WWoHP guest suffers from heat stroke

[poeticdiabetic]

Heat stroke happens all the time. I'm amazed that this is news.

 

[LilyWDW]

It happened at Universal so it MUST be news. Same thing happens whenever there is an accident/injury at Disney. You will hear about how horrible the big bad company is, but if they are cleared of wrong doing, you have to hunt to find information on it.

Personally, especially if it is true Universal had ice and water for those in line, the woman is at fault. Heck, it's hot here in TN so I can only guess what it is like in FL.

 

[LadyTrampScamp&Angel]

Ok, I was there in that seven hour line on opening day. Universal was totally unprepared for the number of people that showed up.

Stayed at HRH, got in line for onsite guests about 7:30 am that morning. Huge line of GP down in past the HR Cafe already. We had no idea that it would take 7 hours to get to WWHP and no one was advising guests of that either. There were many, many, unhappy campers in line. As we moved through the park we stood for quite some time in an area by some docks at the end of Toon Lagoon, where the line snaked back and forth closely together. There were several large fans but they weren't on. There was ONE vendor selling powerade only for cash only - so if you didn't have cash, you were out of luck. Another person in line called Universal on the phone asking they turn on the fans and about 15 minutes later a maintenance looking guy showed up and was able to get about 2-3 of the several fans running - we are thinking it's an area that isn't used much and apparently the rest were out of order. The reason the guest called on the phone is because there were zero Universal employees in sight and that went on for the first about half of our wait. We had gotten to the river barge ride area when I saw the first Universal employee watching the line. I pointed out to him where I was waiting as I had to leave the line to take my daughter to the bathroom. I started looking for drinks and food as it was now about 10:30 am (3 hours in line) and there was absolutely nothing open in the area except one more powerade tub for cash only. Asked the Universal employee and they were clueless, telling me to check places I'd already checked and didn't open until 11 am. Nothing else opened until 11 am, it was wicked hot and the powerades we'd bought with cash were long gone. Left my DH and son in line and got drinks and sandwiches at the Blondies place, stood in a line outside for it to open at 11 am, which took forever, things were not moving quickly and I was about 4th in line, a huge line formed behind us as soon as others realized it was open. Everywhere you tried to get something was a huge line. I can well believe someone passing out. Never saw anyone giving out anything from Universal. It had gotten to the point where we knew our line neighbors, and everyone was cool with letting people take turns getting out of line, going into shops to cool off, I took the lunch and drinks back to the line for my family.

It was horribly, horribly unorganized and there were many complaints. The only real crowd control from Universal was as we approached the Jurassic Park bridge over to The Lost Continent where an employee was announcing that he wanted to know about any line jumpers and they would be removed. Crossed my mind that Target does a better job with Black Friday. Should have had those kind of employees all along the line as there were cutters. After that "checkpoint" only those that passed his test were allowed across and 6 hours after we started we got into the FJ line.

Now the FJ line was an hour but it seemed to go fast. There is shade and a lot of fans before you go into the castle and it's cool inside the castle. Lots to look at and everyone was excited, so that was fun.

Please don't blame the guest - you had to have been there to really understand the problems and "walk in her shoes". Nothing given out free - I was in that line for seven hours AND I NEVER SAW THAT!; no place to buy drinks but the cash only powerade until 11 am, huge lines for everything that opened at 11 am and it was inhumanely hot out there. We had drinks with us, had sunscreened up etc but none of us expected the line to be that long and apparently Universal didn't either. As someone in line said "they advertise this like crazy and then expect people won't show up?"

Universal learned some lessons from the first day - next day I saw many vendors open about 7:30 am when I went back for the onsite guest preview. By Saturday night at about 8:30 pm we walked right into WWHP but the lines for everything except the Dragon Challenge and Flight of the Hippogriff were still insanely long. FJ was 120 minutes that night.

My first hand review . . . I was surprised that I didn't see more people with heat related problems. I did reach into the tubs and took ice to cool off with - and they didn't stop me LOL - if that counts as handing out ice.

BTW, when we left IOA on Friday it was late afternoon and there was a line up to the beginning of Seuss Landing so longer than we started in Marvel Island that morning. Park closed at 10 pm and if it went as slow as ours there was no way those guests were going to get in before park closing. If I can figure that out, so could Universal and yet there those people stood. Sure enough next day news is talking about guests that waited 10 hours and still didn't get in . . . it's not rocket science! Universal could have cut the line off somewhere and let people know they weren't going to make it, before they invested all that time.

