Splash and BTMR closed again this morning? [Thursday Feb. 22nd]

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

If they just opened it I guess it's possible they hadn't updated the time yet

Space has been up for the whole day (unlike yesterday).

 

[Klayfish]

Is it a Catch22? People want more park hours so they give them but the rides are aging. More hours are hard on them. It's harder and harder to keep them running the hours that the public wants them open and running. They try to reduce operating hours to cut down on stress on equipment (among other reasons of course) only to have complaints so they increase hours only to have breakdowns. They can only do so much during the hours they are closed, mechanically.

Yes, and heaven forbid they shut it down for refurb. Oh, the horrors and injustices!!!

Look, none of us here have any idea why they're down. Could be mechanical, could be moronic guests, could be random luck. But seems we sure want to jump to conclusions and say "See, it's cost cutting". How do you know?? You can say I'm defending, great. I'm simply saying I...or any of us...really have no clue why they're down. There are plenty of possible explanations, of which we don't know that any are right or wrong. We've spent 35+ days in WDW over the past 9 months and have experienced very few ride closures, definitely nothing more than we've seen in years past. The only exception to that seemed to be PeopleMover, which we noticed was down a lot...but then again even that stopped this past Christmas trip as we never saw it down. Is it random luck? Were they not cost cutting on the days we were there? Who knows??

 

[AngiTN]

Yes, and heaven forbid they shut it down for refurb. Oh, the horrors and injustices!!!

Look, none of us here have any idea why they're down. Could be mechanical, could be moronic guests, could be random luck. But seems we sure want to jump to conclusions and say "See, it's cost cutting". How do you know?? You can say I'm defending, great. I'm simply saying I...or any of us...really have no clue why they're down. There are plenty of possible explanations, of which we don't know that any are right or wrong. We've spent 35+ days in WDW over the past 9 months and have experienced very few ride closures, definitely nothing more than we've seen in years past. The only exception to that seemed to be PeopleMover, which we noticed was down a lot...but then again even that stopped this past Christmas trip as we never saw it down. Is it random luck? Were they not cost cutting on the days we were there? Who knows??

And another Catch22. Rides need maintenance but people want them up and running during their trip.
I'm worried it's just going to get worse, not better.
And I don't have a clue what the solution is.
I honestly don't think putting more people on it will fix all of it. Some yes but not all. 20 year old rides are 20 year old rides. (or however old the specific ride in question is, most are not spring chickens)

 

[sweetpea29488]

We don't have park hoppers for next weeks trip but I'm rethinking this with all the breakdowns. Can I add parkhopper and If I can when do I? Thanks for the help.

 

[Linkura]

The strange thing is Splash just finished a long refurb, yet it's the least stable of all the rides in the park recently.

 

[Klayfish]

And another Catch22. Rides need maintenance but people want them up and running during their trip.
I'm worried it's just going to get worse, not better.
And I don't have a clue what the solution is.
I honestly don't think putting more people on it will fix all of it. Some yes but not all. 20 year old rides are 20 year old rides. (or however old the specific ride in question is, most are not spring chickens)

Agreed. Some of the rides are old, no doubt. But then again, we don't really know what extent they've been mechanically overhauled over the years. Kind of like a 100 year old house...the bones may be old, but it could be all new plumbing, electric, wiring, etc.... I have no idea what the state of Splash is. It was closed for several months for referb not all that long ago. Maybe they replaced a lot of mechanicals...maybe they didn't? But yeah, it's difficult. I certainly want all rides open and it's frustrating when they aren't. But I try to have perspective on the demands that are placed on the equipment. Also, just in my own head, my common sense tells me that even if they're morons, senior leadership who makes these decisions would realize it's not a smart business model to let your attractions fall into a horrible state of disrepair. I have no doubt that costs are a major concern, I can't even fathom the daily operating budget of WDW, it's got to be insane. But then again, if I'm running a business like WDW, letting the attractions fall apart isn't a good way to keep customers coming back, so I just don't see that as simple "neglect" and "cost cutting".

