Broken Rides

debbie1996

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jan 3, 2013
I have to say after getting back yesterday from our first trip to Disney in 7 years, we were extremely disappointed in the lack of maintenance at the parks - especially MK. I think Disney's reputation for quality at this point is utterly undeserved. At MK practically the only ride that DIDN'T break was Space Mountain. Obviously Splash Mountain is down for refurbishment, so that was unavailable. But rides that broke: Buzz Lightyear (TWICE! while we were on the ride). BTMR one side went down while we were in line - essentially doubling the wait time. Haunted Mansion stopped for 10+ minutes while we were at the dining scene (somehow watching the characters appear and disappear over and over again, takes away some of the "haunted" magic), and those stupid cars between tomorrowland and fantasyland were a disaster - while we were waiting, no fewer than 3 cars died and had to be moved off the track. We even ended up stuck on Pirates of the Caribbean - it became a running joke on whether we'd make it through any ride at all without stopping.

And since I'm venting anyway - just a warning the food at BOG is awful!!!!! I think the kid's meatloaf would be nasty regardless, but cold is was utterly inedible. My non-picky eater was in tears as she was starving and truly could not eat her lunch. I didn't do much better - the "steak" sandwich was tough enough to be horse meat.
 
debbie1996 said:
I have to say after getting back yesterday from our first trip to Disney in 7 years, we were extremely disappointed in the lack of maintenance at the parks - especially MK. I think Disney's reputation for quality at this point is utterly undeserved. At MK practically the only ride that DIDN'T break was Space Mountain. Obviously Splash Mountain is down for refurbishment, so that was unavailable. But rides that broke: Buzz Lightyear (TWICE! while we were on the ride). BTMR one side went down while we were in line - essentially doubling the wait time. Haunted Mansion stopped for 10+ minutes while we were at the dining scene (somehow watching the characters appear and disappear over and over again, takes away some of the "haunted" magic), and those stupid cars between tomorrowland and fantasyland were a disaster - while we were waiting, no fewer than 3 cars died and had to be moved off the track. We even ended up stuck on Pirates of the Caribbean - it became a running joke on whether we'd make it through any ride at all without stopping.

And since I'm venting anyway - just a warning the food at BOG is awful!!!!! I think the kid's meatloaf would be nasty regardless, but cold is was utterly inedible. My non-picky eater was in tears as she was starving and truly could not eat her lunch. I didn't do much better - the "steak" sandwich was tough enough to be horse meat.

How do you know the rides were "broken"?

You will find your opinion on BOG to be in the minority. Most reviews, here and elsewhere, are overwhelmingly positive. I'm honestly sorry your experience was bad.
 
When you say broken, does it stop for a couple of minutes and start back up? The reason I ask is many of the rides you mentioned have to be stopped to allow wheelchair riders on and off. So that might be why you were held up.


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I have to say after getting back yesterday from our first trip to Disney in 7 years, we were extremely disappointed in the lack of maintenance at the parks - especially MK. I think Disney's reputation for quality at this point is utterly undeserved. At MK practically the only ride that DIDN'T break was Space Mountain. Obviously Splash Mountain is down for refurbishment, so that was unavailable. But rides that broke: Buzz Lightyear (TWICE! while we were on the ride). BTMR one side went down while we were in line - essentially doubling the wait time. Haunted Mansion stopped for 10+ minutes while we were at the dining scene (somehow watching the characters appear and disappear over and over again, takes away some of the "haunted" magic), and those stupid cars between tomorrowland and fantasyland were a disaster - while we were waiting, no fewer than 3 cars died and had to be moved off the track. We even ended up stuck on Pirates of the Caribbean - it became a running joke on whether we'd make it through any ride at all without stopping.

And since I'm venting anyway - just a warning the food at BOG is awful!!!!! I think the kid's meatloaf would be nasty regardless, but cold is was utterly inedible. My non-picky eater was in tears as she was starving and truly could not eat her lunch. I didn't do much better - the "steak" sandwich was tough enough to be horse meat.
OP, be careful about your Disney criticism. The apologists here will rip you apart. I had the same experience on our last trip. Lack of maintenance, broken down rides etc. The "Disney can do no wrong" crowd was quick to jump.

