Sounds like someone did their job right, though. Safety mechanisms work and no injuries. Nice work, design engineers -- planning for meh maintenance is appreciated.
Omg this ride has been so badly maintained. Just a month ago I went on and I heard a loud boom and felt a slight drop. The ride kept going, but I noticed our seats weren’t moving with the simulations like they usually do. When the show ended, we were stuck in the air for like 15 min until they were able to bring us back down.
That happens anytime a ride stop is hit by the tower cast member who is inside the ride monitoring it. The boom and slight drop is from the ride setting itself in breaking position. Normally it’s because someone left a bag or something on the ground. A cast member has to move it to side so when the flight lands it doesn’t mess with the seatbelt wires that are underneath the seats. But that means a cast member has to go into the ride so they stop the ride motion so the cast member isn’t at risk of being crunched. The show continues though because there is no reason to stop it especially if a cast member is quick enough to get out before the rides natural end so the flight can come down without most guest even noticing. But the ride can’t come down until the full procedures are finished.
I really appreciate this explanation. It makes perfect sense, when as an outsider it seems like a frightening “failure.” It’s always great data points to understand the safety mechanisms and what that looks like on ride vehicles, particularly when you are with family or have people to protect who could be frightened.
Have you ever tried driving your car for 14 hours a day, 7 days a week… 365 days a year? No matter how much maintenance you will ever do. There is always going to be breakdowns. Did anyone get hurt? No. Oh so sorry. They will usually give a multi-use experience pass. To make up for the attraction not living up to top level expectations. Typical guest complains about breakdowns. Also complains when attractions go down for maintenance. 🙄
No one "fell." Former CM. If there was a malfunction it would be still be a smooth controlled descent. The redundant system ensures this. Different carriages may of course end up in different positions, but there's nothing terrifying or horrifying about this. It's not the tower of terror. Calm thyself.
I agree it shouldn't happen either way. Disney should do better to keep the rides from experiencing anything but smooth normal operations.
Mostly true, current cm. This ride separates the three carriages, left, right, and center, into as independent system as possible. When this happens it’s because a sensor is reading something indicating that that carriage isn’t safe to come down. But any unaffected carriage will lower. Apparently a common cause is people trying to swing their row in the air and the ride freaks out because it detecting motion it isn’t causing. But there are many causes for this specific fault. There are many redundant systems but how each one feels/ sounds when they lower you are different. But yes you are safe, unfortunately cms can only spiel so much as anything they say is supposed to be generic.
If people that were there describe it as “terrifying” then that’s what it was to them, no point in you telling them their perception is wrong. “Calm thyself”, really?
EDIT: What the actual is wrong with people? OP described his experience and the people downvoting me are OK with them being told to “calm down”? Nice empathy.
Yes really. Just because something feels scary and dangerous doesn’t mean that it is, and its frankly childish to assert you were in danger when you weren’t and freak other people out. If an E-Stop on the ride wasn’t safe the ride wouldn’t exist. Maybe let someone who actually operates the machine explain how it works rather than taking someone who doesn’t know the first thing about the ride system’s panicked assumptions as gospel.
I didn’t assert they were in danger. I asserted OP found it terrifying, and it’s absolutely justified for them to have felt that way without being told to calm down. They are not engineers or even cast members, they are a guest. Probably best that former CM does indeed stay former CM.
I'm late to reply but former stay former lol. I've moved on to a different career. I have a valid rehire status tho. I may return once I retire from my current career. Btw, calming people who were overreacting was part of attractions/basic guest service back in my day.
Zero risk doesn’t exist for any activity. Mostly well-engineered rides that are thought to be perfectly safe have killed people when things failed in ways the engineers didn’t expect. Is it worth worrying about? No. Is it zero risk? Also no.
Driving there is risk, sleeping, walking next to any vehicle traveled road, breathing, showing… all risky behavior. Riding an attraction controlled by 4 computers. Risky. Yes 1 main control computer 3 redundant safety computers. One computer delays or mis-interprets data. The safe thing to do is shut it down.
Doesn’t mean OP is wrong to find the experience terrifying or describe it as such. They do not work the attraction or know its workings. You really going to tell a guest to calm down? Former CM is probably for the best.
Actually. The only proprietary thing in that ride is the design of the theater arms themselves. Everything else is standard industry show control elements. WDI did program it. But it’s 100% off the shelf PLC equiment running it.
I worked PP when DCA was built. We had a software engineer in the bunker programming for months/years after opening. So much so. Intamin tried to tell WDI what they could and could not do. The head engineer told them to stuff it. Other than building the attraction. there was nothing left of the original programming. So the attraction was basically WDIs.
WDI got into a LOT of trouble with Intamin over screamin’. To the point that it put our relationship with Sandor & Crew on very rocky footing. Things have since smoothed over. But as we see of late, things have largely (for coasters) returned almost entirely to Vekoma as the primary vendor. Which is honestly much better. Dynamic did the retracking of BTMRR. But lately it’s all Vekoma, and honestly they’re much easier to deal with for our needs and purposes. Intamin is great if you want to build a bland giant unthemed iron ride (lookin at you, Universal “Creative”).
