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View Full Version : Safety issues and complaints on the spot



DisneyDustin22
09-18-2003, 10:37 PM
this is just to get others thoughts on if they have ever...

Has anyone ever experienced a safety hazard on a disney ride and complained about it then and there? If so, what measures were taken at the moment and how were you (the guest) treated?

I only bring this up because I was on space mountain once when we returned to the station and the person sitting in front of me had something happen with their safety restraint during the ride, after voicing the issue with a CM while exiting the ride, immediately CM's closed that particular seat and I suspect that the next time the car came back to the load station it was moved off the track.

Personally, I have never had a problem myself on a disney ride, however, this past summer on my annual trip up to Magic Mountain, while on the Riddler, I had my usual seat in the back row with my buds. When to my surprise we pulled back into the station after the ride, only to find my seatbelt dangling at my legs. When I voiced a complaint to a cm on the ride, they accused me of undoing it during the ride. I then proceeded to the guest relation office at the entrance, only to be told, in a rude manner, that nothing could be done and that i should have taken my problem to the operators at the ride. Nevertheless, even though safety restraints are much stronger on the bigger thrill rides, you can tell who really cares about guest safety.

BJW
09-19-2003, 02:36 AM
I had a problem on a coaster at the Disneyland Resort a couple months ago involving one of the trains. (I can't go into details here as it involved me getting injured.) I told guest relations cast members immediately. While they told me the same things Magic Mountain told you about Riddler that I should have told the ride operators first, the train was removed and inspected immediately after the cast members phoned a ride mechanic and explained to him the situation. I think this shows that Disney, while slightly falling in the upkeep/maintenance category, is still the leader in terms of guest safety. They took my word for it and made sure the train was inspected before letting anyone else ride. If only Magic Mountain's employees were as responsible.

mrscoach
09-19-2003, 07:34 AM
No injuries, but remember the Rocket Rods? Man, I loved those. Anyway, we were riding them repeatedly one day, and on two different occasions, our car (different one each time, I think) would stop. Now, these rides are timed, I know, so that one car doesn't catch up with the one in front of it, and if I remember correctly, there's at least one or two spots where it would routinely stop. Kinda like California Screamin'. But the first time, it stopped on the bridge that went out over Tomorrowland (not at the light where you "take off"), and we sat there for about 3 minutes. No big deal, we just watched all the people. The second time, though, we were stopped in the tunnel, and we were sitting there for at least 10 minutes. That freaked me out. I kept thinking, "man, I hope another car doesn't slam into us." And then I would think, "Nah, this is Disneyland! It'll never happen!" Just as we were seriously considering getting out of our seats and walking back on the walkway to our right, we got moving again and finished our ride. When we got back, we asked the CM "what was up with that?" And I can't for the life of me remember what she said, but I think it was something to do with e-brakes, etc. The ride was closed later that day, and as far as I know, it never re-opened after that. Too bad - I loved that ride.
I should make it clear, though, that nothing "broke" or fell off, or came undone at any time. We just sat in the dark for a really long time.:)

efoxx
09-20-2003, 01:08 PM
not a safety issue, but a look at how things have changed.

back about 1983 my (then) girlfriend and I took an early ride on POC. we noticed that the pirate holding the bone in the jail scene was missing his hand. then I spotted his hand on the ground near the water. when we exited I told the CM who imediatly called someone. the short of it was the shut down the ride to fix it, and gave us and everybody else still waiting a backdoor pass to ride it later in the day. about an hour later it reopened.

on the other coast at WDW we have ocassionally had some ride problems, and I found the people there bending over backwards to help. even in minor complaints. compare that to the last trip we had in june to DL and I find it very disapointing.

MuckaMowie
09-20-2003, 01:30 PM
. . .and they STILL don't do it!!! Last year I took my 2-year old nephew on Go Go Gadget Coaster. I'm not very big, and we fit well in the seat together, naturally he was a lot "looser" sitting in the seat than I was. It was his first time on the coaster and he was excited to be riding. WELL. . . after the coaster took off, I could hardly keep him in the seat he was screaming and squirming so much to get out during the ride. When we got back to the station, we said something to the cm about the dangerous situation, and they said they that they used to put those "bolsters" in when the small kids rode but it was no longer done and they would "talk" to their managers about it. One month later, we wrote a complaint at City Hall because there was still nothing being done. Today, they still don't use the bolsters!:mad:

CoasterMatt
09-20-2003, 06:10 PM
Originally posted by mrscoach
I should make it clear, though, that nothing "broke" or fell off, or came undone at any time. We just sat in the dark for a really long time.:)

So what's the point? The ride's control and safety systems all worked as designed...

mrscoach
09-21-2003, 11:22 AM
Originally posted by CoasterMatt
So what's the point? The ride's control and safety systems all worked as designed...

The point to my post was that we were stuck sitting in a car in a pitch black tunnel, where we knew we weren't supposed to be stopped, for 10 minutes, and it freaked us out. Unlike the Haunted Mansion, all the cars aren't on the same moving conveyor belt, so when one stops they don't necessarily all stop. And I'm assuming that since they stopped our car, it was because something else wasn't working properly, therefore posing a safety concern. Again, they closed the ride down for the rest of our stay at Disneyland, which was 2 more days, and to my knowledge it's never been opened again.
Also, I spoke with the CM as we exited our ride, which qualifies my post in this thread under the "complaints on the spot" title. The resolution to my complaint was that the ride was closed.
Does that work for ya? ;)

CoasterMatt
09-21-2003, 03:46 PM
No worries, perhaps I should have used a smilie in there

innerSpaceman
09-21-2003, 06:24 PM
And really - while I'm not gonna stop riding Disney rides for safety reasons - - are any of us ever going to be able to be stopped for a while on a fast-moving ride without wondering if another vehicle is going to come crashing into us.

