Why Disney? WHY?
This is a complete non story. It even says that they use the screen whenever the animatronic needs maintenance, it will be back just like it always is.
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The first time I rode Navi I was surprised it was over because I had heard of this really cool animatronic. I thought the screen was like the first glimpse and we would see it later. But no, that was it!
Yeah this happens from time to time when the animatronic needs maintenance. Unfortunate for those riding that day, but understandable.
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The animatronic was there yesterday!
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At least they can do maintenance on it
Cough -yeti- cough
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I have been hearing about Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Carribean, Test Track., Space Station Earth and of coarse the ever breaking down It’s a small world. I have been stuck on each one but not for long. Sounds like they are having to walk people off these days. All that time they were closed and no maintenance
Speaking of the Yeti…was he always black? This trip, he seemed much darker (basically black) than I remember him being. Was he changed? Or is it just faulty memories?
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I think hes just a “shadow” now. I do remember seeing him white but not sure if that was on screen or when they had an actual yeti
There is both. One scene he is a silhouette. But at the end, the animatronic version (that doesn’t move), is still there (Disco Yeti). I just don’t recall his fur being mostly black.
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We noticed the NRJ animatronic was missing on 8/01 and was back on 8/9. Must need maintenance often.
I’d have told you it was more a dirty white. I went through looking for pics, but I don’t think I ever captured disco yeti given how dark it was. If you’re really curious I’d probably suggest looking for old YouTube videos with ride through video and see how it matches…
When I look at photos on-line, coloring is different…but I can’t tell if that is due to lighting, or if there was really a change. For example, I found this photo, and it is how it looked to me when we were just there:
But here is another image which looks more like how I remember him from before…more brownish.
So, is it just a trick of the eye/lighting? Or did they really change out his fur?
(Neither of these images had dates, so I can’t tell when they were from to compare.)
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I think it’s the light. It’s always looked dark brown to me.
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Given they can’t access it to fix it, I can’t imagine they could change out the fur. So I’d bet on lighting tricks. It’s amazing how much you can change a picture just by tweaking the white balance. Add in the strobe effects from some of the lighting in there and things will vary a ton pic to pic…
Now it’s possible it is naturally darkening as well making it now appear more black than it did I guess so aging could be a thing…
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Same…until this trip. 
We rode it a few times, and it looked decidedly black this time.
I do know, however, that the type of light could make a difference. If they have a light for the strobe now that doesn’t include any of the red tones in it, then the color of the fur might look different. So perhaps they didn’t change the fur itself, but they are using a different type of light source (kind of like how you can buy Daylight, Soft White, or Bright White LED bulbs, etc).
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Good point on that if they changed the lighting they could accomplish similar results to changing the fur itself. And I would guess that they were smart enough to be able to change out the light bulbs at least when they burned out… 
That would explain it potentially…
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Looking at the two pictures, as a photographer, it’s a combination of two things (a) the lighting appears to be much redder in the second picture; you can actually see the circle of red/orange light focused on the Yeti’s head and upper body. Also, even if the reddish lighting was still there in the top picture, the ultra-bright flash of the white strobe would bleach it out- notice how brightly the wood structure behind the Yeti is also illuminated. (b) the exposure settings on the camera used to take the posted photos. The top picture looks like it was taken with a cell phone. The lower one, taken with the Yeti in the “extended” position (i.e. when it was still working) appears to be “staged”; it was frozen in position, back lit, and taken with a longer exposure on a tripod.
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It wasnt last time, he was white. Just couldnt remember if it was a screen or the real deal. He must need a good bath!
There’s no argument against the fact that the Yeti is one of the biggest engineering FUBARs in the history of Disney parks, but it’s NOT the Yeti AA itself, it’s the rail system used to deploy the Yeti. The AA was mounted on a rail system that shot it out over the train where it would bend over and and sweep at the train with one arm. It was (and probably still is) the largest and fastest moving AA of all times. I’ve ridden it when it was working, and the effect was spectacular. The problem is that they mis-engineered the concrete support structure that supported the rail system so that after several years of hundreds of actuations a day, the concrete started to develop stress cracks and the Yeti had to be stopped.
I keep hearing “why don’t they just fix it” as if it were as simple as changing a light bulb…
To understand why “fixing the Yeti” is such a complex task, you have to understand how EE is built; it’s actually 3 separate, nesting, structures. There is the central concrete “core” that houses all of the ride infrastructure (electricity, plumbing, control rooms, maintenance access, etc). Around that is built a completely free-standing roller coaster. And around that is built a free-standing “shell” that created the actual mountain that we see. In order to get the Yeti working again in “A Mode”, they would first have to cut a large hole in the side of the mountain, then remove a number of the track elements, and finally gain access to the central core. Once they got to the core they would have to do major reinforcing (or replacing) of the concrete support structure, test it extensively. replace the track (and test it extensively) and finally repair the cosmetic damage to the shell. This would close the ride down for months and cost millions of dollars to do. I’m sure that everyone in Disney leadership would “like” to see the Yeti restored to its former glory, but to close down one of the most popular attractions in WDW and spend millions of dollars to fix - let’s face it - a 5 second effect, is a hard sell for a company now driven by profit margin and no longer by excellence. Now, with the financial disaster of COVID and the number of green-lighted projects put on hold or outright cancelled, I think the likelihood of the Yeti getting fixed any time soon is pretty distant.
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