Broken Rides

[debbie1996]

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.

I'd love to know what they ordered. My daughter was really excited about the meatloaf it's one of her favorite things - but I noticed her picking at it and was going to put my mean mom voice on and tell her to just eat it when I leaned over and took a bite. I'm sorry but it's just straight up BAD!!! And we are not pizza and chicken nugget people - so were particularly annoyed as it was one of the few restaurants where she had a choice other than the typical kid food. She ended up eating the bread off my sandwich and I chewed on the "steak".

I'm guessing people either ordered something else or perhaps are letting the experience and dessert cloud their memory - the chocolate cupcake was quite tasty - we very much regretted our choice to share dessert. Unfortunately you can't change your mind and add or modify your meal once you've ordered. We left the restaurant starving.

 

[kmarie99]

I completely agree with you that I am seeing more trash around and the tables are not as clean, but we also have to admit that as a society we have also become less accountable. Especially with things like clearing off the tables, when I was young my parents made sure I picked up my mess when I was finished at the table (at home or in public) and that is something I see less and less of. We live in a very... ‘that is not my job’ era and it makes me sad.
I am not excusing Disney for cutting back on staff and leaving things messier now but I think that it is not just Disney fault.

 

[dumbolove]

I just got back yesterday and thought the same thing about BOG and the cleanliness of the park. I was a CP last year and know that they are in transition the next few weeks in January which could make a difference on what we saw at the park. I knew a lot of older CM couldn't wait for us to be trained because they were tired of the long hours (noted that on my trip the amount of older people working who were miserable). The bathrooms in which Disney always kept neat were disgusting! I was so looking forward to BOG but the food was terrible! The chocolate cream puff was delicious! I overheard the couple next to us comment about the food and I started a conversation with them. They both work at the hotels in Disney and said never again would they eat there! If you are a big beauty and the beast fan it is worth going to see, but don't except much from the dinner. The photopass person who was with the beast was also horrible. Another older person who was just miserable. CM were hit and miss this trip. Had some really good photopass and waiters, but also had some bad ones. We were lucky enough to not to see many ride difficulties. I got very sick our last day there. Make sure you wash your hands and use antibacterial! People are very rude! I had so many people just cough on me without covering there mouths. Disney needs to set up antibacterial stations epically with all the interactive stuff now.

 

[kris4360]

I like the antibacterial station idea!

 

[princesscate]

I completely agree with you that I am seeing more trash around and the tables are not as clean, but we also have to admit that as a society we have also become less accountable. Especially with things like clearing off the tables, when I was young my parents made sure I picked up my mess when I was finished at the table (at home or in public) and that is something I see less and less of. We live in a very... that is not my job era and it makes me sad.
I am not excusing Disney for cutting back on staff and leaving things messier now but I think that it is not just Disney fault.

We noticed this too in August! We couldn't believe the people leaving the CS trays filled with garbage at their tables. The CMs came right away and cleaned them up though. I do think that the parks seemed "dirtier" in our last visit than in the past. Also less knowledgeable and grumpier CMs were prevalent.

 

[glammadiva]

We were there the 2nd thru the 6th and our experience was completely different. No breakdowns and no overflowing trash cans. My only complaint is they were very slow in replenishing the food on the buffets.

 

[FortForever]

We are here now and have been here for a week. I guess we've been lucky because we haven't run across any broken rides. A few have stopped for a couple of minutes, I assume to load a disabled rider, but that's all.

On Monday evening Buzz Lightyear was shut down for awhile because a guest jumped out during the ride. The first CM would only say they were having "issues." The second CM we spoke to told us what was really going on. He also said that when that happens, they have to evacuate the ride and do a complete walk through before they can clear it to reopen.

I love Disney, but am absolutely NOT a Disney apologist. I have my own list of gripes. I just have not had the same experience as the OP this particular week. I have also not seen any trash or overflowing cans.

 

[kmb584]

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.

Most attraction interruptions are due to either a) loading someone disabled or b) someone being stupid while riding. While definitely an inconvenience those instances are not to be considered "breakdowns".

