Waits and Uptime Reports - Hagrid’s Magical Creature Motorbike Adventure

[shiekra38]

I work right around the corner from universal and it started to rain around 4:30. Not all day though. It just finally let up about a half hour ago.

Hmm it looked from radar that the rain/potential lightning threat has been sticking around all day

Regardless, it is going to be a wet stormy week, so it doesn't bode well for the ride being open

 

[OhHaiInternet95]

Hmm it looked from radar that the rain/potential lightning threat has been sticking around all day

Regardless, it is going to be a wet stormy week, so it doesn't bode well for the ride being open

Conflicted on this. On one hand it sucks that the ride won't have much up time due to weather, on the other hand WE NEED RAIN!

 

[Mad Dog]

Conflicted on this. On one hand it sucks that the ride won't have much up time due to weather, on the other hand WE NEED RAIN!

You can gladly have some of our rain....super wet three years in a row breaking all records. It just never seems to stop. And the grass just grows and grows and grows.

 

[Parkscope Joe]

How difficult would it be to re-work the control system? As in, would it require a Jaws-level redo?

No, Jaws replaced everything and changed show scenes. This is still in line with other major attraction openings like FoP, Gringotts, SDMT, etc.

 

[Evan]

No, Jaws replaced everything and changed show scenes. This is still in line with other major attraction openings like FoP, Gringotts, SDMT, etc.

Can I ask, as I genuinely don't remember, did any of those attractions have days where they just didn't open? Or had to have delayed openings? I mean, I recall general downtimes, and FOP had those fire alarm/over heat issues that shut the ride down for a while... but this just seems like it's been the worst of the bunch?

 

[Parkscope Joe]

Can I ask, as I genuinely don't remember, did any of those attractions have days where they just didn't open? Or had to have delayed openings? I mean, I recall general downtimes, and FOP had those fire alarm/over heat issues that shut the ride down for a while... but this just seems like it's been the worst of the bunch?

They've all had down days, late openings, and short hours. This seems worse because we're living in it.

 

[Mad Dog]

They've all had down days, late openings, and short hours. This seems worse because we're living in it.

This.:thumbsup:

 

[shiekra38]

Can I ask, as I genuinely don't remember, did any of those attractions have days where they just didn't open? Or had to have delayed openings? I mean, I recall general downtimes, and FOP had those fire alarm/over heat issues that shut the ride down for a while... but this just seems like it's been the worst of the bunch?

Kong still shuts down once a day it seems haha

And hopefully FoP has stopped overheating by now

 

[HandsomePete]

The attraction not coming up at all today kinda scares me. This would be the first time it’s done this and I don’t remember this every happening to Gringotts. Also it was running last night fairly well after the storm passed. So not sure what the issue could be.

Long time reader, first time poster :wave: figured I might as well dive into the deep end here...

I was on the first train out after the storm and it valleyed at the spike. This was after they had been cycling for 45-60 minutes with empty trains. After a minute or so it slowly backed us into the cave, where we sat for another minute. Offered a reride, so circled back to load and it went down. Start of first ride to end of second was about 50 minutes. Met some friends entering the line at 8pm who had ruby passes - they got off at 9:20. This was through multiple stops, starts, empty trains, work lights on/off - it definitely was not running well.

It's a fantastic ride and is in the running for best in either park, but this thing is really struggling.

1) Track switches are a big deal. If you were to override the control system and dispatch trains 10 seconds apart on almost any coaster, it would not be safe but an accident would be very unlikely. Dispatch trains 10 seconds apart on Hagrids and you derail the trailing train. Tight blocks on a coaster with switches is a recipe for problems that gets compounded with...

2) No staging blocks at the beginning of the coaster. Mummy and Gringotts both have switches - but they also have a holding block per side at the beginning of the coaster. The ride is fed vehicles at the rate it can take and there's also a buffer in the event of a slow load. As opposed to...

3) Continual load/dispatch makes sense on paper but not in reality. Yesterday evening someone fell on the moving walkway so they had to stop it - 60 seconds of that and the delay cascaded back into the ride and down it went. I doubt it's easy to decouple the load platform/vehicle speed to turn it into a traditional station, but having that many trains locked in Omnimover style is a problem.

I see there's a dead horse emoji and not that this is news to anyone, but there are some pretty glaring intrinsic flaws that need to be sorted out (didn't even touch upon LIMs that have to fire probably twice as frequently as any other launch coaster). Without any additional investment or extended downtime, the solution may just be 5-6 trains.

 

[Mad Dog]

Kong still shuts down once a day it seems haha

And hopefully FoP has stopped overheating by now

I believe FOP was still having those issues sporadically in late spring of this year.

 

[OrlLover]

I believe marni1971 stated on WDW magic that because of the ride popularity they haven’t been able to properly give it maintenance every night. So all these issues could be prevented if they somehow found a way to open and close it for enough time to inspect it.

 

[shiekra38]

I believe marni1971 stated on WDW magic that because of the ride popularity they haven’t been able to properly give it maintenance every night. So all these issues could be prevented if they somehow found a way to open and close it for enough time to inspect it.

