Epic Evacuations

[HornsofaSteer]

I am sure most people have been stuck on rides before if only for 30 seconds to a minute... but has anyone ever had an epic evacuation from a ride? A trip to an exit that turned into something like a behind the scenes tour? (I saw there was an old thread or two about this but perhaps there are some new stories to tell.)

For example, I was once evacuated from Pirates of the Caribbean. Not only did I walk through the streets of the burning city but because of the location of the ride I was back in the area near Frontierland and had to walk back over the railroad tracks into the park. Was I stuck on the ride for a long time? Yes. Was it worth it? Definately.

So did anyone ever get to see or do anything really cool while being evacuated?

P.S. While I have an idea of how you get evacuated from Peterpan's Flight, I am very interested in how it accutally occurs.

 

[Sweet Melissa]

Hmm ... not really. We were once evacuated from Tower of Terror in DCA, but the ride had barely backed away from the entrance when it shut down. We were stuck in the elevator for about 25 minutes, then the car was manually moved back into its loading bay and we were let out without riding. No behind the scenes tour there.

On one of our recent trips to Disney World, we saw people walking along the track for the Tomorrowland Transit Authority after it broke down. Depending on where you are on the track, that could be fun.

 

[blueboxdoctor]

Had to walk off space mountain, it was kind of cool to see it all lit up, except for fact that the next trip it was lit up every time I went on the TTA since they were renovating it that month. Speaking of the TTA, that broke down too (kind of amazing since it's literally just a flat track), but that wasn't very exciting since broke down right next to the stairs before it goes into the building for space mountain; we did get some type of super fast pass which was pretty great.

 

[Mikester71]

During our 2009 trip, we were evacuated from Pirates of the Caribbean after sitting in the boat for a good 20-30 minutes at the part where the pirates are chanting "We wants the redhead". They walked us out some back doors and down a long road back to the front of the attraction area. All we really saw were smelly garbage bins and were only given one fast pass for a ride of our choice for that day. Was it worth it...definitely NOT!!! :brick:

 

[marni1971]

Depending on the ride and the severity of the downtime, you may get to see quite a bit. A hike down and sometimes backstage of SSE. A walk around Space or Splash Mountain. Walk through the jungles of UOE or Dinosaur.

It can be pot luck where you are sat.

 

[Jerm]

I have been going to WDW for 15 years and DL for 30 and have never really been on a evac But I can tell you that as great as the "backstage" look might sound sitting for 30 minutes to get evaced can really mess up a good vacation! I would love to get a nice walking tour of Dinosaur or SSE!

 

[disney4life2008]

A few years ago I got stuck on Its a Small World.. Need I say more? lol

In November, I got stuck on Pirates not once but 10 times. My ride lasted for about an hour. They would say we were good to go then the ride would stop again. We did not evacute though

 

[disneyfreak411]

I was evacuated from Test Track the first time I went on it but all I remember is walking through the different weather rooms. All we got was one fp for the ride later.

 

[Rob562]

Closest I've ever come to an actual evac was our first-ever time on RnRC. The ride went 101 while we were sitting at the load platform, shoulder restraints locked. Eventually we were let out, the Guests on the train at the launch point were led back, and everyone was ushered out through the bypass corridor to Unload. Everyone that had made it past the pre-show was given a FastPass to return at any time.

-Rob

 

[George]

Years ago (~24) I was evacuated off of Space Mountain. I'm scared of heights and it was awful for me because they turned the lights on so we could see steps.

 

[Hot4Hudgens]

I've only been evacuated from a ride once - Thunder Mountain a few years ago, but it wasn't a big deal. Wasn't taken through a backstage area or anything like that. It was as simple as "Ok guys, ride's stuck. Come down these steps and exit to your right."

 

[Jakester]

ive been stuck on Tower of Terror for about 30mins in pitch black, but the ride wasnt evacuated it just went on

I remember getting an evac on UOE but it was when the oart where ellen is about to answer the question

 

[Scuttle]

Had to walk off space mountain, it was kind of cool to see it all lit up, except for fact that the next trip it was lit up every time I went on the TTA since they were renovating it that month. Speaking of the TTA, that broke down too (kind of amazing since it's literally just a flat track), but that wasn't very exciting since broke down right next to the stairs before it goes into the building for space mountain; we did get some type of super fast pass which was pretty great.

Super fastpass? Must be what the celebs and super vips use. Did the SFP take you right to the loading area?

