Driving the Monorail?

[DizneyPryncess]

I just wondered if anyone here has ever gotten to drive the Disneyworld monorail. I have driven up front before, so on my current trip, I let my friends do it since they couldn't fit all of us and they had never done it. We were on the resort monorail. Turns out, the conductor let each of them drive the monorail since there wasn't any other passengers besides us on it. He told them it had never happened before, and I wondered if that was true or if it's common and that's just something that they say. Obviously I'd really like to try it next time I'm here, and I'm a little sad that I missed out on it.

Anyone else ever heard of this?

Just some other random info - we got a paintbrush on Tom Sawyers Island, it opened early so when we got there at 10 thinking we'd be first in line, only 2 were left to find. We found one under a bush & got a fastpass to either Splash or Big Thunder. They wouldn't let us keep our pass as a souvenier when we used it =(

 

[Rob562]

I presume it's a VERY rare thing to happen, due to liability issues. (I'd bet that it's an instant termination for the CM if they were caught)

One of my close friends *swears* he drove the monorail when he visited as a kid, which would have been back in the mid-80's. Sat in the seat, pushed the lever forward, etc. I assume this was on the Epcot beam, where there's a long stretch of straight track and no speed limit changes. He said that at one point the driver took over while a train approached and passed them, and then let him drive again.

About the closest modern thing to this was taking a pic of my friend sitting in the pilot's seat with his hands on the controls, though the train was stopped in a station at the time.

-Rob

 

[DizneyPryncess]

That's pretty cool - That sounds similar to what they did...they said the driver stood over them the entire time and watched. I was guessing it was pretty rare too for the same liability reasons. I found one other account while searching online of someone who got to do the same thing - but that's it.

Thanks for the response!

 

[Goosebrent]

AS a previous pilot, that is a terminable offense

 

[MonoRon]

That's a big no no. I did the college program back in fall 03, my roll was in monorail. The first thing I was told by my trainer and manager was never let the guest drive.