Astro Orbit CLOSED for X-mas

[FLcastmember]

ITS OFFICIAL NOW! Astro Orbit CLOSED until Spring 2005

EDIT It is now official,

Astro Orbiter Closed for Refurbishment
Date: 12/20/2004

The Astro Orbiter in Tomorrowland will be closed for refurbishment from December 20, 2004 until it reopens for our Guests enjoyment in the Spring of 2005. Please direct Guests to visit The Magic Carpets of Aladdin in Adventureland as an alternative during this downtime.

END EDIT

According to Tomorrowland Cast Members, yesterday (Sun 19 Dec) the Astro Orbiter went 101 (broke down) around 11am. The Ride remained closed for the day AND did not open today (Monday 20 Dec). Word has it that they may start the 2 month rehab now, as opposed to the January 25 – March 12 dates that were originally scheduled. With the busy holiday crowds already ariving, having two MK attractions down (''iasw'') could cause some crowd flow and park capacity problems. Although astro puts through only about 700 guests per hour, compared to ''iasw'' 3000, it's still 3700 total. Thats about 2000-2500 more guests in the park instead of in queue's or on the attractions.

Does anyone know more?

 

[General Grizz]

Tomorrowland has operated with CoP (HUGE! capacity) and Timekeeper closed. . . why would it make such a difference with these two open and Astro closed?

I am sad to hear about the breakdown, but I'm glad that the rehab may start early. Hope to see it up and running - with spinning planets!

P.S. A friend said they heard the planets were spinning a couple days ago. I'm not sure if this is true or not (probably not), but who knows.

 

[MonoRon]

Hopefully it opens up on time...I love going on Astro Orbiter at night...the castle looks awesome. I will be down there March 10-15th...so excited!

 

[FLcastmember]

Tomorrowland has operated with CoP (HUGE! capacity) and Timekeeper closed. . . why would it make such a difference with these two open and Astro closed? QUOTE]

CoP and TK have been closed during low to medium attendence, and even some busy times. From Dec 25th to Jan 1st, MK's attendence will be at or near FULL. So they eather reduce the parks attendence by 2000, or prepare for bottlenecks and crowd flow problems. Not that astro alone will cause this, but with ''iasw'' and astro together. SW was down for the summer but other then the 4th of July, we have not had these large crowds since Easter, and SW was open then, with only SGE down (1200 Guests per hour). I just think we were were going to be in trouble pre astro anyway, and now with this....

Hopefully im wrong. :xmas:

 

[Thelazer]

With Stich, TK and CoP open this will not cause any major problems.
At the very least, it will make it that much more likely for folks to ride CoP and TK and maybe even decide that they like them.

 

[zone15int]

P.S. A friend said they heard the planets were spinning a couple days ago. I'm not sure if this is true or not (probably not), but who knows.

nope. the planets still have not been fixed yet.

 

[DigitalDisney]

I wonder if this is similar to why Space Mtn over at DL closed early? Granted, it is going through a complete rebuild, but it did close early to do significant defects found in the structure. I wonder if Asto Orbitor is closing early due to the same reason....

 

[speck76]

If the ride is REALLY in need oh rehab, and could potentially break down in the middle of the day, it is probably better from a service standpoint just to close it now and start the reod early.

Nothing upsets a guest more than keeping them in line for an hour or longer just to have the ride breakdown prior to them getting on.

 

[dxwwf3]

Man I can't believe that the AA is going to be closed during the busy season. What in the world are all of those people looking for a spinner going to do in the Magic Kingdom?


Just kidding. Hopefully everything will be taken care of in the rehab. Glad to see Disney putting safety first here.

 

[Pioneer Hall]

I don't think it will be a huge deal. Hopefully the ride will get the TLC it deserves and will have the planets spinning again.

 

[Figment1986]

It would be bad to have it go 101 it it somehow got stuck up high.....

At least they are fixing it now... (that must have been a bad 101 to send it into rehab this early..)

 

[marni1971]

I wonder if this is similar to why Space Mtn over at DL closed early? Granted, it is going through a complete rebuild, but it did close early to do significant defects found in the structure. I wonder if Asto Orbitor is closing early due to the same reason....

I`d imagine any structural defect at all would also include closing the TTA.. the whole structure from the ground up is another piece of construction marvel..

 

[Bagheera]

It's not a structural defect. The bearings decided that they couldn't wait another month to be replaced.