Just back from Disney - Ride Delays!

[Clubhouse5]

This is my family's 5th trip to Disney, and we had a great experience overall. The ride delays however became a running joke, with my 8 year old son keeping a tally of how many times a ride stopped while we were on it. We were stopped more this year that the previous 4 combined. A couple of the rides (like Splash Mountain) have a character voice notify you of the delay so that feels more typical and doesn't feel as much of an interruption. But the others have a regular voice telling you to stay seated, etc. Here is a list of the rides that I can remember we were on when it stopped (there were even more that we were in line when it stopped): Peter Pan, (x2), Dumbo, the Monorail, Ariel (x2), Winnie the Pooh (x2), Toy Story Mania (x2, plus last screen did not work), also 3 Caballeros shut down for a time & Ariel shut down for a time & Goofy Barnstormer shut down all when we attempted to ride.

I realize any number of them could have been a disabled rider boarding, except for the total shutdowns. Some though were quite long waits. Also, when in line for POTC there was a family behind us on their first trip remarking that they hoped this ride "wouldn't stop like the others had". We started chatting with them that we had experienced many delays as well, and that it wasn't typical ( at least in years past). I tried to reassure them it wasn't normal.

Anyone else experience this?

 

[poeticdiabetic]

We did have delays. They weren't that big of an issue because we expected it. The only one that I didn't like is the RnR. That's because it's nothing to see outside when the line snaked.

However, we had some cancellations too. Those were actually pretty good for us. Let me tell you why:

We were on BTMRR and the ride broke down almost at the end of the ride. We walked the little bit to the end. At the end of the line, they gave us a pass to ride once from any thrill ride at MK.

Another time, Space mountain broke down before we can use our FP. We didn't change our FP to something else, but decided to change it later. When we looked to update the FP, we saw that the FP changed to where we can ride any thrill ride in once in MK. We kept that FP for the last day and it was great!

 

[Lyncha]

Sad state of affairs when Dumbo gets shut down.

 

[shyjade]

This was the case for us the first week in May 2012 (including Soarin' being shut down for the entire day, the only - and last- trip we didn't purchase park hoppers), but we actually had better "luck" last October 2013.

 

[csjordan]

This is my family's 5th trip to Disney, and we had a great experience overall. The ride delays however became a running joke, with my 8 year old son keeping a tally of how many times a ride stopped while we were on it. We were stopped more this year that the previous 4 combined. A couple of the rides (like Splash Mountain) have a character voice notify you of the delay so that feels more typical and doesn't feel as much of an interruption. But the others have a regular voice telling you to stay seated, etc. Here is a list of the rides that I can remember we were on when it stopped (there were even more that we were in line when it stopped): Peter Pan, (x2), Dumbo, the Monorail, Ariel (x2), Winnie the Pooh (x2), Toy Story Mania (x2, plus last screen did not work), also 3 Caballeros shut down for a time & Ariel shut down for a time & Goofy Barnstormer shut down all when we attempted to ride.

I realize any number of them could have been a disabled rider boarding, except for the total shutdowns. Some though were quite long waits. Also, when in line for POTC there was a family behind us on their first trip remarking that they hoped this ride "wouldn't stop like the others had". We started chatting with them that we had experienced many delays as well, and that it wasn't typical ( at least in years past). I tried to reassure them it wasn't normal.

Anyone else experience this?

Just returned from 4/3-4/6 weekend at WDW. Space Mountain was down for a short time 4/3 but was back up pretty quickly. Dinosaur stopped 3 times while we were riding it on this past Sunday. That's a first time for us on that one! Overall, pretty good luck with rides while we were there.

 

[ABrement]

This is my family's 5th trip to Disney, and we had a great experience overall. The ride delays however became a running joke, with my 8 year old son keeping a tally of how many times a ride stopped while we were on it. We were stopped more this year that the previous 4 combined. A couple of the rides (like Splash Mountain) have a character voice notify you of the delay so that feels more typical and doesn't feel as much of an interruption. But the others have a regular voice telling you to stay seated, etc. Here is a list of the rides that I can remember we were on when it stopped (there were even more that we were in line when it stopped): Peter Pan, (x2), Dumbo, the Monorail, Ariel (x2), Winnie the Pooh (x2), Toy Story Mania (x2, plus last screen did not work), also 3 Caballeros shut down for a time & Ariel shut down for a time & Goofy Barnstormer shut down all when we attempted to ride.

I realize any number of them could have been a disabled rider boarding, except for the total shutdowns. Some though were quite long waits. Also, when in line for POTC there was a family behind us on their first trip remarking that they hoped this ride "wouldn't stop like the others had". We started chatting with them that we had experienced many delays as well, and that it wasn't typical ( at least in years past). I tried to reassure them it wasn't normal.

Anyone else experience this?

We were there for the Barnstormer/Ariel shut down day. 3/31? We hopped over to Dumbo and then were able to walk on Barnstormer and Ariel when they opened back up!

 

[sdkuhn77]

We were there for the Barnstormer/Ariel shut down day. 3/31? We hopped over to Dumbo and then were able to walk on Barnstormer and Ariel when they opened back up!

We were stuck on the Ariel ride on 3/30. I think we were sitting still for about 15 minutes.

On 4/3 we were stopped on the Buzz Lightyear ride in Tomorrowland. That was about a 10 minute wait.

I know that TSM at DHS was shut down for quite some time on 3/31. We happened to walk by it when it opened back up and the fast pass entrance was crazy long!