 

[AngiTN]

We don't have park hoppers for next weeks trip but I'm rethinking this with all the breakdowns. Can I add parkhopper and If I can when do I? Thanks for the help.

Yes, and the cost never changes no matter when you do it. So it's a great idea to wait till you know for sure you want to use it

ETA - I'm in the same spot with a ticket I have for DD for our trip in 2 weeks. She doesn't have an AP (the rest of us do) and her ticket is a 5 day non-hopper. I'd bought it for something else, hadn't really planned to take DD again. Then this trip came up, it's 5 days so we are using it for that and now I'm trying to see if we can go without hopping. If we decide to hop, we'll add then.

 

[Colleen27]

Yes, and heaven forbid they shut it down for refurb. Oh, the horrors and injustices!!!

Except that these are rides that have been down for refurb lately, or are relatively new in the grand scheme of things. Frequent closures at 7DMT have been the norm almost from the start. Same with Frozen (though I suppose that one is sort of forgivable because it is running on an old ride system, though you'd think they'd have updated while they were doing the changeover). Splash is just coming off a lengthy refurb. Space and Thunder both underwent extensive rehabs within the last few years, but the near-daily downtime resumed almost as soon as they were open again.

I get that the default perspective on these boards is one of defending Disney, but at what point does it become unreasonable? We leave in a week for a trip with only four park days, no hoppers, and a first-timer who may very well never have a chance to go back. And all I'm seeing when I look at the app is that just about every iconic/uniquely Disney ride is down for at least part and sometimes all of the day. That's not exactly a recipe for a magical trip... but it is one for making Disney more money, since people like me will add hoppers or buy Disney After Hours tickets for the chance to ride those classics rather than accept that we've spent thousands of dollars on a trip just to see the minor attractions.

 

[AngiTN]

Except that these are rides that have been down for refurb lately, or are relatively new in the grand scheme of things. Frequent closures at 7DMT have been the norm almost from the start. Same with Frozen (though I suppose that one is sort of forgivable because it is running on an old ride system, though you'd think they'd have updated while they were doing the changeover). Splash is just coming off a lengthy refurb. Space and Thunder both underwent extensive rehabs within the last few years, but the near-daily downtime resumed almost as soon as they were open again.

I get that the default perspective on these boards is one of defending Disney, but at what point does it become unreasonable? We leave in a week for a trip with only four park days, no hoppers, and a first-timer who may very well never have a chance to go back. And all I'm seeing when I look at the app is that just about every iconic/uniquely Disney ride is down for at least part and sometimes all of the day. That's not exactly a recipe for a magical trip... but it is one for making Disney more money, since people like me will add hoppers or buy Disney After Hours tickets for the chance to ride those classics rather than accept that we've spent thousands of dollars on a trip just to see the minor attractions.

Interestingly, the things that cause the outages at Frozen are the new things, the animation/animatronics.

Trying to come up with explanations as to what could be happening isn't defending them. Not in my view at least. I don't give them a pass, not if there is something that can be done (and in some of the cases of outages I'm sure there is). Just I'm not sure they can stop all outages. Some are out of their control. Weather of course is. Rain will always stop Test Track, for example. And some others just are going to go down, no matter how much they try to avoid it.

 

[sweetpea29488]

Another question, just was wondering. With SDMT, Splash, and BTM down, which I have fp for all three when we are there. If this happens what happens with all my FP? Do I just get three anytime fp? or will they give me 3 anytime fp and I can pick 3 more? I'm thinking I just get the three anytime fp. Hoping this doesn't happen when we get there next week but with what I've seen the past few days, I'm not holding my breath.

