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Epcot Closed Today! (7/17)
- Thread starter Quentin Disney
- Start date
MonorailBlack
Member
Thanks...u gotta great avatar too......
Florida Man
Active Member
I'm surprised Disney didn't put anything on their website .:veryconfu
General Grizz
New Member
EPCOT to reopen today
Disney World's Epcot theme park was expected to reopen at 9 a.m. today after an early-morning electrical fire Wednesday disrupted power to the park, forcing it to close.
It was only the third time in its 20-year history that Epcot, famous for its critically acclaimed restaurants and international pavilions, had to shut down.
Power was restored about 6 p.m. after 14½ hours -- not early enough to save the day for the thousands of visitors who were turned away.
Guests with multiday passes or previously purchased tickets to Epcot were diverted to other parks. Disney extended hours at the Magic Kingdom and Disney-MGM Studios by one hour Wednesday to appease inconvenienced visitors.
Disney spokeswoman Diane Ledder said there were no injuries or major damage when a substation that powers the entire park, as well as nearby hotels, caught fire during early-morning routine maintenance.
"No guests were ever in danger," she said.
Disney's Animal Kingdom, the Magic Kingdom and Disney-MGM Studios weren't affected by the outage.
Epcot is Disney's second-most-visited park, drawing an estimated 9 million visitors in 2001 compared with the Magic Kingdom's 14.8 million, according to Amusement Business magazine.
By midmorning, a caravan of confused motorists pulled over onto the grass on Buena Vista Drive. Behind them were dozens of orange cones blocking off the entrance to Epcot and a sign that blinked "EPCOT NOT OPEN . . . AT THIS TIME."
For tourists such as the Peters family from Michigan, this was as good a place as any to try to figure out why the theme park they had been waiting two years to visit was closed.
"We have a four-day hopper pass, and we've already been to the Animal Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom," said Cloyd Peters, who was driving his wife, son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in a rented minivan.
"Our whole schedule has been really whacked over," said his wife, Betty. The family was heading back to Michigan today.
Officials said the fire started about 3:30 a.m. in a switching gear inside a substation outside the public area of the park, near the northeast corner of Test Track, the park's only thrill ride.
Electricians were performing routine maintenance at the time, but investigators hadn't determined the cause of the fire by late afternoon, said Bo Jones, spokesman for Reedy Creek Improvement District, which provides government services, including fire and police protection, for the Disney resort.
Ledder said the substation has a backup system that should have prevented the park from losing power entirely, but it suffered water damage and couldn't be used until it was cleaned.
She said the work on the substation was unrelated to renovations taking place within the park.
Epcot's closing came at a critical time for Central Florida's No. 1 industry. Tourism businesses still are recovering from the sudden decline in travel after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Parks and hotels generally are busier than expected this summer, although experts say it may be at least another year before business returns to pre-recession levels.
Besides disrupting power to the theme park, the outage briefly affected the Caribbean Beach Resort and disabled air conditioning at the Disney Beach Club Villas time share.
Some of Epcot's 2,000 employees who reported to work early were deployed elsewhere on Disney property, Ledder said. But an unspecified number of workers were reached at home and told not to report -- and won't be getting paid unless they take a vacation day or a sick day.
Epcot also closed in September 1999 when Hurricane Floyd threatened the area and after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.
Besides the maintenance on Epcot's electrical system, the park is sprucing up several pavilions in its World Showcase. Scaffolding hides sections of the Canadian, Chinese, Italian and Norwegian pavilions.
Norway's Maelstrom attraction closed Sunday and isn't scheduled to reopen until Oct. 19.
For the Shansky family of East Liverpool, Ohio, the blinking sign telling of Epcot's closure warned them they would have to make new plans.
They pulled over to get more information, but when Ann Shansky turned the radio to the Disney station, all she heard was music.
"We were looking forward to this [Epcot] more than anything else," she said.
Damian Paletta, Jerry Jackson and Doris Bloodsworth of the Sentinel staff contributed to this story. Todd Pack can be reached at 407-420-5407 or tpack@
orlandosentinel.com.
Copyright © 2002, Orlando Sentinel
Disney World's Epcot theme park was expected to reopen at 9 a.m. today after an early-morning electrical fire Wednesday disrupted power to the park, forcing it to close.
It was only the third time in its 20-year history that Epcot, famous for its critically acclaimed restaurants and international pavilions, had to shut down.
Power was restored about 6 p.m. after 14½ hours -- not early enough to save the day for the thousands of visitors who were turned away.
Guests with multiday passes or previously purchased tickets to Epcot were diverted to other parks. Disney extended hours at the Magic Kingdom and Disney-MGM Studios by one hour Wednesday to appease inconvenienced visitors.
