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View Full Version : Standing up in Splash Mountain



justagrrl
05-31-2002, 08:04 AM
Yesterday, my son and I went to Dland just to ride Splash Mountain. He's never been on it before (wasn't tall enough) and wasn't sure if he'd be brave enough. Turns out he was more then enthusiastic about it!

Anyway, we got our fast passes (stand by wait said 35 minutes but I think it was more like an hour by the looks of it.) and took a quick trip to HM and watched people coming down Splash Mountain for awhile. When it was time for our fast passes, we went right on through and barely a 2 minute wait before getting in a log.

My ds got the front seat and we were off! A ways through the ride, the log in front of us seems to be slowing down...why it's four kids - probably about 13 or so in the log in front us holding on to the sides and nearly stopping. Further down the ride they begin splashing each other and then just like you read about - one of them actually stands up in his seat and turns around to splash the guy in back of him.

This continued throughout the ride (the horsing around) - at one point there was 4 or 5 in a line which they seemed to think was pretty cool judging by the way they turned around and grinned.

I meant to say something to someone as we left, being the Mommy tattle-tale that I am, but my ds decided to try and exit the log from the side we came in on and delayed things...and by then it seemed too late as they were gone.

I was just so surprised to see someone do something so stupid as stand up (you "read about it" but never really expect to see someone do it)...it wasn't on a drop or anything but what if he'd lost his balance because the log hit the side of the flume or something? ....overboooooooard....

Maybe they should install more cameras or something ? I wonder if that will be on of the changes they implement when they close the attraction again after summer? If not - they should consider it or it seems like it's only a matter of time until there's another accident. (or am I just being a pessimist?)

socabch
05-31-2002, 08:25 AM
No, you're not being a pessimist. History has shown us what to expect when people check their common sense at the gate. Because of stupid stunts like this the lawyers will say "see I told you that you needed over the head restaints".

Maximus
05-31-2002, 10:46 AM
I have also seen stupid behavior like this on Splash. I do know that there are cameras on the ride and that it's constantly monitored. One time I remember the PA system came on and told the kids to sit down and stop splashing. That seemed to stop them...for the moment. I'm sure one of these times an idiotic person will seriously get hurt and ruin it for everyone.

P.S. I think tattle telling is cool anyway, never fear!

tinkfreak
05-31-2002, 11:27 AM
I worked in the photo location for about a year. I've seen everything from flesh to wildly innappropriate hand gestures during my shift in the edit room. There, you watch the photos come down and can prevent them from being seen by other guests. It used to be that we even had time to call security and a manager and bust the more extreme cases, sometimes even resulting in ejection form the park.

I will never forget the girl that was completly in an upright standing position in the photo (which is of C-drop). It made me sick just to look at it and I was almost afraid to look at the moniters for fear that she fell out and was killed. Luckily, I calmed down enough to react properly and she got in BIG trouble. Although, I think her actions scared her more than my manager and security did.

My only other stander was a young man who dropped his pants, turned completly around, and grabbed onto the neck of his friend behind him (so he was kinda bent over). He cried when security cornered him.
:D

Disneylandman
05-31-2002, 01:02 PM
If no one came on the pa and told those kids to sit down... someone wasn't doing their job right.. There are cameras all over the ride, in fact I think you can watch a log from start to finish on the monitors.

RStar
06-10-2002, 09:55 AM
And that alone would have been a good enough reason to say something even if the guests had left, just to let the CMs know that someone on the moniters is snoozing or something.

Mad Madam Mim
06-10-2002, 10:09 AM
I think if someone was doinging something potentialy life threating then yes... soemthing should be said.

thamnarestan
06-10-2002, 10:40 AM
What the guests were doing really wasn't that unsafe. Only when guests stand on a lift or a drop is there a significant safety risk. Cast members take the fact that yelling at guests over the PA detracts from other guests' enjoyment of the show into account when deciding whether to respond to guests' inappropriate behavior on the ride, so often we do not say anything (unless the horseplay begins to really get out of hand).

RStar
06-10-2002, 12:31 PM
That's true, it is a bit wierd to be singing zippity do dah, and then have " please stop splashing and sit down!" over the PA. Do they often have security at the exit have a little chat with someone after they get off the ride? So could these kids have been taken care of after they left the loading dock so justagrrl didn't see it? and do they have seat belts on the ride now? did this person who stood up unbuckle?:(

justagrrl
06-10-2002, 01:00 PM
I can say that nothing was done as we did see them after exiting the ride only a short distance away.

And I think that what they were doing in the log in front of us was a MUCH bigger distraction then someone telling them to sit down and behave. You have to understand that this went on and on and on...and they were just eating up the attention of the people glaring at them in the boats behind...looking back at us and just grinning away and then getting up and splashing some more...

eh...in my opinion someone should have said something to them... if they got away with that then, what did they do on the next ride? I guess I can just see things getting worse pretty fast. But then my friends refer to me as "The Safety Monitor" so maybe I'm a bit anal about these sorts of things.

heidiwhr
06-10-2002, 01:44 PM
While riding Splash last week, one of the riders in the log in front of us stood up just before the first significant drop. He wasn't even all the way to his feet before the PA came on and a VERY stern voice simply said "SIT DOWN!". I was rather impressed!

Ace
06-10-2002, 02:52 PM
If there's an accident on Splash now, I bet they're gonna change the ride format: you sit in a chair and watch a FPV film of the ride. Or maybe, the lawyers will insist upon 8-point restraints... or possibly, they'll take out all of the seats, and you'll lie prone in the log, with velcro straps, seat belts, and a lid to keep you from falling out.

Disneylandman
06-10-2002, 04:23 PM
The order of importance goes: safty, courtesy, show, capasity. If someone even sticks their hand out of a log, the cm's are supposed to come over the pa and tell them to put their hands inside of the log. I have seen it many times, when someone sticks their hand out of the log to touch the waterfall (after the final drop) a cm will say "keep your hands inside of the log" They would much rather ruin the show, then have someone hurt.

thamnarestan
06-11-2002, 05:17 PM
Originally posted by Disneylandman
The order of importance goes: safty, courtesy, show, capasity. If someone even sticks their hand out of a log, the cm's are supposed to come over the pa and tell them to put their hands inside of the log. I have seen it many times, when someone sticks their hand out of the log to touch the waterfall (after the final drop) a cm will say "keep your hands inside of the log" They would much rather ruin the show, then have someone hurt.

There should be practical limits on attention to safety. If Disneyland did everything possible to ensure safety, it wouldn't operate its rides, it wouldn't serve food, and it would simply shut its gates for good.

If the Splash Tower CM were expected to respond to every infraction on the ride, he would be yelling through the PA non-stop. It's simply not practical.

Disneylandman
06-11-2002, 07:06 PM
Yes they are expected to react to everything wrong that guests are doing that could risk their safety. I work there and every time we see some guest doing something to endanger them selves we are, of course, expected to go over the pa and tell the guests to stop what they are doing. The reason you don't hear cm's yelling over the pa all the time is because there is a lot of things that we miss. But they shouln't have missed someone standing up.

thamnarestan
06-12-2002, 02:27 AM
Originally posted by Disneylandman
Yes they are expected to react to everything wrong that guests are doing that could risk their safety. I work there and every time we see some guest doing something to endanger them selves we are, of course, expected to go over the pa and tell the guests to stop what they are doing. The reason you don't hear cm's yelling over the pa all the time is because there is a lot of things that we miss. But they shouln't have missed someone standing up.

What this lady described didn't sound like the classic "standing up on Splash Mountain". It sounds like the guest just turned around at the waterfall before the finale to splash his friends, as guests do hundreds of times a day. Standing up on a lift or before a drop, of course, is a big deal... just the other day, we stopped operations for 15 minutes while we pulled a hoodlum off the ride for standing up. We do care about safety, but we do have to recognize some practical limits.

