SDMT Soft Opening Lookout Post

[Pixiedust2758]

I'm hoping for guest soft opening/previews during the wee hours of the morning during the 24 hour party. Not as big of a crowd as during the day, but still plenty of people that would like to ride.

You would think they'd want to to test a larger group than just some CMs - use the queue line & see how long it takes guests to get from point a to point b, etc.; through the ride, load, unload, reload, etc...get some better guesstimates of time in there, before official opening. But maybe they plan to do that with LOTs of employees.

 

[jlwhitney]

Here today. cM only riding today

 

[corinne148]

I'm heading to MK later today to stalk the ride. I'm still wondering if CM are able to bring guests with them, I know they could during the New Fantasyland testing.

 

[MightyGitis]

I'm heading to MK later today to stalk the ride. I'm still wondering if CM are able to bring guests with them, I know they could during the New Fantasyland testing.

So far no. I keep seeing people ask them in their pictures on Instagram. Every rider must have the Mine Train pass and a WDW employee ID.

 

[nisiemouse]

We were at MK yest and CM told us there might be a soft opening but it is still a few days away IF there is one. He was very nice and talked to us a long time. So it is not going to happen for me this trip. Next time!

 

[mom2rtk]

I'm really surprised this opens in 10 days, with FP slots booked for thousands of people. And they have not even tested it on the general public yet. I hope that works out for them.

 

[dramadrew]

I saw CMs by the entrance during my trip a couple weeks ago. I thought how boring and tedious it was for them to stand there all day to hear the same questions, "Is this open?" "How do I get in?" "When's it going to open???"

 

[mslhb]

I'm really surprised this opens in 10 days, with FP slots booked for thousands of people. And they have not even tested it on the general public yet. I hope that works out for them.

This! I feel like they really wanted a May open date and are going to push forward no matter what.

 

[Kwaschitz]

Hoping to convince my son to let me cancel his SWW fast passes at HS (I've had enough! Two days of ridiculously crowded craziness! I'm done! Even worse: he cancelled the MK fp+ I had for today to get more at hs today!)

Fingers crossed that the soft open starts soon!!

 

[mrsmomo]

I'm really surprised this opens in 10 days, with FP slots booked for thousands of people. And they have not even tested it on the general public yet. I hope that works out for them.

Im really hoping they dont do this! I will be there that day and so wish they would do a soft opening with the masses before then so its fully tested before my fastpass lol

 

[MightyGitis]

I'm really surprised this opens in 10 days, with FP slots booked for thousands of people. And they have not even tested it on the general public yet. I hope that works out for them.

They will soft open. But it might only be the last week (as I've postulated before). And it might be very sparse even then. They don't need real people. They have an endless stream of CMs. Right now they are training the CMs who will be running the ride. And until they feel the ride is ready AND that crew is ready they won't soft open. They don't need to yet.

 

[mom2rtk]

They will soft open. But it might only be the last week (as I've postulated before). And it might be very sparse even then. They don't need real people. They have an endless stream of CMs. Right now they are training the CMs who will be running the ride. And until they feel the ride is ready AND that crew is ready they won't soft open. They don't need to yet.

Oh, I think they'll soft open. But we already know it will be with less than 10 days of practice with real world people. This is unlike any prior headline ride opening. People have FPs booked for the foreseeable future. Every time they have to take that ride offline for unexpected issues the problem will be magnified by the number of people showing up with carefully planned FPs. It's not like before when they could just stop distributing FPs if an issue came up. That ship already sailed.

 

[MightyGitis]

Oh, I think they'll soft open. But we already know it will be with less than 10 days of practice with real world people. This is unlike any prior headline ride opening. People have FPs booked for the foreseeable future. Every time they have to take that ride offline for unexpected issues the problem will be magnified by the number of people showing up with carefully planned FPs. It's not like before when they could just stop distributing FPs if an issue came up. That ship already sailed.

That's very true. Star Tours soft opening was plagued with problems (only saw one or two simulators going) but that was all before FP+. That's why I was legitimately surprised when I heads FP was open for opening day. I expected them to not do FP opening day and do standby only for a bit and then open FP in a subsequent week.

