7 Dwarfs Cottage Scene -- Can't see it during the day

[JohnD]

It all depends on where you are in line. Not everyone gets those paper FPs. At Everest, it's if you're inside the building main building (not just the part outside that's covered). If you're inside the building, you walk forward and get a FP, if you're outside the building you walk out the exit and get nothing. Every ride has a different cut-off point. For many of the rides, that cut-off point is merge. I'm fairly confident that's where it is on Seven Dwarves because a friend of mine was in line about 10 feet from merge when it broke down, and he said he didn't get a FP.

And as counter-intuitive as it is, if the ride was having that many issues, they might not give out as many paper FPs. If you have 2000 people waiting in line and the ride breaks down 4 times in one day, that would suddenly be 8000 people with extra FPs on top of all the FPs already distributed for the day. Think of the madness that would ensue every time the ride reopened. I once worked an E-ticket attraction that broke down 3 times on December 27th-ish (i.e., during the busiest week of the year). After the first down time, when we reopened, the FP was a 25 minute wait (due to all the original FPs plus the ones distributed to those kicked out of line and evacuated off the ride) with the line stretching waaaay out the door, and the stand-by line was two hours. After being open 90 minutes, we broke down again, and again had to kick everyone out of line. We had to turn away people who had waited those 90 minutes but were no where near the cut-off point and not give them any FPs. It sucked. We know it did. But we also knew that when we reopened, the FP line was only going to be worse than it was, and it was already at ridiculous levels. If we gave everyone FPs, the FP line would essentially be a stand-by line with a 90 minute wait. Sure enough, it was a mass stampede when we reopened that second time, to the point where there were people actually getting trampled on (and that was just to get into the FP line, which we always reopen first before the stand-by line). The third down time happened after I left, but I heard it was a nightmare. Again, it sucks in those situations, but there's really only so much you can do. It's a lose-lose no matter how you slice it.

I was in AK when Everest broke down on 6/3. I was going solo and circumnavigating the park clockwise from Africa. By the time I arrived at it, I was unaware it had been down for several hours. The FP+ line stretched all the way to Dino Land! Again, I didn't know that until after I rode it from the Single Rider line with only a 15 minute or so wait.

 

[JohnD]

It all depends on where you are in line. Not everyone gets those paper FPs. At Everest, it's if you're inside the building main building (not just the part outside that's covered). If you're inside the building, you walk forward and get a FP, if you're outside the building you walk out the exit and get nothing. Every ride has a different cut-off point. For many of the rides, that cut-off point is merge. I'm fairly confident that's where it is on Seven Dwarves because a friend of mine was in line about 10 feet from merge when it broke down, and he said he didn't get a FP.

And as counter-intuitive as it is, if the ride was having that many issues, they might not give out as many paper FPs. If you have 2000 people waiting in line and the ride breaks down 4 times in one day, that would suddenly be 8000 people with extra FPs on top of all the FPs already distributed for the day. Think of the madness that would ensue every time the ride reopened. I once worked an E-ticket attraction that broke down 3 times on December 27th-ish (i.e., during the busiest week of the year). After the first down time, when we reopened, the FP was a 25 minute wait (due to all the original FPs plus the ones distributed to those kicked out of line and evacuated off the ride) with the line stretching waaaay out the door, and the stand-by line was two hours. After being open 90 minutes, we broke down again, and again had to kick everyone out of line. We had to turn away people who had waited those 90 minutes but were no where near the cut-off point and not give them any FPs. It sucked. We know it did. But we also knew that when we reopened, the FP line was only going to be worse than it was, and it was already at ridiculous levels. If we gave everyone FPs, the FP line would essentially be a stand-by line with a 90 minute wait. Sure enough, it was a mass stampede when we reopened that second time, to the point where there were people actually getting trampled on (and that was just to get into the FP line, which we always reopen first before the stand-by line). The third down time happened after I left, but I heard it was a nightmare. Again, it sucks in those situations, but there's really only so much you can do. It's a lose-lose no matter how you slice it.

Regarding 7DMT, I had a FP for 9-10am on 6/4 but it broke down just after I scanned my MB at 9:30. I received a free FP for either it or another of several rides for the whole day. I think I would have received that regardless even if I had not scanned my band during that hour since it went down anyway. I returned at 12:30 with no wait at all. I think it's just because it had just re-opened and I found out from a CM while at the Frontierland kiosk. I made a bee-line for it before the word quickly spread.

