Why did Disney rides shut down twice?

Space Mountain, courtesy of Disneyland

Two electrical outages caused some Disneyland rides to shut down earlier this week, but the closures were mostly so Disney could take safety precautions.

Disney officials have inspection and start-up procedures every time there are power fluctuations at the park, said John Nicoletti, a Disney spokesman, in an e-mail.

“Safety is always our top priority,” Nicoletti said.

An equipment failure caused power to shut off about 10:43 a.m. Monday. Utilities workers replaced the equipment that they believed had failed.

But electricity went out again at 1:20 p.m. Tuesday for about 10 seconds. Workers then realized that another piece of equipment was broken, so they replaced it and fixed the problem, said Margie Otto, the spokeswoman for Anaheim Public Utilities.

The Anaheim outage actually occurred just outside of the electrical circuit that serves the Disneyland Resort. The area was between Cerritos Avenue, Orangewood Avenue, State College Boulevard and Lewis Street, which is east of Disneyland on the opposite side of the I-5.

Because the outage was nearby, power dipped in Disneyland and affected some rides, Otto said.

With any power change, Disney has safety precautions that it takes before resuming operation. So, Disney rides were shut longer than the actual power dip in voltage.

On Tuesday, about a dozen rides were affected, with most back up within a few minutes. Others were in the process of being restored in about a half hour.

Closed rides included Space Mountain, the Monorail and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.

Because each attraction varies in complexity, the power affects them in different ways, Nicoletti said. When rides are interrupted, they are stopped and visitors are let off.

“Sometimes, this involves completely powering down the attraction and then re-starting the attraction in order to ensure its proper operation,” Nicoletti said. “Once we are confident the ride is working safely and show elements are working correctly, we begin to allow guests to experience the attraction again.”