Disney Analyst
Well-Known Member
Why have they removed all castle pyro from the “Celebrate America” fireworks??
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The Miscellaneous Thought Thread
- Thread starter mickEblu
- Start date
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
Perhaps leftover Fantasmic precautionary fallout?
JediMasterMatt
Well-Known Member
Not sure if the question was in regards to the quantity of people in the portrait hallway or if it was referring to the "playful spooks consistently interrupting our ride 3-4 times".
The two issues have some connection together as they both are impacted by the stopping of the doombuggies. Let me tackle the stoppage issue first as there are several things that contribute to it:
- Unfortunately, guests are no longer as nimble as they used to be in getting on and off the ride onto the speed ramps at load and unload. While it may be easy to blame guest size, the common though is that the two biggest factors are the number of loose articles that guest caravan around the park with these days and what is the most likely contributor to this - people simply aren't paying attention as much with their phones and other distractions.
- By far, the number one cause of RV stoppages is the need to stop the ride for disability access. If you are waiting in line for Mansion and get into the load room and see either guests waiting to the left of the load platform in the little corral past the last portrait before turning or if you see empty ECVs or wheelchairs here, you are pretty much guaranteed to to have at least one stoppage. This is because Disneyland designates certain doombuggies for disability use. This is so in the event of a real evacuation, they know where extra assistance is most likely needed and also it staggers the number of stoppages needed. My last visit to Disneyland was pre-Covid; but, they used to designate buggy 130 as the one that they would start to load disability guests into. They plan on using 1-3 "disability groups" per stoppage, so anywhere from 1-6 or so buggies depending on the sizes of the groups. They then only try to have one group of disability service people on the ride at a time. When they are busy with disability service, they then have a "group" ready to go down the stretching room elevator while another group is coming back up. Since there isn't a guest elevator at unload, wheelchair or ECV guests stay seated and take the trip in the buggy from unload back to load. So, a max of 3 groups of disability service guests in motion down elevator/load/up in the elevator in the Mansion at a time. So, the eight minutes ride cycle really determines the cadence of this. Since it gets very chaotic and also because other stoppages occur (like the slow loading/unloading guests above or actual technical isssues), there are always times when the maximum number of disability groups gets exceeded or they go under the total and load less than the maximum.
My wife is unfortunately disabled, so I've gotten very familiar with the process. Since she doesn't spend much time in the park and will head back to the room for rest, I use the above information to my advantage when I'm ridding by myself and want to take photos. If I see a bunch of guests in the disability queue going into the mansion and see the normal empty chairs/scooters at load, I can use this information to control where in the ride I'm likely going to get stopped and then can take nice long exposures without the ride in motion. Since the disability group is in buggy 130 and it's going to stop back at the end of load, you can use the other buggy numbers to determine where in the ride those are with a lot of trial and error; but, you can then pick up the pattern. I would keep notes on my phone of what buggy is where when it stops. For example, 99 is with Leota and 39 are the hitchhiking ghosts.
Florida also tries to limit the number of disability guests in chairs and ECVs; but, they are much more flexible with it as they don't have the bottleneck of requiring an elevator to get back to ground level in an emergency. They use the little "bat" magnets on the doombuggy shell to identify guests that will need the ride to stop at the end of the ride.
While it is unfortunately true that more and more people are requiring mobility assistance these days, Disney also is now more cautious about stopping the ride if you are using the disability service. In the past, they would leave it entirely up to the guest to let them know if they needed the ride to stop or slow. Now, most Cast Members err on the side of caution and simply plan on doing it if the guest is in a mobility device.
So, these are the causes for the "playful spooks interruptions" for the most part. They aren't usually technical breakdowns; but, simply guests needing more time to get on or off. That in turns can quickly back things up in the portrait hallway and the tendency is to have more people down and ready to load if needed than to let empty buggies cycle.
Disney Analyst
Well-Known Member
Wondrous Journey still has all its castle pyro, minus flame throwers. This seemed purposeful, as they added more stuff from the main launch sites.
Lame.
BuzzedPotatoHead89
Well-Known Member
Likely due to DTD construction… Given that it can’t run in high temperatures anyway this likely isn’t a huge loss, I suppose.
PiratesMansion
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the very thorough explanation. I know that most of the stoppages are disability-related, and I have no issue with that.
My question really is why these necessary omnimover disability loading stoppages seem to happen more often at Haunted Mansion (at both DLR and WDW) than at other omnimover rides. Maybe it's perception, but it seems much more common on HM vs. Buzz, Mermaid, etc.
Are those other rides simply the beneficiaries of better tech via upgraded systems, less popular, or is it something else?
JediMasterMatt
Well-Known Member
Because of the Disneyland Mansion show building being only accessible from the park for those with mobility issues via the stretching room elevators (without routing them backstage). The elevators are a bottleneck that limits the number of mobility impared guests that can be taken down and have their mobility device "stored" while they are riding. The limited space for wheelchairs/ECVs in the loading platform is part of the issue; but, ultimately it's a byproduct of needing to route the disabled guests up and down the elevators that mean you are more likley going to see a disruption at HM Disneyland than other attractions- including WDW's version. The disabilty queue usually has a backup and when that does, it means that there are guests down on the ride. When that occurs, you are guaranteed a stoppage.
