Space Mountain rush

[99haunts]

I remember reading some reason as to why you must exit and load this ride quickly. Yesterday morning, one man was trying to get the attention of a woman exiting the ride (I think she left something) and a cm started hurrying them, actually yelling get in get in! A man next to me asked him are you serious? The cm replied dead serious! Can someone explain to me the rush? It seemed really rude of the cm which was surprising to me...

 

[Disney Dreams]

Well, there is definitely a polite way to rush someone, which does not sound like what took place, but, yes, Space Mountain does load and unload people very quickly.

If you think about the speed on the ride itself, once a "car" takes off from the loading area, it goes VERY fast. Every vehicle that is going through the ride is moving fast. So, when one comes in, everyone has to get out quickly because all the cars move forward at a set rate to keep everything moving so as not to create a back up. I believe the Cast Members manually "launch" the vehicles (after checking safety restraints), but they have to keep things moving.

I think of it sort of like an assembly line. Have you ever seen the "I love Lucy" episode when they are in wrapping the candy - and fall behind? If you think about the chain reaction, if the people you mentioned took too long getting out, vehicles behind them would backlog on the track. If that backlog goes too far, I would imagine it would create a problem and would possibly shut down the entire thing.

I have heard CMs at Space Mountain urge people to exit quickly, but in a nice, "Disney" sort of way.

- Dreams

 

[ChickenCarlos]

i think it is because the ride is time/speed sensitive, and if a car goes to fast or to slow, or a loading car does not leave within a certain amount of time, the whole ride shuts down, Space Mountain is natorious for shuting down, it has stopped on my mother so many times that she refuses to ride it anymore because one time she was stuck on the top and they had to pull out a ladder for her to climb down, and it scared the crap out of her, so now she refuses to go on it.

 

[99haunts]

Okay, that makes a lot of sense. I was thinking it was something like that. It seemed as time went on, the cm became more frantic. Of course, this was the only time in my whole trip that any cm came across as rude and I'm sure we can chalk it up to stress and him being human thanks for the quick responses!

 

[Eeee-va]

I've read elsewhere that, like Disney Dreams says, there's a short dispatch time (I THINK they said like 20 or 22 seconds). And if the cars get backed up, they have to do an emergency stop of ALL the cars. I'm not sure if that means they have to evacuate everyone on the ride (probably?) but it also means they have to reset the entire ride. If you go to the parks often enough you've probably seen times when Space Mountain is "down" for a half hour or more...I'd wager that usually that means they had to do one of those emergency stops.

Anyway, I'm not saying the CMs should be yelling. But if a guest doesn't listen to a polite insistence on rushing, and if the choice becomes yelling at one person or bringing the whole ride down for 30 minutes or more, forcing hundreds of people who are in line, some waiting as many as 60+ minutes, back out of line, never mind the trouble of starting the ride up again...I can see where the CM would think that yelling was the better option.

I also read that Space Mountain is a very stressful ride to work, for that very reason. (I seem to recall someone who worked it also posting how much easier it is for the CMs when they run with one fewer car, even though the dispatch time doesn't get that much longer (and capacity would go down something in the ballpark of 10%, since the ride doesn't run any faster but there would be, I think, 10 or 11 cars, instead of 11 or 12). But the extra few seconds make a big difference.)

 

[disneymum58]

We have experienced the same situation, with a frantic CM yelling at guests to sit down etc. It was just as we were finishing our ride but hadn't pulled in to get out. Yes, it did shut the ride down. And yes, I was shocked to hear a CM yell like that.

 

[Minuet888]

Hi! I can answer this one!
Space Mountain is on what is called a time relay system. As others have said before the cars go through the ride quickly and will back up quickly. If they get backed up the ride stops and people either have to be evac'd or pushed through the rest of the ride recycled. It is a BIG hassle and makes the line grow and people ticked off. In general though stopping space mountain is a hazard as the ride is fast and stopping suddenly in one of the emergency brake zones can give a person whiplash.
Cast members are asked to do things nicely but when you are dealing with guests safety and guests not listening I think they have a right to be a little "rushed" with someone.

 

[jtown]

It's really a no-brainer. There's a finite amount of non-ride track and 10 (or 12; I forget the exact number but I did count once and it's at least 10) sets of cars on the track. You can fit 2 at the station and maybe 2 more just before of the station, 1 just after the station, and 1 in the slow-load area. That only accounts for, at most, 6 cars stopped in or around the loading area. Oh, and there's a siding just before the station so, if that's functional, there's one more spot. The rest of the cars are moving.

 

[blackjackdelta]

i think it is because the ride is time/speed sensitive, and if a car goes to fast or to slow, or a loading car does not leave within a certain amount of time, the whole ride shuts down, Space Mountain is natorious for shuting down, it has stopped on my mother so many times that she refuses to ride it anymore because one time she was stuck on the top and they had to pull out a ladder for her to climb down, and it scared the crap out of her, so now she refuses to go on it.

This has also happened to my DGF, but she still does the ride.

Jack