Disney Skyliner shutdown and evacuation - October 6 2019

[flynnibus]

I have a question that's been bothering me since I started seeing some pictures of the cabins bunched up in the station. As someone who skis, usually at Killington in VT, their gondola cabins have posts that are below the cabin, which when the cabin is in the station it is used to guide the cabin around the turns on the wheel via ground tracks:
[..]

The Disney Skyliner cabins seem to have no such posts, so what stops them from swinging around in the station?:

Watch the videos of the cabins in the ECV loop. You can see the cabins are guided by the guest platform on one side, and there is a rail on the inside of the loop that contains them from the other direction

 

[bunnyman]

Watch the videos of the cabins in the ECV loop. You can see the cabins are guided by the guest platform on one side, and there is a rail on the inside of the loop that contains them from the other direction

Ok, thanks! I'm just trying to get a grasp of why the cars would bunch up like some pictures appeared to show. If the power went down and/or they did an emergency stop, wouldn't the cars just stop and not keep moving? From what I've seen and the below video, they're spaced out when they're detached from the haul line:

 

[Orangeanna]

The local news reported it was 6 people in one gondola. It also reported the injuries. I'm just the messenger. I think at this point they have figured out Disney is not exactly being honest so theyre not getting their info from disney but rather other sources. The biggest guest complaint so far seems to be a total lack of communication on Disney's part. I think that's already been discussed here. No excuse for not telling trapped guests something, anything. Time for Disney to come clean. Sounds like they're inching closer but trust is important with a company like Disney. Especially a company like disney. Don't even need to elaborate why, seems pretty obvious. The 911 call makes it even scarier. They should be able to find emergencies even faster. Was there other people who needed quicker evac and we haven't heard yet? There could easily be 2 emergencies at once on the line. The old, the very young, the disabled and ill all do disney.

 

[flynnibus]

It was already stated earlier in this thread that it's very easy to accidentally push the stop button instead of the slow button on the consoles controlling the Skyliner

No, it was POSTULATED by someone (Rob562) that that COULD be what is happening with all the stops on the line - not that it was a cite of what has been happening.

Let's not play the telephone game and keep morphing what has been said.

 

[Wngo905]

Do we know if these call boxes allow one on one communication, or is it more of a "party line" where everyone hears what everyone else is saying?

LOL Party line.....

"Ms. Crump, hoohoooo Ms. Crump, I can hear you on the line. You still have that chest cold, don't you? Now, do as I ask and please hang up."
(Ms Crump hangs up)
"Jenni, are you still there?"
"Yes, Momma"
"Jenni, ask Mr Dingalinger if he has any of them new union suits I read about...."

LOL

 

[flynnibus]

Ok, thanks! I'm just trying to get a grasp of why the cars would bunch up like some pictures appeared to show. If the power went down and/or they did an emergency stop, wouldn't the cars just stop and not keep moving? From what I've seen and the below video, they're spaced out when they're detached from the haul line:

Well that is the root problem to find out from the investigation. A cabin failed to transition from the station drive wheels up to the haul rope.. stalled in that area and the system failed to stop before this condition lead to cabins colliding. We don't know those answers.

 

[ImperfectPixie]

No, it was POSTULATED by someone (Rob562) that that COULD be what is happening with all the stops on the line - not that it was a cite of what has been happening.

Let's not play the telephone game and keep morphing what has been said.

Sorry...my bad.

 

[flynnibus]

Do we know if these call boxes allow one on one communication, or is it more of a "party line" where everyone hears what everyone else is saying?

The references so far suggest they are part of a radio repeater network. By 'failing' that we keep hear being reported I bet what really happened is people were simply having trouble using the system due to being busy. Meaning.. comms would be blocked or cut short due to other live sessions.

Basically... people stepping on each other trying to use the same limited resource.

 

[beertiki]

But I'm sure you're in the more intelligent half, right?

I would like to think so, but here I am speculating on the causes for gondola slow downs on a message board. So, that might shift me into the "less" half.

 

[bunnyman]

The local news reported it was 6 people in one gondola. It also reported the injuries. I'm just the messenger. I think at this point they have figured out Disney is not exactly being honest so theyre not getting their info from disney but rather other sources. The biggest guest complaint so far seems to be a total lack of communication on Disney's part. I think that's already been discussed here. No excuse for not telling trapped guests something, anything. Time for Disney to come clean. Sounds like they're inching closer but trust is important with a company like Disney. Especially a company like disney. Don't even need to elaborate why, seems pretty obvious. The 911 call makes it even scarier. They should be able to find emergencies even faster. Was there other people who needed quicker evac and we haven't heard yet? There could easily be 2 emergencies at once on the line. The old, the very young, the disabled and ill all do disney.

Saw it posted elsewhere and I agree, they should have RFID trackers in each cabin so they locate the exact one (I believe some ski resorts already use them).

 

[stratman50th]

I also thought they had some magic way of keeping gators out if the water. I live in Florida!

