Rides breaking down at alarming rate

[raidermatt]

Unfortunately, and I hate to put this out there....but this may be a situation where someone has to get hurt before they will maintain the rides to what they should be.....

I can be as critical of Disney as anyone, but I would hope that even today's Disney would not be compromising guest safety. The consequences of that kind of info being leaked, or worse yet, an actual incident or incidents could be extremely damaging, and even a company in full on cost cutting mode would still understand that.

Today's Disney being ok with increased downtime I can see, but ok with accidents, not so much. So my guess is if the maintenance is safety related it is likely not being skimped on.

But that is a dangerous game to play.

 

[SL6827]

Disney probably isn't wanting to pay maintenance what they are worth.

 

[scrappinginontario]

It could just be me but in the past it seemed in the past there were more planned refurbishments than I’ve noticed lately. It doesn’t seem right now that attractions are being closed for an extended period of time to maintain them.

Does anyone else feel the same?

 

[sadiecatie]

I’m going to put out a likely unpopular opinion in this thread - rides break down and it sucks when it happens to you, but the majority of park-goers are not having these experiences. We’ve had the occasional need to go to plan B when a ride is down, and even rides breaking down with us on them now and then, but we’ve still been able to ride everything we want and had CM’s make sure we’re taken care of with anytime LLs when we’re directly affected by a breakdown. Coming with an attitude of patience and making the best of the day helps tremendously.

When the thread starts with the expectation of “alarming” frequency of breakdowns, those are the stories you’re going to get. But anyone reading this thread and forming their expectations for their own upcoming trips based on it is setting themselves up for a bad time.

 

[Len418]

I’m going to put out a likely unpopular opinion in this thread - rides break down and it sucks when it happens to you, but the majority of park-goers are not having these experiences. We’ve had the occasional need to go to plan B when a ride is down, and even rides breaking down with us on them now and then, but we’ve still been able to ride everything we want and had CM’s make sure we’re taken care of with anytime LLs when we’re directly affected by a breakdown. Coming with an attitude of patience and making the best of the day helps tremendously.

When the thread starts with the expectation of “alarming” frequency of breakdowns, those are the stories you’re going to get. But anyone reading this thread and forming their expectations for their own upcoming trips based on it is setting themselves up for a bad time.

A quick glance at the My Disney App this morning has shown that Test Track, Space Mountain, RockNRollerCoaster, Rise of the Resistance, and Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway have all been on "delayed opening" today.

I go to Disney with an attitude of patience. I also go with an expectation of a quality experience. But the fact is, on this morning right here, you can plan all you want for your Disney vacation but factors beyond your control, but somewhat under Disney's, can greatly hamper your experience. If you went to MK today with the expectation of rope-dropping Space Mountain, you were disappointed. If you went to DHS today to rope drop Rise, or MnM, or RnR, you were greatly affected.

 

[Anthony1971]

I’m going to put out a likely unpopular opinion in this thread - rides break down and it sucks when it happens to you, but the majority of park-goers are not having these experiences. We’ve had the occasional need to go to plan B when a ride is down, and even rides breaking down with us on them now and then, but we’ve still been able to ride everything we want and had CM’s make sure we’re taken care of with anytime LLs when we’re directly affected by a breakdown. Coming with an attitude of patience and making the best of the day helps tremendously.

When the thread starts with the expectation of “alarming” frequency of breakdowns, those are the stories you’re going to get. But anyone reading this thread and forming their expectations for their own upcoming trips based on it is setting themselves up for a bad time.

We have been going to Disney for over 30 years yes rides break down but it has been nothing like this year.
There was an article about one day we were there this year about the 'crowds' are increasing and all the news you hear about attendance going down is untrue.... They used HS as the example. I was at that park in the in morning and here si how it went Star tours was down period. RnRc went down people got LL passes went to ToT that went down people got free LL this kept cycling one up one down.... to the point when was one open there was a posted 4 hour wait. I will add RoRc was down most days we were there and ToT on occasion. Every park we went to MK Space was down all day Tron went down later that day - various other rides up down up down.... So unfortunately I agree rides are going doewn at an alarming rate.... Did it ruin my trip.. No I understand it happens. BUT lets face facts Disney does declare themself a premium theme park and charges premium rate with that there is far less tolerance then walking into your local six flags for far less then half of what Disney charges.

 

[samsteele]

I'm just back and while I experienced many, many down rides and attractions, Haunted Mansion was uniquely an issue. Now there's nothing new with HM being down for minutes or even hours. In Halloween season, its in high demand with long lines. But in the first official hour of my MNSSHP (6pm-7pm) I noticed CMs letting regular day guests with Genie Plus into the attraction. Day guests are supposed to be cleared out of the park for the party. But apparently the frequent breakdowns led to a policy exception for day guests who couldn't use Genie Plus at HM. This resulted in arguments with paid party guests. I watched a party guest lose her marbles and yell and threaten a CM who had just let in a party of 12 day guests after 6pm. The poor CM held her hands up and tried to explain she was told to let day guests in who hadn't been able to use their paid Genie Plus at HM all day because it was frequently closed. This policy will have to be sorted out. As paid party guests, we were in decent size lines watching large groups of guests who hadn't paid for the party be admitted ahead of us. The mood of guests is getting nasty as prices increase. I suspect there may be some savvy local guests who might be optimizing these breakdowns to enjoy a free hour of MNSSHP without buying the $ tickets. If so, its ratcheting up the stress and hostility and may end up in a fight sooner rather than later. I'm betting I'll turn on the news any day now to see a brawl at the gates of Haunted Mansion.

