News Round Up 2019

[scrappinginontario]

UPDATE:

Blog Mickey story has been updated. Gondolas are moving slowly along the Epcot line again allowing guests to be evacuated in a more timely manner. CMs prepared at stations with cases of water, wheelchairs to aid guests exiting the gondolas.

 

[Brocktoon]

First thought is I hope no one got hurt.
Second thought not good news for the skyliner and Disney.
Third thought - skyline likely to be down at least a month.
Fourth thought - REALLY bad news for Riviera sales.
Fifth thought - no comment from @rteetz , is he stuck ON the gondola?

My opinion as an engineer ... so far there have been no reports of serious injuries. If the injuries end up being minor then I look at this at being a strong positive in the long run as long as some strong root cause analysis is completed to understand what happened. If the worst case would be a black eye for Disney and the Gondola down for a month or more, then ultimately that's still a positive situation if no one was seriously hurt and Disney can identify design flaw before there would be serious injury or death.

But as I posted on the other thread, we really need to wait until more (or all?) the info comes to light.

 

[osully]

I like the option but but price is steep after I’ve already paid $199 for MM.

Memory Maker is now FAR too expensive for what you get considering they are replacing actual Photopass CMs left and right at every meet and greet. On our honeymoon in 2016 it was a bit less than $150 USD (IIRC) if you purchased it 30+ days in advance. We purchased it on the second day of our trip for $160 I think. It would now be $280 CANADIAN DOLLARS if we wanted it for our November WDW trip which is absolutely bonkers. We will just take selfies... thanks! I understand you also get all of your on ride photos but I feel like those are always a toss up as to them turning out well, or even being you, etc. I love the Disney Photopass CMs but sadly I cannot justify purchasing this anymore.

 

[osully]

I’m scared at this point to ride the Monorail or the Skyliner. Scarier than any of the “Big Thrill” category rides at Disney!

 

[SaintsManiac]

I’m scared at this point to ride the Monorail or the Skyliner. Scarier than any of the “Big Thrill” category rides at Disney!

Yes indeed. I shall put the money I was going to spend on Skyliner merch into my Lyft budget.

 

[Bing Showei]

https://blogmickey.com/2019/10/disn...estigates-issue-leading-to-guest-evacuations/
It's a good first step. I think Disney can get ahead of this if remain completely transparent and own this through the process.

"There was a failure. We identified it. It brought to light our woefully inadequate evacuations procedures which we are reevaluating. We will do better moving forward." would go a long way.

 

[Dentam]

From social media posts I've read from some people stuck on the gondolas, Disney would not tell them what was going on, even when they used the emergency call box to ask. Doesn't look good for Disney at all. They need to be transparent throughout all of this.

 

[Steph15251]

I’m scared at this point to ride the Monorail or the Skyliner. Scarier than any of the “Big Thrill” category rides at Disney!

I hate the Monorail ,I had a panic attack on one like 4 or so years ago and not one cast member came to help.

 

[Steph15251]

From social media posts I've read from some people stuck on the gondolas, Disney would not tell them what was going on, even when they used the emergency call box to ask. Doesn't look good for Disney at all. They need to be transparent throughout all of this.

When I was a cast member we where only able to tell guest very littie info.

 

[disneygirlsng]

First thought is I hope no one got hurt.
Second thought not good news for the skyliner and Disney.
Third thought - skyline likely to be down at least a month.
Fourth thought - REALLY bad news for Riviera sales.
Fifth thought - no comment from @rteetz , is he stuck ON the gondola?

My third thought was better be less than a month as that's when I'll be there and I still can't wait to ride them!!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

When I was a cast member we where only able to tell guest very littie info.

Obviously Disney has their reasons and knows better than I or other people posting in the internet ... Though I feel like some more regular communication - even if not providing new info, but just to let people know they are still there and just that lines of communication are open, would be better

 

[Mome Rath]

Just ran a short blurb about the Skyliner on national Fox News...

