... They totally understand Florida and motorcycles.
For anybody that doesn't know, in the hot Florida Sun a motorcycle kickstand will melt into the asphalt. Creating holes in the asphalt, and potentially damaging the bike.
I went to the emergency room back around Thanksgiving, and I was admitted to the hospital and I was there for 4 and 1/2 months. And while it wasn't summertime, it got hot enough that my motorcycle at the ER slowly sank until it fell over and they had to move it up to the concrete bicycle rack because concrete won't melt like the asphalt does.
Cause me a major issue because the kickstand got bent out and it was a big deal. But anyway, I went to Magic Kingdom today and I found this very interesting.
... I don't know if anybody else does that's why I say mildly
Definitely downloaded holy shit. I didn't even mean anything bad by it. I work for the mouse. I'm just saying that complaints only go so far but when they have to pay out something like a settlement or whatever, it fast tracks change. Have seen it firsthand.
Because part if a guest parked there and the bike fell over in their parking lot. Someone could sue. I'm not saying that it's justifiable because it would be the guest fault in my opinion but Disney pays out for things like that to keep guests happy and then change policies. So I could totally see them paying for damages and then changing parking situations so it didn't happen again. That way the guess is happy, good publicity and probably barely a scratch in their budget to fix a bike that fell over, but then changed the parking lot so it never happened again.
Years ago I parked it Epcot and I don't remember if they had pads, I want to say it was concrete parking but I Don't quite remember. I have parked at Animal Kingdom and they did not have pads in their parking lot. This was new to me.
I couldn't find the parking for motorcycles at first and the parking attend to go in a premium parking and I would see the motorcycle pads, that's what alerted me to it
Well if the bike fell due to their parking lot not being able to take the known temperatures, and the kick stand melted in to the pavement causing it to fall. They would be responsible for a substandard parking lot.
You can see the asphalt has damage underneath the pad.Ā It looks like these were added after they noticed the kickstands were wearing away the pavement.Ā
FYI Disney, and in particular the theme park management folks at Disney, spend a huge amount of time looking for ways to improve their customersā experience. I took a management course from someone who consulted with them and they specifically mentioned parking as an area Disney cares deeply about because itās the last thing a customer experiences on the way out of the park. A shitty parking experience affects your perception of the entire day.
The example the consultant used was that customers would frequently forget where they parked. They tried color coding sections, putting up characters on the lamp posts, etc. Eventually they realized that the customers could consistently remember about when they arrived even if they forgot everything else, so they started logging the time that the last car parked in every row. Then they could drive the customer up and down a few rows corresponding to their arrival time and find their car quickly.
Folks love to hate on Disney as a media giant, but their parks excel at figuring out ways to improve positive customer feelings and to encourage folks to come back.
Yes we use timed parking, as well as character lots and we encourage use of the app which now has a parking finder where you can tag where you parked. It's usually pretty accurate within a few cars.
But yes there are so many studies by Disney on everything for guest experience. It's amazing how much thought they put into everything that people Don't even realize or understand.
But yes there are so many studies by Disney on everything for guest experience.
I just want to point out that this is in no way altruistic. The more satisfied their customer is, the more money they make.
I'm not saying that as a bad thing, I just don't want people to read this and think "Disney cares." They don't, they just want your money. If you're happy with their product than it's a win win.
I mean, Disney as a corporation only cares about profit. But corporations are made up of people just doing a job. But the "imagineers" who design the parks are all deeply passionate about improving the guest experience. Disney as a corporation hires the passionate designers because a better guest experience means more profit, but mostly the actual designers themselves aren't exactly focused on "how do we extract the most money from these people."
And it's worth noting that a corporation seeking profit isn't inherently evil. Every business, from the news stand on the corner to the trillion dollar multinational media conglomerate wants to make profit. Where it becomes evil is how the corporations extract profit. Personally, I believe a company trying to extract profit by just making a better product with a better experience should be celebrated, it's a hell of a lot better than the much more common method of incrementally decreasing production costs by reducing quality and customer experience.
