The importance of long ride refurbishments at Disney Parks

http://micechat.com/forums/disneyland-resort/156124-ride-closures.html

Recently on MiceChat, a member voiced his displeasure of rides going down for refurbs for 2-6 months and prefers 1-2 day refurbs. He stated that he bought an annual pass for the Disneyland Resort and says that there should be some "perks" if a ride will be down for months.

Me and other members have tried to tell him the importance of rides going down. But as it turns out, he is against any upgrades/updates to rides and will accept refurbs for 1-2 days for maintence purposes. He cleary does not understand that refurbishments of any ride at any theme park are scheduled based on the needs of the attraction, any planned additions to the ride, etc. The factors are numerous and doing this for 1-2 days is never enough.

Look at the Indiana Jones Adventure, the resort has been doing small, 2-4 day refurbs of the ride. But in the state that its in, its not enough and will need multiple months to fix everything. Fortunatley, they are aware and i've heard that a long refurb will happen soon.

There has been the mentality that if a ride will be unavailable, the trip is ruined. I never and probably will understand this. I've been at the parks when Pirates was down from Jan-Jun back in 2006, and I didn't complain about it. The person who started the thread is obviously bitching about the Matterhorn in particluar, which will be down now until September in order to prepar the attraction for new bobsleds which will either come in this refurb or the next long one scheduled for next year.

Now heres where he gets ticked off. After the Columbia incident was brought in (which was a result of faulty maintence at the time), he stated that it could've been resolved with a 2 day refurb. Then a prominent member, Mr. Wiggins responded with: "An appallingly dismissive statement that trivializes both the Columbia tragedy and the multiple, longterm causes that led to it."

And naturally, he took it like a personal attack which was not. Then he makes this statement:

 "Wow, after reading some of these hateful sounding posts it's no wonder I don't join in meetings at the park, all you guys do is try to incite flame wars about trivial stuff. Bottom Line, customers' opinions matter and there would be no Disneyland if no one came {maintained or not}. The hundreds of people I talk to each week while standing in lines is that they share the same opinion as I do, it only seems members here have a differing opinion. I can analyse that one , but answering may be disturbing to those reading it here..so I will leave it alone. All the over analysing of the refurbs times is rediculous, I was mainly concerned about the 6 month downtime of the Matterhorn and overlap {which is minor}."

Well here is something you should know. We never did incite a flame war in that thread. And we've known that Disney does take guest opinions. Why do you think the menus of some eating places are improved? And we were not over analyzing the refurb times and its not pathetic of us to explain them. We were just telling you how these refurbs are planned and you were clearly not seeing that.

Overall, this thread has proven that some people are too resistant to change that they don't want multi month refurbs because of the money the spent on an Annual Pass. Sorry dude, you lost with this thread.

And you have an annual pass, you can go back anytime you want so why are you bitching about the Matterhorn being down for a while. Just enjoy your visits without the Matterhorn till they're done. Simple as that.

So while a ride being down for refurb during a visit sucks, at least we know they take care of their rides. Now if only Walt Disney World can take care of their attractions as much as the Disneyland Resort does.

Transformers Dark of the Moon Review

I don't usually do movie reviews, but I decided to do one since I just saw it.

Warning: There will be spoilers.

So this Transformers film has about the longest intro ever (meaning before even the title appears on screen. ), but it does a good job of setting up the film. I like how they tie in actual events in human history by saying that the flight to the moon was a disguised operation to investigate a Cybertronian ship.

Then it moves on to shifting between Sam and the Autobots which didn't seemed too fast at all as it helped bring Sam into the main story while showing the side story of his new relationship with his new girlfriend. And as usual, the interaction between him and his mother was extremely hilarious. We then get introduced to Sentinel Prime (I discovered that he was voiced by Leonard Nimoy aka Spock) who appears at first part of the Autobots.

In the middle of the movie, they bring him back to NEST HQ in DC (and the chase scene was filmed near my dads work in Wilmington, CA!) were we see the most WTF moment I seen where Sentinel Prime betrays the Autobots and kills Ironhide (WHY!?) and leads to the exile of the Autobots (I felt sad) and "supposed death when the ship is blown up.

Then it shifts to Chicago were the Decepticons take over the city and blackout the city. Then we see that the Autobots never left and are determined to defend their new home. It then leads to intense battles where the Decepticons are massacared from the combined human-autobot forces. In the final battle between the 2 primes, an unexpected help came to Optimus in form of a pissed off Megatron who severely wounds Sentinel. Optimus thanks him by finally killing Megatron (Must be the Cybertronian way of saying thank you) then finally dispatches Sentinel stating that he betrayed himself and not the Autobots.

Overall, the movie is a well done final film of the trilogy (Michael Bay reportedly said that hes done with Transformers) with plenty of story build up and action on par with the 2nd film.