I do agree with you on the lack of maintenance and ride breakdowns. We also experienced many overflowing trash cans throughout the parks which i've never seen before.

We used to go once per year, but after last trip we are now going once every 3 or 4 years. I feel the value has declined greatly.
 
Wow what a bad luck day for you! p.s. did you cross a black cat, break a mirror, walk under a ladder :rotfl: Seriously though - sorry you had a bad experience, hope you got to salvage some of the day and had fun elsewhere:)
 
Well for all of them they came on the loud speaker to let us know that there was an unexpected delay, and as the wait was at LEAST 5-10 minutes - the haunted castle was probably closer to 15, I can pretty comfortably say that they weren't loading wheel chairs (that or they really need to fix the loading procedure for wheel chairs). There's no question BTM was down as you could see that they were only loading from one side and the cars are pretty easy to figure out as when they have people out there pushing the cars - it's a good sign that they're broken.

On the whole the vacation was great - MK was definitely the low light. We enjoyed HS - the Osbourne lights did not disappoint - and Harry Potter was very cool. I guess coming right after Christmas where crowds are at the peak, it's hard to keep up with maintenance - but it was definitely noticeable and a problem on this trip.
 


I have to say after getting back yesterday from our first trip to Disney in 7 years, we were extremely disappointed in the lack of maintenance at the parks - especially MK. I think Disney's reputation for quality at this point is utterly undeserved. At MK practically the only ride that DIDN'T break was Space Mountain. Obviously Splash Mountain is down for refurbishment, so that was unavailable. But rides that broke: Buzz Lightyear (TWICE! while we were on the ride). BTMR one side went down while we were in line - essentially doubling the wait time. Haunted Mansion stopped for 10+ minutes while we were at the dining scene (somehow watching the characters appear and disappear over and over again, takes away some of the "haunted" magic), and those stupid cars between tomorrowland and fantasyland were a disaster - while we were waiting, no fewer than 3 cars died and had to be moved off the track. We even ended up stuck on Pirates of the Caribbean - it became a running joke on whether we'd make it through any ride at all without stopping.

And since I'm venting anyway - just a warning the food at BOG is awful!!!!! I think the kid's meatloaf would be nasty regardless, but cold is was utterly inedible. My non-picky eater was in tears as she was starving and truly could not eat her lunch. I didn't do much better - the "steak" sandwich was tough enough to be horse meat.
~Aww, so sorry to hear this. There was one year -- I want to say 2009 -- when all the rides went down, it was really bad. But, every year since then has been was almost perfect, the only ride that went down on our last trip was Splash. With that said, I have been coming across reports similar to yours more & more. :( Anyway, I hope the rest of your trip went okay. :goodvibes
 
Wow sounds like you had an unlucky time at MK. I usually run into at least a couple of issues with rides during my visits but they are always spread across different parks.

The only good thing about Buzz stopping is you get a chance at a high score if you are an average shooter like me!
 
OP, be careful about your Disney criticism. The apologists here will rip you apart. I had the same experience on our last trip. Lack of maintenance, broken down rides etc. The "Disney can do no wrong" crowd was quick to jump.

I do agree with you on the lack of maintenance and ride breakdowns. We also experienced many overflowing trash cans throughout the parks which i've never seen before.

We used to go once per year, but after last trip we are now going once every 3 or 4 years. I feel the value has declined greatly.


Sorry you encountered so many problems OP. I have to agree about the trash. My parents took me to WDW 4 times from 1979 to 1991 and they always raved about how clean the parks were. I was really shocked the first time we took our kids in 2009 to see how much that had changed. We constantly saw overflowing trash cans, bathrooms that needed attention, mutliple tables needing a clean at quick service dining places, and even trash on rides (we had to skip 2 tea cups due to this before finding a 3rd clean one). We were there at a very slow time of year, early Feb, so there really was no excuse. I love WDW but anyone who is truthful will admit cleanliness is way down from a couple decades ago.
 
If pointing out that ride stoppages are not automatically the result of a "broken ride" but often due to guest stupidity--also on the rise--then I wear the Disney-apologist badge proudly. :thumbsup2
 
debbie1996 said:
.

And since I'm venting anyway - just a warning the food at BOG is awful!!!!! I think the kid's meatloaf would be nasty regardless, but cold is was utterly inedible. My non-picky eater was in tears as she was starving and truly could not eat her lunch. I didn't do much better - the "steak" sandwich was tough enough to be horse meat.