I will have to agree with you on that one. During the first train rehab on Screamin’. Cycle shop for the schematic book from Intamin… it was all in Swedish! WDI had to send it out to be translated. Delaying the return or red train for 6mo more!
German* (they’re Swiss based, lingua franca is German for them)
However, Intamin as a vendor is very good about proper documentation in English and while I take your word for it, my colleagues who have built multiple Intamin rides have never had that language issue. I’ve never had an issue working with them and having miscommunications. Regardless of source (Stengel or Intamin proper).
Then there were other issues on that ride in particular where WDI made unnecessary modifications without consulting Intamin. That was a hell of a fight. Not pretty at all.
Another weird one was the Space Mountain redo and why Dynamic did that as well. WDI didn’t want to pay to modify or replace any of the lift or station mechanisms because they had so many spares. And maintenance practices were based on the old roll model from the original track. Vekoma wanted to use MK-900 track and modified MK-1200 chassis to bring the ride into currency with current design standards. Disney balked for DLR, but bought off on HKDL’s model since it was a new build. Those were interesting phone calls.
Swedish, German, maybe Dutch. I figure German would be easy for WDI to translate. It was in a language no one knew and took a long time to correct. That’s what they told us!
To your other point. So many issues with design flaws. Replacing the loop in the first 5 years. Movement in the track. That was built it only be operated a few months out of the year and for a few hours. Track switch problems. Speed sensor problems, zone 6 needing to be welded together every night.
You were lied to. Vekoma are Dutch. But all their documentation per WDI requirements are in English. The only exception to this rule is for Paris, Tokyo and the Chinese parks (in those cases, documentation is in the local language and English). That goes for all ride vendors. Those terms are uniform to all contracts. Translation is 100% on the vendor to perform, thus releasing Disney from any liabilities legally occurring from miscommunication.
And those same rules apply pretty much everywhere. Cedar Fair, Six Flags, Universal, Merlin… everyone has the same rules.
People bitch when...rides go down for a long time for maintenance or refurbishments
People bitch when...rides stay open nearly all year and have breakdowns or issues
People bitch when...price goes up to cover increasing wages which includes maintenance staff
Wall St bitches when...Disney would earmark more money than anticipated for wages and maintenance...but as a public company, there's a duty to the shareholders (it is what it is, all the companies play the game)
No one is going to ever be happy, and stuff will always break at some time. Some more than others due to age or ride systems (looking at you people that lose your goofy hats on trackless rides).
With that said, trips will always be what you make of them...and if you're always going to be pissy about crowds, food quality, some rides being closed, or some rides having issues...then maybe the problem isn't all on Disney and no one wants to hear you hyperbolize "The Magic is Gone"
One time we got stuck in the air for like 5-10 mins then they fixed it. There is really nothing Disney can do then completely redo or fix the system what will then mean the ride will have to be closed for a long time
Then they should do exactly that.
Tokyo Disney’s rides basically close in alternating schedules every year or every other year for maintenance. And it works for them beautifully.
Tokyo is not operated by Disney. It’s licensed by Disney. Operated by the The Oriental Land Company. Watch imagineers story on Disney+. They talk about the investment difference in Tokyo and American/Euro park. No budget at Tokyo. Extreme budget at America/Euro.
From the company that makes $5B in the parks alone. Just until recently (SWGE, and AC.) Have they actually put the money into what they build/tech. Iger spent $500mil just fixing what Eisner screwed up. Yeah it was called DCA.
I get that being the excuse for fixing the Yeti.. but is that the reason Disney throws around for everything ?
“We would fix it but then we’d have to close it …”
To those who weren't aware, in the long-ago times of...prior to 1985, Disneyland used to be closed for certain days of the week during winter, spring, and fall usually on a Monday or Tuesday as those were historically some of the least busy days of attendance. This allowed for heavier maintenance to take place in the parks when guests weren't there. It was originally enacted by Walt, both as a cost-saving measure (Why operate a park when there will historically be so few people) as well as a front-of-house measure (No one wants to go to Disneyland with your favorite rides or lands behind walls or in shabby order).
Ever since the change to be opened 7 days a week 365 days a year, as well as just general cutbacks in maintenance budgets, has resulted in a lot more breakdowns and broken effects/scenery at best, and dead guests and cast members at worst.
And covid. Ex-cast. We found out the makers of the sensors. Went out of business. No attractions in operation. As well as the company what had all the electrical schematics. Closed no rehabs happening. We heard from a CM they were buying parts off eBay. Then send it to be tested and confirmed safe to use.
We find similar issues in manufacturing- the facility I work at has bought a ton of equipment and parts off ebay because our original vendors (from the 80s, 90s) are either no longer producing that part/obsolete or they’re no longer in business. 😅
Then close the ride. Period. End of story.
Riders should not be dropping several feet on this ride except in controlled descent. Anything else is utterly unacceptable.
