Haunted Mansion Refurb 6/6 to 9/12

[mikey13v]

They probably put off the rehab until they were completely ready to outfit the attraction with the Holiday overlay (like DL). The length and the timing of the closure would allow for the initial instalation of the Holiday ellements, and repair/refurbish the regular ride features.
The re-opening would be the right time for "Walt Disney Worlds Magic Kingdom Haunted Holiday Mansion" to premier.
Of course, it could just be that they decided to close one of the most popular and iconic attractions durring the busiest time of the year, durring a highly publicized celebration. We have seen them do more surprising things in the past.

 

[2angelsinheaven]

At a presentation put on by the author of the book The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies it was said that HM would not get the Holiday overlay as is done in Disneyland and the reason being was that WDW has so many first time guests this is not needed to keep interest in the attraction, whereas at DL it is done to bring in the locals. Of course maybe the $$ was available and it will happen but this presentation was only a few months ago.
I of course would be thrilled to see it happen but I'm not getting my hopes up.

 

[Another Voice]

The box office failure of the 3D Nightmare Before Chirstmas ended the last chance for it was WDW. Not only does WDW have more first time visitors, it also has more International visitors were NBC is little known. Besides, if WDW is so cheap as to cancel the 'Country Bear Holiday' show, there's no way they will spring for millions of new NBC sets. There is a real question now whether it will even be back to Disneyland this year.

 

[mikey13v]

The box office failure of the 3D Nightmare Before Chirstmas ended the last chance for it was WDW. Not only does WDW have more first time visitors, it also has more International visitors were NBC is little known. Besides, if WDW is so cheap as to cancel the 'Country Bear Holiday' show, there's no way they will spring for millions of new NBC sets. There is a real question now whether it will even be back to Disneyland this year.

I was just trying to convince myself that it could happen. The nice thing about the holiday overlay is that you can enjoy something new, and still keep the original. Like DL's it's a small world holiday, and WDW's country bear holiday show. I hope they didn't use the same the same logic for the country bears, I would almost hope that it was that they were just being cheap on that one, because it did really make it more enjoyable durring the holiday season when it was showing.

 

[manning]

Disney's recent motto..........pay more, get less!!!

 

[Ariel Mae]

As long as they don't change the ride significantly, I think we're all going to be fine.

A change to "HM" is a sign of the apocolypse!

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

In large part, summer rehabs are a way for Disney to balance out the maintenance costs. You can have a smaller staff year round with a constant work flow rather than a larger staff working only during the slow times.

The other issue is that Disney thinks the Magic Kingdom is far too large right now. In corporate logic, you get a "full day" when you see nine rides or shows. Since the Magic Kingdom offers a lot more than that, Disney is "wasting money" by keeping so many rides open. You're not supposed to care about closed rides becuase you have more than enough to do already.

NO! NO! NO! That is so wrong of them! All I see when a major attraction is closed is longer lines on the rest of the attractions. It should be closed in the slower months NOT at peak season. At least when the Alien Encounter was closed, they opened TimeKeeper. Besides, they MORE than make up for the money on their outrageously priced water.

 

[Another Voice]

It's all because of the single price ticket. You pay the same amount of money whether you ride twenty rides or one.

But's cheaper for Disney to run a few rides at high capacity (and with a long line), than it is to run many rides at half capacity. And since you pay the same to get into the Magic Kingdom (lots of rides) as you do the Studio (fewer rides) - it's cheaper for Disney to close lots of rides in the MK.

After all, they can point to "guests surveys" that say people are happy with 9 shows and attractions.

 

[ASilmser]

How about this for a theory. . . They just want to do the much needed rehab/referb so that the signature attraction for Halloween is not a bust. Imagine all the little kiddies (and adults) coming to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's not so scary Halloween Party and not being able to ride the doom buggies because they have broken down for the 8th time that week?

