We were at DL for our nose trip. My DW, and DB decided to ride the monorail, and we asked the CM if we could ride up front, we didn't know if it was possible, but they said sure, so there we were, in a special place, people staring at us wondering who we were to be away from everyone else. Then it came, the monorail and all its glory. The CM asked the pilot if it would be okay, they were switching pilots, so he had to ask the other one, he looked us over, and determined we were worthy.
They punch in a code on the side and the door slides open in all of its space like glory. Go on in and have a seat he says. We happily enter and we are greeted by a nice cold blast of precious air conditioning. We all sit and talk about how cool this is. Then the pilot comes in. I don't remember his name, he told us about the monorail and the controls, then he was given all clear to move out as the other monorails were in their proper places for him to depart. Then, it happens, the monorail goes no where. He moves a lever, pushes some buttons, and then we find out what kind of nerd this guy is, and how he broke the monorail. He begins to radio the CM's who monitor everything, "be advised I have a blah blah blah", and this is how he began everything he reported, "Be advised blah blah blah." I thought, what professionalism, they have a speil they use on the radio too, then the CM outside opens the door and tells the guy to just power the monorail down and then power it back up. "Be advised I will be performing a shutdown blah blah blah." At this point I'm throughly interested, being a geek and all, and I want to know what this entails on this technology driven marvel. Does he need to perform a safe shutdown like I would on a unix machine, or does he just hit ctrl-alt-del and reboot.
I don't remember what he did, but I do know we witnessed a monorail power cycle
This seemed to have fixed the problem he caused, which he contributed to being stopped too long while in gear or something. Off we went, he was a nice guy, very very very VERY serious about this pilot thing, and I appreciated that. We cruised around to the DTD station, once there he said he would be leaving us (NOOOOOh wait, woohoo!)
The next pilot enters the monorail and is amazed he has guests. He was a 180 from Captain Geeko. He was laid back, and funny! He tells us how the others don't care too much for Captain Geeko and his ways of breaking the monorail, which they so love and care for. I think this guys name was Nigel Coruthers, King of the Monorail! Actually, I don't recall his name.
The the coolest thing happened after the door closed, he looked at me and said, "how would you like to take this baby around the park?"
Okay, that last part I made up.
This guy was a hoot. He would interact with "Mr. Voice" the automated spiel, and while "Mr. Voice" was talking, he was talking to us like we were old friends. My favorite part was when it was time for Mr. Voice to come back on, and the CM said something like "Go on, grab the mic, it's right there, get it, right, there ya go" and Mr. Voice comes on que. It was fun to hear him call into monorail control about his location "<insert color> now entering Magic Kingdom" as we flew over the fence with all the people watching in amazement, wondering who those VIPs were riding up front, okay, they were staring at the monorail, but I can dream
As we pulled into the station he told us he had a good time with us, and as we went to leave, he made us sit back down and held up things while he gave us official monorail co-pilot drivers licences signed by him. I wish I could find them, but we moved to a house since then. We waved bye to him, thanked him for not breaking the monorail, and most important, for not saying "be advised" before calling monorail control.
The next day we went to DCA, and while standing in line, we see our monorail pilot with his friends, he saw us, we exchanged friendly 'heys' and went on.
I plan on attempting a ride up front while at WDW on all the runs if my wife will let me
I'll see if I can crack those pilots who clam up with my witty repertoire
darren
The last time (aus 2002) we got a driver in training on the Epcot loop. I guess we made him nervous because he stalled the train several times!!! When we finally made it to Epcot I wished him luck and he really chucked and said it looks a lot easier than it is!!!!