 

[rteetz]

https://blogmickey.com/2019/10/disn...estigates-issue-leading-to-guest-evacuations/
It's a good first step. I think Disney can get ahead of this if remain completely transparent and own this through the process.

"There was a failure. We identified it. It brought to light our woefully inadequate evacuations procedures which we are reevaluating. We will do better moving forward." would go a long way.

I’d like to know what would be better in terms of evacuation?

 

[Bing Showei]

I’d like to know what would be better in terms of evacuation?

I’m not sure if this is rhetorical, but given that full system evacuations were projected to take 3 hours. A single line took north of that.

Are you suggesting that 3 plus hours in Orlando summer heat without the benefit of passive ventilation from a cabin traveling 11mph to cool it down is reasonable?

 

[rteetz]

I’m not sure if this is rhetorical, but given that full system evacuations were projected to take 3 hours. A single line took north of that.

Are you suggesting that 3 plus hours in Orlando summer heat without the benefit of passive ventilation from a cabin traveling 11mph to cool it down is reasonable?

This is the longest line of the three. I’m not saying it was reasonable but I’m not sure what they could do to make it that much better. More practice? They aren’t going to buy 5 more trucks or something just in the event that this does happen. While yes this did happen soon after opening the likelihood of it being a continuous thing is still slim.

 

[Bing Showei]

While yes this did happen soon after opening the likelihood of it being a continuous thing is still slim.

Three weeks ago, any suggestion of something like this happening and taking 3 plus hours to evacuate a single line (longest line notwithstanding), would’ve been summarily laughed off the boards and accusations of chicken little tendencies would’ve been leveled pretty heavily. And now after this incident, the apologists keep lowering the bar and excusing what this is or how it was handled.

Very first reactions to system slow downs were to blame stupid guests. Then it was these growing pains that are to be expected. Now it’s “well, no one died.”

I’m not dumping on the system. Truth be told, I’m hoping this is a successful reliable system that will eventually replace the monorail system, but in the interest of preserving hope for that eventuality, I hope the Disney executives aren’t as flippant about this as some posters in the Skyliner thread feel they have a right to be.

 

[rteetz]

Three weeks ago, any suggestion of something like this happening and taking 3 plus hours to evacuate a single line (longest line notwithstanding), would’ve been summarily laughed off the boards and accusations of chicken little tendencies would’ve been leveled pretty heavily. And now after this incident, the apologists keep lowering the bar and excusing what this is or how it was handled.

Very first reactions to system slow downs were to blame stupid guests. Then it was these growing pains are to be expected. Now it’s “well, no one died.”

I’m not dumping on the system. Truth be told, I’m hoping this is a successful reliable system that will eventually replace the monorail system, but in the interest of preserving hope for that eventuality, I hope the Disney executives aren’t as flippant about this as some posters in the Skyliner thread feel they have a right to be.

I agree with you. I’m just not sure there is a easy answer for what they could do to improve the evacuation procedure.

 

[Spaceguy55]

There was a 12 minute video from the site that shall remain nameless that showed the teal gondola being put back in place and then shortly after the line starting up again.
I'm sure they wanted to not do that to preserve the scene to better determine the cause but maybe decided the guests had been up there too long.

 

[Gusey]

But as I posted on the other thread, we really need to wait until more (or all?) the info comes to light.

It's a shame that many people on Twitter have jumped on this to justify their complaints about the skyliner before it was even built and before all/more info has come out about the incident.

According to this article and another DISboards post, it seems like there was a tech error that saw a skyliner that wasn't moving as a gap in the line?
https://www.wdwinfo.com/news-storie...-causing-major-delays-evacuation-in-progress/

 

[Dentam]

When I was a cast member we where only able to tell guest very littie info.

And what I'm saying is that this should not be the case when you have people stranded however many feet up in the air with no ac, etc. By all means don't tell them anything that will make them panic more, but at least tell them that help is on the way I guess. I wasn't there, but some comments I've read sounded like they weren't getting any info from Disney while they were stuck. Anyway, hopefully Disney can learn from this. Also hoping they figure out what caused it and ensure it doesn't happen again.