Has anyone else recently experienced the Resort Monorail breaking down?

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Last month when my family and I were visiting the Grand Floridian we over heard a Monorail Cast Member saying that the Resort Monorail line was down and wouldn't know when it would be operating again, now thankfully we drove there and it didn't effect us. Anyway just for fun we asked has it been doing that before that day and we were told 1 week before lightning struck one of the beams and caused all the Monorail lines to go down. It was also obvious that the Resort Monorail was still down as we left because we saw a bus that said it's destinations was the Magic Kingdom, Contemporary and Transporation & Ticket Center leaving the Grand Floridian.

I had also thought to myself wow the Monorail is still having problems only a few weeks after it's scheduled maintenance since that's the reason for them stopping 1 hour after the Magic Kingdom and Epcot both close, so the maintenance doesn't seem to be working. Although to be fair when lightning hits the beam that's mother natures fault and one thing you can't blame on WDW.

Anyway I was wondering for anyone who was recently at Walt Disney World if you experienced the Resort Monorail or anyone of the other Monorail lines breaking down?

 

[goofy4tink]

I have not had one single trip to WDW in the past 5 years that the monorail didn't break down at some point. Sometimes I as impacted, other times not. It seems to be happening more often lately.

 

[cel_disney]

The monorail has been sensitive for at least a decade...I cant imagine that cutting back and adding a 1-3 hours of maintanance/rest each day is going to be enough to produce results so soon...especially with the lightening issue that took the beam out for a while becoming the focus of the engineering team..

just my 2 cents...fwiw..

 

[HelenParr]

Agree with PP. Very common for monorail to be out of service, at least temporarily, for years now. Not sure how much worse I feel it is lately -- absolutely discussed more. I suspect I'm becoming more immune to it beng down.

From all the discussions and info on the monorail closing-time changes, I don't believe the "scheduled maintenance" is meant as an actual repair. It's to reduce the run times and allow more "rest" for the trains, less wear and tear of the machines, and more troubleshooting time. But I think it's pretty obvious the trains are struggling to keep up. Machines, including trains, breakdown eventually. I'm sure Disney wants to slow the timeline for possibly having to do expensive upgrades.

 

[brockash]

Yes. We stayed at BLT 9/2-9/10, and one morning we were ready to head to Epcot for rope drop, and on the 4th floor, there was a gate at the escalators and the elevator to the mono. level was stopped. There was a CM (not very friendly) who told us the monorail was down and that we'd have to get a bus. -They didn't even have direct buses from Contemp. to Epcot. You had to get wait for a bus to the TTC, then wait for another bus to Epcot. It took over 30 mins. for the bus to the TTC to arrive, so needless to say we, and many others certainly didn't make rope drop. The CM acted like it was a normal occurrence and said that the monorail breaks down almost every day. My dsis went back to the resort that afternoon, and the monorail still wasn't working, and she had to do the whole process over again. Thankfully, it was working after Illuminations.

 

[keishashadow]

Last time we were on monrail from BLT to TTC, really glad we limped into station vs being stuck on the monorail!

we experienced what was announced as a safety drill a few times in mid afternoon between GF & MK. basically, just a slowing of the car, waiting a few minutes, then starting back up again.

 

[grimley1968]

I have not had one single trip to WDW in the past 5 years that the monorail didn't break down at some point. Sometimes I as impacted, other times not. It seems to be happening more often lately.

My experience is similar. These days when I'm at the Poly it seems the boats are more reliable and end up getting us from MK faster.

Fortunately (for us), it seems the resort loop has more problems at CR and at the TTC, so riding it to MK from Poly isn't so bad, but it can be quite an ordeal at times getting from MK back to the Poly. We almost always take the resort boat back to Poly from MK.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

I have not had one single trip to WDW in the past 5 years that the monorail didn't break down at some point. Sometimes I as impacted, other times not. It seems to be happening more often lately.

For all the "love" the Monorail gets on here I find it's one of the worst "transport" options out there.

"Holding for clearance" and "technical issues" are not "happy terms" in my book LOL! I generally try to stay off the thing!

 

[DisneyOHFan]

Yep, we were there over Labor Day Weekend and we had to take a boat over to Grand Floridian and the CM said it was broken AGAIN. So it must happen often.

 

[mb187143]

we were heading to our appointment at the wedding pavilion so we got on the resort line at the MK before the MK even opened. we sat, doors closed, we waited, and waited, and waited. After about 15 minutes, they said they had to power down the monorail for exactly 1 minute, and then we'd be on our way once it re-started. 15 minutes after that, we crawled to the contemporary, where we were told the monorail would be holding for clearance at the TTC. Rather than miss our appointment, DF and I got off at the TTC and walked through the Poly. It's always been a more risky commute than the bus or boat as far as stopping, but unless i absolutely HAVE to, I won't get on that monorail. I don't want to be stuck on it or have to evac onto a beam. Personal preference though

 

[seashoreCM]

I get the impression that, for day guests, the ferries to Magic Kingdom are more reliable than the monorails.

Twice this past December I encountered monorail problems going to MK, one of those times we were already on the monorail at the TTC station and had to get off.

 

[clanmcculloch]

I agree that it seems as though every trip that we've used the monorail we've experienced at least one extended delay.

Our most recent trip was late August. We only used the monorail one time the whole trip, to get to one dinner. That one trip resulted in an extended wait on the platform while CMs swapped out a train. I felt bad for the CMs having to repeat the announcement about how long it would take. I bet they were fielding a LOT of complaints.

 

[Susiesnowflake]

I am finding myself more and more reluctant to get on the monorail. As frustrating as it is to have to wait on the platform while they deal with issues, it is really bad to be stuck on the monorail sitting on a track somewhere. This has happened to us a few times. Maybe for 15 mins or so. The air didn't seem to be on, it was really hot, we were getting little communication from the driver/speaker, and people were starting to get panicky. I can't imagine being stuck on it for longer, as some people have reported. Yikes!