Do they speed up rides during peak periods?

[BackOTheLine]

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

 

[thomas998]

Just remembered, rides actually run slower during busy periods as they add more cars/boats/trains to the track which means they have to stop more frequently. Perfect example being It's a Small World, Splash Mountain and Pirates. During the summer you will almost always get stuck at the end of these rides as the boats build up at unload giving you a good extra 5 to 10 minutes of 'ride' time.

Actually adding more cars or boats does speed up the ride in terms of the number of riders per hour, it that wasn't the case they wouldn't add the extra cars or boats. It may result in people getting stuck at the end more often by the total throughput of the ride is still up on average.

And I've seen them manipulate the dumbo ride before as I used to be a bit obsessive about tracking the time the ride lasted as I would try to work out how much longer we would be in line based on the number of people in front of us. I've experienced the ride taking as long as 2 minutes per cycle to 90 seconds per cycle which indicates that they can clearly control the ride times, no reason to think they would give you longer rides when they are busy and every reason to believe they would use the short cycle time when they are. I do not think that they are going to be able to speed up some rides though, haunted mansion isn't one I would expect to be sped up as it is a continuous loop that never stops and the one place where someone could get hurt is the loading zone which has a defined area... if you sped it up and someone ever did get hurt their lawyers would have a field day claiming Disney was at fault for speeding up the ride beyond its slower setting that was used during non-peak times... So I don't think the lawyers at Disney would allow that sort of ride to ever get sped up beyond its normal designed speed. But things like Dumbo, flying carpets, teacups... seems like a no brainer if your trying to decrease the wait times.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Actually adding more cars or boats does speed up the ride in terms of the number of riders per hour, it that wasn't the case they wouldn't add the extra cars or boats. It may result in people getting stuck at the end more often by the total throughput of the ride is still up on average.

And I've seen them manipulate the dumbo ride before as I used to be a bit obsessive about tracking the time the ride lasted as I would try to work out how much longer we would be in line based on the number of people in front of us. I've experienced the ride taking as long as 2 minutes per cycle to 90 seconds per cycle which indicates that they can clearly control the ride times, no reason to think they would give you longer rides when they are busy and every reason to believe they would use the short cycle time when they are. I do not think that they are going to be able to speed up some rides though, haunted mansion isn't one I would expect to be sped up as it is a continuous loop that never stops and the one place where someone could get hurt is the loading zone which has a defined area... if you sped it up and someone ever did get hurt their lawyers would have a field day claiming Disney was at fault for speeding up the ride beyond its slower setting that was used during non-peak times... So I don't think the lawyers at Disney would allow that sort of ride to ever get sped up beyond its normal designed speed. But things like Dumbo, flying carpets, teacups... seems like a no brainer if your trying to decrease the wait times.

All adding vehicles would do is to bunch up the vehicles and take people out of the queue line. It would do nothing for speeding up the ride at all. People are just happier being stuck in the middle of a ride then waiting for it to start.

 

[spacemt354]

In short.... no.

Cycle times can be increased up to the design maximum, ride vehicles can be added where applicable up to the design maximum but that's all.

If they could theoretically speed up a coaster there would be a block zone intrusion followed by a cascade stop. If they sped up the Jungle Cruise boats the effects would fail to reset and trigger. If PotC were sped up the unload backlog would just get even longer.

Omnimovers can be slowed to creep to assist with boarding, and then speed up back to the normal speed, but that's all. There is no higher speed for a 60k attendnece day compared to a 25k attendance day.

Peoplemover for example cannot be manipulated. The speeds for each section are hard wired into each magnets logic circuits. Short of swapping a circuit board on each magnet the speed can't be adjusted.

So again, in short, no.

Learn something new everyday. Thanks for the info

 

[larryz]

Once you've been on a ride, repeat visits seem shorter. Google "return trip effect."

 

[sheriffwoody]

I could have sworn Haunted Mansion was faster when I went last spring break. I just assumed they kicked it up a tad to get more people through. That's the only place I noticed it though.

 

[Chef Mickey]

Not from what I've seen. The only difference during peak times is they are actually better about filling the ride vehicles fully on Small World, Pirates, Space Mountain, etc instead of leaving empty space.

I know the Haunted Mansion has essentially 2 speeds. I wish they'd run it at the slower load assistance speed at all times!

 

[Cosmic Commando]

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

Sitting in back... rookie mistake.

 

[Lucky]

Sitting in back... rookie mistake.

I always do CoP green, not orange.

