Here now - too many attractions breaking

[DisneyNut815]

We just got back last night and it did seem like there was an over abundance of rides being down. Yesterday or Saturday (the days are running together) all at the same time, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean and 7 Dwarfs were down. Made the lines everywhere else quite insane. We never did get to use our fastpasses for Splash Mountain as it was all day Saturday after noon and most of Sunday. Over at Animal Kingdom Everest and Dinosaur were down a lot. Frozen, of course, and Test Track at Epcot were down quite a bit as well. Just seemed unusual for us as we are used to things going down here and there but not quite that much. We still had an amazing time as we have been so many times it is not always about the rides but more about the magic of being there.

 

[Dis703]

We've had some trips where this happens a lot and others where it seems to not occur at all. Seems to be the luck of the draw. Like others have said it's not always that the ride is broken down but there are things guests can do that require them to stop the ride and go through the safety measures before restarting or weather related issues. I know 7DMT is one that will shut down if there is lightning in the area. It doesn't have to be close enough to even notice it. I try not to let it bum me out when it happens, but sometimes it does take away from the magic.

 

[anniemae]

I think it's the new norm. Most will tell you to suck it up and that things happen, not Disney's fault. Be happy to be there. I do believe that to a certain extent though. Unexpected breakdowns will happen anywhere.

But I do think it happens a lot at Disney. I also think it's okay for folks to get upset about it. People plan years in advance, pay a lot of money to walk through the gates of the park, choose fp's way in advance etc. If you pay that much money, you kind of expect things to run smoothly. Again, I know breakdowns will happen, but sometimes it is borderline ridiculous. The Frozen ride comes to mind. When that ride opened it seemed it broke down every hour and caused all sorts of disruptions, messing with peoples fp times, lines down the ws etc.

 

[wilkeliza]

There is a massive mix of reason for ride shortages. Based on the list you gave a few of them are just showing their age and need full on reworks. When they last took Splash down it is my understanding that the motors that drive the pumps were not replaced. They are the same ones that have been there since day 1. Supposedly they have to custom machine the parts to the drive shaft as the company that made them no longer exists. I always took this tidbit with a grain of salt (it was form a safety trainer who claimed he use to be head of maintenance over at MK but his age caught up to him so now he is a safety trainer). With that said it did make a lot of sense for why that thing is always down.

POTC is a known issue and just can't seem to get fixed. Boats get backed up or stuck and that stops the whole system. If they turn the pumps up too high people get wet and complain too low and the fact the average guest size is bigger means the boats get stuck. I would think they would figure it out by now or just say you will get wet.

Frozen well it is the same issues the Maelstrom had. Again just fixing the animatronics and such doesn't fix the ride issues when it is a pump and motor issue. I use to be able to tell if Matterhorn would be up or down based on how much water was pouring out of the over flow tank backstage. It isn't suppose to flow out like that but it would for some reason and you could even tell when a boat him the final. No clue if any of that was addressed in the rehaul since I don't work there anymore but it wouldn't shock me.

 

[Jennasis]

It happens...and honestly, my bucket list includes being evac'd off a ride at WDW lol! There are a variety of reasons a ride might go down. Among those reasons: your fellow guests. they throw things off the ride, they stand up when they're not supposed to, they attempt to exit the vehicle. breakage isn't the only reason.

When the parks are operating at such a high capacity, breakdowns and guest stupidity is the order of the day.

 

[Mitzicat]

There is a massive mix of reason for ride shortages.

And if I may add to your excellent post....many of these rides have sophisticated computer systems that control everything. When something happens the sensors go off and the ride stops. It isn't as easy as pushing the reset button. Many times the system has to be rebooted. I would love to get a tour of the computer control rooms for some of the rides. I've seen behind American Adventure, and while that may not be as complex as the ride controls for Toy Story, just the movement of the animatronic scenes is mind blowing.