You mean they don't?

 

[Orangeanna]

I think the big problem here is second hand information bc Disney isn't saying much. Much is speculation from guests and talkative cms. I wish we knew exactly what happened, who got hurt and how. What caused it. How they will fix it and how they will assure guests it was a one time thing( not sure how you know that). Don't want to invade guest medical privacy of course but there are things they can say. Disney could end this thread today with an honest account and a plan. I'll be waiting, not holding my breath. Fans in the cabins!!

 

[Laketravis]

Apologies if this has already been referenced:

Disney World Skyliner gondola shutdown: What we know and don’t know

On Saturday night, hundreds of Disney-goers were stranded in the air as the new gondolas suffered a shutdown Here’s what we know about what happened and the questions that are still unanswere…

www.orlandosentinel.com

 

[Heppenheimer]

I think the big problem here is second hand information bc Disney isn't saying much. Much is speculation from guests and talkative cms. I wish we knew exactly what happened, who got hurt and how. What caused it. How they will fix it and how they will assure guests it was a one time thing( not sure how you know that). Don't want to invade guest medical privacy of course but there are things they can say. Disney could end this thread today with an honest account and a plan. I'll be waiting, not holding my breath. Fans in the cabins!!

HIPPA. Disney can't comment publicly on any injury a guest may have sustained, if they are even privy to the details in the first place.

 

[PeoplemoverTTA]

HIPPA. Disney can't comment publicly on any injury a guest may have sustained, if they are even privy to the details in the first place.

I'm not a legal expert, but I believe that Disney would at least be able to say something without identifying the Guest or specifying their exact medical issue. Something along the lines of "A Guest was taken to the hospital due to a medical issue not directly related to the Skyliner outage."

It feels like the Disney PR and communications team is simply not handling this well. And per my other posts in this thread, CM to Guest communications have not be particularly effective either (such as the CM getting defensive and insisting (unnecessarily, as she wasn't being challenged) guests weren't trapped for 3 hours, and also telling my husband that any concerns about the Skyliner (to paraphrase) are unnecessary since it may not even be running by our trip in December.

 

[billem]

HIPPA. Disney can't comment publicly on any injury a guest may have sustained, if they are even privy to the details in the first place.

HIPAA does not allow personally identifiable health information to be shared. HIPAA would not prevent Disney from saying that some specific injury happened to an unnamed person.

 

[flynnibus]

The local news reported it was 6 people in one gondola. It also reported the injuries. I'm just the messenger

The fire dept spent about 30mins evac'ing 6 people out of one cabin that included the medical emergency.

Other cabins were evac'd as well.. including some via ground lifts and more.

 

[flynnibus]

HIPPA. Disney can't comment publicly on any injury a guest may have sustained, if they are even privy to the details in the first place.

Incorrect - Disney is not covered by HIPAA. They are not a 'covered entity' in this matter.

 

[Bender123]

HIPPA. Disney can't comment publicly on any injury a guest may have sustained, if they are even privy to the details in the first place.

HIPAA has nothing to do with it. That law is based on people who provide treatment, payment (insurance) or health care operations. Basically, this would apply to the doctors and Disney would not be bound by it. Disney can talk all day about what ever they want, but that would also open them to all sorts of lawsuits in the US. They cant even apologize, because in the US, an apology can be seen as an admission of guilt/responsibility...funny thing is that this doesn't apply in Canada, where you can say sorry for being stuck for several hours and its just taken as "duh...that's what normal people do."

The actual reason is that there were likely no actual injuries (beyond stress and some bathroom issues) and the prudent thing to do is not comment on it until an investigation into the cause has been completed.

 

[beertiki]

The intelligence thing is insensitive (and I really think @beertiki is referring to obliviousness and entitlement rather than lack of intelligence), but I look at it the same way I look at how New England drivers seem to forget how to drive in the snow every year even though they live here, and I'll be the first to admit that my ability to pay attention to absolutely everything around me sometimes fails in the parks just because that's the nature of WDW and all its distractions. (For example, I've made a note of being near the tracks sunken into Main Street only to turn around and almost get my foot stuck in one less than five minutes later.) I think his/her choice of wording really stinks, but he/she's really only pointing out things that can easily be observed in the parks. It may not be nice, or pleasant, but that doesn't mean he/she's wrong in his/her general observations, either.

When I used to work for the Key West Aquarium, it was easily observed that any Carnival Cruise ship from either Galveston or New Orleans would have less intelligent guests than a Royal Caribbean from Miami. With the Royal Caribbean boat, I spend my day answering questions about sealife, with the Carnival boat I spend all day telling people to take their hands out of the shark tank.

The gondola is easier to board than every omnimover attraction, there should be no reason anyone should cause a delay. The ECV boarding area does not even move, it might be easier to get into than most of the handicapped bathroom stalls on property. But, some guests just can not seem to figure it out.