 

[cw1982]

It all depends on where you are in line. Not everyone gets those paper FPs. At Everest, it's if you're inside the building main building (not just the part outside that's covered). If you're inside the building, you walk forward and get a FP, if you're outside the building you walk out the exit and get nothing. Every ride has a different cut-off point. For many of the rides, that cut-off point is merge. I'm fairly confident that's where it is on Seven Dwarves because a friend of mine was in line about 10 feet from merge when it broke down, and he said he didn't get a FP.

And as counter-intuitive as it is, if the ride was having that many issues, they might not give out as many paper FPs. If you have 2000 people waiting in line and the ride breaks down 4 times in one day, that would suddenly be 8000 people with extra FPs on top of all the FPs already distributed for the day. Think of the madness that would ensue every time the ride reopened. I once worked an E-ticket attraction that broke down 3 times on December 27th-ish (i.e., during the busiest week of the year). After the first down time, when we reopened, the FP was a 25 minute wait (due to all the original FPs plus the ones distributed to those kicked out of line and evacuated off the ride) with the line stretching waaaay out the door, and the stand-by line was two hours. After being open 90 minutes, we broke down again, and again had to kick everyone out of line. We had to turn away people who had waited those 90 minutes but were no where near the cut-off point and not give them any FPs. It sucked. We know it did. But we also knew that when we reopened, the FP line was only going to be worse than it was, and it was already at ridiculous levels. If we gave everyone FPs, the FP line would essentially be a stand-by line with a 90 minute wait. Sure enough, it was a mass stampede when we reopened that second time, to the point where there were people actually getting trampled on (and that was just to get into the FP line, which we always reopen first before the stand-by line). The third down time happened after I left, but I heard it was a nightmare. Again, it sucks in those situations, but there's really only so much you can do. It's a lose-lose no matter how you slice it.

I understand all that, but it's not like people who were waiting when I was could leave and go to another ride. There was only about a ten minute window between when they said the ride was delayed and when they said it was down and that everyone needed to leave. We were not given the option to wait for it to come back up, and we could not ride anything else because the park was closed. In that case, it seems silly that anyone left without a pass good for the next few days (since the paper ones they now give out are good for one use over several days, not just the same day, this would hardly cause the chaos in the FP line that the same day floating pass that goes out automatically can). IMO it would be slightly different if this had happened even an hour earlier when people could still enjoy other parts of the park.

 

[cw1982]

I was in AK when Everest broke down on 6/3. I was going solo and circumnavigating the park clockwise from Africa. By the time I arrived at it, I was unaware it had been down for several hours. The FP+ line stretched all the way to Dino Land! Again, I didn't know that until after I rode it from the Single Rider line with only a 15 minute or so wait.

Lol... that's the day I was there! The FP line actually went much faster than it looked. We were in that line when you walked by I bet. When we got in line it was in front of Nemo and it only took about ten minutes to get through the whole thing.

 

[JohnD]

Lol... that's the day I was there! The FP line actually went much faster than it looked. We were in that line when you walked by I bet. When we got in line it was in front of Nemo and it only took about ten minutes to get through the whole thing.

I was like, Holy Mackerel! Yeah, after single rider on Everest, I was on my way to my FP for FOTLK at 4pm, walking past the FP line.

 

[Castle Cake Apologist]

I think DLR has the same general policy as WDW. But the demand for RSR was so great -- and the breakdowns so frequent -- that it was basically impractical to give everyone in line a FP since that would have resulted in basically swamping the FP queue so much that I don't even know if the ride capacity could have handled it. I don't think that the 7DMT has quite the same demand, but I brought it up because there might be the same philosophy going on -- that the 7DMT might be considered an exception to the policy of giving out paper FP in the event of a breakdown.

The passes that guests are given in the event that a ride goes 101 are general passes good on any ride in the park at any time. They have absolutely no impact on the Fastpass system.

 

[Goofnut1980]

The problem with putting big trees infront of the cottage scene, if they get big, we will have to put up nets to keep the branches from falling onto the cottage?!

 

[Kman101]

I haven't read every post, sorry, but wanted to say about the FP+ return thing, from pages 1 and 2, and I could have been reading it wrong, but when I was there a few weeks back, I had a Big Thunder FP+, the ride was down during my alloted time, and I did receive said e-mail, so all I did was go back later and tapped the band and was let right in, no problem at all. I didn't have to select a new experience, you just go to the attraction you want with FP+ (listed in the e-mail). I had the same experience with Splash Mountain. I was never forced to select a new "FP+ experience". So ... interesting.

 

[Daannzzz]

The problem with putting big trees infront of the cottage scene, if they get big, we will have to put up nets to keep the branches from falling onto the cottage?!

Or they could just keep it as the Hag under a log theme. Grumpy could be heard saying 'Take that you old witch." and the scared children will be placated.

