POLL: Have you ever had to evacuate a ride at WDW?

[dmw]

I'd love to hear stories of some of the cooler evacuations. Pictures/videos are even better!

In addition to the reply you get here, you may want to try the search feature to read of some other experiences. I know I have shared about our evacuation of EE in the past, including some pics. Others also posted pics and stories that you will probably enjoy reading.

I think this is the first thread with a poll, so I am interested to know how many people have been evacuated.

 

[mergatroid]

Courtesy of Innovention Media on youtube. An evac of the Haunted Mansion



Courtesy of Nic & Andrea Hills on youtube, An evac from the top of Space Mountain

 

[KikoKea]

Technically, yes. We took our moms (both almost 90) on Goofy's coaster and it stopped just feet shy of the exit platform. Had to wait for engineering and supervisors to come before they would unlock the restraints and walk each one of us a few feet to the platform. Our moms thought it was all quite exciting.

My dream is to be evacuated off Space Mt and Spaceship Earth.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Pooh. Nothing interesting, just walked through the ride path. We did get Fantasyland anytime FPs that we used to get on Peter Pan, however, so that made it worth it.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Yes this happened about 5 years ago on Toy Story Mania . We were mid way through the ride when it stopped. All the lights came on and we waited while they emptied the cars before us. It probably took 5 or 10 minutes til they got to us. Our doors would not open and had to be opened manually by the CM. We were walked through the ride and out pretty quickly. Nothing exciting to report about back stage at all. We were given fp's at the exit. I thought it was pretty cool.

 

[Seanual757]

Yes several times our last one was on 3/3 a@ Moonlight Magic at the MK on the people mover.

 

[NelleBelle]

No, but we got stuck on IASM for at least 30 minutes! CM walked by us a bunch of times and told us to remain seated. People were definitely getting to the point where they were going to just evacuate themselves but finally the ride started back up. We were in the last room before you get to the "good bye" tunnel. Holy cow--horrible!!! I had the ear worm of a song stuck in my head for days despite riding PotC, SM, HM, etc!! We've also gotten stuck for a fair amount of time where we thought we were going to be evacuated off Splash going up the big hill for the drop but finally it got going again.

 

[Pepper's Ghost]

No, but we got stuck on IASM for at least 30 minutes!

OMG! I'd have laid back in the boat and opened up my wrists. It's a ride I go on each trip.... once. I regret it the rest of the trip. It's like eating that questionable tasting fish, but deciding, meh, it'll be fine. Getting stuck on it for 30 mins though? Literally, I'd have swum to the exit even if I was half way through.

 

[EagleScout610]

From my 2016 trip:
We got stuck on Splash Mountain right before the Laughing Place drop and heard Br'er Bear say "This ain't no laughin place" like 9 times. Then the ride resumed and we went down the drop, and got stuck right after in the Beehive scene. That was about 5 minutes and then we finished the ride as normal. About 20 minutes later when we passed Splash it was broken down.

We got stuck under Madame Leota on Haunted Mansion for about 10 minutes. The funny thing is there was a kid in the buggy ahead of us with some flashlight/wand thing (never got to see what it was) and every time they'd wave it around I'd think it was the CMs coming to get us off the ride.

Gran Fiesta just completely died during our ride. During the middle of the ride city scene all of the screens turned off and all the little doll AAs stopped functioning along with the audio. Our boat kept moving, but everything around us was off. Then in the end scene with the three in concert, the music turned back on, the AAs stayed frozen, and the boats backed up for about 5 minutes and we eventually got back moving.

Spaceship Earth broke down right at the Greece scene and we kept hearing the breakdown spiel over the speakers, and the show froze. This was only for about 3 minutes then everything went back to normal.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

From my 2016 trip:
We got stuck on Splash Mountain right before the Laughing Place drop and heard Br'er Bear say "This ain't no laughin place" like 9 times. Then the ride resumed and we went down the drop, and got stuck right after in the Beehive scene. That was about 5 minutes and then we finished the ride as normal. About 20 minutes later when we passed Splash it was broken down.

We got stuck under Madame Leota on Haunted Mansion for about 10 minutes. The funny thing is there was a kid in the buggy ahead of us with some flashlight/wand thing (never got to see what it was) and every time they'd wave it around I'd think it was the CMs coming to get us off the ride.

Gran Fiesta just completely died during our ride. During the middle of the ride city scene all of the screens turned off and all the little doll AAs stopped functioning along with the audio. Our boat kept moving, but everything around us was off. Then in the end scene with the three in concert, the music turned back on, the AAs stayed frozen, and the boats backed up for about 5 minutes and we eventually got back moving.

