The scariest breakdown I had was we were on Indy and when we got to the Boulder scene the car didn't "back up" and the Boulder felt like it came forward more than it usally would and every that didn't know that the Boulder didn't move and so we started to lurch down the drop and about halfway through the drop, the ride stopped in pitch black but kept swaying an moving while we getting sprayed with air(fact: when the ride was originally built it had a scene where air guns were shooting at you while you went down the drop) and so those started spraying us while we were shaking and hearing the sound that you normally would. It turned out that a car got stuck on the transfer track and clogged up the entire ride.
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10 minutes on It's a Small World, felt like an eternity, the horror.
My worst ride breakdown was Carousel of Progress. We were stuck in the early 1900's with no possibility of moving forward. It just kept repeating over and over again. After the third time through we left.
Best ride breakdown was Toy Story Mania at DCA. It was pretty cool to walk through through the ride building. The cast members even let us take a few pictures.
My grandson had a major breakdown and threw a temper tantram (not wanting to go) while we waited in line at the Little Mermaid at Hollywood Studios. Finally we got into the show and he calmed down and enjoyed the show! lol
My grandson, daughter, and myself were on the hulk ride in universal waiting in launch position when it stopped we were seated in the middle and they had to manually open the harnesses and we had to walk down the catwalk steps which you can see straight through how scary that was
I still have PTSD of my 2011 forbidden forest break down.
I don't think of breakdowns as scary. They range from cool (getting to see the inside of an attraction) to unpleasant (getting stopped unexpectedly on a midcourse brake), but none of them are scary.
The most random breakdown I've experienced was on Scream at Six Flags Magic Mountain. The floor dropped, the gates opened, but the train wouldn't move and the operators couldn't get the floor to come back up. About ten minutes later maintenance arrived and raised the floor, then everyone got off and went behind the load gates. The operators locked down the train, unlocked it, and then everyone got back on and the ride proceeded as normal.
The most interesting breakdown I've had was getting stuck inside Mr. Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland and having to be evacuated from the ride. Since we were stuck in the train crash scene (on this day, the breakdown was caused because hell was closed to us), we got to walk all the way back through the ride.
The most fun breakdown I've had was on Blue Streak, an old manually operated wooden coaster at Conneaut Lake Park in Pennsylvania. It was pouring rain and you could hear thunder in the distance, but because we were there for a special event the park kept running the ride. Every time, the train would go further and further before stopping in the station. Eventually, the brakes got so wet that the operator couldn't stop the train and we ended up flying through the station and stopping at the base of the lift. Evacuation from this one was a bit sketchy: Get off the train, climb along the lift to a certain point, jump over to a maintenance platform in the ride's structure (yes, jump...it was a couple feet away and a few feet down), climb down a rickety old ladder, run through the mud under the coaster, and go up a decaying staircase on the back of the station to get to the exit.
I was on Thunderhawk around 1990 and somehow the train slid back down into the tunnel. Guess the rollback mechanism malfunctioned going up the lift. Oddly, though, when we rolled back into the station it caught the chain and went back up as normal. Bizarre.
1. I haven't experienced this but have seen it happen a few times: when the train doesn't make it all the way up the hill on Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point. It then has to roll backwards down the 420 foot hill and shoot off again.
2. This happened to a friend of mine. First time on Rockin Roller Coaster. Normally there is both an audio and visual countdown to the shoot off, but it malfunctioned and gave no warning as to when the ride would start.
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Haven't broken down on much, but the coolest breakdown I've ever had was on Aftershock at Silverwood in Idaho. We were stuck on Tower 2 for about a good half hour before we were evac'd.