So it finally happened. My very first emergency evacuation of a ride. On the PeopleMover nonetheless.
It's a little after 9pm. We get on and get right next to the tv monitor just before you accelerate away from the loading area and the ride stops. We sit there. And sit there. And sit there. They keep announcing that the ride will begin momentarily. We're still basically at the edge of the loading belt and are pondering if we can hop over the door and walk off when, after around 15 minutes, it starts up.
Everyone applaudes.
We get into Space Mountain. And are coming past the signs inside when we see the car in front of us. Which we then promptly ram into the back of. The car behind us rams into us a few moments later and the car behind that one....
(Did you know every time a SM rocket goes up the tracks, the astronauts vibrate from it? Neither did I until I watched it for over a half an hour.)
We are now right underneath the astronaut working on the space craft watching the SM trains roll up the climb. Which is where we sit until 10pm. It's loud in there from the theme sounds and the SM trains and so if they made any announcements during that time, we couldn't hear them. They finally come walking along the small walkway between the cars and the walls of SM and tell us to hold on, they'll be right back. They walk up to the first car in the row and work back, using a manual door release on each car. Everyone piles out and starts walking behind the CM's.
One of the girls was either tipsy, high or just an idiot because instead of sticking to the path that the rest of us walked on, she decided to step on the grey plastic part in the center - and promptly cracked it. Quite badly.
They let us to the stairs on the side near the Toontown pathway and down and out.
At this point, we'd been stuck for about an hour. And we missed Wishes. (I went to Guest Services at the end of the night and told them we were stuck for an hour and missed Wishes and the CM - named Jeff - was an absolute dear. He gave us tickets to come back another night. We were there for Love's birthday and Jeff said that no birthday was complete without Wishes. I couldn't believe it. He was so nice. And I'm thrilled because now we can go back another day. Which I was totally not expecting.)
So, all in all, quite an adventure. The TTA didn't come back up the rest of the night. The cars were scattered all around the track, some lone ones, some bunched all together like mine was. I'd never seen such a complete breakdown of the system like that. I think they should have gotten us off sooner but it was an experience to be sure though one I'll pass next time.
Outside of my TTA {mis}adventure, I noticed Haunted Mansion's horseless carriage outside was missing and whomever reported about the scrim in the stretching room being cleaned was right. It was amazingly clean and you could see the Ghost Host hanging with striking detail. Well done! It had gotten so bad in recent months that you were hard pressed to figure out what exactly you were supposed to be looking at. Now, there was no doubt and the lighting was working really well and throwing excellent shadows to highten the look.
Quite a night! And a first at WDW. Something you forget can happen after going there a dozen or so times a year. :lol:
-m
It's a little after 9pm. We get on and get right next to the tv monitor just before you accelerate away from the loading area and the ride stops. We sit there. And sit there. And sit there. They keep announcing that the ride will begin momentarily. We're still basically at the edge of the loading belt and are pondering if we can hop over the door and walk off when, after around 15 minutes, it starts up.
Everyone applaudes.
We get into Space Mountain. And are coming past the signs inside when we see the car in front of us. Which we then promptly ram into the back of. The car behind us rams into us a few moments later and the car behind that one....
(Did you know every time a SM rocket goes up the tracks, the astronauts vibrate from it? Neither did I until I watched it for over a half an hour.)
We are now right underneath the astronaut working on the space craft watching the SM trains roll up the climb. Which is where we sit until 10pm. It's loud in there from the theme sounds and the SM trains and so if they made any announcements during that time, we couldn't hear them. They finally come walking along the small walkway between the cars and the walls of SM and tell us to hold on, they'll be right back. They walk up to the first car in the row and work back, using a manual door release on each car. Everyone piles out and starts walking behind the CM's.
One of the girls was either tipsy, high or just an idiot because instead of sticking to the path that the rest of us walked on, she decided to step on the grey plastic part in the center - and promptly cracked it. Quite badly.
They let us to the stairs on the side near the Toontown pathway and down and out.
At this point, we'd been stuck for about an hour. And we missed Wishes. (I went to Guest Services at the end of the night and told them we were stuck for an hour and missed Wishes and the CM - named Jeff - was an absolute dear. He gave us tickets to come back another night. We were there for Love's birthday and Jeff said that no birthday was complete without Wishes. I couldn't believe it. He was so nice. And I'm thrilled because now we can go back another day. Which I was totally not expecting.)
So, all in all, quite an adventure. The TTA didn't come back up the rest of the night. The cars were scattered all around the track, some lone ones, some bunched all together like mine was. I'd never seen such a complete breakdown of the system like that. I think they should have gotten us off sooner but it was an experience to be sure though one I'll pass next time.
Outside of my TTA {mis}adventure, I noticed Haunted Mansion's horseless carriage outside was missing and whomever reported about the scrim in the stretching room being cleaned was right. It was amazingly clean and you could see the Ghost Host hanging with striking detail. Well done! It had gotten so bad in recent months that you were hard pressed to figure out what exactly you were supposed to be looking at. Now, there was no doubt and the lighting was working really well and throwing excellent shadows to highten the look.
Quite a night! And a first at WDW. Something you forget can happen after going there a dozen or so times a year. :lol:
-m