But with Star Tours we worried for nothing. I was there for the opening of that.

That being said we should watch the DisneyParks blog. For Star Tours they did a preview party the night before and you signed up for it thru the blog. But I think that was the only time they've done that.

 

[jmrmwaller]

So, is this coaster big enough where they can have 2 trains on the track at the same time (one riding and the other loading)? Or just the one?

 

[Chuckers]

So, is this coaster big enough where they can have 2 trains on the track at the same time (one riding and the other loading)? Or just the one?

From the looks of the ride through, and my limited knowledge of coasters, I would say yes. It actually looks like they could have 3 trains at one time because of the braking/lift system and the slow part through the mine itself.

I couldn't tell from the video I saw, if the loading/unloading takes place in the same section or not.

 

[macphisto96]

From the looks of the ride through, and my limited knowledge of coasters, I would say yes. It actually looks like they could have 3 trains at one time because of the braking/lift system and the slow part through the mine itself.

I couldn't tell from the video I saw, if the loading/unloading takes place in the same section or not.

I'd guess that it has more than three even. This is the centerpiece on the New Fantasyland, so a high ride capacity is necessary. They need to load two trains every minute or so to get it up past 2,000 an hour in ride capacity. Space Mountain can handle over 2,000 riders per hour, so I'd guess that this one can.

My bet is that there are five trains operational with separate loading and unloading stations to give them maximum efficiency. This should allow them to load two trains per minute (in theory) and give them a max ride capacity of 2400 per hour. It'll probably be slightly lower than that, but I expect it to match Everest's 2,000 or so per hour at least. They likely wanted to beat that, owing to the crowds.

The other question is if they designed it with a single riders queue to further maximize efficiency and try to get every train completely full. That's a disappointing thing about Toy Story Mania. I've kept track of the empty seats each time I ride for awhile, including yesterday night. I'd estimate that they have about 100 empty seats an hour. That ride can only move about 1200 an hour, so getting an extra 100 or so people in would be a huge plus. It may not put much of a dent in the Standby times, but it couldn't hurt if they could find a way to get a queue in there.

 

[Chuckers]

I'd guess that it has more than three even. This is the centerpiece on the New Fantasyland, so a high ride capacity is necessary. They need to load two trains every minute or so to get it up past 2,000 an hour in ride capacity. Space Mountain can handle over 2,000 riders per hour, so I'd guess that this one can.

My bet is that there are five trains operational with separate loading and unloading stations to give them maximum efficiency. This should allow them to load two trains per minute (in theory) and give them a max ride capacity of 2400 per hour. It'll probably be slightly lower than that, but I expect it to match Everest's 2,000 or so per hour at least. They likely wanted to beat that, owing to the crowds.

The other question is if they designed it with a single riders queue to further maximize efficiency and try to get every train completely full. That's a disappointing thing about Toy Story Mania. I've kept track of the empty seats each time I ride for awhile, including yesterday night. I'd estimate that they have about 100 empty seats an hour. That ride can only move about 1200 an hour, so getting an extra 100 or so people in would be a huge plus. It may not put much of a dent in the Standby times, but it couldn't hurt if they could find a way to get a queue in there.

I could see 4 or 5 trains easily... especially with separate load/unload stations. A single rider line would be VERY smart. TSM in DCA had a single rider line. they took it away and I asked a CM why and I was told that too many people (parents) complained that their child had to sit with a stranger. It also didn't help that groups of 3 or 4 would go in the single rider line and then ask to sit together ALL the time.

 

[mom2rtk]

It also didn't help that groups of 3 or 4 would go in the single rider line and then ask to sit together ALL the time.

Well, that part of it isn't likely to have changed. I hope they are better at saying no.

 

[ferd]

Was there today and saw multiple people riding. CMs were telling guests that 'pre-selected guests' were the only ones invited to ride at this time.

I asked if Annual Passholders would be invited to a soft opening and were told by 2 different CMs to keep checking our emails about that. So

 

[Chuckers]

Well, that part of it isn't likely to have changed. I hope they are better at saying no.

Oh they said no, it was the resulting arguments of 'why?' that held up the lines.