 

[Minnie1222]

I’m going to put out a likely unpopular opinion in this thread - rides break down and it sucks when it happens to you, but the majority of park-goers are not having these experiences.

It's not an unpopular opinion. I totally agree with you. I've been going to the same parks as everyone else for several decades, yet I don't experience the same problem. The ratio of temporarily closed rides to running rides is roughly the same. You only notice more closures because there are more attractions now.

 

[RoseGold]

When the thread starts with the expectation of “alarming” frequency of breakdowns, those are the stories you’re going to get. But anyone reading this thread and forming their expectations for their own upcoming trips based on it is setting themselves up for a bad time.

I checked right now, a Wednesday 10:26AM and MMRR is down.

HS in particular doesn't have a lot of rides. When things go down in HS, it impacts the whole park.

Of course things aren't going to always work perfectly, but it really feels like HS is struggling.

 

[Minnie1222]

I watched a party guest loose her marbles and yell and threaten a CM who had just let in a party of 12 day guests after 6pm. The poor CM held her hands up and tried to explain she was told to let day guests in who hadn't been able to use their paid Genie Plus at HM all day because it was frequently closed.

This guest is absolutely pathetic and luckily most Disney visitors are not in this category.

 

[Mambo Junkie]

I’m going to put out a likely unpopular opinion in this thread - rides break down and it sucks when it happens to you, but the majority of park-goers are not having these experiences. We’ve had the occasional need to go to plan B when a ride is down, and even rides breaking down with us on them now and then, but we’ve still been able to ride everything we want and had CM’s make sure we’re taken care of with anytime LLs when we’re directly affected by a breakdown. Coming with an attitude of patience and making the best of the day helps tremendously.

When the thread starts with the expectation of “alarming” frequency of breakdowns, those are the stories you’re going to get. But anyone reading this thread and forming their expectations for their own upcoming trips based on it is setting themselves up for a bad time.

I agree with you also. Every park visit for the past few years we have had ride breakdowns, but we just carry on and come back to them. That's more our touring style anyway. I understand with the super high prices of everything, plus the paid fast pass system they currently have, expectations can be high, but I wouldn't let it ruin my day. The only one that really killed the ride for us was in 2016, Figment broke down on us 3 times during the ride, one time for around 40 minutes. The kids were little, so we ended up playing I Spy (we were in the big open room), while a CM came by every so often to let us know they were working on it. It was during the extra magic late night hours, and there was only one other family on the whole ride that we could hear (we couldn't see them). The only thing I hoped wouldn't happen was that we break down in the room where it gets dark, and yes, it happened. Now, to this day, we ask the girls if they want to ride Figment and we get a chorus of "NO!!!!!" lol

 

[fatmanatee]

I checked right now, a Wednesday 10:26AM and MMRR is down.

HS in particular doesn't have a lot of rides. When things go down in HS, it impacts the whole park.

Of course things aren't going to always work perfectly, but it really feels like HS is struggling.

They really have to figure it out with the trackless rides. MMRR and Rise are the two newest rides in that park, both under five years old, and they seem to be the least reliable. We'd be thinking about this much differently if they were working as intended.

 

[rmclain73]

I'm just back and while I experienced many, many down rides and attractions, Haunted Mansion was uniquely an issue. Now there's nothing new with HM being down for minutes or even hours. In Halloween season, its in high demand with long lines. But in the first official hour of my MNSSHP (6pm-7pm) I noticed CMs letting regular day guests with Genie Plus into the attraction. Day guests are supposed to be cleared out of the park for the party. But apparently the frequent breakdowns led to a policy exception for day guests who couldn't use Genie Plus at HM. This resulted in arguments with paid party guests. I watched a party guest lose her marbles and yell and threaten a CM who had just let in a party of 12 day guests after 6pm. The poor CM held her hands up and tried to explain she was told to let day guests in who hadn't been able to use their paid Genie Plus at HM all day because it was frequently closed. This policy will have to be sorted out. As paid party guests, we were in decent size lines watching large groups of guests who hadn't paid for the party be admitted ahead of us. The mood of guests is getting nasty as prices increase. I suspect there may be some savvy local guests who might be optimizing these breakdowns to enjoy a free hour of MNSSHP without buying the $ tickets. If so, its ratcheting up the stress and hostility and may end up in a fight sooner rather than later. I'm betting I'll turn on the news any day now to see a brawl at the gates of Haunted Mansion.