Some cast members like to use the PA more than others, by the way. I think they find pleasure in yelling at guests.

justagrrl
06-12-2002, 05:37 AM
What about ongoing splashing? What about stopping the log until you had many other logs stopped behind you? Regardless of standing up, what should be done about THAT sort of behavior?

IMHO, someone should have seen them doing these things and done something.

Disneylandman
06-12-2002, 09:00 AM
The person who started to thread said that they "stood up, but it wasn't near a drop or anything. But what if he lost his balance?" If the person really stood straight up, the tower cm should have been watching and should have caught that. And with the spashing and stopping the log, as I said, we can't catch everything, but when we see a guest doing anything that could hurt them, then we are supposed to go over the pa. This is how we are trained.

Allysen1Derland
06-12-2002, 10:18 AM
Originally posted by Squinky
If there's an accident on Splash now, I bet they're gonna change the ride format: you sit in a chair and watch a FPV film of the ride. Or maybe, the lawyers will insist upon 8-point restraints... or possibly, they'll take out all of the seats, and you'll lie prone in the log, with velcro straps, seat belts, and a lid to keep you from falling out.

LOL!! Hahaha! It's so very sad but true. And I'm just picturing guests all mummied-up in straight jackets in a sealed log with little portholes for viewing!! I get so fired up about this!! When I worked Adventureland GC for the Very Merry Christmas parade way back in the day, I was stunned by countless sad shenanigans. The very fact you have to rope people back from running blindly into the street (this happened ALOT) speaks volumes. Y'know, if they don't go sailing off a log lemming-style, or running head-first into parade floats, inevitably, and unfortunately, something will come along that does the trick to wake them up .Forgive me for saying this, but NATURAL SELECTION, kiddies! Holy moly, that's vicious. Sorry, folks.

justagrrl
06-12-2002, 10:46 AM
Originally posted by Allysen1Derland
.Forgive me for saying this, but NATURAL SELECTION, kiddies! Holy moly, that's vicious. Sorry, folks.

You know - there's a website made just for those kinds of people:

http://www.darwinawards.com/

example:

(21 July 2001, Idaho) When his brakes failed while driving down a steep mountain road,
Marco bailed out on his eight passengers and leapt from his Dodge van. Too bad Marco
didn't alert the others to the problem before he took flight so precipitously. Another passenger
was able to bring the vehicle to a stop a short distance away. Marco struck his head on the
pavement and died at the scene. No one else was injured.

Allysen1Derland
06-12-2002, 10:55 AM
Justagrrl, you rock!!!Thank you for that link! You just KNOW I'm going to go there right away and be very entertained! And you just KNOW that "Marco" , before his untimely death, was told to sit down about 8,000 times on Spash Mountain (after running blindly into the parade path, of course!) ;)

RStar
06-12-2002, 12:25 PM
You guys are just too funny!:D

We need you on the Jungle Boat Cruse!!!

Sophie832
06-12-2002, 08:55 PM
I hope it's not too late to post my own story...

I decided to try the new single-rider line for Splash. This was on a Friday, which is often Magic Music Days, and on this day was 8th grade field trip day. I got into a log in the back seat with 4 kids. Towards the beginning of the ride, one of the kids started to stand up, but thankfully one of his friends told him to sit down. After the final drop, the same kid that stood up bragged that he didn't get wet. Of course, this was the cue for another kid to start splashing. I got soaked. I tried to yell at him to stop, but he couldn't hear me. After 3 huge splashes, a CM got on the PA and told him to keep his hands inside the log. Then I spoke up about getting wet, and the kid said, "Oh, sorry." Needless to say, these logs bump into the walls pretty hard, and at that point I wouldn't have been too sorry if he'd ended up with a broken hand. I didn't bother saying anything afterwards....what's the point? People are gonna be stupid.

I feel better now. Great thread, btw :)

Jon Vincible
06-14-2002, 02:31 AM
Hey, is it wrong to take a water bottle on the ride and fill it up so as to have an "authentic" souvenir? I just mention this because the thread's about stupid stunts and i... errrrr... others should know if this is ok.