POTC broken down for 90 minutes

[AuntieMe3]

I've had the same thing happen to myself, DH and DD years ago. We thought it was pretty fun...lol The lights did come on but the music did NOT stop. LOL We were under the guy dangling his foot and they pushed us back near where the donkey and bridge is. It was toward the end of the night, so not crowded at all and we were probably on the last boat offloaded. By the time we got to the back stage areas, we were the only ones walking through with security guards pointing us to the right direction. It was neat to see, we went up, down, across and back up again, came out by the New Orleans bathrooms. We even passed by a cast member break room. We got a fast pass but like I said it was the end of the night so we didn't even use it.

We've also got stuck on Indiana Jones for a significant amount of time once and had to be walked off. While we were waiting some lady really started freaking out and started screaming she needed to get off....poor thing.

 

[Wesley815]

We were stuck on California Screamin for close to two hours and had to be evacuated. We got on when there was still some cloud cover which burned off right as we stopped. We were stuck in the sun with our sweatshirts on strapped in so tight there was no way to wiggle out of them to get relief. We got off the ride sweaty, sunburned, and PISSED. All we got was a return pass, which we did not use because I was so traumatized at the time from having to climb down from that height while tired and dehydrated.

CM's should of brought out umbrellas or something to provide the train some shade.

Having worked in attractions our first priority was to safely attend to guests stopped in each zone (in person, not just on camera/PA system), it's sad to hear they would let you just sit for so long. We would wait with guests until assistance arrived to help us evac. This was over 10 or 15 years ago so who knows what rules, or budget/staff reasoning is behind decisions now.

 

[kristensideaoffun]

CM's should of brought out umbrellas or something to provide the train some shade.

Having worked in attractions our first priority was to safely attend to guests stopped in each zone (in person, not just on camera/PA system), it's sad to hear they would let you just sit for so long. We would wait with guests until assistance arrived to help us evac. This was over 10 or 15 years ago so who knows what rules, or budget/staff reasoning is behind decisions now.

Who knows. It seemed like the offloaded one train at a time and we were the last ones to be “rescued”. Maybe they only had one crew getting people out. I was so upset that we didn’t see one single CM until they came to get us out. It was by far the worst experience I’ve had in the parks.

 

[Malcon10t]

If only they had had a good chunk of time -- say, almost a year and a half? -- when the parks were closed to visitors, and properly safety-geared teams could have done long-overdue maintenance, replaced worn-out parts, upgraded equipment, re-wired and re-balanced animatronics, deep-cleaned and repaired tracks and brakes and weatherproofing, tested latches and gears and systems and gates ...

While the parks were closed, employees were furloughed. There was no one working on the rides, no one performing maintenance, etc.... On any given day, there were 7-15 employees in the park at any time, mainly as security. When contractors were allowed in to work on Avenger's Campus, they also escorted them. Plants were removed from the planters to prevent loss from there, and there were no gardeners to maintain the property. Kitchen staff came in for a week when it became real that they would not be returning in June 2020 and they cooked everything up and gave it away to CMs and the Boys and Girls clubs at the Honda Center. Then after they reordered thinking they would reopen for Christmas 2020, they did it all over again.

I had a friend who did get to work a few days during this time, and they had a few group pics of everyone that worked that day (all 6' apart...). Rarely were there more than 10.

 

[ClaudiaKincaid]

While the parks were closed, employees were furloughed. There was no one working on the rides, no one performing maintenance, etc.... On any given day, there were 7-15 employees in the park at any time, mainly as security. When contractors were allowed in to work on Avenger's Campus, they also escorted them. Plants were removed from the planters to prevent loss from there, and there were no gardeners to maintain the property. Kitchen staff came in for a week when it became real that they would not be returning in June 2020 and they cooked everything up and gave it away to CMs and the Boys and Girls clubs at the Honda Center. Then after they reordered thinking they would reopen for Christmas 2020, they did it all over again.

I had a friend who did get to work a few days during this time, and they had a few group pics of everyone that worked that day (all 6' apart...). Rarely were there more than 10.

I appreciate the insider info! (And I'm glad they were able to do some good with the food.)

I think they should not have furloughed as many as they did; obviously, with no guests, they had no need of, say, greeters and food workers, but it was shortsighted and skinflinty of them to not instead invest in the maintenance and upgrade teams while they had the time (as soon as it was becoming clear what safety measures worked best re: distancing and masking, and *definitely* once vaccines became available). So many of the jobs could be done outdoors, or in one-person or well-distanced teams -- provide work for people who need it, and spend the downtime making more magic, you know what I mean? But instead, they moaned about lost revenue, cut off thousands of workers from their livelihood, wasted a big opportunity, and gave the tippy-top execs more bonuses. It's disappointing, and speaks to a management so attuned to their own short-term greed and nothing else that instead of using the forced downtime to improve the health of their golden goose, they let it get perilously close to dying while trying to squeeze one ... more ... egg out of it.

 

[Malcon10t]

I appreciate the insider info! (And I'm glad they were able to do some good with the food.)

I think they should not have furloughed as many as they did; obviously, with no guests, they had no need of, say, greeters and food workers, but it was shortsighted and skinflinty of them to not instead invest in the maintenance and upgrade teams while they had the time

They had to follow the laws. Remember, the state closed down except "jobs deemed essential". "All residents immediately to heed current State public health directives to stay home, except as needed to maintain continuity of operations of essential critical infrastructure sectors and additional sectors as the State Public Health Officer may designate as critical to protect health and well-being of all Californians.
In accordance with this order, the State Public Health Officer has designated the following list of Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers to help state, local, tribal, and industry partners as they work to protect communities, while ensuring continuity of functions critical to public health and safety, as well as economic and national security."

Disneyland maintenance employees would not have been deemed essential. The jobs that could continue were those that continue from home and those that were to protect the property.

When CA went to the color coded system and Orange County was doing well, they still didn't make it to the point where employees of theme parks could return. It wasn't until last spring CA finally got opened.

 

[ClaudiaKincaid]

I know, I'm in California -- and I support all worker safety measures, then and now -- but I'm just so frustrated that it seems like leadership just sat around twiddling their thumbs instead of trying to do something productive once it was safer to bring crews back. It doesn't even look like they had any kind of plan. grrrrrrrr.

 

[MonocularVision]

Without money coming in to the parks they wouldn’t necessary have the capital to keep those efforts going. And without knowing when things would reopen (remember when they were opening summer of 2020?), taking out debt was probably a bad idea.

 

[goodshepherd]

this happened to us 1 xmas visit in disneyland.....

30 min wait....

then we climb over boats and out the door by that dock with the barrels overhead.

if u go out that door, it goes by locker rooms for employees. then it exits out the bathrooms by the mint julep bar lol

it was cool to see behind the scenes a bit.

 

[Malcon10t]

I know, I'm in California -- and I support all worker safety measures, then and now -- but I'm just so frustrated that it seems like leadership just sat around twiddling their thumbs instead of trying to do something productive once it was safer to bring crews back. It doesn't even look like they had any kind of plan. grrrrrrrr.

It wasn't worker safety measures, it was when the state allowed returns. As soon as the state allowed returns, CM were being recalled. However, in the mean time, many took positions in other areas. And then once they were allowed to come back, the CMs had to get recertified to work on specific equipment since it had been over a year. It really was a mess. They had numerous plans, but between the state and various unions, it was a mess.