Where it becomes evil is how the corporations extract profit.
And Disney has a long history of doing some pretty questionable shit in the name of profits, which is why i felt the need to remind people that Disney doesn't do these things because they care about you, regardless if the employees they hire do care about you.
They'd cut the imagineers out in a heartbeat if it meant it'd make them more money.
Fun fact, at over 50 square miles we pretty much are a city. In fact we used to be one until the governor took away the status of the city and made a big deal about it. But Disney has its own power, water, fire, and security. The security is part of The largest police Union in the country. And there used to be a clause from when they built it that even if Florida outlawed nuclear energy, Disney could build a nuclear power plant if it needed it.
Taking away the autonomous status by the governor actually hurt us a little bit, for example if there used to be a pothole or something... Disney would fix it right away. Disney was big on show and appearance. Now we have to submit to the county, go through the bureaucracy, And it takes weeks to get the pothole fixed.
That's just an example but you can see a definite change since the governor fiasco.
I wouldn't be surprised. They have a couple solar arrays including one that's a giant Mickey from the air. I know they can power two parks I hear totally ourselves. Mainly through solar. So I wouldn't be surprised if they're expanding on that
Yeah that's The Mickey head solar farm. It's been there for a few years at least, so they must have added on to it or something. I always point out when I take somebody to Epcot because you drive right past it. But I didn't know they're already Up to 100%. That's amazing.
Disney has so much that people generally don't know about. It gets a lot of heat because it's one of the biggest corporate entities in the world, but they do some amazing things for sure.
The photo is the original Mickey head farm, but the new farm is much larger and is not that one. There is a link within the article I sent which has a photo of the actual new farm a page down or so.
Looking back on it, sitting outside of Disneyland at 9-10pm half asleep while waiting for a bus in a sea of angry and crying children are some of the moments that stuck with me the most.
I dont know why that is, either? Its not like the 15-20 minute wait for a bus was any worse than the hour long lines in the theme park.
Can confirm, if parking is shit, I'm not gonna come back, even if I really like it. This includes the entrance to the parking & honestly any weird/annoying road infrastructure on the way
I know that thereās a lot of online hate for Disney. From a business standpoint their parks have developed a huge amount of customer brand loyalty, and thereās a reason for that. They spent way more effort than most businesses on evaluating feedback from park visitors and figuring out ways to improve their customersā experience.
Disney parks are ridiculously expensive. And yet my visits in the 1970s and 80s and my nephewsā visits in the 1990s and 2000s stand out as positive family memories that loom larger than most family vacations. My first visit to Disney World was as a kindergarten aged kid when the park first opened, looking back as an adult itās clear that they continually worked to improve the parks.
Contrast that with some of the other amusement parks, such as Cedar Point and Kings Island here in Ohio, and Iād argue that those parks have not worked nearly as hard to improve their customer experience.
Also, Disney World has multiple parks, resorts, entertainment areas. So it's not just one single park. Which one are you referring to that you consider a shithole, and as compared to what?
I will say that it's gone downhill in recent years, but overall it's still one of the best run parks in the country if not the world. They do focus a lot on innovation and guest services. We even recently had universal executives visiting to learn. Which made us laugh because it wasn't like they were sneaking in, Disney was giving them a tour.
But people always think universal in Disney are adversaries, and they kind of are competitors but they work together a lot More than people realize. For example right now Disney's going through a lot of construction and building and renovations, And some guests get mad and complain but it's by design because universal just opened epic universe. Disney knows that people are going to focus towards universal for the next year or two with the new park, so they're taking this time to do all the renovations and everything at our parks if that makes sense.
Still a multi-billion dollar park, and they're not hurting that's for sure
I met my first heavily tattooed biker dude in the Magic Kingdom when my family went on holiday there from Ireland when I was 8 years old (in the 90s).
