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

I'm kind of on the fence on this one. I think most guests can accept that there will be ride closures occasionally, for brief periods of time while problems get worked out. I know there are a multitude of reasons why rides can be unavailable (I think it is misleading to say "broke down" since we don't really know if they are...)

The carousel was mentioned earlier... during our 2016 trip, we were in line for the carousel when a child vomited right at the gateway between the line and the ride. Obviously they aren't going to let people walk through it, so they had to stop the ride briefly to clean it up. They were VERY thorough (which I personally appreciated) but during that 5 minutes, people could be on the app or touring plans, questioning what could possibly go wrong with the CAROUSEL of all things. I'm sure it is not altogether uncommon for people to have a variety of bodily-function related "accidents" on other rides and cleanup takes time.

Often, there can be issues with guests having difficulty getting on or off a ride. Many of us have probably experienced brief stoppages while on the omnimover rides due to this. But sometimes maybe it takes longer. Have you ever run into a traffic jam on the highway, only to eventually clear it and find there was no visible cause? Someone stepped on the brakes for no apparent reason and suddenly everyone's stopped dead for a mile back. Some of the rides might suffer from similar backups if they have to stop even one car for longer than usual. Even well-oiled machines can be affected by external influences.

I accept all of that. I even accept that mechanical issues will occur on a fairly regular basis, and I would rather Disney take the "better safe than sorry" approach every single time. But I find it hard to accept that so many rides can be down for such a long time simultaneously. None of us know why this is happening. My trip is in a week and a half and I'm trying to keep a positive attitude. During our last trip, we had FP+ affected by closures at Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Winnie the Pooh and FEA, plus a variety of other closures that happened at other rides outside of our FP+ windows. We can improvise - up to a point. But if you can't get in a single one of your scheduled FP+ in a given day, Disney needs to make up for that somehow.
 
Splash was down over 14 hours yesterday, BTMRR was down over 12, and SDMT was down over 4. As PP noted, that’s a huge amount of ride capacity gone for the day, so not only are people missing out on those rides, but lines for everything else are going to become longer.

Clearly, there’s more than just guests’ behavior to blame for the nearly all-day closures of two headliners. And, it’s particularly puzzling for Splash, since it just had a lengthy refurb.
EDIT: I'll put my thoughts back in.

There seems to be a lynch mob mentality that WDW is evil, only wants money, etc... I don't buy into it. YMMV, but just like you, I can think what I want. My feelings are:

As others who have gone or go to WDW often have said, this is NOT normal, far from it. So I'm not going to cast this blanket over all WDW all the time. It's simply not how it normally goes.

Nobody here knows why the rides are down. No clue. In this thread and others, there have been CMs or former CMs who say repeatedly that 80% or more of ride closures are guest related. That's consistent with what I've heard from CMs I know. What if a lot of this truly is guest related?? Should WDW come out and publicly blame their guests?

For argument sake, let's say it is mechanical... Even then we don't know why. If it's mechanical due to simple budget cuts and lack of routine and proper maintenance, then absolutely...shame on them. What if it's unforeseen failure? The Toyota Camry is the most reliable car on the planet. Even well maintained, it can break. It's a machine. WDW rides are pretty complex, very complex. We don't know what the problem is, mechanical, guest, a combination, so I'm not going to jump to conclusions.

If it's a guest issue, obviously WDW isn't going to blame their paying customers publicly. If it's mechanical, again, we don't know for sure what the source of that is. Everyone here, myself included, would simply be guessing. What's the solution? Again, we'd be guessing. Intentionally having a "slow season", shorter hours for more maintenance time, closing rides for long times for full overhauls, etc...all have very clear downsides which are griped about here often. As a poster here said, it's a bit of a Catch 22 for them. I'm confident they have some very smart people working at very high levels, and maybe I'm alone, but I have faith that they aren't sitting in the high corner office with a cigar and laughing evilly like Mr. Burns from The Simpsons as guests get turned away from rides. YMMV.
 
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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.
Us too. Coming in a day early and hiring a babysitter to watch our son in our room.
 


On our trip 2 years ago, I booked 2 PPO ADRs so we could ride 7DMT first thing on our MK park days. Both days it was down. One day, we gave up and went to Frontierland and the other day we just waited it out and luckily it wasn't down for too long. I chalked it up to crummy luck! You know what they say about the best laid plans. (We did still enjoy our breakfast though.) Also, Rockin Roller Coaster has been down our last two trips and we only spend half a day in the park so it's been a while since my kids have even been able to ride it. I know everyone has similar stories they can tell. The point is that it makes an impression and does lessen the overall experience for those who are ride lovers! As we are going to be there next Saturday, I can only hope the multiple ride closures are a rare occurrence and things are back to somewhat normal!
 
