"Temporarily closed due to technical difficulty"

[srauseo]

Seriously, rides go down for all kinds of crazy reasons. I imagine many are guest related. We were on Haunted Mansion recently and the family in front of us put their young son in a Doom Buggy by himself (he looked to be about 4 or 5 to me) and then the parents got in another Doom Buggy together with their older child. We were right behind him. The cast members immediately stopped the ride and made them reshuffle so that the little boy wouldn't be unaccompanied. We got to witness close up the steps the cast members have to take to stop and restart the ride which required two people taking multiple steps. Even for something relatively simple such as that, it still took several minutes to go through the process and they were moving very efficiently. If the family had argued, or it had been a more complicated situation, it could easily have been ten minutes or more. Another time on HM someone climbed out of their buggy. The ride stopped and cast members and security came in. We got to the see the genius getting escorted out by security when we were coming off the ride. That was exciting.

 

[EricInPA]

At Universal 2 trips back we waited in line for an hour or so inside Forbidden Journey... then they said the ride was down for the day (our only universal day). We got a free "fast pass" for any ride. Nice! Unfortunately every ride except for that one was a walk-on.

It happens.

 

[I Love Pluto]

When Pirates becomes crowded, they shut it down due to technical difficulties. We have experienced this several times on our July trips. Five minutes later - after most people have left - they open it again!

We have been at Pirates at least 4 times when this occurred.

 

[HM2012Butler]

We've been at MK when it was hard to find a ride to ride because the majority of them were down or closed!

Theres no way. Maybe no attraction you wanted to psrticipate in but certainly not "hard to find"

 

[Mitzicat]

I'm curious, what do you think happens when a computer outage hits the park? Or an electrical outage? With all of the rides that were down, it had to have been a computer issue. There were 12 (*yes, I counted) rides that were down/closed.

I was at Magic Kingdom during a Halloween party a few years ago and the park took a lightening strike which caused a power surge on one side of the park and the computers shut down. They had to restart all the computers and it was a mess. It was very odd too because a couple of rides shut down one right after another starting with the Haunted Mansion and ending at Pirates. It took about 30 mins but they got them all back up and running. I would so totally geek out to see their computer / IT department. I spent 10 minutes staring at the computer system that controls TSM at Disneyland. It was fascinating.

 

[hakepb]

There are 30+ rides in the Magic Kingdom. Are you saying 16 of them were closed?

I count 15 outdoor attractions that may close due to a lightning threat, so add an issue that stopped Space and Peoplemover and you are at 17 closed.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I count 15 outdoor attractions that may close due to a lightning threat, so add an issue that stopped Space and Peoplemover and you are at 17 closed.

Ooooohhhh, good point. Then again, is that a "Disney rides always break down!" problem?

I mean, sure, Disney controls the weather, but they don't tell anybody they can...

 

[Robo]

13 - You can't count Swiss Family Treehouse as a "ride that breaks down". (Of course it was probably still up...)

As I recall, the Swiss Family Treehouse is only HALF up...
the other half is down.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

We have to remember these attractions, even the simpler ones are very complicated, mechanically, electrically, computer wise and general techno. Add to that they are often tied together for the amazing effects and parades and other presentations Disney has. Some days it gets outta hand and one attraction picks a fight with another and a bunch join it. WDW, Uni, SW and even your local parks has this problem on occasion..

AKK

 

[JimmyV]

Without opining on the "majority" point, we once were in line for Splash Mountain and had to leave when the attraction broke down; then went over to BTMRR only to find that it too was down. So then we walked over to Pirates, and the CMs there were shooing people away because it was down. Now, that is not a "majority" of attractions. Not even close. But it was three consecutive attractions that we went to in a span of 10 minutes and it did cause a collective face-palm from our group.

 

[Dismama2boys]

Oh good lord. The mentality around here of trying to constantly prove people to be liars over something so trivial is making me crazy.

 

[Bullseye]

Oh good lord. The mentality around here of trying to constantly prove people to be liars over something so trivial is making me crazy.

Do you mean like "funny" crazy or "crazy" crazy ?

Actually... and this is a true story, one time we were at MK and Space Mountain and TTA were both temporarily closed at the same time

 

[prestoncaldwell]

Early every morning, a mass of humanity descends on the Magic Kingdom. Each ride goes, and goes, and goes, and goes, throughout the day. Late at night, sometimes into the morning, the last straggler leaves the park. Staff has a few hours to turn the park over and perform equipment maintenance in preparation for the mass of humanity that will hit it the next day. This repeats 365 times every year, 366 times this year.

It's amazing that there are not more breakdowns than there are.

 

[larryz]

Things degrade. Stuff breaks down. Sensors go off for no reason (dirty sensor, probably). It just happens.

All of which seem to point to a lack of preventive maintenance...

 

[Livvie]

Oh good lord. The mentality around here of trying to constantly prove people to be liars over something so trivial is making me crazy.

Eh, it doesn't bother me. I was there, I know what happened.

 

[walker0829]

Eh, it doesn't bother me. I was there, I know what happened.

Liar (jk)

 

[Livvie]

Liar (jk)

 

[Dug720]

(our family terrified an elevator at MCO on arrival day, so us "breaking" things became a family in-joke)

How do you terrify an inanimate object like an elevator??

 

[walker0829]

How do you terrify an inanimate object like an elevator??

Practice!

 

[RAPstar]

Seriously, rides go down for all kinds of crazy reasons. I imagine many are guest related. We were on Haunted Mansion recently and the family in front of us put their young son in a Doom Buggy by himself (he looked to be about 4 or 5 to me) and then the parents got in another Doom Buggy together with their older child. We were right behind him. The cast members immediately stopped the ride and made them reshuffle so that the little boy wouldn't be unaccompanied. We got to witness close up the steps the cast members have to take to stop and restart the ride which required two people taking multiple steps. Even for something relatively simple such as that, it still took several minutes to go through the process and they were moving very efficiently. If the family had argued, or it had been a more complicated situation, it could easily have been ten minutes or more. Another time on HM someone climbed out of their buggy. The ride stopped and cast members and security came in. We got to the see the genius getting escorted out by security when we were coming off the ride. That was exciting.

One of my many rides on HM we were quite backed up, much to many people's annoyance. I was able to see that we were being help up because the bar wouldn't close correctly due to a rather hefty guest. I felt bad for her when they had to escort her out since she wouldn't be able to ride. As much as Disney tries to make sure everyone can ride most of the attractions, sometimes things happen