Disney Skyliner Accident

[snappy]

Exactly! @Diz Bee, this is a main reason why I also encouraged you to return to the gondola ASAP and tell them your story in person.

Another reason is that you will likely have more peace of mind knowing you did all you could to help with the safety investigation. Telling your story in person will accomplish this far better than waiting up to 72 hours to tell the story by phone.

Peace of mind and closure.

 

[Madame]

The poster you replied to suggested that Disney treat its transport like hospital transports. Pay for a Minnie Van if you want that level of service.

We already are paying for an upgrade! RIV DVC owners will be directly paying through dues. Anyone staying at POP, AoA etc paying the newly hiked rates due to the convenient skyliner are paying, invluding me over NYE

Hospital level, no. However WDW has encouraged this mentality to court boomer clientele and empty their deep pockets. Widening of queues, accessible ride vehicles, busses which can accommodate ECVs. To some extent they had to because of the ADA, but they’ve gone beyond in order to profit. They’ve been reaping the benefit. Saying too bad so sad now & defending them for that attitude.... no. That IS their clientele. They need to remember that when making decisions.

 

[Diz Bee]

Ok sooo... this has now sucked up my entire Sunday. We’re getting ourselves together and driving over.

 

[suemom2kay]

I'm not sure how that's linked to this incident, but you seem very pleased to have seen this happen. Fortunately, reports from those who were actually there makes it appear to have not been anything that will cause a long outage of the system. I'm betting it will be back up and running very soon. The ones who seem most upset are ones who weren't even there. Odd.

I’m not pleased for the guests affected. I am pleased that it is not smooth sailing. I along with many others thought a gondola system in Florida is a stupid idea fraught with many possible issues. This incident spotlighted the difficulty of evacuation and how hot they get when not moving in mild temperatures in the dark. When the next incident happens in the 90’s mid-day we will see loss of life. Disney corporate needs to take there heads out of the back ends.

 

[TexasChick123]

We should be fair though that it's a collision at like 0.5mph, so not the most violent thing. The problem is people being stranded so long. I think there are underlying problems we're not aware of. Why do they constantly stop the thing? Every video I've seen has the thing stopping for 1-5 minutes without any sort of explanation as to why.

The best explanation I have heard is that the separate line for the ECV's and wheelchairs isn't working reliably and is frequently shut down. I don't know the full reason, but they are having to stop the gondolas to load ECV's and wheelchairs a lot more than planned. The Riviera station wasn't built with that separate detachment space for the ECV's/wheelchairs, so they are having to stop the line every time someone gets on there. I have thoughts on this decision to put these detachment areas in everywhere but there, but that is for another day.

 

[EmJ]

And social media has only heightened that challenge. One conclusion I'm drawing after perusing this thread is that Disney isn't dealing well with urgent PR disasters in the social media age. Do they really not appreciate the impact of people stuck in the gondolas tweeting and instagramming about it? That seems like PR malpractice.

Not to mention photos of people being rescued by ladder truck and taken away on stretchers. It's just... I'm not a PR professional, but yikes.

 

[UOAP]

Disney is not required to provide hospital level care. To suggest otherwise is ridiculous. People with disabilities take public transportation every day; instead of the subway, there are busses. Just like at Disney, there are options. Disney does a fine job providing accessible transportation. Don't like the Skyliner? Take the bus. End of discussion. Is someone forcing guests to stay at Skyliner resorts?

Also, I have not seen any reports of anyone defecating or urinating in a bag. Someone interviewed stated their mother vomited, from nerves. Did I miss the report of someone forced to use the emergency bags for bathroom reasons?

My point was that the Skyliner should never have been considered as a replacement for the buses as originally intended. Glad you agree that the buses should always remain as a viable option.

Providing transportation that is accommodating to people with disabilities is hardly "hospital level care." Again, this is not city public transportation. This is a vacation resort. The experience is supposed to be nicer than a rat infested subway system. It's a vacation resort competing with other vacation resort destinations. Sure, Disney doesn't HAVE to be a nice resort. They CAN have the reputation of a rat infested subway if that is their choice. But I'm pretty sure they still want to have a reputation of a nice, safe resort. They have clearly worked hard to gain the reputation of being the most accommodating resort for special needs populations. It would be a waste of money to toss all that work in the bin.

As for the waste disposal bags, I'm sure some were used. Maybe I am lucky because I work in healthcare so I have better perspective than many about people's various needs, but I have patients, especially the elderly, who cannot hold it in almost 4 hours. So if they were up there, they would have been forced to use the bags. That's why the bags are there.

 

[hhhaleybird]

Ok sooo... this has now sucked up my entire Sunday. We’re getting ourselves together and driving over.

Good luck. Take a trip to Guest Relations in Disney Springs. It'll be worth your time.
If you go by the skyliner, they will probably redirect you.

