Disappointed in temp closed rides

[Simba77]

Truth is, ride malfunctions do happen; that is part of life and day to day operations in a theme park. The OP's family was right to shrug that stuff off and have a wonderful time regardless of those impediments.

Objectively speaking, Disney could do better. The cut corners have been showing for a while now. I am not a big "If Walt Were Alive Today" guy, but I can just imagine him strolling through some of the parks today and saying "That's not good enough." Disney is in sore need of a "That's not good enough" guy/woman with some power in the corporation.

This I tend to agree with - I'm sure maintenance and upkeep could be better. I'm just pointing out that the downtime could be higher during the end of the summer months, when the park hours have been longer for 3 straight months and there are very few scheduled maintenance breaks for the attractions.

 

[Missyrose]

Just to throw one small thing out there. HM and Buzz are both continuous-loading rides, so if some needs special help getting (like transferring from a wheelchair) they will stop the conveyer belt for a few minutes. Most of the time when you're stuck one those two rides, that is what is happening, not a break down.

 

[lugnut33]

Simba, it's pretty well proven that there have been massive cutbacks in the maintenance dept. at WDW all in the name of boosting shareholder profit. And increasing the bonus for Iger.

 

[mom2rtk]

That's all pretty unscientific, isn't it? The proliferation of social media in the past few years, as well as the addition of free wi-fi at WDW has made it easier for people to post on the DIS about their experiences as they're happening, hasn't it? Could it be that the reporting of broken down rides has as much to do with the ease of the way people can report status updates from the parks during their trip?

At the very least, I don't think you have enough data to say flat out that it has "nothing to do with the time of year," unless you have a "breakdowns per hour" calculation based on the month. At least you could say "I don't think that's it" rather than dismissing it out of hand like you're presenting anything other than a general observation based on people's reports (which again, are subject to mainly, imo, the proliferation of free wi-fi and smartphones in recent years).

Um..... I never said it was scientific. But when the things I read about online are indeed consistent with my own personal experience, I tend to take notice.

I better go back and reread the thread. I must have missed your scientific data.

 

[Simba77]

Um..... I never said it was scientific. But when the things I read about online are indeed consistent with my own personal experience, I tend to take notice.

I better go back and reread the thread. I must have missed your scientific data.

I never presented any data. But then again, I wasn't the one to flat out dismiss your theories as though I knew for sure what was going on.

I said "I wonder if this isn't tied to the time of year."

You said "This has nothing to do with the time of year."

The burden of proof is on the one stating something as though it's a fact. I simply speculated, you tried to disprove my theory as completely invalid without facts.

I never said maintenance hasn't declined in recent years, or that rides don't break down more often now than they did 10 years ago. What I did speculate (and it seems to make sense?) is that the summer (specifically August) might be one of the worst times of year for breakdowns, due to consistently long park hours and lack of scheduled maintenance during the summer (most rides have sched maintenance during the slower season). Seems at least reasonable enough that you can't say I'm flat out wrong without at least presenting some backup.

 

[Son of Gadsden]

I thought the same thing in April.

My wife and I both took notice of the strange occurrence of maintenance issues. We have been many, many times as well and have never noticed such maintenance break downs.

We were taking our friends whom have never been to WDW before. One worked at Disneyland at one point, and the other had never been to any kind of Disney park. We made a bee line for Pirates of the Caribbean, because, well, it's a crime to be 21 years of age and never have ridden that. And, of course, we've been bragging and preaching about how magical WDW is to her. Well, as soon as we arrive at the entrance, we're notified that Pirates is shut down for maintenance. They refused to give us a time in which the ride would reopen, but I checked for rehabs and there were none going on anywhere. So we head for Thunder Mountain....when we arrive, a CM stops us at the entrance to tell us there is maintenance going on and the ride is down...and we see people leaving the fast pass line entrance, so obviously that just happened. So then, we head towards Haunted Mansion. When we get to the line, it's backed up further than I've ever seen it, and the CMs at the line tell us that someone has collapsed inside, and that it will open again momentarily.

Okay, so the last one isn't a maintenance issue, but still. At this point, our friends are saying "Oh yeahhh...realll magical." Our first three attempts at three STAPLES of this park are down.

So at this point we are determined to find SOMETHING. We head over to Tomorrowland and snag fastpasses for Space Mountain which IS running. We then go to Stitches Great Escape to pass the time. (Yes, we actually enjoy that ride...though I think we're the only ones on this forum that do. Alien was far better, but I don't think it's bad). The ride is running, but when you get in the part where you're locked in your seat and Stitch shows up, one of the robot machine gun arms isn't working! With only one working, the effects, sounds, and overall scene are just kind of screwed up.

Later in the trip we got on all three rides that were down. However, when we got on Pirates, once we went down the drop...it broke down. The boats backed up all the way from the exit to the bottom of the drop. We sat there for I'd say 10 minutes...then they shut the audio off for about 5 more minutes...then I'd say the actual ride probably lasted another 15 minutes because of the backup.

Then, we almost got stuck on Yeti on our last day. We rode it about 6 times in a row. The last time going up, the chains started making weird snapping noises and jerking a lot on the ascent into the mountain...then we just stopped for about 10 seconds right here:

then it jerked us up into the mountain. We decided we wouldn't push our luck and get stuck again and went ahead and made that our last ride.

I think there were a few other glitches in our experience. However, I'm not sold that Disney is slacking or anything. I firmly believe it was just a coincidence. It didn't ruin our trip, and I really dont expect it to happen again.

 

[Simba77]

Simba, it's pretty well proven that there have been massive cutbacks in the maintenance dept. at WDW all in the name of boosting shareholder profit. And increasing the bonus for Iger.

