POTC down again..then down again

[ghoofie]

Saturday we arrived at the POTC queue around 9:00 am. The line was just a little bit passed the queue area, towards Frontierland a bit. It was moving steadily so we figured yeah. So we got in line. Moved steadily and were in the 'normal' queue area pretty quickly. Then we stopped. After being in line about 25 min....we noticed movement again...people LEAVING the building. It was down.

We came back about 4 hours later. The queue was a bit further towards the Mark Twain this time. So we go in line. This was our only day there and we wanted to see the new POTC. Well after stand still about 10 min. a CM appeared walking down the line announcing POTC is down..again.

We came back a couple of hours later. The line was again out towards Frontierland but moving steady. We go in line again, a third time. Third time was a charm. We finally got in after about 25 min.

I'm wondering...CM's wouldn't answer. Does anyone know just what all the delays are in the new POTC so often, specifically. I guessed it must be the Davy Jones part, because we've all been thru POTC with various pirates not functioning for a while, etc. But Davy part is pretty major I would think.

[MasterGracey]

Here's the cause of the Pirates of the Caribbean downtimes, according to Al Lutz in his July 11, 2006 update

On Wednesday June 28th, with hundreds of thousands of lower tier annual passholders now blocked out for the summer, sanity returned to Disneyland and the attendance eased back to a much more manageable 49,000 for the day. And as if the attraction held a grudge against the least expensive annual passes, the ride had its first full day of operation without an ugly evacuation and on Wednesday it cycled through 37,000 riders. Boats continued to get stuck on the drops causing 10 or 15 minute delays, but nothing so catastrophic as a complete evacuation, and the doors to the attraction were never closed that day. And since then, the same basic scenario has played itself out daily at Pirates, with countless small downtimes caused by boats getting stuck on the drops, and occasionally causing a full scale evacuation.

The problem stems from new brakes and a newly installed channel at the drops. Just a few minor changes to the physical structure and placement of those brakes, and a slightly different shape to the flume leading up to the drops, seems to have altered and slowed the flow of water just enough that boats routinely can't seem to make it over either of the two drops. Disneyland's maintenance department has been frantically spending every night rearranging the water pumps in those areas, and trying to smooth out and speed up the flow of water leading up to the drops. But so far, they have only made very minor progress.

In recent days they have been placing a maintenance man hiding in the shadows at the top of the first drop, and if a boat gets stuck he is able to rush out and expedite the process of manually cycling the brakes and giving the boat a strong push. But even then, the ride is constantly experiencing stuck boats and long backups that extend throughout the entire ride downstairs.

The troubles have crippled the hourly capacity of the attraction, and instead of routinely getting 2,800 or more people per hour through the ride, they've been struggling with hourly counts in the 2,100 range on most days.

[Hector]

and we Micechatters now ALL About THAT happening!

[wickeddisneygurl]

somehow i'm not surprised. it seems to have trouble in the morning and the afternoon, and occassionally in the evening. this has been a daily occurrence pretty much since it opened. in fact we broke down on it recently and were stuck there for about 40 minutes.

[musiken]

I always wonder... WHY fix something if it isn't broken? Maybe (probably) I just don't know something, but it seems like the boats, breaks, drops were all working fine before the rehab.

[hauntedhoilday]

i totally agree

[MasterGracey]

I always wonder... WHY fix something if it isn't broken? Maybe (probably) I just don't know something, but it seems like the boats, breaks, drops were all working fine before the rehab.

I don't think it was a matter of fixing it - it was obviously not broken, and if it was it wasn't to a noticeable point. I think the point of improving the flume and installing a new brake mechanism was to improve the area so it would continue to perform well in the future. Unfortunately, however, that failed and now the improvements to the flume and the brake mechanism are now the cause of many headaches.

[Hector]

I always wonder... WHY fix something if it isn't broken?

Cause Walt liked change.

[barfownz]

I think classic are more advanced than modern .

Did we ever see the classic POTC break down as much as the new one? NO!

I think after refurbs, Disney changes something so they breakdown.

[OhOhSheila]

I think classic are more advanced than modern .

Did we ever see the classic POTC break down as much as the new one? NO!

I think after refurbs, Disney changes something so they breakdown.

Makes you wonder what's going to happen with the subs...

The oxygen flow on those were never enough for me. I always felt claustrophobic.

[barfownz]

Makes you wonder what's going to happen with the subs...

The oxygen flow on those were never enough for me. I always felt claustrophobic.

We'll just have to wait and see, don't we.

[Wesley815]

The oxygen flow on those were never enough for me. I always felt claustrophobic.

I totally agree! Maybe it was just the 'underwater' aspect of it, but for some reason I never felt like I could breath right on those things. I'm fine in airplanes, and anywhere else that others may feel claustrophboic... but put me in one of those subs and it just felt very akward.

Back on topic...

Hopefully Pirates problems are imporved soon. Guests will only put up with so many breakdowns... the 'old' system was working good from a guests POV at least with very, very few breakdowns. Hopefully things will smooth out soon, but I guess only time will tell.