Space Mountain

[bumblebeeonarose]

There was a thread a while back about going left on Space Mountain. I searched, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I wanted to share this experience I had on Space Mountain last week.

We didn't go left, however, our rocket stopped on the first lift hill. We sat for a few minutes surrounded by the blaring lights and sound. I saw two rockets get sent to the left as we were obviously in their way. At that point they must have stopped loading them, because no more rockets followed. Finally, they stopped everything and turned on the lights. Two CM came up the stairs to the right of the lift, then realized they needed to be on the left. Someone asked if we were going to be evacuated. The CM said something about we'd be able to go as soon as the problem was fixed. I thought that was strange as I was expecting to have to evacuate the ride.

The first CM went up and undid the latches on the first car. I'm pretty sure he intended to remove everyone. But, then, a new CM came up and told him he was only supposed to do 2 people at a time, that it was policy. So the CM told this man they were going to remove him and his daughter from the second row, and he put back down the bars of the other rows in the rocket. The man caught on before the rest of us did. The CMs intended only to remove them and then send on the rocket. The man's other two children were infront of him. He demanded that they be removed too as he was not going to let them go alone (obviously). The CM mumbled something about policy, but did help the other two children out. The family walked down the stairs with the CM.

Apparently they thought he had stood during the ride. The man said he was 6' 5"; he was also very large and said it would have been impossible to stand as he really had no room. The people behind him were sure he had not stood. Regardless they were removed. The lights went back off and we were sent on our way to outerspace. When we arrived back at the loading platform, there were several rockets infront of us waiting to be unloaded. Apparently we had been sent on, but the ride had not yet reset itself, so no one had been unloaded. It took about another minute or two, and then the CMs announced it was back up. The people in the queue aplauded.

It was a very odd experience to say the least. One last thing worth noting: When I used my FP for Space, DH and DD were in line for Peter Pan. Even with the hold up, I was able to get back to Fantasyland to join them and still had to wait an additional 20 minutes for PP.

[TTFN92]

That's crazy! That's too bad that they were removed when he hadn't done anything wrong. What do you mean about going left?

[iceman559]

I suspect that rocket was overweight and the man was removed as it would have removed the most weight from the rocket for the least amount of people. I had this happen once (I'm a large guy). My family and I had loaded into a rocket, and it moved forward to the spot right before the switch where the CM checks all the restraints are locked. At that point, the guy asked how many people were in my row. I thought he was just making a joke so I laughed and didn't respond. First I had no idea why he'd care how large our party was, but also the fact that he said "row" (my sister confirmed I heard him right), I just thought he was trying to be funny or something. When I didn't respond, he quickly got agitated and asked again. I slowly replied "two", as that was how many were in my row, and he released our restraints and asked us to get out. When I told him that my parents were in the row infront of my sister and I, he got pissed off and was like "that's why I asked if you were with someone". Well, I fired back "no, you asked how many were in our row, that's why I thought you were joking". This seemed to piss him off more, but I didn't care at that point. After that, he practically yelled for my sister and I to sit back down, and had the father and son in the row behind us get out. They quickly jumped up and out, the CM lowered their restraints and our rocket quickly dispatched around the corner and up the first lift hill. Obviously, I didn't even have the CHANCE to do anything wrong. Since they asked me to get out first, and then ended up pulling someone else out, the only logical conclusion I can come to is that the rocket was overweight.

My guess is that the same thing happened in this instance, but it wasn't until a weight sensor tripped that the ride shut down. If they were loading super fast, I could understand them needing to send the rockets ahead quickly and the CM maybe missed the overweight warning/indication (whatever it is). When it's busy, that ride can easily get backed up fast. I think it's something like 20 seconds between dispatches at maximum capacity. I've always thought it was pretty fast for everything that CM before the first lift hill has to do.

[bumblebeeonarose]

The CM said that on the video it looked like the man stood up. I don't think it was a weight issue as he was with 3 small children, I was alone in my row (rider swap) and the other 4 guests were on the leaner side. The man was NOT happy. He was yelling at the CM and saying this was the dumbest thing Disney had done. Unfortunately, the other guests seemed to think the same thing. I personally thought they were being safe. I'm pretty sure they saw something on the video that alerted them. He probably didn't stand. I hope they apologized to him, but I'm glad they were trying to be safe.

That's crazy! That's too bad that they were removed when he hadn't done anything wrong. What do you mean about going left?

The previous thread I couldn't find talked about going to the left. When you ride Space Mountain you stop infront of a control tower. I guess they're weighing the train. Then you go right and go up a lift hill. We were stuck on the lift hill. Sometimes trains get sent to the left instead of going to the hill on the right. There is an area there for evacuating guests from the rockets. Perhaps someone can find the other thread. I think there were some pictures of guests back there. There was also a link to a really old thread with a bunch of information about going to the left.

