Ride breakdowns

[ChloesDaddy]

We got stuck a couple times on Splash in Jan. The final time was about 10 minutes with this view:

(not my photo)

It was literally right next to my face. At least the music stopped playing after a while. And the ride stopped running after we got off.

Splash does shut down a lot, but they always get to the bottom of it.

 

[rastahomie]

I've been fortunate in that I've never been on a ride that was down for more than a few minutes.

I hope I never get evacuated. I absolutely refuse to let myself see anything backstage, and I would be really disappointed if I had to get evacuated and see backstage.

 

[Sparkly]

One time on our last morning at MK before flying home that evening, everything and anything seemed to go wrong. Pooh broke down, Philarmagic broke down, it was not our best day. It happens.

 

[wilkeliza]

Okay, this is just ridiculous. Splash was under extended maintenance when my parents got back to Disney after 15 years. Was my father put out? Yes. Did he complain to a CM? No! Same when I took (what will probably be) my one and only trip to Disneyland and the Matterhorn needed work. I thought it was odd they had a mountain down in the middle of July, and was a little disappointed since it's not at the World, but not going on the bobsleds didn't "ruin my trip"! There's plenty of other wonderful things to experience! Good grief.

It is rediculous. There is an ex-cm who made a great youtube video about it. There are many a break down in guest services about how an entire vacation was ruined over one or two rides being down. On the rare day where 2-3 mountains are down you can read the pages and pages of threads here where people say the company has gone down the drain over it. I don't think people realize sometimes things put of Disney's control happen and happen all at once like a hat getting stuck in a gear from your example. Glad you know to make the best of it and still have fun. I'm the same way. BTMRR is my favorite and if it is down during a trip, yeah I'm sad, but it never ruins a trip. I just get 2 rides minimum next trip

 

[Davey Jones II]

On our last Orlando trip, in 2014, most of our long waits were due to breakdowns. To be fair, it happened more at Universal than at Disney. At Uni, we had breakdowns on Gringott's, Spider-Man, Transformers, and Despicable Me (I think. The wait was over an hour, in any case). At WDW, we had a breakdown on Mission: Space. The Haunted Mansion often stops, but usually pretty briefly. Of course, over at Disneyland Resort, both Indiana Jones and RSR are chronic cases. You can't spend five days there without seeing multiple breakdowns on those rides.

 

[Davey Jones II]

That is partly the reason. For a long time the parks were only opened for certain times and there were not tons of people across the internet complaining when a ride was down for refurbishment during their vacation. This allowed daily maintenance and season maintenance to do their job and do it well. Now (well the last 5 years until now) when people go and their favorite ride is down for refurbishment they complain at the parks and then get on line and blast how terrible Disney is and how they ruined their family's hard earned vacation because Its A Small World was done. This lead to a lot of patch work being done. Now I think we are seeing that patch work start to fail. Some of the older rides also just have an issue with parts not being available and having to be constructed. So part of it is the expectation of the crowds, the fact maintenance doesn't have much time to do what it needs to in between guest clear and park opening, no down time any more, and the fact rides are running at capacity more than ever before.

On top of all that the budget cuts are making it even harder. Some of these rides are over 20 years old and still run on 20 year technology so they will break down and often if they aren't refurbished. Other rides are also just due to guest ignorance. Some people think they should be able to do whatever they want to and that includes getting out of their doom buggies, getting out of their honey pot to chase a lost hat, getting off the people mover mid ride, etc which all cause E-stops and e-stops can take a bit before the ride gets going again.

If a particular ride or attraction is a must for you, you have to check the refurb schedule way in advance, to make sure that it is scheduled to be running during your vacation. That info is available on Disney's sites, and on MousePlanet.

 

[Davey Jones II]

We got evacuated from Ellen's Energy Adventure once. It was cool because we took some close-up pics of the dinosaurs before we left.

 

[Srbright]

We got evacuated from IASW last time we went in 2014. The CM was nice enough to turn the music off. A guy in chest waders came out and drug the boats to the side so that we could step out and onto the "shore".

It was actually pretty fun and the highlight of that day. I don't think our vacation there could ever be ruined by a ride or even 2 or 4 being down. There is so much to do that you just go ride something else.

Stacy

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

There are lots of reasons for breakdowns. These are big massive, mechanical, electrical, and technical machines designed to be very safe, with shut down trips and abilities that react fast. Often once stopped it takes time to get them fired up again. This is the same all over the country. Uni as well, with Diagon Alley having a reputation to keep breaking down.

Another point is that often a breakdown is not a breakdown. Sometimes the attraction is stopped to let a disabled person on or off the ride part. Someone sticks there hands and arms, or releases a safety belt or plainly tries to get out of the ride vehicle, etc. Some attractions can take 10 or 15 minutes to fully restart and may require to have all the passengers removed to restart.

Just a few days ago the big coaster at California Adventure, was stopped because some fool pulled out a selfie stick ad shut the whole attraction down flat for a long time, like hours.

