My first ride with technical difficulties - Tower of Terror

[SinginSarah]

I'm currently at WDW with my sister and my niece and this morning we did DHS. We went on ToT twice (because my niece loved it so much). The first time it worked as it should be. The second time, when we got done with the drop sequence, we went to the bottom of the shaft, they played the video and the end voice over, but the car didn't move. When the video finished we were in complete darkness for about a full minute. After that the voice over from pre-drop came on, and we were in complete silence/darkness again. At this point I (maybe mistakenly) let everyone in the car know that we were supposed to have moved back out of the shaft, which made a couple of people freak out quite a bit. The rest of us just started yelling, because my concern at this point was that we were still at the bottom of the shaft, what would happen if another car started their drop sequence on top of us?

Then just as I started hearing screams from another car above us, our car started moving back into the prop room, but didn't turn. After 30-60 seconds the lights turned off again and we were in darkness for another 30 or so seconds. Then we started to turn and got up to the door.

The odd thing was that the cast member at the door didn't even know that anything out of the ordinary happened. Does this happen often? Does anyone know if there are safety procedures in line if a car gets stuck in the bottom of the shaft and another car starts the drop? I didn't really think about it much at the time, but I should have been worried we'd be crushed by another car.

 

[hollywoodj]

One time my elevator car got stuck right before it moved forward at the exit. Another car came down and moved toward us, while everyone was freaking out, naturally, but it stopped right next to us. It was scary, but I'm sure they can't move if there's another one in the way.

 

[Bairstow]

One time my elevator car got stuck right before it moved forward at the exit. Another car came down and moved toward us, while everyone was freaking out, naturally, but it stopped right next to us. It was scary, but I'm sure they can't move if there's another one in the way.

Right next to you, as in, above you?

 

[coachwnh]

Got stuck on BTMRR. First time our kids (7 and 5 at the time) went together in car in front of us. We stopped going up the hill just as the first car was under the water spray. We sat for about 30 minutes. You'd be amazed to see how wet the people up front got when stuck there all of that time!!

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

Worst breakdown ever was Mission: Space during soft opening in 2003. The ride just stopped during the liftoff. Awful feeling.

 

[splashmtnfan]

I had that happen once on ToT back in 2001. I was afraid another elevator would drop on top of us. We finally moved forward to the door and were able to get off but it sure was nerve wracking sitting there in the dark knowing we were still in the elevator shaft. I am not sure how it all works but I would sure hope by having a car stuck in the wrong spot at the bottom that there would be a fail safe that would not allow another car into the shaft to start their drop sequence.

 

[worldfanatic]

I didn't really think about it much at the time, but I should have been worried we'd be crushed by another car.

Multiple safety systems prevent this from occuring.
Things can break, accidents can still happen, but not in this way.
You were in zero danger.

 

[bethymouse]

Oh my! The very 1st time my boys rode Test Track (they were 4) the ride broke down during the "fast" part outside. We were kinda suspended on our side for about 20 minutes! Uncomfortable!
They offered for us to ride again. My one boy was rarin' to go. My other guy was crying and didn't want to. The AMAZING thing about the very kind cast members is that they tried to convince him to go again. They even took him up into the control room to see "how it works". He calmed down a bit, but still wasn't ready. The CMs told us to bring him back any time (no fast passes, just to get straight on!). So we did about an hour later after Ellen's Energy Adventure (he closed his eyes during the dinosaur part). They took us straight on - all 4 of us, and then he loved it so much, they let us ride it again (stay on). Needless to say, they're hooked now! What a magical memory! I just love Disney for this reason, and this is just one story I could tell!

 

[acishere]

Oh my! The very 1st time my boys rode Test Track (they were 4) the ride broke down during the "fast" part outside. We were kinda suspended on our side for about 20 minutes! Uncomfortable!
They offered for us to ride again. My one boy was rarin' to go. My other guy was crying and didn't want to. The AMAZING thing about the very kind cast members is that they tried to convince him to go again. They even took him up into the control room to see "how it works". He calmed down a bit, but still wasn't ready. The CMs told us to bring him back any time (no fast passes, just to get straight on!). So we did about an hour later after Ellen's Energy Adventure (he closed his eyes during the dinosaur part). They took us straight on - all 4 of us, and then he loved it so much, they let us ride it again (stay on). Needless to say, they're hooked now! What a magical memory! I just love Disney for this reason, and this is just one story I could tell!

Test Track was where I had my first experience with technical difficulties also. There was a "please be patient" announcement as we were going through the heat and cold rooms, but we didn't notice anything. Then the handling segment came up and instead of increasing speed we just kept going slower and slower until we stopped just before the truck for a minute or two before we moved slowly past the truck scene (Luckily the truck stopped in time and killed its lights). After the crash room everything was back to normal.

Though the worst will always be when I was on Its A Small World for 20 minutes. Never sing that song around me, EVER!

 

[maryszhi]

wow that must of been scary. i believe they have alot of safety mechanisms to prevent any accidents from happening. thats why i love disney: safety comes first.

 

[bubbles1812]

Though the worst will always be when I was on Its A Small World for 20 minutes. Never sing that song around me, EVER!

