Norway Ride & Rivers Of Light (Disappointing Progress Updates)

[TheRustyScupper]

This isn't sounding too good for my trip the last week of June

1) No way to tell.
2) Both Frozen and RoL are far, far behind schedule.
3) RoL was to open on April 22nd, and it could not even make the media preview.
4) Just shows the lack of project management by Disney. *
5) Pitiful.

* In my previous life (pre-retirement), if projects were this late, people would be told to seek employment in another Zip Code.

 

[BECHAND]

Yes so much opening in June or later. Kinda sux for may goers

 

[TheRustyScupper]

How long do the test periods normally last before the soft opening? Assuming there are not big "issues".

1) Rides can be as short as 2-3 days, if no issues or problems.
2) Eateries are usually 5-7 days.
3) This gives the CM's time to adjust to the ride or the restaurant routines.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

Yes so much opening in June or later. Kinda sux for may goers

1) Well, there was never a firm schedule for opening.
2) Disney is usually late with their projects (since laying-off so many of the Imagineers).
3) So, planning a trip solely for a new ride or new restaurant is not wise.

 

[DisneyLovingPreacher]

Disney has really dropped the ball on this one. Well I should rephrase that they have dropped the ball on a lot of things lately. They have let a lot of things affect the way they build including taking away money and imagineers from their projects. Disney is in trouble if they don't up their building game. Pandora has taken to long and so is Rivers of Light and Frozen. The cuts need to end and Disney needs to focus back in on their builds. Taking this long for things like this and Pandora (and dare I say Star Wars Land ) is killing Disney and its sad to see.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

The cuts need to end and Disney needs to focus back in on their builds.

1) As long as Ogre (I mean Iger) makes the profit, why should they care about projects and guests?
2) Frozen is so far behind, that CM's assigned to the ride LITERALLY sit the whole day playing games on their cell phones.
3) There is nothing for them to do.
. . . other attractions will not take people
. . . to do so would inflate the manpower budget of the other attractions, and managers are responsible for budgetary constraints
. . . so, the Frozen CM's just sit around doing nothing - one might say the CM's are Frozen-In-Time (OK, so a poor pun)
. . . there is zero anticipated date(s) for the ride opening, either Soft or Hard Opening *

* NOTE: When I ran major projects as an Engineering VP and built manufacturing plants as a Managing Director, we were always on-time or ahead of schedule. To be late would mean a $35,000 PER MINUTE penalty from auto companies (Ford, GM, Chrysler) if we stopped an assembly line. That is a huge incentive for on-time performance.

 

[soniam]

* NOTE: When I ran major projects as an Engineering VP and built manufacturing plants as a Managing Director, we were always on-time or ahead of schedule. To be late would mean a $35,000 PER MINUTE penalty from auto companies (Ford, GM, Chrysler) if we stopped an assembly line. That is a huge incentive for on-time performance.

I used to work in automotive too, designing processors for control and infotainment. I remember a couple of times when the lines went down. You never saw people hop so quickly in your life. The mantras were "never bring down a line" and "you don't want to kill a family of four". There was actually a real sense of quality in what people did and the understanding that peoples' lives could be at stake.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

The mantras were "never bring down a line"

1) Later in my career, I was the Managing Director of a truck assembly plant (18-Wheeler "Big Rigs").
2) Except for a quality or safety issue, you never stopped the line.
. . . for quality of safety, anyone on the line could halt the line without penalty.
. . . when they did, lights-sirens-bells went off everywhere
. . . and, people came running from all over to get things righted *

* A truck can sell for about $140,000 to $180,000, so a 15-minute assembly line halt could cost two trucks. Sort of wrecks the day's profit structure.

 

[derekleigh]

We have purposely delayed our next trip to WDW to 2018 with the hope the new construction projects (Soarin', River of Lights, etc) can all be up and running by the time we get there. However it looks like River of Lights may not actually plan out!

 

[rteetz]

We have purposely delayed our next trip to WDW to 2018 with the hope the new construction projects (Soarin', River of Lights, etc) can all be up and running by the time we get there. However it looks like River of Lights may not actually plan out!

Rivers of light should be running by this fall. In 2018 you'll even have Pandora.

 

[Josh Hendy]

We have purposely delayed our next trip to WDW to 2018 with the hope the new construction projects (Soarin', River of Lights, etc) can all be up and running by the time we get there. However it looks like River of Lights may not actually plan out!

This gives me a thought ... besides the #thanks shanghai theory, is it it possible that Disney is also jacking up prices in order to keep revenues high despite (potentially) flat or stagnating attendance as people inevitably postpone vacations in anticipation of RoL, Soarin, Frozen, Toy Story land, Pandora and Star Wars?

 

[rteetz]

This gives me a thought ... besides the #thanks shanghai theory, is it it possible that Disney is also jacking up prices in order to keep revenues high despite (potentially) flat or stagnating attendance as people inevitably postpone vacations in anticipation of RoL, Soarin, Frozen, Toy Story land, Pandora and Star Wars?

You know you bring up a good point. I've heard mumblings that attendance at Epcot and DHS is not as good as it has been. You could even say overall attendance projections may have been too high as this summer they have a good amount of discounts that they don't usually have.

 

[Dreamin192]

I was on the phone with a CM the other day and she was looking at my dining and recreation plans and told me it looked like I would be interested in the new Frozen ride. I told her I was under the impression we would miss it since we are leaving June 4. She told me she was under the impression we would be there during it's "soft opening" time. So, take that for what you will as I know CMs don't always know what they're talking about.

 

[manning]

Rivers of light should be running by this fall. In 2018 you'll even have Pandora.

In the fall of what year?

 

[manning]

You know you bring up a good point. I've heard mumblings that attendance at Epcot and DHS is not as good as it has been. You could even say overall attendance projections may have been too high as this summer they have a good amount of discounts that they don't usually have.

Hmmm, kind of wonder if prices could be a factor.

 

[rteetz]

In the fall of what year?

This year...

 

[carmelhp]

...Careful, not only does Disney not like publicizing bad management or planning, apparently others don't like it when you point out the obvious either. Bad planning certainly wouldn't have anything to do with a certain COO resigning after nearly every single project under his purview experiences "technical difficulties" and has to delay or even after a much bigger project just resulted in massive embarrassment and lost revenue for the company. Those kind of things are just supposed to be accepted because if it doesn't make the stock price drop 40% then it must be irrelevant.

Thalt shalt not criticize any Disney management decision or project or implementation in any way unless thy wish to experience a high-pitched and hysterical defense of said management, and denunciations that thy do not see ye bigger picture.

 

[carmelhp]

Hmmm, kind of wonder if prices could be a factor.

Exactly, you can't keep charging more for less and expect no one to ever notice.

 

[derekleigh]

Rivers of light should be running by this fall. In 2018 you'll even have Pandora.

I knew I was missing a major addition!

 

[hookedonears]

1) The boats did make the suspect curve.
2) But, the boats were empty, thus riding "high", and avoiding the angle of the boat hull sides.
3) The next trial is to load them with people and see if they still make the bend.
4) Still no date for soft or hard opening . . . much like Rivers of Light, several technical issues need to be resolved.

Not saying there's a conspiracy theory, but could it be possible for ROL that there is NO technical issue, that a preview was given to the Brass and the whole show just fell flat and they've had to go back redo major parts to bring it up to expectations? Airlines, any time they don't sell enough tickets for a flight, they many times cancel it and claim mechanical.