Riding a ride that broke down?

[Topdoggerel]

57 minutes stalled in small world. Breakdown at unloading area. After 30 minutes lights came on, after 50 minutes sound track stopped. CMs in waders pushed each boat backwards to a narrow spot between rooms so we could disembark. Should have gotten more than a free fast pass for that experience.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

Never actually evacuated, but came close several times. A neat encounter was getting to finish Spiderman with the lights on after a long pause. I was also nearly evacuated off Splash. At the at the last minute they changed their mind, and held us until the ride could restart. I mean they announced an evacuation, then announced no evacuation. Scary part is, a few days later, Splash had a similar stoppage, only a guy got out and was fatally injured because the ride restarted and he fell. People near us were frustrated and were talking about just getting out of thei log.

I've seen SpaceMtn with lights on many times. Even rode it with lights on, and people mover with Sapce Mtn lights on a number of times.


Another fun one was in the middle of DINOSAUR, after the preshow, we though maybe we were going to be evacuated, but it was the Year of a Million Dreams! Team and they gave everyone YoaMD ears hats instead. thatwas the best prize we got that year.

I was once stuck on Forbidden journey for along time- almost by the whomping willow.

I have others..let me think.

 

[Jon Good]

I use to work for WDW attractions and have seen many times when an attraction breaks down and everyone is evacuated. When we first opened Test Track it would happen 5 or six times a day. Normally the rule is if maintenance cannot fix the ride within 7 minutes the ride is them shut down and evacuated. Usually it depends on what is wrong if they extend the ride. At Test Track there is a stop light in the station, if there is a red x the ride is down and is evacuated. At Everest when you look at the ride from the front and you see the big lift with the hand rails up the ride is down, they come up automatically. At Disney when a ride is down we call it 101 and when it is back up it is 102. Big thunder mountain use to be the hardest ride to keep running because when we were busy we would run five trains and the timing was critical. In the station if you hear the part of the recorded spiel that says "hats and glasses" the train better be leaving the station of you have problems. If one train does not leave on time and the next train enters the same zone the ride is then down and has to be evacuated, however they made and update to the ride system now to make it easier to re-start. I worked at many attractions and have seen many with the work lights on.

 

[Twirlnhurl]

I have been evacuated from Spaceship Earth twice, Mission: Space, Toy Story Midway Mania, Dinosaur, and at DCA, Monsters Inc.: Mike & Sully to the Rescue!

Both SSE evacuations were from the Descent portion of the ride.

After starting and stopping a few times in 180 Top, we came to a stop in front of the Virtual Classroom scene (this was in the Jeremy Irons era). The music turned off, the lights turned on, and eventually we were walked down the stairs along the ride track to a door near unload.

The second time I was evacuated from SSE, the ride stopped while we were at the bottom of the ramp while our car was in the process of rotating back to forward. That was a really short walk to get out of the ride. Nothing too exciting.

On Mission: Space, we were halfway through the slingshot around the moon when suddenly the ride stopped. The monitor stopped showing the ride film and had some sort of screen saying something about ISTC training something or other. It took a surprisingly long time for the ride to stop spinning. When we came to a stop, the capsule was not level (the capsule was tilted when the ride video stopped because the ride was entering the lunar gravity assist turn.)

Anyway, we sat in the dark for a while, and eventually we could hear the ride capsule being manually rotated to be level. It was a weird sensation.

Eventually, the ride capsule door was open and we stepped out of the door down a ladder to the bottom of the big circular pit under the ride. We used a different ladder to get out of the pit. It was a really cool experience.

When I was evacuated from Toy Story Midway Mania, we were either at the plate game or the ring toss game, and the game stopped. All the point values went to zero (like the ride does when there is a short delay) and we continued to play the game. Eventually, the game stopped too and the lights came on.

Eventually, we were escorted out of the vehicle and were instructed to follow a path on the ground and out through a door to a hallway that lead out to the Pixar Place restroom area. There wasn't much to see, honestly.

The most recent ride evacuation I had was on Dinosaur. During the 'They're not going to make it!' scene, the ride stopped and the lights went on. It was really cool, there was bare-looking scaffolding with camo netting over it and weird ducts attached to them in a haphazard-looking way.

A rider in the back row figured out that his seat belt was unlocked, so he unbuckled himself and jumped out of the car onto the track. We yelled at him, so he stood next to the car. I think he was yelled at over the PA system, but I am not sure. Eventually, a CM walked by with a stool and a flashlight. We were helped out of the car and walked along the track back to the station.

The floor of the ride track was weirdly sticky. Also, one of the ride vehicle tires was on the other side of the track slot. Is the ride vehicle supposed to do that?