AKK

 

[DisneyLovingPreacher]

On our last Orlando trip, in 2014, most of our long waits were due to breakdowns. To be fair, it happened more at Universal than at Disney. At Uni, we had breakdowns on Gringott's, Spider-Man, Transformers, and Despicable Me (I think. The wait was over an hour, in any case). At WDW, we had a breakdown on Mission: Space. The Haunted Mansion often stops, but usually pretty briefly. Of course, over at Disneyland Resort, both Indiana Jones and RSR are chronic cases. You can't spend five days there without seeing multiple breakdowns on those rides.

It is funny that you mention Gringott's. We were in Diagon Alley on the 2nd day it was open. We got into the bank from outside so we were pretty far into the line. Then the ride broke down. We had a good spot in line (or so we thought) and didnt want to give our spot up. After 3 hours of waiting and continually being told 30 more minutes, I pulled a manager aside and asked what was going on. They said the ride broke down after the first flight thru. After waiting another hour, we finally got on the ride. I was amazed by the rudeness of the cast members at Uni. The manager I pulled aside had an attitude with me for asking a simple question. This is the only breakdown I have ever had at Uni, but they definitely don't handle it as well as the CM's at Disney.

 

[kimmyg26]

We have been stopped numerous times but we figure for the most part it is because unloaded/loading someone from a wheel chair.

Two years ago, we were in the middle of a killer game at Toy Story and the ride stopped. We waited for a good bit and were walked off. It was interesting to see the set but wasn't a big spoiler such as being evacuated from Splash or Haunted Mansion. We were given an any time fast pass but that didn't help that I was finally winning that game

 

[TSR6]

I don't mind when Space Mountain is down.... We bee-line it to the people mover!!!

 

[Davey Jones II]

It is funny that you mention Gringott's. We were in Diagon Alley on the 2nd day it was open. We got into the bank from outside so we were pretty far into the line. Then the ride broke down. We had a good spot in line (or so we thought) and didnt want to give our spot up. After 3 hours of waiting and continually being told 30 more minutes, I pulled a manager aside and asked what was going on. They said the ride broke down after the first flight thru. After waiting another hour, we finally got on the ride. I was amazed by the rudeness of the cast members at Uni. The manager I pulled aside had an attitude with me for asking a simple question. This is the only breakdown I have ever had at Uni, but they definitely don't handle it as well as the CM's at Disney.

That's the downside to these very complex, high tech rides: they break down at the drop of a hat. As for CMs at Universal, I always felt they are not as friendly as the ones at Disney; basically apathetic college kids doing a part time job and just tolerating the guests.

 

[DisneyLovingPreacher]

That's the downside to these very complex, high tech rides: they break down at the drop of a hat. As for CMs at Universal, I always felt they are not as friendly as the ones at Disney; basically apathetic college kids doing a part time job and just tolerating the guests.

One thing I was surprised with is they continue to let people into the line. Usually from what I've seen at Disney they shut down the line so no one else can come in. Otherwise you are right the CM's at Uni at definitely not as polite as the one's at Disney and that makes a big difference for me and my family.

 

[Jules76126]

I have been to Disney many times and actually did two college programs. As other posters mentioned, many time the break downs and stoppages are not due to poor maintenance. I worked at Spaceship Earth for my first program abd that ride stops or slows down to let mobility impaired guests on and off. The senors are also really sensitive so if someone drops a hat or phone or even if they have a backpack with the straps hanging outside their car, that can set them off. The other thing is the ride can only be stopped for so long before you have to evac it. The reason is the longer people sit in those doom buggies, honeypots, etc, the best change someone will get antsy and jump out. So to avoid that problem, if you can;t get the ride restarted in the set time frame (less than 10 minutes) then you automatically evac. You then need to run the ride for a full rotation before you can let guests back on. In teh case of SSE, that takes 15 minutes.

That being said, some rides do break down. SSE went down twice for extended periods of time (hours) when I worked there. It also went down for a major refub at the end of my program. On my second program, I worked at Mission Space. That ride only went down if there was a major problem, usually a door on a pod not closing correctly or something caught in the gears. Although annoying, I am glad to know the rides are very safe as long as everyone follows directions. I am going in November and I am sure something will go down while I am there

 

[Davey Jones II]

That's bad training, or a terrible policy; how can you let people into a line for a broken down ride? For one thing, people leaving will have a hard time getting through the mob in back of them.

 

[Hannahinwonderland]

Just FYI for those of you complaining about the frequent HM stops. It's usually NOT a technical issue, but something in the ride path that causes cast members to "e-stop" the ride, or like others have mentioned, the ride is entirely stopped for mobility issues. It's a safety thing. It can be something like a hand outside a doom buggy, or a backpack strap.

Of course, there are technical issues sometimes too. Things just stop working for whatever reason. Pirates is usually a stuck boat. I agree that it seems to be down a LOT.

 

[DisneyLovingPreacher]

That's bad training, or a terrible policy; how can you let people into a line for a broken down ride? For one thing, people leaving will have a hard time getting through the mob in back of them.

I completely agree and it seems to be that Disney has this one right.

 

[Sevey13]

Safari was down when it first opened on Friday and didn't open until 1-1/2 to 2 hours later

How does the Safari break down? Does a lion get loose on the Savannah or something?

 

[DisneyLovingPreacher]

How does the Safari break down? Does a lion get loose on the Savannah or something?

Trucks can break down and block a path. You can have sick animals. There can also be issues with the bridge scene, just to name a few. I do not know the exact situation of course.