When Rides Break Down at Disneyland Resort: Which Lines Get Longer
Data updated · recomputed weekly
What is a ride cascade?
When a ride breaks down, the people in its line go somewhere else. If they head to the same nearby ride, its wait climbs: a cascade. Knowing which lines absorb the crowd tells you where not to go next, and which alternatives stay calm.
How we measure it
- Real closures. We log every ride's status and posted wait throughout the day and use closures of 15–240 minutes from the last 180 days.
- Storms excluded. Lightning closes many outdoor rides together and sends everyone indoors, which says nothing about one ride breaking. We drop a closure when 2+ other rides closed within 15 minutes of it, or 5+ were already closed (2534 closures removed).
- Same hour, normal day. Each ride's wait during the closure is compared with the same clock hours on the same weekday over the previous 8 weeks, corrected for how busy that ride was on the day itself.
- Consistent, not lucky. A pair is listed only with 8+ closures on 5+ different days, an average rise of 3+ minutes, a rise in at least 65% of the closures, and an average at least 3× its standard error. We test hundreds of pairs per park, so a looser bar would publish chance results.
By park
Disneyland Park
- When Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway is down, Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin waits run +6 min (+22%) vs the same hour on a normal day — 59 closures on 51 days.
- When Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island is down, Space Mountain waits run +6 min (+12%) vs the same hour on a normal day — 15 closures on 13 days.
- When Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is down, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run waits run +6 min (+26%) vs the same hour on a normal day — 92 closures on 73 days.
- When Pirates of the Caribbean is down, Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin waits run +6 min (+22%) vs the same hour on a normal day — 16 closures on 15 days.
- When Pirates of the Caribbean is down, Haunted Mansion waits run +5 min (+14%) vs the same hour on a normal day — 24 closures on 22 days.
Most disruptive closure: Pirates of the Caribbean (raises 2 other lines).
Disneyland Park details →Disney California Adventure
- When Incredicoaster is down, Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT! waits run +9 min (+15%) vs the same hour on a normal day — 78 closures on 59 days.
- When Soarin' Across America is down, Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! waits run +8 min (+28%) vs the same hour on a normal day — 11 closures on 11 days.
- When Toy Story Midway Mania! is down, Incredicoaster waits run +6 min (+24%) vs the same hour on a normal day — 31 closures on 28 days.
- When Incredicoaster is down, Goofy's Sky School waits run +6 min (+18%) vs the same hour on a normal day — 78 closures on 64 days.
- When Pixar Pal-A-Round - Swinging is down, Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind waits run +5 min (+49%) vs the same hour on a normal day — 9 closures on 9 days.
Most disruptive closure: Incredicoaster (raises 8 other lines).
Disney California Adventure details →Updated weekly; figures computed October 12, 2026. Waits are Disney's posted standby times, which usually run a little longer than actual waits.
How to use this in the park
- If a ride you're in line for goes down, check its park page before walking to the obvious neighbour: the listed rides are the ones that fill up.
- Everything not listed stays close to normal, so a ride across the park is usually a safer pick than the one next door.
- Live status and waits are on our wait times page.
Frequently asked questions
Do other rides get busier when a ride breaks down at Disneyland Resort?
Usually only slightly. Across 4158 single-ride closures in the last 180 days, 25 ride pairs showed a consistent rise of at least 3 minutes, and most closures barely moved other lines. The clearest case: when Incredicoaster is down, Goofy's Sky School runs about 6 minutes longer than the same hour on a normal day.
How do you know it isn't the weather?
Storms close many outdoor rides at once and push everyone indoors, which would look like a cascade. We drop any closure where 2 or more other rides also closed within 15 minutes, or 5 or more were already closed. That removed 2534 of the closures in this period.
What counts as a normal day?
For each ride we compare its posted wait during the closure with the same clock hours on the same weekday over the previous 8 weeks, then correct for how busy that ride was on the day itself, so a busy holiday or a quiet September doesn't look like a cascade.
How often is this updated?
Weekly. The current figures were computed on October 12, 2026 from the last 180 days of wait-time and ride-status data.