Rides breaking down at alarming rate

[fatmanatee]

I don’t know if this has anything to do with it but Pirates (MK version) turns 50 this year. The only ride I’ve ever been stuck on (Pirates, DL version) turned 55 last year.

Meanwhile, as it’s a topic of conversation here, the only ride at Uni that is over 30 years old is ET.

 

[MIChessGuy]

I have been going to these parks for a while (in the case of DLR, first visit 1970), and have not experienced very many inoperative or failed-while-operating rides. The most recent was over at USF when something happened with the control systems at Bourne and they couldn't fix it. The audience members were given one-use express passes as we filed out. A few years ago, I think 2017, one of the old-school rides at DLR failed, Alice or Snow White or something, and we actually got out of our ride cars and walked behind a CM who guided us out. Other than that, over dozens of trips it hasn't really been much more than stopping for maybe a few minutes and I assume most of those were disability accommodation procedures. I can recall one problem at Forbidden Journey that was clearly a real problem, it was too long just to be helping somebody, but even that was maybe 15 or 20 minutes and I remember thinking at the time Eh, this is gonna happen sooner or later.

Aside from that, the many adverse reports about missing ride features are the big deal for me. Years and years of dormant dinosaurs and disco Yeti and all the rest of it are really aggravating. I still go, at least for one more trip this September, but in the future I am inclined to stick with Universal's parks and just add on some other stuff like KSC and maybe one of the B-list attractions in the area.

 

[leiaorgana]

Meanwhile, as it’s a topic of conversation here, the only ride at Uni that is over 30 years old is ET.

Slightly off topic but the ET Adventure ride is my childhood fave and I’d be truly devastated if they ever shut it down permanently since it’s the last one now (I know Spielberg has that contract with them but it’s still always a possibility) but it really does need a big refurb. Stuff that was broken on it when we went this time last year was still broken on it when we went last month.

The state Ragdoll is in is just shocking tbh and half the baby ET creatures don’t work in the last two show scenes. I’m hoping they’re going to spruce it up once they’re done with the Kidzone remodel and with them changing the entrance of it but it does hurt my heart to see the poor state it’s currently in atm

 

[Smugpugmug]

Slightly off topic but the ET Adventure ride is my childhood fave and I’d be truly devastated if they ever shut it down permanently since it’s the last one now (I know Spielberg has that contract with them but it’s still always a possibility) but it really does need a big refurb. Stuff that was broken on it when we went this time last year was still broken on it when we went last month.

The state Ragdoll is in is just shocking tbh and half the baby ET creatures don’t work in the last two show scenes. I’m hoping they’re going to spruce it up once they’re done with the Kidzone remodel and with them changing the entrance of it but it does hurt my heart to see the poor state it’s currently in atm

I rode ET two weeks ago and the state that ride is in is very embarrassing. Reminded me of WDW Splash before it closed for good. It hurts because it's one of my favorite rides in the park.

The Imhotep animatronic in Revenge of the Mummy also barely works despite that ride JUST receiving a massive refurb. I think I've only seen it work once since the ride reopened and then that was it.

 

[fatmanatee]

Slightly off topic but the ET Adventure ride is my childhood fave and I’d be truly devastated if they ever shut it down permanently since it’s the last one now (I know Spielberg has that contract with them but it’s still always a possibility) but it really does need a big refurb. Stuff that was broken on it when we went this time last year was still broken on it when we went last month.

The state Ragdoll is in is just shocking tbh and half the baby ET creatures don’t work in the last two show scenes. I’m hoping they’re going to spruce it up once they’re done with the Kidzone remodel and with them changing the entrance of it but it does hurt my heart to see the poor state it’s currently in atm

I’d like to think Uni gets that it’s an iconic ride but they really don’t get sentimental about tearing the old down and building something new. I feel like they have more flexibility in that respect than Disney does.

Anyway I think it should stay.

 

[leiaorgana]

I’d like to think Uni gets that it’s an iconic ride but they really don’t get sentimental about tearing the old down and building something new. I feel like they have more flexibility in that respect than Disney does.

Anyway I think it should stay.

I’m not sure of the full details of it but I think Spielberg has a contract with Universal that if they want to use his other properties then ET has to stay in at least one park and that’s why they’re limping it along at USO.

 

[Davey Jones II]

After reading this thread (and some others) I'm actually dreading my vacation in three weeks. First time since 2019 and I just have the feeling everything will be a disaster.

Low wait times have been reported this summer, so that should compensate for ride closures.

I've often been pessimistic about my trips, because both negative and positive things are reported on these boards. But we've always had a wonderful trip.