 

[L&Lfan]

I have ridden The Little Mermaid ride approx. 7 times since it opened and it has stopped (usually during the Under The Sea scene) EVERY SINGLE TIME!

 

[Clubhouse5]

We were there for the Barnstormer/Ariel shut down day. 3/31? We hopped over to Dumbo and then were able to walk on Barnstormer and Ariel when they opened back up!

Sounds like a few of you who posted replies were there at the same time as us! We also walked on to Ariel when it reopened, but sat there stuck for 15 minutes (right in front of Ursula, who DD hates & is afraid of. By the end she wasn't afraid anymore, just bored watching her over & over again!)

Dumbo was the only ride they allowed us to ride again, after they ran it empty once. I felt like we should have been able to ride Peter Pan again. It is such a short ride and stopping 2x and just hanging there for some time made you lose the "feeling" of being immersed in the story.

 

[MichelleVW]

We always seem to get stopped on Winnie the Pooh. Tigger comes on and says, "I'd rather be hopping than stopping" and my husband will say it over and over lol.

 

[agame2323]

Being stuck on a ride is part of the Disney "magic"

 

[ferd]

I have ridden The Little Mermaid ride approx. 7 times since it opened and it has stopped (usually during the Under The Sea scene) EVERY SINGLE TIME!

Same!! Every single time I ride that ride it stops. And more than once has it stopped couple of times during one ride.

 

[bookluvingbabe]

Pooh was shutdown for a while when we were there on the 29th. But it reopened by dinner time.

Splash was shutdown on and off while we were there and there were delays everytime we rode it (and we rode it a lot!). I don't remember problems on anything else though.

 

[Spork24]

Same!! Every single time I ride that ride it stops. And more than once has it stopped couple of times during one ride.

Long delays or short ones? Omnimover type ride vehicles often need to be stopped for a short time in order to load/unload disabled patrons. Sometimes they can just slow it down a bit, based on the disabled patron's capabilities. Of it's a minute or less stop then this is the most likely cause. Just be thankful that it's not you needing assistance getting on the ride.

 

[minmate]

We must have just been super lucky. We were at DHS/Epcot on 4.2 and MK on 4.4.

Only ride issues we had were a slight boat back-up in Small World (doesn't that always happen though?) and on Haunted Mansion. We got stopped at the ballroom scene, which actually was kind of cool because we had a chance to really inspect all of the details in that room in a way you don't normally get to. At the end, the mirrors weren't working though so you only saw the ghosts in the reflection but not yourselves. This was towards the end of the night and our second ride on it though. Worked like a charm the first time.

 

[ferd]

Long delays or short ones? Omnimover type ride vehicles often need to be stopped for a short time in order to load/unload disabled patrons. Sometimes they can just slow it down a bit, based on the disabled patron's capabilities. Of it's a minute or less stop then this is the most likely cause. Just be thankful that it's not you needing assistance getting on the ride.

Umm, not sure that last bit was called for. I have no issue with a ride needing to accomodate those who need assistance to board and exit a ride. However, the thread here is about rides that have had stops recently, and The Little Mermaid is notorious for it, and for far longer periods of full on stopping than it would take for a wheelchair bound person to board safely. I'm talking so long that there's numerous 'please stay seated' messages being played before we start going again. Sharing my experience with this hardly suggests that I am intolerant of those with special needs.

 

[xie]

We always find ourselves on a shut down ride or five during a trip. Most commonly, though, it is the conveyor belt "dark rides", where there is no way to board a disabled guest (or a guest that simply makes a mistake getting into the ride vehicle, kids have trouble sometimes) without stopping the entire ride temporarily. It happens far less on the other rides. Probably the weirdest place we've ever been temporarily halted is the outdoor speed run on Test Track.

There are also a lot more temporary closures than there used to be, where the CMs empty the queue. I'm actually unsure what's causing this - if something needs to be checked and maintenance is taking longer than they used to, or what.

While we wait for this new 3/FP+ junk to get sorted out and improved, here is what we have been doing since FP+ went live. If you want to ride something and it's actually temporarily shut down, find a place to sit nearby and take a break (get a snack, use the bathroom, whatever). You can be first on the ride when it starts back up. We walked on quite a few e-ticket rides that had 60-90 minute waits just a half hour earlier, because if the CMs empty the queue, everyone simply leaves for other areas of the park. And we waited on a bench just outside or snacking at a nearby counter service seating area, a much more pleasant way to spend 20 minutes than spending 60+ loitering in a standby-queue line.

 

[minmate]

Oh, I forgot, because it didn't exactly affect us, when we went to use our Soarin' FP, the CM said the ride was shut down to SB guests but that FP guests could still go on.

Not sure if the ride was actually closed down and they were just letting FP guests fill up the FP queue or if they were just shutting it down to SB for some weird reason. From entering the queue to exiting after the ride, it took us about 30 minutes and the SB line was just reopening with a 30 minute wait.

Has anybody ever run into that before? Where FP line stays open but SB line is closed and cleared out?

 

[sjv919]

Last time I was on HM the ride stopped 4 times for 5+ minutes at a time! We kept counting. The last time we got stuck near the end and the hitchhiking ghosts weren't working It was nuts! We were so ready to get off and we love that ride!

 

[blondemom]

It's a bit upsetting when the rides constantly stop! I feel like you can't enjoy the ride properly. We've been stuck on Haunted Mansion so many times that when it doesn't stop, we are stunned.