We can argue all we want about the fact that they should have done this earlier, but MNSSHP is a big boost for attendance during the otherwise slow fall season. It makes sense to me that they should shut it down now and get it ready for halloween and Christmas.

By the way, the only time I will be visiting this year is in August, so I will not be able to ride either. I'm just saying that it makes sense to be able to re-open in the fall for halloween rather than wait until September and have it down through December for business in January and February--very slow months indeed.

We would all be complaining about the stupidity of THAT decision too, don't you think? (How dumb of them to close the HM during halloween, of all times! Whose lame-brained idea was that?)

The other option is to keep it open through the end of the year and watch deteriorate even further. Again, another cause for a thread to be started (Why are those cheapskates not fixing the ride? Just another example of the management at WDW cutting corners again).

All in all, I think this is just another case of d***ed if you do, d***ed if you don't.

Perhaps they shouldn't have let it get to this point, but at least they are fixing the problem--at least lets hope they are. (we could add THAT to one of this year's million dreams )

 

[YoHo]

Haunted mansion has been broken down and busted for the last 2 Halloweens, so clearly they have no problems giving the guests a crappy show.

Having said that, they clearly scheduled the rehab to make sure it was open for Halloween.

 

[C50T]

I love this attraction! Loved it as a kid. Loved it with my kids. I'm can't wait to see how it looks after the refirb.
Uh, Mickey, if you're reading this:
1. spruce up the paintings in the opening, please - Hey, maybe even add some more up to date scenes.
2. Thank you for fixing the sound! Badly needed when the sound in my beat up mini-van is better.
3. Tighten the effects - a lot of the servos have seen bettter days. Let's make sure the cobwebs are all set decor, and not simply signs of age.
4. if you want to make some money - put a photo op in the gift shop of the mirror/ghost shot.

 

[2angelsinheaven]

, please - Hey, maybe even add some more up to date scenes.

They could be retouched but Please Please Please don't change them (I assume your talking about the streching portraits), these are a classic.

4. if you want to make some money - put a photo op in the gift shop of the mirror/ghost shot.

There is a newer photo op in Tomorrowland with the HK Ghost. In Mickey's Star Traders there is a photo op where your body is cut out, they use just your face kind of thing, I think this has been there for awhile but one of the new backgrounds in the Mansion with the ghosts, you can be one of the ghosts, it looks pretty cool!

 

[JPN4265]

So from what I am reading here is, no one can agree on a good time to shut down the HM and referb. it?

 

[raidermatt]

So from what I am reading here is, no one can agree on a good time to shut down the HM and referb. it?

Didn't realize that was being debated. It should have been refurbed by early '06. Given that didn't happen, and its now March, they should close it NOW, and have it back up by early summer.

 

[mwehttam]

The other issue is that Disney thinks the Magic Kingdom is far too large right now. In corporate logic, you get a "full day" when you see nine rides or shows. Since the Magic Kingdom offers a lot more than that, Disney is "wasting money" by keeping so many rides open. You're not supposed to care about closed rides becuase you have more than enough to do already.

I disagree. By having more then one days worth of rides open, it forces people to come back to the park a second and even third time during the course of their vacation. This puts more money into Disney's pocket due to more meals being bought, more souvenirs being bought. From a business point, it makes more sense to have more rides then can be done in one day. Hence one of many problems with DCA.

-Matthew

 

[EUROPACL]

I disagree. By having more then one days worth of rides open, it forces people to come back to the park a second and even third time during the course of their vacation. This puts more money into Disney's pocket due to more meals being bought, more souvenirs being bought. From a business point, it makes more sense to have more rides then can be done in one day. Hence one of many problems with DCA.

-Matthew

...but AK has proven that even by adding a whole new park people are not extending their stays at WDW. People aren't going to just add 2 more days to their vacation because MK has all of its attractions open.

 

[ncsastudent]

Really? that surprises me. I figured people would be adding on extra days to see the Animal Kingdom. Though you can do everything there in a day easy.