buzznina
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2007
- Messages
- 5,333
Just back from a 4 night stay at ASSP and unfortunately our most memorable trip, we did this last minute trip so that we could see WDW Christmas decorations because they do such a great job. I will start with the night of the horrible monorail ride and then post the rest of our trip a little later. The morning of Saturday, December 12th here is where the trouble started, the day before at Epcot our DD wanted to go on the monorail (not any more) and we told her that it was not a ride but took you to hotels or MK. So today we figure to break from our normal routine of taking the bus and we would drive so that DD could get to ride on the monorail
Since MK was open late we did not arrive until 1pm, we spent the rest of the day and night at MK. The crowds were a lot heavier then the last time we went around this time, so it took longer for us to do everything we wanted and with our 5 month old we stopped more often. We also noticed that the people were staying later, most of our previous trips, once the late parade was over the park cleared out a lot, not this trip. We head out and did not even think about taking the ferry back, we went straight to the monorails. We head towards one of the gates and are standing behind a couple of people, well we have 2 strollers so we do not like to be on peoples heals so there is a gap, BIG MISTAKE. The monorail comes and as the people in front of us gets on so do other people from the sides and when we get to the door, we noticed that there would only be enough room for one stroller. We hurry and check some other cars with no luck, so we will wait for the next one, no big deal (oh how wrong we were). Well the red monorail pulls up and we get on, both DD’s have fallen asleep by now. Our car is filled with 6 people standing on our side and another 5 people standing on the other side a total of 29 people and 3 strollers. Just as we pass the Poly (1:15) the monorail stops and then Brian comes on over the speakers telling us that there is a technical problem and they should be on the way shortly, well we all know that never happened. One of the worst parts was that we could see the ticket area from the windows. Here is some information about being stuck in a monorail; there is a total of 4 (each corner) VERY small vent windows, you could barely fit a hand through it. The 4 big windows have handles at the top and say in case of an emergency pull the handles down and pull the window inwards. BUT when we called Brian and asked he told us that we cannot open the windows because it is dangerous and could injure someone OUTSIDE BELOW THE MONORAIL. Who in the world is standing under a monorail at 3am I still do not know, and no there was not any emergency workers there yet, they still thought they could fix (or hide) the problem. Also; what does WDW call an emergency so you can open those windows, believe me we really thought of just opening them and I am sure if another hour passed with no signs of relief we would have. The car just kept getting hotter; DW and I spent the whole 3 hours fanning our DD’s with the theme park brochures. The windows got so foggy that when you wiped it, it only took a second to fog back up and beads of water built up and would roll down the window. Brian would come on over the speaker every 15 minutes to keep us informed as to what was going on, which was they did not know what the problem was or how long we would be stuck. We were getting very annoyed with Brian because he would come on the speaker with the standard welcome to WDW monorail and end it with “We at WDW and myself Brian hope you have a magical evening” (yes, we all knew it was his job, but it did not make it any better). Finally after awhile he stopped saying it, we believed he was sick of it to, because he was in the same situation as we were. Finally at around 3:15am Brian announced that the River Creek FD will be coming through the ceiling of the trams, open the doors and take us down their truck ladders. Here is another monorail fact; the ceiling doors are located at each end of the cars, right above the seats. We watched, as best we could through the fogged windows, the FD take passengers down from the cars. When they got to the point where we were going to be next, DW and I thought it was best to wake our DD’s and before a loud noise did. Our oldest woke up with this “where am I” look and we explained the problem and she started to get scared and told me that she does not want to go down the ladder. I talked to her and told her that I would hold her and not let anything happen to her, after a few minutes I got her to sadly say okay and to promise her that I would hold her tight. Our 5 month old DD was flushed from the heat and we really could not tell how hot her skin was because of how hot our hands were. She cried for a few minutes but my DW was able to console her. Well the firemen came and instead of coming in through the ceiling, they were able to pry open the doors from the outside. They opened the doors on the other side of our car and got about 7 people out, and then they were told to stop because the ‘Tractor’ (monorail tow truck) had arrived. After about another 5-10 minutes we were finally moving and arrived and the ticket area at 4am. I was standing by the door where the CMs were waiting to open and when the doors opened the CM just put her head back; I do not think she was expecting the type of aroma and heat to hit her. Well the area was filled with a lot of CM’s waiting with cold water and OJ to give to all the passengers, which was much appreciated. Here is where I think WDW really failed with customer service, after being stuck on the tram baking for nearly 3 hours, they told us to wait