Disney spokeswoman Diane Ledder said there were no injuries or major damage when a substation that powers the entire park, as well as nearby hotels, caught fire during early-morning routine maintenance.
"No guests were ever in danger," she said.
Disney's Animal Kingdom, the Magic Kingdom and Disney-MGM Studios weren't affected by the outage.
Epcot is Disney's second-most-visited park, drawing an estimated 9 million visitors in 2001 compared with the Magic Kingdom's 14.8 million, according to Amusement Business magazine.
By midmorning, a caravan of confused motorists pulled over onto the grass on Buena Vista Drive. Behind them were dozens of orange cones blocking off the entrance to Epcot and a sign that blinked "EPCOT NOT OPEN . . . AT THIS TIME."
For tourists such as the Peters family from Michigan, this was as good a place as any to try to figure out why the theme park they had been waiting two years to visit was closed.
"We have a four-day hopper pass, and we've already been to the Animal Kingdom and the Magic Kingdom," said Cloyd Peters, who was driving his wife, son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in a rented minivan.
"Our whole schedule has been really whacked over," said his wife, Betty. The family was heading back to Michigan today.
Officials said the fire started about 3:30 a.m. in a switching gear inside a substation outside the public area of the park, near the northeast corner of Test Track, the park's only thrill ride.
Electricians were performing routine maintenance at the time, but investigators hadn't determined the cause of the fire by late afternoon, said Bo Jones, spokesman for Reedy Creek Improvement District, which provides government services, including fire and police protection, for the Disney resort.
Ledder said the substation has a backup system that should have prevented the park from losing power entirely, but it suffered water damage and couldn't be used until it was cleaned.
She said the work on the substation was unrelated to renovations taking place within the park.
Epcot's closing came at a critical time for Central Florida's No. 1 industry. Tourism businesses still are recovering from the sudden decline in travel after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Parks and hotels generally are busier than expected this summer, although experts say it may be at least another year before business returns to pre-recession levels.
Besides disrupting power to the theme park, the outage briefly affected the Caribbean Beach Resort and disabled air conditioning at the Disney Beach Club Villas time share.
Some of Epcot's 2,000 employees who reported to work early were deployed elsewhere on Disney property, Ledder said. But an unspecified number of workers were reached at home and told not to report -- and won't be getting paid unless they take a vacation day or a sick day.
Epcot also closed in September 1999 when Hurricane Floyd threatened the area and after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.
Besides the maintenance on Epcot's electrical system, the park is sprucing up several pavilions in its World Showcase. Scaffolding hides sections of the Canadian, Chinese, Italian and Norwegian pavilions.
Norway's Maelstrom attraction closed Sunday and isn't scheduled to reopen until Oct. 19.
For the Shansky family of East Liverpool, Ohio, the blinking sign telling of Epcot's closure warned them they would have to make new plans.
They pulled over to get more information, but when Ann Shansky turned the radio to the Disney station, all she heard was music.
"We were looking forward to this [Epcot] more than anything else," she said.
Damian Paletta, Jerry Jackson and Doris Bloodsworth of the Sentinel staff contributed to this story. Todd Pack can be reached at 407-420-5407 or tpack@
orlandosentinel.com.
Copyright © 2002, Orlando Sentinel
Attachments
General Grizz
New Member
General Grizz
New Member
General Grizz
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General Grizz
New Member
Epcot's parking lot is deserted Wednesday after the park closed for only the 3rd time in its 20-year history. The other closings were during a hurricane threat in 1999 and after the Sept. 11 attacks.
(JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL)
July 18, 2002
Copyright © 2002, Orlando Sentinel
(JOE BURBANK/ORLANDO SENTINEL)
July 18, 2002
Copyright © 2002, Orlando Sentinel
Attachments
Oh yeah, I forgot about that:hammer:
But the lights must go off after the park closes, too.
BTW, Spaceship Earth itself is 180 ft tall, so originally, it never needed the blinking light, untill they added the Wand for 2000. That, I am guessing is mabey about 220 ft. tall?
Poncho1973
New Member
For anyone who EVER complains about Cast Members not working like they "used to back in the day"... I wish you could've seen the work that went on yesterday. This whole thing happened in my backyard... about 200 feet or so from my office. The work done was amazing and the people involved tried desperately to safely and efficiently restore power as fast as physically possible.
If you read the "official" statement you know what happened with the fire and the subsequent water damage.
