Originally Posted By SuperDry RSR has been problemmatic since it opened as far as reliability. At opening, it would have several break-downs a day, seemingly every day. Has it gotten better? If so, it seems that we still hear frequent reports of downtime. So, the question is: does anyone know what the issue is? It's not as if it's a new ride system: both Test Track and Journey To The Center Of The Earth (at DisneySea) use the same system. Presumably, reliability issues in design would have been worked out long before now. Did they implement a design change in hopes of improving something (such as maintenance costs) that has ended up not working out as they expected? Anyone know the details?
Originally Posted By Disney Joy Just got back from a 5 day trip. NOT once was RR Cars broke that I know of. Packed yes..... Fast pass is the way to go... or single rider was 30 minutes.
Originally Posted By TP2000 I think the details are that the Internet exists. Every Disney fan worth their iPhone has been in line at Radiator Springs Racers this summer, and every 10 minute delay or one hour downtime has been documented and Tweeted and blogged about. And thus it becomes a "problem" for people who aren't even in the theme park that day. I've been in Cars Land many times the past few weeks, and been on Racers three times in August. It was never broken down, and the Standby line ranged from 90 to 120 minutes. I do remember when Indy opened in '95. They used to pass out little fliers at the parking lot ticket booths telling you whether or not Indiana Jones would be operating that day, as its reliability for the first year or so was so abysmal they just had to take it day by day. Some days it was open, some days it wasn't. No Internet to check before you arrived, you just got a slip of paper in the parking lot warning you it was suddenly closed that day. Can you imagine the uproar online if Disneyland had a new ride that was that unreliable today?!? People would be absolutely apoplectic over that type of inconsistency in the big new E Ticket everyone wants to go on. Radiator Springs Racers is super popular and very cool. It also has its occasional hiccups in operation, but is never closed for more than an hour or so. And even then, you have to hit Cars Land at just the right time or on just the right day to find it temporarily closed. It's fine. It works great. It's only been open for about 75 days. And it's been operating for 16 or 17 hours per day since it opened. It's reliability will get even better as it hits the 90 day mark, and even better towards the 6 month mark. But, thanks to the Internet, we will have access to breathless reports in the future from countless fans if there is one particular closure of an hour or so on one particular day, and then we can all participate in that "inconvenience" even though we were nowhere near DCA at that time.
Originally Posted By berol It's that people are far more likely to mention that a ride went down than a ride stayed operating. I don't think about whether the ride went down or not for posts like "I rode Racers today, fun!"
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>It's not as if it's a new ride system: both Test Track and Journey To The Center Of The Earth (at DisneySea) use the same system. Presumably, reliability issues in design would have been worked out long before now.<< While both of those rides have been operating for over a decade (and use a ride system that's based in the Indiana Jones system), they're still notorious for downtime (like Indiana Jones). It's gotten better through the years, but they still have a lot of unexpected downtime, and frequent scheduled refurbs. TestTrack is currently closed for significant changes to the scenery inside, but I believe they will also be installing the newest version of the ride software, which was developed for RSR.
Originally Posted By Manfried Indiana Jones breaks down a lot, sometimes 3-4 times a day. The only reason for the focus on Radiator Springs Racers is because all the APers are over there all the time now. If Knott's Berry Farm would actually open some cool new rides, maybe the APers would go over there and give Disney a break from all their whining.
Originally Posted By TP2000 Knott's Berry Farm sells APs for about 80 bucks per year, less than a one day ticket to Disneyland. And they are open 365 days per year, too. But Knott's can't seem to get more than 3 Million per year to visit them, and can't seem to get their APs to get real excited about the place, let alone start going once per month and create an entire online industry talking about those visits. That's probably due to the fact that the place is Knott's Berry Farm, and it's just not that great. ;-)
Originally Posted By Manfried Agreed TP2000, though the food has gotten better. But I sure want to go to a theme park to eat the food.
Originally Posted By DlandDug I go to theme parks to enjoy the food. As far as the difference in price for the annual passes, the old saying is true: You get what you pay for.
Originally Posted By Terminus I was at Knott's yesterday from 3ish to 6ish. It was like a ghost town (pardon the wording). Every ride was a walk-on, and almost every ride I saw was running with like 4 people on it. My son was the ONLY rider on the Huff and Puff and the Balloon ride when it ran. I know everyone is back in school, but it just felt strange.
Originally Posted By Kidz-n-k9s <<As far as the difference in price for the annual passes, the old saying is true: You get what you pay for.>> A friend of mine has an Annual Pass to Legoland in San Diego and also rec'd two free guest passes and a buy one-get one free pass. So we went with her and with her passes, all 4 in my family got in for only $65. I am SOOOO glad we didn't pay anymore than that. I felt like it was one step above a county fair. I'm in agreement, but I won't be renewing my AP next year for all the reasons we've all hashed and rehased over the last few months.
Originally Posted By Yookeroo "I was at Knott's yesterday from 3ish to 6ish. It was like a ghost town (pardon the wording). Every ride was a walk-on, and almost every ride I saw was running with like 4 people on it." People long for the day when Disneyland had days like this (and it did). But when Knott's does, it's evidence of a crappy theme park. I get the complaints about APers. And the complaints about how aggressive Disney had been about marketing APs. But would you make the trade?
