djsamuel

Yeah, rub it in... :-)

Sorry, didn't think about it that way.  :bfart:

Trying to provide a bit of evidence that the condition of the dash is not indicative of how long your truck will last, nor is it an indication of the quality of Rams now.    :)

i would assume that under the dash area is a metal frame, so I doubt an aftermarket cap would cause an issue.  It may increase the detoriation of the existing dash though, so it would really depend on how much of the old dash it covers, and how much it depends on that dash for support.

To illustrate my point about the improved interiors post Daimler, compare your interior to the current Ram interior:

From what I have read, it's only the first year, the 2002's that have the problem.

 

I've read numerous threads on different forums and they all say the same thing, Dodge won't admit they screwed up in the plastic formula and the lack of braces/support for the dash.

 

Both pieces of mine are broken, the dash part itself, and the filler panel between the dash and the windshield.

 

It's not the sun, or weather that have done them in, people have had them garage kept, in different parts of the country, etc.

 

Mine started breaking about 3 years ago and has gotten progressively worse.

 

Some have gotten the parts replaced at a cost of almost $1800, it's mostly labor.

 

It makes me sick each time I get in the truck.  Mechanical failures you expect over time, tears and wear in the upholstery are normal, but I've never had a dash fall apart like this.

 

And the worse part is there is really no good solution.

For me, a cracked dash is one of the most annoying things to happen.  I'm a huge Chrysler fan, and have had only Chryslers since 1980.  None have ever had  a cracked dash.  My 04 PT Cruiser is over 295,000 miles and going strong.  Finally had to change the transmission at 292,000 miles, but since I did it myself, it was worth it.  Original engine.  My 09 Ram 1500 is terrific.

On allpar.com, the forum section is great.  There are messages there documenting instances where a dealer plays hardball.  There have been a few occasions where people finally contact Doug Betts, the head of quality control at Chrysler.  He is an outstanding guy, and in my opinion, with the exception of Sergio Marchionne, one of the people most responsible for Chrysler's turnaround.

The 2002 Ram 1500 is the first version of the Ram to be designed under Daimler.  Daimler did nothing but financially rape Chrysler and leave the bones to be picked, after $14 billion were gone.  As part of that process, interiors were cheapened greatly, hence the cracking.  They tried to go cheap, but went too cheap.  The 03 - 08 Rams weren't a whole lot better, but 09 is a whole new truck, both aesthetically and in terms of suspension and frame.  The 13 and up 1500's are even more improved having won Motor Trend Truck of the Year two years straight, something that has never happened before.  

Fortunately, the Ram is a solid vehicle mechanically, but that dash situation is awful.  I would email Doug Betts ( [email protected]  ) and explain not only your situation, but how widespread this is, and also how it would affect your inclination to purchase another Chrysler product.  Please understand though, that Chrysler is a new company trying very hard to repair the years of neglect and abuse at the hands of Daimler.  I will never own a vehicle designed under Daimler's rule.  The PT Cruiser, while produced while Daimler owned them, was designed prior to the "merger"/takeover/theft.  The basic engineering endured, but the cheapness overtook the designs.  My cousin was an engineer for Ford and he had many friends who were engineers at Chrysler when Daimler came in.  It wasn't pretty.

The style you have went to 2008.  The next major update was 2009 with a mid cycle refresh in 2013. 

I know someone who had a 99 Ram with a split center console cover.  My 2009 Ram 1500 is fine, and that is with it sitting in the Florida sun all year. 

Is your dash splitting do to deterioration or is it actually falling apart?

You may also want to consider posting your question in the Ram section on the allpar.com forums.  There are many Chrysler techs and other owners there who may have more info.

the Fort Wilderness map clearly shows what are and are not pet loops ( http://www.fortfiends.net/_/info/fort-wilderness-loop-classification-map-r196 ) If Disney wants to keep those designations, then they should enforce it.  If they don't want to enforce that, then remove the designations.  No matter what, don't  create a false impression of how the place is run, and especially don't force the guests to be the enforcers by waiting for them to complain before doing something about it. 