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't the party start at 7PM? When I went in the past day guests had access to rides until 7PM, but nothing after that.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't the party start at 7PM? When I went in the past day guests had access to rides until 7PM, but nothing after that.

Parks now close to day guests at 6PM. Party officially begins at 7PM but under normal circumstances, once it is 6PM day guests can no longer enter attractions or stores and are requested to make their way out of the park.

 

[meremac]

But in the first official hour of my MNSSHP (6pm-7pm) I noticed CMs letting regular day guests with Genie Plus into the attraction.

That's not the first official hour of MNSSHP. The party starts at 7pm with the park closing to day guests at 6pm. This buffer hour allows for day guests to finish up attractions so that there aren't long lines of non-partygoers when the party begins at 7pm. The park used to close to day guests right at 7pm on party nights: that was a logistics nightmare, and the buffer hour has mitigated that. Now, most of the time, day guests won't be admitted to lines after 6pm, but if an attraction has been down most of the day and guests have a Genie+ reservation, they'll sometimes make an exception and let them in line during this buffer hour. Once the party begins at 7pm, though, that grace period is over.

 

[sadiecatie]

I agree with you also. Every park visit for the past few years we have had ride breakdowns, but we just carry on and come back to them. That's more our touring style anyway. I understand with the super high prices of everything, plus the paid fast pass system they currently have, expectations can be high, but I wouldn't let it ruin my day. The only one that really killed the ride for us was in 2016, Figment broke down on us 3 times during the ride, one time for around 40 minutes. The kids were little, so we ended up playing I Spy (we were in the big open room), while a CM came by every so often to let us know they were working on it. It was during the extra magic late night hours, and there was only one other family on the whole ride that we could hear (we couldn't see them). The only thing I hoped wouldn't happen was that we break down in the room where it gets dark, and yes, it happened. Now, to this day, we ask the girls if they want to ride Figment and we get a chorus of "NO!!!!!" lol

Oh that would be rough with such a long wait! Luckily anytime we’ve been on a ride that breaks it’s been maybe 5 minutes, 10 tops and then we’ve been taken off. Waiting that long with littles would be hard!

 

[jppeek]

The past 18 months (at least for us) has been kinda scary with rides breaking down.

From 2009 to 2022 I had never been evacuated off a ride (maybe I was just super lucky lol). Occasionally had rides breakdown while waiting but can’t ever remember not getting to ride the ride at some point (unless closed for refurb)

My last trip was insane how many times rides we tried to get on broke down while we were in line. Even more than that though I have been evacuated off ratatouille, space ship earth (that was rough cause it was on the backward coming down part) and Mine train (probably the worst cause it was 100 degrees and we were sitting in the sun for a half hour, felt pretty nauseous when I finally got off) all since May of 2022. Averaging 1 evacuation per trip lol

Other big difference I’ve noticed is when you say something to a cast member they are very aggressively defensive now with “no ride is guaranteed” and make you feel almost like the nerve of you to even say something. In the past there were very few issues, but anytime one did come up I always felt like they went above and beyond.

How they handle it now tells me they must be overwhelmed with complaints/issues now.

 

[boswelliseinhorn]

It's my experience that they are running the peoplemover with regular breakdowns as an acceptable way to operate. I haven't rode that without a breakdown this year and were talking probably close to 20 times between February and now. Just sunday we were on Space Mountain, and sure enough, could see peoplemover with the lights on.

 

[Minnie1222]

That's not the first official hour of MNSSHP. The party starts at 7pm with the park closing to day guests at 6pm. This buffer hour allows for day guests to finish up attractions so that there aren't long lines of non-partygoers when the party begins at 7pm. The park used to close to day guests right at 7pm on party nights: that was a logistics nightmare, and the buffer hour has mitigated that. Now, most of the time, day guests won't be admitted to lines after 6pm, but if an attraction has been down most of the day and guests have a Genie+ reservation, they'll sometimes make an exception and let them in line during this buffer hour. Once the party begins at 7pm, though, that grace period is over.

We just went to a party a week ago and that's exactly how it happened. Party was from 7 PM to midnight, and party guests could enter the park as early as 4 PM. There were signs at the entrance saying Park closes at 6 PM but didn't specify that day guests were not allowed on rides between 6 and 7. That woman just jumped the gun and made a fool of herself. What a great way to start a Halloween party.

 

[meremac]

Other big difference I’ve noticed is when you say something to a cast member they are very aggressively defensive now with “no ride is guaranteed” and make you feel almost like the nerve of you to even say something.

I watched a party guest lose her marbles and yell and threaten a CM who had just let in a party of 12 day guests after 6pm

I mean, maybe ^^^ is one reason CMs are more defensive lately. Listen, I'm not saying it's ok for rides to be breaking down more often. And if someone paid for Genie+ but ride issues were so pervasive one day that they legitimately could not get their money's worth, they have every right to go to Guest Services and ask for a Genie+ refund. But I also think people need to sometimes check their sense of entitlement. Stuff like yelling at a CM because they let guests in line on MY MNSSHP day an hour before the party actually started...seriously, come on now: they need to grab a Starbucks and go hug a character or something.