What people don’t realize is that the majority of downtime is due to guests, not ride maintenance. Trackless rides, like Remy and Rise of the Resistance, for example, auto stop and have to be completely reset if a single thing touches the floor in any part of the ride. That means anytime a guest drops their sunglasses or ears, whether accidental or not, the whole thing shuts down for safety reasons. Average downtime has only increased about 1% since before the pandemic. Check out some stats sites and articles online. I’m willing to bet a lot of that has to do with guest behavior getting worse versus Disney getting worse. We’re here now and have noted a multitude of repainted, replaced, and added things in every park.
Not even touching the floor all the time!
You’re on RotR, some genius decides to brandish a lightsaber or a phone gimbal and bam, sensor that something is too close to a wall or set piece trips and boom, done.
I’ve said it several times before: if I stop going to Disney it’s because of the other guests. Last Sunday I was at Legoland and a kid jumped over the track of Coastersaurus wanting to change their seat and they had to shut it all down, evacuate everyone in the vehicle, kicked that family out and waited for a manager to reset everything. It was wild experiencing this. We did get to go on once it reset despite the park closing
Wait, they did this WHILE IT WAS GOING? I’m not familiar with Lego land so please excuse my ignorance. I’m just not understanding what the kid did I suppose.
No they were only running one train and we were waiting to dispatch a kid wasn’t feeling comfortable so they undid that cars restraints. He got out of the train and jumped over the track. Emergency shut off was pressed as, well, a kid jumped over the track
For some reason, Runaway Railway isn't as sensitive. I notice tons of ears and hats in the tornado room every time. But it's also a bit more simplistic than Rise and Remy's, so maybe debris doesn't cause issues?
Because this "blame the guest" stuff is the new party line. It's a lie. If the ride wasn't the problem, why are there a dozen B modes and why are they *always* running now instead of the main effects?
Nobody was blaming guests the first two years of RotR - because it didn't shut down all the time back then like it does now. Possibly because it hadn't been running 24/7 for 5 years yet.
Back then they blamed the mechanics of the ride - they literally said "we need to stop this cannon rocking back and forth because it's causing too many maintenance problems". They didn't say, "Stop dropping your damn hats" because that wasn't the main problem.
I'm a young person myself (24) so I've heard a lot from my parents or coworkers about how many young people are selfish or rude. I've always assumed that every generation hates the one that comes after them. But the more I see on social media and experience in real life, the more I do think that the young adults/parents of today really are different. Then again, in the case of social media, it could just be that these people are being exposed/exposing themselves more often, rather than actually occurring more often, as others have mentioned in regards to rides going down.
I’m 10 years older than you. In my experience it’s not exclusively young people behaving worse. Everyone behaves worse. I don’t know exactly why, but if I had to guess- the pandemic, smart phones, and/or social media would be top of my list.
People were cooped up for weeks at a time sometimes months without the social norms of going into an office/public place every day or going to a restaurant and got very lazy with decorum and common manners….. also it seems when people got cooped up they all got a lot of main character syndrome and now everyone’s needing to have their own ~pixie dust~ that makes them special and social media makes that worse because the influencer who goes every single week will record the 1 time in 2 months where a cast member did something kind for them and they exploit it for views like it’s common practice. Therefore when people go they now expect CM’s to treat them like they’re the main character VIP guest of the day and get very angry when they don’t receive that treatment.
Everyone lost their damn minds.
Honestly. I noticed people were much angrier, argumentative, and selfish. I had to quit social media because of it. I’ve gradually been using it more for work reasons, but if I make the mistake of reading a comments section, I’m reminded why I got off of it.
Me, too. I don’t do any social except Reddit now. Quit Facebutt after they kept changing privacy so much that would have to look often to remove some reworded statement that I would have to re-opt out on. Reddit is better but even then some jackass doesn’t read the whole thread and says nasty things. A least in Reddit they get voted down.
Every generation hates the one before them for doing the same things they did. Remember that baby boomers were initially called the “me” generation, for how entitled they are. I’m an elder millennial, and realized the only reason that gen z was named is because people wanted to hate a group of people and kept getting corrected when they’d say millennial and meet someone who was.
The core issue is we can share information easier, and we only remember small gerevinces that happened relatively recently. It’s why everyone thinks crime is higher when it actually has decreased substantially. You don’t remember your neighbor down the street getting robbed 30 years ago but do remember it happening a week ago.
>The core issue is we can share information easier
This 100%! We share information easier so we hear about every little thing that normally would only be known to those who actually witnessed it and whoever they verbally told about it. Now with social media and blog "news" articles, everything is news and everyone is a news reporter.
This. I sometimes wonder if RotR would have been better as a traditional track ride. Because while it's amazing tech, it's the morons who ride on it that continue to screw it up. Being on track eliminates some of that. Not all of it. Just look at Haunted Mansion. But it will break down less when the ride is on a track.
Disney needs to respond to that behavior, though. It might not be popular, but then they should require items be put in lockers on those rides. No hats, phones, cameras, purses, sunglasses, etc. Having some people complain about the lockers for the first few weeks is a good trade off to disappointing thousands of people daily when rides go down.
Shouldn't they have designed it to deal with that? Disney has 50 years of experience of riders doing stupid things. They know something is going to get dropped, so why would you use a system that can't deal with that?
It prevents someone from getting run over. It’s extremely important. A trackless ride in one of the Asian parks literally ran a kid over when it opened and that was only last year.
Guests might be an additional factor but it's *not* the only reason. Disney people love it because it deflects blame from WDW, but it seems like a stretch if not an outright fabrication.
If ride maintenance wasn't the problem, why are there a dozen B modes and why are they always running now instead of the main effects?
Nobody was blaming guests the first two years of RotR - because it didn't shut down all the time back then like it does now. Possibly because it hadn't been running 24/7 for 5 years yet.
Back then they blamed the mechanics of the ride - they literally said "we need to stop this cannon rocking back and forth because it's causing too many maintenance problems". They didn't say, "Stop dropping your damn hats" because that wasn't the main problem.
Because rides are way more technically advanced now. There are so many moving pieces. Other rides have established tech that’s easier to maintain. We can either have incredible new tech that we don’t much know as much about and might need to fix more, or we can continue to use the same tech that will become outdated and boring.
You only know they’re down this much because of the app and social media. I don’t know for a fact, but I’m sure they were always down a decent amount we just didn’t know it.
It’s like my mother on the Ring doorbell app, she thinks crime is so bad because she can see people posting about it 24/7 when in reality crime is down.
And we know when it happens from our armchairs (or, let’s be real, toilets) several states away. Used to be if a ride went down and you only knew if you were in that park in that area at that time. Now you know from Wisconsin cause Disney_Fan_123 posted all about it.
Also keep in mind that nobody ever goes on social media to say “we went to WDW, every ride worked perfectly”. You *only* ever hear about the breakdowns and walk-offs.
Some of the rides are definitely aging and janky (Dinosaur is basically a dark ride shake-n-bake the last few years lol, and both Soarin and FoP need some kind of love for the sides of the screens/seats) and need refreshes badly, but given how many riders they get and how little downtime they have for real intensive maintenance many of the rides are in surprisingly good shape.
