It's a Water Ride!

[turkeyham]

On Wednesday of last week at Disneyland, yes, BTRR went down after I came back from my lunch. Security was moving rather quickly to the exit of the attraction.

Yesterday we delt with the teenagers wanting to get around the safety bars on BTRR. Hello, the safety bar is to keep SG like U from falling out. Get pass the bar and you are on the way out with security escourt. :D:

[LadySiren]

Because we are human?
I mean last time I checked...

Nuh-uh! You can obviously do the impossible...there's even a quote from Walt on one of the construction signs that says so. So controlling the weather should be a snap for y'all. ;)

[Lasolimu]

Because we are human?
I mean last time I checked...

Come on, this one's easy. If we build a large dome over the entire property then we can guarantee that the weather will never be a problem and can, in fact, build in systems to control the weather on the inside. Nobody even needs to know it isn't nice outside of the Disney dome. Imagine the kinds of things you could do with a system like this, want to add a rain effect to Fantasmic!? No problem, just time it so the rain starts falling at the right moment. No more will the question, "when is the rain going to stop?" be a stupid one.

But then I'm not human, so... :p:

[Buggy]

I am not a lawyer, but it my understanding that you cannot sign away your rights. You can sign a waiver saying that you know that you are about to undergo a dangerous activity, but you can still sue if you get hurt even if the waiver said you agreed not to sue. So waivers don't actually prevent lawsuits in this situation.

The people asking for waivers would still sue and say, "if they knew we might have been injured they shouldn't have let us ride waiver or no waiver."

[hobie16]

I am not a lawyer, but it my understanding that you cannot sign away your rights. You can sign a waiver saying that you know that you are about to undergo a dangerous activity, but you can still sue if you get hurt even if the waiver said you agreed not to sue. So waivers don't actually prevent lawsuits in this situation.

The people asking for waivers would still sue and say, "if they knew we might have been injured they shouldn't have let us ride waiver or no waiver."

A group of us were going on a white water rafting trip. We were told to sign a paper. A lawyer in the bunch signed immediately without reading the form. I told him later I was surprised he signed without reading it. He told me, "If I get injured and they say I signed a waiver, I'll say no one said anything about a waiver. I thought it was an attendance roster."

[BRWombat]

I am not a lawyer, but it my understanding that you cannot sign away your rights. You can sign a waiver saying that you know that you are about to undergo a dangerous activity, but you can still sue if you get hurt even if the waiver said you agreed not to sue. So waivers don't actually prevent lawsuits in this situation.

The people asking for waivers would still sue and say, "if they knew we might have been injured they shouldn't have let us ride waiver or no waiver."

Not quite correct. You absolutely can waive rights -- it's done every day. You can even agree not to hold someone liable even if they are negligent or even grossly negligent towards you. Granted, those types of waivers are strictly scrutinized by the courts, but it can be done if done correctly.

Where you are absolutely right is that the person can still file a lawsuit. A former boss in another city used to laugh when any department head would ask him what steps could be taken in any particular situation to prevent a lawsuit. He'd chuckle and say something like, "Any yahoo with a pen, paper, and a filing fee can sue you -- they don't have to be in the right or have even the slightest chance of success. All you can do is act properly so that they don't a valid reason to win any lawsuit."

In the end, I'm guessing that it's a business decision for Disney, like most everything else. If they thought it was good business to keep attractions operating in hazardous situations if guests sign a waiver, they'd do it. But it's simple to balance the pros and cons:

[INDENT]Leave the ride open/Get waiver:
Pros: Happy SG, unless an accident occurs. If an accident occurs, hey, one less SG!
Cons: If an accident occurs, Disney -- not the SG -- will suffer the blame, bad press, investigations, fines, and trauma to cast members. If no accident, the SG's sense of entitlement grows.

Close the ride/No waiver:
Pros: No bad press or blood-spatter cast members.
Cons: An SG gets his panties in a twist and gripes about it on Board X.[/INDENT]

Seems like a pretty easy call to me! :p:

A group of us were going on a white water rafting trip. We were told to sign a paper. A lawyer in the bunch signed immediately without reading the form. I told him later I was surprised he signed without reading it. He told me, "If I get injured and they say I signed a waiver, I'll say no one said anything about a waiver. I thought it was an attendance roster."

A member of the general public might be able to get away with that, but I bet your lawyer friend couldn't. I can hear the judge now, "You're an attorney, and you signed something without reading it???" :D:

[hobie16]

A member of the general public might be able to get away with that, but I bet your lawyer friend couldn't. I can hear the judge now, "You're an attorney, and you signed something without reading it???" :D:

That was my thought but what do I know.

[Cheshire Figment]

I will do my best Rodney Dangerfield imitation as I tell the Guests: "Do you know how much paperwork is involved if a Guest gets struck by lightening?" It does tend to almost force them to think.

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

I will do my best Rodney Dangerfield imitation as I tell the Guests: "Do you know how much paperwork is involved if a Guest gets struck by lightening?" It does tend to almost force them to think.

in the same voice, add "Hoo boy, and the coroner gets upset if his meat wagon gets wet"

no respect, I tell ya!!

[Big Wallaby]

As we're standing there, you should've heard the SG complaints about why can't they leave the ride open, can't we sign waivers so we can ride, why can't we go back up the ramp and exit that way instead of going through the exit at the bottom...oy, it made me want to throw a shoe at some of them.

I remember the group you're talking about.

A member of the general public might be able to get away with that, but I bet your lawyer friend couldn't. I can hear the judge now, "You're an attorney, and you signed something without reading it???" :D:

You're from Texas. I am sure your court system still expects some level of common sense. :p:

I will do my best Rodney Dangerfield imitation as I tell the Guests: "Do you know how much paperwork is involved if a Guest gets struck by lightening?" It does tend to almost force them to think.

And I gotta help clean up the mess.

My explanation one time was a little less comical, but I had fun. "This here attraction's been struck by lightnin' twice, and that's just in the past week! Both times, all the lift chains just up an' stopped workin'... I hear that's normal when you run six kajillion volts through sumthin' made for two hundred fifty... then the 'lectricty follows the track to the nearest thing it can zap. If'n you're between it and the ground, that six kajillion volts goes through you! Whatever's left on that there wouldn't even make it back around to the station for us to clean out! You'd be on a train on metal tracks runnin' around one of the highest points inside the Magic Kingdom. Oh, and dadburn it, I can't figure it out, but fer some reason, that lightnin' never seems to hit the lightnin' rods, but the track. Since I get a vote in this, I'm gonna say y'all ain't goin."

Hey, I do it in theme, and I do it wacky enough that the kids within earshot laugh.

You can't get down on me for that, in the Country Bear Jamboree they tell Mama to shoot little Buford. :p: