As Ticket Prices Rise, Disney Parks' Ride Stoppages and Wait Times Grow.

Amie Gasabyan was riding the Indiana Jones Adventure thrill ride at Disneyland with her 9-year-old daughter Ella on a recent weekday when it suddenly stopped in a pitch-black tunnel.

Ms. Gasabyan told her daughter to stay calm and that this happens all the time. The ride started up again after about seven minutes.

Ride stoppages and wait times at Walt Disney Co. can be frustrating for guests. However, there are some things you can do to minimize your frustration. First, check the wait times for rides before you get in line. If a ride has a long wait time, consider coming back later or finding another ride to enjoy. Second, be patient if a ride does stop unexpectedly. The ride operators are working hard to get things back up and running as quickly as possible.

Theme parks are becoming increasingly popular, according to an analysis of statistics from three amusement park data providers by the Wall Street Journal. The problem is worsening as Disney raises prices broadly at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

According to WDW Stats, average monthly ride stoppages at Disneyland rose 58% from 2018 to 2022, while at Walt Disney World they rose 42%. Total ride stoppages fell at both parks in 2020, due in part to the fact that they were both closed for several months due to the pandemic.

According to data compiled by Thrill Data and Touring Plans, the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance ride at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., is down an average of 118 minutes a day this year. That is up from 104 minutes a day on average in 2020, the year the ride opened.

According to Thrill Data, the average wait time across all rides at Hollywood Studios, a theme park at Walt Disney World that is home to some of the resort’s most popular rides, rose from 39 minutes in 2019 to 49 minutes in 2022. The average wait time for the park’s eight most popular attractions, including Rise of the Resistance and Tower of Terror, rose from 61 minutes to 71 minutes over the same period.

Disney has disputed the claim that wait times and stoppages have increased. A spokeswoman for the company has said that the data used in the Journal’s analysis is incomplete and does not match Disney’s internal metrics. “Our source data shows that Disney’s ride reliability remains strong and is consistent with prior years,” said the spokeswoman. She declined to share Disney’s internal data.

According to Dennis Speigel, chief executive and founder of consulting firm International Theme Park Services, the ideal number of attractions a visitor to a theme park experiences per hour is 1.5. This way, they won't have to spend time waiting in line in hot weather.

According to Touring Plans data, the average wait time for some of the most popular rides at Disney’s theme parks has exceeded one hour in recent years.

Disney's theme parks are becoming increasingly important to the company's overall strategy. In the past year, Disney has streamlined its parks and experiences division, raised prices, and added new technology features that cost visitors extra. This has helped drive record revenues and profits, which have offset some of the losses from Disney's streaming business.

The company said that it would raise the minimum price for one-day single-park admissions tickets at three of its four theme parks within Walt Disney World for the first time in more than three years. Starting Dec. 8, it will cost between $124 and $189 to enter Magic Kingdom Park with a one-day ticket, depending on the day. This is up from $109 to $159.

According to data from WDW Stats, disruptions are more common on some of Disney’s more intricate attractions, including Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure and the Indiana Jones ride. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disneyland has had 540 unplanned stoppages this year through mid-September, up from 490 for the whole of 2021. Simpler rides such as Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes and Autopia stop less frequently. Disney says that its internal statistics don’t indicate that more complex rides break down more often but declined to share that data.

According to Disney, most ride stoppages are due to bad weather, maintenance needs, or interactions between guests and attractions, such as dropped cellphones or guests who need assistance exiting a ride.

On a recent Friday, the posted wait time for Rise of the Resistance at Disney's Hollywood Studios reached seven hours. However, later in the day, the wait time dropped to 105 minutes, according to Disney park apps. Disney attributed the discrepancy to a "sign glitch" that incorrectly showed visitors a wait time that was double what the app should have shown.

According to Thrill Data, the Jurassic World VelociCoaster at Universal Orlando Resort is down for more than 105 minutes a day on average, a long wait by most theme park standards. A Universal Parks & Resorts spokesman said that most of VelociCoaster’s stoppages are the result of heavy rain or lightning.

Stoppages can be especially frustrating for visitors who have paid extra to get a good spot in line for their favorite rides. Last December, Melissa Massardo and her husband paid a premium to stay at a Disney-owned hotel to take advantage of a perk offered to hotel guests: 30 minutes of early entrance to the park. Unfortunately, they ran into several stoppages throughout the day, which ruined their plans and left them feeling disappointed.

The couple said they were disappointed when they found out that Rise of the Resistance was out of service. They had been looking forward to riding their favorite ride, but after waiting for nearly an hour, they decided to leave the line. They found that other rides also had long waits, so they didn't end up riding anything.

"It was incredibly frustrating to witness the time ticking away that we had paid for, with no real communication about when the ride would come back online," Ms. Massardo said.

Ms. Massardo's dilemma is one that is faced by many people, according to Liz Bouzarth, a math professor at Furman University in South Carolina who has studied ride stoppages at Walt Disney World's Epcot. When the popular rides stop, it often leads to longer lines at nearby attractions, she said.

Rise of the Resistance is an immersive, action-packed ride that features dozens of lifelike, animatronic storm troopers, new footage of Star Wars movie actors, and cinematic special effects. The trackless carts make riders feel like they’re inside a galactic space battle. It took years to build and cost roughly $450 million for each version in California and Florida.

The ride is one of the things that Disney is known for - something that can motivate people to visit one of their theme parks. Jim Shull, who worked as a Disney imagineer from 1988 to 2020, said that this is something that the company takes pride in.

According to Mr. Shull, these rides come with trade-offs: they are innovative and thrilling but have so many elements that glitches are more frequent and take longer to address.

One frequent source of breakdowns on the Star Wars ride involves a simulated explosion and an automated curtain that sometimes gets stuck as it lowers to protect riders from an advancing animatronic version of Kylo Ren, the dark warlord, said Mr. Shull.

"There are a hundred things that could go wrong with that final scene with Kylo Ren alone," Mr. Shull said. "It could be a power shortage, a software update, or something as simple as not enough lube on the actuator. Some problems are easy to fix, but others can be major."

The innovation behind Rise of the Resistance creates a more immersive and memorable experience for guests, a Disney spokeswoman said. She added that the company will continue to make adjustments to the attraction based on feedback from guests.