So is RSR malfunctioning the norm?

[doog71]

With how long the ride has been open now, is it just assumed that it's just a "problem" ride until further notice? Seems they've had plenty of time to figure out whatever the bugs are...maybe they're just there until a major refurbishment?

Did they just rush to open it up too quickly? I'm surprised it's such an unreliable attraction for so long.

 

[Mel522]

We were there for 5 days, and only noticed it being down once. We also notice Big Thunder Mountain being down twice, Splash Mountain twice, and Space Mountain Once. Rides go down.

 

[IandGsmom]

We are here right now (3rd day) and the ride was down on/off the last 2 days. Every time we checked it "just went down"

 

[jlwhitney]

On our Pixar Cruise in Sept. we went to the talk about Carsland and someone asked about why it was always breaking down and he was saying its not that its breaking down, but that it needs reset. Basically when they have to pull a car out for someone in a wheel chair and such it causes the ride to get out of sync and they have to reset the ride. He said that is why it is random, since they never know when that might happen and it won't be changing.

 

[julieheyer]

Interesting explanation! I'm hopeful it won't be down most of the times we're there. If you're in line for a while and it goes down before you get on, do they give you a FP or are you just stuck? I would just like to ride RSR 1 time out of the 2-3 days we'll be through that park. I will be trying 3 mornings .

I've been through this multiple times with Indy. It's always "down" when we get to that part of the park. In fact that's why I'm happy it'll be closed for refurb while I'm there. Even when it's been "up" I haven't gotten to ride it!

 

[bumbershoot]

I was told that quite often the problem is that something is on the tracks. A hat, camera, glasses, etc. All cause a ride stop and reset. And the resets require very specific people to come in.

They said that when the ride first began, those specific people didn't think they would be needed that often, so they were in their offices in Burbank. Now they aren't in Burbank, but it still takes a little time to get them over for the reset.

 

[doog71]

We were there for 5 days, and only noticed it being down once. We also notice Big Thunder Mountain being down twice, Splash Mountain twice, and Space Mountain Once. Rides go down.

All due respect, I'd bet RSR goes down on a more consistent basis than other Disney rides, and in a more frustrating fashion (i.e. wait forever/build trip around riding it, then it's down for hours).

 

[ImNoPrince]

The CM at the RSR fp line the morning I stood in queue said that the ride goes down often and often isn't up at park open because it is so highly technical. The computerization is state-of-the-art, and they still need to work the out the bugs.

 

[brockash]

Yes, honestly, I don't get it. Why would a company even build a ride like that?? The frustration isn't worth it in my opinion. I just think it's really dumb. We just returned from a 5 day trip. Two of the days, RSR didn't open until noon, another day it was down almost the entire day and another day it was down off and on. We did finally get to ride it first thing Friday morning, although I'm pretty sure that I read another thread that said it was down later Friday. I just think it's completely unacceptable. They should just close it down completely and either figure out how to make it more efficiently or get rid of it completely. There's just no point.

 

[mrswh]

Yes, honestly, I don't get it. Why would a company even build a ride like that?? The frustration isn't worth it in my opinion. I just think it's really dumb. We just returned from a 5 day trip. Two of the days, RSR didn't open until noon, another day it was down almost the entire day and another day it was down off and on. We did finally get to ride it first thing Friday morning, although I'm pretty sure that I read another thread that said it was down later Friday. I just think it's completely unacceptable. They should just close it down completely and either figure out how to make it more efficiently or get rid of it completely. There's just no point.

I don't agree with this at all. I totally understand and can empathize with the frustration (and agree with those who say this is down much more than other rides), but I LOVE this ride. I'd much rather it be open half the time than none of the time. I would never wait in a long standby line for RSR, though. We try first thing in the morning and/or get FPs - that way if it does go down we can just go back later and not waste too much time. I am sure that Disney would prefer that it be up and running at all times, and hope that as they work out the "bugs," it's reliability improves - but for now I'll just take what I can get.

 

[Aust]

I went home from my 2 week trip in September/October feeling really lucky, because RSR was never down when we wanted to ride it (5 times over 2 weeks, both at early entry and later in the day with FP). I kept expecting it to be down - happily for us it wasn't. It did however take us 3 attempts to ride Goofy's Sky School as it was down twice on 2 different days when we wanted to ride.