 

[cw1982]

I haven't read every post, sorry, but wanted to say about the FP+ return thing, from pages 1 and 2, and I could have been reading it wrong, but when I was there a few weeks back, I had a Big Thunder FP+, the ride was down during my alloted time, and I did receive said e-mail, so all I did was go back later and tapped the band and was let right in, no problem at all. I didn't have to select a new experience, you just go to the attraction you want with FP+ (listed in the e-mail). I had the same experience with Splash Mountain. I was never forced to select a new "FP+ experience". So ... interesting.

Correct. If you choose to use the floating pass for a new experience, you just show up at the other attraction and tap bands and go. No selecting involved.

 

[TP2000]

It all depends on where you are in line. Not everyone gets those paper FPs.... After being open 90 minutes, we broke down again, and again had to kick everyone out of line.

Fascinating insight from the front lines! Thank you for sharing.

But I have to ask, why do you have to "kick everyone out of line" during a breakdown? I was in line at Radiator Springs Racers a couple months ago when it was stopped for a little kid that jumped down into the track in the loading area, and the ride had to be cleared and reset in a process that took a full hour. The Standby line was over 90 minutes long, plus a full Single Rider queue. They didn't make any of us leave, they came over the PA several times early in the downtime and told us we were all welcome to stay if we'd like and they gave us the time estimate of how long it would be (an hour). Some left, many stayed.

About 10 minutes later the ride CM's began filtering through the queue chatting with the masses and passing out little Cars Land coloring books and packs of crayons for the kids. CM's from the vending sales team walked through selling Coke and popcorn and ice cream. It turned the queue from disappointed frustration into a reasonably content group of people now all chatting with each other. The ride reopened, and before they let the FP people in from in front they loaded the Standby queue for a long period of time to clear out the folks who had been waiting inside.

What downtime scenario plays out that the CM's must "kick everyone out of line"? Why can't the people in line during the downtime just wait there like they do at Disneyland?

 

[natatomic]

Fascinating insight from the front lines! Thank you for sharing.

But I have to ask, why do you have to "kick everyone out of line" during a breakdown? I was in line at Radiator Springs Racers a couple months ago when it was stopped for a little kid that jumped down into the track in the loading area, and the ride had to be cleared and reset in a process that took a full hour. The Standby line was over 90 minutes long, plus a full Single Rider queue. They didn't make any of us leave, they came over the PA several times early in the downtime and told us we were all welcome to stay if we'd like and they gave us the time estimate of how long it would be (an hour). Some left, many stayed.

About 10 minutes later the ride CM's began filtering through the queue chatting with the masses and passing out little Cars Land coloring books and packs of crayons for the kids. CM's from the vending sales team walked through selling Coke and popcorn and ice cream. It turned the queue from disappointed frustration into a reasonably content group of people now all chatting with each other. The ride reopened, and before they let the FP people in from in front they loaded the Standby queue for a long period of time to clear out the folks who had been waiting inside.

What downtime scenario plays out that the CM's must "kick everyone out of line"? Why can't the people in line during the downtime just wait there like they do at Disneyland?

(This is not a Disney-official reason, but this is sort of how it's always been implied to me as to the why we kick guests out)

(On a less important note, my following explanation does seem to be pretty consistent practice at WDW among various attractions, and I genuinely have no idea why they do it differently at RSR.)

It could depend on the ride, it could depend on the situation. At most of the rides I worked at, if it was something that didn't require a full evacuation and reset, and it could be fixed in, oh...say 20 minutes or less, they'd keep people in line, but spiel about a delay, longer wait time, yada, yada, yada.
If it did require a full evacuation and reset, those were typically guaranteed 45 minute downtimes at the very least (again, this is only at the attractions at which I worked, not all attractions), and for those we'd kick people out. See, we never, ever, ever told guests how long downtimes would be, because 1) a lot of the time, we don't even know and 2) even when we had a pretty good guess, you never knew what might happen during the reset process: someone could press the wrong button at the wrong time, which would require we start completely over; maintenance might have trouble fixing the issue; a squirrel could trigger a sensor (it happens!) So even the most straight-forward resets could end up taking longer than usual.

Now imagine if we were to spiel, "You're welcome to wait in line, but the ride will be up in at least 45 minutes, maybe longer," 90% of people would ignore the "at least" or "maybe longer" parts, and when that 45 minutes turned into 60 minutes, 90 minutes, 120 minutes...well, you can imagine their frustration. We'd have MANY people upset at us for implying the ride would be up within X minutes only to not live up to that, and then it would be our responsibility to make up for their lost time (or if not us, guest relations).

