Radiator Springs Racers No Longer Works In The Rain?!? Is TDA Broken, or Just Broke?

[TP2000]

Driving home a few days ago, I stopped at my favorite Caesars Palace bar and then restaurant for a pit stop. While in the bar before being seated for dinner, a couple nearby was telling the bartender how silly SoCal can be in inclement weather. They had several examples, but one of them was "all the big rides at Disneyland were closed in the rain!". Their specific example was Radiator Springs Racers, which they incorrectly labeled as "Cars Ride" and positioned it somewhere inside Disneyland Park, but the point and the actual ride was quite clear based on the conversation's point of reference. They were talking about Radiator Springs Racers.

Quite frankly, the wife annoyed me and the husband seemed douchey, so I didn't engage with them. But I listened to them. And then when I got home I looked online.

While their nomenclature and geography were off, their complaint was alarmingly correct. Radiator Springs Racers in DCA's Cars Land apparently no longer operates in the rain! How?!? Why?!? What changed?!?!

Here's today at DCA, compliments of the very accurate folks at Queue Times, where it shows the pathetic operating schedule of Radiator Springs Racers. Looking at the hyper-local and very accurate records of wunderground.com ,on Thursday, January 5th, light rain fell in the Anaheim Resort District through late morning, then returned in early evening as a passing shower around 5:45pm. Each time it rained, it closed the ride during and for about an hour afterwards.

DCA was open from 8am to 10pm on Thursday, and Racers was closed from 8am until 3:46pm. Then it only operated from 3:46pm to 5:51pm until light rain began again for a short time. Racers was closed for 5:51pm until 8:31pm, when it stayed open under clear, starry skies until the park closed at 10pm.

January 5th, 2023, Anaheim Resort District, 1.38 Inches Rain For The Day

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Looking back earlier in the very busy Christmas vacation weeks, the story is even more pathetic. On New Year's Eve, one of the busiest days of the year, DCA was open from 8am to 1am. But there was light sporadic showers during the morning, followed by a dry break mid-day, and a steady moderate rain in the evening on December 31st. Which meant... Radiator Springs Racers was only open for less than 90 minutes that entire day!

During the afternoon dry spell, the DCA team decided to open Radiator Springs Racers at 1:51pm, before closing it due to a light rain shower at 3:17 pm. Which means this major E Ticket attraction and headliner DCA ride was only open for 87 minutes on one of the busiest days of the year. Due to.... sporadic, light rain showers.

December 31st, 2022, Anaheim Resort District = 0.43 Inches Rain For the Day

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Other days that have been drier, but with passing light showers, are not much better. Even though it's during the two busiest weeks of the year when ticket prices are highest and crowds are biggest. Monday, January 2nd dawned clear and sunny, but light rain arrived by early evening. Predictably, Racers closed at 5:51pm for the day the very moment light rain arrived in Anaheim and then never bothered to reopen for the last four hours of park operation.

January 2nd, 2023, Anaheim Resort District = 0.03 Inches Rain For the Day

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What the heck is going on there? This ride is barely a decade old, and was designed to operate in the rain. It operated in the rain just fine in previous winters. What changed? Is it bad maintenance and budget cuts to maintenance equipment and staffing? Are parts and machinery worn out after not being replaced on schedule, even though DCA was closed entirely for just over a year during the mandatory Covid shutdown by Sacramento's experts?

What the heck is going on in Cars Land??? Is TDA broken, or are they just so broke they can't afford regular maintenance for E Tickets now?

Disney California Adventure

Live wait times, historical data, and crowd recommendations for Disney California Adventure, which is located in United States, North America

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Disney Parks’ Ride Stoppages and Wait Times Grow as Ticket Prices Rise

Visitors to Disney’s theme parks are facing unplanned disruptions and longer lines at popular attractions. Disney says ride reliability remains strong.

www.wsj.com

 

[shambolicdefending]

This isn't new, is it?

I'm not aware that the "Cars Ride" has ever been operated in the rain. At least when it's more than a short drizzle, anyway.

 

[Parteecia]

Maybe to protect the guests*? I went on the old Screamin' once in the rain. I was screamin' in pain because the raindrops HURT when they hit my face while going that fast.