Originally Posted By CDF2 While Knott's has a certain number of attractions that are comparable to Disney in terms of theming and creativity, they also have a number of "bare metal coasters" that have more appeal to speed freaks and teens. The two parks will never be viewed as equals but Knott's is priced and viewed by locals as a nice 4-5 hour cheapie park experience alternative to Disney. Certainly not the type of park people will build their whole vacation around like they do the Disney resorts. As for reliability, let's face it - we live in an era when electronic or other products are rushed to market to meet the perceived "market windows" of corporate marketing departments regardless of whether the product is ready or not - the availability of the internet to allow companies to provide upgrades and fixes for problems with their prematurely released products has become an enabler for this kind of behavior. So when Disney decided on when the opening of Carsland was going to be and ramped up their marketing and advertizing programs for that event, they knew they were going to have to open with whatever the RSR "product" was on that date. It's not surprising that there would be problems - remember Splash Mountain had the nickname "Crash Mt." when it first opened since it was down frequently. I believe the Disney all-time winner in this area was Test Track however. I believe Disney actually had a full marketing campaign with the certain opening date for Test Track that they missed by something over a year - I distinctly remember an aquaintence who booked his "once every 5 years" big trip to the Grand Floridian at WDW around the original announced opening of Test Track and he had a devil of a time getting his airfares and bookings changed/refunded due to the lack of that opening. The Indiana Jones/Test Track/RSR technology is certainly complex and one would expect prone to breakdowns given the fact that you have moving vehicles, not just some static ride system tied to a conveyor belt, that is running - you must always error on the side of safety and caution so sometimes even the most minor of problem may give a warning sign demanding shutdown. Would you want to ride an attraction that didn't have that sort of safety mechanism built into it?
Originally Posted By Manfried The Disney Imagineers actually wanted a few weeks of time to run the attraction and "Break it down" so they could debug it, but some Disneyland Resort middle executive took it upon themselves to leak an opening date to a Disney blogger. You know the one, he has a name that is the same as a "Blood on the Saddle" character. So then Disney, though they would not confirm the date initially, was backed into a PR nightmare. Do they move ahead with the date though WDI still wanted time, or delay the date and look stupid? Well lay the blame on either Al, or that Disney executive or on WDI for not standing their ground. Or was it a higher up money person who wanted the cash registers to start flowing and deal with the breakdown issues. Now it's the road all ready traveled, and the negative PR from the Disney fan sites are pretty much being ignored by just about everyone, as even with breakdowns its a fantastic land.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>I believe Disney actually had a full marketing campaign with the certain opening date for Test Track that they missed by something over a year...<< TestTrack and DL's Splash Mountain both missed their original opening date by over a year, but I believe TT was closer to 18 months. Even when it finally opened, it was several more years before they had it running semi-reliably. Add in the frequent Florida thunderstorms that the attraction closes during, and that's a lot of downtime for a headline attraction. >>Or was it a higher up money person who wanted the cash registers to start flowing and deal with the breakdown issues.<< I suspect this is what really led the charge. I can't imagine that they would open a huge new expansion/upgrade, and wait to do it until mid/late summer. Even the mid-June openings they've been doing for things the last few years seem late to me, since I'm used to 'summer' being defined as Memorial Day to Labor Day. If they want to make the biggest splash, they'll open the big shiny new area at the beginning of the highest attendance period. They've been doing construction and tests on the RSR system since early 2009; the idea that they couldn't squeeze a couple weeks out of a schedule that long is just silly. (And for the record, from what I've read of the downtime it's experienced, I think it's absolutely acceptable for a new attraction. No, it's not perfect yet, but it meets my expectations for someting that complicated, for the beginning)
Originally Posted By Yookeroo "So then Disney, though they would not confirm the date initially, was backed into a PR nightmare. Do they move ahead with the date though WDI still wanted time, or delay the date and look stupid?" Why would they look stupid?
Originally Posted By CDF2 Yook: How would you feel if you booked a $5K vacation with the family to DLR and had your kids amp'd up for Carsland only to have Disney announce the opening would be delayed for a couple of months? Not a pretty sight, eh? Disney "synergists" pushed Cars stuff through as many outlets as they could, ran a number of special programs on the ride and had their website pushing the attraction bigtime for the months leading up to the opening. Remember all of the hype and synergistic events leading up to the Indiana Jones ride when it opened? You don't just call up Lucas or Spielberg and say "can you change your schedule and come out to the park a month later?") As long as the issues are minor ones and don't involve major safety issues, then you have to believe that once a date for opening of an attraction is given the company will do everything they can to meet that commitment.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>Yook: How would you feel if you booked a $5K vacation with the family to DLR and had your kids amp'd up for Carsland only to have Disney announce the opening would be delayed for a couple of months?<< I would feel pretty stupid for spending that much time and money booking a vacation, based on information given to my by a blogger who has had a very hit-and-miss history through the years. There's no shame to Disney in delaying the date when they never announced it in the first place. All they said was "summer 2012" which could mean any number of things. The entire Disney-based pushed was based on the vague date until relatively late (I think they announced the June date in April or May 2012), to ensure that they could meet their goals. If they were having issues getting it reliable enough, I see no problem with them pushing back the date, despite what Al Lutz may have proclaimed all over the internet. Speaking of Al, any news on that large-scale Big Thunder redo he touted would be coming this fall? Sounds like Indy is getting the extended refurb, while BTMRR will keep up normal operations
Originally Posted By Manfried Big Thunder is supposed to close down after the Christmas holiday, according to the Bothans I still know.
Originally Posted By Yookeroo "Yook: How would you feel if you booked a $5K vacation with the family to DLR and had your kids amp'd up for Carsland only to have Disney announce the opening would be delayed for a couple of months?" How can Disney have delay when they never announce an opening date?