 

[mejo]

I'm with everybody here, I'm sure most or not all the stoppages were either letting on disabled people or riders not following the rules.

Also we ate at BOG and loved it so much we went back twice more.

 

[larryz]

Do they give you a pin at check in?!

Yes, it's part of the com-pin-sation package.

Fixed it for you...

 

[FigmentChick]

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.

As much as I love Disney and my family keeps going back, I have to agree that maintenance does not seem to be a high priority the past couple of years. So much so that I hand wrote a letter and snail mailed it after our 2011 trip.

That being said: the rides you mentioned use a conveyer system and will stop when a handicapped person needs to get on the ride. I believe that is what you experienced.

Sorry your trip wasn't all that, but you should be aware that some of what you experienced was not Disney's fault.

 

[Albion218]

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.

Harry Potter? Did I miss something?

 

[MouseEarsForAll]

Harry Potter? Did I miss something?

Ha ha! Why oh why do people mix US with WDW???

 

[Albion218]

Ha ha! Why oh why do people mix US with WDW???

Lol I was reading that thinking the same thing!

 

[Belle5]

Harry Potter? Did I miss something?

Trash cans overflowing near Harry Potter, perhaps?

 

[Sandy Fisher]

When we were living just north of Disney, we went frequently and didn't mind too much when a ride was "down". We're very familiar with the time it takes to load special needs riders and often that was not the case. I don't consider the ride "down" when it stops for a few minutes.
However we were going to be moving back to PA and wanted to ride all our favorites one more time and made extra trips to the parks in order to see and do things we knew we'd miss.
We went several times and Big Thunder Mtn. was down. It was down for hours. A couple days it didn't even get started. The CMs at the entrance didn't have much light to shed on the problem. It was a safety issue. The ride was being put through its paces and checked. So we got a FP and when we came back -- we could see from across the park that it was running -- they said it was down indefinitely again.
It had only been running maybe 20 minutes when it was shut down. That happened more than once. I was truly disappointed. I'm not sure what to think now that it's still (?) having problems. Wasn't it down for major refurbishment recently? I thought it was down for a good while last year. I'm sure someone on here knows exactly.

 

[Tennshooter]

First off let me say that I am not a WDW apologist and tend to be pretty critical of places that I visit.

With that being said, We just returned last night from a 5 day trip and we had exactly the opposite expereince. My wife and I commented numerous times about the CMs and how friendly and knowledgable they were and those few times when they did not know something they were eager to find out for us. We also noted and commented on the cleanliness of the parks (at least MK, DHS and AK as those were the ones that we visited). You can't go 15 feet without seeing some CM with a broom and dust pan cleaning up some vistor's mess. Yes the bathrooms occassionally are not as clean as my home bathroom but there are 10000-15000 people using them per day so a little pee on the seat is to be expected.

As for the rides, we only experienced one significant delay and that was on Wednesday afternoon when SM was shut down for 20 minutes or so because some passenger had dropped something off the ride. They had to shut the ride down, find the dropped article, and then restart it. The CM were very upfront with information and were very apologetic. Other than that all of the rides functioned as expected and no maintenance issues were noticed by our family. I guess we just hit the right rides, at the right parks, at the right time.

 

[Glenn]

The poster mentions that the food at BOG was very bad with the meatloaf being cold/steak really tough. My question is why did you put up with it? The meatloaf should have been sent back for health reasons ( hot foods need to be kept hot). And I mean for a new serving not just warming it up. If youre in any restaurant & the food comes out cold instead of hot, burnt instead of rare & so on dont accept it. Demand it should be replaced or taken off the bill. The time things will change is when diners refuse to put up with things that shouldnt be.

 

[CaliBear]

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.

Seriously. At DLR I often hear CMs say that a ride stopped due to an apple or water bottle on the track. Maybe they'll take a cue from Universal and have us put everything in locker before riding.

 

[angelbear425]

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.

It also doesn't help that society has gone downhill enough in the 18 years between your visits that people would leave trash on the rides......