Ride breakdowns

[MrsHammer]

I've been to WDW maybe 7 times over the last 35 years, but our visit last week was the first time that I've ever experienced ride breakdowns/closures. No, it didn't ruin my vacation. It just made me wonder if the upkeep has fallen off in recent years, or if increased attendance is having a higher toll on attractions. These are the issues we had last week:

Animal Kingdom:
1)Primeval Whirl didn't begin operating until about 10 min after park opening. A cast member stood at the entrance just advising guests of the delay. No reason was given.
2)About an hour after opening, cast members were advising guests that Dinosaur was down and they had no ETA on when it would be back up. I would assume Fastpass + holders were given alternate options.

EPCOT:
1) We got stuck on Spaceship Earth for about 15 minutes. We were at the part where you are coming back down backwards completely in the dark. My 9 yr old DD was getting close to freaking out, but we made it ok. The most annoying thing was the 'technical difficulties' recording that they kept blasting over the speakers about every 30 seconds.

Magic Kingdom:
1) We had a fastpass + for Buzz Lightyear, but when we got there, the cast members told us it was down and they gave us a list of about 7 other rides that we could choose instead. So, we went and rode Space Mountain. This was around 8pm, and it was still down after Wishes at 10pm. We rode it two days later.
2) Pirates went down as we were standing in the standby line. We had been in line about 10 minutes and the delay was about 15 minutes. Again, the worst part was just the overbearing announcements every minute or two.

Hollywood Studios:
No issues here! I would not have had a happy family if Toy Story had been down. Got lucky on that one!

 

[ChloesDaddy]

2) Pirates went down as we were standing in the standby line. We had been in line about 10 minutes and the delay was about 15 minutes. Again, the worst part was just the overbearing announcements every minute or two.

Look on the bright side...

 

[AngiTN]

We got back yesterday from an 8 day trip and I found the down to operation ratio the same as on all our past trips. We always encounter a few random rides that stop or delay opening. Over our trips I think every ride has had a problem at one time or another, none are immune.

We did have our first evacuation last week. Haunted Mansion stopped and we had to be walked off by the CM. We were given a FP for a multitude of attractions. As HM had already had issues earlier in the day none of us felt good about returning it so we used our FP for something else and did HM a few days later without incident.

So it's still annoying but not worse in my experience

 

[pa. dad]

I've been stuck several times on various rides.
In Ca, I was stuck on the Indy Jones ride right at the part where he is climbing the rope. Haunted Mansion a few times, Mission space once. They gave us another Indy Jones immediately as the ride had a 20 minute interruption. But other than that, no freebies to compensate us.
One of my sons got stuck onStitch once where the harness wouldn;t come up and they had to get a mechanic to unlock it.

 

[Alice777]

We were there last week too and we never got to ride Dinosaur because it was down when it was our FP+ time. Safari was down when it first opened on Friday and didn't open until 1-1/2 to 2 hours later and because we did not anticipated it being down (we were planning to ride it first when it opened at 9 am so we didn't have FP) so by the time it opened, we got on regular line, it took us 1-1/2 to 2 hours to ride. They were letting all the past FP people in first so that was never ending. I was so tired by the time we finished Safari, my feet couldn't handle any more walking so we left the park early which was a big disappointment because it was our first time at AK.

 

[hakepb]

Space as a Buzz substitute is a nice score!

 

[aretha30]

We always have breakdowns, I can't remember a time where we've gone and haven't had a ride breakdown. Winnie the Pooh always breaks down when we're on it! Without fail, last time we were evacuated from it (that was a first). For us we just roll with the punches. We try to not let it effect our day or vacation, if we're on a ride we talk or try to spot something we haven't seen before. We got stuck on Buzz last year and were able to find a 100,000 target and score 999,999 that time around. You just have to make the best of a bad situation. I figure I'd rather be stuck on a ride at WDW then at home!

 

[butterfly71076]

We got stuck on Pooh in October. We had to be walked off (a first for us!) and were given FP to be used on a few different rides, we chose Peter Pan.

The Spaceship Earth stop was, most likely, someone with mobility issues getting on. That usually happens when the ride is a continuous flow.

