Forbidden Journey breakdowns?

[disneyfann121]

Hi, folks. So I've read, in some places, about Forbidden Journey breaking down a lot, starting and stopping, complete with frequently malfunctioning effects. This is starting to sound like Universal's version of Indy. Or are those isolated incidents?

I rode it four times in May 2011, and everything was working perfectly (as far as I could tell -- I was a newbie to the ride and land). Could it be that much worse a year later? I'll be back there next October, and hoping that one of the best rides in Orlando won't be fouling up on me.

[Spideyfreak110]

I'll quote a post I made a while back, it should answer your question. In short, most issues are caused by Ride Stops. Sometimes certain show effects don't reset after a Ride Start. It's understandable given that the show system is interacting with the ride system on a level never even attempted before.

Anyways:

"Forbidden Journey operates much like Haunted Mansion. If one car stops, they all stop, except here the whole show stops because it needs to stay in sync with the vehicles.

It's obvious that they thought about wheelchairs, hence the alternate load area. Sometimes though, it's people not getting on in time.


On one of my rides, somebody in the car ahead of me was not able to secure his restraint and they unlocked it, told him he would not be able to ride, and asked him to step off the belt for a moment. Somehow he couldn't grasp the concept that the belt was moving and he was running out of platform. That's when the TM pushed their kill pack initiating Ride Stop.

Wouldn't it be easier to have just a Station Stop feature like the other rides? Well, sure. After all, you could stop the vehicles that are only in the station and the ride would be relatively unaffected. But for Forbidden Journey the intervals and show timing are so close it's just easier to stop everything and then reset and restart.


The other thing that sometimes happens is a failure to "tag" the vehicle. This was told to me by a TM working there:

The last person who checks your restraints has a magnetic key or "tag" in their hand. After they make sure the vehicle is secured they hold the key to a sensor at the top corner of the vehicle, causing two green lights to appear on the car. (You can see their reflection in the mirror on the wall.) This basically tells the vehicle that it is secure and can move past the load area into the ride. Sometimes the vehicle doesn't detect the key, so when it gets to the end of the belt, it causes a Ride Stop.

Then sometimes the ride stops because it just screws up. Spider-man did it all the time back in the day."

[flynnibus]

I think they are more safety related stops and not failures.

But the ride does have a rep for short downtimes.. where I guess they must cycle the ride completely.

[disneyfann121]

Thanks for the info.