Moldy Malestrom

[BandM]

When I was there at the end of November the only thing I really noticed on the Maelstrom was the lack of animation on the three headed troll. It's a Small World and Splash Mountain were in far worse shape. I usually don't go out of my way to look for problems but when practically every animatronic broken or missing like they are on Splash Mountain it's hard not to notice. I was going to take pictures but I didn't think it was worth riding a second time, and Splash Mountain (when it works) is my favorite attraction. The Maelstrom looks brand new by comparison.

What's wrong with Splash Mountain? When I was there at the start of July most AAs and effects were working (the finale looked fantastic). The only -minor- problem I saw was that some of the bee hives didn't have bees and 3 groundhog AAs were disabled. Is the ride really that prone to falling into disrepair?

[goofy donald]

What's wrong with Splash Mountain? When I was there at the start of July most AAs and effects were working (the finale looked fantastic). The only -minor- problem I saw was that some of the bee hives didn't have bees and 3 groundhog AAs were disabled. Is the ride really that prone to falling into disrepair?

the issue i find in splash, unlike any other attraction at disney, is that the AA's will be constantly breaking down and looking OK again like over a matter of days, its crazy. i don't know why this happens but it just seems to for this ride.

[Dapper Dan]

Here's a play by play of my trip through Splash Mountain on November 27th. We tried riding it the night before during extra magic hours but the ride broke down shortly before regular park closing time and didn't open again for the rest of the night.

First lift hill - No Br'er Frog.
The outside still scenes were all fine being still. All the speakers seemed to be working too. I did notice that the flume seemed more full than usual, but no big deal.
First drop and opening animatronic scene - The first stork that is by himself moved somewhat. None of the other storks worked at all. They all just stood slumped over looking dead. The two frogs were not present.
The first Bre'er fox animatronic was moving. Br'er Bear was not. Br'er Rabbit and Mr. Bluebird were not present.
Br'er Porcupine did not move, Br'er Raccoon? was not present. The rbbit on the steps was not present. The rabbit in the garden had some movement, but the mouth did not move. The animated silhouette projection was working (ironically this is the first time in several trips I remember this particular effect working properly)
The next Br'er Fox did not move. The Br'er Bear caught in the snare only bobbed up and down. The hopping Br'er Rabbit was not present.
The jumping fish and fishing Br'er frog were not present. Br'er Roadrunner was working properly. The three Opossum girls were not present. Br'er Bear's butt seemed to be working but Br'er Fox's other movements didn't seem to be online. Br'er Rabbit also did not move.
The Laughing Place - None of the bees were present. Br'er Bear and Br'er Rabbit were moving. I can't remember if Br'er Fox was.
Laughing Place part 2 - none of the water effects were working. No jumping fountains, no water under the turtles. The turtles did not move, nor did the frogs or any of the weasels, half the lights were out too. Br'er Rabbit also didn't move but Br'er Fox and the vultures did!
At this point, just before the big lift hill the ride broke down for about 5 minutes and I seriously thought we were going to have to be evacuated. Fortunately we did get to complete our ride. The bat eyes worked. I can't remember if the tied up Br'er Rabbit at the top of Chick-a-pin Hill worked. The Br'er Fox projection didn't work but I only remember that ever working right the first time I rode this ride when it was brand new.
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah Scene - I don't remember the alligator band being there. About half the birds on the steamboat were missing but the ones that were there worked. The pig organ player was there and working too. I can't remember if the frog and turkey were there either. The Br'er Fox, Br'er Bear, and alligator setup wasn't moving at all. The final Br'er Rabbit had partial movement but Mr. Bluebird didn't move at all.

This was the worst example of bad show I have ever experienced at any theme park. This ride should never have been open to the public in this condition and the person who decided this attraction was show ready should be fired for incompetence.

[BandM]

the issue i find in splash, unlike any other attraction at disney, is that the AA's will be constantly breaking down and looking OK again like over a matter of days, its crazy. i don't know why this happens but it just seems to for this ride.

snipity, snip, snip
This was the worst example of bad show I have ever experienced at any theme park. This ride should never have been open to the public in this condition and the person who decided this attraction was show ready should be fired for incompetence.