I also was at MNSSHP one year, a bad thunderstorm rolled up and the park took a power hit. It knocked pretty much all the rides from Haunted Mansion to Splash, over to Pirates out of commission for about 30 mins. It wasn't that big of deal, we just went and got more soaked candy!

I look at it this way....when a ride stops there is a reason, usually a safety reason so I am grateful that it does stop.

 

[Mitzicat]

It happens...and honestly, my bucket list includes being evac'd off a ride at WDW lol! There are a variety of reasons a ride might go down. Among those reasons: your fellow guests. they throw things off the ride, they stand up when they're not supposed to, they attempt to exit the vehicle. breakage isn't the only reason.

When the parks are operating at such a high capacity, breakdowns and guest stupidity is the order of the day.

Amen, I've seen people mover come to a complete stop because someone's hat flew off their head and landed on the track. A cast member had to run around from the loading area to pick up the hat. Once that happened the ride started in a few mins.

 

[Allison]

Frozen well it is the same issues the Matterhorn had. Again just fixing the animatronics and such doesn't fix the ride issues when it is a pump and motor issue. I use to be able to tell if Matterhorn would be up or down based on how much water was pouring out of the over flow tank backstage.

I think you mean Maelstrom?

 

[wilkeliza]

I think you mean Maelstrom?

Yep haha. Again this is what I get for being on the boards at work haha.

 

[TXAKDisneyFan]

It happens...and honestly, my bucket list includes being evac'd off a ride at WDW lol! There are a variety of reasons a ride might go down. Among those reasons: your fellow guests. they throw things off the ride, they stand up when they're not supposed to, they attempt to exit the vehicle. breakage isn't the only reason.

When the parks are operating at such a high capacity, breakdowns and guest stupidity is the order of the day.

Not at WDW, but we were evacuated off two rides in one day at DLR (GRR and Splash) last year

 

[wilkeliza]

And if I may add to your excellent post....many of these rides have sophisticated computer systems that control everything. When something happens the sensors go off and the ride stops. It isn't as easy as pushing the reset button. Many times the system has to be rebooted. I would love to get a tour of the computer control rooms for some of the rides. I've seen behind American Adventure, and while that may not be as complex as the ride controls for Toy Story, just the movement of the animatronic scenes is mind blowing.

I also was at MNSSHP one year, a bad thunderstorm rolled up and the park took a power hit. It knocked pretty much all the rides from Haunted Mansion to Splash, over to Pirates out of commission for about 30 mins. It wasn't that big of deal, we just went and got more soaked candy!

I look at it this way....when a ride stops there is a reason, usually a safety reason so I am grateful that it does stop.

Yeah. People don't realize that in most rides an e-stop does not mean start back up quickly. On TT for example if the vehicles go through an e-stop it is minimum 30 minutes to an hour to get the attraction back up. In the beginning of the redesign they were having power surge issues at Epcot (one night it actually caused Illuminations not to go on because power surge knocked out half the lagoons speakers). They have to bring every car through the front and visually inspect tires because an e-stop out on the track can really screw a test track car. They actually try to pull it down before bad weather for that very reason. As you said no true downage is as easy as flipping a switch to turn it back on. No reset button on an attraction.

 

[disneyseniors]

Today
Seven Dwarves down; offer to get out o line for FP
Splash down

Wednesday
Big Thunder down; we were given paper FP good until today

Friday
Tower of Terror down right after half the family ride; FP issued via email

Hi OP! I feel your pain! The last 2 times we were at WDW, we noticed a lot of breakdowns (not slowing or quick stops) and closures. You are right, it was much more than it had been on past trips. We have visited yearly for a while and since l975! I think that it happens so much now that people take it for granted and are getting used to it. I don't think you should lower your expectations just because there Are a lot more breakdowns/closures nowadays.
It's kind of sad, really, because the new norm seems to be just lower your expectations because it happens all the time.
I would rather have real maintenance done on the attractions to really fix the problems, than fast passes handed out. It seems it would be better in the long run to just close it, fix it Right, and then reopen. No problem with that, but it seems like it's just breakdown after breakdown and that is not right, IMO.
So, your points are definitely valid, OP

 

[FCDub]

I know it can be frustrating when the one attraction you want to ride is broken at the time you want to ride it, but to me that doesn't sound like anything more than a minor inconvenience. ONE ride each was down on two different days, and another two (in the park with the largest number of attractions) on a different day.

