ROTR was still not ready to open if hours long breakdowns is a consistent thing

[WaltDisney'sAlec]

Couple of things...

1. I think they did make a major mistake advertising the ride as simply OPEN as it really isn't. Having a soft opening would be fine not only for the ideas mentioned above but also because anyone finding it on MIceChat would also find the information regarding limited booking etc. that is not explained in the TV adverts.

2. People constantly make comments of frustration at Indy's lack of reliability it the ride used as an example in almost every post regarding unreliability. We use Indy as a FP for anywhere ride because often when we get a FP for it when our hour comes up our FP turns into an anywhere FP which is awesome because there is now time window. ( we used this very method yet again this past Sunday allowing us to to get on Star Tours at a very convenient time in our day.

3. Space Mountain and most if not all the dark rides rely on a pace to keep the sensors happy and this is often why they go down from time to time for 10 min. and require a reset but are back up in no time. They can sometimes combat this by sending through empty cars but I think might be around upon because they don't seem t use this as normal method to stay on cycle. Maybe RofR needs to be managed by only extremely qualified and seasoned CM ride operators and Disney needs to look into tiers to their attractions staff and pay raises for those who can prove an exeptional ability to keep rides on track? Maybe they already have this in place, I am just throwing that out there that some of the burden could be the CM team running it and that would be thinly part of the equation DLR could control.

+1 to all of this.

When I visited the parks in November, we decided to use our last Fastpass on Indy, picking it over HMH even though we had an out-of-towner who wanted to go on both. Right when our Indy Fastpass was valid, the ride broke down. They had it up and running within the hour and we had an any-ride Fastpass issued. However, instead of using it on Indy we decided to just try the standby. Because the ride had just opened from a breakdown, the standby line was a 5 minute wait and we got to use the Fastpass on HMH.

It's hard to complain when Disney tries to fix a situation in that way, and it's notable they're making the effort. When ROTR breaks down, they make you stay in line our you're out of luck.

But hey, they gave guests chips one time, so I guess that fixes everything, right? /s

[CMARSH]

ROTR is down 40% of the time with around-the-clock maintenance and it's not even at full capacity.

Where are you getting the 40% downtime figure? According to the thrill-data site, the actual percentage of "delay time" relative to known park hours is much lower than that (looks like overall 21.7% to me currently before we add in today's good run). In fact, I can only find one day (this past Sunday) when it was over 40%.

[Mr Wiggins]

Fun fact: you were the first and only person to mention Bob Chapek in this thread.

More on-topic: We have insider Cast Member information about capacity, downtime, and maintenance procedures. When was the last time Disney built a brand new ride that operated at only 50% capacity after opening? ROTR is down 40% of the time with around-the-clock maintenance and it's not even at full capacity.

Saying a brand new ride should get even more leeway than 43-year-old and 25-year-old rides is letting a bit too much slide. Breakdowns with new rides are undoubtedly understandable, but if we're being honest ROTR just wasn't ready for this level of opening. WDW's version has been open for almost two months, and they didn't open the ride until 2pm last Tuesday.

Exactly. The ROTR breakdown debacle on both coasts was predicted months ago from inside information about how the ride wasn't performing during tests. And yet management forced staff to open the ride before it was ready -- and then they blatantly advertised it to whip up ticket sales.

With Disney's reputation, I expect better. We all should.

Well said. And not only with Disney's former reputation for excellence, but with Disney's resources -- and the prices Disney's customers are paying.

[Bob Weaver]

Filming of Star Wars: Episode X - The Fall of the Resistance Due To Technical Difficulties and the short film Here's A Fast Pass to See Any Other Star Wars Film Instead will begin on Monday at Batuu. Guests are advised to stay out of the way and go play at Skull Rock.

[Tapdawg]

Where are you getting the 40% downtime figure? According to the thrill-data site, the actual percentage of "delay time" relative to known park hours is much lower than that (looks like overall 21.7% to me currently before we add in today's good run). In fact, I can only find one day (this past Sunday) when it was over 40%.

are you including the 1-2 hours in the morning it isn’t open as well as the 2 hours at the end of each night it isn’t open? Those are down times in my book.

[biggsworth]

Wouldn't it be interesting to see what would happen if they opened a traditional line. Also with that normal line open the attraction at opening and let it go to closing. For me they are hiding behind the boarding passes which we all know so whatever exec trying to get promoted can claim a successful opening at the compromise of a quality attraction ready for prime time. It will be interesting to see how they bring Spider-Man online. I am sure to make it normal they will have boarding groups which will not be needed as the Spider-Man attraction more than likely isn't that complex. Then they will get rid of boarding groups for Spider-man while ROTR more than likely will still have them.

[CMARSH]

are you including the 1-2 hours in the morning it isn’t open as well as the 2 hours at the end of each night it isn’t open? Those are down times in my book.

