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More Unscheduled Refurbishments at WDW

Although it is not a surprise that the shutdown of the parks has resulted in some issues with attractions, it's surprising to see the seriousness of some of them.


First was the Peoplemover. Clearly the fire or the issues that caused the fire on the Peoplemover have left it in serious need of repair. Now listed as "temporarily unavailable", clearly this could be a bad sign (and one must wonder why it couldn't be fixed during the closure). I'm hopeful that the situation is related to parts and not a serious structural issue or other costly repair that could leave it down permanently, since it is one of the few original Walt attractions left. Tomorrowland has some of the oldest rides on property and when they go down, it seems to be for months.


Next was Jose Carioca in the final scene of the Gran Fiesta Tour at EPCOT. It's not uncommon for animatronics (especially older ones) after a period of inactivity to have issues, removing it likely means it's being fixed. That's hopefully going to be a quick repair and he'll be back with the band shortly. That said, these are all very old animatronic characters (40 years old) that have been in use in Orlando and Tokyo and are really pieces of Disney history that need to be preserved. Clearly, have 2 of 3 Caballeros is not ideal, but this is one that will need to be fixed for the ride to even make sense, since a Coco re-theme is probably not in the budget.


Now, it's Splash Mountain. It was down for a few days and drained. It's since back up and running and hopefully will stay that way. With so many capital projects stopped, it's likely that the re-theming of the attraction is not coming anytime soon, so if Splash Mountain has serious issues with it, the attraction could sit idle for a long time before there is money in the budget to fix it.


Over the next year, it's going to be critical that attractions are kept up and running to maintain social distancing and park capacity. Despite budget constraints (for all the right reasons), the fact is that Disney will need to make sure that the money is spent to keep things operational and safe for guests and Cast Members.

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