For some reason, if you ask ride operators at most themeparks how long a ride will be down for, or why, they will refuse to give you a straight answer. It’s almost as if they don’t expect guests to understand the technical reasons a ride might be down, or they themselves don’t completely know the status of what is going on!

What’s especially frustrating for us as ride operators, is most guests assume that ride down times are because of a malfunction or something breaking. In my experience so far however, 70-80% of ride delays (excluding weather) are because of GUESTS.

Granted, most guests are good, but here are just a few things I’ve seen cause down times: guest sneaks prohibited item onto ride, guest freaks out after ride started and demands to get out (even on the calmest attractions), guest comes into unload area from the exit, guest gets off the ride while it’s in motion, guest passes out on ride, guest jumps onto ride track from load, guest gets off ride on the wrong side, guest lost an important item on ride, etc. Yes, I’ve seen all of this happen in just 2 months.

Vague answer	Translation
We expect to re-open later today We recommend you stay in line Brief delay	Short down time. Usually back operational in 30 minutes or less
We do not know when we will re-open	This means literally nothing
We have been closed for over an hour *Loud scraping sound* *Fire alarm*	Major technical issue, and/or ride evacuation
Closed for the day	Major technical issue, will not re-open today
At capacity	The queue is too full, may re-open if it’s over an hour until closing
*Vehicles stop*	Could be literally anything. Sometimes a ride stops to load someone with a disability.

Either way, the best course of action to take is to not try squeezing answers out of ride operators. There is almost always an app that you can check the status of attractions. Most importantly, do not hang around the area hoping to be the first one in. This clogs the walkway for other guests, wastes time, and stresses out staff.