Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (DHS)

[belloq87]

Everyone is acting as if Disney is choosing to not open this on time.

The heavy implication from insiders on Magic is that missing the original target is intentional.

 

[rastuso]

I was just thinking of this. Disneyland is without a doubt the best theme park in the world as far as bang for your buck and a lot of the reason for this is because they have only have two parks to focus on and Disneyland park covers a ridiculous amount of space for one park in the middle of Anaheim. Only having two parks to focus on means you can have a much more laser focused vision on improving the quality of each park and with every addition, the attraction roster continues to get even more ridiculous at a faster pace since the additions are only going in one of two parks. UOR demonstrates this as well.

With WDW having to focus on four parks, theoretically it may seem great, but it only causes parks to stagnate and growth of individual parks comes slow, even when the resort sees a period of high growth (as it currently is).

It stagnated because Disney chose not to reinvest in rides. The money was there, the care for visitors was not.

And let's not forget DCA was an absolute disaster when it opened, so it sorta evened out Disneyland's awesomeness. It only took a few Billion to fix DCA to some degree, although it's still well in the shadows of its neighbor.

Everyone is acting as if Disney is choosing to not open this on time. There’s a significant shortage of clean construction workers in Orlando. Look at it this way, if they would’ve chosen not to divert resources, given the issues that came up with Galaxy’s Edge it wouldn’t have opened this year at all. It’s the bigger and more anticipated of the two projects, so it makes sense that they would push that forward and divert resources to finish it. It sounds like Mickey’s is nearly 6/7 months out anyways, so it wasn’t going to open on time as is.

MMRR was going to be swallowed up in the SWGE chaos, and have no impact at the park. That will still probably be the case, but there are construction workers out there. Maybe Disney doesn't pay enough to get what they need.

 

[NuteGunrayWasFramed]

That will still probably be the case, but there are construction workers out there. Maybe Disney doesn't pay enough to get what they need.

That’s simply not the case. The divergence of resources is only happening because there aren’t enough construction workers in Orlando who can pass a pee test. That’s what my people have told me and I’ve heard the same from others in the know.

 

[Alicia]

there aren’t enough construction workers in Orlando who can pass a pee test.

That’s an exact quote from Jim Hill on a recent Disney Dish podcast. Personally I find it offensive. Real generality, negative stereotype, and even if there was some truth to it, I’m sure there’s a better way to say it.

If Disney really needed extra help to complete a project, I’m sure they could find it. And if you have to offer more money to pursuade skilled workers to help them rather than work on other projects, I’m sure they could. It would just take the desire to get it done.

I don’t claim to know how Disney works, but I’m sure there were a lot more factors at play besides finding workers that can pass a drug test to finish their Mickey Mouse ride. That has to be an oversimplification.

 

[NuteGunrayWasFramed]

That’s an exact quote from Jim Hill on a recent Disney Dish podcast. Personally I find it offensive. Real generality, negative stereotype, and even if there was some truth to it, I’m sure there’s a better way to say it.

If Disney really needed extra help to complete a project, I’m sure they could find it. And if you have to offer more money to pursuade skilled workers to help them rather than work on other projects, I’m sure they could. It would just take the desire to get it done.

I don’t claim to know how Disney works, but I’m sure there were a lot more factors at play besides finding workers that can pass a drug test to finish their Mickey Mouse ride. That has to be an oversimplification.

I personally don’t listen to him/ his podcast. I’m just communicating what I’ve been told by people who have some connection to
the project. I’ve been told that Disney is genuinely struggling finding people to work on these projects because they have so many going on at once (and continuing to add more) and the recruitment process is relatively rigorous.

The issue with budgets in major companies like Disney is that they aren’t flexible. They can’t just pay recruit new people and pay them more money, because Disney has to consider how that factors in with the previous workers. If everyone is making roughly 14.78 an hour and you suddenly bump pay up to 17.00 an hour you’ve just bumped your labor budget up 14% and accounting will have a coronary, especially when, to accounting, it’s an unnecessary cost. That doesn’t even bring up the union (which to my knowledge is still involved in projects), which throws the idea of working around the clock to get the project done out of the realm of possibility (I believe that’s why it took so long to get Pandora out as the attractions were in test and adjust in early June of 2016, I believe there was a sundown rule.) There are a lot of project management issues within Disney in general, but supply of labor is genuinely a problem at the moment.

In addition, Disney is unwilling because while MMRR will be an enjoyable attraction, it lacks a dedicated revenue stream. It’s purely a sunk cost that will have no actual return so going over budget on a project like this is a much bigger sin than going over budget on something like GE whose merch sales will be unlike anything we’ve seen on property.

 

[Nick]

I personally don’t listen to him/ his podcast. I’m just communicating what I’ve been told by people who have some connection to the project. I’ve been told that Disney is genuinely struggling finding people to work on these projects because they have so many going on at once (and continuing to add more) and the recruitment process is relatively rigorous.

Ok, so this is one thing. But to just throw the pee test thing out there really was an unnecessary anecdote and something that could be seen as stereotypical and offensive to many.

 

[Mad Dog]

That’s an exact quote from Jim Hill on a recent Disney Dish podcast. Personally I find it offensive. Real generality, negative stereotype, and even if there was some truth to it, I’m sure there’s a better way to say it.

If Disney really needed extra help to complete a project, I’m sure they could find it. And if you have to offer more money to pursuade skilled workers to help them rather than work on other projects, I’m sure they could. It would just take the desire to get it done.

I don’t claim to know how Disney works, but I’m sure there were a lot more factors at play besides finding workers that can pass a drug test to finish their Mickey Mouse ride. That has to be an oversimplification.

