Jumping Jehosophats!! - My oh My the construction!

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

Just got back from a wonderful 9 night trip. Going down we knew that for the first time we'd be missing the holiday decorations, and we knew there would be some construction going on, but wow, I had no idea how much.

Magic Kingdom:
-Scrim is up on the Art of Disney Store on the right side of main street. It looks nice enough, but for me the magic of Mainstreet is looking down (from either direction) and just absorbing the night lights of mainstreet.

-Castle crane: was still up as of Saturday 1/31. While they would lower it during Wishes, it was up most of the day. Although it looks like they are getting pretty close to getting all the lights down.

-Castle hub: knew this was going on, just didn't fully appreciate how big the impact was going to be, with construction walls going basically all the way from Casey's corning, past Crystal Palace and all the way to the left turn to Adventureland. Lot of great photo spots lost. Plus all the construction walls in the around the inner ring, emptied moats etc. Certainly detracted from the Castle.


Animal Kingdom:

This surprised me the most and I wasn't prepared for it.

-Avatar land: Ok, knew about this, and pulling into AK parking lot you can't miss the 4 huge construction cranes in the old Camp Mickey-Minnie area, but surprisingly, once in the park, not really visible or noticabel.

-Tree of life area: Totally surprised me. I knew they were doing renovations to Flame Tree BBQ, but there is an entire area surrounding tree of life that has construction walls, have no idea what they are doing.

-Expedition Everest: This disappointed me the most. I don't know what they are doing, but they had construction walls all around the lake that sits in front of Everest. Really distracted from the views. Also the monkey island was closed and being worked on. That great view of Everest from that area was totally blocked off. Anyone know what is going on. Appears that it has nothing to do with the ride itself but the lake and lake area near it.


Hollywood Studios:

-Sorcerer's Hat: Still had a wall around the hat. As of 1/29 it was down to primarily the brim on the base of the hat and some of the ears.

-Streets of America: On Sunday the 25th there were still some signs of Osborne, but by the 29th that looked to be all gone. One back building (faces Lights Motor) looked like it might have been missing part of its facade.

EPCOT: only park I didn't really notice any visible construction.


Downtown Disney: Wow, what a mess. One I had no idea it would be that bad and two, for a Monday night I couldn't believe how packed it was. Very disappointed, made shopping there very difficult. Made worse by the fact that high winds that day kept the boats from running from POR to DTD, so we had to drive.


So not to be a Disney Downer, but anyone doing some vacation planning, just be prepared to see a lot of signage and construction walls.

After this trip, my early mindset is that a future trip will be 4-5 years out, not until all the major renovations are completed. I know its a necessity, but I just don't like looking at it.

[faline]

There certainly is a lot going on at Disney World right now!

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

Wowzers! This does sound like a lot.

Thanks for sharing, it helps set expectations.

Note: I found DTD hard last summer too ... too narrow paths and too much walking past nothing, just walls and walls of construction!

[Johnno52]

Our sentiments exactly, we are discussing whether to skip next year. It seems the WDW wants the whole complex to be ready at the same time. Pity they didn't take into guests paying for full admission tickets and getting partial products.

[cer]

-Expedition Everest: This disappointed me the most. I don't know what they are doing, but they had construction walls all around the lake that sits in front of Everest. Really distracted from the views. Also the monkey island was closed and being worked on. That great view of Everest from that area was totally blocked off. Anyone know what is going on. Appears that it has nothing to do with the ride itself but the lake and lake area near it.

They are building a night-time water show. Not 100% certain, but it may be like a floating nighttime water parade or something sort of World of color-ish. There was a podcast not too long ago that talked about the nighttime show on the water in that location that was coming to AK.

Thank you for the update on all the construction. I knew a lot was going on, but to see it all listed out like that... wow.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

They are building a night-time water show. Not 100% certain, but it may be like a floating nighttime water parade or something sort of World of color-ish. There was a podcast not too long ago that talked about the nighttime show on the water in that location that was coming to AK.

Thank you for the update on all the construction. I knew a lot was going on, but to see it all listed out like that... wow.

Hearing that, that makes sense. While it appeared that they may be doing some grooming around the lake edges, a majority of what I saw all seemed to be centered in the middle of the lake. So what you are saying makes a lot of sense.

They really don't make use of the lakes and water ways much in AK, so I can see this as a very good addition.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

Wowzers! This does sound like a lot.

Thanks for sharing, it helps set expectations.

Note: I found DTD hard last summer too ... too narrow paths and too much walking past nothing, just walls and walls of construction!

I found a lot of that "narrowness" feeling in several areas. DTD was one obvious one, as they herd you through the old Pleasure Island, its very narrow, and sad (to see the old Adventurer's Club hidden behind walls). In AK, it seemed very narrow, between the walk ways around the front half of tree of life and then flame tree bbq. What surprised me though was MK. Walking towards HM from Fantasyland felt a lot tighter than I remembered and even walking from the expansion area to Storybook seems tight. Its possible that with all the walls up, it just makes everything feel more claustrophobic and it isn't as tight as it seems.

[Ms. Mode]

We went to DTD in October and I just hated those walls! I knew they were there in advance, but when you are THERE and trying to find your way around it's a different story.

However, I understand the need for them.

I'm hoping that some of these projects will be completed by March when our family has a trip scheduled, but if not I guess we'll deal. It's my happy place!

[emerzmom]

I am going to be near WDW for a work trip in April. I thought about turning into a vacation however with all the construction we decided to wait until next year. I am planning to visit a few of the parks around my work meetings. Hopefully next year there will be lots of neat new things in the "world".
Thanks for your update!

Julie

[TinkerbellT421]

I agree Op! The construction is crazy! Especially in animal kingdom. They already had distribution of traffic issues, now it really felt like a mouse in a maze! I actually felt claustrophobic at times. I do appreciate that they are doing much needed work, upgrades, etc but man it felt like so much all at once!

[Checkers]

We are going down the end of next week to meet our Seattle family and was hoping at least some of the "walls" would be down. Disappointing that so much at one time is scheduled.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

We are going down the end of next week to meet our Seattle family and was hoping at least some of the "walls" would be down. Disappointing that so much at one time is scheduled.

Its possible the Hat at DHS could be fully down and the walls removed by then, but the Castle hub and the two areas at AK, no way, they'll be there for a while. The crane by the Castle though could be gone, which would be nice.

[TIGGER17179]

Does anyone know how long these will be? I'm planning a trip for my family 2nd week in December to see the Holiday deocrations and I hope they are mostly done by then???

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

Does anyone know how long these will be? I'm planning a trip for my family 2nd week in December to see the Holiday deocrations and I hope they are mostly done by then???

With the MK Castle hub renovations, I don't think they've actually listed a timeline for completion, other than 2015. I would certainly think, and hope, that if that is the case, it would be complete in time for 2015 Christmas Holidays.

Sorcerer's hat will definitely be gone.

Don't know the timelines for AK.

[sgdisney]

Was there January 22-26 and even though I knew there was a lot of construction, I wasn't quite prepared for how it impacted my park views. The thing that really got me the most was the Partners statue at the hub being boxed up. First time I didn't get to tell Walt thanks!

[NewmanFamily6]

We left on January 27th so I know exactly what you experienced. There were a couple nights where due to construction walls etc we were directed like a herd of cattle through stores in order to exit Adventureland