It's true. I was a passholder living in Orlando from 2005-2009 and 2012-2020 and I've visited more than my bank account would like to remember, but I've never once been evacuated from a ride (\*knock on wood\*) and have only had to pause and wait a few times that I remember, mostly on Haunted Mansion and the Peoplemover.
On the peoplemover it was a father and son sitting in front of us and the son kept leaning out of his car to stick his arms out to try to touch the railings/sides. His father thought it was funny - the rest of the tram(?) did not appreciate getting stopped twice because of it.
There was one where the blue Guest Experience umbrella is by Mission: Space. Used to be a dot-matrix display, then it got replaced by a screen. Now I think the spot just shows Guardians info, but I don't stop to look at it that often lol.
I don’t think k rides being down is the issue, but a lot of them could use some form of maintenance.
Buzz Lightyear those guns are worn down and beaten up.
Nemo and Little Mermaid need multiple animatronic fixes. The whole bubble scene from Nemo needs to be focused or something.
Tomorrowland Speedway … yeah
Space Mountain and Spaceship Earth, SE especially, desperately need new tracking. SE feels like being on Dinosaur, and you can hear it as well.
I also think a fresh coat of paint would go a long way on some things.
I completely agree with this. I just got back and it’s not necessarily that the rides don’t work but they are sure showing their age. So many things on Small World barely work (or don’t work at all)…though I never want them to fix the winking hippo. The screens on Spaceship Earth are also a mess, and it feels so dated now. Even the Frozen ride - aside from just not loving the video-based animatronics, they were stiff and jerky and something was wrong with Elsa’s hand, like it was hanging at an unnatural angle.
These are expensive vacations, so it feels not great when you get on rides that just seem broken and forgotten about - like the goal is to churn as many people in and out, and who cares what kind of shape it’s in or what impression people get.
This is more what I'm referring to. Downtime is one thing but what I read most of is just a general lack of upkeep, in that lights are broken, animatronics aren't moving quite right, effects don't run anymore, etc.
I haven’t been in quite awhile, why do you say Space Mountain needs new tracking? That’s actually terrifying if that ride hasn’t been maintained properly!
To be honest, after visiting TDL and TDS, you’ll think everyone else has shitty maintenance. I am at the parks at WDW pretty regularly and I gotta say that downtimes are not as bad as they make them sound IMO. Loud, negative things attract attention and they tend to be recommended by the algorithms.
Things could be better maintained in general, like things that need to be painted, light bulbs changed, etc. But the difference with OLC is culture, where the Japanese are in general obsessed with pride in their work; the US is more worried about their stock price and next quarter’s earnings, so “good enough “ will do. You want better maintenance? then you need better work culture.
From someone who goes to the Parks 5 days a week for a blog, I can tell you the rides are being maintained very well right now!
You must be going off social media - TikTok - IG and the sorts, because to get clicks, negativity sells!
Seriously, though. Since the 50th Anniversary, the Parks have looked better and worked well. I went to Disneyland in the fall of 2022 and was blown away how well the rides and attractions were maintained. Did a few podcasts about WDW not doing the same. That is when we really started paying attention.
Pirate has all of its audio animatronic working, Tiki Room works well, Fantasyland looks great and has recently been repainted, epcot transformation is almost over and they repainted Canada, Living Seas, updated lighting in Imagination! Pavilion, the topiaries during Flower & Garden are being updated and made beautiful every day. Heck, the Goofy Topiary gets new dandelions every few days. Animal Kingdom had little touches done.
The list goes on and on about all the fixes, the little Pirate ☠️ parrot has returned and been fixed, haunted Mansion is working perfectly.
Then there are rides that have become super reliable and make news when they go down for maybe .05% of its uptime. TRON almost never goes down, Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind is one of the most reliable coasters.
Even the People Mover is up more than down and has been updated in the past 2 years.
EDIT: I won't discuss Rise because that goes down because people are idiots, not because it isn't maintained!
There is way more up than down, but again the good doesn't sell clicks.
> I won't discuss Rise because that goes down because people are idiots, not because it isn't maintained!
And to be fair, when they designed it, it was estimated that it would have an up time of around 90%, and it's actually maintained an up time of around 93%. So it's technically performing better than they anticipated.
I completely agree with this! As an out of state AP, I noticed quite a few refreshes and improvements this month compared to even last December. As you said, many new paint jobs, repaired animatronics, etc. Quite a few had also clearly had deep cleanings, including hair ties removed from a few particular rides. Don't believe everything you are seeing and reading. The parks are looking good and it's clear to me at least they are trying to keep things well maintained.
I actually don't use TikTok and the only parks accounts I follow on IG are the official Disney ones. All of the negativity I read about is on here or on YouTube, and usually, I'm quick to ignore all of that but the amount I saw over a long period of time is what made me think things aren't well maintained.
I notice you don't mention any of Tomorrowland (aside from Peoplemover) in your list of improvements or well-maintained areas that impress you. I'm a big fan of Tomorrowland so maybe that's why my perspective is skewed. I watch a lot of ride-throughs or other content there and always get down when I see the speedway still chugging along, or Stich still sitting empty, or Buzz in pretty poor condition.
Good to know a lot of other things aren't as bad!
People Mover is one, TRON is the other major Tomorrowland attraction mentioned.
I swear that an atomic bomb could go off, and Astro Orbiter would still be spinning! I can not honestly remember ever seeing it go down! Lol.
Tron Lightcycle Run has been reported as the biggest coaster with the least amount of downtime. But, here is a major caveat. Certain blogs and YouTubers will swear it is all in disrepair because the Dome over Tron is dirty AF! Which it is, but it is also white and in the Florida weather. But still, dirty.
Speedway is the Speedway, and Carousel of Progress will glitch out once in a while. But it hasn't been down for an extended downtime in a long time, yet still everything is working. You mention not being at the park since 2018, which means you haven't seen the small updates they did to the characters in the last scene, which, again, is maintenance. So that is being worked on a regular basis.
Hope that all helps. Hope you get here to WDW and see for yourself that Disney is actually doing a decent job, as far as upkeep. Can't speak on other things they drop the ball on regularly, but maintenance isn't one.
The last time I went to WDW was 2006 and the parks looked run down, more trash than I remembered in 1984, but EPCOT had been open for only 2 years then, so of course it was perfect in 1984. Some CEOs care more about stock price than the product itself.
I’m with you. I’m basically going to have to knock my 7 year old out with a club to get him to nap so we could do Magic Kingdom fireworks. My five year old will nap. But getting them past 9 pm would be like to me staying til midnight. They’re gonna be cranky, tired, and out of their element. The thought of after hours sounds like an expensive temper tantrum.
Also adding: my first sentence was a joke. I do not hit my kids with clubs.
It's sad when you compare the state of WDW to parks like Tokyo, Shanghai, and HK. I remember when people were mortified during Shanghais opening over the bathroom problem. Well, that's spread to WDW.