Spaceship Earth broke down right at the Greece scene and we kept hearing the breakdown spiel over the speakers, and the show froze. This was only for about 3 minutes then everything went back to normal.

Good grief!!!! Ummm, when are you going again? Not March I hope???? just kidding

 

[EagleScout610]

Good grief!!!! Ummm, when are you going again? Not March I hope???? just kidding

That was only a few of them. I have more:

• Buzz Lightyear broke down right at the entry tunnel
• Pirates went down for about 6 minutes and all the animatronics and music stopped. The boats resumed moving but the scenes remained off for a little bit. I was in the Cannon Battle when it stopped and everything restarted around the mayor in the well.
• GMR [Rip] broke down in the starlight scene

 

[magnanimous66]

It was September 1995 and I was on my honeymoon, staying at The Wilderness Lodge for 10 days. We were riding Space Mountain for the first time and suddenly the ride just stopped. We sat there for a few moments in the dark, wondering if this was part of the ride. In an instant the flood lights energized, exposing the coasters massive super structure, revealing uncountable amounts of perfectly bent and engineered electrical conduit in different shapes and sizes, adorning the walls. Suddenly there was an announcement over the P.A. saying there was an issue with the ride and we will be escorted out of the ride. Magically multiple cast members appeared, guiding us out of Space Mountain and into TomorrowLand . We didn't receive any fast passes at that time, not sure if fast passes was a thing in 1995. It didn't matter though, in September of 1995 every ride was a walk on. There was hardly ever a wait in line during that trip. Sadly those days are long gone. It was pretty cool to be able to see ride ride completely exposed by the lights. It felt like learning how a magic trick is performed and the secret has been finally been revealed. Since 1995, I've been to Disney many times but never rode Space Mountain. Not out of fear. For whatever reason we just never got to it. Now that I think about it, maybe my subconscious fear was preventing me from making the time to ride the ride, maybe? Human brains are weird. Flash forward to January 2020, me, my wife (married for 25 years, together for 30) and my 12 year old son finally were able to fully ride Space Mountain together as a family. It only took 25 years but we did it. Full circle.

 

[unmitigated disaster]

Yes, Universe of Energy in 2003. We were just beginning the ride part when the lights came up and everyone was walked off. We were told we could take photos so I did.

 

[jloucks]

I have had a lot of long delays, but no evacs. Some very long delays.

Rocking Roller Coaster (I know, wrong park) was almost an hour of sitting in a dusty, now completely lit, track tunnel somewhere along the ride. That the closest I have been to an evac.

 

[Mainahman]

I havent had to do a Evac, but ive been stuck lots of places... namely the yo ho scene in pirates, and Its a small world for far too long. That last one traumatized me for sure.

 

[Dory71]

Yes this happened about 5 years ago on Toy Story Mania . We were mid way through the ride when it stopped. All the lights came on and we waited while they emptied the cars before us. It probably took 5 or 10 minutes til they got to us. Our doors would not open and had to be opened manually by the CM. We were walked through the ride and out pretty quickly. Nothing exciting to report about back stage at all. We were given fp's at the exit. I thought it was pretty cool.

Was this May 2014? Because this happened to us too and I have the picture of the paper fastpasses that expire 5/31/14.

 

[brertigger]

I've had several evacs but most exciting was Pirates. My boat was stopped shortly before the drop, and it seems was at a point that the CMs could not do an evacuation from themselves so they had to wait for Reedy Creek to arrive. In the end, Reedy Creek tied three boats together and helped guests climb from one boat to another, onto the walkway.

On Kali, had to wait for them to drain the ride to stabilize the rafts.

 

[Journey_On]

The only WDW ride evac I've been on so far was the very last ride of Ellen's Energy Adventure. Such a neat experience. (I actually enjoy ride evacs.)

 

[disneymom57]

This is a simple one. I just want to poll this community to find out what ratio of folks have had to evacuate any ride at WDW while actually riding (not while in queue). I've been to WDW approximately 5 times as an adult for an entire week each time, and have never had to evacuate any ride ever. Am I just that lucky (or unlucky)? Btw, a ride temporarily stopping doesn't qualify. "Playful Spooks interrupting your tour" before it restarts is not an evacuation.

I think this one is pretty objective, so a polling of this community with a decent level of response should be a good representation of how many people have to evac a ride at some point.

I'd love to hear stories of some of the cooler evacuations. Pictures/videos are even better!

We were evacuated from toy story, but unfortunately at the time they said no picture taken was allowed.

 

[Minnesota disney fan]

Was this May 2014? Because this happened to us too and I have the picture of the paper fastpasses that expire 5/31/14.

Sadly, no, it wasn't in May of 2014. We have never been to WDW in May, so far It was a unique experience, though.