Pros:

Special Effects probably the best out of all 3
Story does a good job of tying in actual human history
Plenty of Comedy (Sams mom is pure comedy since film 1)

Cons:

Ironhide died (WHY?!)
No Megan Fox (some reason, it doesn't feel right without her), but I can live with the new woman.
Ending kind of fast

Overall I give this film 4 1/2 stars and I recommend viewing it this summer.

4th of July update

Sorry for the lack of good updates. I've been busy the past couple of weeks but I was able to bring out a quick update in the last post and I promised myself that I would work on one this week.

So this update focuses primarily on the new Paradise Gardens Eating complex that just opened up in Paradise Pier. This replaces Pizza Ow Mow Mow and Burger Invasion.

Quick update on the Carthay Circle Theater:

More green covers are going up.

The new Paradise Gardens Restaurant Complex is great!

 

I went to Boardwalk Pizza and Pasta for an afternoon lunch. The detail they put on the inside has surpassed Plaza Inn and the food makes Pizza Port look like a school cafeteria.

Trays are located at the bottom of each section. This is different than the other places like set up like this as you would typically get your tray at the front.

This is the Chicken Pasta with sun-dried tomato sauce. And I have to say, this beats the Chicken Fusili at Pizza Port. A bit of warning though, the sauce is a little bit spicy. After I ate it, I went to the Lemon Cheescake and to me, the best Cheesecake I ate. Disney did a good job on making sure the food was excellent as many people are giving great reviews of the place. Next time i'll do the Paradise Garden Grill which serves Mediterranean Skewers.

Finally, I give you the 4th of July pre-show in World of Color. This preshow takes place approx 5 minutes before World of Color and includes low-level fireworks like in New Years Eve. This is a very well done 4th of July preshow and I would recommend it. Like DL's 4th of July Fireworks, it will be shown from July 1-4 and will be played before every WoC show during that time.

Thats all for this weekend, have a great 4th of July!



Quick Knotts and Disneyland Resort Update

First off, I apologize for the lack of updates. Been busy with plenty of stuff the past few weeks. While I didn't take construction pics, I did note observations from Knotts and Disneyland.

Knotts Berry Farm:

Windseeker is nearing completion as the mechanics are being rolled in and the queue is being built. Expect test runs to start soon. Below is a video of a Windseeker in operation at another Cedar Fair Theme Park.

http://youtu.be/Y-KV6I2YSZY

The summer show at Charles M Shultz Theater called Happiness is...., is a very good ice show that I recommend. Brought back memories of watching Snoopy when I was a kid.

Disneyland Resort:

The Indiana Jones Adventure got a new Single Rider pass design. Its 3x bigger than the standard design and its lamenated to prevent pocketing which has been a problem with groups using it to ride faster (after the film room, they would continue up the stairs and keep the passes in their pockets when they should be showing to the cm to use the elevator). Not a lot was made so the smaller passes are being used still.

Goofys Sky School is conducting Soft Openings and largley this is a cosmetic and thematic redo from Muholland Madness. Despite some flaws (namely the steel still exposed and no additional audio), this is a better overlay from Muholland and prevents another "park" from being added in its place. Foamers and haters of GSS should suck up and tolerate it for a couple of years because its sticking around for a while until something new can be brought in (please another dark ride!).

Like other new attractions, breakdowns can be expected in the first few months, but TLM got the worse of it yesterday as it was only open for 1-2 hours before breaking down and not reopening for the rest of the day.

Matterhorn will be going down for a 2 month refurb starting July 11th and ending in September. This will prep the attraction for the new bobsleds.

Carthay Circle Theater is gearing up as more tarps and steel supports go up. Expect the structure to be covered in tarp soon.

The new entrance for DCA is nearing completion and looks to be headed to an early opening in July.

Now for some random pics to wrap up this write-up update:

See You next time!

World of Color Part 2

Throughout early 2010, many have speculated how World of Color was going to be. Various videos throughout the months captured the show being put together after park hours.

In order to accomodate the sessions, the park would close as early as 6-8pm on weekdays. The sessions were held 6 days a week with Saturday being the day off. Each session lasted till about 7am in the morning.

Then in April, a video was posted of them running the show in an earlier form that was presented to Bob Iger and Tom Staggs.



There are plenty of differences shown in that video:

1. The Little Mermaid was different
2. Aladdin was vastly different and was tagged with Hercules
3. The Firebird was not present and they were using the Chernabog Tower, a metal structure that was cut by Steve Davison who deemed it not good enough.
4. So Close was sang by 2 female singers
5. Finale had flamethrowers activated in a different part. Chesire Cat was not present.

By Memorial Day Weekend, the show was finished with new things added:

1. Friend Like Me from Aladdin replaced Hercules
2. Little Mermaid changed
3. Firebird returns with Chernabog being modified to show without tower
4. So Close is changed to the soundtrack version.
5. Finale added Chesire Cat and Flamethrowers were moved to the final part before show fades to black.

