Originally Posted By Bellella Here's my trip report from Saturday, October 9. Space Mountain had a breakdown for at least 3 hours. Thunder Mountain had a breakdown right after I went on it. In POTC, the redhead for sale (at the wife auction) wasn't lifting up her skirt slightly as she was tempting the pirates. The Matterhorn had "minor technical difficulties" at least twice while I was in line for it, and they had to stop the ride whenever it happened. On Splash Mountain, a couple of Animatronics were missing, and the Brer Bear with a beehive on his nose was sitting still instead of rolling around. In the Tiki Room, the birdmobile in the center was hanging slightly lower than normal, and it lowered with a sort of jerk. And in It's A Small World, several dolls were either missing or comatose, with still faces and silent mouths. And the flying carpets weren't moving at all. I just don't know what's going on, but I'm a bit nonplussed and disappointed in the maintenance teams. Missing dolls are one thing, but those coasters are dangerous. Nothing bad happened to me, but I just don't feel like they're taking proper care of those rides like they should. Being an affectionado of these rides, it's very easy for me to spot flaws. And I spotted quite a lot.
Originally Posted By CuriouserConstance "Space Mountain had a breakdown for at least 3 hours. Thunder Mountain had a breakdown right after I went on it." Most of the time the "breakdowns" are just required shut downs to ensure the ride is still operating completely safe. Try not think of it rolling to a screeching halt while smoke is pouring out from under it's hood. Things like that happen all of the time.
Originally Posted By CuriouserConstance And what I mean by required shut downs is, once I was on Pinocchio and it broke down, we were evacuated and the ride operator told me that if the timing doesn't go exactly right with people getting out or into the cars and they are delayed from taking off, it goes into an automatic shut down, and they can't do anything other than evac and reset everything.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Big Thunder and the Matterhorn are notorious for always breaking down. It's really nothing new, but is definitely a pain. I've heard that Space has been having more consistant problems these days, which is a little worrisome, especially since they're trying to push it as part of the Halloween events. It's nothing dangerous, but like Constance said, sometimes the vehicle spacing/timing gets off, so the system simply shuts down for safety reasons. It's nothing to be concerned about, but if it didn't do it, there could be potential issues. So really, even though it seems unsafe, it's actually being more safe! >>On Splash Mountain, a couple of Animatronics were missing, and the Brer Bear with a beehive on his nose was sitting still instead of rolling around.<< Were they major characters, or just random ones in the bigger scenes? It's fairly common practice to take some out for refurbishment, which allows the overall attraction to have shorter and less frequent refurbishments. Yah, a little something it missing, but they usualy do it in a manner that doesn't affect things too much. If they took out something big, it would be more of a problem, but I was on Splash last night and didn't notice anything awry. >>And in It's A Small World, several dolls were either missing or comatose, with still faces and silent mouths. And the flying carpets weren't moving at all.<< Many of the dolls' mouths and eyes don't move. I would venture to guess that at least half of them aren't supposed to be singing at all. The entire left side of the new US room (the midwest farm side) has dolls that just blink, and don't do anything else. The lack of motion isn't always because something is broken, it can be because it was never designed to do anything in the first place. The carpet equipment seems to have always had problems. I remember going on the ride when I was little, and it seemed like it was about 50/50 whether or not they would be working. These days, it seems to be about the same (though the Aladdin carpet always seems to hover just fine). And I don't really know what to say about the birdmobile or the red head. I think the redhead has been a little more modest for about a year now, but she's always up to no good. You can see that in her eyes. : )
Originally Posted By mikeginla Is Disney still outsourcing the maintenance for the rides? I know they were using other companies to maintain the rides when the Thunder Mountain thing happened.
Originally Posted By mickeymorris1234 No, they are all Disney employees. Disneyland actually does not let things depreciate at all. Remember that the rides have not had any refurb time since the summer and are worn out. Normally October a mini refrub rush on the big attractions happen but since Halloween they haven't been able to do it. Before a ride can open every vehicle has to be checked individually, the ride run continuously and have an e - stop and the head mechanic gives it a green light. You might notice on matterhorn cars that have a red tag placed on them and are on the storage track. Those are cars that did not pass daily inspection. Every single ride and car goes through this before the park opens. Breakdowns during operating hours 90% of the time are computer related. The reason resets take so long is all that work they did in the morning gets repeated before they reopen the ride. If it was any kind of mechanical failure the ride would not open again at all that day or days in some cases. The fact that the rides reopened tells you it was nothing serious and a computer error happened. A funny thing I was told by a cast member about Thunder Mountain breakdowns. He said a lot of the time the ride is stopped because of overweight problems. The computer on the lifts have thresholds to maintain and it tell the system if the ride will be able to travel at the optimal speed, if the system thinks that the car will not make it it stops the car on the lift hill. Kinda made sense when TM breakdowns I see most of the time they are stopped on lift hills and not e-brake stops.
Originally Posted By superstrikertwo ^ Matterhorn is the same way in terms of weight. I got evacuated off of it due to a heavier car not being able to stop correctly. Bright side is I was at the very top and walked the whole mountain from the inside.
Originally Posted By SFH There is much less incentive to keep attractions open and running, and every element of the attraction working, and to plus attractions since Disney makes the same amount of money once you're in the gate whether you ride the attraction or not. Actually, they save money if enough people stay off the attractions, and make money if those people spend more time buying food or merchandise. If you had a lower gate price and used your admission media to "buy" each ride you took on an attraction, things would be different... even if the people running the park only cared about money and not reputation.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< those coasters are dangerous. >>> How do you come to this conclusion?
Originally Posted By mickeymorris1234 "There is much less incentive to keep attractions open and running" I think Disneyland may be the exception to that. When they take characters out they are taken out to maintain them. The rides are always kept clean in perspective when you think about how many tens of thousands of people ride them, the park it kept looking amazing. WDW it may be like that, but Disneyland they care about keeping things looking and working well. Why do you think they take a ride down for three to four weeks (and in some cases longer) to clean and refurb while WDW will only do refurbs down time for a few days to a week.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt I've been visiting regularly now since 1977. I don't think there's ever been a visit where everything was working properly or something didn't need some TLC. There was a period around the time that DCA opened where things did slip below acceptable levels, but for the most part I don't think that maintenance at the parks is anything to be concerned about at the moment.
Originally Posted By Sparrow I got at least once a month (and have for a few years now) and I've noticed a lot more breakdowns than usual in the last few months. The last three times we've gone, Space Mountain has been shut down when we went to get in line for it. I've only ridden The Matterhorn twice since the beginning of summer because IT kept breaking down while we were in line. I don't normally ride Splash because my bf doesn't like it but I've noticed its been down a lot recently, too. Wonder what's up...
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Whatever happened to those new bobsleds that the Matterhorn was supposed to be getting?
Originally Posted By 999HAUNTS Is this really a case of the rides "breaking down" or are they just being stopped as a "what if" or a caution?
Originally Posted By tashajilek Dont even get me started on the matterhorn, it ruined my birthday lol. My last visit was in the summer and most things were operating smoothly except the matterhorn.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "I GO at least once a month." I usually go once a day. Sometimes twice.
Originally Posted By fkurucz " Disneyland actually does not let things depreciate at all." I think the desired word here is "deteriorate". Depreciation is an accounting term.
Originally Posted By Sparrow <<Is this really a case of the rides "breaking down" or are they just being stopped as a "what if" or a caution?>> I have no idea. They call it "technical difficulties" and they're usually down for 45 minutes or so...