ETA *meaning, protect themselves from guest complaints.

 

[tcool123]

In Florida over at Epcot Teat Track routinely goes down during rain storms and its the same ride system. They should be blessed there wasn’t any lighting in the area in that case all outdoor attractions would be shuttered! I would hate to be in DCA that day given the park would lose likely more than half of its capacity.

 

[Heppenheimer]

Driving home a few days ago, I stopped at my favorite Caesars Palace bar and then restaurant for a pit stop. While in the bar before being seated for dinner, a couple nearby was telling the bartender how silly SoCal can be in inclement weather. They had several examples, but one of them was "all the big rides at Disneyland were closed in the rain!". Their specific example was Radiator Springs Racers, which they incorrectly labeled as "Cars Ride" and positioned it somewhere inside Disneyland Park, but the point and the actual ride was quite clear based on the conversation's point of reference. They were talking about Radiator Springs Racers.

Quite frankly, the wife annoyed me and the husband seemed douchey, so I didn't engage with them. But I listened to them. And then when I got home I looked online.

While their nomenclature and geography were off, their complaint was alarmingly correct. Radiator Springs Racers in DCA's Cars Land apparently no longer operates in the rain! How?!? Why?!? What changed?!?!

Here's today at DCA, compliments of the very accurate folks at Queue Times, where it shows the pathetic operating schedule of Radiator Springs Racers. Looking at the hyper-local and very accurate records of wunderground.com ,on Thursday, January 5th, light rain fell in the Anaheim Resort District through late morning, then returned in early evening as a passing shower around 5:45pm. Each time it rained, it closed the ride during and for about an hour afterwards.

DCA was open from 8am to 10pm on Thursday, and Racers was closed from 8am until 3:46pm. Then it only operated from 3:46pm to 5:51pm until light rain began again for a short time. Racers was closed for 5:51pm until 8:31pm, when it stayed open under clear, starry skies until the park closed at 10pm.

View attachment 690293

January 5th, 2023, Anaheim Resort District, 1.38 Inches Rain For The Day

Personal Weather Station Dashboard | Weather Underground

Weather Underground provides local & long-range weather forecasts, weather reports, maps & tropical weather conditions for locations worldwide.

www.wunderground.com

Looking back earlier in the very busy Christmas vacation weeks, the story is even more pathetic. On New Year's Eve, one of the busiest days of the year, DCA was open from 8am to 1am. But there was light sporadic showers during the morning, followed by a dry break mid-day, and a steady moderate rain in the evening on December 31st. Which meant... Radiator Springs Racers was only open for less than 90 minutes that entire day!

During the afternoon dry spell, the DCA team decided to open Radiator Springs Racers at 1:51pm, before closing it due to a light rain shower at 3:17 pm. Which means this major E Ticket attraction and headliner DCA ride was only open for 87 minutes on one of the busiest days of the year. Due to.... sporadic, light rain showers.

View attachment 690294
December 31st, 2022, Anaheim Resort District = 0.43 Inches Rain For the Day

Personal Weather Station Dashboard | Weather Underground

Weather Underground provides local & long-range weather forecasts, weather reports, maps & tropical weather conditions for locations worldwide.

www.wunderground.com

Other days that have been drier, but with passing light showers, are not much better. Even though it's during the two busiest weeks of the year when ticket prices are highest and crowds are biggest. Monday, January 2nd dawned clear and sunny, but light rain arrived by early evening. Predictably, Racers closed at 5:51pm for the day the very moment light rain arrived in Anaheim and then never bothered to reopen for the last four hours of park operation.

View attachment 690295
January 2nd, 2023, Anaheim Resort District = 0.03 Inches Rain For the Day

Personal Weather Station Dashboard | Weather Underground

Weather Underground provides local & long-range weather forecasts, weather reports, maps & tropical weather conditions for locations worldwide.

www.wunderground.com

What the heck is going on there? This ride is barely a decade old, and was designed to operate in the rain. It operated in the rain just fine in previous winters. What changed? Is it bad maintenance and budget cuts to maintenance equipment and staffing? Are parts and machinery worn out after not being replaced on schedule, even though DCA was closed entirely for just over a year during the mandatory Covid shutdown by Sacramento's experts?

