It isn't just the "design factor impeding safety" going on here.  After all, these attractions are tested repeatedly throughout the design process and throughout the installation process...so, if there would have been a problem in the operational factors, chances are it would have been caught early on and attended to.

What is more likely is that the resort maintenance teams are attributing these factors of operating expensive special effects to design flaws and pushing the problem back off onto Imagineering.  Even more factorable than that, the operating budget people are probably messing more with the needs of the maintenance team which is trying to meet the needs of what Imagineering implemented in the original design and there is a total bureaucratic snafu going on  that ties up the hands of everyone involved...and, in the corporate fear environment that the "powers that be" which have dictated Disney up until now instituted, no one wants to take, or knows how to take, responsibility for the proper funding of maintenance and daily upkeep to have the show running appropriately for everyone involved...from Veeps to guests to everyone inbetween.

This is a problem inherent on all attractions - from a simplistic flat ride (Teacups/Dumbo) to a more involved show based attraction (Jungle Cruise) all the way up to an Everest or Nemo Submarine Voyage (depending upon which coast you are located).  There is so much confusion and scattered corporate entities handling the aspects of operating and maintaining these shows and attractions that the right hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing, let alone even acknowledging the left digit bearing unit!

Then, add in the factors of the non-existant budget and horrid non-unification of all maintenance departments and organizations within the park system, the lack of any standarization of operational functions between east and west in the Magic Kingdoms, let alone a multiple park resort complex, the lack of any real authority or communicayion given between Show Quality Services, the field Imagineering offices, the maintenance teams for any given area or attraction...and, the fact that budgets are siphoned and streamlned and cycled into self perpetuating systems that allow the corporate entities who sit at the top floor offices to keep themselves paid and the prime stockholders appeased...it is a game that is equally self perpetuating and creates the lack of trust, the showboating of matters when the high muckity mucks are in house and on the scene, and, in the long run, self destructs the entire operation before the eyes of the people it was truly intended for...the guests who are visiting.

The complexities and departments and divisions have gotten too diversified and seperated from each other to really attend to these matters properly.  It isn't "over-designed technical attractions"...it is "over designed business units and divisions of operations."

Until there can be an actually synergy tie between the park upkeep and daily operational maintenance with on-sight field Imagineering offices, until there is a direct link between parts and supply ordering and maintenance needs and stock issues due to monetary limitations, until there is a removal of the fear of having to cover the independent hienie and the rememberance of how everything should be working as a team...these issues will prevail.  Until there is a set line of operational order and standards that exist equally for all parks and divisions of upkeep maintenance and operation, this will continue to happen.  Until Imagineering becomes interwoven on a daily basis with the maintenance and upkeep of the park shows and attractions, well, the fall off and problems will continue to exist.

This is something that the new regime may be able to address.  It took a long time for the pendulum to swing so far out of balance and create the issues that exist today.  I imagine it will take a good amount of time for that balance to swing back and be restored.

Hotels are one thing.  I understand why WDW officials would go the extra mile to make sure Eisner got everything he wanted out his stays at the Yacht Club.  That is nothing new for any hotel when it comes to a high profile guest.  Making sure everything is up to snuff on rides and attractions seems a little underhanded and counterproductive.  

Joe Rohde has got to know what is going on with Expedition Everest.  People complain about it all the time.  The problems are referenced on this site (and others like it) weekly.  Not letting Rohde see the problems with his own eyes is disrespectful to both him and the guests.  The guy was smart enough to design a great ride.  He should be smart enough to work on solutions for any problems it may be experiencing.

I'm actually notn surprised to hear about the Yeti AA figure problems. It was a concept figure to begin with. Eventually a Yeti AA 2 will replace it. Remember all the stories about the development of the original Lincoln AA figure? As for the various fog effects, turn them off if it detracts on safety issues.

What a depressing post, Jim. At least Lasseter is still my hero. Disney needs more people like him.

Okay, so let me sort of expand on what dravanos said and ask the painfully obvious question here ...

Can't Joe Rhode read?? Or more importantly, doesn't he know anyone who can??

I mean seriously ... would he actually fall for that when all he has to do is go read the latest story from Jim Hill that blows the lid off Ops' scam? As much as you want to claim that Ops pulled the wool over his eyes, he must be complicit to a degree, because I refuse to believe there's any way he could NOT KNOW that this was going on.

FWIW, overall I completely agree with Skipperwest. I think he's got it spot on. Disney's theme parks have grown so completely unwieldy and are just so poorly organized operationally that it's just one total snafu.

Quite honestly, I think Iger needs to gut the entire organizational structure and rebuild it from the ground up in a cohesive and synergystic model where everyone is pulling their cart in the same direction. Right now you've got folks headed out in every direction on the compass rose. It's a mess!

I am not at all sure where you are getting all your information Jim, but I was on Everest this weekend, and the yeti was working flawlessly, and the mist off the top of the mountain was functioning as well.  I will say though that mist effects in the parkks are especially problematic in Florida's weather.  On high humidity days, which as I am sure you are aware are quite common,  the mist does not stay suspended in the air as mist for long because the air simply can't hold anymore water.  So the mist is virtually non-existent as mist.  It then fall to the surrounding are and pools or keeps the area just slightly damp.  When you add to that the nice warm air, mold, mildew and fungus find their own "happiest place on earth".   This leads to slick, slippery surfaces, health issues, not to mention bad show.  And for those that believe WDI test for these issues, you'd be wrong.  If you consider that most attractions open in the spring, the testing goes on in the cooler drier months of fall and winter.  Very rarely are these things tested in the heat of Florida's summer, and if they are test in the summer in Southern California, it can hardly compare to the weather factors in Florida.

