Less than 6 months after opening, another problem has arisen in Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This morning, the tails on the back cars of the Slinky Dog Dash roller coaster trains were removed due to safety concerns.
The bouncing, springy tails are gone from each back car, but the ride remains operational. Funny enough, I had commented to someone who joined me on the ride just last week that “it didn’t sound good” back there. I sit in the back row adjacent to the tail 9 out of 10 times I’m on this ride and distinctly noticed rattling noises I had not before on my last 2-3 rides on Slinky Dog Dash. I can’t confirm that this is related to the issues, but it seems unlikely that it isn’t.
Slinky Dog Dash has also had other issues lately: nearly half of the spring coils on every train are heavily damaged. Most of them are wrapped with rather unappealing grey covers currently, as you can see below.
Above is one that was just starting to break when we rode.
The issues above again point to cheaper materials used for the project, poor design, and poor execution. It is unknown if and when the tails might return, but given there is more than one issue with the trains, they could be headed for some sort of redesign.
Unfortunately I think under Bob Iger we have seen the physical cheapening of Disney from the parks to toys quality has diminished significantly
You think it’s gonna get better under Bob Chapek? Lol.
You’ve been on Slinky Dog 9-10 times. Do you wait in the standby? No way you can get 10 fast passes.
I’ve been on it like 40 times I think. The trick with FastPass is generally to try the day before and day of and keep refreshing. I pull Flight of Passage and Slinky Dog Dash pretty regularly. I’ve been on Flight over 100 times…
Yeah same, not as much as Tom of course but much easier if you can be flexible, I bet that is terrifying to hear.
Been down from Michigan 4 times since it opened and rode it at least once at each visit. After the first trip I was able to notice worn patches on the coverings and cracks in the vinyl…some peeling away where often touched.
I rode flight of passage, once. And I was like “yeah I’m good”
They said 9 out of 10 times. Like 9/10 or 90% of the time they were riding in the back cars. It’s the ratio, not the number of times they’ve been on it.
Called it. Cheaply executed and rushed. Not a good look.
Or you know the “springs” look that way because thousands of people have put their grimy little hands on them, and the constant disinfecting each day has taken a toll on them. Also how do you know it’s a safety issue? Do you work for Disney? Have you interviewed anyone that does? I guess the next step is to contact Disney themselves about the reliability of this article
First of all, I can’t imagine they are disinfecting the springs. They aren’t the lap bars, they aren’t for holding and I don’t see them get touched enough for them to be damaged. Cast members at the attraction indicated that it was a safety concern. I’m not sure what vested interest you have in defending the rundown state of roller coaster trains that have only been used for 6 months, but I assure you we are not in the business of “making things up”. Good luck getting your quote from Disney.
This is why we need more of Tom every week
You tell him Tom!
I think J has a point. A lot of conjecture in this article.
You can run your blog how you like.
My daughter couldn’t wait to ride the Slinky Doggie ride in Toy Storyland!! She rode it several times & loved it!! Thank you Make A Wish for making her Christmas dream come true!!
The queue is very beat up as well. I was astonished at how chipped the paint was already everywhere on the designs.
Raise the price of admission to where the average person can no longer afford to go then cut the quality of the product. That really makes sense Disney
Please!!! Keep you riff raff away.
Was this just in the last day? Family was there 3 days ago and they said the tails were still attached. Was also attached on our trip on the first week of December too
Today.
Maybe they’re with Buzzy.
J your room is just the way you left it ! I am sorry I threw your power wheels away. please call mother she is worried about you. forgive me. sic ……
Our Family has been going to Disney World and staying on site at the resort since 2010. Over the past few years, I have noticed a decline in park and hotel cleanliness, employee attitudes, and organization! They are building more and more hotels and cabins and cutting down more and more trees! The rustic beauty is diminishing! The Parks at Christmas are so jammed, there are times when you can not move! We go during that time to admire the beautiful Christmas decorations and love that the parks are open very late at night! This year i noticed the annual New Years fireworks were not as long as in past years! They were half the time! Now, I see why! The Parks are so over crowded with all the new hotels they are building on the grounds! We can barely find places to eat making dining reservations as soon as we are allowed! I wonder how much longer we can keep doing these trips, for its not getting better!
The tails were removed by Disney archives to mark the point where WDW hit rock bottom by opening a cheap out of scale Six Flags land and loosing parts of an animatronic to theives in rundown Future World
I don’t think they used cheap material, just that the sweat & oil of people’s hands grabbing the spring over time and being exposed to the elements make for the material to wear fast. We see this on all other outside attractions, this one is just more noticeable because its a popular ride.
As for the tail, I believe it was just some cry baby that said that it didn’t sound too good and now Disney has to investigate to make sure it doesn’t go flying off. It’ll shortly come back and have safety cord attached. Same reason we don’t have rolling rocks on BTM and spinning planets on Astro.
After three months of opening we went to the Annual Pass event and that was the first thing that caught my eye. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but there was wear and tear in the exact spots Tom pointed out after 3 months! That really is not acceptable to see areas needing repair that quickly knowing you have thousands of people that ride this vehicle every day. I agree that either is poor design or poor quality products being used. There was already wear and tear in the queue since so much is exposed and not protected. Very disappointing. Thank you for the article since it is very accurate and not just based on opinion with pictures to back up the reporting.
Disney is getting cheaper and more unsafe by each passing day. They deserve to make millions of dollars a day, but they don’t deserve to cut the quality of the product and it’s safety to such limits. We visited, and the parks were a mess, in every way. Very disappointed. Disney should sell their parks, nobody could run them worse than Disney has.