What Happens When a Disney Ride Breaks Down? | Cast Member Stories
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- čas přidán 27. 07. 2024
- Ever wonder what it means when a Disney World or Disneyland ride is "temporarily closed?" Tommy uses his knowledge and experience from working at Pirates of the Caribbean in Disney World's Magic Kingdom to explain it all. He explains what causes a ride to break down, how cast members respond when a ride breaks down, and what happens to guests that are stuck on the ride (evacuation procedures). He also tells three stories about his experiences with evacs and down time.
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Hi everyone, we're Tommy and Kenzie, and we used to work at Walt Disney World! We created this channel to share our thoughts about the Disney parks!
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0:00 What Causes a Breakdown?
5:11 What Do Cast Members Do During a Breakdown?
9:20 Evac Procedure
17:24 Kenzie Asks Questions
23:03 Story 1
32:22 Story 2
34:23 Story 3
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#disney #disneyworld #castmember
Worked at the seas at Epcot. Our evac was to meet up halfway through the ride.This would require 4 people and the 2 people each start letting guest out one at a time in both direction.midway to load and the other 2 midway to unload. If it was a emergency evacuation we just start popping out door telling them to go to the nearest exit.If our wheelchair vehicle is in the ride anywhere besides unload,load or scene 7 we call reedy creek.If it’s a fire we keep the ride moving like normal.we have to stop loading guest and call first responders.Since it’s more faster and effective to keep the ride moving.
Interesting, thank you for the info! Definitely some similarities (fire procedure, for example) but the lack of water definitely makes the process pretty different overall haha.
You guys have the best training room of all of the parks there... I sometimes stop in to enjoy the view.
Thank you thank you! My biggest fear is being evacuated with my husband who is wheelchair user. My anxiety is always high because of this.
Thank you for these entertaining stories and interesting details; this was fascinating! I have a remarkable story of my own regarding an emergency stop I experienced on Disneyland's Space Mountain:
As you know, Space Mountain relies entirely on gravity to propel the coaster trains through the attraction after they roll off the lift hills. Since not all trains are the same weight and not all trains are dispatched at the exact same interval, this leads to a potential problem where some trains might "catch up" with slower trains and collide. To prevent this, Space Mountain has a plethora of periodic flat sections of track (actually angled slightly upward) called "brake runs" that are peppered throughout the coaster. These brake runs have the important job of ensuring that each coaster train is separated from the coaster train in front and behind it with a buffer zone. Brake runs perform this crucial task by applying a variable amount of braking force to each coaster train that passes through, thus constantly adjusting the speed of each coaster train. For example, slow trains are not braked at all, while fast trains are braked quite a bit. You can tell when your coaster train is slowed down by a brake run, because you lurch forward a tiny bit. This gravity-fed system is extremely safe, since the brake runs are powerful enough to stop coaster trains completely in case of an emergency stop. This happened to me.
In my situation, the train that was unloading/loading at the station was taking too long, and coaster trains began to back up behind it all the way into the main show building, where the brake runs fully activated to prevent the coaster trains from running into each other. My coaster train had just left the lift hills, and even though we weren't traveling any more than about fifteen miles an hour, coming to a complete stop on a brake run in the dark felt like a car crash because it was so unexpected.
The moment that the brake runs automatically activated to completely stop the coaster trains, I knew there was no hope of a swift recovery. This is because even though the traffic jam at the station can be quickly cleared, the stopped coaster trains throughout the attraction cannot be restarted simply by releasing the brakes. The slight uphill gradient of each brake run helps slow coaster trains down, but it also makes it impossible to impart any momentum to a stopped ride vehicle. Since the emergency stop was due to congestion and not anything that would require a full evacuation (like a fire or a broken track), guests were instructed over the intercom to remain in their ride vehicles as the manual restart procedure was set in motion.
First, the ride operators turned on the ceiling lights inside the show building so the cast members wouldn't need flashlights. In the beginning, it was exhilarating to see what Space Mountain actually looked like, but I was quickly terrified to discover how rickety some sections looked, and how close some of the support beams came to each vehicle. Of course, everything is perfectly safe, but it looks a lot less safe than something like Tron: Lightcycle Run, since the coaster is essentially a Wild Mouse-style coaster with steel girders and beams bolted everywhere at crazy angles, instead of nice, straight support columns.
Next, a pair of Cast Members started with the train closest to the station, manually releasing the brakes at that brake run and giving the train a mighty push to impart enough momentum to ensure it could roll to the section of track that is powered, leading into the station. One at a time, they steadily worked their way backwards through the jungle of steel, methodically releasing brakes and pushing coaster trains forward until they had enough downward momentum to roll all the way to the station under their own gravity. Once a train made it back to the station, the cast members didn't even bother unloading the guests. They simply activated the switch-track leading into the maintenance bay and pushed the loaded trains full of guests into the backstage area! They parked several coaster trains in the maintenance bay like this, because there was nowhere else to put them (after all, the lift hill still had guest-filled coaster trains on it). As you can imagine, guests were overjoyed to be sitting in an area that is usually off-limits to them, but the cast members pulled heavy black curtains over the walls, obscuring any interesting details from prying eyes or cameras.
Eventually, the cast members made it to my coaster train. They thanked us for our patience, released the brakes, and gave us a push. Once the front car of our coaster train made it over the edge of the brake run, gravity took over and we glided through the rest of the attraction as normal (minus the on-board audio and the darkness). Since we were the last coaster train stuck at a brake run, we did not have to get pushed into the maintenance bay. Instead, the ride operators simply turned off the ceiling lights, restarted the lift hill (with the coaster trains full of guests), and waved us through. Essentially, we started the ride all over again. The coaster trains which had been pushed into the maintenance bay were slowly added back in as gaps presented themselves.
