The Weekly Walt Disney World Maintenance Report (1/23/19): Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Pandora Added, Pirates Fixed

Tom Corless

Updated on:

The Weekly Walt Disney World Maintenance Report (1/23/19): Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Pandora Added, Pirates Fixed

Tom Corless

Updated on:

The Weekly Walt Disney World Maintenance Report (1/23/19): Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Pandora Added, Pirates Fixed

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 introduces “sections” to the report: Needs Repair and Repaired. The first section will tell you what is broken at Walt Disney World, but the new “Repaired” section will tell you what actually got fixed over the last few days.

Needs Repair

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)

The Jungle Cruise

  • Only one of three native drummers was actually drumming (1/1/19)
  • 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)

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)

Splash Mountain

  • The Brer Frog projection in the queue was frozen (1/14/19)
  • The Brer Frog audio-animatronic at the beginning of the attraction has a broken neck. The motion is pretty odd looking.(1/14/19)
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • 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)
  • The “FSU” possum who comes out of the ceiling is not functioning (1/14/19)
  • The projection of Brer Fox at the top of the lift hill is out of sync with its audio (1/14/19)
  • 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)

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)
  • 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)

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 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)

Casey Jr. Splash ‘N’ Soak Station

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

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

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

“it’s a small world”

  • The “tick-tock” noises of the clock tower is off and has been for some time now (12/31/18)
  • The balloon poodle in France was immobile (12/31/18)
  • One light has a strobe effect on one of the can-can girls (12/31/18)
  • The magic carpet carousel was immobile in the Asia room (12/31/18)
  • The bicycles on wires in the finale scene are missing (12/31/18)
  • The Native American at the ride’s finale is not drumming (12/31/18)

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)

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 3rd pre-show.safety monitor on the Omega side was off (1/19/19)
  • 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)
  • 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)

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, Donald and Jose both had arms moving in unnatural ways (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)

Spaceship Earth

  • The television in the moon landing scene is not on (1/20/19)

Journey Into Imagination with Figment

  • 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 Seas with Nemo and Friends

  • 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)
  • 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)

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)

IMG 9091

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)

Disney Springs

Jock Lindsey’s Hangar Bar

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

Repaired

The Magic Kingdom

Pirates of the Caribbean

  • The waterfall mist screen effect that shows Davy Jones, Blackbeard was turned back on.
  • The “screaming pirate” sound where boats take the plunge has returned.

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.

23 thoughts on “The Weekly Walt Disney World Maintenance Report (1/23/19): Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Pandora Added, Pirates Fixed”

  1. For the items that are fixed you should track when it was first reported and how long it took to resolve. The bottom line here is to get these fixed and a little trending data would be useful for focusing attention.

  2. Thank you for keeping us posted on any repairs that are made on the list! Hopefully the powers that be at Disney will make every effort to get this list completed!

  3. I really like this recurring article! It highlights areas of maintenance that the park should focus on – especially given the ticket prices. :)

    I’m curious: How do see the format of this feature in the future (say 6-12 months from now)? Will you still organize it by attraction (which seems right)? If so, what about long-standing items? Will you organize them by date reported to highlight the aging of the incident? (That certainly will keep the poor Yeti at the top of the list!) Maybe a Hall of Shame?

    It’s OK if you don’t know the answer. I realize this is an evolving feature. :)

  4. In October when my father and I went we noticed on Dinosaur that the running carnotaurus did not move. Just figured I’d mention it since it seems to have been immobile for months now.

  5. One thing that could be improved in it’s a small world is to make the high ceiling as dark as possible, more like the ceiling in the Mexico pavilion in Epcot, especially the ceiling throughout Gran Fiesta Tour. The ceiling in iasw currently is not very dark and too much can be seen up there, lights and wires, etc.

  6. Where in Splash Mountain can I find the “FSU” possum? I love hearing about new things I haven’t seen in the parks.

  7. We recently visited Disney and I noticed how out of sync the wheel of progress was in Tomorrowland. In general it was just looking old and tired. I noticed as well in Epcot Spaceship Earth was very dated and appallingly dirty/dusty.

    • When we were there the week before THanksgiving…the 1940s scene didn’t work. The scene where werewolf JImmy is carving the pumpkin. You just heard the audio. Wonder if they fixed. We were surprised the finally hooked water up to the pump in the turn of the century!

  8. This pretty significant. With all the crowds, it makes fixing things harder, but with all the crowds they have poodles of money to pay people to come in and fix things, so no excuse really

  9. I rode splash mountain on 1/23 and I actually think I spotted brer bears tail on the rope trap scene but I could be wrong. Unfortunately I did not take any photos.

  10. The Yeti on Expedition Everest is too heavy and violent for the steel superstructure and damages the entire mountain, that is why it was turned off, it would take a complete rebuild of the structure of the mountain in order to turn that back on.

  11. I can’t believe the PeopleMover has not been listed as of yet. I travel to WDW 2-4 times a year and it seems that every time I go there seems to be more and more of the ride vehicles that are out of service. As recently as mid January I was there and witnessed multiple ride vehicles that had orange cones sitting inside of them. Perhaps if these were fixed it would help drop the wait times down at the PeopleMover during peak crowds.

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