Now am I saying park Ops never shuts down an effect when the big wigs aren't around? No.  It does happen, but I would say that the blame for this should be about fifty-fifty in terms of Operations cost savings, and WDI designing a product that is not sustainable.

i think the ratatouille restaurant sounds great!!! that is my favorite pixar film and it'd be cool to see the theming in there.

i wonder if it'd be an upscale restaurant like gusteau's or if it'd be character dining.

i also wonder what park it would go into??? france would make the most sense, but i figure the existing restaurants there are doing well (i don't know).

they'll probably put it in tomorrowland because lately they like to put things in tomorrowland that doesn't fit!

Expedition Everest can live without the risk (though it'd be nice if they found a way to make it work), but the yeti can't be shut off permanently. That's just not acceptable. That's the climax of the attraction. It's got to work.

"...and WDI designing a product that is not sustainable."

I figured that is why the reliance of digital screens and projections more often since they seem to have a better track record of not breaking down as much.

Disney isn't the only business guilty of this practise by any means, and the suits know full well it's going on.  But sometimes feined 'ignorance is bliss', their egos LIKE the fact that people run around making everything look just perfect for them, many of them could care less if it's not so perfect for anyone else, as long as THEY see perfection, then they can use the facade that the perfection is real and therefore reflects well on them.

No further comment about this story is really necessary.  If Stevennye was at DAK over the weekend of May 24/25, and the Yeti and mist effects at Expedition Everest were in fine working order at that time (as he says they were), then the whole premise of Jim's article is now invalid.

bonk!  

WDW Ops have been known to fudge facts the other way as well.  Case in point, the WDW subs - they hated them, and wanted them gone.

When Ovitz was prexy and paid a visit, they made sure to show him the most decrepit, leaking, clunky submarine in the fleet - the other subs were in need of some rehab, but nowhere near as bad.  But after seeing this and being told by ops that that was the condition of all the subs, the suits were only too happy to sign off on the closing of the much-beloved classic Disney attraction.

As the only female Knight of the Black Spur, I can tell you that it galls me to this day that not only was a wonderful, fun attraction removed, but that it has yet to have a valid replacement.

Is there an Ops rep at Imagineering?

I posted my own theory here: http://hedreamsoffreeways.blogspot.com/2008/05/resuscitating-yeti.html. But if Stevennye saw everything working recently, then I agree with bonk! It's a non-issue.

I just hope the Yeti is working next time I'm in Florida.

As one who has been on EE many times since it first opened, I have to say the ride is that much more appealing when everything is working correctly. When the yeti is stuck in break-down mode, it is an obvious let-down, but I have ridden many times with somebody who has never been before and they just don’t know what they are missing. I think that when you consider there is really only one other worthwhile “repeat” ride in the whole park, it saddens me to think that they can’t give each and every visitor the intended show on EE. If the mist is a safety issue, fine. But I have seen the AA Yeti broken more times than it has worked, especially in the past year or so I have never caught it operating, and my family and I have annual passes and go there every other month or so.

As Jim said, this is nothing new.  I remember in the early 90's, during an Eisner visit, one project manager was particularly antsy and being constanly updated as to the whereabouts of Eisner's entourage. When they got to the Disney-MGM Studios, he sprung into action and had a team of maintenance personnel gather at the Great Movie Ride.  When Michael rode the ride, they actually had guys underneath the attraction manually pushing the (never working) Busby Berkely girls stage around and around until his ride vehicle passed that show scene.

I later asked him why they didn't just ask Eisner for money to properly fix the show piece, and he shook his head and said "You have so much to learn about this business."

I think SOMEONE had "a lot to learn about this business", but it wasn't the guy who asked the question ... it was the project manager.

My sister was a former Movie Ride CM, and she has many a tale of the CM break room being fixed up and recaprted, with new appliances and furniture brought in just so that Eisner and his guests would not see how bad it was. Once they were gone, everything was returned to it's crappy state.

It doesn't make it right, but it's common in many industries. Broadway, film, hell, even the circus...

In the corporate world, no one wants to be identified with a problem or a "negative."

"Don't nobody bring me no bad news." - The Wicked Witch in "The Wiz"

"Isn't it grand! Isn't it fine! Look at the cut, the style, the line!" - Danny Kaye

"You're right, you're are so right! I think so, too! Why didn't you think of that, Stephens? You're fired, you son of a gun." -- Larry Tate

Umm... I was there and rode twice at 2 different times on the day of the 10th, just after Joe's speech and later that afternoon, and there was no mist, no waterfall, no bird, and no steam.  Yeti was working fine, but he was also working fine just this week.  And for that matter, has never been in B mode any of the many times I've been there.  I realize this may be luck, but, at the very least, this article is bogus in that there was definitely a LOT of nonfunctioning things on the 10th.  More than I've ever seen on a "regular" day, in fact.  This article is hogwash, and just plays into the Disney Geekboy mindset that is becoming more and more self-destructive.