are willing to wait for.
This will also raise the antisapation for the 50th anniversery!! People will want to know whats new!
What do yah say? Disneyland rebirth or Disney downer?

Icy Bacon
08-12-2003, 02:10 PM
I don't think they'd need to close the park to do anything major like that, they just need to be willing to spend a little but more money and start being efficient. Space Mountain could be replaced in less than 6 months with any other company if just a little bit of money was put into it, and in a week every little roughed up garbage can and rotted wood and peeling paint problem could be eliminated if someone would just buckle down and spend some money to fix things. Am I a little optimistic on some of that? Maybe, but it certainly would be possible with enough force pushing to do it.

BrerFox
08-12-2003, 02:29 PM
Geez....where have all the "gutts" went in this company?! Walt took the risks. Without risk........there is no disneyland.

Ghoulish Delight
08-12-2003, 03:10 PM
Originally posted by BrerFox
Geez....where have all the "gutts" went in this company?! Walt took the risks. Without risk........there is no disneyland. Walt took risks, but never at the expense of the customer.

I agree with IB. It really would not be necessary to shutter the park to bring it back into top shape. If they just begin an agressive refurb schedule now, they should have no trouble solving the majority of the problems.

It's all about budget. Space Mountain has been closed for months now, and not a thing has been done to it. Why? It closed earlier than initially planned, so there's no money budgeted to begin work. So instead, it sits wasting time and space. So it's not only about how much is being spent, but HOW it's being spent. Tight regimented bugetary controls are what's contributing to the decay. The park is unable to react and roll with the punches if all of the money is apportioned up front like this. It's just ridiculous.

Rallymonkey23
08-12-2003, 04:32 PM
Originally posted by Ghoulish Delight
It's all about budget.

And this is what I don't get about the Disney company. They are always saying that there is no money for this and that. Excuse me!? No money?

What the Disney company needs to do is forget about budget for the 50th. Pull out all the stops and show the public that they still have imaginations, and still know how to entertain people on a high status. Something Disney was known for.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Other parks build rollercoasters 5 times as big as Space Mountain, and they are complete within 5-6 months time. There is absolutely no excuse for SM to be closed for 2 1/2 years.

IMHO, they need to take care of it's "baby", Disneyland. There would be no Disney World, Euro Disneyland (Or whatever it's called now ;) ) , Tokyo Disney without "The Park That Started It All". TDA just needs to recognize this.

SusanP.
08-12-2003, 05:08 PM
I was just watching the movie National Lampoon's Vacation, and thinking about this. When the Griswalds get to Wally World, they find it is closed for a month (or whatever) for park-wide refurbishment. We all know how the movie goes from there, but why couldn't they do this at Disneyland? Why not close for a 2 week, super intensive "freshening up"? I would gladly take 2 weeks off from the park if it meant coming back to a cleaner, better, faster, stronger 'Land.

(During the 2 weeks, the hotels would lower their rates, DCA would up their hours/offerings... I know it would hurt the DLR, but I'm for quality, not necessarily quantity.)

It's just sad that they can't take care of this "regular" maintenance at night like they used to...:crying:

Guest_Control
08-12-2003, 10:59 PM
Originally posted by SusanP.
It's just sad that they can't take care of this "regular" maintenance at night like they used to...:crying:
I don't really blame maintenance, they do the most they can for 8 hours a day. They have too many aging attractions, and not enough staff to handle all of the problems.

Haunted Mansion, Splash, Sailing Ship Columbia and the Mark Twain are all going to be down at the same time next month for rehabs. After that the west side of the park is going to be a beautiful thing, considering that Pirates just had a great rehab, and Indy will be going through a major rehab in January.

The park can't close, it would cost them tens of millions of dollars in admissions and merchandising, not to mention the cost of rehabbing the entire park. There aren't enough constructions crews at Disneyland to rehab every section at once, which is why regular rehabs rotate throughout the park.

Of course, it wouldn't hurt some of the 51,000 DL visitors to hang out at California Adventure every once in a while.

pj4963
08-13-2003, 05:27 AM
When is the Indiana Jones Ride scheduled to be redone and for how long? My niece and I are planning a trip in March or April 2004. We live in the Midwest and I don't even want to go to Disneyland if the Indiana Jones ride isn't available and alot of the attractions are being redone. That's along ways to come if you can't do anything. I realize they shut down rides to redo them but with the cost of flying and all I would like us to get our moneys worth.
If anyone knows any information I'd really apprecaite your comments.

thank you

Ghoulish Delight
08-13-2003, 10:10 AM
The current plan is to have Indy down from early January until early February. But that's never set in stone, so it's impossible to say for sure when it will reopen. It sounds like April is probably a realtively safe bet. They usually are able to get refurbs done is less than triple the originally alotted time.

Morrigoon
08-13-2003, 02:59 PM
Depends on whether or not the Florida/Burbank suits get their way or not. There are some operational changes being considered that would delay the Indy rehab. Hopefully they won't go through (they're positively stupid changes, stupidly motivated), but you never know.

I think Indy will go down on time though. WDI-types have been crawling all over the place for like the last month.