Originally Posted By Darkbeer Just got back and rode the Mark Twain... Alas, you have a spiel without Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens, and after the "Captain" gives the safety instructions, he introduces the "First Mate" who then speaks in Spanish.... The Fort is "slightly" smaller today, looks like the lower have of the same tower was removed, and a bit more of the west wall.
Originally Posted By jmuboy My guess - and I may be wrong - is that the old spiel....or another new spiel will return when the firt is rebuilt.
Originally Posted By Darkbeer ^ I seriously doubt it, both the MT and Clumbia new spiel talk a lot about Pirate's Lair, the newest thing. Heck, Thursday, they had folks on the Columbia checking out the new spiel while it went around the Rivers of America. The Fort will no longer be part of the spiel, as the new version will be smaller. Now, if "Phase 2" is approved, then a chance for a new spiel, but you are stuck with the current version for the next few years...
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt It doesn't really make sense for Mark Twain to narrate the journey anyway.
Originally Posted By NJ AP Darkbeer, thanks for the updates. As always, they are very detailed and make you feel as if you are there. I like the idea of the Cars being moved so they can be visited all day long, though it was neat seeing them drive in.
Originally Posted By jmuboy Ae the new spiels at least appropriate to the time period of the rides / FL?
Originally Posted By jonvn DB needs to go to FL to take pictures of WDW and not just DL. I love acronyms.
Originally Posted By Darkbeer All 4 towers have been taken down as of this morning.... <a href="http://darkbeer.smugmug.com/gallery/3029812" target="_blank">http://darkbeer.smugmug.com/ga llery/3029812</a>
Originally Posted By Westsider Darkbeer, you are a God among men. And I mean that very sincerely. Heck, I work at the place for 50 hours a week and I still visit your picture updates to see what is going on around the rest of the property. And no matter what some rah-rah-rah, hug-hug-hug Cynthia era drones might say on other websites, your pictures this winter of the decaying Mark Twain on Miceage had an immediate and direct impact on the decision to close the Mark Twain and send it into a lengthy and thorough refurbishment. And for that you should be darn proud!
Originally Posted By jmuboy Any idea what the new fort will look like...a clone of DL's or WDW's. Or something new?
Originally Posted By jonvn "your pictures this winter of the decaying Mark Twain on Miceage had an immediate and direct impact on the decision to close the Mark Twain and send it into a lengthy and thorough refurbishment" You know, that's absolutely ridiculous.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss Maybe darkbeer could start taking pictures of the environment to show scientists that global warming isn't real.
Originally Posted By ChiMike >>You know, that's absolutely ridiculous.<< And Jon do you, personally, have evidence that it is indeed ridiculous? On one hand we have a veteran Disney CM pointing out Darkbeer's contribution, we have the factual timeline before and after Darkbeer's pictures ended up on what is arguably the highest profile Disneyland site - - - and then on the other hand we have one person saying it's ridiculous. I'm all ears for the real reason the Mark Twain was refurbished when it was. Seriously. I'm a sucker for the legitimate reasons things occur in the Disney universe. Would you mind sharing with us why it is foolish to subscribe to Westsider's ridiculous POV?
Originally Posted By jonvn "And Jon do you, personally, have evidence that it is indeed ridiculous?" It's a big company. They schedule things in advance. They have work to do. They don't sit around waiting for the klaxon to go off because some guy posts some pictures. It's blatantly ridiculous. The thing had been scheduled for refurb for weeks.
Originally Posted By jonvn We actually see this all the time. On one board, someone claimed that new brochures were printed and put out in Epcot because of something Kevin Yee said. That also is ridiculous. These things take time, and it takes time to design, a map, draw it, get it approved, printed and placed. It does NOT happen in two weeks. In fact, it later turned out that the brochure was date stamped prior to the Yee article. That's what happened here. Time and people scheduled, materials purchased, plans made, and the thing was put in for refurb when it was. Do you really think someone in maintenance looked at the pictures and said "We have to do something NOW!" when all these other pictures that we've seen over the years have NOT caused this to happen? What were they supposed to have done? Just gone through and started fixing stuff willy nilly with no plan? I'm sorry, it simply is not realistic.
Originally Posted By ChiMike >>Do you really think someone in maintenance looked at the pictures and said "We have to do something NOW!" when all these other pictures that we've seen over the years have NOT caused this to happen? << I honestly don't know what to think. I wouldn't know. Thanks for the response. While the Kevin Yee thing was far-reaching I can see the Mark Twain either way. It WAS scheduled for a refurb, but I don't object outright to the idea that the pictures played a role in the priorities given to the rehab.
Originally Posted By jonvn "I honestly don't know what to think." Well, try to think critically about this: 1) Disney is a major huge corporation with fixed budgets and time schedules. 2) People are scheduled as well, and have to work on projects and must be coordinated to work on their next project in line. Disney does not employ people to sit around and wait. 3) Materials need to be purchased or requisitioned for any project. This also takes time. 4) We have seen many pictures of broken things in the park. Some get repaired, some have never gotten repaired, none of them ever just get repaired right away, even the simplest things. And so on. Now consider the opposite: 1) Someone in Disney saw pictures on a fan site of a boat that had some cosmetic problems. Problems they already knew about because it was scheduled to be repaired anyway. 2) They pull people off other jobs around the park and reassign them to do this, which was to be done shortly anyway, leaving the other jobs unfinished. 3) Disney runs down to the Home Depot or someplace for paint outside of schedule, because this new work has taken priority in the schedule. 4) Due to all this, other jobs do not get finished until later, and costs become much higher as things have had to be shuffled. It's simply not plausible.