 

[NotUrsula]

While I'm surprised that it is news, I do think that if the lines are consistently running to several hours in length, USIOA should be setting up quite a few umbrellas along the line path; every 20 feet or so, and probably portable mister fans, too. Keeping thousands of people out in the sun for hours with no shade while waiting in an attraction line isn't good guest relations on their parts.

Just drinking water won't do it if you've already begun the slide into heat exhaustion -- you need shade and some calories, so that your blood sugar won't drop too much. Heat exhaustion causes disorientation -- you tend not to be able to judge that the situation you are in is dangerous. Half the time you can't remember your own name. I'm very prone to it because I don't sweat, and when it happens I tend to get very single-minded and stubborn; I look like a recalcitrant drunk, and sometimes I'll start randomly muttering while I try to reason out what to do. DH is used to it and knows how to lead me out of the situation so that I'll cooperate, but most strangers have no clue. They just look at me like I'm a mentally-ill nuisance and step around. (FTR, if conditions are right I can go from fine to sick as a dog in only about 15 minutes.)

I'm thinking that the "good care" the woman was speaking of was after she cooled down and started to be able to think again -- what she's complaining about is that USIOA did not take steps to monitor the line situation and provide cooling measures. Very few people these days are in shape to tolerate several hours of Orlando summer sun with no shade respite, and USIOA knows that, but if they are creating an actual line with the expectation that people will stand in it for hours, then yes, they should have been providing cooling measures from the start for this extraordinary situation.

 

[knieriem]

I don't think it's universals fault. The woman put harry potter before her health. I mean seriously?

However did Universal have someone pushing a cart and selling water down the massive line? That would have been nice!

 

[Dznefreek]

Heat stroke happens every day in the summer at all of the Orlando, FL parks. Not sure why this was newsworthy. I can almost say with certainty that someone probably collapsed at Disney and Seaworld on the same day. It's certainly not uncommon at all.

Exactly . . . . . .

 

[LadyTrampScamp&Angel]

However did Universal have someone pushing a cart and selling water down the massive line? That would have been nice!

About 5 hours in, we were in the Jurassic Park area by then, a Universal vendor came by with one of those soft side cooler things selling bottles of water for I believe it was $2.75, not giving away. Line mate in front of us said yay, and handed the guy a $10 bill. Vendor guy says I'm really sorry but I can't change that. Now that's when I say "Seriously?" Who was in charge of this stuff?

Not blaming Universal directly for the heat stroke thing, what I'm saying is that they were entirely unprepared for the response to the opening day of Harry Potter and handled it very poorly - and for that I can see why someone could suffer heat stroke. They certainly didn't make it easy on us. Luckily for my line mate, others in line were able to make change for him.

Again, no one knew how long we would wait. The first 3 hours we thought we'd get moving after the opening ceremony was over. There was never info given - and after you've invested that first 3 hours (not to mention all the $$$ to be there) it's a little harder to walk away. It wasn't announced until that evening that there would be a preview the next morning so we didn't know we'd get in the next day either. BTW the preview on Saturday for hotel guests was announced as 6am-9am. I got there I think about 6:30 am and stood in another line until I think it was about 7:15, when they let us in. Asked an employee when they'd let us in and she said "when they are ready". Seriously? Preview hours should have been "when they are ready".

We loved WWofHP, DS managed to score some butterbeer in the pub before too many others figured that out, the long line was at the cart outside, rode FJ and the Hippogriff ride (not interested in the Dragon Challenge), saw the frog choir and part of the TriWizard show, tried to shop but the lines were just too long and the stores too congested - so only things I bought was the butterbeer, some chocolate frogs, and our ride pic. We were all so excited when we finally got in and throughly enjoyed it. It was the getting there that was difficult.

 

[ntikos]

I don't blame Universal. I blame God. How dare he make it so hot during HP opening week?

It was really hot today and I had to cut my daily jog short - again God's fault. Because of this I had to buy an extra bottle of water and was forced to embarrass myself by walking into the store all sweaty. I'm a bit traumatized. I think I'm going to sue God.

 

[Purseval]

This is what confuses me most, as quoted in another similar article; "Smith said she did file a formal complaint with Universal officials, but wants to stress that the actual care she received was excellent." And in the article I posted; "upset that Universal doesn't seem to care about guest safety." WHAT??

