The Weekly Walt Disney World Maintenance Report (1/30/18): Splash Mountain Success, But The List Grows

Tom Corless

Updated on:

The Weekly Walt Disney World Maintenance Report (1/30/18): Splash Mountain Success, But The List Grows

Tom Corless

Updated on:

The Weekly Walt Disney World Maintenance Report (1/30/18): Splash Mountain Success, But The List Grows

Welcome to the Weekly Walt Disney World Maintenance Report. In this weekly report, the goal is to create a comprehensive list of broken effects, damaged props, and more at the Walt Disney World Resort in the hopes they will be repaired.

This week, we had our first major success, but the “Needs Repair” list is growing…

Needs Repair

The Magic Kingdom

Adventureland

  • The boats are not moving on the Zanzibar Trading Company sign. (1/29/19)

Pirates of the Caribbean

  • The waterfall mist screen effect that shows Davy Jones, Blackbeard was turned back on, but is not aligned properly. (1/29/19)
  • The crab and seagull audio-animatronics in the beach scene were not moving. (1/29/19)
  • The “screaming pirate” sound where boats take the plunge has been turned off once again. (1/29/19)
  • The pot that is supposed to break when shot in the well scene is just always broken. (1/29/19)
  • The man with the hairy leg was not moving at all and his parrot is missing. (1/29/19)

The Jungle Cruise

  • A blown speaker in the center of the queue crackles loudly. (1/29/19)
  • One mechanical butterfly on a log is not moving. (1/29/19)
  • The second African elephant’s ears do not wiggle. (1/29/19)
  • Most of the lions on the African Veldt are not moving. (1/29/19)
  • The hippo scene is particularly bad. Almost none are wiggling their ears and many were not moving. Some hippos had holes in them, destroying the illusion of them being living hippos. (1/1/19)
  • The dancing natives are not moving. (1/30/19)
  • Only one of three native drummers was actually drumming. (1/1/19)
  • Trader Sam’s arm holding the shrunken head has fallen down, his neck is severely damaged. (1/29/19)
  • The chalk board at the ride’s exit is severely damaged from the Jingle Cruise overlay. (1/29/19)

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Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

  • The falling rock projector in the cave-in sequence is completely off. (1/14/19)
  • One possum does not spin, while the donkeys and goat in the Tumbleweed scene are not moving as intended. (1/19/19)
  • The man in the bathtub in the Tumbleweed scene has been missing for some time now. (1/29/19)

Splash Mountain

  • Even though it was broken for most of last year, Mr. Bluebird in the finale scene is broken AGAIN. He’s completely immobile. (1/14/19)

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The Haunted Mansion

  • The right stretching room’s “elderly woman with rose” stretching portrait is not working correctly and the wall above it is completely ripped apart. (1/29/19)
  • The lighting in the graveyard scene is abysmal. You can’t see much of what you are supposed to, and there is a misaimed light at the Opera Singers that is simply illuminating the scrim that guests are not supposed to see. (1/19/19)
  • The Hitchhiking Ghost screen effects continue to be misaligned and look totally unconvincing. They looked perfectly fine when installed. (1/19/19)

Fantasyland

  • The Sword in the Stone remains covered with a brown tarp. (1/29/19)

Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid

  • The first Sebastian audio-animatronic figure did not having the moving eyes accomplished by screen technology. (12/30/18)
  • The last Sebastian audio-animatronic figure did not have the moving eyes accomplished by screen technology. (1/29/19)
  • The Ursula animatronic still has some tentacles that do no move. At least 4 did when the attraction opened, it always seems to be half of that. (12/30/18)

Dumbo the Flying Elephant

  • The spinning Timothy on the marquee is not moving fluidly, it kind of looks like he is having a back spasm. (1/29/19)

Casey Jr. Splash ‘N’ Soak Station

  • Still needs to be cleaned and repainted in many places. (1/14/19)
  • Many of the moving components no longer move. (1/14/19)

