PHOTOS - Prince Charming Regal Carrousel emerging from refurbishment scrims

Nov 02, 2018 in "Prince Charming Regal Carrousel"

Posted: Friday November 2, 2018 2:20pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Refurbishment scrims are coming down on the Magic Kingdom's Prince Charming Regal Carrousel.

Although it has mostly remained in operation, the Magic Kingdom classic carrousel has been behind refurbishment scrims for much of 2018. The majority of them are now down, giving us a first look at the newly refurbished ride.

 

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LittleBufordJan 04, 2019

Thanks—I hope you’re right! Can anyone else confirm?

EricsBiscuitJan 04, 2019

I was there yesterday and I think the purple bunting was up. No pics as I thought someone else already posted it ☹️

LittleBufordJan 04, 2019

Does anyone know if there are plans to put the bunting back up? It wasn’t there when I visited the parks in December, and the carousel looked the poorer for its absence.

RSoxNo1Nov 08, 2018

This took longer to do than building the Tangle Bathrooms

MerlinTheGoatNov 06, 2018

I assume peter11435 is correct. Most of the trim lighting on GF is only visible from the parking side, except for a couple of strands on the tall central spire of the main building visible from the lagoon side. As far as I can tell, the guest buildings don't even have lighting fixtures. Someone can correct me if i'm mistaken. Within the past couple years, the main building on the check in side were replaced with LEDs and have been working whenever i've been there at night. The DVC building also uses LEDs, but they have always been dimmer (even when new) than the ones on the main building or at Magic Kingdom and seem to be a noticeably different and "colder" white color (the new ones have a more appropriate vintage amber tint). They've never looked great, but the newer ones on the main GF building (and at the entrance to Magic Kingdom and Crystal Palace) do look good. I too have noticed the lights on the pool buildings and Narcoossee's appear to have issues. For some time in fact. There are quite a few bulbs that are either out or much dimmer than some of the others. Again, issues with LED lights are generally not caused by the "bulbs" (or diodes) themselves failing. It's generally the components used to regulate their power and keep the materials cool. Poor wiring on the fixtures can cause issues, but LEDs generally use circuit boards and heatsinks. Poor quality circuit boards and heatsinks have generally been the main culprit behind LED failures in my own personal experience. I've managed to repair cheap broken solar LEDs just by resoldering broken wires on the board and reinforcing the connections. But problems can occur on more more expensive mainstream brands too. I bought a large batch of GE LEDs about 3 years ago for a new home (60 watt replacements). They used to be a good or at least decent brand. Every single one failed within 15 months. They began to buzz, flicker and turn off randomly and the paint on the plastic bulb developed heat cracks. However, I also own a handful of similar LEDs from other brands (Philips and Feit generally), and they are all still going strong with 5+ years of heavy use without any issues...

peter11435Nov 06, 2018

The guest buildings have never had lights. Only the main building, convention center, pool structures, narcoossees and monorail platform.

Animaniac93-98Nov 06, 2018

GF was still dark a month ago. I don't remember seeing any lights on except the DVC building, and even that had burnt out bulbs.

MerlinTheGoatNov 06, 2018

I was there today, didn't get any pictures but the bunting is still missing. But I didn't notice any lightbulbs out at the angles I viewed it from (it was still early in the day as the park closed at 4:30pm for a cast member event but the lights were still on). So either that picture is a different angle from where I viewed it, or they've actually been maintaining things better.

EricsBiscuitNov 05, 2018

6 plus lol I need a new phone haha. The zoom is awful

SpoiledBlueMilkNov 05, 2018

wow - looks like that photo was taken with a potato! Just kidding. Night + movement + cellphones = shaky cam.

Kman101Nov 05, 2018

A lot of things are actually a lot better than they were in that period you reference. How quickly some forget it was actually worse ...

peter11435Nov 05, 2018

This is partly true. Although there comes a time with 50 year old buildings and facades that small fixes aren’t enough and they require substantial work.

geekzaNov 05, 2018

Very true. Then again, facade upkeep used to be something that was done regularly and small problems weren't left to sit until they became big problems. I agree that it's good to see that they are at least working on refurbing the facades. They just would have never gotten to this point had they taken care of issues when they originally arose.

MerlinTheGoatNov 05, 2018

Did they replace the light bulbs during the rehab? I don't know what work was being done under the scrim, assume it was roof related or something and don't know if they even touched anything else. I will say one thing. Light upkeep had been much better in recent years across WDW property as a whole. You can still occasionally spot single digits worth of broken lights within strands of hundreds, but the situation is far better than back in 2010-2014 when it was common for 50-80% or more of an entire strand to be broken or switched off. Hopefully they don't slip again. Many of the strands of trim lights across WDW were actually retrofitted with LEDs during the past 5 years or so. The entire facade of Grand Floridian and most if not all of the International Gateway hotel facades are LED now. Same goes for Magic Kingdom's bus terminals, monorail station, at least some of the boat docks and I think the large TTC ferries. Even the facade of the Crystal Palace as well. They look good too, it's easy to mess up LEDs but they picked an appropriately "antique" warm amber color. I assume the intent is to continue gradually retrofitting old incandescent lights to LED.