Interesting ride on Popeye last Sunday

[Dolby1000]

So, we were at IOA last Sunday. Now, mind you, two days before, we visited Disney and had no less than 6 ride break downs and delays, so this was becoming something of a theme for us.

So, of course, when we visited Universal and IOA on Sunday, the Mummy stopped in the fire room. Spiderman stopped just before the end, Dudley stopped at the top of the last hill and Jurassic Park went off of the track, but I think this last one was part of the ride.

The most interesting one was the last one, grab some popcorn and enjoy the story.

Popeye stopped just at the last stretch. We all noticed Olive Oyl stopped spitting and the barge thing slowed down, way too early and way to slow. (Side note, when was the hanging Bluto taken down, it was there last May, just wondering). The drift of the water carried us to just at the end of the ride, before the platform area. There we stopped. We could see the water draining from the ride. No one came. No announcement. Just stopped. I timed it, five minutes passed, now this may not seem like much time, but being stranded on the ride with no annoucment or instruction is a bit unnerving. Finally, they made an annoucment that Popeye had technical difficulties. "Dud" we all said to ourselves as the water continued to drain.

After 9 minutes, finally, someone came by and said stay seated and left. Another 5 minutes went by before a couple of people came by and it was quickly apparent to us on the boat (there were a total of 7, rather wet, passengers, including 3 teens who had their mom waiting for them) that this team had NO CLUE how to get us off.
Really, no clue. Aren't there emergency evacuation plans in place??

Well, it seemed the boat was jimmied between the end of the ride and the platform. There were the final set of decoative rocks between us and the platform, and the raft was sitting at an angle. So, the team members were not to keen on having us climb over wet slipperly scenary in wet slippery shoes on an uneven surface. They felt, and I had to agree, this was a fall and a lawsuit waiting to happen. Fine, so what's the alternative??

Finally, a couple of techs took some plywood pieces (after waiting another 10 minutes for the ride to keep draining) and put them down for us to stand on as we exited the raft. Slowly, one by one, we finally got off Popeye more than 30 minutes after getting on. The cast member wouldn't explain why the ride stopped so quickly, other than implying some other passenger had unbuckled their belt and was standing up. Now, that I can understand, if you have an idiot passenger, you have to shut the ride down. Hopefully this idiot paasenger was shown the exit.

Alls well that ends well, the three teens met up with mom and we all got off safely.
There were no injuries and no one paniced. The crew, although slow to come up with a solution, did have medical personel on hand, but no one needed it (my wife, being a diabetic, was glad about that). The one crew member said that no boat had ever stopped right at where we were and it was the one most inconvient place to stop on the entire ride. Just our luck!

But, the only thing we lost was time (about 30 minutes) and they gave us each a one-time use fast pass to make up for the lost time, which I thought was appropriate for the delay encountered. To bad RRR doesn't take them yet.

40 minutes later, Popeye was up and running again, and in an act of forgiveness, I rode it again. Twice. No further problems were had.

Just thought I would share out little adventure.

Dolby1000

[nerdboyrockstar]

Originally Posted by Dolby1000

So, we were at IOA last Sunday. Now, mind you, two days before, we visited Disney and had no less than 6 ride break downs and delays, so this was becoming something of a theme for us.

So, of course, when we visited Universal and IOA on Sunday, the Mummy stopped in the fire room. Spiderman stopped just before the end, Dudley stopped at the top of the last hill and Jurassic Park went off of the track, but I think this last one was part of the ride.

LOL!

Please make sure in the future you post what parks you'll visit on what day so I can adjust my itinerary accordingly.

[damo]

I wonder if there was some emergency that required them to act quickly and drain water, hence the reason nothing was said for a few minutes.

[Timmy Boy]

It's a negligence thing. If the controls person sees the person unbuckling their seatbelts and running around the raft, then they have to hit an estop which stops everything on the ride, including draining the water. This is in case the person is to fall out of the raft and into the water, he or she does not drown. If they don't hit the estop and the person falls out and gets injured, he or she (not able to admit themselves that they did something wrong) would try to sue Universal for their damages, so by estopping the ride and causing EVERYTHING to stop, it denies Universal from ever being responsible for it.

[AJA]

I'm sorry that happened to you.

I know exactly how you feel. DH and I visited IOA soon after Sept 11, 2001. Of course I got stuck on a ride, the seat belt was totally stuck in the lock position, after working on it about 10 mines the regular ride maintenance staff gave up and came to the conclusion it had to be cut off, and of course NO ONE working in the area of the ride had a knife I had to wait 40 minutes while a maintenance guy was located that could find a knife to cut the belt (in my mind I'm thinking thank goodness I wasn't having a medical emergency because they were not prepared at all)!
-It does make for a great vacation story though, at least when my DH tells the story.

[MIB999999]

Call me crazy but i think this sounds cool. What a story to tell.

[ChrisFL]

Originally Posted by Dolby1000

So, of course, when we visited Universal and IOA on Sunday, the Mummy stopped in the fire room.

I hate to ignore the rest of your story but....you got stuck in the Fire Room?? wow...did it start over and over again with the fire? That would freak me out I think, although most of the time I think it's a cool effect.

[Bluer101]

This past summer we got stuck on Popeye in the same exact place and the same exact way you described it. It took about 20-30 minutes from the time we got stuck to the time we were back in the park. This was at night right before the park closed also, about 8:45 pm.

[Dolby1000]

Originally Posted by ChrisFL

I hate to ignore the rest of your story but....you got stuck in the Fire Room?? wow...did it start over and over again with the fire? That would freak me out I think, although most of the time I think it's a cool effect.

No, we did not get the effect again. We entered room like normal and the fire went off, something clicked and we stayed where we were. The ride re-set (kind of kills the illusion) but didn't start over. About a minute later we were on our way until we were 3 cars behind at the exit.

Doby1000

[Calgary DISHeads]

Originally Posted by nerdboyrockstar

LOL!

Please make sure in the future you post what parks you'll visit on what day so I can adjust my itinerary accordingly.

Please don't visit at Christmas time please and thank you.