Getting stuck on rides at KI

[Swiftdrawer]

Theres hundreds if not thousands of videos online featuring many different occurences of people getting stuck on rides at Disney parks around the world. Whats much less talked about is getting stuck on rides at regional parks like Kings Island. Ive been evacuated off of a ride at Kings Island twice and both times, it was the same ride and the same set of things happened on it. That ride is Flight of Fear, launch didnt give the train I was on enough speed so the computer shut down the entire ride. I think it happened during Winterfest both times and both times, employees had to push the train I was in back into the station. The other times were WindSeeker and Diamondback. It was a unusually cold morning in April 2018 when I was riding Diamondback, just feet from the station after going through the full circuit just fine when the coaster broke down. At least one employee came out to check on us after we had been stuck there for quite a bit and all of us were fine. I think we got off as normal. Then theres WindSeeker. Nearing the end of the ride cycle, the ride came to a sudden stop somewhere between 50-75 feet in the air if I had to guess. And we were stuck there for a good bit, at least 15 minutes and I was wondering if we’d ever get off anytime soon.

[disco2000]

It happens at every park.  Maybe the bigger parks are more national news worthy, but I have seen national news run stories of regional rides getting stuck.

Although getting stuck is a misnomer....the rides are designed to ensure guest safety with all the sensors and are not actually stuck.

And to this point...can The Beast run with the exit gate ajar - sure it can - how many years did it operate without a sensor or magnetic gate there and could be open or unlocked and the ride still ran....

But safety is always a continuous improvement and thus the change to a magnetic exit in recent years, along with other safety features that most of the general public never see or here about.

Most of the GP fail to realize that safety is the utmost importance on these rides and because the rides are a closed system, any sensor that faults cause the ride to shut down, and the majority of the time there isn't a real risk to the guests.  That is intentional.  Sure they could program The Beast to still run when the exit gate opens, but why would you do that and run the what if risk?

Contrast that to a vehicle - your O2 sensor can come on, your check engine light can come on, you can open your door while in motion, the car will go without the seatbelt latched, etc.  All of these are sensors that fault and throw up a warning light on your dashboard, but the car doesn't immediately slam the brakes on you while driving and come to a halt, but instead allows you to still drive it with those warnings in order to pull over to a safe place.  At some point, depending on the severity of the issue, the car may came to a stop LOL, but it isn't as soon as the PLC throws a warning.

Could you imagine a warning light coming on in your vehicle on I-71 and the car immediately stops and the chaos that occurs with all the vehicles behind you trying to avoid you.  That would be a worse scenario than letting you continue with a check engine light on.

Because a ride is a controlled environment, it can stop whenever the ride programs it to stop because it is a closed environment without having to worry about other outside entities being impacted by it.  Sure it is a minor inconvenience to the guest, but it ensures that safety of the guests and employees are put first, along with the operational longevity of the ride because it isn't running hours on end with a "check engine" equivalent light on.

[johnjniehaus]

I have only gotten stalled on two KI rides that I remember both times they got them running again and didn't have to do an evac - 

 

Boo Blasters - got stopped on that one once for longer than the typical loading stall. Some of the targets and animatronics also went dead until they rebooted and got us moving again 

 

Peanuts Car Ride - forget the name but it's the track one next to Woodstock Express. Remember being a kid and just coming to a halt right at the bottom of the bridge and the car behind us was already on the decent from the little ramp so it bumped us haha. Then the employees walked over to us and got us all out. The ride was broken but because we were nearly to the end anyway not sure if it counts as an official evac. 

[silver2005]

For me- 

Flight of Fear- the train stopped a few feet before it was supposed to in the unload station and the train had to be manually pushed to get it on the sensors to unlock.

Firehawk- been stuck laying back in the station for about 15-20 minutes.

[Swiftdrawer]

On 4/9/2026 at 8:17 AM, disco2000 said:

It happens at every park.  Maybe the bigger parks are more national news worthy, but I have seen national news run stories of regional rides getting stuck.