He had a big sleeve of Ariel on the rocks and my aunt, ever encouraging of my curious and extraverted nature, let me approach him to ask about it cause the Little Mermaid was my fav.
He was the sweetest guy! He crouched down to show me the tattoo and let me touch it, and then he showed me some scarring on his leg from a tat he had removed while explaining to me that otherwise it stays on your skin forever and is a big decision which is why only grown-ups can have them.
I feel like I remember him so clearly that I could pick him out of a line-up to this day because it was such a unique exciting fascinating moment for me!
Ariel is rad - lots of arguments about who gets to "be Ariel" during lunch on the playground. I was always a stickler for fairness and inclusion and one of the things my old school friends say when quoting me as a child is "Guyyyys, we can all be Ariel" lmao
My 4 year old was on a kick of picking up rocks on a walk and gifting them to community members. She walked up to some of the gnarelest, toughest looking people you could imagine and their faces just lit up when gifted a piece of gravel lol
Iām in the uk, at my local Tesco thereās a big open space under the canopy, about 3 car parking spaces worth of room where motorcycles are frequently parked, the asphalt is full of divots from kick stands where people have parked their so many times
Oh yeah. I used to have a metal Puck that I carried around on my old bike for this exact reason. But the fact that it's integrated into the parking lot I find pretty interesting.
I've parked at Animal Kingdom in their motorcycle parking but it didn't have these pads. And thank you, my motorcycle is my only transportation so I'm a daily Rider.
Another cool side note about the motorcycle parking is it's right up front so it's in the preferred parking. It still cost like 35 bucks to park but it's better than 50 and walking across the parking lot. Luckily I'm a cast member so I don't pay for parking LOL
I enjoy it. I started in the parks 3 years ago, now I'm in the resorts and more guest relation position. Which is weird because I'm generally antisocial but I'm really good at my job and I enjoy it a lot. Unfortunately I've had some major health issues lately that may affect my employment in the future. But I really do enjoy it. I left a much better paying and New Orleans to come back here once I got hired because I wanted to be a Disney cast member most of my life.
I had infection in my foot that caused me to get an amputation on part of my foot and a toe, that was 2 years ago, But then I had a accident and had to have surgery on my leg house and 4 and 1/2 months in the hospital. Still have no balance and walk with a cane. I actually keep a cane strapped to the bike (I got the idea from Dr House) also apparently I have high sugars now. And I'm in my forties, so it's a whole new lifestyle change. I can't lose any weight because I'm very skinny due to a cancerous Mass on my thyroid that they remove, I have no family history but now I'm fighting high sugars. It's just an ongoing thing.
Trying to work with accommodations and possibly switch roles if I continue to work for the company.
Appreciate the compliment. My bike literally gets complimented everyday I ride it, And that's not even an exaggeration lol. I named it Bogan, and I actually broke down today coming back from Magic Kingdom. I had a dead battery and wires kept coming loose underneath. I had to get jumped off a couple times to make it home. Tomorrow my girl is going to ride me out to pick up some more wiring and I'm going to rewire it, then go for a Long ride and hopefully charge that battery back up. I tell people the bike gives me a lot of issues, but I wouldn't trade it. And the issues are honestly my fault, like right now I knew the wiring needed to be done and I kept postponing until it bit me in the ass.
Yes I love working for Disney. I hope I can continue with the company but that's kind of got a few factors in the next few months. But I was hoping to retire with the company if I can. Worst case scenario I'm thinking about trying to get on disability and dropping the part-time to focus on my health. Because it is physically demanding for me in my current role. But I love it.
Definitely try to take care of yourself with those sugars. I'm hypocritical because I'm not taking the best care but I am on oral meds and starting insulin. I'm just having some issues with finances right now from missing so much work. So I'm having trouble getting the actual medications but my goal is to mainly adhere to the doctor's orders.