As someone who was here ALL DAY and watching the various Reedy Creek departments (both RCES and RCID) and contractors, I was completely impressed. These are the men and women that I work with everyday and they were going full speed in the 98 degree heat. The heat index was measured as being 108-110 degrees. As a technical person, I was not very helpful in the actually repair work... but we all jumped in and helped. Cooking & gathering food for the workers. Finding ice and water to keep them hydrated. Coordinating truck flow through the lots. Anything we could do to help.
They weren't able to get it up and running for guests yesterday, but they certainly kept downtime to a minimum. The next time I hear someone whining about how things "aren't the way it USED to be done" I'm going to throw this out there. These people really busted their butts to get Epcot back up and running.
If you read the "official" statement you know what happened with the fire and the subsequent water damage.
As someone who was here ALL DAY and watching the various Reedy Creek departments (both RCES and RCID) and contractors, I was completely impressed. These are the men and women that I work with everyday and they were going full speed in the 98 degree heat. The heat index was measured as being 108-110 degrees. As a technical person, I was not very helpful in the actually repair work... but we all jumped in and helped. Cooking & gathering food for the workers. Finding ice and water to keep them hydrated. Coordinating truck flow through the lots. Anything we could do to help.
They weren't able to get it up and running for guests yesterday, but they certainly kept downtime to a minimum. The next time I hear someone whining about how things "aren't the way it USED to be done" I'm going to throw this out there. These people really busted their butts to get Epcot back up and running.
sillyspook13
Well-Known Member
My mom works in risk management, and her department was quite busy yesterday. They had to scramble all morning to find generators for all of Epcot's restaurants to keep food from spoiling. Health Services, which is backstage at Epcot, had no power. They set up a station in the parking lot and sent anybody who needed medical attention to ORMC or Celebration Hospital.
I found out about the power outage upon arriving at work around 8:00. By the time Animal Kingdom opened at 9, the parking lot was full. Although our park hours weren't extended, we had a "slow close". Rumors circulated throughout the day- anything from power outages at blizzard beach and various resorts, to bomb threats, to all of Epcot having burned up. In the breakroom, we watched the local news with full coverage of nothing going on at Epcot.
I found out about the power outage upon arriving at work around 8:00. By the time Animal Kingdom opened at 9, the parking lot was full. Although our park hours weren't extended, we had a "slow close". Rumors circulated throughout the day- anything from power outages at blizzard beach and various resorts, to bomb threats, to all of Epcot having burned up. In the breakroom, we watched the local news with full coverage of nothing going on at Epcot.
plpeters70
New Member
Another good reason why the should never have added that horrible wand!! :brick:
Sorry, I just had to get that out!!!
Florida Man
Active Member
I think...
OK every fire that happens the fire department always figurs out the cause of the fire even if it was a cigarite and it (the cigarite)was burned to nothing they still figure it out.
The fire happened right in between Test track and Mission: Space.
So I think Disney tried firering up Mission: Space to see if they could use the same power grid as Test Track to save some money insted of building a new 1 like Rockin' Roller Coaster.
But what happened was as soon as they tried fireing up, the wires got to hot and caused the fire. I mean think about, if a fire would happen it would most likly be during the day time when test track is at full power and the 2 hotels have all there electric devices running. That would cause the wires to heat up. Not at night (3 am) when barely any electricty is running through them.
I think the reason Disney didn't give out too much info about the fire is because they don't want anybody knowing that they are starting up Mission: Space and if they told us what kinda transformer or whatever blew up that we could search on-line and find what that transformer is used for and mayb e find out what some of the ride is about. (EX: "it was a 100,000 VBX transformer that blew up." I could go on-line and find what that kind is used for. like it could be used for g-machines)
O well its just a thought
OK every fire that happens the fire department always figurs out the cause of the fire even if it was a cigarite and it (the cigarite)was burned to nothing they still figure it out.
The fire happened right in between Test track and Mission: Space.
So I think Disney tried firering up Mission: Space to see if they could use the same power grid as Test Track to save some money insted of building a new 1 like Rockin' Roller Coaster.
But what happened was as soon as they tried fireing up, the wires got to hot and caused the fire. I mean think about, if a fire would happen it would most likly be during the day time when test track is at full power and the 2 hotels have all there electric devices running. That would cause the wires to heat up. Not at night (3 am) when barely any electricty is running through them.
I think the reason Disney didn't give out too much info about the fire is because they don't want anybody knowing that they are starting up Mission: Space and if they told us what kinda transformer or whatever blew up that we could search on-line and find what that transformer is used for and mayb e find out what some of the ride is about. (EX: "it was a 100,000 VBX transformer that blew up." I could go on-line and find what that kind is used for. like it could be used for g-machines)
O well its just a thought
sillyspook13
Well-Known Member
Re: I think...
O-kaaay??????