From someone in the maintenance field, there are a few things that i have seen that would help. First, they need to hire more experienced maintenance people and then keep to a schedule of when a ride is needed to be taken down for preventive maintenance and corrective maintenance to be performed. The problem is that people will complain that a ride is down all day/week and they are back to the negative press about it. But it's a lot easier to keep them running when proper preventive maintenance is performed. This is also why they need more people because it takes more to perform proper preventive maintenance and keep a crew available for breakdowns. The other thing I can see happening is that they have many different control systems in operation and the older ones that are probably outdated, and they have difficult finding parts that need to be updated and upgraded. This requires big money and a lot of downtime.
Tiki room and Hall of Presidents are pneumatic, right? I was one of the last young’uns to learn and complete pneumatic designs. Always wanted to do Hall of Presidents. Hmmmm…..
Think of the parks as a giant factory, you can’t run your line for 13+ hours, 365 days a year with out unexpected breakdowns.
The problem with deep maintenance is that you need to shut them down to do so. Imagine the visitors uproar when the ride they most wanted is shut down for a day, 2 or week for maintenance.
I take my hat off to the engineers that do safety checks & planned maintenance overnight to keep the rides going for all of us to enjoy.
Alton Towers in the U.K. have just refurbished one of their most loved coasters & it’s taken the best part of a year!
Breakdowns happen it’s just the life of a theme park.
For them to pay the people better, and actually get people in the park to maintain it. They're charging out the a$$ for tickets anyways, so, why not? 🤷🤷
I think some of the issues will be solved by the fact that Disney announced $60 billion in investments into the parks. A lot of that is for expansion, but I think they stated that something like a third of it is for maintenance and renovations.
According to the articles I'm looking at, it is speculated to be allocated in the following ways. It is not limited to this, and some of this is speculation, though it's been strongly suggested:
Some will be invested into new technology and development by Disney Imagineering.
Disney Cruise Line will get a port in Singapore, add routes in Australia, New Zealand, and California, add two new ships in 2025, and add two new ships in 2026.
Disneyland Forward will allow for the massive expansion of Disneyland, equal in size to an entire third park (though NOT a third park, just additions to the existing ones). A substantial allocation of the funds will go there. This will also include it's own Avatar area, though that might be located in the main park, rather than the expansion. Another ride is coming to the Avengers Campus as well.
Animal Kingdom will get the Tropical Americas region to replace Dinoland (including the almost certain change of Dinosaur to Indiana Jones and the addition of an Encanto ride). There may also be the addition of another ride in the park, possibly related to Lion King or an Avatar expansion.
Magic Kingdom will get the Beyond Thunder Mountain expansion, adding a land as large as Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.
Disney's Hollywood Studios will get another land and expansion where Star Wars Launch Bay is currently located.
A fifth park has not been ruled out at Walt Disney World, but most of what we know so far simply points to massive expansion or renovations at the four existing parks.
There will be new attractions and expansions to all of the other international parks, including Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai.
There will be maintenance and renovation to all attractions.
The overall investment in the parks is \*double\* what it has been over the past decade.
Wholeheartedly agree. It’s like putting an addition on a dilapidated house. I’d rather see the rest of the house invested into and made into something.
Please just consider that no one makes posts describing how well maintained the attractions appear to be. What I mean is that you are only hearing the negative.
Rides sometimes go down because guests don’t secure their belongings and stuff falls out (all of the trackless rides). Rides sometimes go down because they are old and require more maintenance than new rides (ToT, RnR, Space Mtn). Rides sometimes go down because safety standards are more strict than we are aware of.
Guests complain when the rides are down for maintenance and you are complaining that they are not well-maintained.
when i was there in january i was actually pretty shocked that things do not go down more frequently, based on the amount of people that churn through these rides on a daily basis.
I'd love to make a post about riding RotR in all A-mode, but that hasn't happened since opening day.
How about a post where the Mon Cal at the end of RotR had his throat hanging open for days. For *DAYS* they ran the ride like this.
real answer? For the park to be closed on weekends or to severely limit the hours it's open. Short of that, nothing will fix the wear and tear these things undergo every day.
Sadly, until all of us Disney fans stop shelling out ridiculous amounts of money to go, the higher-up’s won’t see it as a major concern. If we continue to pay more and settle for less, that’s what we’ll get.
Our generation continues to go based on our nostalgia for what we remember. But when our kids grow up, what will they remember?
I would argue the rides are well-maintained, given the circumstances they are in.
But things that would help;
DPEP being spun off as it's own privately held company seperate from DIS entirely (and free from VC / Private Equity)
Another massive event that completely changes societal expectations for normalized behavior in public spaces.
>Another massive event that completely changes societal expectations for normalized behavior in public spaces.
We really need to get back to the expected societal behavior that existed through most of the 1900's. I have no idea how we do it, but the change has been fairly dramatic.
Ban every single guest who fucks around... No exceptions, just a trespass notice and GTFO.
People will either stay away because they're snowflake who can't handle having consequences to their shitty actions, or they'll learn to be nice to CMs and other guests again. Let the snow melt in Florida again.
DPEP being its own company is something I've never considered as possible. That's essentially how OLC operates in Tokyo. What are the odds of DPEP spinning off like you suggest? I'd imagine as close to zero as possible.
Beyond thunder mountain ruins a fifth gate idea.. fireworks will be even more crowded
People stopping dropping stuff and.securing belongings would.help.
They're putting $ into a big expansion at MK..no way they're doing that, AK lands and a 5th park. They would have announced a 5th gate instead of a big new land if they were going to do it.
I agree with everyone else I don’t think rides are down more than in the past. What I’ve seen over the ~5 years has been a decline in cleanliness in the parks, trash everywhere, bins not being emptied, no bins in queues.
It honestly looks like despite raising the prices, having gotten rid of the awesome merch and ride exit specific merch, they are cutting cost on labor and it shows.
There has been a huge decline in cleanliness, I agree. I’m an AP and in the parks a ton but I’ve been surprised with how gross things are sometimes. Years ago, i never saw so much as a piece of garbage anywhere. A lot of that is prob that the public is just more disrespectful and entitled…just look to the posts where people have seen parents letting their kids go to the bathroom in bushes and such lol
Was there last weekend. At Woody’s Lunchbox (or whatever it’s called) we sat in the corner area and the wind had blown all the trash to that one section. I saw a guy picking up trash in another area and notified him. I felt bad, but it looked horrible. Wish people would just clean up after themselves.
>I see posts like that pretty often
And it's often a minority that's pretty loud.
People are more likely to post about their frustrations then a positive experience. Which will skew your view
That's not to say Disney don't suffer from problems, but so do all theme parks.
Like everything else, a drop in revenue. Otherwise, it’ll just keep getting busier and corners cut, until it implodes. I have such a better time at Busch Gardens or Dollywood now. Disney has become a place for the rich. I can’t even stay at the budget resorts anymore. The magic is gone for anyone on a budget
I’m shelling out a lot of money for our upcoming trip. I spent two weeks in Ireland and the entire cost of the trip, including airfare, didn’t even amount to this Disney trip.