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

  • There is a lot of visible filth in the Heffalumps and Woozles scene. Anything yellow looks disgusting for the most part. (1/14/19)
  • The speaker which plays audio from Tigger and Piglet going over the waterfall is blown out. (1/14/19)

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“it’s a small world”

  • Marquee letters are cracked, extremely visible when illuminated at night. (1/29/19)
  • The “tick-tock” noises of the clock tower is off and has been for some time now. (12/31/18)
  • Many lights throughout the load room are missing or burnt out. (1/26/19)
  • The Irish children are barely dancing anymore, the movement used to be way more profound. (1/29/19)
  • The magic carpet carousel was immobile in the Asia room. (12/31/18)
  • Two of the three child musicians on the elephant are missing in the Africa scene. (1/26/19)
  • In the Polynesia scene, there is a mis-aimed light that is projecting the giant shadow of a butterfly on the wall. (1/26/19)
  • Many lights are missing or burnt out on the roller coaster in the finale scene. (1/26/19)
  • The bicycles on wires in the finale scene are missing. (12/31/18)
  • The first screen on the right in the interactive finale was covered. (1/26/19)

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Tomorrowland

  • The paint is already peeling off of the recently repainted rocks at the entrance to the land. The old red/orange coloring is showing through. (1/14/19)
  • The Robo-Newz newspaper robot and the fake payphone interactive elements are completely off. (1/14/19)
  • The UFO on top of the Disney Vacation Club kiosk has been missing the cockpit dome since before Hurricane Irma in 2017. (9/12/17)

Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin

  • The light-up panel in the center of the queue area is still missing. Even if it isn’t going to return, something has to be done with this strange, plain blue podium that guests have to stare at. (1/14/19)
  • The spinning red light tunnel effect isn’t working and hasn’t in a very long time. (1/14/19)
  • The speed tunnel projection looks horrendous. The film is clearly extremely dirty and is jumping all over the place. I think the time has come for this to go digital or at least be repaired. (1/14/19)
  • The final Buzz Lightyear figure has a projected face that isn’t aligned correctly. (1/14/19)

Space Mountain

  • The spinning space station projection inside of the mountain hasn’t spun in years (1/19/19)
  • The inside of the mountain is way brighter than it used to be, there is a lot of light spill coming from some that shouldn’t be on near the unload area of the ride. (1/19/19)
  • The siren-like sound effects that are supposed to play as the rockets make one of their last turns is off on the Omega side. (1/19/19)

Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress

  • The television in the “present day” scene is stuck on the GAME OVER screen. Nothing plays and there is no audio from the television. (1/26/19)
  • Sarah’s left foot has ripped out of its shoe in the “present day” scene. (1/26/19)
  • The John figure in the “present day” scene is in horrendous condition, guests (other than us) audibly laugh at it. (1/26/19)

Epcot

Test Track presented by Chevrolet

  • “Laser Trees” that appear while the car passes them does not function for every car. (12/31/18)
  • Dashboards of cars and inside of show scenes are covered in dust and filth, extremely noticeable in blacklight environments. (12/31/18)

Gran Fiesta Tour starring the Three Caballeros

  • Speakers are low or some are off in the opening scene with Jose and Panchito, character are nearly inaudible. (12/31/18)
  • One of the elderly men in the Fiesta scene was not stomping his foot. (12/31/18)
  • The fiberoptic fireworks in the cart are completely busted in the Fiesta scene. (12/31/18)
  • The Three Caballeros audio-animatronic figures are not in great shape, this week Panchito and Donald’s mouths didn’t open. (12/31/18)
  • There is a loud, crackling speaker in the scene with the Three Caballeros animatronics. (1/17/19)

Frozen Ever After

  • Olaf’s mouth during his first appearance isn’t working correctly. It appears as if he says every other word. (12/31/18)
  • Elsa’s left arm did not move at all in the ice palace scene. (1/27/19)
  • Marshmallow’s mouth did not move when he spoke. (1/27/19)