Thank you! I finally found someone who thought the BOG food was less than stellar. I can't speak for dinner food, but the lunch my wife and I had was bad.
 
If you visited between Cmas and NY, I think the amount of people and use could have been the issue. We are WDW people and understand that sometimes rides will go down, but this last visit, everything seemed down, but the crowds were huge. I'm glad we went during that particular period and it wasn't as bad as some people say, but it's not a time period I ever wish to visit again. :0

Of course, we noticed rides going down more than usual at Universal too.

Standing in a long line especially with people coughing and sneezing down your neck and having a ride go down and double the wait IS NOT FUN!! ;)

We have visited 25+ times since 1996 and I have always thought Disney maintained their parks beautifully. Still do, but Cmas thru NY.... Gross. Several bathrooms had backups. Just disgusting, but again, I think it was due to the amount of people rather than Disney. We saw several workers stationed in the bathrooms continually trying to stay ahead of the "paper" game ;)
 
Wow sounds like you had an unlucky time at MK. I usually run into at least a couple of issues with rides during my visits but they are always spread across different parks.

The only good thing about Buzz stopping is you get a chance at a high score if you are an average shooter like me!

Actually it's the reason we got back on after it stopped the first time! My son was so mad that it stopped where he couldn't hit anything and "Those people are still shooting - NO FAIR!!!!" (imagine that said in the high pitched shriek of a 9 year old boy) - of course it DIDN'T stop the second time. We got "lucky" when we road it the final time before leaving and it stopped again - leading to a new high for him!
 
I would definitely suggest complaining about your experience. Disney needs to know that the cut backs on the maintenance staff really affects the overall guest experience!

I wouldn't complain expecting to get "something" other than knowing that someone heard your story!

I'm glad the rest of your vacation went well!
 
If pointing out that ride stoppages are not automatically the result of a "broken ride" but often due to guest stupidity--also on the rise--then I wear the Disney-apologist badge proudly. :thumbsup2

Do they give you a pin at check in?! :P
 
If you visited between Cmas and NY, I think the amount of people and use could have been the issue. We are WDW people and understand that sometimes rides will go down, but this last visit, everything seemed down, but the crowds were huge. I'm glad we went during that particular period and it wasn't as bad as some people say, but it's not a time period I ever wish to visit again. :0

Of course, we noticed rides going down more than usual at Universal too.

Standing in a long line especially with people coughing and sneezing down your neck and having a ride go down and double the wait IS NOT FUN!! ;)

We actually TRIED to beat the rush - we didn't arrive until the 4th - but crowds were still high through the weekend. It wasn't too bad though in general. With the exception of not being able to ride Toy Story Mania a second time - we were still over at Jedi Training and by the time we got back over at 10 they were completely out of FP and the wait time even at park close was over 2 hours! Luckily we'd ran there at opening so had a chance to ride it once (in all honesty I think my kids enjoyed Buzz Lightyear more than Toy Story, but that might be because my son has issues with 3D glasses). It definitely wasn't worth a 160 minute wait which is what it peaked at on Saturday.
 
debbie1996 said:
We actually TRIED to beat the rush - we didn't arrive until the 4th - but crowds were still high through the weekend. It wasn't too bad though in general. With the exception of not being able to ride Toy Story Mania a second time - we were still over at Jedi Training and by the time we got back over at 10 they were completely out of FP and the wait time even at park close was over 2 hours! Luckily we'd ran there at opening so had a chance to ride it once (in all honesty I think my kids enjoyed Buzz Lightyear more than Toy Story, but that might be because my son has issues with 3D glasses). It definitely wasn't worth a 160 minute wait which is what it peaked at on Saturday.

We left on the fourth. We had been hoping that the crowds would thin after NYE, but they didn't really. A little maybe, but not so much that there was a huge difference.
 
How do you know the rides were "broken"?

You will find your opinion on BOG to be in the minority. Most reviews, here and elsewhere, are overwhelmingly positive. I'm honestly sorry your experience was bad.

The reviews I've read for Be Our Guest haven't been "overwhelmingly positive." There's an active thread right now that seems about split between folks who thought it was really good to those who were sorely disappointed.
 

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