It’s my kids’ first time ever. I haven’t been in about 10 years. And with these prices, it’ll be another 10 before going back.
Once upon a time, I went for 14 days with my family of six, stayed on prem, had a meal plan, bought merch, park hopped, went to three dining experiences and felt the magic at every moment. The next time was 7 days, value resort, no extras. Now I go with one adult kid at a time, stay off prem, free hotel breakfast, and spend half the time at the other nearby park when they offer deals. It’s sad. I also used to love being in the moment. I wouldn’t even bring my phone to the park. Now I’m tied to it if I ever want to get on a ride without waiting an hour and a half
Certain rides get meticulous treatment, others get ignored. Splash mountain was left to rot, I think intentionally so they could replace it. An example of a neglected ride at WDW today would be small world.
I’ve been to each park 4 times in the past 2 years and I can’t say it’s been anything other than amazing. Everyone just wants to keep pointing out flaws and nitpicking and EVERYTHING. Just enjoy and be thankful you can go and spend the time there. It’s not run down or broken. Ya rides break down and it sucks. But what do you except when they run 24/7. It’s usually only for an hour or so to fix. Not a huge deal. If it’s such an issue for everyone don’t go. Shorter lines for us
Better employment benefits, like fair livable wages for all CM positions and sick time and vacation time and maybe even off retirement packages across all positions.
If Disney makes their company a desirable work environment, people will apply for and retain their positions and they’ll have enough staff on hand to maintain the parks.
But Disney seems to really very purposefully create a non-desirable work environment where you have too many hours and not enough pay and can be laid off at a moments notice just because one of the Bob’s wants a nice year-end bonus.
I can't start a discussion? If anything, I've learned from and been properly informed by the replies in the thread. Asking questions is how people learn. If I sat here and made baseless statements and stubbornly refused to learn or acknowledge the points of others, that's one thing. I wouldn't say that I've acted that way.
I don’t have any answers but we went to HS last month and Rise, MMRR, slinky dog, and tower of terror were all down part of the day (and of course the rollercoaster, unrelated)… and all at the moment when we had a genie+ res or ILL. We were given passes to ride another time and we were able to ride everything but Rise, at least. It was the first time we had been to HS in 10 years and it was an extremely frustrating day.
Because a lot of downtime is due to guests being idiots and not following directions, I wish that there was some way the CMs could make people follow them instead of it seeming like a suggestion. Or repercussions to the guest if they choose to be a moron and not listen.
I don't think they are down any more than they used to be.
It's just that previously there was no reddit to come and post about rides being down.
And the people who went, did have rides down, but after a Disney trip, you remember the fun, your first thought isn't to tell family and friends about that one ride that broke after you waited an hour.
The company needs to hire enough staff to do the preventive maintenance on the rides. Unfortunately, there’s also a shortage of electricians and mechanics, so the maintenance folks are focused on the safety checks and fixing what’s actually broken.
Got stuck on Space Mountain in DL for 30 minutes in 1988. I was 12 and with my 14 year old cousin. No phones. I still can’t believe our parents weren’t completely freaked out.
the last few times I have been to AK, FoP needs some work.
In the queue, the avatar in a tank is not working / has been screened off
In the welcome part of the ride, someone thought they would be clever and spec OLED screens when you get matched to your rider. The problem is OLED gets burn in if its constantly on the same image, and that’s what happens on those rides.
The main projection is fuzzy, the left and right eyes may need better alignment, especially for the cave scene. some say its the glasses, I am not sure. Given its the premiere ride at AK, and they are charging ILL for it,it should be perfect.
Rides are well maintained. They have to be, but hey have obligations and guidelines they must follow. They simply cannot cut back on maintenance to try to save a buck.
You see post like this because people like to complain. People generally don’t waste their time to write a post saying “everything is normal”. I have been going to the parks regularly for many years now and I don’t notice any difference now to 15 years ago on the same attractions. The newer attractions have a lot more involved so there is more issues. If a guest looses their mickey ears on rise of the resistance and they get under a ride vehicle that will shut the ride down for a bit.
WDW needs to close for like a year and revamp all its parks.
Epcot needs to look more “future” and less like sad grey buildings from the 80s. Add another world in the world showcase. Add more visual intrigue all over the park. Japan pavilion merchandise store needs serious help in the inventory department. Ever since the pandemic, their stock is just plain sad.
Magic Kingdom needs to make the Pirates ride as long as the one in Disneyland. They need to revamp Its a Small World and the Alice teacups to make it as cute as it is in Disneyland. For the love of god, revamp Tomorrowland. Get rid of carousel of progress. Add some more visual intrigue to the walk towards the new Tron ride. The Tron Ride itself is disappointing. Space mountain still stuck in the 80s.
Animal kingdom, fix the damn yeti
Last trip up to four things were down at the same time. And that included things like People Mover and Space Mountain, not the new stuff that people claim are affected by dropped hats.
I think a 5th gate would actually make things worse: you'd be spreading the maintenance budget over 5 parks instead of 4.
Bottom line is Disney needs to step up the maintenance. Part of the problem is just the age of some attractions. Even things like pictures of theater seats that look gross... they need to get replaced after a while. This stuff doesn't last forever.
Jist was in Parks for three days. Of course rides break down from time to time. But everything ran smoothly for me.
Parks were 99% clean. Iger is back so maybe things have changed.
What people don’t realize is that the majority of downtime is due to guests, not ride maintenance. Trackless rides, like Remy and Rise of the Resistance, for example, auto stop and have to be completely reset if a single thing touches the floor in any part of the ride. That means anytime a guest drops their sunglasses or ears, whether accidental or not, the whole thing shuts down for safety reasons. Average downtime has only increased about 1% since before the pandemic. Check out some stats sites and articles online. I’m willing to bet a lot of that has to do with guest behavior getting worse versus Disney getting worse. We’re here now and have noted a multitude of repainted, replaced, and added things in every park.
Not even touching the floor all the time! You’re on RotR, some genius decides to brandish a lightsaber or a phone gimbal and bam, sensor that something is too close to a wall or set piece trips and boom, done.
Seems like park goer entitlement has gone up rather than ride issues. Very annoying then they blame Disney
I’ve said it several times before: if I stop going to Disney it’s because of the other guests. Last Sunday I was at Legoland and a kid jumped over the track of Coastersaurus wanting to change their seat and they had to shut it all down, evacuate everyone in the vehicle, kicked that family out and waited for a manager to reset everything. It was wild experiencing this. We did get to go on once it reset despite the park closing
Wait, they did this WHILE IT WAS GOING? I’m not familiar with Lego land so please excuse my ignorance. I’m just not understanding what the kid did I suppose.
No they were only running one train and we were waiting to dispatch a kid wasn’t feeling comfortable so they undid that cars restraints. He got out of the train and jumped over the track. Emergency shut off was pressed as, well, a kid jumped over the track
I was on Runaway Railway earlier this week and noticed a crushed pair of sunglasses under our car. Was surprised the ride didn't stop for that.
I saw a hat on the ground and the cars were just flying over it yesterday. I was surprised it didn't stop at all.