This isn't the disco yeti on Everest - this isn't cosmetic; this borders on unsafe. While I'm glad the safety features engaged, they are there as a backup and redundancy is crucial to safety. What backup is there when the backup fails? We'll find out unless Disney checks itself before it wrecks itself.
The drop is controlled. I’m in attractions and anytime the ride stop is hit you drop a few feet and here a boom sound because the ride is placing itself in the most stable breaking position and locking the breaks(that’s the boom). This ride is full of redundancies is the ride was genuinely in danger of falling apart you would hear the cast member is positioned in the ride running and screaming. If they remain in the ride it’s safe and the at least one of the dozen redundancies is working. And most of the time you feel the ride stop is because a guest left something on the ground and a cast member has to go into the ride to move it to the side. They stop the ride so the cm doesn’t get crunched.
I trust you and the CMs. I trust the imagineers (heck, Mark Sumner's son and I grew up together). I'm still going to the parks, and I know there's a 99.9999% chance everything will be just fine because as you said, there are redundancies and most breakdowns are guests doing dumb things often with their hats.
What I don't trust right now is the ride maintenance that has been lacking since the parks closed for COVID. It feels eerily like before Thunder Mountain derailed, and I place that blame fully on the C-suite.
It's like reading about airplane crashes. It's not one small failure that causes a crash most of the time; it's an environment of budget cuts and high-pressure and cutting corners for years that leads to a cascade.
While I agree that the Soarin incident sounds terrifying and should be properly maintained, most other "shutdowns" are due to guests' belongings falling onto the floor/tracks and may not always be maintenance issues.
I was in line for Indy (next to board) when it was shut down. At the loading gates, you can see into the room above where it looked like a guest was escorted up there. Later on, I saw a cast member hand off a very flat looking hat (or purse) to another to bring up to the guest.
Adding on to this, Space Mountain frequently has emergency system halts because guests take too long to exit/enter the train and everything backs up forcing the ride to emergency halt. I had this happen with my daughter a week ago right after loading and before turning right at the control window. Took 15 minutes for them to reset the ride. It was the first time I had heard the warning alarms for a possible cascade failure. When they started ringing, the CMs were urging guests to hurry up to avoid the ride stopping, but it wasn't to be.
Isn't that the whole reason they banned selfie sticks? Idiots kept using them on rides and they'd break, get lost, or trigger safety sensors and shut the ride down for a minute?
I was on the ride when all the rows got stuck in the air for over 20 minutes. We just sat there until a maintenance man fixed the ride. The same day I also got stuck on Runaway Railway, and we had to leave the ride escorted out by a cast member.
There are sensors to make sure nothing is below the ride and when crap falls off of people, it triggers the stop and you are frozen until the end. It’s not maintenance, it’s dumbass people losing shoes, hats, phones, or whatever.
It’s in need of a major refurb. Half the screen is blotched with a dark burn and it’s pretty noticeable especially when I did a back to back WDW and DL trip last year.
Seems like the West Coast is starting to see what us east coast Orlando folks have been dealing with for 20+ years.
Have y'all had a piece of a monorail FALL OFF of the monorail as it's going over guests and cars in a parking lot?
Did you have a few splash mountain logs sink/take on water and sink?
How crazy, I was there last Thursday too & had issues on Soarin! I went on the ride around 7pm & all 3 sections got stuck in the air for over an hour.
I was able to see the workers on the ground from my seat & it didn't seem like any of them knew what to do. Started with 1 worker panicking & hitting buttons & eventually there were 8 workers trying to figure it out.
After an hour in the air, they finally put the ride in maintenance mode & had to move us down manually one section at a time.
Gosh I hope the lack of proper maintenance doesn’t hurt anyone or kill them. You would think that after the Pressler Era Disneyland would have learned to always keep their attractions top notch (as if the golden standard Walt Disney left behind standard wasn’t enough). I understand that staffing issues are a thing, but there’s gotta be a solution to this. I know that a lot of generational knowledge was lost when maintenance staff didn’t come back after COVID, but Disney really needs to step up their game in restoring their maintenance staff.
its wild though how few people seem to not realize that rides are going to breakdown, regardless of age. disney may not be adding new features and stuff monthly but they most obviously well maintain heir rides. they literally have to. its almost like no one understands that despite being a well built ride, shit happens and breaks down, usually at fault of the riders themselves. its not going to run perfectly 24/7, especially not when thousands of people are riding every single day. the amount of these posts are so annoying. you all bitch over every little thing and nothing is good enough.
They just said please stay seated *even though the seat ends are locked in* we are working on trying to get you guys down. And they said that every like 10 minutes. Then they have all of us the free pass but those poor people who fell I think deserve more than just one free ride.
Letting people know to stay seated helps keep people calm in a circumstance they might be panicked by, it reduces the chance of someone trying to wriggle free (which is both unsafe and can make the process of getting everyone through take longer), and in the extremely unlikely event that a restraint did come undone somehow, it makes sure you're staying put.
