Disney Skyliner Accident

[hertamaniac]

Then maybe Disney shouldn't have wasted their money on this.

I think Disney will be spending more money on this, in many ways, after last night's incident.

 

[UmmGooD]

I think that no matter what time of day or year it is, if you have or think you might have any sort of issues when it comes to being stopped while on the skyliner, it might be best just not to ride. Some people are fine while its moving but once it stops they freak out. Disney needs to put a warning about that.

How is it possible to know how someone will react in an emergency? I might think I am ok but when the time arises I might freak out.

Per the sentinel article, RCFD evacuated six (yes, 6) cabins during the 3.5 hours.

The plan must be to always get the line running because I’d say that evacuation of the entire line is impossible.

Even if RCFD is currently undermanned, you’d need to scale 50x to make it practical to evac the whole line. And people are arguing (and I don’t disagree) that 3 hours is too long.

It’ll be interesting to see what comes of this.

if they only got 6 gondola evacuated this is really bad.

So, I’ve found this whole thread/unfolding events to be very interesting, but in the interest of “armchair quarterback” etc, has anyone considered that really, RCFD and Disney did have a plan? Don’t get me wrong, 3.5 hours is significantly longer than what I would want to be spending in a gondola, but perhaps, if they only evacuated 6 cars, they were only evacuating cars that pressed the emergency button, knowing that the line was going to get back into service to be able to run the system to be able to empty it in a way that would not put an unnecessary strain on the RCFD that may be needed elsewhere at the time?

All that being said, I don’t know the inner workings of this system, and I don’t know their emergency plans, and I think that we will know more and more as investigations are performed.

I do think their PR has been poorly handled throughout.

PR and actual evacs were subpar.

There is a call button inside the cabins. They could’ve figured that out via the call button.

And you think that only people in need would pressed the button? I think after 3 hours everyone would be pressing the buttons

What if the plan was evacuate those in need and then get the system moving rather than a full evacuation?

how do they determine those truly in need. I bet everyone after 3 hours thinks they are in need.

 

[Spridell]

We obviously don’t know specifics but if a full evacuation was needed I would imagine they may have called in more response. I would imagine during the day they have more people available for this type of situation. Again we don’t know the specifics and a lot of this thread is just speculating.

I was going to write the same thing. 90% of this thread is speculation at this point.

Might be a while until we know the exact facts

 

[rteetz]

I'm sorry, but I can't agree.

You can't design these vehicles to require movement for proper insulation and airflow to ensure guest safety.

And then turn around and say they might have to sit on the track, not moving, for a couple hours in the event of an accident while an evaluation is ongoing.

Disney didn’t design these vehicles in the first place. Disney ordered an off the shelf D line system. The biggest hand Disney has in the designs were color and the wraps.

I don’t think they were designed to sit on the line for hours I’m just saying due to time of day and the level of emergency they may have decided the course of action they went with was the best for the time.

 

[rteetz]

How is it possible to know how someone will react in an emergency? I might think I am ok but when the time arises I might freak out.



if they only got 6 gondola evacuated this is really bad.

PR and actual evacs were subpar.

And you think that only people in need would pressed the button? I think after 3 hours everyone would be pressing the buttons


how do they determine those truly in need. I bet everyone after 3 hours thinks they are in need.

They likely determined based on those who said they needed medical attention. I don’t know the full guidelines there. I don’t think anyone in this thread does.

 

[UmmGooD]

They likely determined based on those who said they needed medical attention. I don’t know the full guidelines there. I don’t think anyone in this thread does.

how do they figure that out? If it is a button I am sure more than six cars pressed the button after three hours of being stranded. Do they have two way communication to the gondola?

 

[Irish_Mike]

Disney didn’t design these vehicles in the first place. Disney ordered an off the shelf D line system. The biggest hand Disney has in the designs were color and the wraps.

Again, I'm sorry but this isn't an excuse. Just because Disney didn't design them doesn't mean they should get a pass when something goes wrong with the design while they're using it. Hell, I'm more critical of Disney when they do just use premade designs.

I don’t think they were designed to sit on the line for hours I’m just saying due to time of day and the level of emergency they may have decided the course of action they went with was the best for the time.

That's fine. Like I said, first impressions matter, especially when it comes to safety and guest well being. And as I said, coming from someone who has worked for them, this is a complete failure to me.

 

[rteetz]

how do they figure that out? If it is a button I am sure more than six cars pressed the button after three hours of being stranded. Do they have two way communication to the gondola?

I thought the button was a speaker/mic I could be wrong.

 

[Brianstl]

Then maybe Disney shouldn't have wasted their money on this. I mean, any idiot should have known this was a possible scenario. If you can't have a reliable system that provides potentially life-saving cool air in the event of a breakdown in one of the warmest places in the US.... then I dunno, maybe, just maybe, you shouldn't build it?

If you need life saving cool air don’t go outside in Florida.

 

[hereforthechurros]

Just to dial things back a bit, we should remember the scope of this. A few cars got crunched together, but did not hurt anyone. People got inconvenienced to varying to degrees, depending on their personal needs and the time it took to get them off. For some it was a terrible event, but I am sure for most it was a 'well damn' along with a good vacation story to tell.