This made me laugh. Small World is my mom's favorite ride so while we could probably go on it once or twice a trip and be perfectly fine, on all our trips we ended up going on it much more. And we too had the...interesting...experience of being stuck on Small World for 30ish minutes. I can sing that whole damn song because of that...not that it's exactly hard to learn the words. Mom was happy but I think both my brothers were about to let the totally drugged up looking hippo in the jungle scene eat them.

 

[hollywoodj]

Right next to you, as in, above you?

No, this was right where the car is let out. There is enough space for another car to go through the drop sequence and come next to it, so it did.

 

[lilclerk]

Mom was happy but I think both my brothers were about to let totally drugged up looking hippo in the jungle scene eat them.

That hippo is my favorite part of the ride

 

[Rob562]

The cars roll into a sort of cage in the lift and drop shafts, so it's physically impossible for more than one ride vehicle to be in a shaft at the same time.

At the unload level, there is room for the ride to park at least one car, possibly two, between the drop shaft and the unload point. As the CM at the Unload point didn't seem phased by the issue, chances are there was a vehicle that was slow to unload that then caused the rest of the cars in the system to get backed up. There was probably another car behind you as you backed out of the shaft, you just couldn't see it because it was behind you and blocked from your line of sight.

Think of the cars like the drive-thru at McDonald's. One car is at the window (unload in the ToT analogy), a second is behind it (parked in the middle), a third is behind that one at the ordering speaker (doing its thing in the drop shaft). When the one at the window drives away, the next one moves up one space, the one behind that moves up one space, and so forth. The ride system just does it automatically, and under *normal* operation there's never a delay, and you'd roll right from the speaker to the window and never see another car. But there's always that one person who asks for a special order that takes longer... ;-)

The lights going off and on are part of the lighting cues of the ride's normal operation. After a car is finished unloading and the Unload doors close, the lights go out so that they're off when the next car comes out of the Drop shaft and then can come on again. You probably just sat through multiple cycles of the light cues.

Hope that helps.

-Rob

 

[unkadug]

The cars roll into a sort of cage in the lift and drop shafts, so it's physically impossible for more than one ride vehicle to be in a shaft at the same time.

At the unload level, there is room for the ride to park at least one car, possibly two, between the drop shaft and the unload point. As the CM at the Unload point didn't seem phased by the issue, chances are there was a vehicle that was slow to unload that then caused the rest of the cars in the system to get backed up. There was probably another car behind you as you backed out of the shaft, you just couldn't see it because it was behind you and blocked from your line of sight.

Think of the cars like the drive-thru at McDonald's. One car is at the window (unload in the ToT analogy), a second is behind it (parked in the middle), a third is behind that one at the ordering speaker (doing its thing in the drop shaft). When the one at the window drives away, the next one moves up one space, the one behind that moves up one space, and so forth. The ride system just does it automatically, and under *normal* operation there's never a delay, and you'd roll right from the speaker to the window and never see another car. But there's always that one person who asks for a special order that takes longer... ;-)

The lights going off and on are part of the lighting cues of the ride's normal operation. After a car is finished unloading and the Unload doors close, the lights go out so that they're off when the next car comes out of the Drop shaft and then can come on again. You probably just sat through multiple cycles of the light cues.

Hope that helps.

-Rob

This...

It is physically impossible for there to be more than one car in the shaft at one time, as your car is NOT the drop vehicle...your car must enter the drop vehicle and there is only ONE drop vehicle per shaft.

Never worry about that. You should worry more about your car moving into the drop shaft before the drop vehicle has arrived back to the top!

 

[marni1971]

One time my elevator car got stuck right before it moved forward at the exit. Another car came down and moved toward us, while everyone was freaking out, naturally, but it stopped right next to us. It was scary, but I'm sure they can't move if there's another one in the way.

That would have been fine. You were well clear of the drop shaft, and the VVC (the drop vehicle) had plenty of time to go back to the 5th D to collect the next car and deliver it to the basement. Technically, you could have moved forwards to the unload doors and the new car, if empty, would have had space to travel behind yours to park up in storage.

There are indeed multiple safety systems to stop cars actually touching. And even if they did, at +/-1mph they'd whimper for a second before just giving up. The AGVs are running on battery power and small electric motors when they move horizontally.

 

[ellie-badge]

Wow! I know I should know better, but I'd probably be one of the people that freaked out, too.

 

[SinginSarah]

As a former cast member, I know Disney's firm stance on safety above all things, so that's probably why I wasn't worried at the time, I was fairly sure there was a failsafe in there somewhere to prevent anything from happening. However, some other people in the car (including my sister) were very scared at that moment.There was one woman who was close to hyperventilating. I was scared for her more than anything.

 

[polynesiangirl]

Oh my! The very 1st time my boys rode Test Track (they were 4) the ride broke down during the "fast" part outside. We were kinda suspended on our side for about 20 minutes! Uncomfortable!

Ha! I think this has happened to my family more than once. If I'm not mistaken Test Track is (or, was, I guess,) somewhat prone to these problems. Then on one trip when we finally ride through, when we came out of the gift shop another car was right above us, stuck on their side on the track again. They waved to us, hahaha.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

I'm a little surprised you guys were stopped long enough for people to start freaking out and no CMs acknowledged it. The only time I've been stuck on Tower of Terror, a cast member announced over PA that they could see and hear us and that if we needed emergency assistance all we had to do was speak up.