This is just odd, how can an attraction veer into disrepair so quickly? Is it the custom built AAs that are prone to breakdowns?The ones in DL seem to remain functional most of the time, is there something fundamentally flawed with the ride? Sure lazy maintenance plays a huge role in Disney ride and some rides are prone to failing quicker then others but it doesn't make any sense that it would breakdown so easily. I mean come on, the Country Bear was barely touched before the refurb in August yet it worked fine (apart from the crazy eyed bear, which oddly they didn't fix) and CoP... yeah that thing hasn't been touched in years by the look of things (and it does show it's age) however the AAs remain functional (apart from the mouths or necks occasionally needing a tune-up). Should the whole ride be overhauled not to fail so quickly?

[KingEric]

me either. It's the people who WANT to look at what's wrong versus I guess us, the people who choose not to look at what's wrong with an attraction, park, light pole, fence, bench, etc.

My home and car aren't perfect and neither are the theme parks.

Honestly I am not someone who is looking for something wrong. I frequent Universal and SeaWorld every weekend, so for me at those parks, I can spot with an eagle eye what has changed/wrong/improved

I stopped going to WDW frequently so that I could actually have the shine come back to the parks.

Well after almost 4 months away, I was disgusted by the state of the attractions.

But PLEASED with Test Track.

[Dapper Dan]

Hey look double post.

[Dapper Dan]

me either. It's the people who WANT to look at what's wrong versus I guess us, the people who choose not to look at what's wrong with an attraction, park, light pole, fence, bench, etc.

My home and car aren't perfect and neither are the theme parks.

I don't go looking for what's wrong. So when I start seeing things it's because they are obvious. I even try to give the benefit of the doubt If I see a broken or missing animatronic I think they must know about this and it will probably be back in action in a day or two. I think this probably because that is what used to happen and what is supposed to happen.

I'm not local to Orlando like Eric is so I assume he has a higher level of familiarity with these attractions than I do and he's more likely to catch things like moldy walls and missing ceiling tiles that most of us miss. I admit the only problem I saw on the Maelstrom was the three headed troll. I'm not saying that what Eric pointed out isn't important, it's just not as obvious to us tourists and I guess in this case the Rizzo effect has some merit. It should still be fixed and trying to shrug it off by saying my house and car aren't perfect either doesn't help. I don't think people are paying $90 a piece to visit your house. In any business, but especially hospitality, food service, and entertainment (A theme park is all three) the provider should be aiming for perfection. Good enough shouldn't be good enough for management. Especially not at Disney where standards used to be a whole lot higher back when the company was making a whole lot less money. There is no excuse other than greed.

This is just odd, how can an attraction veer into disrepair so quickly? Is it the custom built AAs that are prone to breakdowns?The ones in DL seem to remain functional most of the time, is there something fundamentally flawed with the ride? Sure lazy maintenance plays a huge role in Disney ride and some rides are prone to failing quicker then others but it doesn't make any sense that it would breakdown so easily. I mean come on, the Country Bear was barely touched before the refurb in August yet it worked fine (apart from the crazy eyed bear, which oddly they didn't fix) and CoP... yeah that thing hasn't been touched in years by the look of things (and it does show it's age) however the AAs remain functional (apart from the mouths or necks occasionally needing a tune-up). Should the whole ride be overhauled not to fail so quickly?

Optimist that I am (no really I am) I hope that the issues I saw on Splash Mountain were more of a big central computer error or something and not every individual animatronic being busted. As I said the ride was closed down early the night before and I think the big mistake was opening it the next day when whatever issue that caused its previous early closure was still ongoing. It's a popular ride so the Frontierland manager or whoever makes the call decided to open it in that condition and that was the big mistake.

If it was something more like every animatronic is busted and they were either slacking on the repairs or maintenance didn't have the time or budget to keep up and the early closing the night before was to try to play catch up, that's a far worse problem than the single big error because it's something that could and should have been prevented. It could be that this ride has a lot of busted animatronics because they don't get regular maintenance and instead wait for things to break down before fixing them, also known as the stupid more expensive solution.

[KingEric]

...is there something fundamentally flawed with the ride?

I think that this is a fair question to ask. The reason why I single it out, is because it seems to me that Flume Rides with lots of animatronics have massive problems industry wide.

Over at Universal Orlando, Dudley Do Right's Rip Saw Falls, every year by December (before it goes down for it's 2 month long refurbishment) looks like it hasn't been touched in years when the truth is, it just reopened with everything refreshed 10 months prior.