The Tri Circle D horse barn would be gone too.

Do people in Florida not own guns?

A 22 is all you need to get rid of your problem.

Sure, just not necessarily able to use them in certain areas (or at least talk about it).

We were there Halloween and the first week of November. And yes, I stand out a bit. Most of our stay the truck was in the overflow since we had Moms car at the site. Look for us again 2nd & 3rd weeks of November this year! Yea!

It was the overflow lot.  Love the license plate. 

We just booked our 1st visit to the Wilderness Campground and after reading some of the discussions here, a bit concerned about our location. The Disney representative said we would be in the 100 or 200 loop with our 38 foot 5th wheel that has three slides and I'm hopeful we have enough space. Any information would be great. Thanks!

We have a 24 ft trailer and stayed at site 228 in September.  We had no problem, but I can't imagine getting a 38 ft 5th wheel in there, especially with room for the TV.  In November, we were at site 1122 (premium), and that was MUCH bigger and easier to maneuver.  I agree with the others; I would try to upgrade. 

If you are a backing god you may be able to park that rig and then move your tv to the overflow lot. I'd say forget it and upgrade to Premium.

When were you last at Disney?  I saw what I think was your truck recently.  Can't miss that license plate (or the decals on the tailgate)!  :) 

This is the first I've heard of coyotes around WDW.

 

But, I'm not surprised.

 

We have a bad problem with them around where I live.

 

Cats and small dogs have been killed by them.

 

They are not native to Florida.  I don't know why they just don't eliminate them.

 

Or, at least bring in some Road Runners to deal with the problem.

 

TCD

I live nearby and we have quite a few that frequent our subdivision (rural).  Saw several crossing Osceola Parkway a little while ago.  Winter Garden has many, and several people have lost their pets.  A friend of mine lives there and says when he leaves in the early morning to head to work at Disney, he may see 6 or 7 of them prior to leaving his subdivision. 

They may be full, or at least have filled the current allotment.  I made reservations a few months ago for 12/28/14 through 1/3/15.  When I first started checking, it showed up as full, but then it opened.

Not showing any reservations on the My Disney Experience app.  I wonder when it would take effect.

EDIT:  Just saw it starts december 18th, but if you call in and make a prior one, they will honor it.

The area looks so much "simpler" then.  And where are all the people?

I yearn for those days!  I have a picture taken in Frontierland on my honeymoon in September 1984.  It was from the area of Diamond Horseshoe, looking towards what is now Splash Mountain (then the train station).  There are 3 people in the entire picture. back then there really was an off season.

It may be, but my question is, are they Disney's bean counters or Coke's?

 

The machines are furnished by Coke, and if what I'm reading is accurate, the syrup is supplied for free to Disney. Disney pays for the cups. That's supposedly where Coke makes it's money, on the cups and not on the soft drinks.

 

I also know that Coke, like a lot of companies, has gotten into RFID technology in a big way. If I were supplying something for free that can be wasted. and that waste impacts my bottom line, I would certainly look into what Coke has done.

 

So I'm not convinced that the RapidRefill program was initiated by Disney.

I have nothing official to base this on, just my evaluation based on my prior career of optimizing efficiency and reducing waste in high output situations.

That's a possibility.  But I was told by people at the Grand Floridian that one of the reasons this was instituted was to get people in and out of the restaurants quickly.  I don't know coke's role in that.  Also, this was also a major change in the refillable cup program, so I'm not sure what Coke's role is in that either.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the need to control waste, especially when dealing with volumes as high as that encountered at Disney.  I don't mind the three refill limit on the non-reusable cups.  After the third refill, I've had enough anyway.  It is the one hour time limit that really gets me.  If it was something longer than people should stay, yet short enough to prevent people from bringing back the cups many times, such as 4 hours, I don't think it would bother me nearly as much.

However, to support your point, the hot cups for coffee and tea do not have the RFID chips.  Don't know if that is because the machines still don't handle them (but will) or if they don't plan on implementing this.  The cold drinks are supplied by Coke, the hot drinks are not.