It's not that I claimed there's no issues. I'm trying to figure out how/why people are putting words in my mouth as if I'm suggesting that maintenance is as good as it always has been. I'm just saying that the crowded/busy periods with longer park hours and less scheduled maintenance are probably the absolute worst times for breakdowns - not that things are hunky-dory during the rest of the year. The temperatures are the hottest, the workers are the most exhausted, the park hours are longest, the scheduled maintenance is at its lowest... for three+ straight months.

But without a comprehensive down-time analysis, I don't think we can dismiss any theories out-of-hand by just saying what we've observed here on the boards or in person.

 

[ghtx]

FWIW We encountered no unexpected ride closures or delays on our entire trip last October (except for Aladdin's carpets, which was a scheduled refurb that we somehow missed hearing about).

 

[Karbase8]

Funny thing I had a running joke about Maelstrom for awhile as it was always down every time I tried to ride it. I have seen Splash down a lot, last trip BTMRR was down quite a bit while we were there but finally got to ride it the last day.

 

[Simba77]

FWIW We encountered no unexpected ride closures or delays on our entire trip last October (except for Aladdin's carpets, which was a scheduled refurb that we somehow missed hearing about).

You're just one person's account, obviously, but it's sort of what I expect to see, really. You're just less likely to encounter issues during the cooler, less thunderstormy, less crowded months when park hours are shorter, maintenance has more down time, and the attractions aren't pushed through sometimes 16 hour days in the blazing heat.

Again, it's not that Disney is necessarily doing everything they could, but there's bound to be a time of year where things are at their worst and a time of year where breakdowns are less common. It stands to reason August could be one of the worst for all the reasons I suggested.

 

[Raenstoirm]

Given reports on here, it seems Disney is having issues with power lately. 2 weeks ago all that rain trashed MK and yesterday it was DHS. Maybe they are all related and it is some sort of systemic issue they havent been able to pin down yet.

Last spring (april 2012) the main computers were down three times during our trip, so the turn styles couldnt read the tickets. It happened in three different parks over our 10 days.

 

[Simba77]

Given reports on here, it seems Disney is having issues with power lately. 2 weeks ago all that rain trashed MK and yesterday it was DHS. Maybe they are all related and it is some sort of systemic issue they havent been able to pin down yet.

Last spring (april 2012) the main computers were down three times during our trip, so the turn styles couldnt read the tickets. It happened in three different parks over our 10 days.

So you're saying the Raenstoirms have been causing issues?

 

[Turbanator]

Just to throw one small thing out there. HM and Buzz are both continuous-loading rides, so if some needs special help getting (like transferring from a wheelchair) they will stop the conveyer belt for a few minutes. Most of the time when you're stuck one those two rides, that is what is happening, not a break down.

True

 

[larryz]

I'll say that I've experienced this same thing at DLR. Food stands (popcorn, lemonade, churros) and restaurants closing well before park close.

Harbour House closing at 5:30 isn't the norm, but it does close early sometimes. It seems like it's usually open late (9PM or so). The WDW website posts the hours. (ETA: Just checked, here are the closing times for the next few days: 29th - 9PM; 30th - 5PM; 31st - 9PM; 1st - 9PM; 2nd - 9PM; 3rd - 5PM)

Anticipated crowd demand, combined with real-time sales tracking, and I'm guessing they can plot a trend and decide to cut their manpower losses early if the bean-counting computer tells them to...

 

[Raenstoirm]

So you're saying the Raenstoirms have been causing issues?

 

[Kilala]

I hope none of the rides I want to go on don't go down. Since I haven't been there since 1991 I know alot of new rides have been put in and there are some we don't have here at out Disneyland.

 

[flortlebap]

One of he problems with ride shut downs is the amount of red tape CMs have to go through to reopen them.

I was talking to a CM in a bar last month who operated one of the small coasters. She said that even if a kid crosses the yellow line, they have to stop the ride. They then can't restart it - they have to call a manager, who then calls a technician, who then walks across the park to check the ride over and restart it. The process can take 2-3 hours if its busy. The CMs aren't allowed to retrieve items either that are dropped - the same process as above has to be followed.

That said, Splash and BTM have been a nightmare lately. Both were closed until noon on our last MK day. BTM then went up for an hour and closed for another five! Frustrating.

 

[WDSearcher]

Simba, it's pretty well proven that there have been massive cutbacks in the maintenance dept. at WDW all in the name of boosting shareholder profit. And increasing the bonus for Iger.

Iger's bonus is likely much more directly linked to things like Studio box office receipts and the profitability of consumer products than it is to the relatively tiny savings they might get by "massive cutbacks" in the maintenance department.

And the majority of ride stops that people here report as "breakdowns" are more than likely rides stopping to accommodate guests in wheelchairs who need to transfer or other guests who need a bit of extra time to board or exit. Most "breakdowns" have nothing to do with ride maintenance or the lack thereof.

 

[mesaboy2]

Iger's bonus is likely much more directly linked to things like Studio box office receipts and the profitability of consumer products than it is to the relatively tiny savings they might get by "massive cutbacks" in the maintenance department.

And the majority of ride stops that people here report as "breakdowns" are more than likely rides stopping to accommodate guests in wheelchairs who need to transfer or other guests who need a bit of extra time to board or exit. Most "breakdowns" have nothing to do with ride maintenance or the lack thereof.

Yes. I'm surprised I haven't read this possibility in the thread yet either: guests behaving badly.

 

[Chavaleh]

The only breakdowns that I've seen so far this past week was Splash Mountain being down one night and Peter Pan stopping once while we were in line for maybe 15 mins (not for handicapped loading). Apart from that we've only experienced normal pauses for loading issues. I haven't seen any litter issues and every bathroom I've been in has been clean. I'm sure other people have had other experiences but that has been mine this week.