Why did the rides keep stopping?

[Markstudy]

I just got back from 7 days at the Beach Club.

Had a perfect trip thanks to the disboards (rode the monorail 4 times and sat in the front 4 times )

Had some great meals and did everything I wanted to do in all 4 parks, plus Downtown Disney.

Only slight problem.... in one day, I had 4 rides stop on me. Pirates stopped for 5 minutes near the end, Splash mountain stopped for 5 minutes in the middle. Haunted Mansion stopped for 2 minutes near the begining (and no music in the grave yard ) .... also Small World stopped a few times for just a minute.

If it wasn't for Space Mountain, Tiki Room, and Jungle Cruise I wouldn't have gotten through anything at MK withiout a stop???

Perfect trip everywhere else.....but what is with all the ride stopping??????

( I also went without a rental car this time, but found that waiting 20 minutes for a bus was too long, so I took quite a few taxi cabs... cost about the same as renting a car for the week but enjoyed the care-free of not having to drive or park.)

 

[Tinkerbell10403]

One morning my Daddy and I rode Splash Mountain right when MK opened. It stopped somewhere in the middle for about 25 minutes. No music...just us sitting in the log. Then..a few CMs came and helped us out of our logs and we had to leave the ride and go down a few secret hallways and out the back of the building. We got free passes to ride again...but it was still wierd just sitting in the log for half an hour.

 

[DisneyGeek2000]

For some of the rides that are moving when you board, ie. haunted mansion, etc, rides need to be stopped for handicapped individuals, if even for a minute.

I am not sure what happened during your trip.

 

[Schmeck]

I don't think we've ever been on Spaceship Earth at EPCOT without it stopping...

As DisneyGeek2000 noted, many rides need to be stopped so handicapped riders can get on. The only ride at MK that they do not stop is Peter Pan's Flight.

 

[antmaril]

We were at WDW a couple of weeks ago. We were on Spaceship Earth when it stopped. We assumed it was stopping to let off a handicapped individual. Unfortunately, we sat there listening to the annoying announcement that we had made an "unscheduled stop and to please stay seated" for almost 20 minutes. Eventually, the lights came on and they told us the ride could not continue -- someone would come for us. We had to be walked off single file. It took about 35 - 40 minutes total.

 

[SueM in MN]

The "handicapped" stops are usually only for rides with moving walkways. They try to slow the walkway if possible rather than stopping it entirely, but sometimes stopping is the only safe thing to do. Most of the CMs are very efficient at loading people with disabilities - one time the CM managed to load DD's wheelchair into a special wheelchair car at Buzz Lightyear without stopping the walkway at all. She was really efficient.

 

[TnTsParty]

We were at WDW a couple of weeks ago. We were on Spaceship Earth when it stopped. We assumed it was stopping to let off a handicapped individual. Unfortunately, we sat there listening to the annoying announcement that we had made an "unscheduled stop and to please stay seated" for almost 20 minutes. Eventually, the lights came on and they told us the ride could not continue -- someone would come for us. We had to be walked off single file. It took about 35 - 40 minutes total.

Hopefully you weren't stuck backwards for 20 minutes. The ride stopped when we were on it in Sept and I am hoping it was only to load a handicap person but that was my DH's first time on SE and when we stopped we were backwards and he HATED it so now he HATES that ride!!

 

[JulielovesDisney]

It could be handicapped people loading on and off. Some rides they have to transfer from wheelchair to the ride car, so they have to stop the ride so they can take thier time with getting on and off.

Other times, the ride breaks down or they have to take a car/train off the track for.. messy... reasons.

This summer, I was on Splash Mt, and the car that we were about to get into had...a mess... in it. So they had to run it through the ride, and at the end, they stopped the ride so they could take it off the track to...clean it.

 

[sames1]

Perfect trip everywhere else.....but what is with all the ride stopping??????

There are various reasons that a ride will stop. Mostly it has to do with safety.

If somone is acting badly, standing up, throwing things, etc. the operators will stop the ride. It seems when a lot of teens are in the parks the rides stop more often. Just an impression.

If there is a malfunction on any of the cars, tracks, etc. or if debris gets on the track, ( dropped sun glasses, cameras, purse, etc) a ride might stop.

If someone is slow getting out, for example "The Haunted Mansion" the ride might stop.

Of course if someone gets hurt, the ride will stop and close. That doesn't happen much, but it has happened.

 

[sames1]

Other times, the ride breaks down or they have to take a car/train off the track for.. messy... reasons.

Ohh.. never thought of that. You are right. Nice way to put it.

 

[Goofy4]

We were on MS during the soft opening and someone had a little to much of the ride. The CMs there had to call an official clean-er-up-er to clean it up. It all took longer than it should have.

 

[eblack0409]

When DH and I were on our Honeymoon in September....Test Track stopped 4 or 5 times, Haunted Mansion stopped twice, It's a small world stopped a few times too...as well as Pirates...I think they just had a few people having trouble getting on and off the rides.....we still enjoyed it!

 

[Syrreal]

PotC and IASW probably stopped because they got backed up.

 

[waltdisneyworlddreamer]

Last trip, we were stopped on TTA for about 10 minutes. Lucky for us it stopped right at the SM window so we got to look at it with the lights on. Those 2 rides must be "connected" electrically some way. They appeared to be working on SM and once they got it up and running, TTA took off as well.

 

[bytheblood]

This happens on every trip. Uuuggh!


Last trip it happened on Figment, Test Track, Spaceship Earth, Splash and one of two others.

 

[Markstudy]

For the fist ten years, I went to MK many times, and I never remember a ride stopping. I guess everything was brand new in the 70's and 80's.

Now I go back to MK (and to a smaller extent Epcot) and can't get through the rides without the recording-"Please stay in your cart, We are having a problem"

I just didn't know if this was a problem with Disney skimping on money to keep the rides working at their top capacity....or if new issues are involved.

Thanks for all your answers and help.

 

[Ilovestitch]

Yeah, when I was a kid/teen I never remember the rides stopping either! Maybe back then the rides weren't as handicap friendly?

Its no big deal though- I'd rather be stuck on a ride at WDW than stuck at work or in traffic or something.

On our last trip we were on Splash Mt. and every so often you could hear them announcing to stay seated- someone in the log in front of us kept standing up They stopped the ride and kept making the announcement til the person sat down.

 

[doombuggy3]

I know this sounds crazy because I thought it was when a CM told me this. We were waiting in line for SM, finally get to the cars (of course) and all of a sudden all the lights came on. After 20 minutes of sitting, we finally got some news from that little inside tower in SM. The CM's running the ride told us to get off the car because "this was going to take a while." I asked what was wrong and she said she couldn't tell me at that time but it was going to take a while to fix.

Later (way later that day at 5pm) it finally opened. It seems someone earlier that day had stolen a ton of fastpasses and dropped them all over the track. The tracks are supposedly equipped with sensors that are so sensitive that the ride could not run until every fastpass was picked up. That's just what a CM told me, I don't know if it's true, but if it is...

Bet the person who stole all the fastpasses felt pretty silly.

 

[SaraMc]

That happened to us last year on Splash Mountain, we were at the top of the last drop waiting to go next and everything stopped. We waited for about 20 minutes feeling like we were going to slide back and then we finally went down the last drop.
It always happens on Spaceship earth.

 

[mattsdragon]

They were eating children. They do that occasionally.

I figured you got 2 pages of explanations and "that happened to us too" responses, so I decided to offer a bit of levity.