Do You Think They Will/Should Close Frozen Until They Can Get it Working Properly?

[hiroMYhero]

I was wondering if that was it as well.

I believe you and @Amanda999 are correct.

My CM friend rode FEA on Monday during what was considered a soft open for CMs who were actually working and in costume in Epcot that day. They were forbidden from taking photos and video because projections were down in multiple areas. The finer details of the costuming on the animatronics were yet to be put in place.

There was no question at that time that workers were working around the clock to open the ride on Tuesday - and in a more finished state than what the CMs viewed on Monday.

"Guest Recovery" for those waiting in the long lines is that "Vikings" are roaming the lines while grunting at guests. Seriously! My response to that info was, "What??"

 

[mom2rtk]

"Guest Recovery" for those waiting in the long lines is that "Vikings" are roaming the lines while grunting at guests. Seriously! My response to that info was, "What??"

I'm not even sure what to say about that.

 

[Micca]

Making a huge deal out of a new attraction and having it breakdown from day 1 is simply "bad show." In an age where nearly any potential WDW guest has internet access, is it really necessary to hype an opening date months in advance? Why not build it, test it, and do a continuous soft open and promote it to death after they've established that it will operate reliably?

 

[Karin1984]

You can never really know how something will work until it is in use. When Maelstrom was built it would have been mostly analog technology with digital controls to some extent. Now here it is 30 some odd years later and the complexities of modern technology is a 1000 times what it used to be. I t may takes some time to work out the coding etc., but always remember water rides and electricity do not mix well.

If it was the combination of water rides and electricity, shouldn't Pirates and Splash Mountain then be a problem too? To me, it would make more sense that it's the animatronics. What I've seen on the video there are only a handful of large animatronics in FEA, while Pirates and Splash have dozens. In FEA it's more noticeable when one (or more) doesn't work. Only if the trolls are not working, I think they might continue with the ride, but if it's one of the others... I would indeed stop letting guests in. Imagine going through the Let It Go scene and Elsa stands there, frozen like a statue . Or Anna when you hear her singing but she doesn't move.

I think the animatronics are beautiful to look at, but they are technically too complicated to work 10-12 hours a day.

 

[loutoo]

Down time and these types of issues are very common whenever a new attraction opens, and not just at Disney parks. Universal experiences issues just like this when they open a new ride as do other major parks like Cedar Point. The only real way to test rides of this nature fully is in high volume use. It is true that the track, path, and ride vehicles are those from Malestrom, but that experience was not synced with audio, and the animatronics, props, and scenery were incredibly simplistic by today's standard. The amount of coordination and computer code required to ensure that everything happens at precisely the right instance for each boat's individual pass through is staggering. Give them a few weeks. They will get the kinks ironed out, but unfortunately that can't be done in a vacuum with out a live audience.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Down time and these types of issues are very common whenever a new attraction opens, and not just at Disney parks. Universal experiences issues just like this when they open a new ride as do other major parks like Cedar Point. The only real way to test rides of this nature fully is in high volume use. It is true that the track, path, and ride vehicles are those from Malestrom, but that experience was not synced with audio, and the animatronics, props, and scenery were incredibly simplistic by today's standard. The amount of coordination and computer code required to ensure that everything happens at precisely the right instance for each boat's individual pass through is staggering. Give them a few weeks. They will get the kinks ironed out, but unfortunately that can't be done in a vacuum with out a live audience.

Yes, what you're saying is quite right but I'm not sure it's just the syncing of the soundtrack to the animatronics that is causing trouble I don't believe. Numerous people have been evacuated from the ride at various times. I have a hard time they would shut down a ride and go to all the work of actually evacuating guests purely if the syncing was off.

 

[DantePD]

I believe you and @Amanda999 are correct.


"Guest Recovery" for those waiting in the long lines is that "Vikings" are roaming the lines while grunting at guests. Seriously! My response to that info was, "What??"

Not sure if that's awesome or a sign that management has descended into madness.

 

[mom2rtk]

Down time and these types of issues are very common whenever a new attraction opens, and not just at Disney parks. Universal experiences issues just like this when they open a new ride as do other major parks like Cedar Point. The only real way to test rides of this nature fully is in high volume use. It is true that the track, path, and ride vehicles are those from Malestrom, but that experience was not synced with audio, and the animatronics, props, and scenery were incredibly simplistic by today's standard. The amount of coordination and computer code required to ensure that everything happens at precisely the right instance for each boat's individual pass through is staggering. Give them a few weeks. They will get the kinks ironed out, but unfortunately that can't be done in a vacuum with out a live audience.

That's why some full scale soft opens (without full FP distribution) would have been nice.

 

[Ninja Mom]

Welcome to the NEW Disney. Maximum price$, Minimum effort...
Get used to it...

~NM

 

[Mitzicat]

This morning in one of the FB Disney groups a CM had posted that she was working 3 am to 6 am as a "guinea pig guest." She said there were about 70 CMs there who had volunteered to work the extra hours. She went on to explain that they would load them in the boats run the ride in all different scenarios. If she is on Disboards...hopefully you got some sleep!