O Canada

  • The facade of the theater is in rough shape, lights are severely rusted and the mountain itself is in need of a cleaning/repainting. (1/27/19)

Spaceship Earth

  • The radio broadcaster’s mouth does not move. (1/27/19)
  • The television in the moon landing scene is not on. (1/20/19)
  • A large section of the 180 degree scene at the top is not covered with the star projections. (1/27/19)

Journey Into Imagination with Figment

  • The “Smell Lab” projector in the first scene is completely unaligned with the screen (1/27/19)
  • The Figment on the phone audio-animatronic looks horrendous. He also doesn’t pop back up when he is supposed to. (1/27/19)
  • In the “Smell Lab” scene, the word “winner” lights up before Figment has even finished spinning the slot machine. (1/27/19)
  • The second Figment audio-animatronic character looks even worse. His hip appears broken and he is looking down most of the time. (1/27/19)
  • The upside down TV is Figment’s house has dimmed to the point where you can’t see what’s on it (1/22/19)

The Land

  • The hot air balloons in the center of the atrium haven’t moved in nearly 20 years. They used to move up and down. The motors burnt out and no one ever bothered to replace them. (1/28/19)

Soarin’ Around the World

  • The Soarin’ letters in the entrance marquee aren’t properly lit, the “i” and the “n” aren’t lit the same as the other letters. (1/27/19)
  • Many of the ceiling lights above the FastPass/Standby merge area are burnt out. (1/27/19)
  • The screen in theater A is filthy. (1/27/19)

The Seas with Nemo and Friends

  • The Angler fish is once again not moving. (1/27/19)
  • There is some sort of very dark gunk spilling down the last two windows of the ride where projected characters appear. (1/16/19)

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

  • The eyeball in the 5th Dimension scene is once again broken, displaying the default image of an elevator filled with guests. Guest photographs are not being taken to make this effect work. (1/15/19)
  • On the “echo” side, the doors that are supposed to open to the outside are not working, leaving riders staring at a wall at one point in the ride. (1/23/19)

Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith

  • Headlights on the right side of the upside down limousine at the G-Force Records area entrance are burnt out. (1/28/19)

Toy Story Land

  • Woody’s Lunch Box is in horrible shape: chairs have large black stains, tables have tears in their covering, every prop shows some signs of damage, decals ripped in places.(1/15/19)

Slinky Dog Dash

  • Tails on roller coaster trains are still missing. (1/15/19)
  • Temporary covers hide damage on coils attached to train cars. (1/15/19)

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Expedition Everest

  • The yeti audio-animatronic doesn’t move. (probably a decade ago)
  • The bird doesn’t pop-up at the ripped-track scene. (who knows)

DINOSAUR

  • The smoke in the first time travel scene was off, causing the laser effect to no function correctly. (1/1/19)
  • The running Carnotaurus audio-animatronic is missing, replaced with an immobile dinosaur head. (1/1/19)
  • The asteroid smoke trail effect before the drop past the Carnotaur head has not worked in several weeks. A trail of smoke would lead guests to believe that an asteroid has whooshed by them. (1/1/19)

Primeval Whirl

  • The “Pr” in Primeval Whirl are burnt out on one of the main attraction marquees (1/20/19)
  • Running dinosaurs on the Dino-Rama promenade were not moving, Their legs typically move back and forth. Not one was on. (1/1/19)
  • The black and white spinning circles at the beginning of the ride on the right track are not functioning. (1/20/19)

Pandora: The World of Avatar

  • The “water squirting creatures” area is a mess. One of the three is missing, the others are turning from blue to white as the paint slowly disintegrates, and the water effect doesn’t work (1/20/19)

AVATAR Flight of Passage

  • Guests have carved names and more into the sides of the cave in the queue. It’s all over most of the walls at this point. (1/24/19)

Disney Springs

Jock Lindsey’s Hangar Bar

  • The “ice ball” no longer comes out from the machine that makes them (1/22/19)

 

Repaired

On the repaired side, we of course had a major success at Splash Mountain, seeing Brer Bear’s tail returned and most of the broken effects throughout the attraction fixed. There’s a few other minor victories to report as well, but the tide isn’t turning in our favor just yet.

