Monorail Rescue yesterday?

[Betty Rohrer]

the stair truck is a good idea but what about wheelchair, ECV and stroller people who can not use the stairs? are you going to tell the them too bad can get you down. my guess is part of the 4 hour time was getting the wheelchairs and ECVs off first. also how many people can be on the stair truck at one time. I am guessing it is a slow process to unload a full monorail. are you going to tell parents to remove small children from their strollers and leave strollers on the monorail? how do you think that is going to go over?

 

[Babs Johnson]

Thanks for the article Dan. One poster commented that he and his wife were stuck and the whole "experience" took over 4 hours. Does Disney give them a free day pass to Disney? Taking 4 hours out of someones day, is not acceptable. Free ice water when you get out, is NO compensation. That's really ridiculous that Disney couldn't get those people out for almost 4 hours. Sorry, I know you Pro-Disney people will say that "things break down" but 4 hours????? No, not acceptable. What is someone was having a medical emergency????

I didn't read the article. Is that what the trapped passengers received, ice water?

In the late 90s, at Disneyland in Anaheim, they had a ride called the Rocket Rods. It replaced the People Mover and used the elevated PM track base. Rocket Rods was problematic from the start, frequently breaking down, and staying closed for weeks at a time. I think they finally gave up on it after two or three years.

One time, my family was riding it and it broke down. The five or six cars on the track came to halt wherever they happened to be. This is much lower to the ground than the monorail, and we had to wait about an hour for a cherry picker device to evacuate us. A CM gave us a slip of paper and said go to Guest Relations. We thought me might get a free Mickey Bar coupon, or, at best, a voucher for a QS meal. But they actually gave us all free one-day tickets as compensation. Way more than I expected. I really didn't expect anything; I thought the whole thing was fun and an adventure.

I wouldn't expect these days that Disney would give a whole monorail full of people a day pass, but they could have done something better than ice water.

Again, there is no room for a permanent mount along the side of the structure. Underneath is not going to happen - they have roads that go under the monorail that need minimum clearance requirements. And not to mention that the cost would be ridiculous. For as often as an evacuation happens, that cost would never be justified. They would be better off tearing it down than doing that.

Best idea I've heard in ages.

 

[kandb]

I was wondering if anyone knows. What would happen if the monorail got stuck like that when it was over water? Or very high up that a rescue ladder could not reach. What would they do then? Someone posted on facebook of the stuck passengers removing the glass windows from the monorail in order to get some air inside it. Just seems very dangerous being up that high.

 

[amylevan]

I was wondering if anyone knows. What would happen if the monorail got stuck like that when it was over water? Or very high up that a rescue ladder could not reach. What would they do then? Someone posted on facebook of the stuck passengers removing the glass windows from the monorail in order to get some air inside it. Just seems very dangerous being up that high.

There aren't very many spans over water, only short spans by the CR and the GF and slightly longer lengths over the water in Epcot. I would think the spans by the CR and GF could be evacuated from the banks as they aren't very wide. Not sure about over in Epcot.

I don't believe there are any spans that would be too high for rescue ladders. You can get boom lifts for like 150' and unless my memory is really bad, there aren't spans that high.

And as for the windows, yes they open in an emergency. Why is that dangerous? Do the windows on busses and cars not open and don't you drive them on bridges?

 

[kandb]

There aren't very many spans over water, only short spans by the CR and the GF and slightly longer lengths over the water in Epcot. I would think the spans by the CR and GF could be evacuated from the banks as they aren't very wide. Not sure about over in Epcot.

I don't believe there are any spans that would be too high for rescue ladders. You can get boom lifts for like 150' and unless my memory is really bad, there aren't spans that high.

And as for the windows, yes they open in an emergency. Why is that dangerous? Do the windows on busses and cars not open and don't you drive them on bridges?

There is no problem having open windows but the video showed the guy on the monorail popping out this very large window and carrying it to put it down, just didn't seem like the safest thing to be carrying, plus having a totally open window open that high in the air is also dangerous considering small children are on there.

 

[kamik86]

There is no problem having open windows but the video showed the guy on the monorail popping out this very large window and carrying it to put it down, just didn't seem like the safest thing to be carrying, plus having a totally open window open that high in the air is also dangerous considering small children are on there.

Frankly in the kind of heat in Florida with no AC (if the monorail has no power it lost AC) Not having any airflow is probably more dangerous then the chance that someone will fall out the window. Parents would just have to watch their small children so they didn't climb out.

 

[Allison]

At least you could get out of your car. Those monorails are usually stuffed with people, strangers. That's much different then getting stuck in your own car where you could get out and you don't have someone next to you breathing down your neck. What about all the people standing in the monorail, nowhere even to sit, and for 4 hours.

No, not getting out of the car on the interstate at night during an ice storm.

 

[GoofeyAboutDisney]

It just seems likes the monorails have way too many mechanical issues. Time to get rid of them or fix them.

Fix them yes, but I hope they never get rid of them

 

[GoofeyAboutDisney]

40 minutes in Small World. I may never ride it again!

I was stuck on Great Movie Ride for over 30 minutes right next to Tarzan swinging from the trees. 30 mins of his howling and my nerves were so shot I was nauseous. Finally some suits came, pressed a button and we were on our way. I swore I'd never ride it again, but I have since gotten over it and love that ride again....but I do still cringe when I hear Tarzan