Though I grew up on steak and potatoes so they're going to have a problem taking away some carbs but I'm definitely cutting back on sugars and carbs when I can. I wish you the best of luck with your journey.
Iām not a motorcyclist but Iām guessing, itās to prevent the kick stand sinking into melting asphalt? Being that itās Florida and over 95 f for months at a time
It probably Just be Mickey because you don't have to remember characters or where you park like you do in a car. All motorcycles parked up front in the premium parking
Blows my mind theyād use asphalt in a place that hot, itās just concrete where I am in Canada and asphalt is pretty uncommon unless it needs to be Ā
Is there a reason for it even though weāve known asphalt is a highly viscous liquid for over a hundred years or is it just a cost thing/easier to fix? Like Florida ground moves a lot or something?
First and foremost it is a LOT cheaper than concrete surface. Concrete costs 2 to 5 times as much. The longevity of the concrete is better in ideal conditions, but not by double.
I know. I brought up that it costs at least double. All your possible reasons were thoughtful and logical, but it unfortunately comes down to the most boring answer. Itās just cheaper.
Makes sense, I was just confused because you responded like I had forgotten we had just had a conversation about it and youād explained it and Iād forgotten hahaĀ
Might as well ask though what state are you used to pouring concrete in, sort of like gas between Canada and the US concrete price is probably a good gaugeĀ
Also I donāt know if youāre actually meant to reply to me because I donāt where the double or stuff came from but Iāll listen to what you have to preach manĀ
Eh, I'll argue that. I used to work for our county engineer's office.
One of the first projects I worked on in that job was complete reconstruction of 3 miles of road, with 10" thick concrete. It's been 8 years now, and they haven't had to touch that road.
One of the last projects I worked on was 11 miles of asphalt resurfacing. They had to go back the next year and seal all of the cracks that had developed, and 5 years later, it is almost in the same condition it was before the project.
We have concrete roads in our county that are over 60 years old and still in acceptable condition, with virtually no maintenance needed on them. An asphalt road, you need to do maintenance every 8-10 years at least.
And what are the costs associated with the maintenance vs the original cost of the concrete and asphalts? You are absolutely correct about the more maintenance, but the cost to maintenance ratio plays out over time, vs initial cost. Higher initial cost also requires cash on hand. A government can issue bonds to get cash, a private company has to generate cash in other ways. Itās not a simple answer
You're not wrong, maintenance costs over time are a factor. But maintenance also means closure (or work zone safety) - for an entity like Disney, that work can be done overnight while the parks are closed; for a public entity, that at minimum means lane closures (and travelling public in a work zone, which is a worker safety issue), or detours - which puts increased traffic on other routes, accelerating THEIR wear.
For an asphalt public roadway, you're probably looking at crack sealing within 5 years of installation, and then a seal coat (chip seal) at the 10-15 year range, maybe you can repeat that a couple times. If the road starts to develop rutting (common on heavy traffic roads), you can add a slurry leveling repair to fill in the wheel ruts and get a few more years, but by 30 years you're probably seeing the binder break down, and at minimum need to mill the wear surface off and put a new lift on. Of course, you've now had 30 years of inflation, so that higher initial cost of the concrete is starting to look more and more like a break-even or even money ahead proposition -- and it's difficult or nearly impossible to put a price tag on the economic impact of the maintenance work/road closures - what is the cost of semi trucks having to wait 10 minutes each day for a pilot car, or having to drive 6 miles out of the way for a detour, etc.
Not a simple answer indeed, but in the long game, concrete is far and away the better choice.
Definitely not a simple answer. I agree with all your points. And after 30 years, if they chose to repave the road with asphalt instead of concrete, the downtime of the road will be MUCH less with asphalt.
That's interesting. I may have misspoken my last post about it but I was told (and I trust you as an engineer) that concrete doesn't expand or contract in the weather and can cause cracks and wear.