The Magic Kingdom

Pirates of the Caribbean

  • The mayor’s wife was not popping out of the window in the well scene (1/19/19, Reported Fixed 1/21/19)

Splash Mountain

  • The Brer Frog projection in the queue was frozen (1/14/19, Reported Fixed 1/26/19)
  • The Brer Frog audio-animatronic at the beginning of the attraction has a broken neck. The motion is pretty odd looking. (1/14/19, Reported Fixed 1/26/19)
  • The singing frogs in the fishing scene have cracks and damage to their eyes. One of the fishing birds also has a damaged eye. (1/14/19, Reported Fixed 1/26/19)
  • Brer Bear’s tail has been missing for at least 15 years in the scene where he’s hanging from a rope trap. I’ve been staring at this for so long, waiting for someone to notice it that it inspired the creation of this entire weekly report. You can see the tail in most videos of the ride recorded in the 1990’s. (1/14/19, Reported Fixed 1/26/19)
  • One of the turtles in the Laughing Place is covered in black stains, including over his eyes. The other turtle wasn’t moving.(1/14/19, Reported Fixed 1/26/19)
  • The “FSU” possum who comes out of the ceiling is not functioning. (1/14/19, Reported Fixed 1/26/19)
  • The projection of Brer Fox at the top of the lift hill is out of sync with its audio. (1/14/19)

The Haunted Mansion

  • The “conjured spirits” in the Madame Leota scene are not working. The green light doesn’t move as it once did. (1/19/19, Reported Fixed 1/26/19)

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

  • Projection of leaves blowing in The Blustery Day scene is off (1/14/19, Reported Fixed. (1/29/19))
  • The smoke canon in the Heffalumps and Woozles scene hasn’t worked in quite a bit. (1/14/19, Reported Fixed 1/29/19)

“it’s a small world”

  • The balloon poodle in France was immobile. (12/31/18, Reported Fixed 1/26/19)
  • One light has a strobe effect on one of the can-can girls. (12/31/18, Reported Fixed 1/26/19)
  • The Native American at the ride’s finale is not drumming. (12/31/18, Reported Fixed 1/26/19)

Space Mountain

  • The 3rd pre-show.safety monitor on the Omega side was off. (1/19/19, Reported Fixed 1/29/19)
  • The Omega side opening tunnel (where your photo is taken) scene light is broken. At the end of the tunnel, there is a section that is constantly white, completely ruining the desired effect. (1/19/19, Reported Fixed 1/29/19)

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

  • The lights on the door that opens to the drop shaft have seen better days. The effect did not work as intended. (1/15/19, Reported Fixed 1/25/19)

How To Do Your Part

To report broken effects, damaged props, or anything else out of the ordinary, please submit photographic or video evidence of the malfunction or disrepair to tom@wdwnt.com or through WDWNT’s social media avenues (Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram) with the hashtag #WDWNTfix. You can also submit proof that anything listed above has been repaired. The entire purpose of this weekly post is to get Walt Disney World looking how it is supposed to look, so we are hoping to see this list shrink rather than grow over time.

26 thoughts on “The Weekly Walt Disney World Maintenance Report (1/30/18): Splash Mountain Success, But The List Grows”

  1. I agree with these posts!

    With as much profit as Disney is now making, and as much as I and others are paying, there is no longer an excuse for regular maintenance.

