Almost a tragedy at Pandora

[Alynw]

Well, we just completed our annual disney xmas vaction, from 12/21/18 to 1/6/19. Everything went great and we cant wait for next years trip. Except for wat was almost a tragedy at animal kingdom. So, as were all waiting in line to ride "flight of passage" a fire alarm went off and everyone was made to evac both pandora rides. Usually when a ride breaks down they allow u to wait in line and keep ur spot if u choose to. In this situation because it was a fire alarm everyone was made to evac the rides and all lines including both standby and fast pass. So as were all waiting back at the entrance, people realized this and started gathering around thinkn they now had a chance to get on the flight of passage ride with minimal wait once the ride re-opened. So u can only imagine how big this crowd was getting. Once they dropped the rope it was a freakn mad house, people were litterally pushing like their life depended on it. Well, as the crowd was pushing they were pushing my daughter into the ride thing by the entrance where u can sit and see if ur able to ride. It took everything i had to keep her from getn crushed at which point i lost it. I started grabbing people and throwing them down and came one hair from swinging my fist. I screamed to the top of my lungs that if one more person pushed me or my family they were getn knocked out. At this time, one of the main disney guys yelled at the crowd to stop pushing immediately or he was goin to shut the ride down. Was freakn insane. I saw 4 oriental girls lock hands and just try to plow through people with total disregard to kids, elderly and handicap. Total discrace. I cant believe how grown adults act over a stupid ride.

 

[Monorail_Man_NJ]

Good thing you didnt swing. You would have been tresspassed from Disney for life and taken to Orange County Jail. "Come to Florida on vacation, leave on probation, come back on a violation".

 

[Alynw]

Good thing you didnt swing. You would have been tresspassed from Disney for life and taken to Orange County Jail. "Come to Florida on vacation, leave on probation, come back on a violation".

If my daughter wouldve been hurt, i wouldve gladly went to jail, not the first time ive fought over my family. I could care less about disney or jail when it comes to the safety of my family. Disney is responsible for crowd control and i can promise u they would've been held accountable. They had about 10 disney employees there and instead of controlling the crowd and the situation, they just dropped the rope and stepped to the side...they shouldve got involved and made the crowd clear the main walkway and form a line but they failed to do anything.

 

[Monorail_Man_NJ]

If my daughter wouldve been hurt, i wouldve gladly went to jail, not the first time ive fought over my family. I could care less about disney or jail when it comes to the safety of my family. Disney is responsible for crowd control and i can promise u they would've been held accountable. They had about 10 disney employees there and instead of controlling the crowd and the situation, they just dropped the rope and stepped to the side...they shouldve got involved and made the crowd clear the main walkway and form a line but they failed to do anything.

Cant argue with defending family. I hear ya.

 

[Summer2018]

If my daughter wouldve been hurt, i wouldve gladly went to jail, not the first time ive fought over my family. I could care less about disney or jail when it comes to the safety of my family. Disney is responsible for crowd control and i can promise u they would've been held accountable. They had about 10 disney employees there and instead of controlling the crowd and the situation, they just dropped the rope and stepped to the side...they shouldve got involved and made the crowd clear the main walkway and form a line but they failed to do anything.

Instead of protecting the guests, they watched out for themselves by just dropping the rope and getting out of the way.

Shame on them.

I urge you to write a letter to Disney to complain. You are absolutely right. This could have easily ended in tragedy.

 

[Alynw]

Can u elaborate a little more on writing a letter. Outside of this isolated incident, we had a great vacation and have never had any other issues prior to this. Are u suggesting to write an actual letter or write them via email.

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

Instead of protecting the guests, they watched out for themselves by just dropping the rope and getting out of the way.

Shame on them.

I urge you to write a letter to Disney to complain. You are absolutely right. This could have easily ended in tragedy.

I agree with the potential for ending in tragedy. A very similar situation, involving Black Friday shoppers, ended in tragedy here in NY in 2008. While the circumstances are different, the potential for an injury or a tragedy is the same.

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/business/29walmart.html

OP, good for you for protecting your family. And even better that you figured a way to do that without resorting to more violent means. I agree with @Summer2018. At the very least, this should be brought to the attention of Disney with the hope it can be prevented in the future.

 

[Monorail_Man_NJ]

Guest services more than likely would have given your family a FastPass for FOP for same day anytime. Just need to ask for supervisor and explain situation. Disney is usually excellent at taking care of unmagical experiences.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Sounds like a scary situation, glad ur family is ok

 

[Summer2018]

Can u elaborate a little more on writing a letter. Outside of this isolated incident, we had a great vacation and have never had any other issues prior to this. Are u suggesting to write an actual letter or write them via email.

I’m old school. For something serious like this, I would write a letter detailing the entire incident especially the lack of action in the CM’s part. There should be a protocol in place when an evacuation occurs. I doubt that Disney is okay with guests getting trampled and injured. What happened is no joke, and I believe the higher ups should be notified in writing. You can google the names and addresses of executives and cc as many stakeholders as possible.

 

[Alynw]

I’m old school. For something serious like this, I would write a letter detailing the entire incident especially the lack of action in the CM’s part. There should be a protocol in place when an evacuation occurs. I doubt that Disney is okay with guests getting trampled and injured. What happened is no joke, and I believe the higher ups should be notified in writing. You can google the names and addresses of executives and cc as many stakeholders as possible.

Thank you for the info, im goin to do as u suggest. It was very much a scary feeling and panic when i saw my kid starting to get crushed up against that equipment, so much i lost my cool and almost come to blows. Took a long time for me to calm down. A few other people that were in line with us also saw it happening and after it was over they said the same thing, couldn't believe that the CM's didnt take control and handle the crowd gathering different.

 

[HopperFan]

Someone will pop up with the right email address to send it, and some actually send to the President of parks and his office looks at them all.

We once had an emergency situation that was a complete CM failure. I wrote. I got back several calls, from our discussion knew they had gone out of their way to fully understand the situation. My letter went all the way to the top of the particular park as it was a situation they needed to address in future.

I assure you no CM is going to report an operational failure to management so they depend on the guests to let them know how some things were handled so they can address it with managers and get processes in place.

UNFORTUNATELY Pandora was built in a way BOTH rides share a building and with the long queue lines, an evacuation creates a customer service nightmare in that folks have waited months and sometimes hours in line to enjoy. They absolutely should have handed everyone a return paper FP+ ... that was a failure. It seems to have "fire" alarm, electrical issues often so I don't understand how they don't have processes in place for the proper evac with compensation and extra bodies willing to work entrances to keep order at re-open. NOTE: I have been there for a re-open after hours long closure and there were no issues, so sometimes it is straight up bad luck with the rude of the rude guests.

Also many of these CMs are college kids that are barely trained and there for 4-5 mos only. They aren't often a personality that is going to step up and command control. My DD was there a year and when she worked Soarin' back when there was 2 theaters and folks would do anything to avoid lines .... she was often pulled over to the lines to get control of the unruly guests (as other CMs were taken out in tears) so I know how ugly it can get. A re-open of a popular attraction should be done with some managers in place.

Write, explain with details what was happening and the areas you felt were mishandled.

 

[Alynw]

Hopperfan....thanks for the info..what was surprising is that there were several cm there..they actual sent other cm to help, of which i thought were managers...i even told my wife that i thought they were getn ready to open the ride cause more cm showed up to help. But all they did was stand in line together and block people from sneaking past the chains.