There may be a great, big, beautiful tomorrow aboard the Carousel of Progress, but today, things aren’t looking too hot for John, Rover, and the rest of the family. The Carousel of Progress attraction failed to open earlier today at the Magic Kingdom during park open, and has since remained temporarily closed for the remainder of the day.
The attraction’s status has since been updated on the My Disney Experience app to reflect the downtime. Fans of the rotating show have noticed a number of issues with the attraction as of late, including faulty speakers and missing music tracks, and even more serious issues with the various animatronics, such as John’s hand falling off mid-show back in February.
We’ll continue to check on the status of this beloved Tomorrowland attraction, and hope that it’s back up soon to offer the crowds a welcome respite from the heat as well as a dose of Disney history.
I love the irony here. You can’t make this stuff up!
I would have thought with all that down time they would have everything workimg perfectly
Disney’s inefficiency is becoming more noticeable. This period of total closure they had was the PERFECT time to perform much needed maintenance. Nobody would complain about it ruining their trip or causing longer waits elsewhere because all of Disney was shut down. But they didn’t. Look at all the rides that have been affected this week…Three Caballeros, Splash Mountain, PeopleMover, Carousel of Progress…they have ALL been subject to documented and repeated breakdowns or animatronic mishaps over the past year.
On the surface, the shutdown would’ve been the perfect time for a resort-wide refurbishment. The reason why that didn’t happen was because Disney was facing financial loss. They didn’t have the money to fix the rides, or so they say. Personally, I think the Disney company as a whole would’ve been better off financially if they never brought Fox, but that’s my money-pessimistic millennial self speaking. Anyways, they didn’t want to pay for it.
There’s also the fact that they would’ve had to have hired non-essential people to work in assumingly close proximity together during the pandemic lockdown, which is morally and legally wrong.
It’s not construction though, it’s just one or two guys working on one animatronic at a time. They were able to continue construction on things like Ratatouille and Tron, which requires close proximity and a lot more manpower, but not able to have one guy check out the mechanics of a ride? They’ve had an issue with not spending money where it counts for a long time. Every time I’ve gone to Disney over the past two years, I always leave thinking they should spend more money on bus drivers and less money on IP-ifying their park. A Moana hedge maze? Seriously? I thought we go to Disney to experience things we couldn’t anywhere else. And we should NOT be waiting half an hour at bus stops at any time of day, especially at closing time when we’re trying to get back to the hotel. There was a time where I saw 4 different buses going to the same hotel before I even saw one for my own.
I feel you. Back in December we waited at the Caribbean resort for an hour waiting on a bus to Magic Kingdom. Disney has been getting closer and closer to becoming another Six Flags. Sad times ahead.
If you want to get a better idea for how Walt Disney thought, Carousel of Progress gives a great feel for that. And he was very hands-on in creating this attraction. I hope it re-opens soon.
July 29, 2020 it was working.