The time I was evacuated from Monsters Inc, the ride stopped in the door room scene near the end of the ride and were walked back to the unload area. It was interesting, but there wasn't much to actually see that you don't see from the ride.

Getting evacuated from a ride is one of my favorite things to get to do at a theme park (if it is not my first time through that ride.) While I was a ride operator, it was one of the most exciting things to get to do (also the hardest thing to do) during a shift.

 

[muddyrivers]

One of my favorite evacs was from the top of Spaceship Earth. Going around the long and winding road (showing my age) was an experience. I will be posting that video on youtube soon. During Hurricane Gordon we were on the People Mover and as we got into Space Mountain we saw all the lights were on and people were being evacuated from the ride onto the catwalks. Also appearing on youtube soon.

Please link to those videos when they are posted! I'm especially interested in the SSE evac video.

 

[iPirate]

Our only trip to Disneyland CA we were evacuated from Splash Mountain. We were headed back from the final drop, when the ride suddenly stopped. We were in one spot in our boat for about 15 minutes.

The cast were awesome. They helped us out of the boats, took us through the attraction and down a tunnel to get us out and back into the park.

It wasn't a terrible experience. Though, I'm not sure if I could have sat through another 10 minutes of zip a dee doo dah.

 

[Liz kunde]

Yes, space mountain, about 20 years ago, had to walk out. Much scarier when you can see everything.

 

[Ldno]

Rise of resistance, broke down for six hours! They had to evacuate Everyone and made us use the offices backstage to get to the front, lolol that whole ride is hidden behind an office like complex, made some Videos and pictures but no big deal..

 

[disney4life2008]

I have always wanted to ask this question because it has never happened to me before, but I know it has definitely occurred before in the parks. The question is has anyone ever been on a ride where the ride has broken down and you had to walk out of the ride through the emergence exit?

I have been on rides where they have stopped like the Haunted Mansion or Spaceship Earth many times only for it to start back up again in a short period of time, but never have I ever had to be removed from a ride and walked out through the emergency exit. I was just wondering what the experience was like if any of you have ever experienced it.

Omni movers in most cases isn't a break down. They are stopping for wheelchairs.

 

[disney4life2008]

Out of curiosity, how would someone be evacuated off rock n Rollercoaster?

 

[Dreaming of Disney World]

We were riding Winnie the Pooh, and it broke down. The lights came on, and they made announcements to remain seated. Cast members came around to manually let people out of the vehicles. For some reason the door on our vehicle would not open. Two cast members had to use all their physical strength to pry it open. We were the last ones to leave. We followed them back through the ride and were given paper fastpasses for any attraction except 7 Dwarves, Peter Pan, or meeting Mickey. We thought the experience was excited.

 

[Twirlnhurl]

Out of curiosity, how would someone be evacuated off rock n Rollercoaster?

There are only two ways to stop a rollercoaster train. (1) Catastrophic failure of the wheel assembly / foreign objects lodged in a wheel assembly, or (2) by using brakes.

As you can imagine, a type (1) vehicle stop is extremely rare but can happen anywhere (including upside-down). As far as I know, a type (1) stop has never happened with riders on Rockn Rollercoaster. However, if a type (1) stop were to occur, the train would be secured in place to the track, and guests would be evacuated using bucket lifts one-by-one. In fact, during the design of the ride building, a plan of how to access every inch of ride track by platform or lift is created. This is used by the maintenance team in their routine inspections of the ride, but it is also handy in the event of an emergency. At Disney and Universal, the Technical Services Department will periodically review the design of an in-development ride to ensure that their maintenance teams will have access to everything they need to keep the ride running safely and reliably.

Far more common than a type (1) ride stop is a ride stop that occurs because the ride control system or the ride operator have initiated a stop. Rollercoaster trains move because of momentum or gravity after the lift hill or launch section. There are no motors or brakes on rollercoaster trains. So if the ride computer wants to stop a train because the next segment of track is not clear (usually this is caused by someone taking too long getting in or out of the ride, which can cause the ride to "stack") or if an operator wants to stop a ride because they heard something unusual, they can engage the brakes everywhere on the ride. Any rollercoaster trains will continue moving until they get to the next set of brakes.

Once the train stops at a brake section (called a block brake because they can block a train from entering the next section of track), the guests can be escorted off the ride onto an adjacent platform. These platforms have stairs that can safely lead a guest out of the building, just like an evacuation on a dark ride.

I have never been evacuated from a rollercoaster or had the privilege of working a rollercoaster. But I understand that the ride operators test the brakes daily and have to check the evacuation platforms and the ride phones that are located at each platform every morning. That's a lot of stairs!