 

[Haley R]

Except that these are rides that have been down for refurb lately, or are relatively new in the grand scheme of things. Frequent closures at 7DMT have been the norm almost from the start. Same with Frozen (though I suppose that one is sort of forgivable because it is running on an old ride system, though you'd think they'd have updated while they were doing the changeover). Splash is just coming off a lengthy refurb. Space and Thunder both underwent extensive rehabs within the last few years, but the near-daily downtime resumed almost as soon as they were open again.

I get that the default perspective on these boards is one of defending Disney, but at what point does it become unreasonable? We leave in a week for a trip with only four park days, no hoppers, and a first-timer who may very well never have a chance to go back. And all I'm seeing when I look at the app is that just about every iconic/uniquely Disney ride is down for at least part and sometimes all of the day. That's not exactly a recipe for a magical trip... but it is one for making Disney more money, since people like me will add hoppers or buy Disney After Hours tickets for the chance to ride those classics rather than accept that we've spent thousands of dollars on a trip just to see the minor attractions.

We arrive in 5 days and I’m getting pretty nervous seeing all of these closures... we paid for dah and I would be extremely upset if the rides are closed then as well. We are taking our niece and her mom for their first and possibly only trip to Disney so I’m hoping all goes well. I know we have to be flexible but there is a point where it’s okay to be disappointed when you pay this much money.

 

[Klayfish]

I get that the default perspective on these boards is one of defending Disney, but at what point does it become unreasonable? We leave in a week for a trip with only four park days, no hoppers, and a first-timer who may very well never have a chance to go back. And all I'm seeing when I look at the app is that just about every iconic/uniquely Disney ride is down for at least part and sometimes all of the day. That's not exactly a recipe for a magical trip... but it is one for making Disney more money, since people like me will add hoppers or buy Disney After Hours tickets for the chance to ride those classics rather than accept that we've spent thousands of dollars on a trip just to see the minor attractions.

Actually, I'd argue strongly that the default perspective here is attacking and trashing Disney.

I understand your concern and hope you have a magical trip. Rides being down today doesn't mean they'll be down tomorrow or next week. As I said, and I'm not exaggerating, in the 35+ days we've been in WDW over the past 9 months, we've experienced very few breakdowns. Granted, I'm not sweeping all 4 parks on MDE constantly to see if something is down, but the frequency we encountered down rides was quite low. The lone exception was PeopleMover which seemed to have a lot of issues in our summer '17 trip...but we were there for 11 or so days at Xmas and only saw it down once.

 

[Pdollar88]

I liked the earlier poster pointing out we don’t know why things are down.

When I worked at Space, 8 out of 10 times the ride went down it was because guests weren’t getting out of the rockets fast enough. Causing a backup at unload and the ride to stop.

It sounds like maintenance may be an issue now, and I had some frustrations on my last visit. But there are numerous reasons the rides could be down.

 

[zillayen]

I get that the default perspective on these boards is one of defending Disney, but at what point does it become unreasonable? We leave in a week for a trip with only four park days, no hoppers, and a first-timer who may very well never have a chance to go back. And all I'm seeing when I look at the app is that just about every iconic/uniquely Disney ride is down for at least part and sometimes all of the day. That's not exactly a recipe for a magical trip... but it is one for making Disney more money, since people like me will add hoppers or buy Disney After Hours tickets for the chance to ride those classics rather than accept that we've spent thousands of dollars on a trip just to see the minor attractions.

I feel you. We're also coming next week. We're tagging along with my husband who is attending a conference at the Yacht Club. So we're only paying out of pocket for park tickets, and having been before, I don't really mind if we just hit a few rides a day. But if I were paying for the hotel, and flights, and then to feel like I need to spend extra $$ on extra ticket days, extra days at the hotel, hoppers, dessert parties, after hours, club level for extra FP, etc., just for the chance to do some of the "big" rides without HUGE lines ... I'd be pretty bummed.

I love Disney, we used to have APs to Disneyland, but I don't think I'd plan another WDW vacation. Even if this conference is at WDW again next year, I'm not sure we'll go. If I'm going to pay this kind of $$, I'd personally rather go skiing. At least for $100/day + exorbitant hotel costs + lines I can get more than 3 runs down the mountain. And that's just me personally of course, other people may still find it worth it to them for a vacation.

