Space Mountain rehab affect About This Page:

[NicNoc12]

To all of you Disney veterans:
How do you think Space Mountain and TTA being closed down in April are going to affect the lines for the other rides? We are actually going the 1st day it's closed down and I'm wondering if we should go over to Buzz Lightyear right away or if Tomorrowland will be a bit lighter because most people won't go over there w/o SM being opened? Should we head straight for Splash Mountain then instead?

[vince730]

I've been wondering this too!

We are very lucky, because we are checking our the day before the SM/TTA Rehab occurs, but I was wondering in case they started it a couple days early.

My assumption is it would make other lines slightly longer, but I'm sure there will still be tons of people who have not done their homework who will walk over during the day only to see that Space Mountain is closed.

I would probably do Buzz first, since more people will go there after they see SM is closed, and do Splash Mountain 2nd since its also very popular.

[Caldercup]

Just know that it's not unheard of for a rehab to start a day or two early... If you are planning to try it for the first time the day before it's scheduled to go down, you might want to get there earlier, if possible.

I'm not really sure how much it will affect crowds in Tomorrowland. There are going to be other things to draw people there, like the new Stitch show that's in front of Space Mountain and the TTA.... I believe Buzz will be done with it's current rehab and the Laugh Floor is popular too.
Eileen

[EmilyJ]

What is TTA??

[Caldercup]

The Tomorrowland Transit Authority -- it used to be called the WEDway People Mover. It's a slow-moving ride that runs along many of the buildings above Tomorrowland, giving riders a good view of the land.

It happens to run along Space Mountain with a view to the interior. When Space Mountain has technical difficulties and they turn on the working lights, you can sometimes catch a view of the interior workings of the ride. During rehabs, they often close the TTA too.

Does anyone know if they're doing actual work to the TTA during this rehab or are they just closing it because Space Mountain work is going on? (They have the old Galaxy Palace Theatre blocked from view of the TTA currently.)
Eileen

[DopeyGirl]

I bet they will do a bit of cleaning/sprucing but I think the primary reason is because of the Space Mountain rehab.

They are both closing April 19th or thereabouts . . . but TTA's reopening August 24th.

[imagineer95]

I believe the lines for Buzz Lightyear may be a bit longer than usual. I would still do Splash Mountian first though, as Buzz Lightyear waits are rarely over 1/2 hour, and Fastpasses are usually readily avalible.
Buzz lines go down dramatically as the little boys head off to bed, so you may want to save Buzz as a "grand finale" sort of thing.
have a magical vacation!

[chezp]

I would've thought most people would head for Big Thunder and Splash Mountain, so I'd expect to see longer lines for those and possibly to see Tomorrowland quieter than usual.

[Griffin]

Originally Posted by DopeyGirl

I bet they will do a bit of cleaning/sprucing but I think the primary reason is because of the Space Mountain rehab.

They are both closing April 19th or thereabouts . . . but TTA's reopening August 24th.

Wait, TTA is only closed from April to August?

[HollyH]

Originally Posted by vince730

My assumption is it would make other lines slightly longer, but I'm sure there will still be tons of people who have not done their homework who will walk over during the day only to see that Space Mountain is closed.

I was thinking this as well.

[GoofEme]

Originally Posted by griffin

Wait, TTA is only closed from April to August?

I believe this could be a safety issue if they are doing work in the building with equipment or workers over or on the tracks for TTA. They may plan on having that phase completed first so they can restart TTA so they don't have them both down the whole time. This is only a guess on my part of course.

[Dave Marx]

OK, so MK has 46 attractions. If one is closed, then all things being equal, you can expect a touch more than a 2% increase in lines at other attractions. Of course, some are popular E-tickets like Space Mountain, and others are far less popular B-tickets like TTA.

Let's say the D- and E-ticket attractions draw 75% of the attraction traffic (the number of park guests currently in a queue/on an attraction). MK has 15 D- and E-tickets. That would work out to 5% of attraction traffic at any one of those attractions at any given time. If the SM crowds only headed for other D- and E-tickets, then each of those attractions would see about a 6.67% increase. A 60 minute standby queue would bump up to 64 minutes. If the crowds were spread out among all attractions instead, it would mean a 5% bump-up in each queue. So, a B-ticket with a 10 minute queue would see the queue stretch to 10.5 minutes. All this excludes the number of guests who aren't on attraction queues - watching parades, the castle forecourt shows, shopping, eating, walking around... some folks will choose to do some of those things in the time they "saved" by not standing in the SM queue.

Of course, I'm just pulling these numbers out of thin air. There probably is a local effect - attractions nearest the closed attraction are likely to pick up more traffic than more distant attractions. Knowledgeable visitors in search of thrills would probably modify their touring plan to spend, say, more time in Frontierland, and less in Tomorrowland. Guests who don't check the tip board or pre-plan may end up jumping on the first short queue they come to (CoP or Stitch ) instead. The folks headed to TTA could probably head over to CoP without creating a significant effect on the CoP queue. A few folks may think, "SM is closed, so why go to MK at all? Let's go to Studios instead." And so on.

If I had access to all of Disney's attendance and attraction traffic data, I could come up with solid predictions. But I don't, so I can't. However, IMHO, the effect on other attractions is small enough that it would be overshadowed by conditions like rain, high or low temperatures, temporary ride shut-downs, school schedules, meal times, day of the week, parades, and the EMH schedule, among other things.

[vince730]

I wondered also about the TTA being only closed for a portion of the SM Rehab...Maybe it will have shortened hours after the main work (like fixing the track) on SM is completed and they will just turn of the lights and put on the music for when the TTA trains go through...
Just throwing a thought out there!

Or they could edit the tape to mention that SM is going through Refurb while they are going through ... but I doubt it

[dnbaci]

I am going to miss the breezy ride on the TTA