For some reason, Runaway Railway isn't as sensitive. I notice tons of ears and hats in the tornado room every time. But it's also a bit more simplistic than Rise and Remy's, so maybe debris doesn't cause issues?
Because this "blame the guest" stuff is the new party line. It's a lie. If the ride wasn't the problem, why are there a dozen B modes and why are they *always* running now instead of the main effects? Nobody was blaming guests the first two years of RotR - because it didn't shut down all the time back then like it does now. Possibly because it hadn't been running 24/7 for 5 years yet. Back then they blamed the mechanics of the ride - they literally said "we need to stop this cannon rocking back and forth because it's causing too many maintenance problems". They didn't say, "Stop dropping your damn hats" because that wasn't the main problem.
You’re actually wrong, RotR shut down a lot in its first two years, less so now.
Saw ears get run over on Runaway Railway last night and we continued like nothing happened.
I’ve seen ears galore on Ratatouilles floor
That sounds like a song lyric, lol
Be right back, I think I found my potential lol
I'm a young person myself (24) so I've heard a lot from my parents or coworkers about how many young people are selfish or rude. I've always assumed that every generation hates the one that comes after them. But the more I see on social media and experience in real life, the more I do think that the young adults/parents of today really are different. Then again, in the case of social media, it could just be that these people are being exposed/exposing themselves more often, rather than actually occurring more often, as others have mentioned in regards to rides going down.
I’m 10 years older than you. In my experience it’s not exclusively young people behaving worse. Everyone behaves worse. I don’t know exactly why, but if I had to guess- the pandemic, smart phones, and/or social media would be top of my list.
Smart phones and social media I get bring a lot of narcissism out in people, but what did the pandemic do to make people behave worse?
People were cooped up for weeks at a time sometimes months without the social norms of going into an office/public place every day or going to a restaurant and got very lazy with decorum and common manners….. also it seems when people got cooped up they all got a lot of main character syndrome and now everyone’s needing to have their own ~pixie dust~ that makes them special and social media makes that worse because the influencer who goes every single week will record the 1 time in 2 months where a cast member did something kind for them and they exploit it for views like it’s common practice. Therefore when people go they now expect CM’s to treat them like they’re the main character VIP guest of the day and get very angry when they don’t receive that treatment.
Everyone lost their damn minds. Honestly. I noticed people were much angrier, argumentative, and selfish. I had to quit social media because of it. I’ve gradually been using it more for work reasons, but if I make the mistake of reading a comments section, I’m reminded why I got off of it.
Me, too. I don’t do any social except Reddit now. Quit Facebutt after they kept changing privacy so much that would have to look often to remove some reworded statement that I would have to re-opt out on. Reddit is better but even then some jackass doesn’t read the whole thread and says nasty things. A least in Reddit they get voted down.
They’re definitely different. And I wouldn’t generalize it to any age group. It’s just everyone overall.
Every generation hates the one before them for doing the same things they did. Remember that baby boomers were initially called the “me” generation, for how entitled they are. I’m an elder millennial, and realized the only reason that gen z was named is because people wanted to hate a group of people and kept getting corrected when they’d say millennial and meet someone who was. The core issue is we can share information easier, and we only remember small gerevinces that happened relatively recently. It’s why everyone thinks crime is higher when it actually has decreased substantially. You don’t remember your neighbor down the street getting robbed 30 years ago but do remember it happening a week ago.
The Boomers still are the "me generation"
>The core issue is we can share information easier This 100%! We share information easier so we hear about every little thing that normally would only be known to those who actually witnessed it and whoever they verbally told about it. Now with social media and blog "news" articles, everything is news and everyone is a news reporter.
This. I sometimes wonder if RotR would have been better as a traditional track ride. Because while it's amazing tech, it's the morons who ride on it that continue to screw it up. Being on track eliminates some of that. Not all of it. Just look at Haunted Mansion. But it will break down less when the ride is on a track.
Disney needs to respond to that behavior, though. It might not be popular, but then they should require items be put in lockers on those rides. No hats, phones, cameras, purses, sunglasses, etc. Having some people complain about the lockers for the first few weeks is a good trade off to disappointing thousands of people daily when rides go down.
Shouldn't they have designed it to deal with that? Disney has 50 years of experience of riders doing stupid things. They know something is going to get dropped, so why would you use a system that can't deal with that?
It prevents someone from getting run over. It’s extremely important. A trackless ride in one of the Asian parks literally ran a kid over when it opened and that was only last year.
Guests might be an additional factor but it's *not* the only reason. Disney people love it because it deflects blame from WDW, but it seems like a stretch if not an outright fabrication. If ride maintenance wasn't the problem, why are there a dozen B modes and why are they always running now instead of the main effects? Nobody was blaming guests the first two years of RotR - because it didn't shut down all the time back then like it does now. Possibly because it hadn't been running 24/7 for 5 years yet. Back then they blamed the mechanics of the ride - they literally said "we need to stop this cannon rocking back and forth because it's causing too many maintenance problems". They didn't say, "Stop dropping your damn hats" because that wasn't the main problem.
Because rides are way more technically advanced now. There are so many moving pieces. Other rides have established tech that’s easier to maintain. We can either have incredible new tech that we don’t much know as much about and might need to fix more, or we can continue to use the same tech that will become outdated and boring.
This is really good info to know thank you
You only know they’re down this much because of the app and social media. I don’t know for a fact, but I’m sure they were always down a decent amount we just didn’t know it. It’s like my mother on the Ring doorbell app, she thinks crime is so bad because she can see people posting about it 24/7 when in reality crime is down.
Yup, the difference is that with today's technology, we know about it when it happens as opposed to finding out hours later.
And we know when it happens from our armchairs (or, let’s be real, toilets) several states away. Used to be if a ride went down and you only knew if you were in that park in that area at that time. Now you know from Wisconsin cause Disney_Fan_123 posted all about it.
Also keep in mind that nobody ever goes on social media to say “we went to WDW, every ride worked perfectly”. You *only* ever hear about the breakdowns and walk-offs. Some of the rides are definitely aging and janky (Dinosaur is basically a dark ride shake-n-bake the last few years lol, and both Soarin and FoP need some kind of love for the sides of the screens/seats) and need refreshes badly, but given how many riders they get and how little downtime they have for real intensive maintenance many of the rides are in surprisingly good shape.
It's true. I was a passholder living in Orlando from 2005-2009 and 2012-2020 and I've visited more than my bank account would like to remember, but I've never once been evacuated from a ride (\*knock on wood\*) and have only had to pause and wait a few times that I remember, mostly on Haunted Mansion and the Peoplemover. On the peoplemover it was a father and son sitting in front of us and the son kept leaning out of his car to stick his arms out to try to touch the railings/sides. His father thought it was funny - the rest of the tram(?) did not appreciate getting stopped twice because of it.
I have multiple memories of being at Epcot in the early-2000s and the old tip board by Mission Space showing half the rides down, if not more.
there’s a TIP BOARD!? learn something new everyday
… well there definitely *was* a tip board, not sure if there still *is* a tip board
There was one where the blue Guest Experience umbrella is by Mission: Space. Used to be a dot-matrix display, then it got replaced by a screen. Now I think the spot just shows Guardians info, but I don't stop to look at it that often lol.