 

[jppeek]

I haven’t been watching the parks lately, so wondering if this is the new normal?

We were at Magic kingdom yesterday and Seven Dwarfs broke down twice while we were in line and then we finally got on the third time but were evacuated (boy is that no fun mid afternoon with the sun beating down). Spent half our time at the park trying to ride it.

Today was Hollywood studios and we tried to ride Mickeys Runaway 3 separate times, each time it broke down with us in line. Then as we were about to board the boat back to our hotel It showed it had a stand by time so we ran back in from the boat only to have it still down and them to tell us it never actually opened.

Debating what we want to do about our next scheduled trip, if this is the norm we need to take a break cause this isn’t much fun.

 

[Ladyandthepuppies]

We were there about a week ago and neither 7DMT or MMRR was having issues. Pirates was down for many hours at a time and then other rides would shut down and reopen sporadically (Frozen Ever After, Ratatouille, Little Mermaid were the ones we tried to ride but couldn’t due to closures. But we got second chances at all of them the same day.) It sounds like your luck has not been great, sending you some good vibes that all the rides are open from here on out!

 

[jppeek]

We were there about a week ago and neither 7DMT or MMRR was having issues. Pirates was down for many hours at a time and then other rides would shut down and reopen sporadically (Frozen Ever After, Ratatouille, Little Mermaid were the ones we tried to ride but couldn’t due to closures. But we got second chances at all of them the same day.) It sounds like your luck has not been great, sending you some good vibes that all the rides are open from here on out!

Thank you

 

[scrappinginontario]

We just returned from 8 days in the parks. Occasionally rides went down but we didn’t notice a lot except for weather related closures. The one exception was Pirates down our entire MK day but it was open 3 other days when we spent part of a day at MK.

I will say I noticed what felt like more times that rides came to a full stop while we were on them but all of those stops were 5 mins or less, mort often much less.

The one day that a number of rides were closed when the heavens opened, I used the opportunity to stack ‘Anytime LLs’ and had 5 of them booked during the storm which made for a great evening in the MK!!

 

[TeamSy]

We noticed this a lot too. We just got back from a week and have never had anything happen like we did this time. We have been REALLY lucky in the past, so I think that made the stops/shut downs really stick out for us.

MK
1. Haunted Mansion stopped for a bit mid-ride. 3
year old was loving it until that point, and was looking forward to it since riding last year, but it really spooked her ugh. Now she says she does not want to go on ever again
2. Little Mermaid stopped for (what seemed like) a long while. It was probably only like 5 mins but seemed like a lot longer. I feel like it ruined it for the kids a bit. They got a little scared being in that spot by Ursula lol. Hubby was just glad we didn’t have to be escorted off. He thought it was going to end up that way based how long it was taking.

AK
No issues

HS
1. Got stuck on TSMM for a while. Hate when those zeros pop up!
2. SDD - man this seemed to shut down a lot! We had to keep an eye on it constantly. Luckily we got a ride that evening!

EP
1. Test track was a huge bummer. Something was DEF messed up with it. Where the truck comes out to “hit you” we went super slow and did not swerve. Then right before we should have raced it stopped. Such a disappointing ride.
2. The BIGGEST bummer of the trip tho was remy! Have never been on this ride to this day. First time we tried we got everyone out of the stroller, walked up to find it shut down. Our LL turned into an anytime so we figured we’d use it later in the day. Sucks that it’s allll the way at the one end of the park. Kept an eye on it but we it was hard to make it back to that end of the park. Plus the app seemed like it constantly fluctuated between temp closed and not. Finally made it back hours later, end of day… we were NEXT to get ON and it shut down!!! Ugh. We never had that happen before. Kids cried. We were exited, re-given our LL back. Unfortunately it was 8pm and we were told it was not coming back and it was our last day. We got a second ride on frozen so kids were a little happier. I was NOT happy having to walk back and forth from France to Norway, as this was supposed to be our last ride before leaving lol.

But yeah, totally get what OP and others are saying! We have never had stops/shut downs like this before!!

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I will say I noticed what felt like more times that rides came to a full stop while we were on them but all of those stops were 5 mins or less, mort often much less.

I wonder what the numbers are for people with accessibility issues who need the ride to stop to load/unload are. I feel like I see more and more scooters every time I go to MK these days.

 

[georgina]

Sunday was bad at HS. I was changing resorts so wasn’t checking early, but Rise and RnRC were down all afternoon and evening. MMRR was down several times, as was TSMM. Tot had one side go down at the end of the night. I feel bad for people who only had one day there.

