Do they speed up rides during peak periods?

[Raineman]

I always do CoP green, not orange.

CoP orange is quite the experience; there's nothing like seeing all 4 scenes in 5 seconds. John tends to end up with a bit of vomit in his lap from time to time, but....

 

[Goofyernmost]

The initial posts mentioned increasing capacity... this is exactly what they do by increasing the number of boats on pirates... Your thought that it doesn't do anything except put decrease the time in the queue is simply wrong. It clearly increases the total number of riders per day when they increase the number of boats.... Take it to an extreme of only having 1 boat verses 100... Do you not see that the total number of people that can ride it in a single day increases if you have 1 boat verses 100 boats? Not sure how you think it doesn't increase total riders.

I never said it didn't increase the number of riders, but, we are talking about increasing the actual SPEED of the ride. If they can add boats or vehicles to it without causing a huge jam up then it increased the number of people that can ride on it. That was never in question. What has been in question is if, again, they actually physically increase the speed of it. The answer logically is no. It still takes the same amount of time from boarding to disembarking as long as everything runs smoothly. Adding those boats to PoTC, for example, usually results in boats stacking up at the end and it actually taking longer to get off the ride, not less time, but, more people are on the ride per hour.

 

[lentesta]

For the cycle rides, I think what you're describing would be a "yes" to the OP's question. If you get 90 seconds on Dumbo in September but 70 seconds in July, that's definitely speeding up the ride. It doesn't literally spin faster, but you get less time on it.

@lentesta talks about this in the Unofficial Guide.

I'm sure they can manipulate some speeds on some rides, whether through water flow, omnimover speed, or, as @CaptainAmerica notes, ride duration.

The thing we're looking at now is whether the rides' capacities have been affected by a reduction in the number of CMs working the ride. There's some data to suggest this may have been happening for around 6 months, give or take.

 

[King Racoon 77]

I once saw a family of 4 flung from CoP due to increased rotation speed. Not sure why it never made the news....

I heard that it flung them so far they broke someones nose in EPCOT when they landed.

 

[BackOTheLine]

I heard that it flung them so far they broke someones nose in EPCOT when they landed.

Are you certain about that? I think we would have heard something on this site about a nose being broken in EPCOT if that had actually happened...

 

[BigRedDad]

I am sure they can speed up some of the rides to a certain extent. They can easily shorten the duration of other rides (carousel, etc). I would be willing to bet that they do shorten those. I know the carousel goes around 12 times the last time I was there. Somebody else can count it the next time they are there.

 

[Lucky]

I am sure they can speed up some of the rides to a certain extent. They can easily shorten the duration of other rides (carousel, etc). I would be willing to bet that they do shorten those. I know the carousel goes around 12 times the last time I was there. Somebody else can count it the next time they are there.

It always goes around 12 times, but in busy periods they run it clockwise so the Coriolis Force will speed it up a little.

 

[gobstoper27]

Okay, so my partner, who knows nothing about nothing just made the assertion that during crowded days, Disney speeds up certain rides increase capacity. He mentioned Pirates, Splash, Buzz, Haunted Mansion. Not adding cars but increasing speed, and shortening ride cycles such as Teacups and Dumbo.

I call BS on this but he is insisting it is true.

Does anyone know what the heck he is talking about? Sounds like alternative facts to me.

that was a good question, never even thought about that, they'd better not!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Winter]

One of the times I went on the peoplemover in Tomorrowland on my last vacation, I swear it was going like twice as fast.

 

[Phonedave]

Big Thunder can't be sped up, it's coaster powered by gravity. Unless you're god or put boosters on the tracks it ain't going any faster lol

They get a CM to pop out from behind the rocks after the lift hills and give the train an extra push.

 

[OliveMcFly]

There have been times when I feel like certain rides were faster than I remember but I can't say for sure. Interesting that I'm not the only one who's noticed.

 

[danlb_2000]

Haha but the lift hills can be sped up, which increases the speed of the ride as a whole.

Increasing the lift hill speed would decrease the spacing between coaster cars and there is a limit to how small you can make the spacing since you can never have more the one car between any two stop points for safety reasons.