Perhaps I don't understand how this attraction works?

The park this morning opened at 8am and according to thrill-data, they are now (940am) at boarding group 25. Are you saying they still haven't opened the ride yet?

During those last two hours at the end of the day, aren't they still boarding called passengers....they have just stopped calling new boarding groups? If so, it would seem incorrect to consider the ride "down" when it's still running visitors through the attraction.

Regardless, even if you allow for the ride to be shut down an extra 2 hours a day...the downtime only increases to a mean of 24.1% and there are now only two days that were above 40%.

[WaltDisney'sAlec]

Where are you getting the 40% downtime figure? According to the thrill-data site, the actual percentage of "delay time" relative to known park hours is much lower than that (looks like overall 21.7% to me currently before we add in today's good run). In fact, I can only find one day (this past Sunday) when it was over 40%.

Perhaps I don't understand how this attraction works?

The park this morning opened at 8am and according to thrill-data, they are now (940am) at boarding group 25. Are you saying they still haven't opened the ride yet?

During those last two hours at the end of the day, aren't they still boarding called passengers....they have just stopped calling new boarding groups? If so, it would seem incorrect to consider the ride "down" when it's still running visitors through the attraction.

Regardless, even if you allow for the ride to be shut down an extra 2 hours a day...the downtime only increases to a mean of 24.1% and there are now only two days that were above 40%.

Sorry, I should have been more careful with my language. I interpet downtime to mean times when the ride could be operating, but for whatever reason is not. By that measure, we'd actually need to increase the shutdown time to 3 hours for when the ride opens at 9am after 8am admission and then cuts off boarding groups at 10pm with a 12pm park closing. All told, the average is better than 40% downtime most days, but the fact that has hit 40% downtime on multiple days is what I was referring to. That should never be the case for a brand new ride that has officially opened, let alone when Disney is providing around-the-clock maintenance at night just to keep it limping along.

At present, the ride is still experiencing delayed openings on both coasts (as late as 10:15am at Disneyland yesterday and 2pm at Disney World last week), closing early, and with at least two major breakdowns every day in between those hours. It just wasn't ready to operate at this level. Frankly this downtime frequency would have been fine if Disney didn't pass off to guests that the ride would be fully open by now who then planned their vacations around it. That's what irks me more than anything. It just wasn't ready for this level of exposure, and guests get to suffer while Disney benefits from the ticket sales and attendance levels.

[TacAlert]

Fun fact: you were the first and only person to mention Bob Chapek in this thread.

More on-topic: We have insider Cast Member information about capacity, downtime, and maintenance procedures. When was the last time Disney built a brand new ride that operated at only 50% capacity after opening? ROTR is down 40% of the time with around-the-clock maintenance and it's not even at full capacity.

Saying a brand new ride should get even more leeway than 43-year-old and 25-year-old rides is letting a bit too much slide. Breakdowns with new rides are undoubtedly understandable, but if we're being honest ROTR just wasn't ready for this level of opening. WDW's version has been open for almost two months, and they didn't open the ride until 2pm last Tuesday. With Disney's reputation, I expect better. We all should.

Great way to totally mis-read my post. Never said it should have the same leeway as the other two. And according to your math, it is operating at 60%. Not trying to argue here. POint of my post was the ride is going down. Big deal. Move on in life. Yeah, no one mentioned Chapek, surprisingly, because almost every post becomes a Chapek post.

Also, WDW has been getting on a whole lot more riders. It's not uncommon to see their boarding groups at the end of the day around 150. The had one bad day. Who cares.

[WaltDisney'sAlec]

Great way to totally mis-read my post. Never said it should have the same leeway as the other two. And according to your math, it is operating at 60%. Not trying to argue here. POint of my post was the ride is going down. Big deal. Move on in life. Yeah, no one mentioned Chapek, surprisingly, because almost every post becomes a Chapek post.

Also, WDW has been getting on a whole lot more riders. It's not uncommon to see their boarding groups at the end of the day around 150. The had one bad day. Who cares.

I'll accept that it's easy for a lot of us to move on, and maybe we're making a mountain out of a molehill. I saw this thread as aimed at people on Micechat who might be planning their first trip to Disneyland in years. I'm not going to tell them to "move on in life" when they can't reasonably expect to go on a ride that they're paying for. Delaying their trip for a few months might increase their chances of getting on because the ride isn't ready for the crowds it's experiencing today. If someone flies to L.A. to try the new Star Wars offerings and doesn't even get to ride because it isn't ready, they should at least have a fair warning. Legal terms in a mobile app saying that you aren't guaranteed to ride isn't enough when Disney publicizes it as fully open.