It looks like Disney is trying to fix the issues but still keeping it open. From the videos they looks like some pretty advanced animatronics so my best guess would be the they the reason for the shutdowns. When the ride opened the first couple hours of riders said the first Olaf was working fine, but by the afternoon he was just standing there. Take a look at him working...my goodness I couldn't even image the 1000s of lines of code to animate him. If one little thing is wrong they have to figure out when he stops and go look at that code. (AGAIN I AM GUESSING AT THIS!!!)

 

[RLGNC]

It's kinda too late for that. If you announce a grand opening, but a week later say we need to close it for a few weeks would be a PR nightmare. They should have just delayed the opening if things weren't ready yet. Now that it has all of this media attention that the ride is open, closing it now would look bad on all accounts.

I think it's worse PR to have multiple days with the ride going down so frequently. I agree with the OP that the inconvenience to the guests in dealing with this instability is worse than it would be if they just closed it until it was working more consistently. Hopefully they would only need to close it for a few days and not a few weeks. I do agree that a delayed opening would have been the best choice if things weren't ready, though.

 

[godders]

Don't forget that it's not just Disney though....when both Gringotts and Hogwarts opened to the public both rides broke down often. With Hogwarts that was after a 5/6 month opening date push back.

It's not just a question of coding....whenever there is new technology (or technology generally) some things that work well in the test phase just don't work like they did when being used consistently. For example there could be a bug in the program where on every 30 rides, Olaf doesn't respond in the way he supposed to. Some problems you just don't know exist until they do and there is no way to predict it.

I'm wondering if the demand for FEA to be open by this date was so most of the bugs could be sorted before summer kicks off for real and two headliners (BTMRR & Dinosaur) go down for their extended refurbs.

 

[DebbieB]

It seems like every time I have a fastpass for Test Track, it's down.

 

[OKW Lover]

I think this is just normal "test and adjust" kind of stuff. The attraction has just opened and there's bound to be things that don't quite work the way intended. They'll fix it.

 

[Sagginit]

I have seen this at other theme parks. I believe when Kinda Ka opened at the Six Flags in NJ it was down a lot that first summer. I think when they put it to test all day and have a normal volume they discover bugs and issues. I do feel if they are having this many issues they should close it or limit those who get in line. It is a really terrible experience to wait for a long time only to get kicked out. You could be doing so many other things and those poor kids must be so disappointed.

I was in DL in the fall and for some reason Splash kept going down for a few hours at a time. The first day there we waited in line 30 minutes twice before getting kicked out, and we were only 2/3 of the way to loading. We only went on it once in 4 days, the one day we made it for RD at EMH it was down too! I was really mad as the CMs that led us to frontier land didn't tell us, so the entire mob of people rerouted to BTM at the same time along with those that went there first. What a disaster! I would have preferred if they just had a sign at the entrance to the park and land stating it was down for the day. We honestly would have gone to another land and it threw off our whole strategy. I can't imagine if someone goes all the way to Norway at RD to discover its down and then have to hustle it back to the other rides.

 

[HatboxHaint]

WDW trolled all their park guests by not changing the ride system to an omni-mover! Well played WDW, well played!

 

[KateP85]

This morning in one of the FB Disney groups a CM had posted that she was working 3 am to 6 am as a "guinea pig guest." She said there were about 70 CMs there who had volunteered to work the extra hours. She went on to explain that they would load them in the boats run the ride in all different scenarios. If she is on Disboards...hopefully you got some sleep!

Oh THAT'S what that was! My friend posted in Facebook that Disney had opened 70 untrained shifts at Epcot from 3-6am this morning and no one seemed to know what they were for. How bizarre. I don't think I've ever heard of them paying CMs to come in overnight to test a ride before.

 

[cosmicmommy]

I believe you and @Amanda999 are correct.

My CM friend rode FEA on Monday during what was considered a soft open for CMs who were actually working and in costume in Epcot that day. They were forbidden from taking photos and video because projections were down in multiple areas. The finer details of the costuming on the animatronics were yet to be put in place.

There was no question at that time that workers were working around the clock to open the ride on Tuesday - and in a more finished state than what the CMs viewed on Monday.

"Guest Recovery" for those waiting in the long lines is that "Vikings" are roaming the lines while grunting at guests. Seriously! My response to that info was, "What??"

A better idea here would be to send Olaf and Kristoff into the crowd for pictures and light humor. Olaf might be harder to send in, but throwing together a Kristoff costume shouldn't take that long... and have him as a diversion might cheer people up since I don't think you can otherwise meet him? Or even Hans...

 

[Mambo Junkie]

I have already mentioned that something is going on. Our last trip in May, so many rides and attractions were/went down. I figured it was due to cutbacks. One day at least 5 attractions were down at one time or another in 1 day. We had another break down while we were on it (Epcot). I check he Lines app daily and notice quite a few that are down at various times during the day, each day. It's iind if bad. I am going in September but I would much rather wait until it is operating at 100% before I ride it.

 

[11290]

It was actually fun working in the wee hours. Did get a bit old after an hour or so though