Emergency Evacuation Procedures at Disney's Polynesian Villas

[Chezman1399]

No I'm not confusing magnetic locks with anything. Magnets that could not be pushed apart by a human would cause a ridiculous amount of stress on the door and lots of energy to be used to pull them apart. Traditional magnets do not get used in that type of door for that reason. In the kitchen cabinet doors you refer to there is a mechanical process to disengage the door and push it away from the magnet, on top of that it's a very cheap add-on that doesn't get used in commercial doors.

So let me change my last statement an electromagnetic lock like one that would be used in a commercial door would require power.

 

[englanddg]

Are we talking about doors like these?

 

[jlsHouston]

Throw a chair through the glass door and I bet they find a way to make sure it opens next time. I love the poly but this is ridiculous

I'm with you, I love the POLY but I'm not even surprised at the apathy from the front desk....

 

[Polydweller]

Folks, the title might say emergency but the situation described was a power outage, not an emergency like a fire. In a power outage there is no emergency need to evacuate the building. Emergency services are unlikely to respond in this situation. It's simply a matter of waiting for the power to come back. Inconvenient yes, and possibly warranting some compensation but not an emergency evacuation situation.

As for the doors, if they are like the ones in some of my group's hotels, it's the door motor keeping them closed. Not by power but simply because the mechanism won't budge without power and takes huge effort to push open. There is an override that usually staff have to activate. In a power outage (non-emergency), you want them to stay closed to maintain security.

Now a real emergency is different in our hotels and I assume Disney. In fires the power usually stays on for at least a few minutes and some backup power. In our hotels, the alarm system commands the doors to open using either normal power or temporary backup power and then they stay open for the whole event. In other words, they won't close until the alarms are turned off by the fire department and normal power is restored. In other words, until the emergency is declared over. A system like that or similar one unlocking the door in an emergency is required to get approvals to open and run the hotel.

From my experience, much of the commentary in the thread is a bit off.

 

[buseegal]

for me if I was in that situation it would have soon become an emergency with no power and nonopening sliding door I would have overheated. I would not be able to walk down the stairs, so who would you suggest I call? so you are saying I am to stay in the room until it becomes an emergency problem and then call Reedy Fire