Park 19 updates?

[TRLD]

5 minutes ago, CruiseCrabs said:

Respectfully, flow rider is a water attraction and yes, focused rock walls are elsewhere but a ropes course is a bit unique as was the roll glider. Both have risks and maintenance challenges that are unique and it seems whatever the Princes plan was did not meet US safety standards.

Where does anything say that it did not meet US or for that matter anyone else's safety standards?

 

What has been said is that Princess is unable to accept delivery. That almost always mean that the vendor did not meet contractual requirements needed for the customer to sign off. As was described on CC in an earlier Sun topic, they appeared to have problems with the units making it around the track during testing during an early cruise. I suspect probably related to ship motion. Based on timing it would appear that Princess gave the vendor time to come up with a fix and that they failed to do so.

 

It appears that this would have been the first sea going installation of a system with several land based installations. Considerable difference in forces between a static land based system and a moving ship board one where the motor would have to be able to overcome the additional forces as it moves around the track.

[JimmyVWine]

36 minutes ago, TRLD said:

It all depends if the RollGlider vender was doing it all as part of a package deal. They seem to do that on their land based installations.

Looking at their website, there seems to be an even mix of combination adventure parks and standalone gliders.  Honestly, the whole website seems dated as do the projects they list.  I wouldn't be surprised if the company is on its way out and Princess didn't want to launch Park 19 without the backup of the vendor for maintenance. When I looked at a webpage for a mall where one of these things was installed, the comments included ones such as: "Why isn't this thing ever open!"  Me thinks that PCL got hornswoggled by the likes of Harold Hill.

[peder]

One thing I would caution in suggesting the manufacturing / installing company is on the way out is that sooo many manufacturing companies have terrible websites that are years behind on any updates. It's just not a priority for them. They probably have amazing print brochures that they walk prospective customers through with sales people meeting in person. The entire niche industry that they're in probably works mostly through traditional networking and face-to-face meetings, rather than digitally-driven sales.

[JimmyVWine]

19 minutes ago, peder said:

One thing I would caution in suggesting the manufacturing / installing company is on the way out is that sooo many manufacturing companies have terrible websites that are years behind on any updates.

But the timing of their "Projects" is all well in the past.  2020-ish.  They don't seem to be launching anything new.  And the ones that have been open for a while are not getting great reviews.  

[peder]

1 minute ago, JimmyVWine said:

But the timing of their "Projects" is all well in the past.  2020-ish.  They don't seem to be launching anything new.  And the ones that have been open for a while are not getting great reviews.  

 

It still doesn't mean much. I've worked with and been friends with folks in small manufacturing, and they often launch lots of different companies for all the things they might produce, but there may not be any interest/projects for years, then suddenly they'll get a bunch of orders. In the meantime while they wait for orders, they'll produce some other thing.

 

It's a game of lots of corporations rolling up into more corporations, even at really small scale manufacturing.

 

That said, I have no idea what this manufacturer's / installer's situation is. I don't even know who they are. Just offering general wisdom about that universe of small-time inventors/manufacturers.

[JimmyVWine]

2 hours ago, peder said:

It still doesn't mean much

I understand your larger point, but the circumstantial evidence here all points to the fact that Princess either had a falling out with the manufacturer, or the manufacturer is no longer a trusted partner in this.  

[Thrak]

It's not all that surprising the whole thing is a failure. J. P. comes from a Marketing background. When I worked in IT for the state it was not at all uncommon for Marketing to promise "wonderful" things that we simply couldn't implement. Whenever I heard the Marketing folks say they were "Excited!" about something I knew it was almost certainly a disaster in the making. It's easy to promise things when you aren't the one who has to implement them and when you have absolutely zero knowledge of the field required to do the implementation. (Hey! Where's my flying car?"

[karatemom2]

52 minutes ago, Thrak said:

It's not all that surprising the whole thing is a failure. J. P. comes from a Marketing background. When I worked in IT for the state it was not at all uncommon for Marketing to promise "wonderful" things that we simply couldn't implement. Whenever I heard the Marketing folks say they were "Excited!" about something I knew it was almost certainly a disaster in the making. It's easy to promise things when you aren't the one who has to implement them and when you have absolutely zero knowledge of the field required to do the implementation. (Hey! Where's my flying car?"

 

As someone who has spent my career in Marketing and PR, albeit in the health care industry, I must confess you may have a point. As a group, we tend to be creative and sometimes "Pie in the Sky" thinkers and need a good reality check from those who have to deliver the actual product or service. I'm proud of my field and the good work we do, but in this instance where you had am Executive leader with that background who was left unchecked - or likely didn't listen, he needs to be held accountable. It was a lot of spaghetti being thrown at the wall with these new ship designs, and a lot of it clearly didn't stick!

[jarrodhoggan]

I am very disappointed. We picked this cruise because of the stuff for teens. My TA called princess and the reply was basically tough crap. No compensation no nothing. You will get nothing and like it.  This is the first cruise with our teen and 100 days out. Too late to change flights etc.  We have only cruised with Princess and had 2 more scheduled for next year. We cancelled both of those. Princess didn't care. Its just a matter of Principle when you advertise a major point of a cruise and refuse to deliver. Its a lie. When you screw up you make things right but Princess is making no effort

[555]

5 hours ago, jarrodhoggan said:

I am very disappointed. We picked this cruise because of the stuff for teens. My TA called princess and the reply was basically tough crap. No compensation no nothing. You will get nothing and like it.  This is the first cruise with our teen and 100 days out. Too late to change flights etc.  We have only cruised with Princess and had 2 more scheduled for next year. We cancelled both of those. Princess didn't care. Its just a matter of Principle when you advertise a major point of a cruise and refuse to deliver. Its a lie. When you screw up you make things right but Princess is making no effort

I really don't believe you can put the blame directly on Princess. They contract these venue's out to different vendors and I'm sure they're embarrassed about the situation although it would have been nice if they would have apologized personally instead of it being leaked via a news source.