Sorry you had a bad time, though.

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

Hi OP! I feel your pain! The last 2 times we were at WDW, we noticed a lot of breakdowns (not slowing or quick stops) and closures. You are right, it was much more than it had been on past trips. We have visited yearly for a while and since l975! I think that it happens so much now that people take it for granted and are getting used to it. I don't think you should lower your expectations just because there Are a lot more breakdowns/closures nowadays.
It's kind of sad, really, because the new norm seems to be just lower your expectations because it happens all the time.
I would rather have real maintenance done on the attractions to really fix the problems, than fast passes handed out. It seems it would be better in the long run to just close it, fix it Right, and then reopen. No problem with that, but it seems like it's just breakdown after breakdown and that is not right, IMO.
So, your points are definitely valid, OP

XOXO

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

I know it can be frustrating when the one attraction you want to ride is broken at the time you want to ride it, but to me that doesn't sound like anything more than a minor inconvenience. ONE ride each was down on two different days, and another two (in the park with the largest number of attractions) on a different day.

Sorry you had a bad time, though.

I am a grown adult. The outages indicate an overall decline in standards. They are also a royal.pain to.plan around with the 60 day FP

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

Amen, I've seen people mover come to a complete stop because someone's hat flew off their head and landed on the track. A cast member had to run around from the loading area to pick up the hat. Once that happened the ride started in a few mins.

It was more than a few minutes. Hours in most cases.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Something to keep in mind is that the amount of attractions off-line that cause annoyance/frustration, etc varies from guest to guest.

For some it's having one maybe two (perhaps more than two) headliners down at the same time but another could say yeah but there's still X amount of rides to go on, for some it's just multiple days going with having something off-line each day, for others it's comparing their vacation to another person's or even their past vacations, etc.

FWIW HM is a terrible example TBH regarding rides. It has always stopped a certain points in the ride for me. I would hazard a guess that is due to the unloading/loading/pacing of the ride itself. Long long long stops is rarer and I would be more like "oh my, the ride is down" if all the lights went up inside the ride as a whole versus my Doom Buggy stopped for a few minutes. All personal opinion of course here so obviously this would vary from person to person.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

We just got back last night and it did seem like there was an over abundance of rides being down. Yesterday or Saturday (the days are running together) all at the same time, Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean and 7 Dwarfs were down. Made the lines everywhere else quite insane.

That was Sun (could have been Sat too, I guess but definitely Sun). We were in FP line for 7DMT when it went down. Luckily it was only 15 mins. But we weren't able to RD Splash as had been our plan and I pulled up MDE and saw that Pirates was down too. We went to splash later in the day and the CM told us that PoTC goes down almost every day and Splash every other. She also said the issue they had at Splash Sat was major and bled into Sun AM. That didn't sound like a guest issue.

The fun one was at AK later in the week when we got stopped on the Safari for 15 minutes due to rhinos surrounding our vehicle. Luckily they were happy rhinos and just wanted to say hi and not hit the vehicle or anything.

We were the first truck stuck behind a giraffe parade today. It was awesome (although probably not for the people in line). They were sooooo close. And there were two little ones hanging with us too. That's the kind of ride stoppage I don't mind!

 

[Pacolovestacos]

I am a grown adult. The outages indicate an overall decline in standards. They are also a royal.pain to.plan around with the 60 day FP

You seem pretty hostile to anyone who disagrees with you.

 

[Pacolovestacos]

It's nice they compensated with FP - they certainly didn't need to.

I'm not saying rides should break but they do, especially as we enter peak season.

Disagree. They absolutely do need to compensate with a FP, especially to people who are in the FP+ line.