In all, the entire emergency stop was surprisingly efficient and speedy. I would estimate we only sat on the tracks for about fifteen minutes (but it was probably less). Of course, it helped that we didn't have to leave our ride vehicles, but it was clear that the Space Mountain cast members were well-trained and highly experienced in just such an event occurring.
Very interesting, thank you for sharing!
Funny story about a non breakdown, but the CM thought there was. I was going to Tom Sawyer’Island. Well as the raft was going to the island, a bottle of water got caught in the rafts wake. As we got close to the dock the bottle ended up between the raft and the dock. As the raft docked,BLAM it exploded. The poor girl that was running the raft thought the motor blew up because that was where the noise came from. She lost composure, and yelled « Shit, what was that ». I thought it was funny to see the cm lose it.
Hahaha that's great
I have no idea how I found this but I absolutely LOVE this! You both have lovely voices and I feel like many people would enjoy these stories, it's a wonder this hasn't reached more people. Definitely showing my friends💜💜💜
Thank you!!
Another great one guys! I worked at Universal Hollywood, (yeah, I know), and before I was hired as a Tram Guide I worked at "ET's Adventures", though I never actively participated in a evac, only went through training, it was a complicated process, especially the section of the ride where you flew over the city of Los Angeles, you would have to move a platform over and beneath the bikes, usually took 2 employees, elevate it, escort the guests onto the platform, lower the machine, then escort them out of the building. Never did an evac from the Trams, even if we had to, it was not complicated. Though I did have my share of disgruntled guests, working for a Theme Park you come to the realization that when people take vacations they leave their brains at home. Thanks again, you guys are great! Keep up the good work.
I was stuck on Pirates in Disneyland once and spent 45 mins next to the animatronic of the old guy at the cabin before the first drop. It seemed like there was some issue that the boat was at the drop wouldn't go down. In any case it required an evacuation, and had to have the Disneyland Fire Department folks to come out, strap the boats together and evacuate it row by row into the boat ahead until you reached the evacuation platform. Ended up having to evacuate through the backstage area of the Blue Bayou restaurant and back out to the park. Thought it was the coolest experience ever.
Could have been an issue with the downramp, but it's more likely that the boats were intentionally prevented from going down the drop due to an issue elsewhere. When the ride e-stops for any reason, boats are held before the drops in order to stop ride motion as much as possible.
also in the nine times ive been to disney world (2005, 2008, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2021, 2022 and 2023) no ride that i rode has ever broken down. the closest thing we got was a hold-up on the tire lift at the beginning of guardians of the galaxy: cosmic rewind in 2022
I've been evaced from Rise of the Resistance. My car stopped just after going up at the AT-ATs. The group I was with (I was solo, so all strangers) were all excited at the opportunity to see the backstage of the ride. Other guests that we walked out with seemed to be excited as well.
I think I was close to being evaced from Haunted Mansion. We were at a standstill for about 30 minutes, but they got the ride moving again
Who is in charge of making any announcements over the PA system if the ride breaks down? For example, powering down immediately, powering up immediately, vehicle in motion. How will the person know when to make those announcements?
Whatever cast member is at that position at the time. Can't speak for other attractions, but the Tower position at Pirates is part of the cast member rotation, and the person's job is to monitor cameras, work the main control panel, and respond to unusual/emergency situations. In an emergency or break down, they will communicate with a coordinator, leader, and maintenance to handle the issue / try to get the ride operational again. They will receive direction from these people, but it's just an ordinary cast member that pushes the buttons and makes the announcements.
i wonder what the vehicles in a trackless ride would do if the ride's power is lost, most likely by a lightning strike on the power grid
i think the vehicles will continue moving (even if they stop; they are still running their program while stopped anywhere other than the station) until they reach the unloading station, but then they won't be able to charge even after lowering the power collection shoe (this is a small piston thingy on the underside of the car that conducts electricity from the recharging contacts embedded in the floor to the batteries in the vehicles
A trackless ride needs power to supply a constant stream of location/wayfinding data to each vehicle. If a vehicle loses its wireless signal with the main attraction computer, it can no longer be 100% certain of its position and thus cannot move. In case of a loss of power, trackless vehicles (even though they have batteries or capacitors on board) will stop where they are and not budge. Cast members will come around and get everyone out of the vehicles and escort them to the nearest exit.
oh yeah
Any idea how a Monorail evac would work? What about the Skyliner?
My first thought was that the fire department probably handles it using ladders or lifts on their trucks, and there are a few articles online that seem to suggest that that is the case. Which, to me, sounds pretty terrifying. Not a huge fan of heights lol.
Seems like that would ruin the magic. But I guess it would be difficult for Disney to hide that type of evacuation from public view. I hope they have their own fire trucks that look like Mater, and the rescue crew cast members stay in character throughout the rescue.
Idea for a future episode: When are cast members allowed to break character? Also, let's get some horrible guests stories from the resorts! When it's the end of the day and people are tired, that must be a great time to see humans at their worst.
@@spenceronyoutube They do have their own fire department (Reedy Creek), but no Mater theming :(
Former DCP I worked at EPCOT at the former Ellen’s Energy Adventure in 2007. When I was working in Theater 1 I had a guest jump out of the car while and leave during the show before entering the Diarama. Had to hit the Estop button. I had the same thing happen to me while I was working in theater 1 the ride auto Estopped on its own cause nobody had it the button. So we had to evacuate and matinence came and looked at it and said nothing was wrong most likely the console was old.