Disney Skyliner shutdown and evacuation - October 6 2019

[Mem11]

We obtain insurance against the risk of losses relating to some of these events, generally including physical damage to our property and resulting business interruption, certain injuries occurring on our property and some liabilities for alleged
breach of legal responsibilities. When insurance is obtained it is subject to deductibles, exclusions, terms, conditions and limits of liability. The types and levels of coverage we obtain vary from time to time depending on our view of the likelihood of specific types and levels of loss in relation to the cost of obtaining coverage for such types and levels of loss.

I hope this puts the debate to bed. Like most massive corporation TWDC is self insured for everyday claims but carries umbrella insurance for catastrophic loss.

Here’s an interesting read on how the self insurance works. Found it with a simple google search:

Managing risk at the happiest place on Earth

At twice the size of Manhattan, Walt Disney World faces many of the same risks as a large city. It's how they manage those risks that makes them unique.

www.propertycasualty360.com

Agreed, but based on the the statement from the 10K, they have more than just a an umbrella excess policy. At the very least they have a Business Property Policy for property damage and business interruption - an umbrella policy wouldn't cover that.

Interesting, I worked for Disney's Workers Compensation carrier up until 2007. It does appear that they are now self insured based on that article. They had been insured with us since I believe the 60's - I wonder if this happened around the time "Where's The Fire" closed. I didn't handle the account, but did work on similar sized multi-national accounts and all were written on loss sensitive plans or we acted as their TPA as I'm sure was the case with Disney.

Sorry for the thread drift, but I haven't had a lot of good insurance talk for quite some time

 

[GoofGoof]

Agreed, but based on the the statement from the 10K, they have more than just a an umbrella excess policy. At the very least they have a Business Property Policy for property damage and business interruption - an umbrella policy wouldn't cover that.

Interesting, I worked for Disney's Workers Compensation carrier up until 2007. It does appear that they are now self insured based on that article. They had been insured with us since I believe the 60's - I wonder if this happened around the time "Where's The Fire" closed. I didn't handle the account, but did work on similar sized multi-national accounts and all were written on loss sensitive plans or we acted as their TPA as I'm sure was the case with Disney.

Sorry for the thread drift, but I haven't had a lot of good insurance talk for quite some time

I’m not an insurance expert so I probably misused the term “umbrella”. What I was referring to is insurance with a high deductible that only kicks in if the loss is large.

 

[Disone]

Did you really just insinuate that Disney doesn’t carry insurance for most aspects of their business? ok

Don't laugh. Disney is self-insured.

Liability Self-Insurance - Conference Chronicles

At the 2016 ACE Conference, Bob Wiese from Disneyland Resort discussed the differences between traditional insurance and self-insurance when it comes to liability claims. One of the biggest advantages of being self-insured for liability claims is that you get to define what claims you are going...

www.safetynational.com

 

[shernernum]

Don't laugh. Disney is self-insured.

Liability Self-Insurance - Conference Chronicles

At the 2016 ACE Conference, Bob Wiese from Disneyland Resort discussed the differences between traditional insurance and self-insurance when it comes to liability claims. One of the biggest advantages of being self-insured for liability claims is that you get to define what claims you are going...

www.safetynational.com

Thanks for repeating the last 5 pages of the thread.

 

[RustySpork]

Anyone have any info on the skyway outage last night? Seems like another car was stuck, this time in a disabled loading area.

 

[beertiki]

Another site is reporting that a gondola got stuck in the wheelchair/scooter area of the CBR to POP/AOA line. The gondola stayed there, and did not go back on to the main line. The scooter board area was closed.

 

[Disone]

Thanks for repeating the last 5 pages of the thread.

My pleasure or sometimes you just respond first and then later you see all the other responses. It happens. It's okay. You'll live

 

[GoofGoof]

Don't laugh. Disney is self-insured.

Liability Self-Insurance - Conference Chronicles

At the 2016 ACE Conference, Bob Wiese from Disneyland Resort discussed the differences between traditional insurance and self-insurance when it comes to liability claims. One of the biggest advantages of being self-insured for liability claims is that you get to define what claims you are going...

www.safetynational.com

You won’t find that level of detail in the Income Statement. Insurance premiums are not a material enough expense.

