Walt Disney World has been open for almost a full month now and though the reopening has gone mostly to plan, we can’t help but notice that there is one area where the resort seems to be struggling: maintenance. From animatronics going crazy to massive malfunctions on rides like Splash Mountain, there have been a lot of incidents recently where attractions simply aren’t working the way they are supposed to.
1. Carousel of Progress
Right after reopening, one of the first attractions to suffer with maintenance issues was the Carousel of Progress, which a number of issues including speakers that didn’t turn, missing music tracks, and issues with the animatronics, which included some wild behavior from the normally-subdued John, which you can check out here. The attraction has had some intermittent downtime since these incidents, but seems to be back to working order now. However, unfortunately this attraction’s incident was just the first of nearly half a dozen that have happened since the parks reopened.
2. José Carioca falls down, and then disappears
Over at Epcot, guests riding the Gran Fiesta Tour got a surprise a few weeks ago when the finale scene unexpectedly featured a face-down José Carioca, which you can see here. Unfortunately, this problem did not seem like a quick fix, and the malfunctioning animatronic was quickly removed and subsequently replaced with flowers (which you can see here), prompting some to wonder if this bird was out of the Three Caballeros for good! However, as of August 3, 2020, José Carioca has returned to this attraction and is back to his old singing self!
3. Spaceship Earth displays World of Warcraft ad
Riders on Spaceship Earth last month encountered a strange glitch when the Spaceship Earth “choose your own future” touch screen accidentally displayed an Intel HD Graphics Control Panel featuring an ad for PC game World of Warcraft! This was a very temporary error and was fixed almost immediately, but you can see a funny video of this glitch here.
4. Living With the Land runs backwards
Living with the Land is a cult favorite attraction at Epcot that allows many guests to feel like they have been transported back to the 1980s “edutainment” heyday of the park. However, last week the ride literally took guests backwards as social media users reported that their boats started floating in reverse during the greenhouse section of the ride. You can see a video of the malfunction here. This was another temporary issue that seems to now be corrected after the fact.
5. Splash Mountain sinks
The most recent maintenance issue at Walt Disney World happened at the Magic Kingdom last weekend when Splash Mountain ride vehicles literally sank towards the end of the ride, forcing guests to evacuate on their own before the vehicles were totally submerged. You can see video of the incident here, and photos after the ride went down here. The incident happened toward the end of the ride and involved five visitors, who were all able to get out of the ride vehicle safely, A Disney spokesperson said, speaking with Spectrum News 13. One day after the incident occurred, Splash Mountain was back to operating normally, with no sinking ride vehicles to report!
All of these ride hiccups happening in the space of a few weeks at Walt Disney World definitely seems a bit unusual. However, all of these issues happening at the same time could simply just be a result of the parks staying closed for so long and then opening back up so suddenly or perhaps an effect of fewer Cast Members in the parks working on ride maintenance. Whatever the reason, hopefully we won’t see too many more of these in the future!
As always, while this situation is evolving, all travelers should check out the CDC’s official site here, which has information on the virus and how to prevent its spread.
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