Is maintenance lacking? Increase in breakdowns?

[Tigger's ally]

However, I would say that all of these rides are notorious for being unreliable. Dinosaur and 7DMT are the most reliable of these. Someone sneezes and TT goes down,

Plus TT going down could have been weather related. I know it was pretty cool last week with BB being closed several days. With the outdoor speed loop, they might have just closed it at 7 p.m. due to how cold it was.

 

[Dznefreek]

Breakdowns can happen on any given ride on any given day.
I think maintenance rarely comes into play. . . . . .IMHO

 

[The Jackal]

These rides are used 7 days a week 365 days a year. Only downtime is overnight when parks are closed. Test track they have to rotate the tires once a week on those cars and replace all tires once a month. That ride has major regular maintenance and it is highly affected by weather. Rain means closed down. At least guardians and Tron will be completely under cover and should not be affected by weather as much as TT.

 

[New Mouse]

This I firmly believe that any assumed lax maintenance is more due to staff issues than cost cutting

Staff issues are due to cost cutting.

 

[Douglas Dubh]

Staff issues are due to cost cutting.

Not always.

 

[New Mouse]

Not always.

In this case, yes. Disney has traditionally paid well below market and that is what has killed them coming out of the pandemic.

 

[disneyseniors]

I can only relate our experiences starting in l977. I don't remember any breakdowns or being unloaded from a ride because of problems. I believe the attractions were better maintained back then. We took a break from disney til l983, but only were evacuated from a ride twice in 6 visits. I honestly don't remember any attractions being closed, but I'm sure there were a few from time to time. From our experience, and only our experience, we noticed a lack of care generally at disney over the later years including park cleanliness.
I guess I don't give disney a break on this. During the pandemic (and after) they could have done alot of maintenance and kept people working (with safety measures of course).
Like others, I think money was the deciding factor here.
I;ll probably get flamed, but I can only relate what we have experienced over the years.

 

[Lilsia]

We don't really know the reasons why some rides go down. For example, we were in line for PP when it went down. It turns out that a little girl had a too long princess dress on and it got caught in the conveyor belt when she got off. Thankfully it ripped and did not harm her, but the material wrapped around the gears and the mechanics had to come and take care of it. I imagine that any number of things happen like that that are not related to lack of maintenance.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I'm seeing not a small amount of chatter online that ride maintenance is definitely lacking, things are showing their wear, and breakdowns are happening more frequently. Is this a real trend going on?

If this is true then it's only a matter of time before someone gets injured or killed. You see this all the time with the lesser amusement parks that cut back on maintenance and then have ride accidents leading to serious injury or death.

 

[piccolopat]

I understand that. The argument was made that they try not to shut down rides so they have as many options as possible available to guests. I’m saying I don’t think that’s the reason & the lack of maintenance is simply about $$. If it were about having attractions down, then they would have more stuff opened in general. They’re not concerned about that.

I guess the question becomes how soon do you do maintenance before it is really before it's necessary. For example, my car's brakes will eventually need to be serviced. Like most people, I wait until there are signs that it's time. I don't do maintenance now to avoid a potentially longer time in the shop down the road. This is even more true when I know that I'll be trading or selling that car soon. Same goes for park rides I guess. Disney isn't inclined to take rides down to do maintenance before they have to and they will avoid maintenance on rides that are scheduled for a major revamp or retirement.

 

[umichigan10]

I guess the question becomes how soon do you do maintenance before it is really before it's necessary. For example, my car's brakes will eventually need to be serviced. Like most people, I wait until there are signs that it's time. I don't do maintenance now to avoid a potentially longer time in the shop down the road. This is even more true when I know that I'll be trading or selling that car soon. Same goes for park rides I guess. Disney isn't inclined to take rides down to do maintenance before they have to and they will avoid maintenance on rides that are scheduled for a major revamp or retirement.

It seems in the past that Disney’s big picture moves aren’t always in sync with scheduled maintenance. I remember not long before it was announced to close the backlot tour trucks had a pretty sizable refurb done to them. Whether or not that routine maintenance is happening as often as the past, is really up in the air

 

[shawthorne44]

This I firmly believe that any assumed lax maintenance is more due to staff issues than cost cutting

Can be the same thing. There are still laid off Disney World employees out there.

Also, it was bat-poo crazy for them to not go into maintenance overdrive during the shutdown. We knew almost immediately that outdoors wasn't a problem. Particularly on a warm sunny day.

 

[Kennywood]

The manufacturers of the various rides would most likely be required to provide "Installation, Maintenance, and Operation" (IOM) manuals. Those manuals would specify the length-of-service before maintenance is required. The IOM manual would state the most likely parts that needed to be replaced and provide part numbers for those parts.

Disney's Maintenance Department would most likely perform a just-in-time analysis to order the necessary replacement parts. Now, remember, we have a HUGE backlog of container ships sitting off of the west coast. If parts are sitting in one of those containers, there's very little Disney could do.

Disney might keep some critical parts on-hand, but there probably wouldn't be enough room to keep parts on-hand for every ride.

Add into this scenario any unforeseen problems. I'm sure Disney is doing the best they can. The maintenance department doesn't like problems anymore than the guests.

 

[foodiddiedoo]

I just got back and noticed a LOT of problems with Buzz Lightyear (all three times I rode the ride one of the two blasters didn't work properly or at all or the spin functionality was broken) and these were on carts that weren't roped off as broken. When we rode Dumbo there were 2 Dumbos that were broken and could not be loaded. Similarly for the Magic Carpets, there were two that were broken and couldn't be loaded. That seems more like lack of maintence vs the rides going down for extended periods. We saw that Rise was closed for most of the day one day at HS and we didn't get to ride, and ToT was also closed for most of a day while we were there. Other rides were down for extended periods (Space Mountain an entire day while we were at MK). Overall it wasn't horrible but just surprising to see so much broken.

 

[shawthorne44]

Disney's Maintenance Department would most likely perform a just-in-time analysis to order the necessary replacement parts.

I am old enough to remember when JIT was introduced as the best thing since sliced bread. Even back then I thought it was nuts. Penny-wise pound-foolish. A supply problem is inevitable eventually.