Well, after hundreds of visits to the Magic Kingdom over a 20 year period (visiting this park 4 to 5 times each trip), I can honestly say we had our worst experience ever at any Disney park.
On November 16th, after 9 days of enjoying repeated trips to the four Disney Parks, as well as a surprisingly decent time at Universal (The Mummy ride is incredible), we finally visited Pirates Of The Caribbean (we usually wait until nighttime when the lines are non-existent, and this was the first time we were in MK at night on this trip). We boarded at 6:05 pm, thought we would ride it once, then grab dinner at Casey's, then grab a good view of the fireworks at 7:00 pm from the Main Street Train station. We saw the fireworks the previous evening, but it was raining.
The Pirates ride went flawlessly as usual, until our boat backed up at the last scene (Pirates and the gold), just before unloading. No problem, we've experienced boat backups before, and we were only the third boat back for unloading. After about 1 minute of sitting there (and two more boats piled up behind us), I began to think something may have gone wrong with the ride. There was no Cast Member in the unload area at the podium. We waited patiently. After 5 minutes without any activity (that's a long time to hear the same soundtrack repeated over and over, believe me), I began to think we may be evacuated. This was actually exciting for us (ok, I guess we've been to Disney World too many times!), as we've never experienced an evacuation on a Disney boat ride before.
Our excitement started to diminish as another 5 minutes went by with absolutely NO activity anywhere, and boat loads of people looking around wondering what was going on. I remarked to my wife that I would bet that boats were backed up to the Pirate Ship/Cannons area, and we both smiled. We waited patiently. :veryconfu
Well, this wasn't very amusing anymore. After ANOTHER 10 minutes of sitting, with no Cast Member in sight, and the soundtrack still running, I began to think a Cast Member abandoned their post as a joke (maybe their last day?). I glanced at my watch, and it was now 6:30 pm. My wife remarked that we may have to skip dinner and head right to the fireworks. I reassured her that everything would be ok, and the ride should start at any moment. :lookaroun
Another 10 minutes goes by, no activity whatsoever. People in the first boat, which was within a few feet of the unloading dock, began to climb over seats and exit, ignoring warnings from a speaker to remain seated. We (and at least 6 other boats that I could see) were still stranded without explanation. Finally, a Cast Member appears at the unload podium but immediately gets on the phone, and purposely does not make eye contact with the hundred or so people facing him in our stuck boats. After ANOTHER 5 minutes of NO explanation, people in the second boat decide to abandon ship, which was immediately greeted again with a loud speaker telling them to remain seated.
We were completely trapped, and helpless. Finally, the house lights go up, the soundtrack is killed (which was greeted with loud cheering). It was now 6:45 pm, and we had spent 35 minutes stuck in a boat with no explantion.
The evacuation procedures were horrendous. It took at least 10 minutes to unload each boat using a makeshift ramp. A Cast Member pushed a few boats backwards into the "city on fire" scene, and they disappeared. We waited patiently as we saw the boat behind our boat evacuated. Finally, after another 10 minutes of apparent confusion on the Cast Members, a ramp was brought to our boat. I actually lifted a woman's wheelchair out of our boat for her, as it was obvious she was in pain and now very uncomfortable sitting on the hard plastic boat benches for over an hour.
We were finally led backstage at 7:15 pm. We saw water pipes, locker rooms, you name it. There wasn't a single Cast Member that even apologized. When we finally made it out to Adventureland at 7:20, the fireworks were over, and we now had to battle thousands of happy people that had just had a magical night watching fireworks, to get out to the Monorail.
My wife was almost in tears, and she said she never wanted to ride Pirates again. We left the park completely depressed. The magic was gone.
The next two days were spent in MGM, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot, and we tried to forget about the Pirates experience.
The Pirates evacuation was one of the worst pieces of work I have ever witnessed. I tried to reassure my wife that at least there wasn't a fire, as we would have all burned by the time Cast Members even noticed there was a problem.
I realize rides break down from time to time, but the incompetence exhibited by Cast Members, leaving Guests stranded for 35 minutes with absolutely no contact, then another 30 minutes to evacuate a boat that was within 3 feet of a ledge, and 30 feet from an unloading platform, was simply ridiculous. And to not even have a simple "sorry folks" from arguably the greatest Theme Park members on Earth, left us with a bitter taste in our mouths. :brick:
Of course, we will be back at Disney next year for another two weeks of fun and sunshine, but my wife swears she will never ride Pirates Of The Caribbean again, which is a shame as that was her 3rd favorite ride in MK behind Splash Mountain and Buzz Lightyear.