But that's interesting that they seem to work better, I stand corrected
Oh, concrete absolutely expands and contracts due to temperature. That's one of the biggest issues our secondary roads crew faces in the summer for roadway maintenance, especially on really hot days. If the concrete expands too much, it runs out of room on the expansion joints, and the resulting pressure causes 'blowups' - either the edge of a panel will explode, or two adjoining panels will 'pop up' and form a mini ramp in the roadway. There's some borderline terrifying videos out there of that - I forget where it was, but one happened in a bigger city a few years ago that caused a 2 foot "bump" in the road - they had video footage of cars literally getting air after hitting it. It's literally the same forces at play with compression earthquakes, just on a MUCH smaller scale.
Asphalt will also expand/contract - ask any surveyor. If they happen to set their tripod up with one or two legs on an asphalt surface, and the remaining one(s) on grass or concrete, you can literally watch the digital level move out of plumb as the asphalt heats up during the day. But as concrete cures, the cement powder forms interlocking fibers, making it (in extremely overly simplistic terms) a solid rock; asphalt is really just a very, very, VERY stiff putty; with enough force it can almost always be manipulated - it is essentially aggregate/rocks held together with tar. This is exactly why the motorcycle pads you referenced are necessary - under high temperatures, the binder softens, and the concentrated force exerted by the kickstand overcomes it's strength, the kickstand 'punches through' the asphalt and the bike tips over.
It's a lot cheaper to use asphalt for a large areas. Which this parking lot definitely qualifies. In fact you can fit the entirety Disneyland California in the parking lot for Magic Kingdom here in Florida, And that's only one of main parks, not counting the water parks or other attractions. Disney world Orlando is over 50 square miles of property.
Sometimes they've used concrete for roads down here, I grew up loving to go down 27 in Clermont (local town) as a child because it was concrete and it sounded like horses because of the space between concrete pads. But that's the issue we have here is concrete doesn't expand or contract like asphalt does, so it'll crack and wear quicker.
EDIT: somebody posted down below that concrete greatly outlast the asphalt roads. In which case I am incorrect and with misinformed, so I trust the engineer more than whatever I just picked up growing up. So I may just fed you a bunch of bullshit about the weather contractions LOL
Are you in Southern Ontario or something? I'm in Southern Alberta and it's not hot enough to be a problem, though there are some more southern parts that maybe might have some issues.
Years ago In Italy one summer, a friend had just been gifted an Aprilia Tuareg 125 for his 16th birthday. The first weekend he went out and showed it to us. After looking it over, he parked it on the street and went inside. After 29 minutes or so we heard a noise. Expecting a car to have hit his bike, we were surprised to see it in the ground with the side stand buried into the tarmac. From then on, he stowed a small square of wood to put under the kickstand.
When I lived in FL I would often see metal plates for kick stands. Some were long and several bikes could use the same one. At my work they put in a rectangle of concrete serving the same purpose.
Rat is a good description, looks good though. I like how youāre keeping vestigial parts, while removing parts that are arguably useful. That kickstand sure did make an effort to look like it was extremely skinny.
Question from someone who lives in a place where 77f is our high in most of the summer: do the wheels on cars and bikes also melt in that kind of weather?
Like the rubber? No. But asphalt is basically just a very viscous liquid. It's rocks and such mixed in with tar. So it's actually not a solid Rock. Kind of like glass isn't technically a solid either. But if you have an incline say the roads at a tilt in a hot environment it'll eventually flow downhill. Which is why it has to be graded so easily. I used to work heavy equipment and built a couple roads up in Tennessee and that was one of the things we had to do even though Tennessee is not as hot as Florida it's a safety thing.
That's how I felt when I found out about glass. Glass is technically a liquid. Your window is a liquid. This is really prevalent in older houses and buildings. I used to Urban explore a lot so I saw this in person and had to research it. But old buildings like over 100-year-old, the windows will be thicker at the bottom than they are on the top And eventually they just break when they lose structural stability. But it's because glass is slowly flowing down.