 

[My3SweetSuns]

This week and last week have been crazy busy, rides go down with that much use.
We were there last week and experienced splash and space going down quite a bit, but we did something else and tried again later.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

At $100+ a day per person, ride closures should be at a minimum. I get that crap happens but the past week seems to be a bit excessive.

I have no issues with refurbs or maintenance. But hours of closures for the same rides day after day doesn't sit well with me. But crap happens and that's why we try to go for 7-8+ days. I know not everyone has that luxury but it helps to fit everything in or go back and do something that we missed.

 

[Cissigys]

I totally get that there are a number of reasons that rides may be down, but then Disney needs to figure out how to make this right for people who are paying thousands of dollars for trips to WDW.

We got caught up in the MK shutdown mess yesterday. Today was our Epcot day. Fastpass for FEA at 10:45...ride was down with no idea when it would come back up. So we grabbed some lunch and decided to take them up on the option of using it at Test Track instead. Got in the FP line and waited 15 minutes before...it went down. "Going with the flow" is great and all, but it's a lot harder to wing it with little kids than with older kids. They don't understand the huge waits, lack of ability to go on the rides that you told them about, and they can't stay up late into the night. So while if I was traveling with just my husband we might chill at the pool and try for the parks later, that's not an option with little kids. And the CMs are getting surlier and surlier because they're clearly fed up with this too.

 

[AngiTN]

Actually, I'd argue strongly that the default perspective here is attacking and trashing Disney.

I understand your concern and hope you have a magical trip. Rides being down today doesn't mean they'll be down tomorrow or next week. As I said, and I'm not exaggerating, in the 35+ days we've been in WDW over the past 9 months, we've experienced very few breakdowns. Granted, I'm not sweeping all 4 parks on MDE constantly to see if something is down, but the frequency we encountered down rides was quite low. The lone exception was PeopleMover which seemed to have a lot of issues in our summer '17 trip...but we were there for 11 or so days at Xmas and only saw it down once.

Same here.
Though I haven't counted the number of days we've been in the parks the past 2 years. With AP's and over 5 trips per year, each year, it's a lot. I don't ever check the app to see if rides are up or down, when I'm not there, which seems to be something lots of folks here do.
But we've had less than 10 FP convert to anytime FP in all our FP on all our park days, even including our extras we've gotten. We just haven't found that many outages.
That doesn't discount that there are a lot of them happening right now. I can see that there are. Only mentioning that it doesn't appear to be wide spread but isolated. Heck, maybe they've had some computer system issues, since their rides run on computers now. I know that is often the cause of the monorail problems.

But yeah, the trendy thing to do on the boards anymore is to trash Disney. If everyone that was negative towards Disney was truly as negative as they come across on the keyboard surely there is no way they'd still be going to Disney. If I felt the way many of these posts read I sure wouldn't spend thousands of dollars with that company. Which is why I think the posts are leaning way more negative than the poster really is. Just my opinion.

 

[AngiTN]

At $100+ a day per person, ride closures should be at a minimum. I get that crap happens but the past week seems to be a bit excessive.

I have no issues with refurbs or maintenance. But hours of closures for the same rides day after day doesn't sit well with me. But crap happens and that's why we try to go for 7-8+ days. I know not everyone has that luxury but it helps to fit everything in or go back and do something that we missed.

Which is what is making me start to look at some sort of computer or system issue. Because it is highly unusual and excessive. I'm really thinking it's not all mechanical problems. Total stab in the dark

 

[Cissigys]

Except I didn't realize I had a negative attitude towards Disney until I spent thousands of dollars, got here, and everything is breaking down all day long. I can't un-spend it at this point, but you can be sure that other places will be getting my family's vacation money in the future until Disney realizes that they can't skate by on people's nostalgic feelings towards them.