7/10: Dumbo Dumbo

[Al Lutz]

Kevin takes a closer look at the new Dumbo play areas. Discuss it all here...

DIRECT ARTICLE LINK: Dumbo Dumbo; MiceAge.com's Kevin Yee takes a closer look

[flynnibus]

Re: 7/10: Dumbo Dumbo

Dumbo drama - all over played.

The blog cited was not first to discuss this and the insinuations in it are off.

This was likely a construction problem, not engineering. The root problem was corrected some time ago, and the dumbos themselves were recently repaired.

[jcruise86]

Re: 7/10: Dumbo Dumbo

Thanks, Kevin!
The quality of the Dumbo & KC Jr. areas bodes well for the rest of Fantasyland.

If the Dumbos have been adjusted, I wonder why they haven't been re-painted.

[chesirecat]

Re: 7/10: Dumbo Dumbo

Great article Kevin,

It is pretty surprising when a Disney ride has problems like Dumbo in terms of the elephants not fitting in their circular tub. I would think that they'd have to enlarge the tub's diameter by something like three inches or so. Makes you wonder what other sorts of mistakes they made. While it is good that they have a play area for families with little toddlers, something about it looks like it was cheaply built due to budget cuts as it was described as "interactive" yet there aren't games for the whole family to play.

I thought that Dumbo's popularity might drop off as some many classics pictures of Dumbo in WDW show the castle in the background. Part of the fun of Dumbo was flying around with the castle and bustle of Disneyland around you. Now Dumbo is off in a corner, and flies over a circus tent. Which while closer to the film, is less visually impressive.

The whole "circusland" idea has been in existence for decades at WDI, and now that they pulled the trigger, I think that the area needs an E-Ticket to tie it all together.

[SpectroMan]

Re: 7/10: Dumbo Dumbo

Uh-oh....no line at Dumbo spells trouble for bean counters. I wish I could get there right NOW instead of this winter when I'm actually coming - things might be down to running 1 spinner at a time by then :|

[Concrete Enchilada]

Re: 7/10: Dumbo Dumbo

I am a WDW Alumni, who proudly operated Dumbo in the Fall of 2004. I was greatly pleased to hear about the "dueling" concept, as it effectively doubles the ride's capacity (or the ride's OHRC). As many of us know, Dumbo was consistenly a long, slow moving line. Line lengths are dependent on ride capacity.

If my memory serves me, it's "official" ride capacity was 570 guests per hour. This number was very difficult to achieve, but not impossible. 570 guests per hour was the lowest capacity of the four rides I worked (Dumbo, Peter Pan's Flight, Carousel, Mickey's Philharmagic) and probably the lowest of Fantasyland.
Thus, adding a second Dumbo was vital to end hour long waits. I never rode the Aladdin spinner, but I did notice that each vehicle had two rows. This essentially doubling the capacity and shortening the lines comparative to Dumbo.

[SLUSHIE]

Re: 7/10: Dumbo Dumbo

It makes me angry when people immediately attack some small problem as being because of cost cutting and cutting corners.

None of us know anything about how it was constructed or who constructed it or how much it cost or how much it could have cost or any other aspect of it.

I realize maybe things in the past could have been at fault for going the easier route, maybe Disneyland's Fantasmic dragon is probably example of that, but not everything they do is to save cash.

If anything they try to maximize everything to their best ability with the money available for the project.

[flynnibus]

Re: 7/10: Dumbo Dumbo

Great article Kevin,

It is pretty surprising when a Disney ride has problems like Dumbo in terms of the elephants not fitting in their circular tub. I would think that they'd have to enlarge the tub's diameter by something like three inches or so.

The problem was an irregularity in the circle - not that it was too small,etc.

A problem with the tile install looks like the root issue. The offending section of tiles were removed and replaced.

This was likely just a construction fault. The error has been documented back from when the attraction opened. It just became 'news' when some blogs made a stink and posted a bunch of sensationalist BS based in nothing but conjuncture.. Fed by predisposition to assume the worst.

[PSUMark]

Re: 7/10: Dumbo Dumbo

Kevin, I'm surprised you noted the years but didn't mention the other great tribute in the water play area - the clown designed to look like Ward Kimball! He's in the water play area and also visible in one of the photos you took inside the playground where he's the top leftmost clown - http://miceage.micechat.com/kevinyee/ky071012b.jpg.