On November 16th, after 9 days of enjoying repeated trips to the four Disney Parks, as well as a surprisingly decent time at Universal (The Mummy ride is incredible), we finally visited Pirates Of The Caribbean (we usually wait until nighttime when the lines are non-existent, and this was the first time we were in MK at night on this trip). We boarded at 6:05 pm, thought we would ride it once, then grab dinner at Casey's, then grab a good view of the fireworks at 7:00 pm from the Main Street Train station. We saw the fireworks the previous evening, but it was raining.
The Pirates ride went flawlessly as usual, until our boat backed up at the last scene (Pirates and the gold), just before unloading. No problem, we've experienced boat backups before, and we were only the third boat back for unloading. After about 1 minute of sitting there (and two more boats piled up behind us), I began to think something may have gone wrong with the ride. There was no Cast Member in the unload area at the podium. We waited patiently. After 5 minutes without any activity (that's a long time to hear the same soundtrack repeated over and over, believe me), I began to think we may be evacuated. This was actually exciting for us (ok, I guess we've been to Disney World too many times!), as we've never experienced an evacuation on a Disney boat ride before.
Our excitement started to diminish as another 5 minutes went by with absolutely NO activity anywhere, and boat loads of people looking around wondering what was going on. I remarked to my wife that I would bet that boats were backed up to the Pirate Ship/Cannons area, and we both smiled. We waited patiently. :veryconfu Well, this wasn't very amusing anymore. After ANOTHER 10 minutes of sitting, with no Cast Member in sight, and the soundtrack still running, I began to think a Cast Member abandoned their post as a joke (maybe their last day?). I glanced at my watch, and it was now 6:30 pm. My wife remarked that we may have to skip dinner and head right to the fireworks. I reassured her that everything would be ok, and the ride should start at any moment. :lookaroun
Another 10 minutes goes by, no activity whatsoever. People in the first boat, which was within a few feet of the unloading dock, began to climb over seats and exit, ignoring warnings from a speaker to remain seated. We (and at least 6 other boats that I could see) were still stranded without explanation. Finally, a Cast Member appears at the unload podium
but immediately gets on the phone, and purposely does not make eye contact with the hundred or so people facing him in our stuck boats. After ANOTHER 5 minutes of NO explanation, people in the second boat decide to abandon ship, which was immediately greeted again with a loud speaker telling them to remain seated. We were completely trapped, and helpless. Finally, the house lights go up, the soundtrack is killed (which was greeted with loud cheering). It was now 6:45 pm, and we had spent 35 minutes stuck in a boat with no explantion.
The evacuation procedures were horrendous. It took at least 10 minutes to unload each boat using a makeshift ramp. A Cast Member pushed a few boats backwards into the "city on fire" scene, and they disappeared. We waited patiently as we saw the boat behind our boat evacuated. Finally, after another 10 minutes of apparent confusion on the Cast Members, a ramp was brought to our boat. I actually lifted a woman's wheelchair out of our boat for her, as it was obvious she was in pain and now very uncomfortable sitting on the hard plastic boat benches for over an hour.
We were finally led backstage at 7:15 pm. We saw water pipes, locker rooms, you name it. There wasn't a single Cast Member that even apologized. When we finally made it out to Adventureland at 7:20, the fireworks were over, and we now had to battle thousands of happy people that had just had a magical night watching fireworks, to get out to the Monorail.
My wife was almost in tears, and she said she never wanted to ride Pirates again. We left the park completely depressed. The magic was gone.
The next two days were spent in MGM, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot, and we tried to forget about the Pirates experience.
The Pirates evacuation was one of the worst pieces of work I have ever witnessed. I tried to reassure my wife that at least there wasn't a fire, as we would have all burned by the time Cast Members even noticed there was a problem.
I realize rides break down from time to time, but the incompetence exhibited by Cast Members, leaving Guests stranded for 35 minutes with absolutely no contact, then another 30 minutes to evacuate a boat that was within 3 feet of a ledge, and 30 feet from an unloading platform, was simply ridiculous. And to not even have a simple "sorry folks" from arguably the greatest Theme Park members on Earth, left us with a bitter taste in our mouths. :brick:
Of course, we will be back at Disney next year for another two weeks of fun and sunshine, but my wife swears she will never ride Pirates Of The Caribbean again, which is a shame as that was her 3rd favorite ride in MK behind Splash Mountain and Buzz Lightyear.