With the other attractions that are accesible without the elevators, they can pump more disabled guests through and potentially not have any disruptions. They still throttle the number of mobility impared guests; but, they don't cause the backups like Disneyland's mansion.
What's nice about Disneyland's system is that while you are likely to encounter a stoppage every ride, you rarely will get multiple stops unless it is just a slow loading/unloading guest or a technical issue. With WDW's mansion, you can potentially get multiple stops as they can stagger in several disability groups.
Disney is more than accomodating for guests with disabilties; but, there are a few attractions where mobilitiy impaired people end up waiting much longer than other attractions just due to the way the queue lines are designed. Mansion is one where depending on how many other disabled guests are in the queue, you could wait much longer than standby - and this is after you get a return time. Indy is actually the worst offender of this because the disability line is throttled by the preshow room and the limited space on the loading platform. It's even worse when they are running the single rider line. The way they do it is only one disabled party per preshow is loaded, so it is common for the line to get backed up for an additional 30 minutes plus (again after the return window). Unfortunately, it's a byproduct of the design of the attractions. Newer attractions, like Rise, have mobility impairments more intergated into the queue/load/unload design. In hindsight, I wonder if Space Mountain Disneyland was really ahead of the curve when it comes to pulling an RV out of rotation to a separate load/unload and for the most part - it doesn't disrupt the normal flow of guests. Universal's Forbidden Journey is really slick how the KUKA arm flips over to the "inside" and you load from a special platform.
The best way to avoid ride interuptions are like others have mentioned - get there early or go late in the day. Less people, less people with mobility issues and more of a chance to not be interupted.
BTW - this is much better than the way Universal Orlando throttles mobility issues. They make most everything a transfer to one of their ride specific wheelchairs and during busy times, you can wait a long time for those to be returned as they often "walk off". Sometimes attractions will open with several chairs missing... or even where they can't find the keys to unlock the wheelchair corral.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
Newer omnimovers also have special transfer vehicles that open up and can accommodate a wheelchair directly in the vehicle without a transfer. I believe The Haunted Mansion also runs faster than some of the other rides which would make the slow downs more dramatic.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
The local Las Vegas TV news programs are going absolutely nuts over the Sphere's debut last night.
It is very impressive, I must say, and I wonder if Disney could do something with this technology on such a huge scale?
You can see the Las Vegas monorail go by (it's tiny in comparison), and I have to think "What if?...."
It is very impressive, I must say, and I wonder if Disney could do something with this technology on such a huge scale?
You can see the Las Vegas monorail go by (it's tiny in comparison), and I have to think "What if?...."
chadwpalm
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
Oh.....so they weren't building a 3rd Death Star. That's disappointing.
Rich T
Well-Known Member
Disney???? 2 point somethin’ billion dollars? When they can just project the same old animated movie clips on a water screen and have diehard fans swooning in joy?
Rich T
Well-Known Member
I watched fireworks this year in Universal Studios Orlando… which was unsurprisingly packed with guests. It was a straightforward presentation, but very beautiful, well-paced and easy to view from many different locations around the central lagoon as well as Citywalk.
Phroobar
Well-Known Member
Can they aim it at Kathleen Kennedy's house?
Consumer
Well-Known Member
MoonRakerSCM
Well-Known Member
We've already planned a Vegas weekend this fall to go see the ball... We're calling it our ball, pyramid, wheel, spike weekend...
Going to stay in the Luxor, ride the Free Roller, see the earth show inside the MSG Sphere, and have dinner on top of the Strat. Bunch of things we've never done before.
Going to stay in the Luxor, ride the Free Roller, see the earth show inside the MSG Sphere, and have dinner on top of the Strat. Bunch of things we've never done before.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
That very first year they did it, 2001, it didn't open until early October. I remember that because it was a month after 9/11 and all Americans were a bit discombobulated and still in sort of a daze. Michael Eisner came down to Disneyland in mid September to speak at the Flag raising ceremony on Main Street USA, but all that really did was cement that we had been brutally attacked as a people and a culture.
But as Disneyland fans, it was very comforting when Haunted Mansion Holiday opened for the very first time in early October, 2001 and was an instant smash hit. It told us that the world would go on, Disneyland would go on, and that things were going to be okay. It was important.
But yeah, opening a Halloween/Christmas ride on Labor Day weekend is kind of tacky.
Too Many Hats
Well-Known Member
YES. It’s even more chaotic over there. Reliably elbow-to-elbow, with guests who are less savvy about how to board an Omnimover.
It’s wild how much of a difference it makes. There have been mornings when I’ve barely been able to “find a way out” of the stretching room because it’s (seemingly) so dark. And then evenings where I spend the first 2 minutes of the ride blue-skying how they should plus-up the visible bare black walls of the loading area to resemble an actual room.
Nonetheless, late-night rides are the best. Exiting the crypt and hopping right back in line is peak Disneyland.