Mid-management of Mission: Space today

[hokielutz]

Test track went down this morning and I am currently in the Orange line (50 minutes so far and almost noon, and still outside the show building. Judging from the extremely slow movement and counting heads that pass a single point of reference, only one simulator is being used for standby orange.
Since four simulators are available, I really think they are mismanaging the M:S resources by not balancing the load across all the simulators. Standby in this ride's early years never was this slow.
I really think that 3 sims should be set for Orange during today's circumstances. Anyone else with experiences that are similar??

 

[hokielutz]

70 minutes and we are finally inside the building, and the green side hardly has any line.

 

[wdwmagic]

I think one of the issues is that the bays can't immediately be switched mode. I believe it requires some degree of configuration and test that makes it not something that can be done on very short notice.

 

[hokielutz]

90 minutes in, and a CM has told me that there are 2 green sims and only 1 orange sim operating. When asked why one of the greens are not flipped, he had no answer except that if the one green sim went down then they would have to shut the whole building down.

 

[WDWFigment]

We had a similar experience with M:S in November. The posted wait time of 5 minutes turned into about 60 minutes. I definitely would not wait 60 minutes in line for M:S, but it's one of those things where you wait in line 20, then consider getting out, but you really don't want to get out when it shouldn't be "too much longer," and you've already waited in line for that long. At 30, we considered the same thing, with the same back and forth...and so on...until suddenly we were in line for 60 minutes!

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

We had a similar experience with M:S in November. The posted wait time of 5 minutes turned into about 60 minutes. I definitely would not wait 60 minutes in line for M:S, but it's one of those things where you wait in line 20, then consider getting out, but you really don't want to get out when it shouldn't be "too much longer," and you've already waited in line for that long. At 30, we considered the same thing, with the same back and forth...and so on...until suddenly we were in line for 60 minutes!

Isn't that true! On the plus side, last time we went we waited about 30 minutes (posted time was 15 min ) we discovered that there is a rather nice garden queue area of switchbacks behind the facade. I found that a bit of a surprise since we'd never waited that long for M:S before. :lol:

 

[jedimaster1227]

During my visit yesterday, the operating cast members for the attraction told us (as we waited for 20 minutes in a line of about 30 people) that Orange and Green were each running one pod.

Not that I loved the added wait on such an empty night (Soarin' had a 20 minute wait), but from a cost-cutting standpoint, I think the decision to run half of the attraction was a wise one.

 

[hokielutz]

Post ride update

Entered the queue with only a 40 minute wait listed for Standby Orange. Was given a time badge. Total wait time was 130 minutes. Sim bay#3 was not working. Bays 1 and 2 were set aside for green and no action was being tanken to aleviate the massive standby queue. I really think they should've done more to move guests better. Green had so little demand, a switch should've been made. Could not find a CM at the end to discuss the matter.
Also on Sunday, I noticed that bay 3 was closed then too. If it was broken, then please be flexible and balance the system when a massive influx hits the Orange line.
At least the standby wait sign correctly displayed my wait time after we finished.

 

[MrNonacho]

I'm on my break right now, working at Mission: SPACE. Bay 3 is currently down and has been all day after 3rd shift maintenance did a number on it last night. They're currently waiting on a replacement part to get it back up and running. Hopefully it won't be more than a day or two.

We agree that one of the green bays should be running orange but it was deemed a while back to be too much of a pain (read: legal risk) to actually switch profiles so it's not something the cast is currently able to do.

 

[Astro_Digital]

Ride green? I have and what you miss is not a big deal.

 

[hokielutz]

I'm on my break right now, working at Mission: SPACE. Bay 3 is currently down and has been all day after 3rd shift maintenance did a number on it last night. They're currently waiting on a replacement part to get it back up and running. Hopefully it won't be more than a day or two.

We agree that one of the green bays should be running orange but it was deemed a while back to be too much of a pain (read: legal risk) to actually switch profiles so it's not something the cast is currently able to do.

Thanks for writing back... but yesterday morning and through mid afternoon, EPCOT west had pretty much a doomsday scenario occur. With Universe of Energy down for rehab, WoL permanently closed, and Test Track having a very serious shutdown for half the day, M:S was the only thrill ticket in the zipcode, and everyone was not buying the Green tickets. Good thing it wasn't summer... otherwise the heat would not have been good for guest attitudes. Taking a straw poll of those I was in line with, most did not understand why only one orange simulator was in operation. Popularity was obviously on the Orange side by a wide margin, and without TT to relieve the pressure... look out.

On the plus side... I really enjoyed the ride and thought I got a bigger rush from it than I did on Sunday morning.