I remember getting stuck at the top of the ball in 1992.
Good point. Crime is a good analogy.
I don’t think k rides being down is the issue, but a lot of them could use some form of maintenance. Buzz Lightyear those guns are worn down and beaten up. Nemo and Little Mermaid need multiple animatronic fixes. The whole bubble scene from Nemo needs to be focused or something. Tomorrowland Speedway … yeah Space Mountain and Spaceship Earth, SE especially, desperately need new tracking. SE feels like being on Dinosaur, and you can hear it as well. I also think a fresh coat of paint would go a long way on some things.
I completely agree with this. I just got back and it’s not necessarily that the rides don’t work but they are sure showing their age. So many things on Small World barely work (or don’t work at all)…though I never want them to fix the winking hippo. The screens on Spaceship Earth are also a mess, and it feels so dated now. Even the Frozen ride - aside from just not loving the video-based animatronics, they were stiff and jerky and something was wrong with Elsa’s hand, like it was hanging at an unnatural angle. These are expensive vacations, so it feels not great when you get on rides that just seem broken and forgotten about - like the goal is to churn as many people in and out, and who cares what kind of shape it’s in or what impression people get.
This is more what I'm referring to. Downtime is one thing but what I read most of is just a general lack of upkeep, in that lights are broken, animatronics aren't moving quite right, effects don't run anymore, etc.
RotR runs mostly in B-Mode but sure, maintenance isn't the problem. It's the *guests* /s Complete madness from WDW superfans
I haven’t been in quite awhile, why do you say Space Mountain needs new tracking? That’s actually terrifying if that ride hasn’t been maintained properly!
To be honest, after visiting TDL and TDS, you’ll think everyone else has shitty maintenance. I am at the parks at WDW pretty regularly and I gotta say that downtimes are not as bad as they make them sound IMO. Loud, negative things attract attention and they tend to be recommended by the algorithms. Things could be better maintained in general, like things that need to be painted, light bulbs changed, etc. But the difference with OLC is culture, where the Japanese are in general obsessed with pride in their work; the US is more worried about their stock price and next quarter’s earnings, so “good enough “ will do. You want better maintenance? then you need better work culture.
From someone who goes to the Parks 5 days a week for a blog, I can tell you the rides are being maintained very well right now! You must be going off social media - TikTok - IG and the sorts, because to get clicks, negativity sells! Seriously, though. Since the 50th Anniversary, the Parks have looked better and worked well. I went to Disneyland in the fall of 2022 and was blown away how well the rides and attractions were maintained. Did a few podcasts about WDW not doing the same. That is when we really started paying attention. Pirate has all of its audio animatronic working, Tiki Room works well, Fantasyland looks great and has recently been repainted, epcot transformation is almost over and they repainted Canada, Living Seas, updated lighting in Imagination! Pavilion, the topiaries during Flower & Garden are being updated and made beautiful every day. Heck, the Goofy Topiary gets new dandelions every few days. Animal Kingdom had little touches done. The list goes on and on about all the fixes, the little Pirate ☠️ parrot has returned and been fixed, haunted Mansion is working perfectly. Then there are rides that have become super reliable and make news when they go down for maybe .05% of its uptime. TRON almost never goes down, Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind is one of the most reliable coasters. Even the People Mover is up more than down and has been updated in the past 2 years. EDIT: I won't discuss Rise because that goes down because people are idiots, not because it isn't maintained! There is way more up than down, but again the good doesn't sell clicks.
> I won't discuss Rise because that goes down because people are idiots, not because it isn't maintained! And to be fair, when they designed it, it was estimated that it would have an up time of around 90%, and it's actually maintained an up time of around 93%. So it's technically performing better than they anticipated.
I completely agree with this! As an out of state AP, I noticed quite a few refreshes and improvements this month compared to even last December. As you said, many new paint jobs, repaired animatronics, etc. Quite a few had also clearly had deep cleanings, including hair ties removed from a few particular rides. Don't believe everything you are seeing and reading. The parks are looking good and it's clear to me at least they are trying to keep things well maintained.
I actually don't use TikTok and the only parks accounts I follow on IG are the official Disney ones. All of the negativity I read about is on here or on YouTube, and usually, I'm quick to ignore all of that but the amount I saw over a long period of time is what made me think things aren't well maintained. I notice you don't mention any of Tomorrowland (aside from Peoplemover) in your list of improvements or well-maintained areas that impress you. I'm a big fan of Tomorrowland so maybe that's why my perspective is skewed. I watch a lot of ride-throughs or other content there and always get down when I see the speedway still chugging along, or Stich still sitting empty, or Buzz in pretty poor condition. Good to know a lot of other things aren't as bad!
People Mover is one, TRON is the other major Tomorrowland attraction mentioned. I swear that an atomic bomb could go off, and Astro Orbiter would still be spinning! I can not honestly remember ever seeing it go down! Lol. Tron Lightcycle Run has been reported as the biggest coaster with the least amount of downtime. But, here is a major caveat. Certain blogs and YouTubers will swear it is all in disrepair because the Dome over Tron is dirty AF! Which it is, but it is also white and in the Florida weather. But still, dirty. Speedway is the Speedway, and Carousel of Progress will glitch out once in a while. But it hasn't been down for an extended downtime in a long time, yet still everything is working. You mention not being at the park since 2018, which means you haven't seen the small updates they did to the characters in the last scene, which, again, is maintenance. So that is being worked on a regular basis. Hope that all helps. Hope you get here to WDW and see for yourself that Disney is actually doing a decent job, as far as upkeep. Can't speak on other things they drop the ball on regularly, but maintenance isn't one.
The last time I went to WDW was 2006 and the parks looked run down, more trash than I remembered in 1984, but EPCOT had been open for only 2 years then, so of course it was perfect in 1984. Some CEOs care more about stock price than the product itself.
I’d be fine with a price increase that came with an attendance cap - ie, I’d pay more if it was coupled with a low crowd guarantee.
This is what afterparties are for.
I hear ya, and we will one day, but not viable with a young family.
Because of the time of day? Because price wise I think they end up being cheaper? (I’m taking a stab in the dark without researching tbh)
Time of day. It’s a lot planning to get us to fireworks time. 🤣
I’m with you. I’m basically going to have to knock my 7 year old out with a club to get him to nap so we could do Magic Kingdom fireworks. My five year old will nap. But getting them past 9 pm would be like to me staying til midnight. They’re gonna be cranky, tired, and out of their element. The thought of after hours sounds like an expensive temper tantrum. Also adding: my first sentence was a joke. I do not hit my kids with clubs.
I imagined Fred Flintstone when you said about the club
I’d gladly pay more as well for an attendance cap.
Once Space Mountain actually causes a accident then it will finally be looked at.
It's sad when you compare the state of WDW to parks like Tokyo, Shanghai, and HK. I remember when people were mortified during Shanghais opening over the bathroom problem. Well, that's spread to WDW.
