WSJ article about Disney Park ride maintenance

[MonocularVision]

Must be bad when the Wall Street Journal starts writing articles about it. Geesh.

Story on Wall Street Journal website

Apple News link (for if you have News+}

Archived version if you get a paywall

 

[wabbott]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...e-stoppages-59-2018-wait-times-rocketing.html

Daily Mail's story

 

[bluecruiser]

Disney is still claiming down times haven't increased, or they're trying to blame guests/weather. The only true part of their statement below is about maintenance, i.e., when rides actually break down.

"Disney says most stoppages result from bad weather, maintenance needs and guest interactions with the attractions, such as dropped cellphones or guests who need assistance exiting a ride."

All of these things happened before the pandemic, you can't tell me there's a major increase in dropped cellphones or guests needing assistance compared to 2018.

Sorry Disney, you can't claim that much of a change is due mostly to changes in guest behavior or weather.

 

[DLgal]

It is a big problem. Has been for many months now. Something needs to change. Even though Disney is denying this (which is bizarre considering the source of the data is their own apps), hopefully the attention on this issue will spur them to action.

The excuses based on weather and guest interactions don't hold up when rides are not open first thing in the morning on days with the type of picture perfect weather Disneyland experiences 360 days a year.

 

[whoever]

I have NEVER, and I MEAN NEVER in 12 years experienced practically EVERYTHING being down. Yeah, you get some 101 here/there, but over 4 days, E-tickets were up for less than 12 hours out of 96 hours. GARBAGE. D tickets down, C tickets down. You can ride the A and B's if you wait two hours... oh wait... those are down too

 

[Pluto468]

The charts in these articles are very interesting. I always wonder if Disney sees the bad press they're getting and tries to do anything about it. Probably not. I really do wonder what the heck is going on with all the ride problems. When I rode HM in June, it went down 4 times while I was on it, and the music in my doom buggy didn't even work. Not to mention all the rides that were unavailable for hours at a time, like Indy or Rise. We were there for 5 days so managed to get on everything, but I feel bad for people who have only 1 day.

From Daily mail:

"Visitor numbers at the park have plunged by 17 per cent"— I find this especially interesting, because it sure doesn't feel like there are less visitors.

"Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, a Disney spokesperson denied, without providing data, that there has been an increase in wait times.
The spokesperson said: 'Our source data shows that Disney's ride reliability remains strong and is consistent with prior years."— Um, no.

 

[whoever]

The charts in these articles are very interesting. I always wonder if Disney sees the bad press they're getting and tries to do anything about it. Probably not. I really do wonder what the heck is going on with all the ride problems. When I rode HM in June, it went down 4 times while I was on it, and the music in my doom buggy didn't even work. Not to mention all the rides that were unavailable for hours at a time, like Indy or Rise. We were there for 5 days so managed to get on everything, but I feel bad for people who have only 1 day.

From Daily mail:

"Visitor numbers at the park have plunged by 17 per cent"— I find this especially interesting, because it sure doesn't feel like there are less visitors.

"Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, a Disney spokesperson denied, without providing data, that there has been an increase in wait times.
The spokesperson said: 'Our source data shows that Disney's ride reliability remains strong and is consistent with prior years."— Um, no.

I literally experienced in 4 days what I normally do in 1... with breaks.

 

[gelatoni fan]

These articles actually provided some data that I hadn't looked into before.

It's interesting that Luigi's breaks down more than Racers but thinking about the number of times I saw it down this past year, it actually seems right. Indiana Jones and Web Slingers breaking down the most already made sense.

Interestingly Luigi's is often down due to "weather" as in the morning, CMs often tell me that it's not open because "it's too cold". Perhaps a tiny bit of condensation on parts of the ride leads to electronic problems?

In terms of visitor numbers being down, I think an outcome of the reservation system is that a lot of people are staying in the parks at the busiest possible times rather than when crowds are at their lowest. If a Magic Keyholder only has limited reservations, they're more likely to prioritize going on a weekend when they can be in the park the entire day rather than multiple days after work. I actually have noticed shorter wait times at the end of the day such as walk-ons to Big Thunder Mountain which were less common pre-pandemic. I had a hard time getting my friends with Magic Keys to go into the parks with me after work for this exact reason.

 

[deejdigsdis]

"Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, a Disney spokesperson denied, without providing data, that there has been an increase in wait times.
The spokesperson said: 'Our source data shows that Disney's ride reliability remains strong and is consistent with prior years."— Um, no.

I thought these were quite bold false statements to make. Remains strong? Good grief.

 

[whoever]

Interestingly Luigi's is often down due to "weather" as in the morning, CMs often tell me that it's not open because "it's too cold". Perhaps a tiny bit of condensation on parts of the ride leads to electronic problems?

From the horse's mouth, its because of the slickness of the pad and any condensation from the vehicles. They cover them, but it could accumulate just due to atmospheric conditions. Disney is more worried about a slip and fall....

 

[irlandaise]

These articles actually provided some data that I hadn't looked into before.

It's interesting that Luigi's breaks down more than Racers but thinking about the number of times I saw it down this past year, it actually seems right. Indiana Jones and Web Slingers breaking down the most already made sense.

Interestingly Luigi's is often down due to "weather" as in the morning, CMs often tell me that it's not open because "it's too cold". Perhaps a tiny bit of condensation on parts of the ride leads to electronic problems?

I don't see comments on this forum about Luigi's very often, probably because it isn't as high-profile a ride as RSR or Indy. But I can see it having problems due to the technical requirements of the attraction. What I can't figure out is why Toad would be down so much. It's the same sort of mechanism as most of the rides in Fantasyland.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

When I mentioned to a CM at guest relations about five attractions being down a park opening in DCA she said “it’s cold.” I mean, it was colder than usual but it was not cold. It was in the low 60s. And I’m not sure what that has to do with anything?

The attractions down at 8am were RSR, Web Slingers, Toy Story, Ariel and Goofy’s Sky School.

 

[disneycat321]

When I mentioned to a CM at guest relations about five attractions being down a park opening in DCA she said “it’s cold.” I mean, it was colder than usual but it was not cold. It was in the low 60s. And I’m not sure what that has to do with anything?

The attractions down at 8am were RSR, Web Slingers, Toy Story, Ariel and Goofy’s Sky School.

3 of these attractions are indoors so I’m not sure how “cold” low 60s weather would impact them……

I had a very similar experience at DCA in February. It’s so frustrating since you can’t hop until 1!

 

[EEva]

3 of these attractions are indoors so I’m not sure how “cold” low 60s weather would impact them……

I guess Disney is so short of money they couldn't turn up the heat?

 

[Aurora0427]

We had “cold”, and I use that term very lightly, weather before Covid, and we didn’t have all of these ride issues. The excuses are pretty pathetic.

 

[DLgal]

When I mentioned to a CM at guest relations about five attractions being down a park opening in DCA she said “it’s cold.” I mean, it was colder than usual but it was not cold. It was in the low 60s. And I’m not sure what that has to do with anything?

The attractions down at 8am were RSR, Web Slingers, Toy Story, Ariel and Goofy’s Sky School.

It gets colder than that once the sun goes down and you don't see rides just fall off after sunset.

Its a BS excuse they were told to tell guests. It's insulting.

 

[deejdigsdis]

It gets colder than that once the sun goes down and you don't see rides just fall off after sunset.

Its a BS excuse they were told to tell guests. It's insulting.

"Insulting." That is the word I have been looking for to describe their excuses, treatment, continuation of using the phrase "enhancing guest experience," .... all of it.