Previews would soon begin the weekend before June 11th. On June 4th, the show was runned for WDI and their families while June 5th was for the other people that worked on it. On June 6th and 7th, Cast Member Previews were conducted, primarily to test out the crowd strategies. (I was lucky enough to attend one of these preview dates!) On June 8th, a party was held by 2 local radio stations and attended by the winners. On June 10th, the show had its big premiere!



The premiere was attended by celebrites and some Disney Legends (like the Sherman Bros the creators of the Wonderful World of Color theme song).

On June 11th, hundreds of people lined up outside as early as 2am to be one of the first to obtain Fastpasses (the main show ticket) to see World of Color! Opening night was a huge success and has become a major success to the park which was struggling without a nighttime spectacular.

World of Color: 1 Year of Color! Part 1

A Year of Color

In 2007, the Walt Disney Company announced that Steve Davison would bring to Disney California Adventure, a brand new nighttime spectacular called World of Color. This nighttime spectacular is not like any show that they have done. Disney is well known for showing fireworks, parades and stage shows. But this time, this would be a full-on water fountain show similar to the Bellagio. It would also incoporate several special effects like flamethrowers and lasers and projections similar to Fantasmic!.

In late 2007, preliminary testing began in order to see how to present the show on Paradise Bay:

Then in 2008, the real work would begin as the bay was drained to begin building the massive show platform. The platform, as big as a football field was designed to fit into the bay and the extra things were installed. It ranged from the 2 light towers on the sides of the bay and the lighthouse/pagdoa equipment boxes, each equipped with a searchlight, lasers and projectors.

                                                              

The biggest crane in LA, accoriding to Steve Davison was brought out to help install the platform. It was a huge effort from installing the show equipment to making the new viewing area: Paradise Park which replaced the Golden State Ampitheater after it was concluded that the ampitheater would not be able to hold the massive crowds that would sure come to see this show.

The fountains in the platform are way different than their Fantasmic! counterparts. Every fountain has a LED light ring on it so that each fountain had its own color. Some where different like the Grid fountains which don't move but can shoot up to 150 feet with the geysers not moving too but go up to 200 feet. Moving fountains were also made from the single water whips to the multi-head fountains. Flamethrowers were also brought in, both moving and non-moving. Lasers would be brought in and would be brought to life by a group that is said to be the best laser team on the planet. Mist screens that was pioneered by Disney with Fantasmic!, was brought in and is roughly 4 times as big as Fantasmic!s screens. There are 4 mist screens on the platform with one in the front and the big 3 in the back.

By the end of 2009, the platform was done and water was brought back into the bay. Disney had the water when it was drained, sent to the city for storage and brought back when ready to use again, a green effort.

It was also at this time, that Steve Davison began doing presentations at the first D23 expo about World of Color.



Then in 2010 from January to May, testing began to put the show itself together. And as soon as that began, a series of show testing videos surfaced showing what World of Color is capable of.

Under the Soundsational Sea!

I went to DLR yesterday to see the new parade and the new Tangaroa Terrace in DLH.

Carthay Circle Theater is coming along nicely

I headed straight to the Little Mermaid which conducted Soft Openings to all guests. Photography and video is now permitted since its a public preview.

 This is the view that people will get in the shaded part of the line.

 Within the queue

 Detail of the building upclose

 That gate will be for the 3rd shift crews when the park is closed as it leads to an acess road backstage.



The seashells in the queue is an interesting selection for the floor.

 The Mural is a beautiful work of art!

Heres a full ride through of the new attraction!

I love this attraction! Everything from the Part of your World to the finale is worthy of being in the attraction. Some things might not be right, but its a perfect family attraction!

I wanted to ride again to take pics, but the ride went down and didn't reopen. I'll take of that when it official opens.

I headed over to Small World to see Soundsational and I really love this parade!

                                                           



I went to Frontierland and discovered that the new location is about ready

 This is the new frozen lemonade ODV location. Looks great!

 Went to Tangaroa Terrace for dinner. I got lost finding the place.

 For here, you order from machines just like how you did when Taste Pilots in DCA had them. You then take the slip to the cashier. Thats where you also buy your drinks (bottled or otherwise). You pay and get your number to put on your table, a CM will bring the food to your table. A DLH counter part to GCHs Whitewater (A MiceChat favorite during meets)

 Nod to the Tiki Room

 Had the Hawaiian Burger and was absolutley good! I ate everything!

The mens restroom

 Captain I wish to report a mutiny. I can name fingers and point names.

 Mutineers, HANG!!!!

 AGAIN!!!!!!

 Did everyone see that? Because I will not be doing that again!

Tangled in this part fits better than Tarzan IMO.

 Trader Sams at night. Very nice!

        The Big Thunder Model in the Froniter Tower. Love this model!

 Ok, I just had to go down to the bathroom. Looks nice.

I like the wallpaper. Shows all the attraction posters of the past.

 These are meeting board rooms. Restrooms are down the stairs.

 The vending machines

 Waterslide looks great at night

 I'll leave you all with some World of Color pics

Thanks for dropping by!