I've seen a lot of complaining over this system.  I'm hoping that Disney tweaks the system in some manner to alleviate the complaints yet still achieve their goals.

Agreed

 

 

Glad you said a bit, and not lot. 

On a daily basis, I always see examples of CMs living up to Disney's original expectations.  

As for you seeing evidence of it returning, can you give us some examples? 

 

 

He is all that.

Ken has been at WDW forever. If he's your server, you will remember him.

I am starting to see a bit of a return in the quality of the new construction.  I am also starting to see some small evidence of differentiation between the stores again, although that is still small.  There is also a bit more emphasis on Walt's legacy, publicly to some degree, but also behind the scenes.  I don't know how much that will be followed through, but it is a start.  

I will say I think the new drink system in the hotel fast food restaurants is a GIANT step backwards.  Not because you can't re-use old refillable mugs, but because I think it is inexcusable to put a one hour time limit on being able to refill a soda if you purchase a soda without a refillable mug.  People are paying a lot of money for the food, and especially to stay in the hotel, and to limit the time a person can sit and relax at a meal without feeling rushed is pathetic.  Add to that when a child tries a type of soda, doesn't like it and dumps it, only to find out he's used up one of his refills PLUS he has to wait 5 minutes before getting something to drink.  Makes for a lot of unhappy parents.

Hopefully the smaller, subtle changes are an indication of a general change in direction, and the drink fiasco is a result of mindless beancounting.

Only time will tell.

The short answer is because the reservation system is cuckoo.

 

The long answer is that it seems that the reservation system is either super buggy or intentionally setup to discourage short stays - and especially weekend stays.  It's pretty normal that if you try and book a couple of days (particularly over a weekend) and there's no availability showing, that if you then search for 10-14 days with those days included in the middle somewhere, the availability shows up.

 

I once had to book 2 weeks just to get the one Friday I needed.

 

Like I said - cuckoo.

 

What many folks have learned is that you book a longer stay that includes the days you want, then call back asap and drop the unwanted days.  

The dining reservation system is the same way (or at least used to be).  One time, we had trouble getting a reservation at the Captain's Grill.  We finally made a reservation for later than we wanted, but showed up way early, hoping to be able to get a table.  When we got there, the place was empty.  I saw a manager and told him that the reservation system said they were full.  He asked if we tried for two people, and I said yes.  He said the system will often show no availability for a small party hoping that larger parties will make reservations instead.  He said to him, it hurts more than it helps.  Maybe the reservation system works the same way.

As a further note; I am in no way saying that a majority of the CM's are duds, I have had too many good experiences to say that.  What I am saying is that, the quality of the CM's has regressed, at least in my opinion.  For years the DW and myself used to talk all of the time about how every CM that we dealt with was so good.  I once asked the leader of a tour we were on, just how Disney managed to get such good people, telling him that I was in management with a large service organization and I knew how hard this was to accomplish.

 

I don't know why the quality of the people seems to have gone down, perhaps it was inevitable with such a large corporation and with, what I think, may be an indictment of the character of more and more people in our society as much as anything else.  I have had more bad incidents with CM's in the last 3 to 4 years than in all of my previous times at Disney.  This may very well be only one person's experience, but it is mine.

Several things have happened.  Locally, the allure of working for Disney has diminished.  As the area has grown, so have the opportunities for jobs at other places.  In addition, as labor contracts have evolved, it has become more difficult to "focus on" an individual employee without having to apply an equal level of enforcement on good employees who may slip up on a rare occasion.  Not saying this is necessarily a bad thing, but it does make it more difficult to work on improving or removing an under-performing employee.  Also, the Traditions training they give new cast members now is MUCH shorter than in years past.  Finally, the legacy of Walt Disney himself has faded a bit, although I can see some evidence of it returning to some degree.  But as long as the shareholders keep demanding higher and higher profits every quarter, Walt's ideals become more difficult to maintain.  These ideals are summarized in this familiar quote, "I think by this time my staff, my young group of executives, and everyone else are convinced that Walt is right. The quality will out. And so I think they're going to stay with that policy because it's proved that it's a good business policy. Give the people everything you can give them. Keep the place as clean as you can keep it. Keep it friendly, you know. Make it a real fun place to be. I think they're convinced and I think they'll hang on ... if ... as you say ... well, after Disney."