A couple of years ago my wife and I were walking towards The Simpsons ride when she tripped over a piece of pavement that was sticking up. She fell pretty hard, banged her knees and elbow bloody.

We went to the ride and told the attendant, who notified first aid. The first aid guy showed up very fast so I went back and took pictures of the pavement where she fell while first aid attended to her. After she was bandaged up we went to Guest Relations where I showed them the pictures and my wife's injuries. They offered us a couple of express passes or something like that.

Evey time we go back we look at that section of sidewalk, which is exactly the same as it was when she fell. So we can also make the same two statements. The actual care they gave her was excellent and they don't seem to care about guest safety. They would rather hand out some express passes every now and then than fix the sidewalk.

Hope that clears up some of your confusion. We still go there, obviously, but we can see the truth in her statements. I don't think she has as good of an argument as my wife does tho.

 

[Sack66]

A couple of years ago my wife and I were walking towards The Simpsons ride when she tripped over a piece of pavement that was sticking up. She fell pretty hard, banged her knees and elbow bloody.

We went to the ride and told the attendant, who notified first aid. The first aid guy showed up very fast so I went back and took pictures of the pavement where she fell while first aid attended to her. After she was bandaged up we went to Guest Relations where I showed them the pictures and my wife's injuries. They offered us a couple of express passes or something like that.

Evey time we go back we look at that section of sidewalk, which is exactly the same as it was when she fell. So we can also make the same two statements. The actual care they gave her was excellent and they don't seem to care about guest safety. They would rather hand out some express passes every now and then than fix the sidewalk.

Hope that clears up some of your confusion. We still go there, obviously, but we can see the truth in her statements. I don't think she has as good of an argument as my wife does tho.

I think this is comparing apples to wrenches ~ your wife tripped on pavement that is directly related to the upkeep of the park - US/IOA responsibility. Woman suffered heat stroke/exhaustion due to unusually hot/humid weather - not the responsibility of US/IOA.

I hope your wife has recovered and its a shame that it still hasn't been fixed. They are lucky that you are gracious people and haven't pointed out that pavement each and every time you visit.

However, if you go to the beach (public place - you are there at your own risk) and you sustain sunburns and heat exhaustion ~ who's to blame if you weren't prepared???

It amazes me how many people are in search of someone to blame their ignorance on...

Sack

 

[phamton]

It would have been a very good idea to open up the concession stands early on opening day. But the part that confuses me is that the line passes by at least 4 or 5 restrooms (maybe more depending on where you are in line). The line continues to move and so you pass a restroom about every 20-30 minutes. Each restroom has 2 water fountains outside of them. When I was waiting in line, I stopped at the restroom, got a drink, and a wet paper towel. (My face doesn't sweat so I am really prone to heat exhaustion.) My husband waited in line and I never had any problem rejoining him because the people in line around me knew that I wasn't butting in line as they saw me leave and come back. Many people around me also did the same thing and absolutely no one seemed to have a problem with that. Several people even took smoke breaks when they passed the smoking areas. A few even ran through the splash area (where the water squirts from the pavement just before you enter Jurassic Park area.)

 

[Purseval]

I think this is comparing apples to wrenches ~ your wife tripped on pavement that is directly related to the upkeep of the park - US/IOA responsibility. Woman suffered heat stroke/exhaustion due to unusually hot/humid weather - not the responsibility of US/IOA.
Sack

Au contraire, you are the one comparing apples to wrenches. All I was doing was clearing up the poster's confusion as to how one could say they received excellent care and yet felt nobody cared. You may not feel the the same about the legitimacy of both scenarios but that doesn't matter in this case. All I was doing was explaining how someone could make such a statement and still have it make sense. I'm not defending the heat stroke lady just explaining her rationale.

 

[Skuba2]

I just crack up at people like this. You want to just shake them and say HELLLLLLOOOOOO!!!

She made bad choices and when she knew something was happening she continued to make bad choices. You can't fix stupid as I think Ron White says. The park is not suppose to provide for lack of planning, lack of common sense and lack of just any brains at all. Can you imagine at the gate? "Now honey---did you remember your sunscreen, your water, your camera, your batteries, your brains, your patience....have a nice day." Brings a whole new meaning to the request "I need to check your bag." That isn't for your provisions.

The fact USO gave her anything is ridiculous and very generous of them. They owed her nothing. If she is an annual park passholder or whatever they call it, then she for sure should have known the situation. I live in CT and I knew what the heck it was going to be like. Hot, crowded, hot, miserable, hot, tiring....oh yeah HOT! Duh.