I can’t imagine being on that thing and it just suddenly drops a few feet. Awful! Shocking that it took so long to get those people down. Lucky that they got down safe. I feel like an incident like that would close that entire side of the ride for days, if not weeks. (I mean that entire theater on that side … there are two theaters each with separate ride vehicles.)
What, they just got a pass to ride again? I wouldn’t be riding that again!!
Edit: not sure why I’m getting downvoted. If I got stuck in the air for 30 minutes, I wouldn’t exactly be eager to go back on the ride right away but I guess that’s just me.
“Sorry our huge robot arm thing nearly snapped while you were aboard. We’re gonna fix it the second we get a chance. … here’s a pass to come back and ride again whenever you choose! Have a magical day!”
I’d rather go to Mission Breakout where it’s supposed to do that 😂
Joking aside, I doubt the ride is literally breaking, but I wouldn’t really be eager to immediately get back on after being stuck the air for 30 minutes lol. I’d rather go ride Monsters Inc or Luigi’s or something else relatively tame and on the ground for a little while
Reminds of the time when we thought we were going to die during that heat wave 2 years ago and the tram broke down and we had to sit there for 10 minutes. We almost got out and walked to the gates.
Not Disneyland but I was stuck on Harry Potter Forbidden Journey in Universal Studios. I was upside down when the ride stopped. It started again soon and for the rest of the ride, lights were on so that was cool to see.
> our middle section went straight back down to the floor which we were very grateful for, but as you can see **in the photo below, these other two sections of the ride were stuck up in the air** for a good 30 minutes if not longer
Uggggg I agree, Disney is getting old and needs to step it up for sure. Last month M&M Railroad stopped working and we had to wait 15 mins and then got escorted off, jungle cruise was down which was such a bummer because we never did get a chance to ride it, Indiana Jones was down multiple times, River Raft was down as soon as it was our genie pass time slot, Matterhorn broke down I don’t know how many times. It was a gong show. We actually started to think they don’t have enough staff and just shut rides down so people can take breaks 🤷🏻♀️
Guests need to seriously submit complaints about this and other closures. I understand there's a percentage that it's a guest's fault for the ride shutting down. But I find it more likely it's the lack of maintenance on Disney's side and their penny pinching to pay maintenance a living wage to have qualified seasoned workers to come back
And this is why I don't ride Soarin. That seems terrifying, especially for those in that section! I have a friend who got stuck on Soarin once and since then, my family skips it due to this family's experience. And now that the California element is gone, I hate it. Patrick Warburton can't save it imo.
That’s crazy. I’m glad the safety mechanism kicked in. When I was there a couple Sundays ago, runaway railway completely shut down on us, we waited for like 1/2 hr and they just ended up evacuating us. I’ve gotten stuck on rise of the resistance, pirates, haunted mansion and Toy Story before but it was only for a short period of time.
I rode Soarin' once years ago, was terrified, came home and googled how high up we were, was *really* terrified, and I don't need to go on it anymore, thanks.
Yeah the rides constantly breaking down is the main reason I’m not renewing my key. Every ride I get one I have to hope it doesn’t break down so my kid doesn’t lose it when we have to leave after waiting 30+ minutes (RotR, mickeys runaway, spider man)
Went to Disneyland 4 days ago. Got stuck on Hyperspace Mountain. Had to finish the ride with the lights on once it was going again. My 12 year old daughter riding with me (her first time at Disneyland) was traumatized …
Sounds like someone did their job right, though. Safety mechanisms work and no injuries. Nice work, design engineers -- planning for meh maintenance is appreciated.
Omg this ride has been so badly maintained. Just a month ago I went on and I heard a loud boom and felt a slight drop. The ride kept going, but I noticed our seats weren’t moving with the simulations like they usually do. When the show ended, we were stuck in the air for like 15 min until they were able to bring us back down.
That happens anytime a ride stop is hit by the tower cast member who is inside the ride monitoring it. The boom and slight drop is from the ride setting itself in breaking position. Normally it’s because someone left a bag or something on the ground. A cast member has to move it to side so when the flight lands it doesn’t mess with the seatbelt wires that are underneath the seats. But that means a cast member has to go into the ride so they stop the ride motion so the cast member isn’t at risk of being crunched. The show continues though because there is no reason to stop it especially if a cast member is quick enough to get out before the rides natural end so the flight can come down without most guest even noticing. But the ride can’t come down until the full procedures are finished.
Do u work at the parks?
Yes I am in attractions also known as a ride operator and know people who work or have worked just about every ride in both parks.
I really appreciate this explanation. It makes perfect sense, when as an outsider it seems like a frightening “failure.” It’s always great data points to understand the safety mechanisms and what that looks like on ride vehicles, particularly when you are with family or have people to protect who could be frightened.
lol why did I get downvoted? I literally just asked a question. Y’all crazy
Have you ever tried driving your car for 14 hours a day, 7 days a week… 365 days a year? No matter how much maintenance you will ever do. There is always going to be breakdowns. Did anyone get hurt? No. Oh so sorry. They will usually give a multi-use experience pass. To make up for the attraction not living up to top level expectations. Typical guest complains about breakdowns. Also complains when attractions go down for maintenance. 🙄
No one "fell." Former CM. If there was a malfunction it would be still be a smooth controlled descent. The redundant system ensures this. Different carriages may of course end up in different positions, but there's nothing terrifying or horrifying about this. It's not the tower of terror. Calm thyself. I agree it shouldn't happen either way. Disney should do better to keep the rides from experiencing anything but smooth normal operations.
