I realize that, but there are procedures in place to ensure nobody is in the way of coaster trains when they are operating. I speculate that an employee knowingly broke rules in order to search for lost cell phones under the tracks in the early morning, and was hit by a train when the first riderless trains were sent through. There was no judgement that I could find online finding that Universal violated safety rules either by not having procedures in place or by allowing untrained employees into the area, which to me is further circumstantial evidence that rogue employees occasionally go prospecting in restricted areas.
I brought it up because someone told Universal employees they dropped a valuable phone under Hagrid's coaster, and "oddly", no phone was found. Allegedly.
I guess I can't really 'prove' that it happened but I can assure you it happened.
I went to guest relations after being told by the team member there (and talking to her for around 20 minutes)
that they have maintenance crews walk around the track inspecting and searching for lost items a few hours after the ride ends operation each night (it runs past park close obviously) since I quote "It happens regularly." This was a girl at the unload platform and not the same one at the ride entrance who told me my phone was safe in my pocket.
At guest relations, I was told: "Nothing we can do, use the online form for lost and found." I did, including giving the passcode, home screen, number, sim code (I had an eSim as well), and literally every description possible.
I eventually used Find My iPhone to disable the iPhone Xs for security purposes since it was still alive. Pretty disappointed since I know it was still active on Find My iPhone.
I believe it was in the unload when I stepped up to get out, but I realized that my pocket items had fallen out. I was in the bike seat so the back of each car's ledge in between the bike and side-car did not catch it.
There's virtually no chance that it didn't fall out either at the unload station or one of the launches since my park ticket, and other items in my pocket fell between the bikes. The phone itself was stuffed in well so I'm pretty certain it fell out at the station, but launches could have too or at least shifted it then.
It's possible it could have been on the vehicle still and went another cycle and flew off, and it's also possible that if it remained on the vehicle, someone could have stolen it, but I find that unlikely since I checked the only places it could have stayed on the vehicle. It's not the end of the world, but I am going to contact Universal about it again, but they don't have a number for lost and found and say to use the abysmal website. Does anyone know a direct number?
I'm not one get frustrated with employees, but the only gripe I now have with Universal is the training for them. They're great folks, but management needs to work on that area.
I remember many years ago when my wife and I were staying at the GF a boy had dropped his Bizz Lightyear figure into the lagoon next to the dock. Disney has a diver come in and get the figure back. Not sure they’d do that today but we were sure impressed with that level of service 20 years ago.
That's so cool!
my husband lost his wedding ring on the Mark Twain River Boat...at Tokyo Disneyland....on our honeymoon.
Needless to say even though we filed a report at lost and found...no packages from Japan yet
Come to think of it, my uncle way back in the day lost his on Jungle Cruise, but I don't think they ever recovered it either
Cool honeymoon!
Don't know about that phone but mine has a tracker (Samsung) that would let me know where the phone is. Hard to say it isn't there if the tracker shows it is. They are under no obligation to search the ride though.
Absolutely, and when we buy park tickets we sign away that they are not responsible for damaged or lost items, and I'm not expecting anything other than good customer service, but I gave them an incredible amount of information, and it was borderline
incompetence with all team members I talked to through no fault of their own (training). The park was virtually empty too, so it's not like anyone was overwhelmed since the staff seemed to be chitty chatty, but obviously, I never was angry with the team members. I see that all the time and that's just wrong.
The bottom line is when you have the ability to do the right thing, just do it. They should keep their word (bad training prevented that), and heck, I'm a Universal AP member, they could toss in an express pass for a day as a pleasant thing. Losing that thousand dollar phone (after upgrading from an iPhone 6) is making me consider not renewing for a year, and just using that money towards another cheaper phone (I'm using an old iPhone 5).
I admire Disney's comparable response to the instance at Seven Seas Lagoon and its overall procedures/training in general.
www.macrumors.com