 

[pumpkin7]

me and my dad got stuck the once on splash mountain right next to a waterfall (which i looked out for last time but they seem to have turned it off now) and so we were completely soaked after sitting there for about half an hour.
not disney, but we also got right to the front of the, then new, mummy ride at universal, and reportedly someone had been thrown off it because one of the safety restraints failed. we were stuck inside for about 30 minutes. my mom was in hysterics because everyone was being 'evaculated', and an ambulace had pulled up to take away the injured person, but as we were right at the front of the queue, we were the last out. lol!
other than that, we've been stuck on most things. SSE, RnRC had a few troubles, Men in Black (univ again) got stuck as we were on it and we ended up racking up the points but didn't get evacuated. i don't think i've ever been back stage on anything.

 

[HornsofaSteer]

me and my dad got stuck the once on splash mountain right next to a waterfall (which i looked out for last time but they seem to have turned it off now) and so we were completely soaked after sitting there for about half an hour.

Same thing happened to me once. Haha yeah that one is really aweful. You are right, it does not splash as much now.

 

[Scuttle]

I have been going to WDW for 15 years and DL for 30 and have never really been on a evac But I can tell you that as great as the "backstage" look might sound sitting for 30 minutes to get evaced can really mess up a good vacation! I would love to get a nice walking tour of Dinosaur or SSE!

I'm with you man. I have been going to WDW since I was 3-4 years old or since the early 80's. My cousins would come in town from Chicago every Christmas and we would go to the World. Those were also the days when Christmas week wasn't as chaotic as it is now. But anyway I have realistically been to WDW 150 times and out of all those times I have never been on a ride breakdown or malfunction or anything of that nature. I have only had a brief stop on a few rides and monorail, but that's it. I guess I am lucky or I guess that's just how rare ride evacs are.

 

[Disneybear]

I got evacuated off of Everest on my last trip, apparently the mountain had got struck by lightening the day before and the computers had got fried.

They manged to get it running the day I was there but it wasn't 100% at the time.

We got stuck at the animated scene where the Yeti rips up the track.

I new something wasn't right as we were in the second front row and the train hadn't backed fully up the hill, so we wern't able to see the animation.

Then the lights and speakers went off and about 3 or 4 minutes later cast members appeared to release us. We walked out down through the mountain picking up people from other trains as we went (no photography was allowed).

On the ground floor inside the mountain there was a storage area that contained a ride vehicle from triceratop spin.

 

[CheshireCatStef]

Off the top of my head, I've been evac'ed from Pirates, Tower of Terror, and Ellens Energy Adventure.
My scariest "stop" was myself and my then 8 year old on the ski lift at Blizzard Beach. We got *almost to the top unloading platform, right before you are over that net on the mountain, and we stopped... the safety bar raised, and we sat there for 20 minutes, wet and slippery, with no safety bar, and the 2 cm's just standing there telling us not to move... good times...
Over the course of my lifetime, I can remember spending 25 minutes in a Doom Buggy on the hill in the graveyard scene leaning backwards. My 5 year old and I spent 20 minutes on Dinosaur AT the Carnotaurus scene, and they didnt shut it down, we just kept lunging in the dark, over and over again, with the Carno coming out at us, for 20 looooong minutes, with a terrified little girl behind us, good times... I've been stuck on Winnie the Pooh for 10 minutes in the bouncing scene... this past trip we were stuck on Figment for 15 minutes in the sight lab, and they turned on full lights, last September we watched them evac the people mover, that was cool... I've had to sit through the same scene on Carousel of Progress three times in a row because some morons thought it funny to manually evac themselves one at a time... I've spent well over a half an hour on the old Spaceship Earth coming down backwards, and this trip we thought, AWESOME, we'll be one of the first people on space mountain after it reopens from being down, only to jerk to a stop on the first hill, sit for two or three minutes, and then start going again... that was scary!
That's all I can think of right now, but I"m sure there are more, lol...

 

[CoffeeJedi]

Got stuck on the C lift of Big Thunder one night. There was a lightning storm brewing so they stopped all the active trains on the lifts. That was actually kind of cool because we got to walk out under the mountain and see the underside of the rock work. (It's not as solid as I thought)

There were also some spare props down there too, like cacti and mining equipment. We came out right by the control room and station in the first tunnel before the A lift. I never noticed before, but off the side as you leave the station there's a fake tunnel with the sound of an old prospector digging for gold. Since I know where it is, I always hear it now (even if you go by so quickly you only really get to hear a single shovel or so)

 

[tizzo]

We once had to walk off SSE, from about half way up the descent. It took a while because they were unloading people from the top down, so we had to wait for everyone above us to walk by before we were allowed out of our ride vehicle.