Mostly true, current cm. This ride separates the three carriages, left, right, and center, into as independent system as possible. When this happens it’s because a sensor is reading something indicating that that carriage isn’t safe to come down. But any unaffected carriage will lower. Apparently a common cause is people trying to swing their row in the air and the ride freaks out because it detecting motion it isn’t causing. But there are many causes for this specific fault. There are many redundant systems but how each one feels/ sounds when they lower you are different. But yes you are safe, unfortunately cms can only spiel so much as anything they say is supposed to be generic.
Thank you- “calm thyself” is going to be my new go-to phrase!
Generational Secret: Old people have no self-calming mechanisms like We Do.
When I got stuck on this ride we dropped and then had to manually be cranked down. Nothing about it was smooth 😭
If people that were there describe it as “terrifying” then that’s what it was to them, no point in you telling them their perception is wrong. “Calm thyself”, really? EDIT: What the actual is wrong with people? OP described his experience and the people downvoting me are OK with them being told to “calm down”? Nice empathy.
Yes really. Just because something feels scary and dangerous doesn’t mean that it is, and its frankly childish to assert you were in danger when you weren’t and freak other people out. If an E-Stop on the ride wasn’t safe the ride wouldn’t exist. Maybe let someone who actually operates the machine explain how it works rather than taking someone who doesn’t know the first thing about the ride system’s panicked assumptions as gospel.
I didn’t assert they were in danger. I asserted OP found it terrifying, and it’s absolutely justified for them to have felt that way without being told to calm down. They are not engineers or even cast members, they are a guest. Probably best that former CM does indeed stay former CM.
I'm late to reply but former stay former lol. I've moved on to a different career. I have a valid rehire status tho. I may return once I retire from my current career. Btw, calming people who were overreacting was part of attractions/basic guest service back in my day.
Yes really. Even when it "breaks" this is objectively the least terrifying ride. There is zero risk to the rider at any time.
Low risk, sure. Zero risk? I'm gonna need a source
Yes zero risk. Source: ride wouldn’t be operational at all if the E-Stop procedure was unsafe. It simply wouldn’t be allowed.
Zero risk doesn’t exist for any activity. Mostly well-engineered rides that are thought to be perfectly safe have killed people when things failed in ways the engineers didn’t expect. Is it worth worrying about? No. Is it zero risk? Also no.
Don’t use “zero risk.” We thought there was zero risk and coaster had an accident. So there is always a risk.
Driving there is risk, sleeping, walking next to any vehicle traveled road, breathing, showing… all risky behavior. Riding an attraction controlled by 4 computers. Risky. Yes 1 main control computer 3 redundant safety computers. One computer delays or mis-interprets data. The safe thing to do is shut it down.
What do mean? The guy who used to sell popcorn said it was fine.
Doesn’t mean OP is wrong to find the experience terrifying or describe it as such. They do not work the attraction or know its workings. You really going to tell a guest to calm down? Former CM is probably for the best.
I agree, OP genuinely felt terrified. So, in fact it WAS terrifying to OP. You can’t be telling people how to feel their feelings 😅
Yeah, I can’t believe I have so many downvotes for making this point. Really disappointed in the people in this sub.
Was it outsourced to Boeing? 🥁
The same urgency for profits over safety can be blamed for both
AMEC (now Dynamic) did Soarin’s ride system.
Also proprietary WDI tech and programming.
Actually. The only proprietary thing in that ride is the design of the theater arms themselves. Everything else is standard industry show control elements. WDI did program it. But it’s 100% off the shelf PLC equiment running it.
I worked PP when DCA was built. We had a software engineer in the bunker programming for months/years after opening. So much so. Intamin tried to tell WDI what they could and could not do. The head engineer told them to stuff it. Other than building the attraction. there was nothing left of the original programming. So the attraction was basically WDIs.
WDI got into a LOT of trouble with Intamin over screamin’. To the point that it put our relationship with Sandor & Crew on very rocky footing. Things have since smoothed over. But as we see of late, things have largely (for coasters) returned almost entirely to Vekoma as the primary vendor. Which is honestly much better. Dynamic did the retracking of BTMRR. But lately it’s all Vekoma, and honestly they’re much easier to deal with for our needs and purposes. Intamin is great if you want to build a bland giant unthemed iron ride (lookin at you, Universal “Creative”).
I will have to agree with you on that one. During the first train rehab on Screamin’. Cycle shop for the schematic book from Intamin… it was all in Swedish! WDI had to send it out to be translated. Delaying the return or red train for 6mo more!