What the heck is going on in Cars Land??? Is TDA broken, or are they just so broke they can't afford regular maintenance for E Tickets now?

Disney California Adventure

Live wait times, historical data, and crowd recommendations for Disney California Adventure, which is located in United States, North America

queue-times.com

Disney Parks’ Ride Stoppages and Wait Times Grow as Ticket Prices Rise

Visitors to Disney’s theme parks are facing unplanned disruptions and longer lines at popular attractions. Disney says ride reliability remains strong.

www.wsj.com

When I was last at Disneyland (the last days before it closed for the pandemic), we had several rainy days, and I seem to remember it shut down then too. So, probably not something new.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I don't think RSR has ever stayed open in rain.

 

[Phroobar]

I didn't think Test Track worked in the rain either. I wonder if Journey to the Center of Earth at Disney Sea has the rain problem. I bet it does. So RSR is third generation of this ride system that still can't perform in the rain.

 

[SSG]

In Florida over at Epcot Teat Track routinely goes down during rain storms and its the same ride system. They should be blessed there wasn’t any lighting in the area in that case all outdoor attractions would be shuttered! I would hate to be in DCA that day given the park would lose likely more than half of its capacity.

I can't wait to ride the Teat Track at Epcot. Definitely a bucket list event.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I didn't think Test Track worked in the rain either. I wonder if Journey to the Center of Earth at Disney Sea has the rain problem. I bet it does. So RSR is third generation of this ride system that still can't perform in the rain.

I can’t imagine it would be much fun speeding through the rain…


But it’s also barely an issue in California, as rain isn’t that often.

Now Test Track… ooof. Orlando needs more fully indoor experiences.

 

[Stevek]

I seem to remember it always being closed in the rain.

 

[Professortango1]

In other news; Big Thunder Mountain features a goat chewing dynamite.

 

[networkpro]

In Florida over at Epcot Teat Track routinely goes down during rain storms and its the same ride system. They should be blessed there wasn’t any lighting in the area in that case all outdoor attractions would be shuttered! I would hate to be in DCA that day given the park would lose likely more than half of its capacity.

Do you want to pay for the silicon upcharge ?

 

[NobodyElse]

I can't wait to ride the Teat Track at Epcot. Definitely a bucket list event.

Your milk bucket list?

 

[Disney Irish]

I have to agree with everyone else, this isn't new and so isn't specifically a TDA issue given the same ride system in Epcot does the same thing. I know that it usually closes during lighting storms. So if there is a threat of lighting during a rain storm I believe they close down to be safe.

I have ridden it during the rain before, so I can say it does run during the rain sometimes.

 

[TP2000]

This isn't new, is it?

I'm not aware that the "Cars Ride" has ever been operated in the rain. At least when it's more than a short drizzle, anyway.

I don't think RSR has ever stayed open in rain.

Yes, in the 2010's it operated routinely in the rain. I remember riding it that way with poncho-clad family members and the car was soaked, as memory serves that was about winter, 2018.

There are also many, many online videos of the attraction operating in the rain pre-pandemic.

Here's one from 2015 and you can tell not only is it actively raining during filming, but it had been raining for quite some time beforehand because even the interior sections of track are wet and have standing water along the car guideways. That proves the attraction had been running for some time in that day's rain and cars were tracking dripping water onto the interior portions of the ride for quite awhile before this video was taken.



Heck, at the 3:40 mark the cars dive down into that cave and go SPLASH! through the standing water puddle at the bottom of the dip.

 

[TP2000]

Just to prove I wasn't going crazy and/or I had split off into an alternate universe in the 2010's....

I Googled up photos and TR's of people talking about riding Radiator Springs Racers in the pouring rain. It happened repeatedly in the 2010's. Here's a photo from a TR back in 2017 on a rainy winter day in Cars Land, just before they boarded a very wet Radiator Springs Racers.

 

[TP2000]

I didn't think Test Track worked in the rain either. I wonder if Journey to the Center of Earth at Disney Sea has the rain problem. I bet it does. So RSR is third generation of this ride system that still can't perform in the rain.