 

[ScubaCat]

I have thoughts on this decision to put these detachment areas in everywhere but there, but that is for another day

Yeah, I've asked that, too. And, will also hold off for the next thread because it's a doozy of a topic IMHO.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Good luck. Take a trip to Guest Relations in Disney Springs. It'll be worth your time.
If you go by the skyliner, they will probably redirect you.

@Diz Bee at the very least, you should be allowed to speak with a manager.

 

[Spridell]

Ok sooo... this has now sucked up my entire Sunday. We’re getting ourselves together and driving over.

Make sure you DOCUMENT EVERYTHING!!!

 

[fitzperry]

Not to mention photos of people being rescued by ladder truck and taken away on stretchers. It's just... I'm not a PR professional, but yikes.

Right. It's a lot to manage. But they also had to know it would happen at some point. It's very unfortunate that it happened only a week after the Skyliner opened. But they should have been prepared to deal with it - obviously from an emergency management perspective, but also the obvious PR and legal issues. That's just part of doing business in 2019.

 

[tjkraz]

There was a collision of gondolas on DAY SIX. Skyliner will not be back up quickly.

Depends entirely upon what the investigation uncovers.

 

[Searc]

Looking at something and saying "I don't think that's gonna work" is not equal to being a "hater", which implies an irrational hatred of something that doesn't merit such a strong emotion.

A lot of us looked at the Skyliner system and asked "What if this happens? What about this? What about this scenario, how are they going to deal with it?" I did that was called a Debbie Downer and a Chicken Little. IMO though you HAVE to envision every single bad scenario, because asking those questions after something goes wrong is too late.

Disney should have asked, "If the entire line stops, how long would it take to evacuate every gondola?" and when they were told "3 and a half hours" should have said, "That's not acceptable, in midday Florida summer heat that's too long." and those involved should have either come up with an evacuation plan that was considerably less than that, or said "You know what? This idea isn't going to work for Walt Disney World. We can't put our guests in potential danger like that."

They didn't, and this the result. The Skyliner will probably be completely shut down until the engineers figure out what happened. It's a shame because it looks like a fun system to ride, but the method of transport is just too unreliable to be safe.

How were many of us here able to see potential issues but the hired muscle wasn't able to? A massive fail on Disney's part.

 

[hhhaleybird]

@Diz Bee at the very least, you should be allowed to speak with a manager.

@Diz Bee
I just PM you a guest relations rep that helped me out through a tough trip I had. You are welcome to ask for her.

 

[Brianstl]

So we called guest relations... they were very nice. We gave our account of the situation and were given a number to call directly for the whole gondola incident. We then spoke to a lovely lady who typed and recorded everything. She said Disney will be contacting us within 72 hours. I wish we could just meet someone there in person and show them what happened.

I would probably speak with the proper state and federal investigators if I were you.

 

[MichelinMan]

Ok sooo... this has now sucked up my entire Sunday. We’re getting ourselves together and driving over.

See, you shouldn't have needed to do that. They should have immediately identified you as a key witness, and told you exactly where to go to give a personal statement. You may well find you get fobbed off on site, as the lead investigator may not even be there. But good luck.

First rule in any investigation - identify all the key witnesses ASAP, contact them, and make arrangements to speak to them.

 

[snappy]

See, you shouldn't have needed to do that. They should have immediately identified you as a key witness, and told you exactly where to go to give a personal statement. You may well find you get fobbed off on site, as the lead investigator may not even be there. But good luck.

First rule in any investigation - identify all the key witnesses ASAP, contact them, and make arrangements to speak to them.

I agree but. . . Sadly I think Disney is now more focused on damage control.

 

[OhhBother]

I'm a PR vice president for a health system. I can assure you (most) PR professionals don't intentionally lie or spread misinformation. But, sometimes, PR people are provided info - especially in the chaos immediately following an incident - that later proves to be incorrect or incomplete. It's not anybody's fault - it happens. Especially when you have a large-scale crisis playing out in the dark, after business hours, involving a new program with new employees, processes, etc.

The problem, in today's world, is many folks have a fundamental lack of trust but cynicism in spades. It plays out the same way when reporters are covering a breaking news story, and information changes as updated facts come in. A large portion of the population automatically jumps to "The media lies!"

So that's the situation Disney PR is in today. Most likely, a PR pro crafted a statement based on the information provided to him/her at that time. Now, new information has become available. But Disney finds itself, in this cynical world we live in, with a PR crisis exacerbated by the "media lies" segment of the population.

 

[Brianstl]

We should be fair though that it's a collision at like 0.5mph, so not the most violent thing. The problem is people being stranded so long. I think there are underlying problems we're not aware of. Why do they constantly stop the thing? Every video I've seen has the thing stopping for 1-5 minutes without any sort of explanation as to why.

The biggest problem is that Disney put out an incorrect story about no one being in the cabins that collided.