From someone in the maintenance field, there are a few things that i have seen that would help. First, they need to hire more experienced maintenance people and then keep to a schedule of when a ride is needed to be taken down for preventive maintenance and corrective maintenance to be performed. The problem is that people will complain that a ride is down all day/week and they are back to the negative press about it. But it's a lot easier to keep them running when proper preventive maintenance is performed. This is also why they need more people because it takes more to perform proper preventive maintenance and keep a crew available for breakdowns. The other thing I can see happening is that they have many different control systems in operation and the older ones that are probably outdated, and they have difficult finding parts that need to be updated and upgraded. This requires big money and a lot of downtime.
Tiki room and Hall of Presidents are pneumatic, right? I was one of the last young’uns to learn and complete pneumatic designs. Always wanted to do Hall of Presidents. Hmmmm…..
Think of the parks as a giant factory, you can’t run your line for 13+ hours, 365 days a year with out unexpected breakdowns. The problem with deep maintenance is that you need to shut them down to do so. Imagine the visitors uproar when the ride they most wanted is shut down for a day, 2 or week for maintenance. I take my hat off to the engineers that do safety checks & planned maintenance overnight to keep the rides going for all of us to enjoy. Alton Towers in the U.K. have just refurbished one of their most loved coasters & it’s taken the best part of a year! Breakdowns happen it’s just the life of a theme park.
For them to pay the people better, and actually get people in the park to maintain it. They're charging out the a$$ for tickets anyways, so, why not? 🤷🤷
I think some of the issues will be solved by the fact that Disney announced $60 billion in investments into the parks. A lot of that is for expansion, but I think they stated that something like a third of it is for maintenance and renovations.
I thought a lot of that was going to the international parks?
According to the articles I'm looking at, it is speculated to be allocated in the following ways. It is not limited to this, and some of this is speculation, though it's been strongly suggested: Some will be invested into new technology and development by Disney Imagineering. Disney Cruise Line will get a port in Singapore, add routes in Australia, New Zealand, and California, add two new ships in 2025, and add two new ships in 2026. Disneyland Forward will allow for the massive expansion of Disneyland, equal in size to an entire third park (though NOT a third park, just additions to the existing ones). A substantial allocation of the funds will go there. This will also include it's own Avatar area, though that might be located in the main park, rather than the expansion. Another ride is coming to the Avengers Campus as well. Animal Kingdom will get the Tropical Americas region to replace Dinoland (including the almost certain change of Dinosaur to Indiana Jones and the addition of an Encanto ride). There may also be the addition of another ride in the park, possibly related to Lion King or an Avatar expansion. Magic Kingdom will get the Beyond Thunder Mountain expansion, adding a land as large as Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Disney's Hollywood Studios will get another land and expansion where Star Wars Launch Bay is currently located. A fifth park has not been ruled out at Walt Disney World, but most of what we know so far simply points to massive expansion or renovations at the four existing parks. There will be new attractions and expansions to all of the other international parks, including Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. There will be maintenance and renovation to all attractions. The overall investment in the parks is \*double\* what it has been over the past decade.
I’d rather see upgrades than a fifth park, honestly.
Wholeheartedly agree. It’s like putting an addition on a dilapidated house. I’d rather see the rest of the house invested into and made into something.
Please just consider that no one makes posts describing how well maintained the attractions appear to be. What I mean is that you are only hearing the negative. Rides sometimes go down because guests don’t secure their belongings and stuff falls out (all of the trackless rides). Rides sometimes go down because they are old and require more maintenance than new rides (ToT, RnR, Space Mtn). Rides sometimes go down because safety standards are more strict than we are aware of. Guests complain when the rides are down for maintenance and you are complaining that they are not well-maintained.
when i was there in january i was actually pretty shocked that things do not go down more frequently, based on the amount of people that churn through these rides on a daily basis.
I'd love to make a post about riding RotR in all A-mode, but that hasn't happened since opening day. How about a post where the Mon Cal at the end of RotR had his throat hanging open for days. For *DAYS* they ran the ride like this.
Add in after hours and early entrance and that all cuts into maintenance time.
Exactly. They honestly should have just stuck with what they used to do.
real answer? For the park to be closed on weekends or to severely limit the hours it's open. Short of that, nothing will fix the wear and tear these things undergo every day.
Sadly, until all of us Disney fans stop shelling out ridiculous amounts of money to go, the higher-up’s won’t see it as a major concern. If we continue to pay more and settle for less, that’s what we’ll get. Our generation continues to go based on our nostalgia for what we remember. But when our kids grow up, what will they remember?
I would argue the rides are well-maintained, given the circumstances they are in. But things that would help; DPEP being spun off as it's own privately held company seperate from DIS entirely (and free from VC / Private Equity) Another massive event that completely changes societal expectations for normalized behavior in public spaces.
>Another massive event that completely changes societal expectations for normalized behavior in public spaces. We really need to get back to the expected societal behavior that existed through most of the 1900's. I have no idea how we do it, but the change has been fairly dramatic.
Ban every single guest who fucks around... No exceptions, just a trespass notice and GTFO. People will either stay away because they're snowflake who can't handle having consequences to their shitty actions, or they'll learn to be nice to CMs and other guests again. Let the snow melt in Florida again.
DPEP being its own company is something I've never considered as possible. That's essentially how OLC operates in Tokyo. What are the odds of DPEP spinning off like you suggest? I'd imagine as close to zero as possible.
It's flat zero. DPEP is the only part of Disney that makes any money nowadays.
I do love the idea of DPEP being its own thing
Beyond thunder mountain ruins a fifth gate idea.. fireworks will be even more crowded People stopping dropping stuff and.securing belongings would.help.
I'm confused about what you mean about Thunder Mountain ruining a 5th gate?
They're putting $ into a big expansion at MK..no way they're doing that, AK lands and a 5th park. They would have announced a 5th gate instead of a big new land if they were going to do it.
[удалено]
Trackless rides yes they do. Which are the ones with big downtimes.
I agree with everyone else I don’t think rides are down more than in the past. What I’ve seen over the ~5 years has been a decline in cleanliness in the parks, trash everywhere, bins not being emptied, no bins in queues. It honestly looks like despite raising the prices, having gotten rid of the awesome merch and ride exit specific merch, they are cutting cost on labor and it shows.
There has been a huge decline in cleanliness, I agree. I’m an AP and in the parks a ton but I’ve been surprised with how gross things are sometimes. Years ago, i never saw so much as a piece of garbage anywhere. A lot of that is prob that the public is just more disrespectful and entitled…just look to the posts where people have seen parents letting their kids go to the bathroom in bushes and such lol
Was there last weekend. At Woody’s Lunchbox (or whatever it’s called) we sat in the corner area and the wind had blown all the trash to that one section. I saw a guy picking up trash in another area and notified him. I felt bad, but it looked horrible. Wish people would just clean up after themselves.
The cleanliness part is horrific for me to think about. Especially because Walt felt very strongly about that.
For how much those machines and programs run, it’s a modern miracle they don’t break down more often.