We were there yesterday with my parents (only their second visit ever) and it was really hard. It definitely impacted our opinions of making a return in two years. The crowds were just insane. As Disneyland regulars, it was too much for us to see incredibly long wait times for every.single.ride. 50 minutes for Pooh and a breakdown. 95 minutes for PPF (and we are used to seeing long waits for that one, but not that long!). 40 minutes plus for all character lines. We were left with very little to do because my kids (especially DD6) cannot wait all day in lines consistently at an hour plus. One or two rides mixed in with other quick get on ones, sure. But all were excessively long waits. We waited half an hour for people mover!! (it broke down too.) I already hate FP+ and this didn't help much.

All in all, we made the best of it and enjoyed ourselves because moping and complaining doesn't do any good in the moment and just ruins the day even more. I used FP+ as best I could and we got on some rides and focused otherwise on just taking in some shows and the parade and such. But it wasn't super great in terms of making us want to do it again any time soon.

Also, I never want to hear another WDW regular complain about ride breakdowns at DLR!! Haha! ;)

ETA- I will be contacting guest services to complain, btw. I don't think this was ok or acceptable, even if it's a rare occurrence. It still happened and did impact our vacation.
 
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EDIT: I'll put my thoughts back in.

There seems to be a lynch mob mentality that WDW is evil, only wants money, etc... I don't buy into it. YMMV, but just like you, I can think what I want. My feelings are:

As others who have gone or go to WDW often have said, this is NOT normal, far from it. So I'm not going to cast this blanket over all WDW all the time. It's simply not how it normally goes.

Nobody here knows why the rides are down. No clue. In this thread and others, there have been CMs or former CMs who say repeatedly that 80% or more of ride closures are guest related. That's consistent with what I've heard from CMs I know. What if a lot of this truly is guest related?? Should WDW come out and publicly blame their guests?

For argument sake, let's say it is mechanical... Even then we don't know why. If it's mechanical due to simple budget cuts and lack of routine and proper maintenance, then absolutely...shame on them. What if it's unforeseen failure? The Toyota Camry is the most reliable car on the planet. Even well maintained, it can break. It's a machine. WDW rides are pretty complex, very complex. We don't know what the problem is, mechanical, guest, a combination, so I'm not going to jump to conclusions.

If it's a guest issue, obviously WDW isn't going to blame their paying customers publicly. If it's mechanical, again, we don't know for sure what the source of that is. Everyone here, myself included, would simply be guessing. What's the solution? Again, we'd be guessing. Intentionally having a "slow season", shorter hours for more maintenance time, closing rides for long times for full overhauls, etc...all have very clear downsides which are griped about here often. As a poster here said, it's a bit of a Catch 22 for them. I'm confident they have some very smart people working at very high levels, and maybe I'm alone, but I have faith that they aren't sitting in the high corner office with a cigar and laughing evilly like Mr. Burns from The Simpsons as guests get turned away from rides. YMMV.

I don't think it's lynch mob at all, I think that it's just people expecting to get what they pay for. A return FP to a ride that is not going to run all day is worthless. FP lines that are 60 minutes long are not fast and are unacceptable.

If you have multiple trips in a year it's a lot easier to look over the issues. We've been blessed in that we get to go for a 7-10 day trip each year, but I'm still not going to be happy with ride breakdowns like there were yesterday.

What about the people who saved for years and will only get to be there one day? I'm sorry Disney owes them better.

If you pay to see the Rolling Stones(yes, I'm old) and all you get is the opening act and no headliner what would you think? It's the same thing.

ETA-I do agree with you that I think this is NOT the normal way it is, that being said it does seem to be occurring more and more and that is bothersome.
 
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Pete was on another rant about how Disney is treating their employees, and I think rightly so. It would not be an interesting podcast to me if the Dis didn't report on all aspects of Disney, the good and the bad. He didn't say they were evil and I don't hear other people on the boards saying that Disney is evil. There are often competing interests between corporations and their customers and one way customers can push a company to meet their expectations is state their displeasure with aspects of that company. It is a natural thing to do. Many people come here because they want to get the most out of their Disney vacation by reading tips, advice, current trends, etc. Most people planning a Disney vacation already love the Disney brand, that seems like a given to me and I don't think they need to preface their love of the movies, characters, parks before they make a complaint about how the Disney executives are running the parks.
 