 

[Alice777]

We always have breakdowns, I can't remember a time where we've gone and haven't had a ride breakdown. Winnie the Pooh always breaks down when we're on it!

I had forgotten about the Winnie the Pooh! Maybe you were on it on the day we were there! LOL! After waiting 20 minutes, we were told it broke down so we decided to try later. Came back later and it was working but line wasn't moving at all so we left it again. Got fed up and got FP for later in the evening and finally rode it.

 

[capegirl]

For years either Splash or BTMRR have been down on our trips. Last April it was Splash. We were floating merrily along when everything ground to a halt on the incline right before the big drop. Funny thing though, these rides are down periodically for refurbishment, but they still break down, so go figure.

 

[TXAKDisneyFan]

We've experienced ride breakdowns on every trip. The worst was a few weeks ago at DLR - walked off both Grizzly River Run and Splash on the same day!

 

[rpb718]

It was Haunted Mansion for us last October. Breaking down / stopping for a few minutes at a time - at least 4 or 5 times - during the ride portion. It was closed right after we got off for the rest of the night.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Does anyone know why Pooh breaks down so much?

 

[Sargeant Tibbs]

Maintenance CMs have been cut as well. There's a lot of work needing to be done all across the property and not enough people to handle all of it.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

I had forgotten about the Winnie the Pooh! Maybe you were on it on the day we were there! LOL! After waiting 20 minutes, we were told it broke down so we decided to try later. Came back later and it was working but line wasn't moving at all so we left it again. Got fed up and got FP for later in the evening and finally rode it.

I think we all might have been there! We actually had a 4th FP for Winnie the Pooh and showed up and the FP line was out into the main path. The CM told us that they had just gotten it working, then someone put a child in the wrong way (how does one mess this up to the point that it stops the ride?) which stopped it working, then they got it working again and the FP+ line was so long that they were only letting in FP people- no standby. I think we waited about ten minutes in the FP+ line before we got on.

 

[Hunterr]

I've been to the parks countless times over the years (being a local helps), and its very rare there are problems with the rides (not counting when one of the track rides pauses. I always assume if we are at a stand-still, there is a hold up at the boarding/exiting of the ride that requires the traffic behind them to stop).

I'm sure they maintain is as best they can, but things may arrise during the course of a day.

 

[AngiTN]

Does anyone know why Pooh breaks down so much?

While it does break down a lot I'm not sure it's more than others.

For us it's HM that breaks down a lot. We've never not stopped for a period of time while riding it. Usually it gets going again pretty quickly but for last week.
I used to think it was for loading of the mobility impared but I was with my Mom last week and she has mobility problems. We got on at the exit but the ride wasn't stopped, just slowed way down
No other ride we've been on that stopped has been even half as bad as HM

 

[avadoesdisney]

2)About an hour after opening, cast members were advising guests that Dinosaur was down and they had no ETA on when it would be back up. I would assume Fastpass + holders were given alternate options.

When we went in December, Dinosaur went down too! It was down for about 2 hours. I was pretty upset, mainly because it's my favorite ride and we had saved it until the last ride of our last day. They offered us fast passes too, but it was pretty much useless because it was about two 2 hours before the park was closing. However, the CM's were awesome. I went to buy an ice cream at the cart outside while we killed time and after I tried to pay, they gave it to me for free, saying "It's on Mickey Mouse this time!" Not sure about the cuts in maintenance staff, but at least the CMs still there are great!

 

[alliecat523]

I got stuck on the PeopleMover last month. We were there for a good 20-30 minutes. I was kinda hoping for an evac since I've never had that happen, but alas, we got moving again.

ETA: Splash is usually our every trip break down ride.

 

[allaboard]

Some of our funniest stories are with breakdowns ... 1) couldn't get haunted mansion song at the graveyard out of our heads for days since we were stuck there 2) stuck in the EPCOT earth/ball at an angle while the CM's looked for something that made a sensor go off ... 3) had to be walked off the people mover in tomorrowland which was fun and got a fastpass to something else ... and got stuck in Splash Mountain just before the big splash down !!! Oh, and stuck on Everest up near the broken tracks once !!!