What to Do When a Disney World Ride Breaks Down
Most Disney World attractions run reliably for days on end. Several Disney World rides break down on a regular basis, from weather, mechanical, or other causes. An unexpected ride closure can throw a wrench into anyone’s day, as this mom notes:
We had a lot of rides that had tech problems. Pirates of the Caribbean, Winnie the Pooh, Flight of Passage, Peter Pan’s Flight and Spaceship Earth. This was VERY frustrating!! We spent over 3 hours in line for FOP because of this. It made the other rides less fun because it would just stop in the middle of the ride and lose the magic.
Mom from Springville, Alabama
It’s not magical to arrive at an attraction that just closed. It’s even worse to have waited in a long line before hearing that the attraction is closed. Compounding that problem is that Disney cast members will not estimate when the attraction will re-open – they’ll only tell you if the ride will definitely be closed for the rest of the day. But we’re here to help you avoid ride closures and handle them when they do occur.
Tools to Avoid Closures
The TouringPlans’ Lines app will tell you when an attraction is closed and estimate when it will reopen. When you re-optimize your touring plan in our Lines app, the software will automatically shift a closed attraction to later in the day.
We’re also working to use weather forecasts to predict attraction closures. When this is running, personalized touring plans will avoid sending you to outdoor attractions in the middle of a storm.
We’ve got advice even if you’re not following a touring plan. Below is a list of attractions that experience frequent closures during the first and last hour the park is open. Use that when deciding which attraction not to visit first or last in the day.
Ride Closure Data
Below are Walt Disney World attraction closure statistics for the past year. The attractions are sorted in descending order by closure rates for each park.
Magic Kingdom Ride Closures
| Magic Kingdom Attractions | Days with a Closure | Mean/Median Closure Length (minute) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Any Time | First Hour | Last Hour | ||
| Splash Mountain | 68% | 29% | 11% | 74/60 |
| Pirates of Caribbean | 64% | 22% | 8% | 50/21 |
| Winnie the Pooh | 61% | 18% | 9% | 34/28 |
| 7 Dwarfs Train | 57% | 12% | 11% | 55/46 |
| Space Mountain | 55% | 15% | 9% | 58/49 |
| Magic Carpets | 50% | 3% | 6% | 37/15 |
| Buzz Lightyear | 45% | 4% | 4% | 20/7 |
| Peter Pan’s Flight | 43% | 6% | 5% | 21/8 |
| Big Thunder Mtn | 42% | 9% | 5% | 71/60 |
| Barnstormer | 41% | 6% | 7% | 49/39 |
| Jungle Cruise | 41% | 3% | 5% | 59/38 |
| Haunted Mansion | 40% | 5% | 3% | 29/13 |
| Astro Orbiter | 26% | 2% | 3% | 63/53 |
| Under the Sea | 24% | 4% | 2% | 31/18 |
| Dumbo | 23% | 2% | 3% | 60/52 |
| Laugh Floor | 17% | 4% | 3% | 65/39 |
| it’s a small world | 16% | 4% | 1% | 52/15 |
| Ench Tales w/ Belle | 11% | 4% | 1% | 29/14 |
| Ariel’s Grotto | 6% | 2% | 1% | 16/14 |
| Mean is the average of all observed closures. Median is the 50th percentile: The point where half the closures are above and below. |
||||
| The mean and median are both statistical measures of central tendency. When the mean does not equal the median the data distribution is skewed. For the closure data, when the mean is greater than the median, that means that there are some very long closures. | ||||
Epcot Ride Closures
| Epcot Kingdom Attractions | Days with a Closure | Mean/Median Closure Length (minute) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Any Time | First Hour | Last Hour | ||
| Test Track | 81% | 27% | 22% | 53/22 |
| Frozen Ever After | 59% | 11% | 15% | 59/46 |
| Spaceship Earth | 44% | 8% | 7% | 27/12 |
| Jrny Imagination | 35% | 13% | 5% | 35/21 |
| Gran Fiesta Tour | 32% | 10% | 4% | 179/33 |
| Living w/ Land | 25% | 8% | 2% | 24/13 |
| Seas with Nemo | 14% | 4% | 0% | 35/15 |
| Msn: SPACE Orange | 5% | 2% | 0% | 16/11 |
| Soarin’ | 2% | 1% | 0% | 93/25 |
Hollywood Studios Ride Closures
| Hollywood Studios Attractions | Days with a Closure | Mean/Median Closure Length (minute) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Any Time | First Hour | Last Hour | ||
| Tower of Terror | 36% | 6% | 4% | 50/28 |
| Rock Coaster | 28% | 9% | 3% | 39/25 |
| Toy Story Mania! | 25% | 6% | 3% | 51/44 |
| Muppet*Vision 3D | 5% | 1% | 0% | 84/35 |
| Star Tours | 2% | 0% | 0% | 46/29 |
Animal Kingdom Ride Closures
| Animal Kingdom Attractions | Days with a Closure | Mean/Median Closure Length (minute) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Any Time | First Hour | Last Hour | ||
| Kali River Rapids | 64% | 12% | 11% | 45/14 |
| DINOSAUR | 63% | 14% | 9% | 40/14 |
| TriceraTop Spin | 49% | 5% | 6% | 32/14 |
| Na’vi River | 41% | 8% | 6% | 38/11 |
| Expedition Everest | 40% | 15% | 7% | 59/38 |
| Primeval Whirl | 27% | 4% | 5% | 45/33 |
| It’s Tough to Be a Bug | 14% | 4% | 1% | 41/25 |
| Flight of Passage | 11% | 2% | 1% | 72/27 |
| Kilimanjaro Safaris | 7% | 2% | 1% | 30/7 |
Test Track at Epcot has the highest closure rate of 81% – that means that 295 of the last 365 days saw at least one closure. Half of the closures at Test Track were 22 minutes or shorter. Attractions with multiple rooms or multiple tracks rarely have a full closure. For example, Star Tours can operate with 4 simulators if 2 simulators are malfunctioning.