From page 16-17 of the 2018 10K under risk factors (I added the underlining the rest is word for word from the doc)

A variety of uncontrollable events may reduce demand for our products and services, impair our ability to provide our products and services or increase the cost of providing our products and services.
Demand for our products and services, particularly our theme parks and resorts, is highly dependent on the general environment for travel and tourism. The environment for travel and tourism, as well as demand for other entertainment products, can be significantly adversely affected in the U.S., globally or in specific regions as a result of a variety of factors beyond our control, including: adverse weather conditions arising from short-term weather patterns or long-term change, catastrophic events or natural disasters (such as excessive heat or rain, hurricanes, typhoons, floods, tsunamis and earthquakes); health concerns; international, political or military developments; and terrorist attacks. These events and others, such as fluctuations in travel and energy costs and computer virus attacks, intrusions or other widespread computing or telecommunications failures, may also damage our ability to provide our products and services or to obtain insurance coverage with respect to these events. An incident that affected our property directly would have a direct impact on our ability to provide goods and services and could have an extended effect of discouraging consumers from attending our facilities. Moreover, the costs of protecting against such incidents reduces the profitability of our operations.
In addition, we derive affiliate fees and royalties from the distribution of our programming, sales of our licensed goods and services by third parties, and the management of businesses operated under brands licensed from the Company, and we are therefore dependent on the successes of those third parties for that portion of our revenue. A wide variety of factors could influence the success of those third parties and if negative factors significantly impacted a sufficient number of those third parties, the profitability of one or more of our businesses could be adversely affected.
We obtain insurance against the risk of losses relating to some of these events, generally including physical damage to our property and resulting business interruption, certain injuries occurring on our property and some liabilities for alleged
breach of legal responsibilities. When insurance is obtained it is subject to deductibles, exclusions, terms, conditions and limits of liability. The types and levels of coverage we obtain vary from time to time depending on our view of the likelihood of specific types and levels of loss in relation to the cost of obtaining coverage for such types and levels of loss.

I hope this puts the debate to bed. Like most massive corporation TWDC is self insured for everyday claims but carries umbrella insurance for catastrophic loss.

Here’s an interesting read on how the self insurance works. Found it with a simple google search:

Managing risk at the happiest place on Earth

At twice the size of Manhattan, Walt Disney World faces many of the same risks as a large city. It's how they manage those risks that makes them unique.

www.propertycasualty360.com

Based on your article attached they call it an excess policy not an umbrella policy.

 

[RustySpork]

Another site is reporting that a gondola got stuck in the wheelchair/scooter area of the CBR to POP/AOA line. The gondola stayed there, and did not go back on to the main line. The scooter board area was closed.

Wonder if it was stuck in the same way on the day of the accident.

 

[Raineman]

So there’s been some talk in this thread regarding how the system would operate/not operate in bad weather, but I’m wondering what the SOP would be in a hurricane situation. Can all of the gondolas be pulled in and stored in the stations? Are the cables and the cable mechanisms sturdy enough to stay in place in hurricane force winds? The supports themselves should be anchored well enough to avoid being ripped out of the ground, but Ive seen the way power lines are whipped around by high winds, kinda makes me wonder about the Skyliner cable system.

 

[GoofGoof]

So there’s been some talk in this thread regarding how the system would operate/not operate in bad weather, but I’m wondering what the SOP would be in a hurricane situation. Can all of the gondolas be pulled in and stored in the stations? Are the cables and the cable mechanisms sturdy enough to stay in place in hurricane force winds? The supports themselves should be anchored well enough to avoid being ripped out of the ground, but Ive seen the way power lines are whipped around by high winds, kinda makes me wonder about the Skyliner cable system.

There’s storage space on the ground for the cabins at CBR station. The towers and cables stay where they are.

