Radiator Spring Racers problems

[magicalfoursome]

Radiator Spring Racers is a great fun ride once we finally were able to ride it! We were in DL last week for our second time traveling all the way from Philadelphia. We arrived in DL on Thurs afternoon about 4 pm to find that it had rained a little for the first time since RSRacers opened and it was closed. We went first thing on Friday morning at 7 am early entry to find it was still down and it stayed down the entire day. Saturday morning it was up and running so we grabbed fast passes and waited in the fp line for 15 minutes to have it break down again!! We still had our fastpasses so we went back after a couple hours and actually got on the ride!! But..... half way thru the ride it broke down!!! Yep.... we had to get escorted off the ride and we were given fastpasses. Later that evening we finally rode it without a problem!! It was very frustrating, however, how much time we wasted going back and forth to this ride only to have it break down so many times. Thank goodness we had fastpasses as some people waited in line 3 or 4 hours for the ride to be fixed. Any else experience such problems with this ride?

 

[Tiradan]

I was there for a short weekend trip 7/14-7/15 and RSR was down for a little bit both days. I did get to ride it the first day, but that was 4 hours after our original FP return time. Awesome ride, when it is working. Hopefully they get the kinks worked out soon.

 

[teachU2]

We were there the 8th-13th. When we arrived to the park on Wed. the 11th, there were signs and official looking CM's telling people that Racers was down until 11 that day. We got fast passes anyway and got in line after it got dark. It was probably about 9:00. Once we cleared the 2nd f/p person (where you hand over the pass), the ride went down. You should have heard the moans and groans. I felt terrible for the people who had been waiting in line for a very long time w/o a f/p. Luckily, it came back up within about 20 minutes. I think it is smart to get a f/p for Racers, b/c you can come back if the ride is down. It is a 100% guarantee, no, but it is better than waiting in a long line and then the ride goes down for a long time.

The rain storm was a little crazy on Thursday. It was so humid! Not used to that in CA.

 

[krispin41]

My husband and I were actually ON the ride when it went down on Thursday. We didn't have to wait very long in the single rider line, (maybe an hour, with several break-downs during that time). For us the SR line was the way to go. We actually lucked out and did not get separated. They actually let us ride it twice since it went down when we were in the dark part of the ride. It went down again right after we got off.

 

[jsoren11]

What is the deal with this ride? Seems like a flop. Am i just seeing it wrong, or is it literally breaking down every day? Looking at my apps getting ready for our Aug 2nd trip, it always says CL "closed". Whats the deal?

 

[kymom99]

I guess we were REALLY lucky last Thursday. We rode RSR in under an hour using single rider and were early enough to have missed the breakdowns. Also, we waited for Space Mountain late Thursday night and it broke down when we were next in line!! The people who were in front of us for the 40 minutes we waited were actually stuck on the ride! This is my son's fav so that is why we waited so long to ride it one last time.

The rain and heat were very unexpected to me.

 

[rramstad]

What is the deal with this ride? Seems like a flop. Am i just seeing it wrong, or is it literally breaking down every day? Looking at my apps getting ready for our Aug 2nd trip, it always says CL "closed". Whats the deal?

No, you are not seeing it wrong. It is literally breaking down every day, often multiple times per day, and frequently it is not opening at the start of the day, either.

 

[HydroGuy]

What is the deal with this ride? Seems like a flop. Am i just seeing it wrong, or is it literally breaking down every day? Looking at my apps getting ready for our Aug 2nd trip, it always says CL "closed". Whats the deal?

There are rumors that the problem is not the ride breaking down but the guests sticking limbs out of the vehicles causing shut downs for safety. I really have no idea.

 

[BlackFlowerGirl]

I must have been lucky too. Rode it Thursday 12th somewhere around 3pm via the single rider line. Posted waited time was 60 minutes but it seemed more like half that to me.

 

[jsoren11]

Would it help if everyone that saw someone sticking their arms out punched them in the face? Then they could put up a sign that says, stick your arms out and you'll get punched in the face. Might work?

 

[nannyz]

My daughter and SIL rode RSR first thing on Saturday the 14th (waited 1 hour), then my other daugher and I got on in 10 mins with switch passes.
It's a great ride. I hope they get the problems worked out.

 

[Steamboat Philly]

I was there from June 17th-27th. We only attempted to ride once, got about 10 minutes from the station and it broke down. But it was only down for a few minutes. No more problems while we were in line at least.

 

[Nonsuch]

...is it literally breaking down every day? Looking at my apps getting ready for our Aug 2nd trip, it always says CL "closed".

Test Track at Epcot also breaks down everyday, and cannot operate in the rain.

 

[gatorfreud]

Would it help if everyone that saw someone sticking their arms out punched them in the face? Then they could put up a sign that says, stick your arms out and you'll get punched in the face. Might work?

 

[rramstad]

There are rumors that the problem is not the ride breaking down but the guests sticking limbs out of the vehicles causing shut downs for safety. I really have no idea.

I was told by a CM (who was responsible for verifying FP times on the return FP line and shutting down single rider when it got too long) that the issue is that each car is totally independent, with their own sensors, and something as simple as low tire pressure on one car can shut down the whole ride until they get the situation fixed, and once fixed, they have to "cycle" the ride a certain amount before they put people on it again. Add to that the time to evacuate the ride in the first place, and it's a real problem.

Also the animatronics have sensors up the wazoo, and if a car gets too close, or one of the animatronics just moves in a glitchy way, the sensors can get tripped on those, too, shutting down the whole ride.

They apparently occasionally evacuate the whole ride, investigate the sensor on the animatronics, find nothing wrong, reset the sensor, cycle the ride, and then start loading again, with no problems... except they've lost about a half hour, and have upset guests.

It's worse when it's a problem with a car, as you might imagine, as they cycle all the cars around until the one with the problem is in the loading area, pull that car, and then reload... so that's a bit longer of a cycle time, and they have one less car on the ride, so less capacity, but even when they fix the car, to put it back on they have to cycle the ride empty, so it's not something they routinely do (pull a car, fix it, put it back on).

All info from when I was waiting for single rider to reopen when the ride was down for 30+ minutes the other day...

 

[Hunnypaw]

bummer if it is due to people tripping the saftey features.