I wonder if that's why it didn't operate today

 

[cwoms1991]

I wonder if that's why it didn't operate today

Probably not. That’s why they have been opening late every day. I’m hearing they are going to be reprogramming the computers so I wonder if that’s what happened today. I will be there tomorrow all day so I will report what I hear and see.

 

[Teebin]

I’m hearing they are going to be reprogramming the computers .

Hmmm... That may mean that ITEC’s feet are being held to the fire depending on what computers/systems need reprogramming.

 

[shiekra38]

Long time reader, first time poster :wave: figured I might as well dive into the deep end here...

I was on the first train out after the storm and it valleyed at the spike. This was after they had been cycling for 45-60 minutes with empty trains. After a minute or so it slowly backed us into the cave, where we sat for another minute. Offered a reride, so circled back to load and it went down. Start of first ride to end of second was about 50 minutes. Met some friends entering the line at 8pm who had ruby passes - they got off at 9:20. This was through multiple stops, starts, empty trains, work lights on/off - it definitely was not running well.

It's a fantastic ride and is in the running for best in either park, but this thing is really struggling.

1) Track switches are a big deal. If you were to override the control system and dispatch trains 10 seconds apart on almost any coaster, it would not be safe but an accident would be very unlikely. Dispatch trains 10 seconds apart on Hagrids and you derail the trailing train. Tight blocks on a coaster with switches is a recipe for problems that gets compounded with...

2) No staging blocks at the beginning of the coaster. Mummy and Gringotts both have switches - but they also have a holding block per side at the beginning of the coaster. The ride is fed vehicles at the rate it can take and there's also a buffer in the event of a slow load. As opposed to...

3) Continual load/dispatch makes sense on paper but not in reality. Yesterday evening someone fell on the moving walkway so they had to stop it - 60 seconds of that and the delay cascaded back into the ride and down it went. I doubt it's easy to decouple the load platform/vehicle speed to turn it into a traditional station, but having that many trains locked in Omnimover style is a problem.

I see there's a dead horse emoji and not that this is news to anyone, but there are some pretty glaring intrinsic flaws that need to be sorted out (didn't even touch upon LIMs that have to fire probably twice as frequently as any other launch coaster). Without any additional investment or extended downtime, the solution may just be 5-6 trains.

Can't the ride pause on the turn before the first launch? Also, aren't there three block sections at the end of the ride and the availability for the belt to hold two cars in the case of a slow down?

 

[UNIrd]

I believe marni1971 stated on WDW magic that because of the ride popularity they haven’t been able to properly give it maintenance every night. So all these issues could be prevented if they somehow found a way to open and close it for enough time to inspect it.

The ride's popularity? But nobody's riding it?

 

[HandsomePete]

Can't the ride pause on the turn before the first launch? Also, aren't there three block sections at the end of the ride and the availability for the belt to hold two cars in the case of a slow down?

I think what you're describing is how they thought they'd be able to fight through spacing issues - on most coasters that run 3/4 trains you can fire all the trains through and catch them at the end. But three blocks for 8-10 trains with the complexity of the Devil's Snare right before those blocks is a lot for the computer to process.

You may be able to hold a train at the curve, but from what I can tell they can't address spacing for the entire length of load/unload because it's all one system tied to the speed of the walkway. Load/unload is where you should be able to clear all that up - if you had extra blocks at the beginning in the area between launch 1 and 2 in addition to the three at the end, I would think it would be a lot easier to keep the ride in sequence.

I'm no expert on ride programming, it just seems like continuous load was a mistake. I think we can all agree that this thing is beyond complex - I can't think of a more challenging coaster profile than the stretch that goes Fluffy, switch, LIM, spike, reverse LIM, switch, switch, drop, switch.

 

[Mad Dog]

I think what you're describing is how they thought they'd be able to fight through spacing issues - on most coasters that run 3/4 trains you can fire all the trains through and catch them at the end. But three blocks for 8-10 trains with the complexity of the Devil's Snare right before those blocks is a lot for the computer to process.

You may be able to hold a train at the curve, but from what I can tell they can't address spacing for the entire length of load/unload because it's all one system tied to the speed of the walkway. Load/unload is where you should be able to clear all that up - if you had extra blocks at the beginning in the area between launch 1 and 2 in addition to the three at the end, I would think it would be a lot easier to keep the ride in sequence.

I'm no expert on ride programming, it just seems like continuous load was a mistake. I think we can all agree that this thing is beyond complex - I can't think of a more challenging coaster profile than the stretch that goes Fluffy, switch, LIM, spike, reverse LIM, switch, switch, drop, switch.

Welcome to the IU Forums. :thumbsup:

 

[OrlLover]

The ride's popularity? But nobody's riding it?

Every time the ride is open you can see it has massive wait times. I mean the first week it was a madhouse and because of running it late into the night whatever time that is left over to inspect the ride is limited.

 

[Alicia]

Did it not open at all yesterday? I’m worried about today. (And more days.)