With all that said, I know of many cast members who place Walt's ideals at their highest priority, and look upon their jobs as much more than employment.  The company still cares for their cast members as was evident in the Cast Service Celebration a few weeks ago.  And many cast members at Fort Wilderness epitomize the Disney of the past, people like Josephine, the hostess at Trails End, and Ken a server at Trails End. 

I would be surprised if you even got a response, but they may be in a good mood and send you a letter back apologizing.  Even so, I am convinced that Disney doesn't really give a hoot if you come back or not.  If you don't ever come back there will be about 10 others to replace you and they know that. 

 

Back sometime ago, I used to receive a questionnaire asking how my trip went and if I had any "magical moments" to report, but they always asked in a way that you couldn't find a spot to make any comments or suggestions about anything that you were not specifically asked.  I haven't even received one of those in recent years, all they send out now is the surveys, that you are approached in the parks to answer when you get back home.  They even go so far as to tell you in those surveys that they are not interested in comments or suggestions.  Those surveys are for their use in determining demographics and nothing else.

 

The DW and I really love Disney and the fort, it's a one of a kind experience that you can't get anywhere else, but I don't suffer with any delusions that they worry one iota about losing us as a customer.  The place is too big and too unique, and they have a customer base to draw from that is never ending.  They used to have some of the best employees (CM's) of any organization I knew of, but in recent years that has begun to also slip.

 

Hate to sound so negative, but I have to call them like I see them, however having said all of the above we just renewed our AP's, so go figure.

I was surprised, but after our stay in November, we did receive an email with a link to an online survey.  Plus, there were plenty of opportunities to report negative aspects of the stay.  I haven't seen that before, and was impressed with the survey itself, pretty thorough.  I answered it honestly, stressing the good and the bad.  Now whether it has any bearing is another matter.

Well, we have a German Shepherd that weighs in at about 80 pounds.  He has a deep bark and loves to let people hear it.  But, we request a pet loop, and he is never out alone.  If folks are walking we try to keep him quiet but it is a chore.  Really, he just wants to play with everyone.

 

Sorry they moved you.  If you were in a non pet loop the dog and family should move.

If the people tried to quiet the dog, and especially if it was a pet loop, I would have had no issues at all.  It was just the "all about me" attitude that seemed so prevalent that weekend.  Someone like you I would have had no issue with at all. 

I missed it in my previous post, but when I went back to the Outpost to ask about the pet policy, Disney said they would send someone out to check out the dogs (the German Shephard and a small barking dog in the adjacent campsite).  We walked the loop the next day, and both were gone.  Disney very well may have moved them (and got their $5). 

I know I will probably upset some of the Florida "FIENDS", but what we have observed over the past couple years is when the "WEEKEND WACKO's" (the locals) show the place gets crazy. That is when we see rules being totally ignored. Starts on Thursday night and ends on Sunday usually.

I'm local (and new to this site), but can't disagree with you.  We camped at FW in September and it was quiet and we had a great time.  Everybody was courteous, friendly, and looking at the campers, people who enjoyed camping and do it a good bit.

A few weeks ago, I managed to get a last minute opening in November; a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving.  I had requested 1100 loop since my dog died in June, and we no longer need or desire a pet loop.  We were greeted by a large German Shepherd barking loudly at us with the owner sitting nearby doing nothing to quiet the dog.  I ended up asking Disney what their policy was for pets in a non-pet loop; thinking that perhaps the pet loops were overbooked.  That was not the case, and Disney was very nice and moved me to another site in 1100.  We never heard the dog again.  It got worse Friday night as more people came in to set up a variety of tents/cars to camp in.  I went to the beach to watch the fireworks and was surprised how loud and rude so many people were, and how many had way to much to drink.  When Sunday came, most of those who came in on Friday or Saturday packed up and went home.  I was a bit discouraged by the whole thing, and can only imagine what it was like over Thanksgiving.