I just think the electronics + water + crazy paint + crazy props = diaster

I think DLR's Splash doesn't show the kind of disrepair because of the hyper focused maint team.

[BandM]

Optimist that I am (no really I am) I hope that the issues I saw on Splash Mountain were more of a big central computer error or something and not every individual animatronic being busted. As I said the ride was closed down early the night before and I think the big mistake was opening it the next day when whatever issue that caused its previous early closure was still ongoing. It's a popular ride so the Frontierland manager or whoever makes the call decided to open it in that condition and that was the big mistake.

I doubt it would have anything to do with the ride control systems, UoE supposedly has something like 14 ride control system (some of the CMs told me the thing was a nightmare to reset) and it never seems to be in need of maintenance (well ignoring the Radock screens that were tossed out in '95). I remember hearing something about a broken valve when the post with the video of all the AAs on the finale boat "turned off". Although, I think that was just the CM excuse.

If it was something more like every animatronic is busted and they were either slacking on the repairs or maintenance didn't have the time or budget to keep up and the early closing the night before was to try to play catch up, that's a far worse problem than the single big error because it's something that could and should have been prevented. It could be that this ride has a lot of busted animatronics because they don't get regular maintenance and instead wait for things to break down before fixing them, also known as the stupid more expensive solution.

At this point I have to think that the expensive but stupid solution is the only way to go, ever month someone comes here and points out how Splash Mountain has suddenly been shoved into B mode. Or the second stupid and extremely expensive solution would be to build WRE.

I think that this is a fair question to ask. The reason why I single it out, is because it seems to me that Flume Rides with lots of animatronics have massive problems industry wide.

Over at Universal Orlando, Dudley Do Right's Rip Saw Falls, every year by December (before it goes down for it's 2 month long refurbishment) looks like it hasn't been touched in years when the truth is, it just reopened with everything refreshed 10 months prior.

I just think the electronics + water + crazy paint + crazy props = diaster

I think DLR's Splash doesn't show the kind of disrepair because of the hyper focused maint team.

But that doesn't make sense, how can a ride like IASW, POTC and the Malestorm remain in order (for the most part)? Is it because Splash Mountain has a lot more "open air" areas? Do they use different chemicals for the different rides?

[ztonyg]

What's wrong with Splash Mountain? When I was there at the start of July most AAs and effects were working (the finale looked fantastic). The only -minor- problem I saw was that some of the bee hives didn't have bees and 3 groundhog AAs were disabled. Is the ride really that prone to falling into disrepair?

I experienced something similar in September.

[KingEric]

What's wrong with Splash Mountain? When I was there at the start of July most AAs and effects were working (the finale looked fantastic). The only -minor- problem I saw was that some of the bee hives didn't have bees and 3 groundhog AAs were disabled. Is the ride really that prone to falling into disrepair?

Not to sound rude, but would you actually know if they were functioning properly?

Most people I know have never actually experienced Splash Mountain in "A" mode, and most people I know never experienced Everest when it could work in "A"mode.

[DisCollector]

I can't really judge on Splash Mountain (I have never been able to unfortunately go onto the ride). However, as for the ride this all started with I have to agree on the condition on the ride. I didn't see everything that the original poster talked about since I wasn't paying that crucial attention to the queue and the ride. However, I noticed some of the things you pointed out and noticed the poor condition it was in, especially compared to other rides.

Also, whether it is an "A" ticket ride, or "E" as other people have said, it shouldn't matter. They should still maintain the ride, not ignore it simply, because it isn't the most popular ride in the park, or most exciting ride to potentially work on. If they put the time and effort into creating it in the first place, they should put the time and effort into putting a little TLC into the ride. Especially if it's in that condition. This isn't just one thing, the ride needs some attention on more than just one little thing.

[mratigan]

the rizo factor is coming at full force

[BandM]

Not to sound rude, but would you actually know if they were functioning properly?

Most people I know have never actually experienced Splash Mountain in "A" mode, and most people I know never experienced Everest when it could work in "A"mode.

Point taken. Still a ride like this should never veer between B and C mode in such a short span of time.

[JerrodDRagon]

When I went a few year ago....we laughed as we got off....its such a bad ride its funny