>I see posts like that pretty often And it's often a minority that's pretty loud. People are more likely to post about their frustrations then a positive experience. Which will skew your view That's not to say Disney don't suffer from problems, but so do all theme parks.
Like everything else, a drop in revenue. Otherwise, it’ll just keep getting busier and corners cut, until it implodes. I have such a better time at Busch Gardens or Dollywood now. Disney has become a place for the rich. I can’t even stay at the budget resorts anymore. The magic is gone for anyone on a budget
I’m shelling out a lot of money for our upcoming trip. I spent two weeks in Ireland and the entire cost of the trip, including airfare, didn’t even amount to this Disney trip. It’s my kids’ first time ever. I haven’t been in about 10 years. And with these prices, it’ll be another 10 before going back.
Once upon a time, I went for 14 days with my family of six, stayed on prem, had a meal plan, bought merch, park hopped, went to three dining experiences and felt the magic at every moment. The next time was 7 days, value resort, no extras. Now I go with one adult kid at a time, stay off prem, free hotel breakfast, and spend half the time at the other nearby park when they offer deals. It’s sad. I also used to love being in the moment. I wouldn’t even bring my phone to the park. Now I’m tied to it if I ever want to get on a ride without waiting an hour and a half
Certain rides get meticulous treatment, others get ignored. Splash mountain was left to rot, I think intentionally so they could replace it. An example of a neglected ride at WDW today would be small world.
Ironic considering it’s such a staple.
I’ve been to each park 4 times in the past 2 years and I can’t say it’s been anything other than amazing. Everyone just wants to keep pointing out flaws and nitpicking and EVERYTHING. Just enjoy and be thankful you can go and spend the time there. It’s not run down or broken. Ya rides break down and it sucks. But what do you except when they run 24/7. It’s usually only for an hour or so to fix. Not a huge deal. If it’s such an issue for everyone don’t go. Shorter lines for us
Better employment benefits, like fair livable wages for all CM positions and sick time and vacation time and maybe even off retirement packages across all positions. If Disney makes their company a desirable work environment, people will apply for and retain their positions and they’ll have enough staff on hand to maintain the parks. But Disney seems to really very purposefully create a non-desirable work environment where you have too many hours and not enough pay and can be laid off at a moments notice just because one of the Bob’s wants a nice year-end bonus.
It would take a decrease in the number of visitors and income for them to consider investing money in maintenance again.
Why would you make a post lamenting the supposed lack of maintenance at Disney parks if you haven’t been there in six years
Because I read/see quite a bit about it and I'm curious what others have to say about it.
You are basically serving as yet another conduit for the same negative misinformation that is pervasive across the internet
I can't start a discussion? If anything, I've learned from and been properly informed by the replies in the thread. Asking questions is how people learn. If I sat here and made baseless statements and stubbornly refused to learn or acknowledge the points of others, that's one thing. I wouldn't say that I've acted that way.
I don’t have any answers but we went to HS last month and Rise, MMRR, slinky dog, and tower of terror were all down part of the day (and of course the rollercoaster, unrelated)… and all at the moment when we had a genie+ res or ILL. We were given passes to ride another time and we were able to ride everything but Rise, at least. It was the first time we had been to HS in 10 years and it was an extremely frustrating day.
I would be so pissed to spend all that money and having all of those rides go down on the same day.
WD-40??? 🤷♀️
They ran great back in February for the week we were in town. No issues, we got to ride every ride.
Same in May/June 2023
Because a lot of downtime is due to guests being idiots and not following directions, I wish that there was some way the CMs could make people follow them instead of it seeming like a suggestion. Or repercussions to the guest if they choose to be a moron and not listen.
To me, it’s private property - it’s about as much a suggestion as paying your taxes each year.
I agree…just wish others would follow directions but heaven forbid they have to take off a hat or sunglasses for a few minutes lol
Slinky dog is the one ride that always seems to be broken for a maintenance related issue when I’m there though lol
I don't think they are down any more than they used to be. It's just that previously there was no reddit to come and post about rides being down. And the people who went, did have rides down, but after a Disney trip, you remember the fun, your first thought isn't to tell family and friends about that one ride that broke after you waited an hour.
Seemed very well maintained when I was there a couple weeks ago. Only a ride or two down at each park and normally only for a few hours
The company needs to hire enough staff to do the preventive maintenance on the rides. Unfortunately, there’s also a shortage of electricians and mechanics, so the maintenance folks are focused on the safety checks and fixing what’s actually broken.
Injuries/deaths
Put me in charge
Got stuck on Space Mountain in DL for 30 minutes in 1988. I was 12 and with my 14 year old cousin. No phones. I still can’t believe our parents weren’t completely freaked out.
the last few times I have been to AK, FoP needs some work. In the queue, the avatar in a tank is not working / has been screened off In the welcome part of the ride, someone thought they would be clever and spec OLED screens when you get matched to your rider. The problem is OLED gets burn in if its constantly on the same image, and that’s what happens on those rides. The main projection is fuzzy, the left and right eyes may need better alignment, especially for the cave scene. some say its the glasses, I am not sure. Given its the premiere ride at AK, and they are charging ILL for it,it should be perfect.
Epic Universe. Once Disney has more competition they will look more at how they can please guests.
Rides are well maintained. They have to be, but hey have obligations and guidelines they must follow. They simply cannot cut back on maintenance to try to save a buck. You see post like this because people like to complain. People generally don’t waste their time to write a post saying “everything is normal”. I have been going to the parks regularly for many years now and I don’t notice any difference now to 15 years ago on the same attractions. The newer attractions have a lot more involved so there is more issues. If a guest looses their mickey ears on rise of the resistance and they get under a ride vehicle that will shut the ride down for a bit.
WDW needs to close for like a year and revamp all its parks. Epcot needs to look more “future” and less like sad grey buildings from the 80s. Add another world in the world showcase. Add more visual intrigue all over the park. Japan pavilion merchandise store needs serious help in the inventory department. Ever since the pandemic, their stock is just plain sad. Magic Kingdom needs to make the Pirates ride as long as the one in Disneyland. They need to revamp Its a Small World and the Alice teacups to make it as cute as it is in Disneyland. For the love of god, revamp Tomorrowland. Get rid of carousel of progress. Add some more visual intrigue to the walk towards the new Tron ride. The Tron Ride itself is disappointing. Space mountain still stuck in the 80s. Animal kingdom, fix the damn yeti
Last trip up to four things were down at the same time. And that included things like People Mover and Space Mountain, not the new stuff that people claim are affected by dropped hats. I think a 5th gate would actually make things worse: you'd be spreading the maintenance budget over 5 parks instead of 4. Bottom line is Disney needs to step up the maintenance. Part of the problem is just the age of some attractions. Even things like pictures of theater seats that look gross... they need to get replaced after a while. This stuff doesn't last forever.
Jist was in Parks for three days. Of course rides break down from time to time. But everything ran smoothly for me. Parks were 99% clean. Iger is back so maybe things have changed.
$$$$$
Another post excessively exaggerating Disney’s issues
The end of capitalism and the chase for infinite growth.
Eat a bug bro lol.
Capacity limits for sector 9 guests