 

[cmwade77]

For a ride as complex as it is, it really isn't down all that much. That being said, the number of breakdowns should continue to decrease and I would expect the normal amount of breakdowns to be around a year from now.

This is typical for most attractions.

 

[Mel522]

All due respect, I'd bet RSR goes down on a more consistent basis than other Disney rides, and in a more frustrating fashion (i.e. wait forever/build trip around riding it, then it's down for hours).

The more a ride runs, the more likely it is to break down. With the demand on RSR, it will break down. Part of the problem is that it is still new. There is still a learning curve when it does break down. With other rides they have dealt with the same break downs repeatedly for years and are pretty good and fast at fixing them, but with RSR, they are still learning.

There are also probably still some bugs/glitches. When they test a ride, they don't test it running for 16+ hours straight for weeks. So sometimes things go wrong that they didn't expect. They work through them as the come. The ride doesn't break down as much as it did when it first opened.

I understand the frustration of waiting a long time and having it break down before you ride, but that is not limited to RSR. We waited in line over an hour for Splash when it broke down. We were about 20 people back, so we waited another 30 minutes hoping for the best, but had to leave before it was fixed. Space Mountain was a 2 hour wait when we went to get in line and were told it just broke down. The people at the front of the line were probably not very happy.

 

[Eeee-va]

It seems fair to call it normal (if not "the norm") for the ride to have a scheduled delayed opening, such as not opening til noon. We didn't experience any other downtime besides that scheduled delay, but we only had 2-day parkhoppers. We were lucky enough to ride twice (with FPs) during our trip.

 

[Rhonna]

On our Pixar Cruise in Sept. we went to the talk about Carsland and someone asked about why it was always breaking down and he was saying its not that its breaking down, but that it needs reset. Basically when they have to pull a car out for someone in a wheel chair and such it causes the ride to get out of sync and they have to reset the ride. He said that is why it is random, since they never know when that might happen and it won't be changing.

I can't buy that one. As ImNoPrince says in their post below, it often isn't running when the park opens. That isn't a result of it just needing a reset. We were there last Monday at EMH and it was down for the first half hour. The CM's said the technicians had been working on it for 3 hours that morning before the park even opened.

Also, on one ride I went as single rider and was put in a car with a disabled person. It took a little extra time and our car was off to the far left side, off track. Anyhow, our car finally was moved into the main track and at the end of the ride was moved off again for disembarking. Neither time did it mess with the ride or make it go down for a reset.

The CM at the RSR fp line the morning I stood in queue said that the ride goes down often and often isn't up at park open because it is so highly technical. The computerization is state-of-the-art, and they still need to work the out the bugs.

 

[HydroGuy]

All due respect, I'd bet RSR goes down on a more consistent basis than other Disney rides, and in a more frustrating fashion (i.e. wait forever/build trip around riding it, then it's down for hours).

The best ride to compare it to is Test Track at WDW and I am not sure it goes down more than TT - which itself does go down often.

Also, it does seem a lot of the ride going down is not mechanical. Some have reported that some guests are doing unsafe things which leads to emergency shut downs and the resets.

 

[ValpoCory]

It seems fair to call it normal (if not "the norm") for the ride to have a scheduled delayed opening, such as not opening til noon.

I'm not saying it does, and I am likely not understanding your point, but I don't understand how a ride opening 4 hours late every day can seem "fair".

 

[Minuet888]

I started a thread on this the week after the ride opened because it kept breaking down. The CM's said it is an animation problem. and yes they also said it is a problem ride and foresee it to continue to be one in the future

 

[Eeee-va]

I'm not saying it does, and I am likely not understanding your point, but I don't understand how a ride opening 4 hours late every day can seem "fair".

I never heard of it opening 4 hours late every day, at least not in October or November. On my 2-day visit, RSR opened at noon for a 10 AM opening (2 hours late) and appeared to open on time for the 8 AM Early Entry on the other day. So during my trip, RSR had a 50% chance of a scheduled downtime at park opening. (My experience was too small to mean anything statistically!)

Anyway, it was bad phrasing on my part. I said "fair" intending to mean "accurate, true" and I used "normal" when I should've used a weaker word like "not unusual."

So more accurately, I believe that it's not unusual for RSR to be down in the morning for scheduled maintenance. Hope that makes a little more sense.

 

[DanT]

"Rocket Rods" comes to mind....