Although getting stuck is a misnomer....the rides are designed to ensure guest safety with all the sensors and are not actually stuck.

And to this point...can The Beast run with the exit gate ajar - sure it can - how many years did it operate without a sensor or magnetic gate there and could be open or unlocked and the ride still ran....

But safety is always a continuous improvement and thus the change to a magnetic exit in recent years, along with other safety features that most of the general public never see or here about.

Most of the GP fail to realize that safety is the utmost importance on these rides and because the rides are a closed system, any sensor that faults cause the ride to shut down, and the majority of the time there isn't a real risk to the guests.  That is intentional.  Sure they could program The Beast to still run when the exit gate opens, but why would you do that and run the what if risk?

Contrast that to a vehicle - your O2 sensor can come on, your check engine light can come on, you can open your door while in motion, the car will go without the seatbelt latched, etc.  All of these are sensors that fault and throw up a warning light on your dashboard, but the car doesn't immediately slam the brakes on you while driving and come to a halt, but instead allows you to still drive it with those warnings in order to pull over to a safe place.  At some point, depending on the severity of the issue, the car may came to a stop LOL, but it isn't as soon as the PLC throws a warning.

Could you imagine a warning light coming on in your vehicle on I-71 and the car immediately stops and the chaos that occurs with all the vehicles behind you trying to avoid you.  That would be a worse scenario than letting you continue with a check engine light on.

Because a ride is a controlled environment, it can stop whenever the ride programs it to stop because it is a closed environment without having to worry about other outside entities being impacted by it.  Sure it is a minor inconvenience to the guest, but it ensures that safety of the guests and employees are put first, along with the operational longevity of the ride because it isn't running hours on end with a "check engine" equivalent light on.

Yeah, rides are never stuck for no reason. Which is a good thing because no park management even with just one sixteenth of a spine would want to let the park(s) they run be run like the infamous Action Park was. The number of reasons a ride coule breakdown varies on what the ride is but of course, there are multiple reasons that are common across basically all rides. And I dont mean just power outages. Years ago, on Indiana Jones at Disneyland, the ride stopped and I was on it at the time because a kid unbuckled their seatbelt prematurely. The entire ride shut down automatically. I dont think we had to evac though. I couldnt hazard as to why I have gotten stuck most of the times I have gotten stuck on any ride but I know a lot can go wrong and trigger the safety system.

[Swiftdrawer]

On 4/9/2026 at 9:46 AM, johnjniehaus said:

I have only gotten stalled on two KI rides that I remember both times they got them running again and didn't have to do an evac - 

 

Boo Blasters - got stopped on that one once for longer than the typical loading stall. Some of the targets and animatronics also went dead until they rebooted and got us moving again 

 

Peanuts Car Ride - forget the name but it's the track one next to Woodstock Express. Remember being a kid and just coming to a halt right at the bottom of the bridge and the car behind us was already on the decent from the little ramp so it bumped us haha. Then the employees walked over to us and got us all out. The ride was broken but because we were nearly to the end anyway not sure if it counts as an official evac. 

Disney enthusiasts sure count being gotten off a ride prematurely near the end an evac which makes sense because if one person has to be off somewhere on ride, everyone else has to too. That Boo Blasters one.. Did you get to shoot any targets multiple times before the ride fully went back to normal?

[Swiftdrawer]

On 4/9/2026 at 9:49 AM, silver2005 said:

For me- 

Flight of Fear- the train stopped a few feet before it was supposed to in the unload station and the train had to be manually pushed to get it on the sensors to unlock.

Firehawk- been stuck laying back in the station for about 15-20 minutes.

I wish the former is what happened to me on Flight of Fear. Then I could have gone through the entire thing before it broke down LOL. Whew, you basically got the closest thing you could get on any ride to laying down in bed on Firehawk, then. Awesome XD. But still must have sucked, especially with the tightness of the main restraint.