DG

 

[Metro West]

This may be off subject but...I don't remember seeing any other articles like this online unless I missed something...which is entirely possible. If there were such bad wide spread problems why aren't there more articles like this?

 

[truck1]

While I'm surprised that it is news, I do think that if the lines are consistently running to several hours in length, USIOA should be setting up quite a few umbrellas along the line path; every 20 feet or so, and probably portable mister fans, too. Keeping thousands of people out in the sun for hours with no shade while waiting in an attraction line isn't good guest relations on their parts.

.

Ok, I was there in that seven hour line on opening day. Universal was totally unprepared for the number of people that showed up.

Stayed at HRH, got in line for onsite guests about 7:30 am that morning. Huge line of GP down in past the HR Cafe already. We had no idea that it would take 7 hours to get to WWHP and no one was advising guests of that either. There were many, many, unhappy campers in line. As we moved through the park we stood for quite some time in an area by some docks at the end of Toon Lagoon, where the line snaked back and forth closely together. There were several large fans but they weren't on. There was ONE vendor selling powerade only for cash only - so if you didn't have cash, you were out of luck. Another person in line called Universal on the phone asking they turn on the fans and about 15 minutes later a maintenance looking guy showed up and was able to get about 2-3 of the several fans running - we are thinking it's an area that isn't used much and apparently the rest were out of order. The reason the guest called on the phone is because there were zero Universal employees in sight and that went on for the first about half of our wait. We had gotten to the river barge ride area when I saw the first Universal employee watching the line. I pointed out to him where I was waiting as I had to leave the line to take my daughter to the bathroom. I started looking for drinks and food as it was now about 10:30 am (3 hours in line) and there was absolutely nothing open in the area except one more powerade tub for cash only. Asked the Universal employee and they were clueless, telling me to check places I'd already checked and didn't open until 11 am. Nothing else opened until 11 am, it was wicked hot and the powerades we'd bought with cash were long gone. Left my DH and son in line and got drinks and sandwiches at the Blondies place, stood in a line outside for it to open at 11 am, which took forever, things were not moving quickly and I was about 4th in line, a huge line formed behind us as soon as others realized it was open. Everywhere you tried to get something was a huge line. I can well believe someone passing out. Never saw anyone giving out anything from Universal. It had gotten to the point where we knew our line neighbors, and everyone was cool with letting people take turns getting out of line, going into shops to cool off, I took the lunch and drinks back to the line for my family.

It was horribly, horribly unorganized and there were many complaints. The only real crowd control from Universal was as we approached the Jurassic Park bridge over to The Lost Continent where an employee was announcing that he wanted to know about any line jumpers and they would be removed. Crossed my mind that Target does a better job with Black Friday. Should have had those kind of employees all along the line as there were cutters. After that "checkpoint" only those that passed his test were allowed across and 6 hours after we started we got into the FJ line.



Please don't blame the guest - you had to have been there to really understand the problems and "walk in her shoes". Nothing given out free - I was in that line for seven hours AND I NEVER SAW THAT!; no place to buy drinks but the cash only powerade until 11 am, huge lines for everything that opened at 11 am and it was inhumanely hot out there. We had drinks with us, had sunscreened up etc but none of us expected the line to be that long and apparently Universal didn't either. As someone in line said "they advertise this like crazy and then expect people won't show up?"

Universal learned some lessons from the first day - next day I saw many vendors open about 7:30 am when I went back for the onsite guest preview. By Saturday night at about 8:30 pm we walked right into WWHP but the lines for everything except the Dragon Challenge and Flight of the Hippogriff were still insanely long. FJ was 120 minutes that night.

My first hand review . . . I was surprised that I didn't see more people with heat related problems. I did reach into the tubs and took ice to cool off with - and they didn't stop me LOL - if that counts as handing out ice.

BTW, when we left IOA on Friday it was late afternoon and there was a line up to the beginning of Seuss Landing so longer than we started in Marvel Island that morning. Park closed at 10 pm and if it went as slow as ours there was no way those guests were going to get in before park closing. If I can figure that out, so could Universal and yet there those people stood. Sure enough next day news is talking about guests that waited 10 hours and still didn't get in . . . it's not rocket science! Universal could have cut the line off somewhere and let people know they weren't going to make it, before they invested all that time.