 

[Orsino]

Break downs have been worrying me for a while now. The way I look at it is that while breakdowns are becoming more common, the awful bad luck that the previous poster experienced is still rare. However, with tens of thousands of families visiting WDW every day, the chances that someone will have back to back to back breakdowns is unfortunately not unusual. It's terrible that it happened to jppeak. I suspect that one unlucky family gets multiple breakdowns each day. The chances aren't high that it will happen to one specific family, but it is going to happen to someone.

 

[georgina]

Yes I was fortunate to have a 7 day park hopper so I could go back another day to catch what I missed. Not sure how uncommon my experience is any more though. Talked to a family in line who was on their 2nd try at MMRR and they said their DS was so excited to finally be big enough to ride RnRC and it never opened all day

 

[jppeek]

I’m pretty lucky as we have annuals and DVC so we get down here a lot. Biggest issue for us is my son is at an age where he knows the rides but doesn’t completely understand why we can’t ride it when they are down (as much as we try to explain) so we get some melt downs. Hoping that he grows out of that really soon!

My friends and family that were with us however only had one day at each park, so I felt so bad for them. I do all the planning, so while I know it’s not my fault I still feel bad knowing how much they spent and how little they got to do.

Was also very surprised about guest relations pretty much lack of caring. They just kept repeating to me rides aren’t guaranteed and there was nothing they could do. I understand rides aren’t guaranteed but if someone pays $5k for a vacation they shouldn’t spend most of it waiting in lines they never get to ride. Honestly this response was what made me wonder if this is becoming the norm and they are just getting a flood of people with the issues and becoming numb.

Old Disney spoiled me, cause I never left an interaction not feeling like my concerns were heard and addressed. This trip it was like I was just a giant inconvenience and they were a robot with their responses.

Heading to universal for the last few days of our trip and very much hoping things work better over there lol

 

[jppeek]

We noticed this a lot too. We just got back from a week and have never had anything happen like we did this time. We have been REALLY lucky in the past, so I think that made the stops/shut downs really stick out for us.

MK
1. Haunted Mansion stopped for a bit mid-ride. 3
year old was loving it until that point, and was looking forward to it since riding last year, but it really spooked her ugh. Now she says she does not want to go on ever again
2. Little Mermaid stopped for (what seemed like) a long while. It was probably only like 5 mins but seemed like a lot longer. I feel like it ruined it for the kids a bit. They got a little scared being in that spot by Ursula lol. Hubby was just glad we didn’t have to be escorted off. He thought it was going to end up that way based how long it was taking.

AK
No issues

HS
1. Got stuck on TSMM for a while. Hate when those zeros pop up!
2. SDD - man this seemed to shut down a lot! We had to keep an eye on it constantly. Luckily we got a ride that evening!

EP
1. Test track was a huge bummer. Something was DEF messed up with it. Where the truck comes out to “hit you” we went super slow and did not swerve. Then right before we should have raced it stopped. Such a disappointing ride.
2. The BIGGEST bummer of the trip tho was remy! Have never been on this ride to this day. First time we tried we got everyone out of the stroller, walked up to find it shut down. Our LL turned into an anytime so we figured we’d use it later in the day. Sucks that it’s allll the way at the one end of the park. Kept an eye on it but we it was hard to make it back to that end of the park. Plus the app seemed like it constantly fluctuated between temp closed and not. Finally made it back hours later, end of day… we were NEXT to get ON and it shut down!!! Ugh. We never had that happen before. Kids cried. We were exited, re-given our LL back. Unfortunately it was 8pm and we were told it was not coming back and it was our last day. We got a second ride on frozen so kids were a little happier. I was NOT happy having to walk back and forth from France to Norway, as this was supposed to be our last ride before leaving lol.

But yeah, totally get what OP and others are saying! We have never had stops/shut downs like this before!!

I’m sorry, what it does to the kids is the worst part!

 

[gojames]

Recent trip only had issues at HS. RotR and RnRC were down very frequently.

 

[Chirple]

I wonder what the numbers are for people with accessibility issues who need the ride to stop to load/unload are. I feel like I see more and more scooters every time I go to MK these days.

^^^I can speak about this from personal experience. When rides with moving walkways came to a stop during the ride, we chalked it up to people loading and unloading the ride.

My husband broke his foot 2 weeks ago, and we had a 2 night trip planned 9/3-9/5 for MNSSHP. He was able to ride Buzz and HM if they stopped the walkway. With HM it took longer because 1) another guest with limited mobility was unloading first and the wheelchair had to be brought right up to the doombuggy and 2) my husband was the first of 3 people with limited mobility to load after the other guest left. It did take a bit of time from start to finish.