Castle Refurbishment January Thru Spring

Malcon10t said:
First, I don't feel Disney is perfect in every way. Only Mary Poppins is.... But I see too many here who complain "It's down when *I* want to go." It has to go down sometime. I'm sorry it is on your visit. But if it isn't your trip, it is someone else's trip.

I am not familiar with Fantasmic! at WDW. Does it have people playing on it's stage and backstage areas every day for 10 hours? Do they use the Mark Twain and Columbia daily in addition to being in the show? Or do they have the ability to do work to the show during the day?

Disneyland's Fantasmic! has been running 18 mos since it's last refurb.
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Wdw fantasmic has actors. But it has its own stage and viewing area that is used for nothing else. Same with the boats they use.
 
Malcon10t said:
First, I don't feel Disney is perfect in every way. Only Mary Poppins is.... But I see too many here who complain "It's down when *I* want to go." It has to go down sometime. I'm sorry it is on your visit. But if it isn't your trip, it is someone else's trip.

I am not familiar with Fantasmic! at WDW. Does it have people playing on it's stage and backstage areas every day for 10 hours? Do they use the Mark Twain and Columbia daily in addition to being in the show? Or do they have the ability to do work to the show during the day?

Disneyland's Fantasmic! has been running 18 mos since it's last refurb.
Click to expand...


I can understand people who complain where there are still SOME options. Has there ever been a time in the last 5 years say that WOC, Fantasmic!, and any other nighttime parade was all down at the same time?

Usually there was always something up whether it be PTN, WOC, F! or even a decent Fireworks show. Now all people visiting will have is a projection/laser show (onto a scrimmed castle mind you LOL) So i mean this case like i said is warranted in my opinion.

BTW...do you think by some miracle WOC could be up when F! goes down? or at least by Presidents day?
 
I've had past visits where the castle was under cover and it was unfortunate for looks, traffic, flow and ambience. However, I was much more disappointed during off-season visits to have Pirates, Railroad, etc. closed instead. The castle is iconic, but some rides have a lot more nostalgia and enjoyment for what I normally associate with a DLR trip.
 
I haven't read everything, but honestly, I used to go in January-March all the time and those same things are typically down this time of year. It doesn't matter that SW:GE is opening. They do the refurbs this time of year because it's the least crowded and shortest length of day in terms of being open. In summer, these rides and attractions get a lot of wear and tear, which just gets progressively worse after the winter holiday peak. When would you like them to fix everything? June, when everyone is there? It stinks of course to go and expect things to be open, but if you do your research before booking, January-March there are a lot of closures. At least Disneyland keeps its doors open year-round. I used to work in a theme park that closed all rides for 3 months out of the year and refurb'd it all at the same time.
 
YayforMickey said:
It's amazing to me that Disney is announcing this to media outlets just three days before the refurbishment begins.
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Yeah, back in November, they announced the ticket promotion that would start on the same day as the refurb, and at the same time applied for the permit to work on the castle, but no public mention was made of the castle refurb when the promotion was being advertised. All they have is the general disclaimer that attractions are subject to change. At the very least, they should have an easily accessible link to planned closures that accompanies the disclaimer at the time of booking, or a notice on their main site advising people to check their dates for scheduled closures along with instructions for how to do so. There is no obvious place on the main menu to check for closures, and I think that should change. I think the way they have it set up currently discourages people from gaining access to that info.
 
You’re right.:) By heavily discounting tickets and keeping major refurbs relatively quiet, they’ll be able to keep the parks equally full throughout this year, and I guess that’s just shrewd financial strategy for the time being. However, as time goes on, and all the once-a-year visitors get wise to the fact that refurb season is now going to be as crowded as peak season, but with more closures, less staffing, and shorter hours, next year might be a different story, and more people may flock during peak season than ever before. People are willing to accept closures in exchange for lower crowds, but if the crowds are the same, a significant number will plan to visit during peak season in the future since they won’t have to take their kids out of school.
 
Christin82 said:
You’re right.:) By heavily discounting tickets and keeping major refurbs relatively quiet, they’ll be able to keep the parks equally full throughout this year, and I guess that’s just shrewd financial strategy for the time being. However, as time goes on, and all the once-a-year visitors get wise to the fact that refurb season is now going to be as crowded as peak season, but with more closures, less staffing, and shorter hours, next year might be a different story, and more people may flock during peak season than ever before. People are willing to accept closures in exchange for lower crowds, but if the crowds are the same, a significant number will plan to visit during peak season in the future since they won’t have to take their kids out of school.
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It’s been this way for years, though. I mean, “off-season” since 2015 has often been pretty miserable with high crowds and tons closed IMO... at least the hours are often longer now.