 

[lazyboy97o]

So there’s been some talk in this thread regarding how the system would operate/not operate in bad weather, but I’m wondering what the SOP would be in a hurricane situation. Can all of the gondolas be pulled in and stored in the stations? Are the cables and the cable mechanisms sturdy enough to stay in place in hurricane force winds? The supports themselves should be anchored well enough to avoid being ripped out of the ground, but Ive seen the way power lines are whipped around by high winds, kinda makes me wonder about the Skyliner cable system.

It has to meet the requirements of the Florida Building Code and EPCOT Building Code.

 

[peter11435]

So there’s been some talk in this thread regarding how the system would operate/not operate in bad weather, but I’m wondering what the SOP would be in a hurricane situation. Can all of the gondolas be pulled in and stored in the stations? Are the cables and the cable mechanisms sturdy enough to stay in place in hurricane force winds? The supports themselves should be anchored well enough to avoid being ripped out of the ground, but Ive seen the way power lines are whipped around by high winds, kinda makes me wonder about the Skyliner cable system.

All of the gondolas can be brought in and stored on the storage rails.

 

[Heppenheimer]

This is pure speculation, but I would guess that after a hurricane, the cables would undergo similar maintenance to that which ski lifts receive in the off-season. It's not unheard of for a ski lift to undergo an unscheduled refurb after a freak wind storm.

 

[mitchk]

The major problem is the wheelchair assessable units .We all know they’re stored on a separate line and if not put in the rotation properly can cause a major headache . I think this also brings into play why you don’t see that many gondola problems at places like ski resorts. I have nothing against handicap assessable units but I just think that they are the cause of these problems

 

[Heppenheimer]

The major problem is the wheelchair assessable units .We all know they’re stored on a separate line and if not put in the rotation properly can cause a major headache . I think this also brings into play why you don’t see that many gondola problems at places like ski resorts. I have nothing against handicap assessable units but I just think that they are the cause of these problems

Some ski gondolas have at least a few of these units, but probably far less than the Skyliner. Many resorts will offer non-skiers an excursion ticket for a lower price, and I've seen people in wheelchairs take advantage of this offer. Can't say I've ever seen anyone in an ECV, though.

I'm pretty certain that handicapped loading is the most common reason why ski gondolas stop temporarily, since they usually (probably never, actually) don't have a separate loading circuit for this.

 

[GoofGoof]

This is pure speculation, but I would guess that after a hurricane, the cables would undergo similar maintenance to that which ski lifts receive in the off-season. It's not unheard of for a ski lift to undergo an unscheduled refurb after a freak wind storm.

I’m sure there will be an inspection after a major storm before the gondola is brought back into service, similar to other rides and attractions. This past summer DLR rides were temporarily closed after the earthquake (which was pretty far away, but still felt in the park) while they ensured there was no structural damage. I’m sure the same would be true following a hurricane or major wind storm.

 

[Nunu]

I’m sure there will be an inspection after a major storm before the gondola is brought back into service, similar to other rides and attractions. This past summer DLR rides were temporarily closed after the earthquake (which was pretty far away, but still felt in the park) while they ensured there was no structural damage. I’m sure the same would be true following a hurricane or major wind storm.

I'd be surprised if Disney didn't have earthquake insurance for it's California parks. But honestly, I don't know.

 

[tractor tipper]

So there’s been some talk in this thread regarding how the system would operate/not operate in bad weather, but I’m wondering what the SOP would be in a hurricane situation. Can all of the gondolas be pulled in and stored in the stations? Are the cables and the cable mechanisms sturdy enough to stay in place in hurricane force winds? The supports themselves should be anchored well enough to avoid being ripped out of the ground, but Ive seen the way power lines are whipped around by high winds, kinda makes me wonder about the Skyliner cable system.

Already been done once during the last hurricane that past through. Gondolas were removed and the cables were strapped down at the towers. Was covered earlier in this thread when it happened with pictures.

 

[Disone]

Already been done once during the last hurricane that past through. Gondolas were removed and the cables were strapped down at the towers. Was covered earlier in this thread when it happened with pictures.

Kind of. The strap down was only on the Epcot line and likely was more due to the line having slack removed then the storm.