I think we all know yesterday was a fluke of sorts. Hopefully that doesn't happen again. When it's your MK day, and maybe the only one you get every year or two, it's easy to get upset about it

This is one of the liabilities of having such high ticket prices. People tend to expect things to be (almost) perfect. There is room for a little error but not that much. As it should be
It wasn't just yesterday. The day before was nearly as bad. Today is looking a lot better, though.
 
The other thing that may be at play here is how Disney incentivizes executives. A lot of times companies emphasize short term things. If you make your quarterly or yearly profit margin goal you get a bonus. Well, if you don’t do as many repairs you have a better margin. You can worry about next year’s margin next year. But too much of that thinking and everything is over stressed, under maintained and breaking down. I see that in my company all the time. I’m not saying Disney is definitely operating that way but many companies do. If the guest experience is suffering (some say yes, some no) and employees are not happy or feel they are being treated unfairly then those might be signs that Disney is too focused on stockholders to the point that their focus is too short term. Or maybe not. Maybe this week is just an abnormal glitch in operations. But I think asking the question is fair.
 
Not until next Saturday. Hoping for good weather and minimum ride closures! But all that's beyond my control. As my granddaughter's favorite song says... "let it go"...

I'll join you in hoping. We arrive a week from Sunday. It looks like we'll have good park weather, so I hope the rides cooperate!

Pete was on another rant about how Disney is treating their employees, and I think rightly so. It would not be an interesting podcast to me if the Dis didn't report on all aspects of Disney, the good and the bad. He didn't say they were evil and I don't hear other people on the boards saying that Disney is evil. There are often competing interests between corporations and their customers and one way customers can push a company to meet their expectations is state their displeasure with aspects of that company. It is a natural thing to do. Many people come here because they want to get the most out of their Disney vacation by reading tips, advice, current trends, etc. Most people planning a Disney vacation already love the Disney brand, that seems like a given to me and I don't think they need to preface their love of the movies, characters, parks before they make a complaint about how the Disney executives are running the parks.

Exactly. There's a long thread on the resort board right now about housekeeping problems. That's another area where the tension between corporate interests and guest experience has gotten a fair bit of attention lately, since Disney can't hire/keep enough housekeepers and is in the middle of a big mess over the wages vs. bonus discussion that's been going on. It isn't saying "Disney is evil" to say "I wish they'd just pay what it takes to keep decent housekeeping staff since I'm paying twice as much for my room as I did 10 years ago." It is a natural conversation about the balance any profit-seeking business has to strike between customer experience and corporate profit... and I think it is reasonable to question whether Disney might not be hitting that balance right now.

I also think any complaint about Disney on these boards tends to be met with a pretty strong "Disney can do no wrong" reaction. Every. Single. Cutback. ends up justified somehow as a consequence of bad guests or other factors completely outside of Disney's control, as though WDW is above making cuts just to improve profits, and Every. Single. Complaint. is met with at least a few posters lecturing about how the complaining guest should have handled things differently or was really at fault for the situation in the first place. Like on that thread I mentioned above, where the original poster has been told that she should have taken time out of her vacation to track housekeeping down and nag them into doing their jobs property, rather than writing a letter of complaint to corporate after arriving home.
 
I agree with some of the previous comments. One headliner down on one day I can understand and not be too upset by, things happen, but three headliners down for extended periods for two days in a row is harder to take, and it has meant we missed out on things altogether. Luckily as we are at the end of a two week trip the only ride we completely missed is Space as a result, but we also had children desperate to ride Splash and Seven Dwarfs a second time. When the Wednesday closures messed our plans up we reorganised Thursday to do them, which at least meant we got 7 Dwarfs once, but it is disappointing as we generally visit every 2-2.5 years and the friends we are with are on their first visit. Plus it makes everything else in the park a poorer experience too. I really feel for people who just had one day in MK on either of those days
 
We will be in MK on Monday, so I hope we have a little better luck than the poor souls that have been there recently, but, if not, we will deal. My husband and I are super stubborn and it's often paid off because we stalk a ride until it comes back up and luckily we are able to do so. We definitely lucked out on IJ at Disneyland once being stubborn after it was down all afternoon.

If the ride is down and you have a FP+ for it, that becomes an anytime FP for that ride unless you switch it to something else, correct?
 
If the ride is down and you have a FP+ for it, that becomes an anytime FP for that ride unless you switch it to something else, correct?

It is an anytime FP that works for a list of rides. You don't necessarily have to use it on the ride you had an FP for. I've only gotten one in 3 years of being an AP and it was when ToT went down at DHS. It worked for pretty much any ride/show except Toy Story Mania.
 

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