This !....it's absurd to say that a fairly small construction project in terms of workers, like M&M, couldn't find a sufficient number of skilled workers in a market area the size of Orlando....Pure nonsense. It's not like they're building a 50 story office building.

 

[Honor_Knight]

This !....it's absurd to say that a fairly small construction project in terms of workers, like M&M, couldn't find a sufficient number of skilled workers in a market area the size of Orlando....Pure nonsense. It's not like they're building a 50 story office building.

Orlando is over saturated with construction projects at the moment. It isn't just Disney and Universal.

 

[Disneyhead]

This !....it's absurd to say that a fairly small construction project in terms of workers, like M&M, couldn't find a sufficient number of skilled workers in a market area the size of Orlando....Pure nonsense. It's not like they're building a 50 story office building.

Well they are also building 2 hotel towers, an expansive gondola system, 2 roller coasters, another trackless dark ride and the largest, most detailed land in theme park history. Combine that with Universal building 2 roller coasters and a new park. Then add in the other large construction projects in the Orlando metro area like the new hotel at DPAC, 2 high rise buildings in downtown Orlando, and the massive I-4 redo, the pool of construction resources are definitely stretched thin.

I have no info on the Jim Hill comment, but I do know that it is a major issue getting folks to work the mines in West Virginia. The latest data says that 25% of West Virginians have issues with opioid addiction.

 

[Mad Dog]

Well they are also building 2 hotel towers, an expansive gondola system, 2 roller coasters, another trackless dark ride and the largest, most detailed land in theme park history. Combine that with Universal building 2 roller coasters and a new park. Then add in the other large construction projects in the Orlando metro area like the new hotel at DPAC, 2 high rise buildings in downtown Orlando, and the massive I-4 redo, the pool of construction resources are definitely stretched thin.

I have no info on the Jim Hill comment, but I do know that it is a major issue getting folks to work the mines in West Virginia. The latest data says that 25% of West Virginians have issues with opioid addiction.

Granted. But it's still a very small project in terms of actual workers, especially at this late stage of the attraction construction. Seems there's more involved than a few workers. More like, milk the openings thought processes.....And, on that other matter for the WV folk, after just spending a day in the Appalachian mountains with A's ex in laws, the 25% figure for that population base may be actually too low. But, since they cracked down on those wayward doctors prescribing opiads like candy, the problem seems to have bottomed out. Of course, there's still the meth and heroin. But those also seemed to have slowed a bit too.

 

[Happytycho]

Well they are also building 2 hotel towers, an expansive gondola system, 2 roller coasters, another trackless dark ride and the largest, most detailed land in theme park history. Combine that with Universal building 2 roller coasters and a new park. Then add in the other large construction projects in the Orlando metro area like the new hotel at DPAC, 2 high rise buildings in downtown Orlando, and the massive I-4 redo, the pool of construction resources are definitely stretched thin.

I have no info on the Jim Hill comment, but I do know that it is a major issue getting folks to work the mines in West Virginia. The latest data says that 25% of West Virginians have issues with opioid addiction.

The Orlando area also has the new MCO south terminal and the supposedly imminent Brightline/Virgin Trains extension, both of which are multibillion dollar construction projects. I believe that the challenges being caused by limited construction resources have already been pretty well documented by others in the area, and this isn't a problem unique to Disney.

 

[NuteGunrayWasFramed]

Ok, so this is one thing. But to just throw the pee test thing out there really was an unnecessary anecdote and something that could be seen as stereotypical and offensive to many.

Disney drug tests anyone working in Ops/ any facet of the parks. I see how that can be seen as offensive and I apologize for my poor phrasing.

 

[Nick]

Disney drug tests anyone working in Ops/ any facet of the parks. I see how that can be seen as offensive and I apologize for my poor phrasing.

Disney literally drug tests none of their CMs. Neither does Universal with their TMs.

 

[NuteGunrayWasFramed]

Disney literally drug tests none of their CMs. Neither does Universal with their TMs.

Explain to me why I was drug tested then?

 

[Nick]

Explain to me why I was drug tested then?

Not sure. Third party I guess. I’ve never been drug tested at Disney, Universal or SeaWorld.

 

[NuteGunrayWasFramed]

Not sure. Third party I guess. I’ve never been drug tested at Disney, Universal or SeaWorld.

Because you’re not in a safety critical role.

 

[Nick]

Because you’re not in a safety critical role.

I mean, that’s actually not necessarily true, since I would deal with heavy machinery that could seriously F people up if I’m not careful.

 

[Disneyhead]

Disney literally drug tests none of their CMs. Neither does Universal with their TMs.

Disney and Universal can do that because they are self insured. Most construction companies are not, and all insurance companies require that employers do pre-employment drug screening.

 

[bob albert]

Considering all the work that’s being done in Orlando right now, I find it hard to complain.

The work being done now is not enough to make up for years of dramatically rising ticket prices and lack of expansion.

Also outside of Universal and Disney I know that drug testing of employees is common at most parks. For some regional parks known for being cheap it would be a significant cost.

 

[rastuso]

That’s an exact quote from Jim Hill on a recent Disney Dish podcast. Personally I find it offensive. Real generality, negative stereotype, and even if there was some truth to it, I’m sure there’s a better way to say it.

If Disney really needed extra help to complete a project, I’m sure they could find it. And if you have to offer more money to pursuade skilled workers to help them rather than work on other projects, I’m sure they could. It would just take the desire to get it done.

I don’t claim to know how Disney works, but I’m sure there were a lot more factors at play besides finding workers that can pass a drug test to finish their Mickey Mouse ride. That has to be an oversimplification.

And I'm pretty sure a company wouldn't sit on a couple hundred million dollar investement because guys with grinders and hammers smoke pot in 2019. If so, that's a questionable business practice. In 10 years it'll probably be illegal to test for pot, with the way things are going.