[Diamondback_Is_King]

2 minutes ago, Swiftdrawer said:

That Boo Blasters one.. Did you get to shoot any targets multiple times before the ride fully went back to normal?

If the ride was still operational and the power didn't shut down completely, yes you could still rack up plenty of points. But half the targets were not always working anyway.

This does remind me of a time I rode Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin at Magic Kingdom and my vehicle got stuck for like 5 minutes. That was the first and only time I ever got a score of 999,999 and it was quite memorable for me! I tried multiple times, even did all the optimal strats, but never quite made it to 999,999. I was close, but thanks to that little breakdown I was able to hit it!

[silver2005]

11 minutes ago, Swiftdrawer said:

I wish the former is what happened to me on Flight of Fear. Then I could have gone through the entire thing before it broke down LOL. Whew, you basically got the closest thing you could get on any ride to laying down in bed on Firehawk, then. Awesome XD. But still must have sucked, especially with the tightness of the main restraint.

Firehawk's seats were that you were tilted back enough where all the blood rushed to your head, but I could barely keep my  head up enough to feel something close to comfortable.  There was also a piece of hard cushion where your back rests which was very annoying.  It was easy to miss it was there on a normal cycle.

[Swiftdrawer]

3 minutes ago, Diamondback_Is_King said:

If the ride was still operational and the power didn't shut down completely, yes you could still rack up plenty of points. But half the targets were not always working anyway.

This does remind me of a time I rode Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin at Magic Kingdom and my vehicle got stuck for like 5 minutes. That was the first and only time I ever got a score of 999,999 and it was quite memorable for me! I tried multiple times, even did all the optimal strats, but never quite made it to 999,999. I was close, but thanks to that little breakdown I was able to hit it!

I know that you could, the fact that some of the targets and animatronics went dead threw me off lol. Even when the ride stopped for a bit, including that one time I only just recalled now where I was definiteky stopped longer than normal, I rarely ever got more than like 750 points on Boo Blasters xd. Ah, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, you got lucky where you got stuck on that!

[Swiftdrawer]

Just now, silver2005 said:

Firehawk's seats were that you were tilted back enough where all the blood rushed to your head, but I could barely keep my  head up enough to feel something close to comfortable.  There was also a piece of hard cushion where your back rests which was very annoying.  It was easy to miss it was there on a normal cycle.

I see. I remember panting after reaching the breakrun multiple times on Firehawk. Yeah, I had no idea there was hard cushion there, in part because Im like Velma Dinkley, I “cant see without my glasses”. That phrase is a bit of an exaggeration but near sightedness is no joke even so. Waiting a couple minutes to return to the station as was normal was always alright for me. Kept my head exactly where it is for the most part and everything. I loved Firehawk, the only thing that really sucked in my opinion about it was definitely the sun in the eyes on sunny days going up the lift.

[silver2005]

^It also had the most annoying anti-rollback noise ever.

I still liked it, though.  I prefer it to the 2 Superman clones I've ridden (GAm and GAdv)

[johnjniehaus]

1 hour ago, Swiftdrawer said:

Disney enthusiasts sure count being gotten off a ride prematurely near the end an evac which makes sense because if one person has to be off somewhere on ride, everyone else has to too. That Boo Blasters one.. Did you get to shoot any targets multiple times before the ride fully went back to normal?

On that particular cycle the targets in the scene I was stopped in front of were not working. I have had it stop in the last for an ADA loading procedure or because something slowed down ops in the station with them needing to stop the turntable and in those instances the targets kept working resulting in massive scores. The time I was referring to was a break down of some sort because the ride stopped and the targets at least in front of me were not working 

[TombRaiderFTW]

I've only had one breakdown happen at KI while I was on the ride. The Crypt stopped midway though its cycle and veeeeery slowly returned to its home position. As I later discovered, the computer had lost track of the ride, and the slow return to the load/unload position was it rediscovering its position.

I've also been on KD's Crypt and both Tempesto and Apollo's Chariot at BGW during a breakdown. The KD Crypt and Tempesto breakdowns were during the same weekend.