[flynnibus]

Re: 7/10: Dumbo Dumbo

I don't get the ward kimball thing. I haven't pulled the movie to compare, but they just look like the clowns from the movie to me. And glasses gags are not unusual or special.

[KevinYee]

Re: 7/10: Dumbo Dumbo

Kevin, I'm surprised you noted the years but didn't mention the other great tribute in the water play area - the clown designed to look like Ward Kimball! He's in the water play area and also visible in one of the photos you took inside the playground where he's the top leftmost clown - http://miceage.micechat.com/kevinyee/ky071012b.jpg.

Yeah, I thought about Ward and Firehouse Five when I was there at the playground, but hadn't read all the forums around online yet (it was apparently discussed elsewhere) so I wasn't sure about the tribute when I wrote that. Now I know for sure!

[Concrete Enchilada]

Re: 7/10: Dumbo Dumbo

Kevin, I'm surprised you noted the years but didn't mention the other great tribute in the water play area - the clown designed to look like Ward Kimball! He's in the water play area and also visible in one of the photos you took inside the playground where he's the top leftmost clown - http://miceage.micechat.com/kevinyee/ky071012b.jpg.

I see the large round, thick framed glasses reminiscent of Kimball's glasses. It's pretty hard to see any further detail on their particular clown. But, I do see seven fire fighters which is probably is a tribute to the "Firehouse Five + 2" band. The band was comprised of a few Disney animators, led by.....Ward Kimball. (Firehouse Five Plus Two - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Based on pictures I've seen, it looks like they had a fun, energetic band. Small, intricated details like this paying tribute to the past Imagineers are awesome!

Are their any references to Ward Kimball in the new Carolwood Pacific (old Toontown Station)? Since Kimball being a huge railfan, and the man credited to introducing Walt Disney to the joy of hobby trains; I would kind of except something.

[Showoffca]

Re: 7/10: Dumbo Dumbo

While I commend the Imagineers for visually creating a nice new area in Fantasyland with the whole StoryBook Circus area, I think they failed in creating a space for everyone. It's targeted too much to those 10 and under really. The whole new Big Top area for the Dumbo ride reminds me too much of the sort of amusement parks Walt took his daughters to on Sundays where he sat on a bench and the girls had all the fun. All the activities in there have age restrictions - nothing for anyone over 14 to do. This defeats the original purpose of Disneyland ... and to me, a little disappointing.

[chesirecat]

Re: 7/10: Dumbo Dumbo

The problem was an irregularity in the circle - not that it was too small,etc.

A problem with the tile install looks like the root issue. The offending section of tiles were removed and replaced.

This was likely just a construction fault. The error has been documented back from when the attraction opened. It just became 'news' when some blogs made a stink and posted a bunch of sensationalist BS based in nothing but conjuncture.. Fed by predisposition to assume the worst.

Tiles and grout applied to the outer surface of the hole would be roughly the same width, I doubt that the small irregularities, fractions of fractions of an inch would be the problem, but rather in how the concrete was poured and how the whole was measured. Technically, the hole may be too small as some leeway for minor irregularities would be built into the hole which might give an inch and a half of clearance for Dumbo between the figure's longest diameter from the center of spin and the wall.

The tiles will have to be replaced unless they want water to get behind them. Given how tight Dumbo is, it might scrap off other tiles should expansion occur. I bet that the clearance from Dumbo to the wall where the tile isn't scrapped off is much smaller than what was specified in the plans, in construction there is a big difference between an inch and an eighth of an inch.

[flynnibus]

Re: 7/10: Dumbo Dumbo

Tiles and grout applied to the outer surface of the hole would be roughly the same width, I doubt that the small irregularities, fractions of fractions of an inch would be the problem, but rather in how the concrete was poured and how the whole was measured

It was addressed by removing a section of tiles - and later those tiles were replaced. Be it the surface behind them was ground, or if it were the tile installation - only Disney and it's contractors know at this point. But the scope of things altered seen by anyone was just the tiles removed and then later replaced.

The tiles will have to be replaced unless they want water to get behind them. Given how tight Dumbo is, it might scrap off other tiles should expansion occur.

You're talking about something that has already been fixed. There is no 'will have to be..' its already all done. The original damage was seen early (back in early June). Apparently they mitigated the problem so it didn't continue to happen, but it took more time to repair the dumbos themselves and clean out/repair the water feature infrastructure