[Disneyidol]

I'll accept that it's easy for a lot of us to move on, and maybe we're making a mountain out of a molehill. I saw this thread as aimed at people on Micechat who might be planning their first trip to Disneyland in years. I'm not going to tell them to "move on in life" when they can't reasonably expect to go on a ride that they're paying for. Delaying their trip for a few months might increase their chances of getting on because the ride isn't ready for the crowds it's experiencing today. If someone flies to L.A. to try the new Star Wars offerings and doesn't even get to ride because it isn't ready, they should at least have a fair warning. Legal terms in a mobile app saying that you aren't guaranteed to ride isn't enough when Disney publicizes it as fully open.

Well said. Having been there just today from 7:00a to 1:30p - it’s almost as if all that’s happening is Rise. Also it became clearer that the boarding group strategy is affecting the entire park operation. Even today after all the groups were distributed - a throng of guests just left the park at 8:15 am or so. I even was able to score tickets to Olgas Cantina for 12:30p. The fact is all the machinations the guests are forced to attempt to go through over this one attraction is creating its own vacuum and whoever executed this plan this way should be fired.

There’s no way materially the park is benefitting overall. My group ate breakfast at the Plaza Inn Character Experience or whatever it’s called. It was DEAD in there. All other attractions all day had nearly immediate FP availability.

Why does this matter? Because the whole premise would be to get more guests into the parks for longer periods of time based on enthusiasm to try to ride the latest attraction. But since they can’t ride it a) they aren’t even coming in mass b) the die hards are coming c) this attraction and its land is so not integrated into the whole package of the rest of the park - it’s becoming more and more like a two audience system not one. Marvel land will only further fracture the audience and divide it more. This isn’t about whether Rise is a great attraction it’s about whether it’s the right attraction for Disneyland overall and long term. After riding it today and spending time in the land again - to me it just does not gel with Disneyland period. Disneyland’s success is built on a cohesive experience so unique it shouldn’t be messed with. G E has added a odd imbalance to the park. Great attraction but wrong park.

[Eagleman]

Well said. Having been there just today from 7:00a to 1:30p - it’s almost as if all that’s happening is Rise. Also it became clearer that the boarding group strategy is affecting the entire park operation. Even today after all the groups were distributed - a throng of guests just left the park at 8:15 am or so. I even was able to score tickets to Olgas Cantina for 12:30p. The fact is all the machinations the guests are forced to attempt to go through over this one attraction is creating its own vacuum and whoever executed this plan this way should be fired.

There’s no way materially the park is benefitting overall. My group ate breakfast at the Plaza Inn Character Experience or whatever it’s called. It was DEAD in there. All other attractions all day had nearly immediate FP availability.

Why does this matter? Because the whole premise would be to get more guests into the parks for longer periods of time based on enthusiasm to try to ride the latest attraction. But since they can’t ride it a) they aren’t even coming in mass b) the die hards are coming c) this attraction and its land is so not integrated into the whole package of the rest of the park - it’s becoming more and more like a two audience system not one. Marvel land will only further fracture the audience and divide it more. This isn’t about whether Rise is a great attraction it’s about whether it’s the right attraction for Disneyland overall and long term. After riding it today and spending time in the land again - to me it just does not gel with Disneyland period. Disneyland’s success is built on a cohesive experience so unique it shouldn’t be messed with. G E has added a odd imbalance to the park. Great attraction but wrong park.

I been wondering ?
what been going on in the rest of Park......you gave me the answer.
Thank you for the report.
I agree about this attraction , being in the wrong park.
and sound like a park within a park .....IMO

[Tapdawg]

Perhaps I don't understand how this attraction works?

The park this morning opened at 8am and according to thrill-data, they are now (940am) at boarding group 25. Are you saying they still haven't opened the ride yet?

During those last two hours at the end of the day, aren't they still boarding called passengers....they have just stopped calling new boarding groups? If so, it would seem incorrect to consider the ride "down" when it's still running visitors through the attraction.

Regardless, even if you allow for the ride to be shut down an extra 2 hours a day...the downtime only increases to a mean of 24.1% and there are now only two days that were above 40%.

On a perfect day the ride opens an hour after the park opens. Most days, however, it has opened 90 minutes to 2 hours after the park opens.

They do not start with boarding group 1, it’s usually somewhere between 10-15 is the first group number for the day but it has also started with much higher numbers on a few occasions.

They stop having new guests board the ride 2 hours before park closing, the ride is handed over to maintenance long before the park closes for the day.

[Zorro825]

When USH opened their Wizarding World a few years ago, they had months of unannounced soft openings. There were signs posted at the front of the land that the entire area was in a "dress rehearsal" and could close at any moment. This helped them smooth out any bugs in their ride and help with the overall operation of the land before its big grand opening later in the year.
Disney shouldve gone that route with Rise when it became apparent that they couldnt get the ride going for the majority of the day. This wouldve helped with real world testing while also reminding guests that there was no guarantee they would get to ride.

