AKL Fire Alarms don't all work? Well that's reassuring!

[litaljohn]

So as I'm finding out officially now speaking with managers at AKL village that over. In Jambo house was a planned fire alarm test. According the village sections manager the test went very poor. It went so poorly in fact the fire dept. decided that they would not leave without testing village too. Trouble is they completely failed in their notification system here! I was first told that village sent out calls shortly ahead of time to warn us a test would be coming shortly and to be prepared and disregard. To quote the desk " we are finding now that those calls did not reach many" So instead of that we got loud alarms out of nowhere in the room, just alarms. Obviously thinking its a n evacuation I go out into the. Hall and there is a speaker (only in the hallways) saying to leave the building. Meanwhile my neighbor said he. Was getting ice and said there was a low volume announcement he heard over the vending machine to disregard the alarm. Totally confused I called the front desk who said to disregard the test and it would go off in a minute so just stay in your room it'll be fine. 20 minutes later they still couldn't get the alarm off. They never again mentioned that the alarm was a test and my neighbor said the same thing that his kids freaked out at first because they too got no warning and so he opened the door to them panicked and crying because no warning was ever made in the room so while daddy was getting ice they thought the worst was happening.

I totally understand that things have to be tested but OMG what a failure on so many levels. And to admit that Jambo's alarms didn't work right so they had to come over to village on short notice..... I mean in a way I appreciate the honesty but I think I almost would rather be lied to, and told it was a procedural scheduling issue rather than a safety failure that was behind the lovely surprise around 5:40....

 

[jaklgreen]

I guess that is why they test the alarms.

 

[luv]

Your concern is totally understandable! I'm sure they'll get it fixed soon. The fire guys wouldn't let something like that slide!

 

[Hakunamatata]

I totally understand that things have to be tested but OMG what a failure on so many levels.

Just curious as to how many levels it was a failure on?

 

[draybook]

So many.

 

[unkadug]

Just curious as to how many levels it was a failure on?

Somewhere between one and ninetynine...I believe

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If not for these tests they wouldn't know that these thing didn't operate correctly until it was too late. Better to find out now, with no lives lost, than the alternative.

 

[Hakunamatata]

Somewhere between one and ninetynine...I believe

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If not for these tests they wouldn't know that these thing didn't operate correctly until it was too late. Better to find out now, with no lives lost, than the alternative.

Didn't realize there were that many levels.

 

[ArielLover]

So as I'm finding out officially now speaking with managers at AKL village that over. In Jambo house was a planned fire alarm test. According the village sections manager the test went very poor. It went so poorly in fact the fire dept. decided that they would not leave without testing village too. Trouble is they completely failed in their notification system here! I was first told that village sent out calls shortly ahead of time to warn us a test would be coming shortly and to be prepared and disregard. To quote the desk " we are finding now that those calls did not reach many" So instead of that we got loud alarms out of nowhere in the room, just alarms. Obviously thinking its a n evacuation I go out into the. Hall and there is a speaker (only in the hallways) saying to leave the building. Meanwhile my neighbor said he. Was getting ice and said there was a low volume announcement he heard over the vending machine to disregard the alarm. Totally confused I called the front desk who said to disregard the test and it would go off in a minute so just stay in your room it'll be fine. 20 minutes later they still couldn't get the alarm off. They never again mentioned that the alarm was a test and my neighbor said the same thing that his kids freaked out at first because they too got no warning and so he opened the door to them panicked and crying because no warning was ever made in the room so while daddy was getting ice they thought the worst was happening.

I totally understand that things have to be tested but OMG what a failure on so many levels. And to admit that Jambo's alarms didn't work right so they had to come over to village on short notice..... I mean in a way I appreciate the honesty but I think I almost would rather be lied to, and told it was a procedural scheduling issue rather than a safety failure that was behind the lovely surprise around 5:40....

The fire alarms failed as bad as the punctuation in this post.

 

[englanddg]

So, as I'm now finding out officially by speaking with managers at AKL village that Jambo House had a planned fire alarm test.

According the Area Manager, the test went poorly. So poorly, in fact, that the Fire Marshall decided that a test was needed for Kidani Village as well.

My issue is that they completely failed to notify Guests properly! I was told by the manager that calls were sent out shortly ahead of time to warn us a test would be coming, and to be prepared and disregard. To quote, "We are finding now, those calls did not reach many Guests".

