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