[BlAcKoUt510]

Well said. Having been there just today from 7:00a to 1:30p - it’s almost as if all that’s happening is Rise. Also it became clearer that the boarding group strategy is affecting the entire park operation. Even today after all the groups were distributed - a throng of guests just left the park at 8:15 am or so. I even was able to score tickets to Olgas Cantina for 12:30p. The fact is all the machinations the guests are forced to attempt to go through over this one attraction is creating its own vacuum and whoever executed this plan this way should be fired.

While I agree with you I do want to point out that this isn't a high-tourist time for Disneyland. If it wasn't for this ride opening, Disneyland would be virtually empty right now. So I don't understand why people are making a big deal that the parks are empty. Most people visiting the parks at this time are purely just here for ROTR, not too many vacationing.

I personally feel like any method of handling crowds will upset one group and be approved by another. The other solution I could think of would be to let guests line up. With this ride being as complicated and stubborn as Hagrid's in IOA, I'm sure we would have run into the same situation with ROTR. I hear that trying to get on both rides can be hell, so the method used to queue people is really up to opinion there isn't one solution to please everyone. Hargrid's method does keep people in the park crowding the area until the ride opens though. I'm sure Disney isn't happy about people leaving the parks after an hour or two.

[Starcade]

If I was Disney Park Management and I saw that Florida's ride was not only completed quicker with rumored cheaper materials yet was up and running at a better pace in a much shorter amount of time while not having the benefit of a previous version to go off of I would be raising some serious questions about my CA. RotR team.

[Disneyidol]

While I agree with you I do want to point out that this isn't a high-tourist time for Disneyland. If it wasn't for this ride opening, Disneyland would be virtually empty right now. So I don't understand why people are making a big deal that the parks are empty. Most people visiting the parks at this time are purely just here for ROTR, not too many vacationing.

I personally feel like any method of handling crowds will upset one group and be approved by another. The other solution I could think of would be to let guests line up. With this ride being as complicated and stubborn as Hagrid's in IOA, I'm sure we would have run into the same situation with ROTR. I hear that trying to get on both rides can be hell, so the method used to queue people is really up to opinion there isn't one solution to please everyone. Hargrid's method does keep people in the park crowding the area until the ride opens though. I'm sure Disney isn't happy about people leaving the parks after an hour or two.

Wait, whaaaaaat? So you mean Disney opening this attraction during their admittedly slowest part of the year wasn’t done to bring more guests into its parks - during slow season ? ? ?

oh ok. 🙃

[TacAlert]

I'll accept that it's easy for a lot of us to move on, and maybe we're making a mountain out of a molehill. I saw this thread as aimed at people on Micechat who might be planning their first trip to Disneyland in years. I'm not going to tell them to "move on in life" when they can't reasonably expect to go on a ride that they're paying for. Delaying their trip for a few months might increase their chances of getting on because the ride isn't ready for the crowds it's experiencing today. If someone flies to L.A. to try the new Star Wars offerings and doesn't even get to ride because it isn't ready, they should at least have a fair warning. Legal terms in a mobile app saying that you aren't guaranteed to ride isn't enough when Disney publicizes it as fully open.

"Legal terms in a mobile app saying that you aren't guaranteed to ride isn't enough when Disney publicizes it as fully open."

This applies to every ride. What if someone flew out here to ride Space Mountain and it was closed for the day. What is DL supposed to do for them?

I remember going to Epcot over 20 years ago (pre-internet) and thought Test Track was going to be open. Turns out it wasn't. Was I upset? A little. I went on with my day and had fun. Someday I will get back and get to ride it.

My point is, I don't let things like a ride that is not working properly, and clearly made aware there is no guarantee to ride, not bother me. I don't run to City Hall to complain or go to any websites to voice my frustrations. I go to have fun.

[TacAlert]

On a perfect day the ride opens an hour after the park opens. Most days, however, it has opened 90 minutes to 2 hours after the park opens.

They do not start with boarding group 1, it’s usually somewhere between 10-15 is the first group number for the day but it has also started with much higher numbers on a few occasions.

They stop having new guests board the ride 2 hours before park closing, the ride is handed over to maintenance long before the park closes for the day.

Was at the park yesterday (01/30). Park opened at 9am and yes there is a boarding group one. We were group 14 and were called by 10am. They wound up getting to group 96 and stopped boarding groups around 9pm. the park closed at 10. Groups starting boarding minutes after the park opened.

[micromind]

If I was Disney Park Management and I saw that Florida's ride was not only completed quicker with rumored cheaper materials yet was up and running at a better pace in a much shorter amount of time while not having the benefit of a previous version to go off of I would be raising some serious questions about my CA. RotR team.

Me too......especially leadership.