So instead of being ready for it, we got loud alarms out of nowhere. Obviously thinking there is a serious emergancy, I go out into the hall and hear announcements saying to leave the building!

The guest in the next room said he was getting ice, and mentioned there was an announcement to disregard the alarms, but it was difficult to hear.

Concerned and confused, I called the front desk. They said we should disregard the test, and that it would stop shortly. We should stay in our room, and all is fine.

Twenty minutes later, they still couldn't get the alarm off! They never again mentioned that the alarm was a test, and when I asked the person in the room next to me, he confirmed. He said his kids freaked out, at first, because no one had prepared them. When he opened the door, they were panicked and crying. They were scared, because daddy was away getting ice, and they thought the worst was happening.

I totally understand that alarms have to be tested in case of a real emergency, but this was a customer service failure on so many levels. Also, for Disney Staff to admit that Jambo's alarms failed so massively as to require a test of Kidani raises concerns.

I mean, in a way, I appreciate the honesty but I think I almost would rather be lied to. I was later told it was a procedural scheduling issue, rather than a safety failure, that was behind the lovely surprise around 5:40.

What a shock to the system! Come on Disney, get your act together!

That sounds like a terrible experience! I'm sorry it happened to you. I've been through Fire Alarm tests that have lasted a long time (opening new restaurants, corporate buildings, etc)...and it is ear-splitting, and stinks!

If Disney wants to make some magic, seems like a great time to do so with some comps (in my opinion)...

 

[litaljohn]

The fire alarms failed as bad as the punctuation in this post.

yeah we have iPhone to thank for that one.

 

[englanddg]

yeah we have iPhone to thank for that one.

Autocorrect stinks!

 

[litaljohn]

Autocorrect stinks!

Yeah it's really a killer when you spend too much time on disney! Dave turns to disney and money becomes Mickey on my phone. On the positive it makes every drunken text to friends very PGwhere I never worry too much about what I may have sent as apposed to other words that could get inserted.

 

[englanddg]

Yeah it's really a killer when you spend too much time on disney! Dave turns to disney and money becomes Mickey on my phone. On the positive it makes every drunken text to friends very PGwhere I never worry too much about what I may have sent as apposed to other words that could get inserted.

Exactly!

 

[litaljohn]

Somewhere between one and ninetynine...I believe

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If not for these tests they wouldn't know that these thing didn't operate correctly until it was too late. Better to find out now, with no lives lost, than the alternative.

Haha yes somewhere in that range of levels.

Yeah I don't care so much about the disaster going through it. It's the fact I now know the alerts and alarms don't work right and there's a bunch of problems with them to get fixed. Like I know we always want honesty and again I commend the manager here at village for being upfront, but now you are laying down knowing if god forbid there's a bizarre emergency where we need to stay inside ( as happened before at boardwalk I remembered reading) we may not know. If there's a fire we may not hear the alarm if an alarm even goes off.

You wanna have trust they will think to have someone like housekeeping or other room access staff check these halls to tell us to leave if theres a problem, but at the same time you already trusted them when you assumed something like the fire alarms in one of the newer hotels would be up to spec, or that when you are told its going to turn off any second it will but they couldn't be trusted in that either.

Just a very strange feeling now is all. That said I'm sure that future guests shouldn't worry too much because with fines and everything else I'm sure disney with get on it to show compliance to pay less but still.... Wish they sold mini wdw park fire extinguishers. Maybe one shaped like the dragon form of maleficent

 

[unkadug]

Yeah it's really a killer when you spend too much time on disney! Dave turns to disney and money becomes Mickey on my phone. On the positive it makes every drunken text to friends very PGwhere I never worry too much about what I may have sent as apposed to other words that could get inserted.

Not having an iPhone, I have to ask....can't you simply proof read before you hit send?

 

[litaljohn]

Not having an iPhone, I have to ask....can't you simply proof read before you hit send?

nope. society has dictated we must type anything and send it through. life on he edge! ( honestly on an iPhone it's really tough because of the way the threads are viewed and how you scroll through the message within a web page you scroll on. plus anybody who goes to parks should realize its never our own faults, blames always rightfully lie upon others who should know better, and never ourselves.)