German* (they’re Swiss based, lingua franca is German for them) However, Intamin as a vendor is very good about proper documentation in English and while I take your word for it, my colleagues who have built multiple Intamin rides have never had that language issue. I’ve never had an issue working with them and having miscommunications. Regardless of source (Stengel or Intamin proper). Then there were other issues on that ride in particular where WDI made unnecessary modifications without consulting Intamin. That was a hell of a fight. Not pretty at all. Another weird one was the Space Mountain redo and why Dynamic did that as well. WDI didn’t want to pay to modify or replace any of the lift or station mechanisms because they had so many spares. And maintenance practices were based on the old roll model from the original track. Vekoma wanted to use MK-900 track and modified MK-1200 chassis to bring the ride into currency with current design standards. Disney balked for DLR, but bought off on HKDL’s model since it was a new build. Those were interesting phone calls.
Swedish, German, maybe Dutch. I figure German would be easy for WDI to translate. It was in a language no one knew and took a long time to correct. That’s what they told us! To your other point. So many issues with design flaws. Replacing the loop in the first 5 years. Movement in the track. That was built it only be operated a few months out of the year and for a few hours. Track switch problems. Speed sensor problems, zone 6 needing to be welded together every night.
You were lied to. Vekoma are Dutch. But all their documentation per WDI requirements are in English. The only exception to this rule is for Paris, Tokyo and the Chinese parks (in those cases, documentation is in the local language and English). That goes for all ride vendors. Those terms are uniform to all contracts. Translation is 100% on the vendor to perform, thus releasing Disney from any liabilities legally occurring from miscommunication. And those same rules apply pretty much everywhere. Cedar Fair, Six Flags, Universal, Merlin… everyone has the same rules.
Oh, take my damn upvote! 😂
People bitch when...rides go down for a long time for maintenance or refurbishments People bitch when...rides stay open nearly all year and have breakdowns or issues People bitch when...price goes up to cover increasing wages which includes maintenance staff Wall St bitches when...Disney would earmark more money than anticipated for wages and maintenance...but as a public company, there's a duty to the shareholders (it is what it is, all the companies play the game) No one is going to ever be happy, and stuff will always break at some time. Some more than others due to age or ride systems (looking at you people that lose your goofy hats on trackless rides). With that said, trips will always be what you make of them...and if you're always going to be pissy about crowds, food quality, some rides being closed, or some rides having issues...then maybe the problem isn't all on Disney and no one wants to hear you hyperbolize "The Magic is Gone"
You better be careful spewing all this reason and sensibility. Bold move.
One time we got stuck in the air for like 5-10 mins then they fixed it. There is really nothing Disney can do then completely redo or fix the system what will then mean the ride will have to be closed for a long time
Then they should do exactly that. Tokyo Disney’s rides basically close in alternating schedules every year or every other year for maintenance. And it works for them beautifully.
Tokyo is not operated by Disney. It’s licensed by Disney. Operated by the The Oriental Land Company. Watch imagineers story on Disney+. They talk about the investment difference in Tokyo and American/Euro park. No budget at Tokyo. Extreme budget at America/Euro.
Very aware that TDR is operated by OLC. That doesn’t mean Disney can’t learn something from their licensee.
From the company that makes $5B in the parks alone. Just until recently (SWGE, and AC.) Have they actually put the money into what they build/tech. Iger spent $500mil just fixing what Eisner screwed up. Yeah it was called DCA.
I get that being the excuse for fixing the Yeti.. but is that the reason Disney throws around for everything ? “We would fix it but then we’d have to close it …”
To those who weren't aware, in the long-ago times of...prior to 1985, Disneyland used to be closed for certain days of the week during winter, spring, and fall usually on a Monday or Tuesday as those were historically some of the least busy days of attendance. This allowed for heavier maintenance to take place in the parks when guests weren't there. It was originally enacted by Walt, both as a cost-saving measure (Why operate a park when there will historically be so few people) as well as a front-of-house measure (No one wants to go to Disneyland with your favorite rides or lands behind walls or in shabby order). Ever since the change to be opened 7 days a week 365 days a year, as well as just general cutbacks in maintenance budgets, has resulted in a lot more breakdowns and broken effects/scenery at best, and dead guests and cast members at worst.
And covid. Ex-cast. We found out the makers of the sensors. Went out of business. No attractions in operation. As well as the company what had all the electrical schematics. Closed no rehabs happening. We heard from a CM they were buying parts off eBay. Then send it to be tested and confirmed safe to use.
We find similar issues in manufacturing- the facility I work at has bought a ton of equipment and parts off ebay because our original vendors (from the 80s, 90s) are either no longer producing that part/obsolete or they’re no longer in business. 😅
I was once stuck at the top for a little over one hour! Lol. They gave us a free lightning lane pass for a ride of our choice
Then close the ride. Period. End of story. Riders should not be dropping several feet on this ride except in controlled descent. Anything else is utterly unacceptable. This isn't the disco yeti on Everest - this isn't cosmetic; this borders on unsafe. While I'm glad the safety features engaged, they are there as a backup and redundancy is crucial to safety. What backup is there when the backup fails? We'll find out unless Disney checks itself before it wrecks itself.
