I noticed the other day that the giant gravity wheel isn't turning at Mission: SPACE. Being that it's essentially the only major element in that queue, it's a bit troubling. Anyone know how long it has been this way? Any plans to fix it?
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
Gravity Wheel Not Turning at Mission: SPACE
- Thread starter The Visionary Soul
- Start date
Rinx
Well-Known Member
It will not be getting fixed. It hasn't been turning for at least 2 years. I worked at Mission: Space on a college program from January to July 2013 and was told that it had stopped turning either the March or May of the year before. The bearing in the motor is shot or something to that effect. It cannot be fixed because the entire wheel needs to be taken out of the building in order to do so. Why? I have no idea other than it seems Disney is consistent with building irrepairable major show props. Apparently the ceiling above it opens up so it can be lifted out but they built the building around the wheel and there are several I-beams in the way that would prevent it from being lifted out and you can see that for yourself especially from the FP and standby merge point.
unkadug
Follower of "Saget"The Cult
Wow...this is surprising.
Castle Cake Apologist
Well-Known Member
articos
Well-Known Member
Wait, what? I stand corrected, and didn't know it's been out of show that long. The wheel does not need to be taken out of the building to have the motor replaced, however, and no, the building was not built around it. If it's a major repair, it may wait until the next major refurb of the attraction, whenever that is, but it should get fixed. I will make some inquiries on it. Everything's repairable, it's just a matter of funding/resource scheduling and balancing whether that particular element can be repaired with the least amount of disruption to the rest of the guest experience.
Expert, I know some around here like to be cynical, myself included, but never's a long time.
May take a lot longer than most want, again, myself included, but eventually many - not all - things do get fixed.
Last edited:
Castle Cake Apologist
Well-Known Member
Expert, I know some around here like to be cynical, myself included, but never's a long time.
Haha... fair enough! It is disheartening, though. Especially working front line and seeing things wrong with your attractions and noticing that Disney often just does not seem to care. It honestly gets a little personal sometimes.
Hopefully we are wrong and it has just been immobile now and then on separate occasions. I must say though that I'm in that pavilion a lot (not as a CM, full disclosure... I've never worked Epcot Ops) and I don't know the last time I saw it working.
Castle Cake Apologist
Well-Known Member
First the Garden Grill stops rotating and now this!!!
The ghost of World of Motion finally gets the last laugh.
I seriously laugh so hard every time I read this. I keep picturing the dragon floating around all ghost-like and causing shenanigans.
Prince-1
Well-Known Member
articos
Well-Known Member
I get that. And sadly, truth be told, the company is not the company we want it to be, nor is it the company it was 20 years ago. With growth and shareholders, profit comes before anything else, and the people who fill middle management aren't willing to stick their neck out or are just lazy. But at the heart of it all, there are still people who care about the show and care about the guest experience - like yourself. Things may take forever to get fixed, but that doesn't mean they aren't on a list to be fixed somewhere. If the motor is a custom item without a spare on hand and it takes a full day of disassembly by 2 techs just to get at it, it may be really far down the list, but it's still there. I hate it when items are put off for whatever reason until a refurbishment, but eventually, it should get addressed.
That said, if you actually have items inop at your attraction and you've reported it multiple times and no one actually does anything, send me a note.
Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
The posts aren't wrong. It hasn't worked since possibly some time in 2012.
So add this to the ever-growing list of effects that are broken and will never come back.
Communicore
Well-Known Member
So the Astro Orbitor planets are no longer spinning, then all of these Epcot theme park spinning thingies, maybe the next one to stop will be COP.
doctornick
Well-Known Member
I think that fixing the planets is planned as part of the refurb going on this summer for Astro Orbitor. Of course, the proof will be based on what actually happens. I do think that things seemed to have improved under George K in terms of repairing broken effects, even if only slightly.
Rinx
Well-Known Member
Seeing as how long it has been inoperable I'm assuming it's considered very low priority to get fixed. In my opinion, reason being is that probably half, if not most people, who ride M:S do not know what a gravity wheel even is or what it does so whether it's spinning or not it gives the same affect.
rob0519
Well-Known Member
How is this surprising? How long has the Yeti been broken? Repairs and maintenance that don't affect the guest's safety or cause the attraction to be inoperable appear to fallen into the "why should we bother to fix it? These people will still pay $100 a day to ride broken attractions" category.