 

[mf1972]

I always do CoP green, not orange.

i would say COP never gets sped up because on occasion, i'd sit through the same scene twice.

 

[xdan0920]

In short.... no.

Cycle times can be increased up to the design maximum, ride vehicles can be added where applicable up to the design maximum but that's all.

If they could theoretically speed up a coaster there would be a block zone intrusion followed by a cascade stop. If they sped up the Jungle Cruise boats the effects would fail to reset and trigger. If PotC were sped up the unload backlog would just get even longer.

Omnimovers can be slowed to creep to assist with boarding, and then speed up back to the normal speed, but that's all. There is no higher speed for a 60k attendnece day compared to a 25k attendance day.

Peoplemover for example cannot be manipulated. The speeds for each section are hard wired into each magnets logic circuits. Short of swapping a circuit board on each magnet the speed can't be adjusted.

So again, in short, no.

Yeah, but, what are you? Some kind of expert?

 

[xdan0920]

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

Didn't make the news because my family isn't a bunch of nancies. We just picked ourselves up, reset the kiddos broken fibula, and got on with our day.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

I always do CoP green, not orange.

SO glad we'll get to pick our mission for Team Green after the refurb. It's a lovely curtain, but...

 

[AndyS2992]

In short.... no.

Cycle times can be increased up to the design maximum, ride vehicles can be added where applicable up to the design maximum but that's all.

If they could theoretically speed up a coaster there would be a block zone intrusion followed by a cascade stop. If they sped up the Jungle Cruise boats the effects would fail to reset and trigger. If PotC were sped up the unload backlog would just get even longer.

Omnimovers can be slowed to creep to assist with boarding, and then speed up back to the normal speed, but that's all. There is no higher speed for a 60k attendnece day compared to a 25k attendance day.

Peoplemover for example cannot be manipulated. The speeds for each section are hard wired into each magnets logic circuits. Short of swapping a circuit board on each magnet the speed can't be adjusted.

So again, in short, no.

Thank you I knew it wasn't true.

 

[thomas998]

All adding vehicles would do is to bunch up the vehicles and take people out of the queue line. It would do nothing for speeding up the ride at all. People are just happier being stuck in the middle of a ride then waiting for it to start.

actually it would increase the hourly riders. Look at an extreme example and you can see how it works... If you had only 10 boars available on Pirates and the total run time was 10 you could push 60 boat loads of people through an hour... If you increased the boats to 100 then you push 600 boat loads of people in an hour... So increasing the number of boats increase the total number doing the ride per hour assuming you don't slow down the ride time to much from the increased number of stop times.

 

[Goofyernmost]

actually it would increase the hourly riders. Look at an extreme example and you can see how it works... If you had only 10 boars available on Pirates and the total run time was 10 you could push 60 boat loads of people through an hour... If you increased the boats to 100 then you push 600 boat loads of people in an hour... So increasing the number of boats increase the total number doing the ride per hour assuming you don't slow down the ride time to much from the increased number of stop times.

OK, but it doesn't go any faster, it just takes them out of the queue and puts them on the ride and whatever they saved will, in all likelihood be lost at the line of boats at the end. In other words the time in the line and queue combined is less, perhaps, but the ride isn't going any faster which is what this discussion was about.

 

[thomas998]

OK, but it doesn't go any faster, it just takes them out of the queue and puts them on the ride and whatever they saved will, in all likelihood be lost at the line of boats at the end. In other words the time in the line and queue combined is less, perhaps, but the ride isn't going any faster which is what this discussion was about.

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.

 

[Roakor]

During peak times the CMs are more active about rushing people through the load/unload areas. Combined with every one in line generally trying to run through faster because they have less time to cram everything in that day. It can give a more rushed feel to the whole experience. When its slow then the CMs, and everyone in general, are more "take your time, enjoy the theming" thus the whole pace of things feels much slower. There may be some shortcuts they can take, things they can skip over in the queue and load/unload zones during peak hours. But I don't think the actual ride speed/time itself changes. Its just the perception that it does because everyone, CMs and guest, is in a more of a "hurry up" mind set when its busy. Its like visiting a small town vs the big city. Life in general feels to move much slower in the town because people are not as rushed to get things done.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

In short.... no.

Cycle times can be increased up to the design maximum, ride vehicles can be added where applicable up to the design maximum but that's all.

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.

 

[Dead2009]

My bus driver told me Space Mountain can go from 28 MPH to a whopping 31. Talk about super fast, knocked my phone clear out of my pocket due to the immense speeds.