Knowing that, when you consider a downtime that's gonna take around an hour to fix, but that's information withheld from guests, then we're kind of kicking them out of line for their own good. Sort of a, "Listen, this is gonna take a while, so please don't try waiting for us. There's plenty else to do in the park, so don't waste your time waiting in line for nothing when you could be waiting in line for a ride that it's currently operational. We're basically helping you continue to get the most out of the money you spend here today."

Again, that's just my educated guess as to WDW's method to their madness.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Your inability to handle movements expressed in Forbidden Journey is not a detriment to the ride.

It's certainly something to consider though. For all the good that Universal has done in the last few years, they haven't made a D or E-Ticket attraction without a height requirement. The Hogwarts Express will be one, but it remains to be seen if they will continue to make stuff that has height requirements.

 

[pug]

Unfortunately, most frontline CM's do not get an email account.

Is it a google email or what type of email do they use there?

 

[pug]

4 years to build this and now this happens!

 

[unkadug]

Is it a google email or what type of email do they use there?

They log into the Cast Portal for their updates.

Think of it as an electronic work bulletin board.

 

[pug]

Thats cool thanks!

 

[pug]

I meant

 

[Castle Cake Apologist]

(This is not a Disney-official reason, but this is sort of how it's always been implied to me as to the why we kick guests out)

(On a less important note, my following explanation does seem to be pretty consistent practice at WDW among various attractions, and I genuinely have no idea why they do it differently at RSR.)

It could depend on the ride, it could depend on the situation. At most of the rides I worked at, if it was something that didn't require a full evacuation and reset, and it could be fixed in, oh...say 20 minutes or less, they'd keep people in line, but spiel about a delay, longer wait time, yada, yada, yada.
If it did require a full evacuation and reset, those were typically guaranteed 45 minute downtimes at the very least (again, this is only at the attractions at which I worked, not all attractions), and for those we'd kick people out. See, we never, ever, ever told guests how long downtimes would be, because 1) a lot of the time, we don't even know and 2) even when we had a pretty good guess, you never knew what might happen during the reset process: someone could press the wrong button at the wrong time, which would require we start completely over; maintenance might have trouble fixing the issue; a squirrel could trigger a sensor (it happens!) So even the most straight-forward resets could end up taking longer than usual.

Now imagine if we were to spiel, "You're welcome to wait in line, but the ride will be up in at least 45 minutes, maybe longer," 90% of people would ignore the "at least" or "maybe longer" parts, and when that 45 minutes turned into 60 minutes, 90 minutes, 120 minutes...well, you can imagine their frustration. We'd have MANY people upset at us for implying the ride would be up within X minutes only to not live up to that, and then it would be our responsibility to make up for their lost time (or if not us, guest relations).

Knowing that, when you consider a downtime that's gonna take around an hour to fix, but that's information withheld from guests, then we're kind of kicking them out of line for their own good. Sort of a, "Listen, this is gonna take a while, so please don't try waiting for us. There's plenty else to do in the park, so don't waste your time waiting in line for nothing when you could be waiting in line for a ride that it's currently operational. We're basically helping you continue to get the most out of the money you spend here today."

Again, that's just my educated guess as to WDW's method to their madness.

Just wanted to back up the accuracy of this post. If a ride goes 101 to the point of an evac, we generally clear out the queue to save the guests the trouble of waiting around. Downtime can get very extensive depending on the situation. I've even worked evac situations on a ride as simple as TTA where the downtime lasted three hours.

Where our experiences seem to differ is that any ride I've worked on, the policy is to give passes to all guests in the queue and those being evac'd. Many of those people have been in line for upwards of an hour in many cases and they deserve to be compensated for their lost time in the park. I've never worked an attraction where you had to be at a certain point in the line.

The policy could very well differ from park to park or attraction to attraction, though.

 

[natatomic]

Where our experiences seem to differ is that any ride I've worked on, the policy is to give passes to all guests in the queue and those being evac'd. Many of those people have been in line for upwards of an hour in many cases and they deserve to be compensated for their lost time in the park. I've never worked an attraction where you had to be at a certain point in the line.

The policy could very well differ from park to park or attraction to attraction, though.

Hmm, well I've been out of attractions for almost a year, so things possibly could have changed since I left. But of all the attractions I worked, 4 of them were popular E-tickets (the rest were theaters or other random attractions with little to no demand) at 3 different parks, and that's how it worked at all four (I.e. having a cutoff for the paper FPs). I can think of at least one other that friends of mine have worked at who have mentioned similar policies. *shrug* Who knows!