So is RSR malfunctioning the norm?

[brockash]

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.

Even in your case, a 50% chance of a scheduled downtime at park opening seems insane to me. It's a theme park for goodness sakes, that just seems unacceptable. We were there last week, and out of the 4 park days we had, 2 days RSR was down until noon (one of which was a EMH day, so opening 3 hrs. after guests arriving at park,) one of the other days, it was down off and on all day, and the day we actually got to ride it first thing in the morning, it was down later that afternoon. We've been going to Disney World and land for years, and have never experienced anything like the constant ride break-downs of RSR. Sure, you may have a temporary delay on certain rides, but complete ride break-downs where a ride is shut down for hours multiple times every single week, seems way too extreme and very unusual.

 

[sheetz]

I heard Indiana Jones went down a LOT when it first opened, and still does pretty often nowadays and it's been operating for many years.

 

[HydroGuy]

Even in your case, a 50% chance of a scheduled downtime at park opening seems insane to me. It's a theme park for goodness sakes, that just seems unacceptable. We were there last week, and out of the 4 park days we had, 2 days RSR was down until noon (one of which was a EMH day, so opening 3 hrs. after guests arriving at park,) one of the other days, it was down off and on all day, and the day we actually got to ride it first thing in the morning, it was down later that afternoon. We've been going to Disney World and land for years, and have never experienced anything like the constant ride break-downs of RSR. Sure, you may have a temporary delay on certain rides, but complete ride break-downs where a ride is shut down for hours multiple times every single week, seems way too extreme and very unusual.

First, I will grant that RSR seems to be down too often. However, at WDW don't you find Test Track seems to go down every day for awhile? I was not at WDW when TT was first built and would be curious about anyone who did visit during that time and their experience.

 

[brockash]

First, I will grant that RSR seems to be down too often. However, at WDW don't you find Test Track seems to go down every day for awhile? I was not at WDW when TT was first built and would be curious about anyone who did visit during that time and their experience.

We didn't start making our first annual Disney World trips until 2005, but no we've never had a problem with TT being down. I'm sure it does go down occasionally, but I don't think we've ever had an instance where we've tried to ride it and it was down or broke down while we were on it. We do go in Sept., so it's not as busy, but it's not like we were at Disneyland during a super busy time either. Like I said, we've never seen anything like the issues with RSR.

 

[BayAreaMom]

We were just there 11/8-11.
RSR was down:
11/8 pm
We went back 11/9 right when the park opened. I got in line for the RSR FPs (which took 25 minutes, sold out in 90 min). DH took DD to ride RSR and get a rider switch card. Well RSR was closed.
Then we went back at 12:30 to use our FPs, still shut down.
We gave up and went to DL. Came back around 8:30pm and it was running.
We never went back to RSR on 11/10 & 11...just gave up!
It is a really cool ride and I'm really glad we rode it at night. But I felt like the ride was too slow in the beginning, then too fast at the end. The audio in the cars was also really loud.

What is a real pain is the dead-end location. With all the people milling around during a closure, it creates a real problem trying to figure out if it is closed. Signs should be posted closer to the main portion of carsland.

 

[HydroGuy]

We didn't start making our first annual Disney World trips until 2005, but no we've never had a problem with TT being down. I'm sure it does go down occasionally, but I don't think we've ever had an instance where we've tried to ride it and it was down or broke down while we were on it. We do go in Sept., so it's not as busy, but it's not like we were at Disneyland during a super busy time either. Like I said, we've never seen anything like the issues with RSR.

Just about every time we have been at Epcot TT has been down part of the day. And it seems like folks on the WDW forum complain about that a lot. Some predicted reliability issues for RSR as a result - which have turned out to be true.

My first time at AK was a couple months after EE opened in 2006. It was broken down frequently including the first morning we tried to ride. It was a confusing mess on a hot day at AK in June. We finally rode it late morning with a FP.

At DCA we and others have had problems with TSMM being open at park opening. This also affected us at DHS in 2011. The difference at DHS is they have FP so if the ride is down you can just grab a FP and come back.

Before RSR came to DCA, TSMM was the most popular morning ride. There were frequent discussions around here whether "it was worth it" to try for TSMM in the morning at rope drop - partly because it was down just often enough first thing in the morning to complicate things - even after 2-3 years of being open. I myself tried to ride TSMM three times at RD and had it be down twice - wasting morning time. Now those discussions are about RSR and no one talks about TSMM anymore.

So if you do not encounter these things at WDW then it sounds like you have good fortune. I was at DLR last month and did not encounter any issues with RSR being up over two days at DCA when I tried to ride it. So I had good fortune at DCA. I rode RSR three times in two days.

I am not making excuses for DLR or RSR. From what I read RSR does go down too often. And with it being so popular right now the impact is increased. I guess it seems to me this happens a lot with new rides at DLR as well as WDW.

 

[cincinmouse]

I was there on Nov 7 and Nov 9th and both times did wide right on got on right away and also rode it later with one fastpass.

You have two choices build the ride and run it for six months to a year with nobody on it to work out the kinks or get what you have now. It appears simple but each car is like its own rollercoaster car and safety measure on in place to keep cars from running into each other. Even though ride is similar to test track is it more complicated due to the double cars that switch back and forth on the track and cannot run into each other. If one car gets out of whack the whole system must be reset. Which can take hour. This is all for your safety.

I am a WDW regular and this was my first time to DL. And test track is down ALOT. And so will this ride. I refer to the opening problems with Test Track from Wikapedia.

"Construction
After World of Motion had closed on January 2, 1996, everything inside the ride building was removed. After, new track was constructed outside of the building which is used as the high-speed test for Test Track. Work inside the building also continued at the same time. The ride was scheduled to open in May 1997 but after numerous problems rose, the ride opening was delayed by nearly 2 years.[1] Also, the cars used on the ride were designed to resemble the look of a test car that is used to go through multiple safety tests.

Problems
Over the course of the construction of Test Track, numerous problems occurred causing delays in the ride opening. One problem that Imagineers had to overcome was that the wheels used on the ride vehicles could not stand up to the demand of the ride course and speed. This problem was resolved but a second, more severe problem caused the ride to be delayed by over a year. In order for Test Track to run with the highest hourly capacity possible, twenty-nine ride vehicles would be needed. The ride programming system could only handle operating a maximum of six cars over the layout of the ride. One by one, programmers were able to get the computer system able to run twenty-nine ride vehicles all at once. After these problems were resolved, Test Track soft-opened to the public on December 19, 1998. The ride was still prone to breakdowns and didn't officially open until March 17, 1999"

So with Racers they have improved the start-up curve from Test Track

 

[cmwade77]

In addition to the problems above they originally chose to use some cheaper components (the computer mechanisms as I recall) in the cars of Test Track and Rocket Rods, which also used the same basic technology.

This mistake has also been corrected, but from what I have heard still has a higher failure rate than they would like.

So, yes there are a lot of breakdowns, but no more than you would expect for this new of an attraction, especially when considering everything.