About 5 hours in, we were in the Jurassic Park area by then, a Universal vendor came by with one of those soft side cooler things selling bottles of water for I believe it was $2.75, not giving away. Line mate in front of us said yay, and handed the guy a $10 bill. Vendor guy says I'm really sorry but I can't change that. Now that's when I say "Seriously?" Who was in charge of this stuff?

Not blaming Universal directly for the heat stroke thing, what I'm saying is that they were entirely unprepared for the response to the opening day of Harry Potter and handled it very poorly - and for that I can see why someone could suffer heat stroke. They certainly didn't make it easy on us. Luckily for my line mate, others in line were able to make change for him.

Again, no one knew how long we would wait. The first 3 hours we thought we'd get moving after the opening ceremony was over. There was never info given - and after you've invested that first 3 hours (not to mention all the $$$ to be there) it's a little harder to walk away. It wasn't announced until that evening that there would be a preview the next morning so we didn't know we'd get in the next day either. BTW the preview on Saturday for hotel guests was announced as 6am-9am. I got there I think about 6:30 am and stood in another line until I think it was about 7:15, when they let us in. Asked an employee when they'd let us in and she said "when they are ready". Seriously? Preview hours should have been "when they are ready".

.

I think the above have hit the nail on the head about the incident.
I usually dontpost on situations like this.
First, the reason its newsworthy is that the park was swarming with newspeople, that are worse then sharks and blood in the water.
Second, Usnivesal was totally unprepared for what happened. They have a history of doing so.If your not sure about how well they prepare, just ask anyone who was around when US first opened.They lost a lot of money that year do to the free passed they handed out when you bought a 1 day pass.Absolutely nothing worked right and the waits were horrenedous then also.Then rebuilt at leat 1 ride from the ground up.It was that bad.
US management hasnt learned a thing.

2nd,this is a shared blame. First US knew about the heat expected that day.It wasnt a surprise.They have been talking about it for a few days prior to WWOHP opening.They also expected a lot of people. US shold have and could have better prepared with misting fans, extra tms, more accesible break areas,and someway to control the lines they knew was coming.
And above all, someone who knew what was going on and could make a decision, to rectify a situation as it happened.Not the next day.The fact that the lines snaked all over the place, with no one to say the end of the line is here, or this is what to expect didnt help matters.IMHO US is lucky that no one died that day in the park.

The woman also shares the blame for the same reason, in that the heat wasnt a surprise that day.

For those of us who were there at varying times, know exactly how bad things got.I walked over at 330 on GO day after a rain storm, and the line was still 6 hours long, and there was no sign to tell anyone where to go to see WWHOP.All of the park signs pointed towards SL, but the line ran the other way.The line at that point, was at the entrance tunnel, snaking past the Hulk, Spiderman etc.I know because I actually walked to SL where there was a small army of tms telling everyone that the walkway was closed.Even if you wanted to go to the LC you couldnt get there.Then I walked the other way where I saw the line, and asked someone in line what they were waiting for.Thats how I found out where the line was.More out of curiousity, I walked the line a bit, and 90% of theline from the tunnel to Spiderman was in the sun with no shade.I saw 1 tm standing near the line,and she had her back to the line and looked annoyed.Not sure what her function was.I personally didnt wait in the line, as all I live locally, and all I wanted was either something that said GO on it, or better yet a wand for my sons bday this month.Ill go back when the lines calm down.

Have things gotten better since the GO? In some cases yes. Things are a little better marked.The perm park signs still point you to SL even though the line runs the other way around the lake.How hard is it to cover a sign?
Are there more vendors.Yes, but they have limited amounts usually, and occcaionally have no change.Are there more fans,and better prepared for the lines?Yes.Not as much as they should be.It seems to be hit or miss with things.

Could they still improve.Defintiely.

 

[Planogirl]

I guess that my logic is that no one forced the lady to wait in this line. She could have contacted Guest Services and asked for her money back when she saw how bad it was. I put most of the responsibility on her for that reason because ultimately we have to take care of ourselves and shouldn't wait around for others to do so.

In retrospect, I do place a little of the blame on Universal too because they should have been better organized. They should have been handing out buckets of water to help people stay hydrated. I can well imagine that the length of these lines caught them by surprise though.

I'm glad that apparently very few people had this problem.

 

[ntikos]

as a "bottom-line" kinda guy, if this is the worst thing that happend during HP Grand Opening considering the huge number of people with the heat and the long waits, I would have to say that Uni handled the week very well.