Does this show that Disney needs to give the system a thorough once over? Of course. The heat issue concerns me. The need to have faster evacuations concerns me. But some posts have reached the dogs and cats living together level. This was a bad thing. But it wasn't a BAD THING. (For anyone wondering, my definition of BAD THING is a cable snapping and gondolas falling out of the sky. There are much, much worse things than having to hold it for a couple of hours.)

ETA: From what I've seen, the $100 figure doesn't apply to everyone. I've seen other numbers in other places. I suspect the compensation will vary by how long the person was stuck, and whether it had a greater than normal impact. Someone who had a panic attack or had to use the 'waste bags' will be treated more generously than someone who had to sit for a while.

That’s what I thought regarding the monorail, thanks.

Using that as a point of reference, I’m honestly pleasantly surprised Disney was automatically compensating and did realize something more valuable than FP was needed. I know for some people the amount was nowhere near enough, but I think it was about what we can reasonably expect out of them.

I'm sure there are many different versions of compensation for this incident but for the example I saw, the person stuck had to seek out a CM once they were off the gondola. No one was greeting them or offering up compensation. They broached the subject of compensation after being stuck 3.5 hours and offered $100 gift card and one park ticket.

Seems from the top down WDW didn’t know how to handle this incident. For all of those people posting that the people stuck should have somehow seen this coming because things like this happen all the time, it sure seems Disney didn’t think it would happen. Otherwise I have to imagine a better plan would have been employed for evac.

 

[rteetz]

Again, I'm sorry but this isn't an excuse. Just because Disney didn't design them doesn't mean they should get a pass when something goes wrong with the design while they're using it. Hell, I'm more critical of Disney when they do just use premade designs.

That's fine. Like I said, first impressions matter, especially when it comes to safety and guest well being. And as I said, coming from someone who has worked for them, this is a complete failure to me.

I’m not excusing I’m speculating like everyone else. I am thinking of how Disney could’ve been possibly thinking. We don’t know for sure there.

I’m not denying failure. Pretty much all transportation does fail at some point. For me personally this won’t hinder me from riding this system much like I still ride the monorail.

 

[kboo]

Right, and that's just weird. Somebody was trying to stay within a budget on that one, methinks.

At Riveria they have to stop the line to load and unload them. All other stations have the 2 gondolas in waiting.

All my knowledge of gondolas is with ski areas, but if it’s just a pass through, then yes, the line would have to be stopped to get an ECV gondola in there. I wonder if that may also be the reason there is a path to CBR from RIV - easier loading and unloading of ECVs at CBR b

 

[Heelish]

I’m not excusing I’m speculating like everyone else. I am thinking of how Disney could’ve been possibly thinking. We don’t know for sure there.

I’m not denying failure. Pretty much all transportation does fail at some point. For me personally this won’t hinder me from riding this system much like I still ride the monorail.

Youre all over the place

 

[dclpluto]

how do they determine those truly in need. I bet everyone after 3 hours thinks they are in need.

At the kings island sky ride failure two teenagers were the last ones evacuated.Why probably they were the most fit to handle the long hours up there. 7 hours and 50 minutes I think it was.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

The timing could have been because they waited for evaluation from RCFD and Dopplemayr and then got the 6 cabins in need cleared. Obviously it took a long time from our perspective. I would imagine they would’ve had more response if a full like evacuation was needed.

Except this isn’t what the reports said actually happenned. Reports are that RCFD was literally raising a bucket to another gondola when it started moving. That itself raises a whole other set of communications worries, such as, what would have happenned if it started moving while someone was getting into the bucket. Other reports form people actually stuck up there were that they could see them going methodically gondola to gondola in front of them. It does not sound like they “triaged.” It sounds like they just really stunk at doing evacuations in any kind of decent time.

 

[BaymaxFan78]

Again, I'm sorry but this isn't an excuse. Just because Disney didn't design them doesn't mean they should get a pass when something goes wrong with the design while they're using it. Hell, I'm more critical of Disney when they do just use premade designs.

This is like using Goodyear tires on a Disney bus and having them all pop. That's Goodyear's design flaw, not Disney's.

 

[mshanson3121]

If you need life saving cool air don’t go outside in Florida.

There's a huge difference between being on the ground where you can pop into an air conditioned building at any moment, and being trapped in a hot box for hours. That should be pretty obvious. But then again common sense is in short supply these days.

 

[Heelish]

There's a huge difference between being on the ground where you can pop into an air conditioned building at any moment, and being trapped in a hot box for hours. That should be pretty obvious. But then again common sense is in short supply these days.

Whats the difference?

 

[mshanson3121]

I was going to write the same thing. 90% of this thread is speculation at this point.

Might be a while until we know the exact facts

I doubt we ever get them. I am sure Disney will try to bury as much of this as possible.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

We obviously don’t know specifics but if a full evacuation was needed I would imagine they may have called in more response. I would imagine during the day they have more people available for this type of situation. Again we don’t know the specifics and a lot of this thread is just speculating.

The article I posted earlier quoted someone from the RCFD. They were at full response and had help from additional departments. The RCFD firefighter quoted that they are so understaffed that they would not have been able to respond to any other incident if it had happened at the same time as this breakdown.