Radiator Springs Racers breaking down too often?

[TylerDurden]

I don't get the people who blame RSR's downtime solely on guests. These people that are allegedly breaking RSR are the same people riding every other ride in the park, so how come everything else is running normal? I get that there is a higher concentration of guests on this new ride but that can only account for so many breakdowns...not several every couple hours.

Maybe if RSR broke down like two times a day I could believe its guests' fault...or even inexperienced ride operators. But based on my experiences and hearing other peoples' stories, I'm going to have to believe there's something pretty wrong with either the ride itself, or the management behind it.

[DisneyFan999]

Radiator Springs Racers opened shortly before noon today.
It was strange though.. as we arrived at DCA around 8:45, there were signs saying it would open at noon. A CM said that the delayed opening was due to technical difficulties, but how would they know what time it would be open over 3 hours prior? The cars were on the track, but not running at this time.
Seems like it's usually the "We're down right now.. Please check back later" spiel.

[maiku]

Here are some areas for improvement, IMHO:

Long Lines

RSR is a great ride, and will probably always have long lines, like the Matterhorn. However, unlike the Matty, RSR has only one track, maybe they should have design RSR with two tracks to decrease wait times, loading of the ride is limited as each car needs room for the racing section of the ride, unlike Pirates which is often bumper to bumper inside of the ride.

The ride costs over $200 million to build and you want to add a second track? -_-

[Disneyfreak88]

I asked a cast member on my trip there why it was broken. She then told me it would open back up at 11 which actually opened at 9:00 but said they were fixing audio and synching issues so part of the reason for the ride closing so much could be due to this

[jaybee]

We rode early on Wednesday about 11:00 right as it opened and noticed no problems. Later that night about 9:30, the first Mater had no dialog as he was backing up. But the second Mater on the other side of the bushes was working fine.

[tensixmom]

I don't anyone in here is reading a word I'm saying. I keep getting the same argument, responding to it, and then getting it back again.

I agree that Disney, of all companies, should have this worked out better. (I have not been on the ride because when I was there 3 weeks ago it was .... wait for it... DOWN!) I expect far better from Disney than I do from any other companies and I wonder why they didn't (as someone suggested) maybe open it up to AP's or some other suitably large group before the actual opening so that they could simulate the sheer volume and whatever other idiotic things happen to make them have to stop the ride. (People throw stuff out ON PURPOSE??? REALLY????)

Bottom line, I have always associated Disney with the BEST and I do hold them to a higher standard than perhaps other types of amusement parks where they don't take care of things as well.

[Fukai]

I think this is probably the first E-Ticket at the Anaheim park that requires a level of dilligence and maintenance to keep running that's equal to that required by some of the rides at the Tokyo Disney Resort. The Walt Disney Company isn't used to that. The Oriental Land Company, which owns the Tokyo Disney Resort, spends a ton of money to keep every ride running smoothly, and breakdowns are few and far between.

[DLFreak71]

well thank you to all those ahead of me dealing with this so that my August rides on the attraction will run a bit more smoother

Also going this month (August). Here's to the riding working.


I'm curious... seems the ride had several problems the first few months.
Since we are going next week:
Are the same problems still there?
Does it still break down a lot?
What's the wait times?
Some people reported ride opening late morning, is this still happening?

[Fukai]

I'm going tomorrow for several days.

Wait times appear to routinely be 120 minutes.

The ride still appears to routinely be breaking down several times a day.

It also appears to be opening late on many days, which suggests they are spending nights trying to get it to run smoothly.

[buckaroo234]

and rebuilding the cars that were improperly manufactured, and dealing with the fact that the ride is one of the most technically challenging given interaction of other AA's with the ride vehicle. If one or 2 sensors dont trigger the ride shuts down.

[MWH1980]

I remember there was a major ride downtime when I went in August, when there was a small tremor. I heard a couple people around me talking to family that they felt something, but I didn't feel a thing. Supposedly, that shut down RSR, and a couple other rides I wanted to go on.