I'd say the thought is going to cross most of our minds in that situation that if it happened before, it can happen again.

CoasterMatt
09-21-2003, 06:42 PM
Originally posted by innerSpaceman
any of us ever going to be able to be stopped for a while on a fast-moving ride without wondering if another vehicle is going to come crashing into us.


The twelve or so times I was stopped on Space Mountain, I was HOPING for it...

Bruce Bergman
09-21-2003, 11:09 PM
Originally posted by mrscoach
The point to my post was that we were stuck sitting in a car in a pitch black tunnel, where we knew we weren't supposed to be stopped, for 10 minutes, and it freaked us out. Unlike the Haunted Mansion, all the cars aren't on the same moving conveyor belt, so when one stops they don't necessarily all stop. <snip>

On Rocket Rods, as on all modern coasters and ride systems, they were designed with multiple redundant safety systems so all the cars do all stop when they need to. But they were only obvious if you knew what to look for... :geek:

Each car had an onboard computer that was in constant communications with the Master Control Computers (plural) both through radio data links and a comm line in the track. Each car knew exactly where it was on the track down to a few feet, and where the other cars were, and they spaced themselves out.

And each car had stand-alone air brakes, which were probably also failsafed so a loss of power applied the brakes from air in a storage reservoir.

As a last-gasp safety measure, the master computers could cut the track power to the cars.

Ever notice the cars starting up at a very slow speed, with warning chimes and blue strobe lights? That was how they would cycle the cars back in to unload the passengers and take the bad car off the track if there was a major fault in the safety systems.

The Rocket Rods cars were perfectly safe, it was big problems brewing with the center guide track and the reinforced concrete track structure and support pylons (recycled from the Peoplemover) that got them shut down and removed.

:fez: --<< Bruce >>--

Haldwitten
09-22-2003, 02:16 AM
Originally posted by mrscoach
Just as we were seriously considering getting out of our seats and walking back on the walkway to our right, we got moving again and finished our ride.

Oh dear... I have to point out that Guests should NEVER get out of their carts, buggies, logs, or boats, if the attraction stops for any amount of time. If the CM's want you out of the cart, they will come get you and escort you out personally. NEVER take it on your own to get out. This isn't like getting out of your car to check the tires or see what's "going on." If the Rods had started back up (in this instance) you could quite possibly have been killed by the next Rod coming along (as you said the attraction started up again).

As long as you are in your car, you are safe. Now I'm sure someone will post "but what if... blah blah blah." Sure there are some freak occurances that can always be mentioned to counter this point. But that doesn't mean you should get out "just in case that giant flaming meteor is about to crash into the Earth."

Last word... stay put... always... until you're told to exit. No one will forget about you and go home, leaving you in the dark until the next day when the ride is open. Everyone knows the ride has stopped and if it's taking a while, then that means:

1. They're working to correct the problem.
2. They're evacuating the ride and have not gotten to you yet.

It's that simple. I only stress this point because each and everytime we have a Guest get out of their cart (or whatever), you're going to have security called and CM's dropping their Disney manner to ask "What the h#ll were you thinking?" Safety IS the number one priority... and we are always having to protect Guests from themselves.

Off the soapbox. Whew.

hbquikcomjamesl
09-22-2003, 09:46 AM
I was on either BodyWars or the WDW Star Tours, and had a worn seat belt retractor that kept slipping. I made sure that I mentioned it to a CM.

mrscoach
09-22-2003, 12:31 PM
Originally posted by Haldwitten
But that doesn't mean you should get out "just in case that giant flaming meteor is about to crash into the Earth."

Last word... stay put... always... until you're told to exit. No one will forget about you and go home, leaving you in the dark until the next day when the ride is open. Everyone knows the ride has stopped and if it's taking a while, then that means:

1. They're working to correct the problem.
2. They're evacuating the ride and have not gotten to you yet.

It's that simple. I only stress this point because each and everytime we have a Guest get out of their cart (or whatever), you're going to have security called and CM's dropping their Disney manner to ask "What the h#ll were you thinking?" Safety IS the number one priority... and we are always having to protect Guests from themselves.

Off the soapbox. Whew.

Oh, don't get me wrong - by saying "seriously considering," - for me that means, "thinking about it for several minutes." We'd have had to be there for like, 1/2 an hour with no CM announcement before I did anything, and what I would've done would be to start saying "hello? What's up? Can someone let me know what's going on?" It would take something grave and dangerous for me to exit the car. Like a CM telling me to get out of the car. I should've worded that differently. I really have to emphasize that it was in that one corner tunnel, where you can't see anything at all. we couldn't even see the exit to the tunnel in front of us because we got stopped right on the bend of the corner. So it was just very,very unnerving. And I do know, now, that there were not cars speeding towards me from behind, but at that moment, years ago, in that dark tunnnel, there were a few times I wasn't sure. You know? So again, I would never really get out of my car as a result of it just stopping. God forbid it should start moving again when I stood up - even though they start slowly most of the time, I'm one of those people who falls down all the time. :)
And for all the good folks who've been stopped while riding Space Mountain, I'm sure you're enjoying a good laugh at my being such a chicken, but just so ya know, Space Mountain scares the bejeezus out of me. You can't see where you're going on that thing, man!:)

letitride
09-23-2003, 10:01 PM
If you have a valid safety concern you can contact the State of CA DOSH Amusement Ride Office (714) 456-1872 Tell them you want to file a complaint YOU CAN REMAIN ANONYMOUS! They will investigate! For more info you can go here.
www.dir.ca.gov/dosh/complaint.htm