E-Pages in the Park

[chris mcfly]

As anyone who works in a theme park knows, E-Pages (all pages) are almost always the "last resort" when trying to contact someone in the park. Usually, when an announcement is made, an errie silence falls over the staff; something terribly bad has most likely happened to a family or party member of whomever is being paged.

I had a departmental meeting on Tuesday morning at Universal at 11AM. Naturally, since this was several hours after the unfortunate terrorist attacks on our country, the meeting was cancelled. However, while walking through the park, I found it to be distrubing that most people were running around having a joyous time without any knowledge of that morning's events. It bothered me so much I almost felt like walking up to strangers and saying "Hey, do you have ANY idea what is going on right now?"

So this brings up some interesting questions. Because a theme park is intentionally designed to be an escape and disconnection from reality, is it the theme park's responsibility to inform the guests of a tragedy like what happened on Tuesday? Surely, many of the people in the park may know someone that was directly involved in the "incident", or need to make alternate arrangements for transportation, or would like to call a family member, etc.

If Disney or Universal had not made an E-Page and had not closed their parks, I would have been furious. Imagine if you were in a park that day only to exit at 9PM and suddenly find out the worst tragedy has occoured ten hours ago. But that didnt happen, so theres no reason to talk about it. I am a little upset, however, that there was even doubt in anybody's mind that the parks had to be closed.

I guess my question is: To what degree is it a park's responsibility to make an e-page in the park, what to say, and when to close the park. What about a major earthquake in CA? What about an Oklahoma-City style tragedy? What about a plane crash? What about a nuclear meltdown?



I head them play Disney's E-Page on Channel 9 News. Something like, "Ladies and Gentlemen, Due to unforseen circumstances, we are forced to close/will be closing/are closing the WDW Resort" Did anyone hear Universal's?

Any thoughts?

When do Guests have the right-to-know about such things?

 

[MIB999999]

Inform all the guests in a general page?? NO

Knowing the news then or ten hours later would not have affected what happened.

closing down a large area like IOA/USF beacuse of the possibility of an attack was prudent.

closing the park so everyone would have to find out what was going on is a bit over the top in what someone, or some organization thinks it is important that all should know. that is not universal's place.

 

[chris mcfly]

Originally posted by MIB999999
Inform all the guests in a general page?? NO

Knowing the news then or ten hours later would not have affected what happened.

You missed my point a little bit. Imagine if you had relatives that worked in the WTC, and you did not find out about what happened until 10 hours later becuase you were more-or-less held at the mercy of the seclusion of the park. How would you feel?

 

[MIB999999]

Originally posted by chris mcfly


You missed my point a little bit. Imagine if you had relatives that worked in the WTC, and you did not find out about what happened until 10 hours later becuase you were more-or-less held at the mercy of the seclusion of the park. How would you feel?

No, i understtod perfectly. I can leave the park anytime i want to and jump back into the daily information grind. It is my choice to enjoy a different part of my existence.

I certainly do not want a theme park determining what i need to know and when. I am a big person now so the responsibility is all mine thank you.

Besides what could i do with 110 stories coming down in NY???
They will be digging thru the rubble for days, knowing about it right away is not necessary. I am in no hurry to carry the weight of worry, it is a demanding taskmaster.

 

[EUROPA]

No!
You have humans standing right there at every ride that could inform the guest what is happening in a calm manner.