Disneyland guests stranded in Pirates of the Caribbean ride
Disneyland guests weren’t sure what to expect when they entered the idling boats at the entrance to the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction on Sunday night.
Brian Rokos, a crime and public safety reporter for the Southern California News Group, was among them, embarking on the dark ride which crashed unexpectedly for about 90 minutes around 6 p.m., according to Orange County. Register.
Pirates of the Caribbean dates back to 1967 and is widely regarded as one of the last attractions Walt Disney oversaw the design and development of before his death in December 1966.
“We were at the point on the journey where the women were chasing the men in circles, and Jack Sparrow peeks through a barrel at a pirate talking about the location of the secret treasure,” Rokos told SFGATE by phone on Tuesday morning. “Then suddenly we stopped.”
At first he thought it was okay. But as 10 minutes passed, then another 20, he began to have doubts.
“I thought, this is really unusual,” Rokos said. “Well, I guess they gave up on restarting the ride.”
The lights came on and the audio for the ride stopped playing, although Rokos could still hear a mechanical squeaking noise from the animatronic couples as they continued to move. Then a voice came over the speakers, relaying a public service announcement for the cast members to come and help the stranded guests.
All in all, the guests on the ride were relatively calm, even the children. A little boy behind Rokos started playing a portable video game, while a baby on the boat remained sound asleep the entire time. But a lot of people were asking the same question: how did this happen?
Rokos said he heard a Disneyland actor mention that a number of people who were supposed to come to work that day reported sick. (SFGATE has contacted Disneyland regarding the cause of the ride’s malfunction, but has not had a response at time of posting.)
“It’s possible that they have a plan, but not enough people to make it happen as quickly as everyone would like,” he explained, adding that another cast member attributed the disruption to the route to technical difficulties, although they did not elaborate further.
Finally, after about 40 minutes of waiting, Rokos saw an actor approach their boat wearing rubber waders. Sitting in the front row of his own boat, Rokos observed that some people in other boats were quickly evacuated as they were closer to land. Then, looking at the two feet of water surrounding him on all sides, he began to feel uncomfortable.
“There was no way I could get through this,” he said. “Someone suggested that I walk the plank, but I didn’t have a plank to walk on! I didn’t know how to get out of it… We were literally trapped.
“I thought, ‘This is not a good omen. It’s disaster mode, ”he added. “But it turned out to be a good thing.”
Crossing the water, the actor pushed the boat backwards until it was closer to shore. There, other Disneyland employees were waiting for them to help them get off the boat safely. They then thanked the guests for “not yelling at them,” Rokos said.
The detour turned out to be quite interesting, however: Rokos said during their evacuation they were fortunate enough to get a behind-the-scenes look at the attraction, with wooden planks along the winding hallways as well. as break rooms with signs pointing towards the park. Guests exited through a door next to a bathroom in New Orleans Square, near where about five fire vehicles and 10 firefighters from Disneyland firefighters waited outside the building housing the ride. Rokos saw a few of them helping evacuate guests from some of the other boats earlier.
The @DlStats Twitter account, which tracks ride malfunctions and other developments in the park in real time, reported the ride reopening at 8:48 p.m. after a 159-minute hiatus. Rides malfunctions at Disneyland are quite common, although they last an average of 27 minutes at the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction.
Disneyland employees gave embarrassed runners FastPass for any ride except the Rise of the Resistance or the Haunted Mansion, both of which were in high demand, Rokos said.
But he wasn’t too disappointed – he managed to escape the ride just in time for the 9 p.m. Halloween-themed fireworks display.
“Fortunately, I’m on dry land now,” Rokos joked.