This is why I always tell people to come in July. :confused3
 
Skyegirl1999 said:
It’s been this way for years, though. I mean, “off-season” since 2015 has often been pretty miserable with high crowds and tons closed IMO... at least the hours are often longer now.

This is why I always tell people to come in July. :confused3
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Thanks! We have gone in early June or mid-December the past few years, so we didn’t really realize that.

Either way, I don’t mean to seem bitter about it. We love DL, and we’ll keep coming every year regardless because it can’t be beat! :)
 
Christin82 said:
Thanks! We have gone in early June or mid-December the past few years, so we didn’t really realize that.

Either way, I don’t mean to seem bitter about it. We love DL, and we’ll keep coming every year regardless because it can’t be beat! :)
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Oh, you haven't come across as bitter at all. I honestly just wish there wasn't this myth of the "magical empty off-season," because I feel bad for the many people I meet in the parks who took time off/pulled kids out expecting "ghost town" conditions that rarely exist... and what you CAN predict is that there will be shorter hours, lower staffing, and lots under refurbishment.

I'm a bit of a unique visitor because I'm in the parks usually six-ish times a month, often with just my (now) 5-year-old, and we're both very social and end up chatting up all the people around us all day... so I spend a lot of time talking to park guests. Very rarely are they rude or bitter, but they're often pretty overwhelmed and bewildered.

I mean, this is a tangent, but in my head, I'm thinking of a lovely woman in line with us at Fantasy Faire who'd pulled her daughter out of school for her birthday, convinced by online crowd trackers that it would be a "ghost town" when the parks were PACKED, like crazy packed, and they hadn't opened until 10, so it was like 1:00 and she said they'd done two things... or the family from Canada we spoke to in line for the carousel who'd planned a whole week trip for February "because everyone said it's a great time to come," and again, it was slammed and a ton of stuff was down for refurbishment... It's a really different vibe than when you're talking to people on a crowded summer day, you know?

And for the record, I was in Paris in Spring 2002 when the Eiffel Tower was under scaffolding, and I was in London in October 2017 when Big Ben was also under scaffolding, so I get the disappointment of a major landmark being out of commission!
 
[QUOTE="Christin82, post: 60097635, member: 597227. At the very least, they should have an easily accessible link to planned closures that accompanies the disclaimer at the time of booking, or a notice on their main site advising people to check their dates for scheduled closures along with instructions for how to do so. There is no obvious place on the main menu to check for closures, and I think that should change. I think the way they have it set up currently discourages people from gaining access to that info.[/QUOTE]

THIS.....

I feel like I was duped by Disney as these refurbs just didn't come up overnight. It feels like they got to a certain occupancy rate on the promotion and then announce closure plans. I am WDW vet so did check refurbished lists but there are the far greater proportion of visitors that never hit these boards and could be even more disappointed then I am getting.

Disney is a multi billion dollar business and if their operations people are this bad in planning out what is happening in the next 6 weeks -- they should consider new people to run the place.

I was even told when this hit the schedule that it was just the 'Walkthrough attraction' impacted so that CM didn't get the memo either on the castle being under scrims.

It's our first visit to DL and although I expected some closures since its mid February for our trip, its also the lack of ANY nighttime entertainment that is adding to this problem.
 
Well this is frustrating. My BFF and I took our first trip together last year in January and were disappointed by the castle refurb. We assumed splash and grizzly would be down, so we watched the refurb schedule for those and this year planned for the first week of March. Seems like we didn't plan correctly. Now it looks like not only will we still miss out on seeing the castle, but also will miss splash again, as well as F! and potentially WOC. I am wondering if we should try and move our dates. Neither of us are interested in the madhouse that will be SW.
 
monorailrabbit said:
Well this is frustrating. My BFF and I took our first trip together last year in January and were disappointed by the castle refurb. We assumed splash and grizzly would be down, so we watched the refurb schedule for those and this year planned for the first week of March. Seems like we didn't plan correctly. Now it looks like not only will we still miss out on seeing the castle, but also will miss splash again, as well as F! and potentially WOC. I am wondering if we should try and move our dates. Neither of us are interested in the madhouse that will be SW.
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Splash is only going down for two weeks in February. You’ll have food and wine during your trip.
 
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