Increased ride breakdowns in Disney

[fiffio]

Was at MK today and for a couple of hours from 9:30 they had splash, 7dmt, space and astro orbiter down, the park was then heaving and chaos as no one was queuing for rides and no fastpasses were available till late afternoon early evening (this was at 10:30am! ) even when replacing existing ones due to the breakdowns. Not to mention the WiFi was struggling as everyone tried to salvage thier day.

Had an existing FP for Ariel and guess what, it broke down while we were queuing to get on.

At Epcot last week test track broke down too and splash and thunder both were down at the same time again last week.

There has been a breakdown on the bigger rides each time we have went, I know some of these rides are older but what is going on? Are disney cutting back on the maintenance crews or just not investing in these rides to keep them running smoothly? Really poor and it’s really affected our Disney experience this year, especially at £400 a ticket.

[themeparksandy]

I think as Disney open 365 days a year they only get a small window to do basic maintenance to the rides unless it’s a major update and is closed for 6 months+

[adreamisawish]

Originally Posted by fiffio

Was at MK today and for a couple of hours from 9:30 they had splash, 7dmt, space and astro orbiter down, the park was then heaving and chaos as no one was queuing for rides and no fastpasses were available till late afternoon early evening (this was at 10:30am! ) even when replacing existing ones due to the breakdowns. Not to mention the WiFi was struggling as everyone tried to salvage thier day.

Had an existing FP for Ariel and guess what, it broke down while we were queuing to get on.

At Epcot last week test track broke down too and splash and thunder both were down at the same time again last week.

There has been a breakdown on the bigger rides each time we have went, I know some of these rides are older but what is going on? Are disney cutting back on the maintenance crews or just not investing in these rides to keep them running smoothly? Really poor and it’s really affected our Disney experience this year, especially at £400 a ticket.

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Are they really broken down though? All you hear is the announcement that it’s not in operation. And yes, it could be a maintenance issue. But from working in the parks and knowing cast members I know that the majority time when a ride it’s out of action for a while, it’s due to a guest problem. Someone’s been sick in the ride area, someone’s stood up during the ride which means the e-stop was pressed meaning everyone has to be evacuated and full checks have to be conducted before the ride starts again, meaning it won’t run for an hour at least.

Sometimes it stops for a short while, a couple of minutes whilst you’re riding something like Under the Sea or Haunted Mansion, because someone with limited mobility is being helped onto the ride and the ride needs to be stopped to assist this. And then we have lightning in the area which shuts down most exposed rides.

Combine all of that with the fact that technology and mechanics can just break when rides are run 365 days a year or close to it, and yes you’re gonna get those days where it feels like everything in the park is ‘broken’. When in reality, you may be experiencing some genuine technical issues in some areas, and in others a stupid guest has ruined the experience for everyone by deciding to stand up on it’s a small world.

[mickeyismybff]

That would make a lot of sense from a cryptic post from a friend who is a CM on attractions in MK. She was just home after a long shift and basically repeating the whole ‘parents supervise your children’ line in despair. I bet it was a day when it seemed that everything was going wrong from their perspective as well. Must be so frustrating from every angle.

We were once evacuated from Winnie the Pooh because a child had jumped out of honeypot. It’s a surprisingly long amount of time to clear it all.

But sorry you were there on such an annoying day, OP!

[fiffio]

Yeah I know it may be caused by guest issues rather than anything disney has done and safety comes first but geez they were all down for what seemed like hours and it ‘crashed’ the park for everyone. 40 min queue for IASW just shows what was available for guests.

Splash in particular seems to go down at least 2-3 times a day and always with at least a 1 hour wait to test and get back working.

Sticks in my craw you get a fastpass replacement but it doesn’t include pan or 7dmt, and when you’ve done the meets earlier in the holiday and already got FP for thunder so swapping splash for the teacups doesn’t quite cut it for our 4.5 year old or me so you get short changed

I feel sorry for those who paid walk up prices yesterday, after 10 they will have got crowded out of everything until the rides eventually went back up after lunch although even teacups had a 40min wait at 1pm, at least we had already done some of them.

[DisneyFoodie]

We had a very bad first morning in MK a few holidays ago where literally all of the first 5 or 6 rides we tried had technical issues (I think some were breakdowns, some were understaffed and some just hadn’t opened yet).

We went to guest services and explained politely that we’d had a frustrating first few hours and that we were cutting our losses and heading to Epcot, and asked them nicely for a Soarin FastPass. They were more than happy to oblige and we were happy campers and had a lovely rest of the day.

So - when stuff goes wrong, if you can think of a reasonable and proportionate thing that would save the day for your family (no, they probably won’t give you all FOP fastpasses &#128521 no harm in asking nicely!

[fiffio]

That’s interesting!

They made up for it today, turned up on 15th day for Disney and passes not valid, I thought you got wed to thur 2 weeks later if you didn’t go for all 14 days but obv not. They updated our passes and let us into the park where we had a good day with some bonus meets from being in the right place at the right time.

Another thing I’ve noticed is the ride times are no where near as advertised. Meeting mickey was supposedly 5 minutes but cast member said it’s 40mins that not the first time it’s been way over the advertised time either. Usually we get given the red passes they use to check the wait time a few times on holiday but no sign of these, sounds like they don’t use anymore and as a result they are defo underestimating waits on a number of rides.

[Twiggy1953]

Originally Posted by fiffio

That’s interesting!

They made up for it today, turned up on 15th day for Disney and passes not valid, I thought you got wed to thur 2 weeks later if you didn’t go for all 14 days but obv not. They updated our passes and let us into the park where we had a good day with some bonus meets from being in the right place at the right time.

Another thing I’ve noticed is the ride times are no where near as advertised. Meeting mickey was supposedly 5 minutes but cast member said it’s 40mins that not the first time it’s been way over the advertised time either. Usually we get given the red passes they use to check the wait time a few times on holiday but no sign of these, sounds like they don’t use anymore and as a result they are defo underestimating waits on a number of rides.

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Isn’t the 15 days Wednesday to Wednesday - so counting both Wednesdays it would be 15 days.

[mikeclark007]

We were in MK yesterday and it didn’t effect us but all the outdoor rides were down because there was a threat of a thunder storm which never even materialised. I’d have been gutted to have been at the front of the 7DMT queue to be sent away. FP guests were well backed up as well. Not sure if they ever did reopen them ...

[fleurbie]

Not really any difence now but looking at busy day guide the 8th may at MK was least recommended, so extra busy too, another reason to use it