    Thoughts on the List:

    100% AGREE about the Carousel of Progress! It’s a friggin’ shame what they’ve let happen to one of Walt’s major achievements. I watch CoP everytime I visit the Magic Kingdom and it never gets old for me. I just HATE how they treat it like an afterthought. If places like Pirates and Mansion can get brand new Audio-Animatronics, then this one surely should! They better do a top to bottom refresh of CoP before 2021 because if it still looks like crap for Disney World’s 50th anniversary, then shame on them all.

  2. There is so much I love about this. Accurate, detailed, and not done in a mean-spirited way. I hope the folks at WDW appreciate this assistance as much as we guests do. Keep up the good work!

    • I agree. Thank you Tom. Walt’s dream deserves better care. And Disney fans deserve better quality (especially at the price of tickets).

    • Yes thank u for keeping us visitors up to date. I agree with others. As much money we spend to visit our happy place its becoming a disgrase.

  3. I really appreciate this feature. We go to Disneyland regularly and went to WDW for the first time a couple of years ago. The number of issues with rides and the amount of unattended to maintenance was pretty startling. My wife and I both commented on who the number of issues that really took a chunk out of the Disney magic.

  4. I’d love to know if this list is really having an impact or if it’s just shouting into the wind. Were those “successes” really successes of generating a list on a website or were they actual repairs that were on a schedule somewhere? How are we measuring success here?

    • The tail was gone for 15 years, so I can’t imagine there wasn’t a correlation there. This isn’t about getting credit, we just want to see things fixed and hope this list creates more awareness.

  5. Can we please get one of these put together for Disneyland and DCA? I try to go every other week and I am always finding issues that would need to be improved or fixed. I understand Project Stardust is underway, but there is a lot of attention needed to the attractions that are being significantly overlooked

  6. For some reason I really miss the hot air balloons at the Land moving up and down. I remember them moving when I was a kid and part of me always hopes they’ll get ’em moving again. If it’s really just some burnt out motors that no one has decided to replace and/or upgrade with new then that’s just damn sad.

  7. Thank you for putting this together along with others that report issues. For far too long, WDW has neglected their parks. Haven just been to Tokyo Disneyland this June, you can really see how much TLC goes a long way. Here’s hoping as the 50th near, management begins to see this.

  8. I really enjoyed this article. However, I believe Disney doesn’t get around to fixing most of these things because they’re not noticeable to most guests.

  9. Just rode Jungle Cruise yesterday and they have incorporated the two non drumming natives into a joke. Something about it being like a class project where one person does all the work. Points for creativity, I guess?

  10. People carving their names in the walls at Disney makes me so angry. Some people have no respect for other people or their surroundings. Disney needs to do their part for sure, but people vandalizing the park is just a disgrace. They are not helping any of us either.

  11. In the last scene of Carousel of Progress, the TV was working again (when I was there on 1/26). I clearly remember it working since I stared at it for the longest time while my toddler was bouncing on my lap.

    Another item I noticed yesterday, 1/31, is that the robopaper guy in Tomorrowland is missing. He was there on 1/26 but by 1/31 he’s completely missing. Guess they are fixing him up.

    Another item I’d like to add is the dust collection in the static show scenes on the People mover. It always bothered me for ages, and thought I should submit it as an issue.

    Looks like this list is getting the traction it needs from higher ups!

  12. When I was there last November some of the ceiling scenes in Small World were not working. The computer effects where your picture is supposed to be part of the Spaceship Earth future animation was not working. In the Winnie the Pooh ride, the dream sequence where Pooh floats into the dream was not working. Speaking of the Pooh ride and Peter Pan too, it feels like they have really sped up the ride. They both feel rushed. I wonder if that can be confirmed?

  13. We were in Pandora on 2/1 and I found a pond with a sign that warned about water spouting creatures but saw no “water squirting creatures”. I’m 99% sure I was in the right place. I was also surprised to see the bear tail in MK after reading this page about how it was missing…I give you the credit Tom!

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