and that someone will be by to take our statements. After a few minutes a very friendly CM comes by and takes our name, address and phone number, asks if we are staying on site and which resort and when we were leaving. She then asks us, “are we doing okay”, “do we need more water or OJ”, “do we need any medical assistance”, and “is there anything we need”? These were all good questions but then said that they were sorry for what had happened and that if we would be interested in free MVMCP for later today since we were leaving on Monday, we told her that we would not be in the mood for another late night and we were planning on going to DHS and AK. She then asked if we would be interested in a single day ticket and we told her that we were AP holders, then she goes would we like some fast passes, that is when I looked at her and asked if she was joking. I think she realized the same thing right after the question left her lips and said she understood. Then another CM comes by with more OJ and water and gave us some for the road, well the CM asking us the questions starts talking to our DD and asks if she had a fun time at MK, our DD did not answer and so I said can we leave? She then went back to offering us non-expiring party tickets to either Christmas or Halloween, my DW looks at me and sees my displeasure and simply tells her Halloween so we can get back to our resort. I am not blaming the CM, but we had 1 scared 5 year old and one flushed 5 month old and I think they should have gotten our information asked if everyone was okay, could they do anything at this moment for us and then contacted us later or asked if we would come by guest services tomorrow. Not keep you there until you accept one of their offerings. We finally arrived at our room at 6am, I told my DW “Well Happy Birthday”, she said it will be one she would not forget. After about 4 hours of restless sleep, we finally dragged our butts over to AKL at 4pm, we were able to view some animals, get in the safari ride and take pictures with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy (ran out of time for Donald) in their Christmas attire. We then drove over to DHS to see the Osborne Light display and then back to our room to prepare to leave and try to get some rest. When we got to the room our message light was on the phone and I told my DW that it was probably WDW making sure we were doing fine, well I was wrong it was the message on how to set up your voice mailbox for our stay Lol. I do not know what I was thinking, that they would check back with the guests staying onsite. I will end this on a positive note; we could not have been stuck with a better group of people. No one panicked and we all tried to keep the situation loose by joking about WDW, Brian’s announcements and anything else we could. It definitely helped me get pass a period when I was getting nauseas, so fellow passengers of car #6 I thank you.
Since MK was open late we did not arrive until 1pm, we spent the rest of the day and night at MK. The crowds were a lot heavier then the last time we went around this time, so it took longer for us to do everything we wanted and with our 5 month old we stopped more often. We also noticed that the people were staying later, most of our previous trips, once the late parade was over the park cleared out a lot, not this trip. We head out and did not even think about taking the ferry back, we went straight to the monorails. We head towards one of the gates and are standing behind a couple of people, well we have 2 strollers so we do not like to be on peoples heals so there is a gap, BIG MISTAKE. The monorail comes and as the people in front of us gets on so do other people from the sides and when we get to the door, we noticed that there would only be enough room for one stroller. We hurry and check some other cars with no luck, so we will wait for the next one, no big deal (oh how wrong we were). Well the red monorail pulls up and we get on, both DD’s have fallen asleep by now. Our car is filled with 6 people standing on our side and another 5 people standing on the other side a total of 29 people and 3 strollers. Just as we pass the Poly (1:15) the monorail stops and then Brian comes on over the speakers telling us that there is a technical problem and they should be on the way shortly, well we all know that never happened. One of the worst parts was that we could see the ticket area from the windows. Here is some information about being stuck in a monorail; there is a total of 4 (each corner) VERY small vent windows, you could barely fit a hand through it. The 4 big windows have handles at the top and say in case of an emergency pull the handles down and pull the window inwards. BUT when we called Brian and asked he told us that we cannot open the windows because it is dangerous and could injure someone OUTSIDE BELOW THE MONORAIL. Who in the world is standing under a monorail at 3am I still do not know, and no there was not any emergency workers there yet, they still thought they could fix (or hide) the problem. Also; what does WDW call an emergency so you can open those windows, believe me we really thought of just opening them and I am sure if another hour passed with no signs of relief we would have. The car just kept getting hotter; DW and I spent the whole 3 hours fanning our DD’s with the theme park brochures. The windows got so foggy that when you wiped it, it only took a second to fog back up and beads of water built up and would roll down the window. Brian would come on over the speaker every 15 minutes to keep us informed as to what was going on, which was they did not know what the problem was or how long we would be stuck. We were getting very annoyed with Brian because he would come on the speaker with the standard