The Magic Kingdom is Dead

[fatmanatee]

Rides have been down since the beginning. I still have a stack of polaroids showing us being stuck on various rides. We only hear more about it now due to the instant social media.

I don't think this is entirely true. There was an article that came out a few years ago and analyzed downtime and calculated that downtime had increased significantly over the last several years. On the surface it makes a lot of sense: many of the newest, high profile rides suffer from it the most (and yes, as a result, they inspire the loudest complaints). Rise of the Resistance wasn't around when they started the analysis, now it's included and it happens to be probably the worst offender in all of WDW. Honestly it feels like the trackless rides all have some sort of issue with this, Remy was apparently down for almost 4 hours yesterday. In the meantime, older rides continue to get older, and there's only so much refurb you can do with them (in RnRC’s case, they’ve needed to do two extensive refurbs and they’re going to close it again sometime in the next few years to turn it into Muppets). It adds up.

Personally, on my last couple of trips, I got the boot from MMRR and Guardians while in line, blocked temporarily from going on Rise because it was down, and wasn't able to ride Tiana on two occasions, one because it was down most of the day and the other was at after hours and they're doing maintenance to try to fix whatever issues are happening there. Tiana was a particularly annoying one bc we had gotten LL specifically for it, the rest was a bonus, but ended up sorta being money down the drain, and as a result I wasn’t able to get on it at all on this trip. Anyway, these are all relatively new rides and I should feel more confident that they'll work regularly, and yet...

 

[gottalovepluto]

if you are not staying the whole day and you miss a bunch of rides because they are not working is that not worth something?

I was about to say “you’re new around here aren’t you?” And then I saw you are DVC?! …Well, the bright side is you have the best Disney luck ever since you didn’t even know this was such a common occurrence Disney does not compensate for it. When it’s really bad (very rare and this wouldn’t have qualified) they might add a day of park hopping for people to go to another park.

 

[Rogue1677x]

When I went to Disneyland several years ago and ran into constant breakdowns, I actually did get compensation, but it was not easy and I went up the chain to a lot of people. But in the end, I got a 2 day park hopper, which is the equivalent of what I had for DL and it was for WDW, good through 2099.

 

[kverdon]

It was a pain to have that many headliners down at the same time (with BTMRR also down) as it backed up the other rides a lot. Rides started to come cl on line between 10 and 11 but it really messed up the flow of the park.

 

[kathy884]

When we went in February even the Tiki Birds and People mover were down.

Other rides down that we had to come back to were Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, and Jungle Cruise.

We still got to do most of the things we wanted to do, but it was not as relaxing as it could have been having to make our way back to rides a second time. And because we had a three hour break (dinner and drinks at Ohana and some relaxing at the POLY) we had to be at the MK from offsite opening to closing to get everything in.

Two relaxed days would have been more fun, but given how pricey tickets are, my budget was for one and only one day with the multi fastpass that we actually only used for Space Mountain. Given that it was down when we went I'm glad we had it, so we could go back anytime when it was finally back up with a minimal wait.

These old rides just aren't as reliable as they used to be.

I'm guessing I'll be back sometime because I love the place, but it was not a relaxing day due to having to go back again to so many things (really eats into your time) and due to that I'm not in any big rush to return. In my party I had a diehard who likes to do everything. I'm at the stage in life where I would have preferred a little more relaxed itinerary and leaving after fireworks instead of staying till the absolute closing and checking out gift shops after that.

 

[We’reAllMadHere]

Nothing is worse than Indy at DL. I’ve been stuck in that line so many times when it goes down.

 

[hardcorestitch]

When I went to Disneyland several years ago and ran into constant breakdowns, I actually did get compensation, but it was not easy and I went up the chain to a lot of people. But in the end, I got a 2 day park hopper, which is the equivalent of what I had for DL and it was for WDW, good through 2099.

(proceeds to wait until December 31, 2099 to use Disneyland tickets)

 

[gottalovepluto]

Nothing is worse than Indy at DL. I’ve been stuck in that line so many times when it goes down.

I had to ride it 3 times before I even managed to ride the whole thing as it kept breaking down mid-ride

 

[We’reAllMadHere]

I had to ride it 3 times before I even managed to ride the whole thing as it kept breaking down mid-ride

Stupid Indy. So heartbreaking. Also one of my favorite Disney rides ever when it works right:

 

[Dznefreek]

As stated on every ticket:
Attractions times and availability subject to change without notice.

 

[Karalee402]

I know this isn't always the cause of trouble, but I got a good reminder watching WDWNews Today that the ride issues are sometimes caused by guests/riders who don't do what they're supposed to. Tiana was down for an hour last week because a guest got out and wouldn't get back on. Again, not excusing Disney for all of the issues, but it was a good reminder that we don't always know what's going on and sometimes it might be one of our fellow guests causing the issues.

 

[reddog21]

Tiana is finicky, but I was walked off its prior incarnation at least twice---and I'm a once-a-year visitor, not someone there very month.

The animatronics are amazing, but I think sometimes Imagineers try too hard. Splash Mountain was a pretty basic ride, but it was great. I think if they had just made the ride a simple replica of Splash Mountain, it would have been just as good, with less dead space and fewer breakdowns than it's having now. The more moving pieces you have the more things are going to break.

 

[Dead2009]

if you are not staying the whole day and you miss a bunch of rides because they are not working is that not worth something?

That's on you if you're not staying the whole day. If you're only going for a few rides and then leaving, you're going for all the wrong reasons.

 

[georgina]

That's on you if you're not staying the whole day. If you're only going for a few rides and then leaving, you're going for all the wrong reasons.

Sorry, but there is no correct way to do Disney World. We are all unique individuals. If you were supposed to stay the whole day there would not be hopper tickets!

I've gone just for the evening parties. I've gone for AH events. Some people need to leave to rest mid-day or can't handle 12 hours in a park!

 

[Rogue1677x]

(proceeds to wait until December 31, 2099 to use Disneyland tickets)

Ha, ha...yeah no...that was used a few years ago before there would end up being some IT glitch that would wipe it away. But a 2099 expiration date would outlive me.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Stupid Indy. So heartbreaking. Also one of my favorite Disney rides ever when it works right:

Me too!!

…someday a therapist is going to have a lot to say about this love/hate relationship brought to us by Disney…