Journey To the Center of the Earth most definitely works in the rain. A hard, driving, typhoon-fueled rain at that, as I once remember.

 

[TP2000]

I have to agree with everyone else, this isn't new and so isn't specifically a TDA issue given the same ride system in Epcot does the same thing. I know that it usually closes during lighting storms. So if there is a threat of lighting during a rain storm I believe they close down to be safe.

True, but there has not been a lightning strike in Southern California for the past several months.

For instance, on December 31st 2022 when Racers only operated for 90 minutes the entire day, the nearest lightning strikes to Anaheim were about 1,500 miles off the Northern California coast out in the Pacific Ocean, or a small cluster of a half dozen in far northern Nevada.

Real Time Lightning Map

See lightning strikes in real time across the planet. Free access to maps of former thunderstorms. By Blitzortung.org and contributors.

www.lightningmaps.org

I have ridden it during the rain before, so I can say it does run during the rain sometimes.

Thank you. For a few minutes here I thought I'd gone crazy, or maybe slipped into an alternate timeline universe where the Nazis won the war and Radiator Springs Racers always closed due to rain.

Radiator Springs Racers used to run routinely in rain. Something has changed now. They now close the ride, or the ride shuts down itself for some reason, the moment drops start hitting Route 66 in Cars Land.

I'd love to know what changed there with that ride system. A lack of maintenance over the past decade? A ride system that no longer works as designed in even light rainfall or a passing drizzly cloud? Something has changed.

But the Nazis still lost the war in this timeline, so at least there's that.

 

[Disney Irish]

True, but there has not been a lightning strike in Southern California for the past several months.

For instance, on December 31st 2022 when Racers only operated for 90 minutes the entire day, the nearest lightning strikes to Anaheim were about 1,500 miles off the Northern California coast out in the Pacific Ocean, or a small cluster of a half dozen in far northern Nevada.

Real Time Lightning Map

See lightning strikes in real time across the planet. Free access to maps of former thunderstorms. By Blitzortung.org and contributors.

www.lightningmaps.org

I think you missed the part about "threat" of a lighting/thunder storm. Its not about an actual strike, its about the potential.

Thank you. For a few minutes here I thought I'd gone crazy, or maybe slipped into an alternate timeline universe where the Nazis won the war and Radiator Springs Racers always closed due to rain.

Radiator Springs Racers used to run routinely in rain. Something has changed now. They now close the ride, or the ride shuts down itself for some reason, the moment drops start hitting Route 66 in Cars Land.

I'd love to know what changed there with that ride system. A lack of maintenance over the past decade? A ride system that no longer works as designed in even light rainfall or a passing drizzly cloud? Something has changed.

But the Nazis still lost the war in this timeline, so at least there's that.

I think "routinely" is being used very generously here by you. From 2014 through 2022 I've gone over a hundred times to DLR. And during some of those times it was raining, and RSR was closed some of those times and it was open some of the other times.

So again it not something new, nothing changed. Its a regular enough occurrence that many here have experienced and confirmed the same thing. And again the same ride system in Epcot goes down probably even more frequent due to rain storms.

Just remember just because you've never heard of it before doesn't mean its something new.

 

[TP2000]

I think you missed the part about "threat" of a lighting/thunder storm. Its not about an actual strike, its about the potential.

So, like, they've got some system that scans the immediate area for massing ions about to form a lightning bolt? I don't think Disney does that; they just wait until they see the flash and hear the thunder and say "Ooh, we gotta shut down the Golden Zephyr now!".

I think "routinely" is being used very generously here by you. From 2014 through 2022 I've gone over a hundred times to DLR. And during some of those times it was raining, and RSR was closed some of those times and it was open some of the other times.

So again it not something new, nothing changed.

No, looking at the miserable reliability record of Racers for the past few weeks shows something definitely changed. And it appears to be directly correlated with even the slightest of showers moving over the Resort area.

Something has definitely changed with that ride system. Either it physically can no longer operate in damp conditions, or the DCA team is purposely closing it as soon as the slightest shower arrives to prevent further damage or impact to something with the ride system or facility.

I'd love to know what it is, and if the upcoming rehab for that ride aims to fix it and get it back to normal.

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