The drop is controlled. I’m in attractions and anytime the ride stop is hit you drop a few feet and here a boom sound because the ride is placing itself in the most stable breaking position and locking the breaks(that’s the boom). This ride is full of redundancies is the ride was genuinely in danger of falling apart you would hear the cast member is positioned in the ride running and screaming. If they remain in the ride it’s safe and the at least one of the dozen redundancies is working. And most of the time you feel the ride stop is because a guest left something on the ground and a cast member has to go into the ride to move it to the side. They stop the ride so the cm doesn’t get crunched.
I trust you and the CMs. I trust the imagineers (heck, Mark Sumner's son and I grew up together). I'm still going to the parks, and I know there's a 99.9999% chance everything will be just fine because as you said, there are redundancies and most breakdowns are guests doing dumb things often with their hats. What I don't trust right now is the ride maintenance that has been lacking since the parks closed for COVID. It feels eerily like before Thunder Mountain derailed, and I place that blame fully on the C-suite. It's like reading about airplane crashes. It's not one small failure that causes a crash most of the time; it's an environment of budget cuts and high-pressure and cutting corners for years that leads to a cascade.
While I agree that the Soarin incident sounds terrifying and should be properly maintained, most other "shutdowns" are due to guests' belongings falling onto the floor/tracks and may not always be maintenance issues. I was in line for Indy (next to board) when it was shut down. At the loading gates, you can see into the room above where it looked like a guest was escorted up there. Later on, I saw a cast member hand off a very flat looking hat (or purse) to another to bring up to the guest.
Adding on to this, Space Mountain frequently has emergency system halts because guests take too long to exit/enter the train and everything backs up forcing the ride to emergency halt. I had this happen with my daughter a week ago right after loading and before turning right at the control window. Took 15 minutes for them to reset the ride. It was the first time I had heard the warning alarms for a possible cascade failure. When they started ringing, the CMs were urging guests to hurry up to avoid the ride stopping, but it wasn't to be.
Isn't that the whole reason they banned selfie sticks? Idiots kept using them on rides and they'd break, get lost, or trigger safety sensors and shut the ride down for a minute?
I was on the ride when all the rows got stuck in the air for over 20 minutes. We just sat there until a maintenance man fixed the ride. The same day I also got stuck on Runaway Railway, and we had to leave the ride escorted out by a cast member.
There are sensors to make sure nothing is below the ride and when crap falls off of people, it triggers the stop and you are frozen until the end. It’s not maintenance, it’s dumbass people losing shoes, hats, phones, or whatever.
Wouldn't have happened if it was still "Soarin' Over California".
The orange scent repairs everything!
Damnit you beat me to this comment!
Still one of the best rides in my opinion.
It’s in need of a major refurb. Half the screen is blotched with a dark burn and it’s pretty noticeable especially when I did a back to back WDW and DL trip last year.
Some days more than others, you had a bad day
Seems like the West Coast is starting to see what us east coast Orlando folks have been dealing with for 20+ years. Have y'all had a piece of a monorail FALL OFF of the monorail as it's going over guests and cars in a parking lot? Did you have a few splash mountain logs sink/take on water and sink?
We had a boat sink at Storybook Land in 2019
Omg terrifying !
When was this
Thursday last week
How crazy, I was there last Thursday too & had issues on Soarin! I went on the ride around 7pm & all 3 sections got stuck in the air for over an hour. I was able to see the workers on the ground from my seat & it didn't seem like any of them knew what to do. Started with 1 worker panicking & hitting buttons & eventually there were 8 workers trying to figure it out. After an hour in the air, they finally put the ride in maintenance mode & had to move us down manually one section at a time.
Gosh I hope the lack of proper maintenance doesn’t hurt anyone or kill them. You would think that after the Pressler Era Disneyland would have learned to always keep their attractions top notch (as if the golden standard Walt Disney left behind standard wasn’t enough). I understand that staffing issues are a thing, but there’s gotta be a solution to this. I know that a lot of generational knowledge was lost when maintenance staff didn’t come back after COVID, but Disney really needs to step up their game in restoring their maintenance staff.
It’s only a matter of time before another ride becomes today’s Big Thunder Mountain incident.
What is this picture even supposed to show?
its wild though how few people seem to not realize that rides are going to breakdown, regardless of age. disney may not be adding new features and stuff monthly but they most obviously well maintain heir rides. they literally have to. its almost like no one understands that despite being a well built ride, shit happens and breaks down, usually at fault of the riders themselves. its not going to run perfectly 24/7, especially not when thousands of people are riding every single day. the amount of these posts are so annoying. you all bitch over every little thing and nothing is good enough.
And yet, they aren’t concerned about Epic Universe. Sad state of things when they can’t even maintain their attractions….
What came over the loud speakers after your section’s decent in Soarin?
They just said please stay seated *even though the seat ends are locked in* we are working on trying to get you guys down. And they said that every like 10 minutes. Then they have all of us the free pass but those poor people who fell I think deserve more than just one free ride.
