AOA hit by lightning

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

I would think that Disney owes comparable or money returned. If Disney wants to upgrade, fine, but I don't think it should be expected or entitled.

Yeah, I don't think anyone should expect to be upgraded.
I have read some people that were moved to POP were fine with it until they heard others were being moved to Deluxe resorts so they were calling to demand an upgrade. That I don't agree with at all...

 

[Jahona]

Why should upgrades be required for an act of nature? Airlines don't upgrade everyone to first class when weather delays flights or shuts down airports.

While I've never been upgraded, I have had unlimited mini bottles of spirits from delayed flights.

For some reason the repositioning of people has me interested. I'm curious were people are being shuffled around to for the level they payed for.

 

[Violiav]

As long as it's fixed by the time I get there then cool, but if not I'll gladly take a move to a deluxe suite

 

[DznyGrlSD]

Stuff gets hit by lightning all the time in FL. That's why you see so many little lightning rods on EVERYthing at Disney. I hope everyone is ok and there wasn't major damage.

 

[disneygirl1024]

I have a room in LM section. My room is fine. And yes people are being moved to Saratoga springs or pop. They didn't say what building got hit by lightening but that one did get zapped!

 

[Dwarful]

Last July we had a room for two weeks at PORS. When we arrived there was a problem with interior pipes leaking in the bathroom. They didn't have any more rooms that slept five people. They moved us to AoA at no additional cost. The suite at AOA would have been more $$$ vs. the single room for 5 at PORS.

Now, if I booked a suite and expected suite amenities (fridge, microwave, dishes, utensils, coffee maker, table, chairs, more storage, etc.) then I would not be happy with two rooms at the value. I'd expect a suite at Music...but not a deluxe.

 

[Violiav]

Right it should be based on avaliblity, not what a person demands.

 

[pug]

 

[DGRYAN1977]

I will be staying at AOA beginning this Friday. Reading this sent me into a slight panic so I called Disney. If this did in fact happen, they have not notified any of their staff because no one was aware of anything.

 

[PhilharMagician]

My big concern is where is the lightning protection? I don't think I have seen a building n WDW that does not have lightning rods on the roof tops to help prevent strikes to the buildings and also there should be circuit protection for the electrical service. It seems odd that they would loose all the AC units. WDW buildings getting hit with lightning is somewhat common and we never hear about major equipment problems.

 

[PrincessNelly_NJ]

I will be staying at AOA beginning this Friday. Reading this sent me into a slight panic so I called Disney. If this did in fact happen, they have not notified any of their staff because no one was aware of anything.

Many people reported being moved or contacted. It could be possible that it has already been fixed.

 

[Sassagoula-Rvr]

I'm no electrical expert...but given the lightning rods on almost everything....this has to just be one of those freak things where it didn't matter right? Certainly there was protection on the buildings/circuits?

 

[cw1982]

I'm no electrical expert...but given the lightning rods on almost everything....this has to just be one of those freak things where it didn't matter right? Certainly there was protection on the buildings/circuits?

That's what I'm thinking too.

 

[disneygirl1024]

I will be staying at AOA beginning this Friday. Reading this sent me into a slight panic so I called Disney. If this did in fact happen, they have not notified any of their staff because no one was aware of anything.

It did happen because the girl checking us in told us about it.

 

[Polydweller]

I will be staying at AOA beginning this Friday. Reading this sent me into a slight panic so I called Disney. If this did in fact happen, they have not notified any of their staff because no one was aware of anything.

And, of course, when you called you got the call centre and that CM could be miles even states away. Unfortunately, the call centre CMs aren't really kept fully up to date. That's why keeping up on things via these kind of boards can be so useful.

 

[Victor Kelly]

Technically all systems are usually separate. However, if there was a lapse in attention somewhere along the lines during construction may have had the two systems cross paths. Now, if the lightening hit the actual circuit instead of the lightening rods then there is the answer.

 

[PhilharMagician]

Lightning rods don't protect buildings from being hit, the rods are supposed to be hit. Lightning strikes hit the rod which then the current is run down the building into the ground. Just because there are lightning rods doesn't mean the lightning has to hit the rod. It is also possible to have the lightning overwhelm the grounding system along with building defect etc. Many things can go wrong and even surge protector, circuit breakers, grounding etc. can't handle the lightning. If the lightning is faster than the breakers can pop then a huge surge will hit equipment.

I was in a harbor and watched a lightning strike bounce around off the sail boat masts wiping out random equipment all over the harbor. Tiki bar there, credit machine here, lights over there, it was kind of strange how that worked out. You could hear it and see it, kind of wild but not in a good way.

Lighting on the water is dangerous. I have seen the visible charge from a strike skip and migrate for quite a distance. If the boat had proper protection it would have taken the energy from the strike and dumped it directly into the water. Marine protections systems create a Faraday cage which ties all major masses of steel together in a low resistance wire including the mast and ground to the water typically using the propeller shaft.


No, I understand that, but the lighting protection systems put in place like the lighting rods to ground are installed to protect equipment like appliance, electronics and air conditioners. I just seems that something failed in their protection system. Maybe the electrical panel that supplies the heat and A/C was not properly tied to ground?

A few years ago lighting hit a tree next to my camp. The charge came down the tree and blew out of the tree which you could see by the bark being missing and then over about 12 inches to the car port roof which is metal and most likely created a massive electric field under the carport as it searched for ground. Under the carport at the time was my boat. This hit fried my VHF radio, sonar, GPS, radio and even the fuses for the electronics.

 

[MMDVC]

Personally I would appreciate an upgrade or extra perks for the inconvenience and disappointment. Because I could have "chosen" POP when I made my reservations but chose AoA for the newer experience. Disney can create the Magic for their guests with just a little bit of effort. I hope they have taken this into consideration.

 

[fugawe09]

I imagine just about every building at Disney has lightning protection and that buildings get hit all the time without anyone noticing. If you look at Google maps, you can see AOA has a central chiller for each building, so a malfunction with that piece of equipment could take out AC for a whole building. Perhaps the malfunction in this case was caused by a lightning strike to the building or somewhere else on the power grid, but it could have also been a coincidental malfunction. The front desk CM may have been correct about a strike or she may have been repeating breakroom speculation as fact. At any rate, if the building was struck I would say the lightning protection system did its job - the building didn't erupt in a ball of fire (like a new apartment building in Celebration did recently).

 

[unkadug]

Lightning can do strange things:

I installed a quarter million dollar sound system into a new construction church. The general contractor forgot to tie the metal steeple onto the grounding strap.

Guess what? Lighting hit the steeple, transferred to the lighting truss and from there on to every piece of electrical equipment in the church.

The only saving grace was the Monster Power surge protectors we had on the major audio components. All dimmer packs were completely fried as well as the lighting board, along with two very expensive video projectors ....all mounted about 35 feet in the air.

Guess who got to build scaffolding to replace said equipment?