welcome to WDW monorail and end it with “We at WDW and myself Brian hope you have a magical evening” (yes, we all knew it was his job, but it did not make it any better). Finally after awhile he stopped saying it, we believed he was sick of it to, because he was in the same situation as we were. Finally at around 3:15am Brian announced that the River Creek FD will be coming through the ceiling of the trams, open the doors and take us down their truck ladders. Here is another monorail fact; the ceiling doors are located at each end of the cars, right above the seats. We watched, as best we could through the fogged windows, the FD take passengers down from the cars. When they got to the point where we were going to be next, DW and I thought it was best to wake our DD’s and before a loud noise did. Our oldest woke up with this “where am I” look and we explained the problem and she started to get scared and told me that she does not want to go down the ladder. I talked to her and told her that I would hold her and not let anything happen to her, after a few minutes I got her to sadly say okay and to promise her that I would hold her tight. Our 5 month old DD was flushed from the heat and we really could not tell how hot her skin was because of how hot our hands were. She cried for a few minutes but my DW was able to console her. Well the firemen came and instead of coming in through the ceiling, they were able to pry open the doors from the outside. They opened the doors on the other side of our car and got about 7 people out, and then they were told to stop because the ‘Tractor’ (monorail tow truck) had arrived. After about another 5-10 minutes we were finally moving and arrived and the ticket area at 4am. I was standing by the door where the CMs were waiting to open and when the doors opened the CM just put her head back; I do not think she was expecting the type of aroma and heat to hit her. Well the area was filled with a lot of CM’s waiting with cold water and OJ to give to all the passengers, which was much appreciated. Here is where I think WDW really failed with customer service, after being stuck on the tram baking for nearly 3 hours, they told us to wait and that someone will be by to take our statements. After a few minutes a very friendly CM comes by and takes our name, address and phone number, asks if we are staying on site and which resort and when we were leaving. She then asks us, “are we doing okay”, “do we need more water or OJ”, “do we need any medical assistance”, and “is there anything we need”? These were all good questions but then said that they were sorry for what had happened and that if we would be interested in free MVMCP for later today since we were leaving on Monday, we told her that we would not be in the mood for another late night and we were planning on going to DHS and AK. She then asked if we would be interested in a single day ticket and we told her that we were AP holders, then she goes would we like some fast passes, that is when I looked at her and asked if she was joking. I think she realized the same thing right after the question left her lips and said she understood. Then another CM comes by with more OJ and water and gave us some for the road, well the CM asking us the questions starts talking to our DD and asks if she had a fun time at MK, our DD did not answer and so I said can we leave? She then went back to offering us non-expiring party tickets to either Christmas or Halloween, my DW looks at me and sees my displeasure and simply tells her Halloween so we can get back to our resort. I am not blaming the CM, but we had 1 scared 5 year old and one flushed 5 month old and I think they should have gotten our information asked if everyone was okay, could they do anything at this moment for us and then contacted us later or asked if we would come by guest services tomorrow. Not keep you there until you accept one of their offerings. We finally arrived at our room at 6am, I told my DW “Well Happy Birthday”, she said it will be one she would not forget. After about 4 hours of restless sleep, we finally dragged our butts over to AKL at 4pm, we were able to view some animals, get in the safari ride and take pictures with Mickey, Minnie and Goofy (ran out of time for Donald) in their Christmas attire. We then drove over to DHS to see the Osborne Light display and then back to our room to prepare to leave and try to get some rest. When we got to the room our message light was on the phone and I told my DW that it was probably WDW making sure we were doing fine, well I was wrong it was the message on how to set up your voice mailbox for our stay Lol. I do not know what I was thinking, that they would check back with the guests staying onsite. I will end this on a positive note; we could not have been stuck with a better group of people. No one panicked and we all tried to keep the situation loose by joking about WDW, Brian’s announcements and anything else we could. It definitely helped me get pass a period when I was getting nauseas, so fellow passengers of car #6 I thank you.
The 5 year old had a little trouble falling to sleep but did and had a nice nap later on. She talked about the monorail the next day and is still talking about it. We tried sticking to our home bedtime routine but our oldest DD loves to watch the fireworks and see all the lights, so we just make sure that she gets 9 hours of sleep at night. We are also lucky that both DD's have no problem sleeping in their strollers, the oldest fell asleep for over an hour right after dinner and woke up all energetic
She has not had any problems getting back into her daily routine once we our back. I could not even imagine how hot it would have gotten if we were stuck earlier in the day when it was even hotter outside.