Strategies for Avoiding Ride Closures
Keep an eye on the weather. Assume outdoor attractions will be closed if a thunderstorm is in the forecast. Expect crowds to be higher on a nice day after a storm.
Also, watch out for closed attractions. Be prepared to jump in line as soon as an attraction re-opens. For example, if Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is closed, but you see Disney running empty trains, it is likely ready to re-open.
You may want to avoid the attractions with a high rate of first-hour closures if you are choosing an attraction to rush to at park opening. Prioritize attractions with a high rate of closure for FastPass+.
FastPass+ Strategy
At first, it might sound counter-intuitive to get FastPasses for attractions that have a high rate of closure. The FastPass+ rule is generous for attractions that have a closure. A FastPass+ reservation for a closed attraction automatically turns into an Anytime FastPass+. An Anytime FastPass+ can be used at almost all attractions in the park. If the closure is late enough in the day, the Anytime FastPass+ is good for an extra day and good at any park. An Anytime FastPass+ does not count against your available FastPasses. You can book another FastPass+ while holding an Anytime FastPass+.
The Final Straw
Let Disney know if you’ve experienced several closed attractions in a park. Be polite and acknowledge that it’s not the cast member’s fault. You may get some pixie dust.
Historic Closure Rates
The Crowd Calendar daily pages show weather and closure (offline) rates.
On the page, you can see each attraction’s predicted and observed average wait time and the closure (offline) rate.
Have attraction closures impacted your day at the parks? What rides always seem to be down when you want to ride them? Let us know in the comments.
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Is there any chance you have updates for these attraction closure stats for 2019-2020? These are very interesting stats.
Last year we had FP+ for Expedition Everest and the ride went down about the time we were headed there. Disney sent a text advising the ride was down but I all I read was the ride was down so I thought we were just out of luck. I didn’t bother to read the details of the text advising I could use the FP+ at any time of the day. I didn’t notice the details of the text until I read it later back at the hotel. Now that I think about it the message may have been on “My Disney Experience”.
Last time we were there (2016) Pirates of the Caribbean was down twice and Expedition Everest for several hours. Other than that, we have been very lucky. So you said if a ride closes for which your fast pass time window has begun, you don’t need to see a CM, you just go to any attraction where FP is available and scan your band?
Yes. Your FastPass+ will change to an Anytime FP automatically. You will receive an email with what attractions the FP is good for and the date(s) it is good for. The Disney app will also change the FP from a specific time and attraction to an anytime FP.
These numbers are for complete closures, e.g. for Soarin’, all three theatres are shut down?
Correct. Disney does not report when attractions are running at less than 100% capacity.
Are these just unplanned closures, or do they include scheduled closures?
Yes, the stats are based on unplanned closures.
Nicole, thanks for the empathy. I wish it would have made my one day trip to Magic Kingdom better. On top of paying a premium for that ticket, because…….it’s just one day, we had so many ride closures. 7 Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Those closures made getting FP to other rides near impossible and the stand by lines were ridiculous. Other than getting my money back, there would have been nothing a CM could do to provide anything I would think was “pixie dust”. This was my first visit since 2015 and I doubt I’ll be back anytime soon.
Our last trip to Magic Kingdom started with Splash, Space and 7 Dwarfs Mine Train all down at the same time at the beginning of the day for about 2-3 hours. It left the whole park a mess with lines everywhere else. I gave up- got myself a nutella waffle and waited it out. Luckily, I visit often enough for it to not kill my whole trip- but I felt really awful for people who don’t have the luxury of going back the next year.
We had this, but were lucky enough to have park hoppers. I went to guest services, explained the situation and that we were going to give up and go to Epcot, and asked for a Soarin’ fastpass. The cast member totally understood and gave it to us no problem.
Oh how I love these number/stats heavy posts. Very interesting information to dig through. And I had never clicked on the link for stats showing closures on a given day. Yet another feature of your great service!