Ride Breakdowns

[Nohal]

Just back from 10 days at Disneyworld. I can't believe how many times rides were "temporarily closed". Was on Toy Story at Rope Drop my car was just about ready to go in and the ride broke down. Sent everyone in the line out and evacuated those of us from the actual ride. The nice thing was we got paper FP's which were good till the end of the month. I'm sure it wasn't down that long but we didn't go back to use our FP till a few days later. I have never seen a line that long for the People Mover in MK they had ropes up and the line snake chained and overflowed into the walkway. That was always our go to ride to relax and get away from the crowds. This broke down twice while we were in the line. So many other times checked MDE and saw temporarily closed on certain rides. In all the years of going I've never seen so many breakdowns.

 

[hakepb]

I believe many "break downs" are actually unruly guests triggering a ride stop.
But others have mechanical reasons.
I am curious about Toy Story, were you in the old loading area (going over the track) or the new 3rd track? Being physically separate, I would think there is a greater chance at least 1 track is running.

The extended People Mover queue has become too common in my July and Christmas trips.

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

People Mover "breakdowns" are often guests taking so much time to load that it triggers a safety stop and ride evacuation. (Space Mountain at DL goes down all the time for this same reason, too--people ignoring the direction of the CMs and taking all the time in the world to just sit down.)

 

[TSR6]

My favorite breakdown is when Space Mountain breaks down. You RUN don't walk to the People Mover so you can see the inside with the lights on!!!

 

[Nohal]

I believe many "break downs" are actually unruly guests triggering a ride stop.
But others have mechanical reasons.
I am curious about Toy Story, were you in the old loading area (going over the track) or the new 3rd track? Being physically separate, I would think there is a greater chance at least 1 track is running.

The extended People Mover queue has become too common in my July and Christmas trips.

We went at rope drop and I don't think they were using the new track yet as we were there when they opened and walk through the line almost to the loading area. We were just set to go into the first practice room so we got to see them make everyone in line get sent out of the building. We did get to go on the new track later in the week so I know it was the old. They closed the line and wouldn't let anyone in the building.

 

[Accident]

You'll find the months with extreme heat is when the rides tend to be down more than you'd think. Extreme heat impacts the rides and then the unruly guests who can't follow instructions causing a stop. TSMM I think has a design issue where person stuff flys out of the car and gets run over by the cars (your paying attention and playing the game, not where your stuff currently moved too with the spinning).

 

[anniemae]

Lots of people on fb complaining of breakdowns. I guess FEA went down today and had to be evacuated again. There was a person who this was their 3rd attempt to ride and when they got halfway through the line, it broke down.

Lots of complaints about SE too. It broke down when we were there, cm's were sending people away. Also, the picture screens have not worked for a while.

 

[tinkerbella16]

We were there 2 weeks ago and luckily didn't experience many break downs. TT was closed when we went to use our FP, and it was our last ride before heading back to the resort, so that kind of stunk but it was our arrival day so we had plenty of time to ride it. FEA was the only other thing that was down A LOT! We got on with no problem in the morning after Akershus, and we felt fortunate to be able to ride it because it was down at some point each day, whether we were in Epcot or just checking wait times.

 

[Huff]

Have never seen that many break downs.
Last visit Tower of Terror broke down just as we got on. After a few minutes the doors opened and a CM said stay seated, the ride has to do a reset which involves going through the entire ride with the lights on. So we got a lights on ride. Kinda ruins the effects though! When the ride was over the CM said we could stay seated if we would like to ride again with everything normal.

 

[TikiMan0228]

My favorite breakdown is when Space Mountain breaks down. You RUN don't walk to the People Mover so you can see the inside with the lights on!!!

When we were there over Labor Day the kids went in Space Montain while DW and I went on people mover. The lights came on just as we were leaving that area. Saw it for about 2 seconds. Of course the kids were then stuck in queue for extra 30 mins.

 

[Jennasis]

FEA broke down when we were about 5 families from loading in the FP line. They evac'd the ride. Maintenance workers and Emergency Services showed up. They gave us paper passes good for the month and we managed to get on later in the week.

SSE still hasn't fixed the ending where they put your picture into the "Your Future" story. It's been not working since our trip in May.

Half the cast of Country Bears looked like they've had a stroke...but that's not a breakdown so much as it's shoddy upkeep.

 

[Alicenwonderment]

My favorite breakdown is when Space Mountain breaks down. You RUN don't walk to the People Mover so you can see the inside with the lights on!!!

Another way to see and ride Space Mountain with lights on is to take the YES Program's Physics Tour. I know way back they would let the tour ride with lights off and then on. Not sure if this is still done.

 

[crazedprincess]

UGH. Spaceship Earth's ending picture didn't work when we were there TWO YEARS AGO! You'd think Disney would get it together! It makes it so I don't even want to ride it.

 

[Klayfish]

It happens. The rides are very complex, the guests are sometimes very unruly. I don't see it as a big deal.

 

[Princesca]

I have never noticed many breakdowns or ride closures at WDW when I've gone, but I was horribly unimpressed with DL when I went. I am not really a thrill ride person so there were already several things at DCA I didn't want to ride, but it felt like there were at least five other malfunctioning rides when we were there. It was very frustrating.

 

[WDWRook]

Totally agree with unruly guests. We rode FEA and a guy in front of us stood up and tried to knock over one of the snowgies. I was very irritated. If he had succeeded he could have shut down the ride for hours.

 

[TSR6]

Another way to see and ride Space Mountain with lights on is to take the YES Program's Physics Tour. I know way back they would let the tour ride with lights off and then on. Not sure if this is still done.

Not sure, never heard of that - but for the average guest - always run to the people mover if it's down!

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

I have never noticed many breakdowns or ride closures at WDW when I've gone, but I was horribly unimpressed with DL when I went. I am not really a thrill ride person so there were already several things at DCA I didn't want to ride, but it felt like there were at least five other malfunctioning rides when we were there. It was very frustrating.

Three years ago, George Kalogridis, who helped improve maintenance and show as DLR president, replaced (the awful) Meg Crofton as WDW president and helped the same things happen in Orlando. Unfortunately, Kalogridis' replacement at DLR was Michael Colglazier who ran Animal Kingdom under Crofton. He brought her terrible deferred-maintenance management practices to DLR and undid a lot of the good that Kalogridis had done. Which is why Indy breaks down all the time now and so many lights are turned off above nonworking animatronics on DL's Splash Mountain. It's actually kind of heartbreaking because both coasts deserve good show and good maintenance at the same time.

 

[CinderellaElla]

We're AP and we've gone quite a bit these past few years. Every so often, we hit a day where everything just seems to be going wrong. Rides breaking down, adjusting plans, etc. Part of me says that those days just happen sometimes. For the most part, that's what we chalk it up to and find a way of laughing about it. Then another part of me says that it happens more often than I'd like and it feels like the QUALITY of Disney World has been on a slow but steady decline. The same rides are still breaking down, the same animatronics still have the same glitches, more often than not we still can't see our funny faces at the end of Spaceship Earth, rides that have been "down for refurbishment" open with old issues resolved but new ones that don't always seem to be addressed.