My house is a perfect example of this. 150ish years old, with many of the windows being the originals as far as we can find. The lower you look on them the more warped the view gets. My dad carefully removed one of the panels on the old door years ago and flipped it just to show the difference in it. Unfortunately the wind decided that door wasnt very important a few years later.
Yeah, exactly. I've left divots before but I actually had my bike fall over when I was away from it. Ended up bending the kickstand almost horizontal. Even now I replace the kickstand but the frame itself is bent so my new kickstand doesn't quite work 100%. And I've dropped it a couple times since because it kicks out. Damage done.
I've seen people have concrete pads for The same reasons but I found this interesting.
When I lived in Arkansas I used to keep a smaller square of a heavy duty mat in my saddle bag. (Think horse stall mat) Saved me so many times on pavement parking.
That's a good idea. I used to have a much bigger bike, and I carried a metal puck around with me. It was just a round piece of metal but I used it a lot.
For some reason I spaced and didn't even think about it on this bike. Maybe because it's smaller. So when I was in the hospital and my bike fell over in the parking lot of the ER, at first I was mad thinking somebody hit it, and then I realized what happened.
I'm going to have to get another puck or something to carry around with me now. I don't have saddlebags on this bike but I do have a small bag on the handlebars I could slip something in.
Iāve had scissor jacks sink into asphalt on really hot days. Totally understandable to have these to mitigate asphalt damage and prevent the bikes from possibly tipping over or getting stuck.
I had an accident and didn't take care of it. I thought I was okay. Apparently an infection was deep in my leg. By the time it showed on the service and I went to the ER I had a blood infection. They had to do surgery and cut my leg open down to the Bone because I had a bone bruise that got infected, they had to clean that out and then leave an open wound to heal as well as antibiotics for the blood infection. I was pretty Bad off.
Luckily they were okay with the bike staying there because I obviously couldn't move it. It was a stand-alone ER. But they said as long as I was admitted the bike was okay. And they would hold it for 30 days after that before they towed it once I was released but literally the day I got out I had somebody come with me to ride it home since I couldn't. Then I went and did home care for the last month or so,
The leg they got injured already had a previous injury from 2003 when I was hit by a car so I had a metal rod in there. It created some complications. All in all with everything going on I'm glad I didn't lose my leg to be honest, that was a worry.
That would be nice but there's not a lot of bikes on average. When I parked the animal kingdom there were four or five bikes, But yesterday at Magic Kingdom I came in about an hour after opening and stayed about 5 hours. When I arrived I was the only one and when I left I was the only one. Although The main car parking lot was full.
The parking garages we have at Disney springs have sensors and red and green lights to let you know if there's open spots.
Also I didn't think about it when I made the post but they don't need a sensor plate to say if it's taken because they don't park with open availability. They park by times, so if you get there at Park open you park kind of towards the front, but if half the people leave the empty spaces will stay empty for the rest of the day because they fill up different parts of the lot at different times, kind of first come first serve.
Although the parking for motorcycles is near premium parking so that fills up a little bit different rate then standard parking.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean, what bullshit are you speaking of? I ride on property everyday because I'm a cast member. Although I don't usually go to the park as a guest. But motorcycles park up front preferred parking which is good for me because I'm handicapped as well.
Every road that leads to Disney is a disaster. Itās not a commentary on Disney. Itās the cajones on anyone whoās willing to dodge traffic on the way there.
Oh righto, you're not wrong. I close so I go into work about 4:00 and get off 11:30 at night so that'll do a traffic. But going to the Park yesterday dealing with the traffic reminds me why I don't want to open.
An hour and 13 minutes to go 15 mi. My Max fee was 51 which is probably up by my house but once I got down inside the Disney area you can see my average was only about 12 mi per hour LOL
I don't have a gauge on my bike so I use an app so this is my speedometer but it keeps track of information like that.
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