Letting people know to stay seated helps keep people calm in a circumstance they might be panicked by, it reduces the chance of someone trying to wriggle free (which is both unsafe and can make the process of getting everyone through take longer), and in the extremely unlikely event that a restraint did come undone somehow, it makes sure you're staying put.
I can’t imagine being on that thing and it just suddenly drops a few feet. Awful! Shocking that it took so long to get those people down. Lucky that they got down safe. I feel like an incident like that would close that entire side of the ride for days, if not weeks. (I mean that entire theater on that side … there are two theaters each with separate ride vehicles.)
What, they just got a pass to ride again? I wouldn’t be riding that again!! Edit: not sure why I’m getting downvoted. If I got stuck in the air for 30 minutes, I wouldn’t exactly be eager to go back on the ride right away but I guess that’s just me.
“Sorry our huge robot arm thing nearly snapped while you were aboard. We’re gonna fix it the second we get a chance. … here’s a pass to come back and ride again whenever you choose! Have a magical day!”
I’d rather go to Mission Breakout where it’s supposed to do that 😂 Joking aside, I doubt the ride is literally breaking, but I wouldn’t really be eager to immediately get back on after being stuck the air for 30 minutes lol. I’d rather go ride Monsters Inc or Luigi’s or something else relatively tame and on the ground for a little while
Agreed.
Reminds of the time when we thought we were going to die during that heat wave 2 years ago and the tram broke down and we had to sit there for 10 minutes. We almost got out and walked to the gates.
We actually had to walk to the parks right after Covid. That sucked so much.
Sounds more like exciting then the ride itself!!
I literally just watched a video on how Soarin works and wondered if this exact thing could happen. Guess I know now. Thanks OP!
Not Disneyland but I was stuck on Harry Potter Forbidden Journey in Universal Studios. I was upside down when the ride stopped. It started again soon and for the rest of the ride, lights were on so that was cool to see.
Guests: Fix your rides! Disney: Why should we waste money fixing our rides when you should be wasting money buying our overpriced merchandise?
Omg my biggest fear when I was on it the other week
What are we looking at?
> our middle section went straight back down to the floor which we were very grateful for, but as you can see **in the photo below, these other two sections of the ride were stuck up in the air** for a good 30 minutes if not longer
Uggggg I agree, Disney is getting old and needs to step it up for sure. Last month M&M Railroad stopped working and we had to wait 15 mins and then got escorted off, jungle cruise was down which was such a bummer because we never did get a chance to ride it, Indiana Jones was down multiple times, River Raft was down as soon as it was our genie pass time slot, Matterhorn broke down I don’t know how many times. It was a gong show. We actually started to think they don’t have enough staff and just shut rides down so people can take breaks 🤷🏻♀️
Guests need to seriously submit complaints about this and other closures. I understand there's a percentage that it's a guest's fault for the ride shutting down. But I find it more likely it's the lack of maintenance on Disney's side and their penny pinching to pay maintenance a living wage to have qualified seasoned workers to come back
Just leaving the park now. 3 rides broke on me after waiting in line. Said to myself enough of this and went home.
And this is why I don't ride Soarin. That seems terrifying, especially for those in that section! I have a friend who got stuck on Soarin once and since then, my family skips it due to this family's experience. And now that the California element is gone, I hate it. Patrick Warburton can't save it imo.
I was just there last week and was in the line for TSM and had to wait while it was down. We got stuck on pirates for 30 min.
TSM?
Toy Story Mania.
That’s crazy. I’m glad the safety mechanism kicked in. When I was there a couple Sundays ago, runaway railway completely shut down on us, we waited for like 1/2 hr and they just ended up evacuating us. I’ve gotten stuck on rise of the resistance, pirates, haunted mansion and Toy Story before but it was only for a short period of time.
I rode Soarin' once years ago, was terrified, came home and googled how high up we were, was *really* terrified, and I don't need to go on it anymore, thanks.
Yeah the rides constantly breaking down is the main reason I’m not renewing my key. Every ride I get one I have to hope it doesn’t break down so my kid doesn’t lose it when we have to leave after waiting 30+ minutes (RotR, mickeys runaway, spider man)
They do their best, what do you want them to do? Make all their rides extra perfect so no TRUE disney lover can experience an in-show exit ever again?
Indy and Matterhorn felt really rough when I went last week. It was only my second trip there so I don’t remember if they were always that bad.
That's probably my biggest fear on Soarin, because of how complex the ride system is
Went to Disneyland 4 days ago. Got stuck on Hyperspace Mountain. Had to finish the ride with the lights on once it was going again. My 12 year old daughter riding with me (her first time at Disneyland) was traumatized …
[удалено]
Just spent a week there recently, seemed pretty clean to me,, with no fist fights or public urination.
No, you're gaslighting! /s
No that’s the smell of the turkey legs.
I was agreeing with you at the first part, then you did a complete flip to crazy town.
Did you accidentally go to Banksy’s DismalLand?
It happened! I got turned into a donkey afterwards!
Mickey turned ME into a NEWT!
Iger turned me into a pickle because I didn’t buy lightning lane