[Drince88]

If anyone has gone to the left lately - did they have a step ladder for you?

When my sister and I did (a few years back) because of an overweight ride vehicle ahead of us, they didn't have one, but mentioned that they usually did. I was wearing a skirt that day (casual above the knee denim-like skirt) and was REALLY glad there wasn't anyone standing in one direction, because trying to get out of that thing without a step ladder --- I did more than flash the wall! I don't think you could have safely gotten an average 10 year old out of the sled safely (too big for Mom or Dad to lift out, too awkward of an angle/big of a drop for them to get themselves out without potential for an issue). Maybe if I was shorter I could have just gotten up onto the edge of the vehicle and swung my legs around and then just jumped down - but there wasn't room for me to manuever that much in the vehicle (so maybe a more nimble 10 year old could have done that).

[TTFN92]

I was wondering if that's what you meant. We had to go left once. I already posted the details in the another thread but I was not happy about it. I don't remember having a problem getting out though. It was 6 years ago though and I was thinking more about being mad.

[AnotherJenny]

We were sent to the tunnel on the left probably 7-8 years ago. (At least I think it was that long ago, I seem to remember it being just before or during the 50th year.) After the ride we were passed through the loading area, we thought we might get to go again, since that's happened before too, but instead we went left. We still thought it was pretty cool, sort of a "behind the scenes" experience you don't get very often. I think the safety restraints didn't release. There was a small set of portable stairs they moved to each row when people were removed from the rockets. We were in the back row, and the CM who was unloading did not release our restraints, or move the stairs and left us in the tunnel. It was probably only about 2-3 minutes before someone came back and asked what we were going there (trapped in a rocket!) but it sure seems like a long time when you're tied down and abandoned in a tunnel. I had to ask for the stairs to be moved over, because there was just no way I was going to jump down out of that rocket.

[iceman559]

The CM said that on the video it looked like the man stood up. I don't think it was a weight issue as he was with 3 small children, I was alone in my row (rider swap) and the other 4 guests were on the leaner side. The man was NOT happy. He was yelling at the CM and saying this was the dumbest thing Disney had done. Unfortunately, the other guests seemed to think the same thing. I personally thought they were being safe. I'm pretty sure they saw something on the video that alerted them. He probably didn't stand. I hope they apologized to him, but I'm glad they were trying to be safe.

Well I'd expect that they wouldn't say "Sir, we need to get you off this train because you're too heavy and are overloading the rocket". That'd be kind of rude/embarassing, you know? Unfortunately this is one case where the other people in the train tried to stick up for the guy. But which would you rather someone say? That they thought they saw you stand up or that the rocket is overweight and since you're the biggest they're taking you off? I mean, just because they say they saw him stand up doesn't mean that was the reason. It just may be that they didn't want to tell him the actual reason. It seems to me that they were trying to cover up the real reason since you said they also originally acted like they were going to get everyone out and then decided only he needed to be taken out. If it was really that he had stood up, why would they act like they were going to unload the entire rocket first? To me, that makes it sound more like a weight issue or a mechanical issue with the rocket. Since they couldn't send the rocket around with anyone in it if it were a mechanical issue, I'd assume it was indeed a weight issue. Also, I lean that way since you said he was a large, tall guy. It'd make sense if something's overweight to remove the heaviest object first to attempt to get it under the weight limit, you know?

In my experience, the CM never said why. He just said he had to remove two people. When asked why, he didn't respond, but we all know it was just because it was overweight. It was pretty obvious.

[carolinakid]

Frankly, I'd rather be told the weight in the rocket needs to be readjusted rather than be accused of something I didn't do, but that's just me!

[bumblebeeonarose]

It could be that the rocket was overweight, but it just seems unlikely since he was the only 'large' person in the whole rocket. The rockets are designed to carry thousands of pounds. Plus, they really ticked him off by accusing him of standing up and saying they had it on video. It seemed to me that the first CMs were unsure what to do. As I mentioned, they told us that we would get to go as soon as the problem was solved. They never said they were evacuating all of us; I just assumed they would because I first thought the ride was broken down (happens a lot with Space). The whole experience was weird. I just wanted to share it because it reminded me of the previous thread, and I thought it was unusual.

[wabby1]

I know I'm in the minority, but I don't like Space Mountain. A roller coaster ride in the dark doesn't appeal to me....but that's okay. I know people love it, especially my kids. The other reason is that in 2008, I had my leg amputated below the knee....I now wear a prosthetic leg, and on our last visit, I was able to barely fit in the seat because my prosthetic doesn't bend....and by the end of the attraction, I literally was stuck. Nothing more embarrassing than being the last one off, and not being able to move! The CM had to help me. They were very patient and courteous....