So, walked over to Disneyland, and while in New Orleans Square, heard a couple CM's talking about it and joined in. Apparently, even if a tremor measures ever so slightly, the rides are stopped and inspected just to be sure everything is ok.

[Goofy Daddy]

Radiator Springs Racers opened shortly before noon today.
It was strange though.. as we arrived at DCA around 8:45, there were signs saying it would open at noon. A CM said that the delayed opening was due to technical difficulties, but how would they know what time it would be open over 3 hours prior? The cars were on the track, but not running at this time.
Seems like it's usually the "We're down right now.. Please check back later" spiel.

If they have identified what needs to be fixed, most good mechanics/engineers can give a close time estimate on how long that repair job can take.

[mercedymouse]

and rebuilding the cars that were improperly manufactured, and dealing with the fact that the ride is one of the most technically challenging given interaction of other AA's with the ride vehicle. If one or 2 sensors dont trigger the ride shuts down.

Its still breaking down in October. First day of our trip we rushed in to get a fast pass at 9am ( FP for 3:25-4:25 pm) When we arrived at RSR to use our FP that day it had been broken down, we were told we could use the FP when it re-opened. We returned two more times that day and it was still down, they then told us our FP would be valid the next day. The next day it was down till 12 pm, once running at 3 pm we actually had to argue with the staff to let us use our FP from the previous day as we had been waiting for 1.5 days and were told our FP would still be honoured..yikes :S we did get on once but we were unable to get on it again for the rest of our trip.

[refurbmike]

I don't get the people who blame RSR's downtime solely on guests. These people that are allegedly breaking RSR are the same people riding every other ride in the park, so how come everything else is running normal.

This. And it's been months now.

I went last week with my wife for our annual anniversary visit. We hadn't been to DCA since everything opened and thought this would be a good time to check out the new stuff. When we arrived, RSR was down, so we hopped onto Luigi's. When we got off of Luigi, RSR was back up, so we got in a 2-hour line. Went through the whole line, boarded, and the ride died for us during the "cow tipping" scene. We were walked off and given re-ads. We headed off property to get lunch, then came back. Still down. We went to DL to ride HMH and walked around the park a little bit. Then took the Monorail to the DL Hotel for our anniversary dinner at the Steakhouse. When we came back, guess what? RSR was down again. We asked the CM and surrounding guests, they said that the ride had died 3 times since our walk off. We hung out for about 30 minutes, then decided to head to DL for one last ride for the night.

I don't care who you want to blame, but a $200 Million attraction should not have an up-time of <20%. Earlier in this thread (back in June, I understand), people were saying, "Never in 57 years has a ride opened without problems." Well, let me ask you this: If a car manufacturer released a new car every year for 57 years, and each year there was something wrong with that car which forced 20% of their customers to return the car and get a new one - would you think that car company was trustworthy? Would you just shrug it off? I don't think I would.

[bytemaster]

We were there on the 18th and decided to do the single rider line since it was early enough and we were headed someplace else for most of the day. My son was in the car in front of me and his car broke just passed the point where they check your seatbelts. I got to watch the whole breakdown unfold.

The problem in this case was, apparently, the cars breaking system triggered just past the point where they could easily help people out. So, they put the system into a mode which stops all cars on the track. After evacuating the one car, they went to work on the problem. They anticipated just loading the people (including my son) into another vehicle and removing this one from the track.

After trying a couple of things by popping the trunk open, they ended up doing a bypass using some sort of tube - it looked like a jumper for a vacuum line. They then began pushing the vehicle to the removal point off of the track... should not have been a problem because this was before the point where they cars are removed.

Unfortunately, during the push off, they tripped a sensor and the ride went offline automatically. According to the cast member, even though they were in a mode where they are supposed to be able to do things like that, if they system sees a car moving when it shouldn't, it trips a safety system and takes it offline.

Sounds like a bug in the safety system, if you ask me.