how many????

cathoswolf · Post by **cathoswolf** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 12:40 pm

I worked on storybook in 2000-2001. One day while working the dock in my rotation I had a handicaped guest come up and wanted to get on the ride. I asked her how many people in her group, coz we can anly have so many people per group come through the handicap entrance. she told me I have 22 people in my group and we all want to go on one boat. I almost hit the floor our boats can only hold about 12 adults so i told her I was sorry that we had to cut the group in half and use 2 boats. she got mad cussed me out and told me that walt disney would not had stood for this and that she was going home. my manager saw the whole thing and was laughing their bootie off. :P

BirdMom · Post by **BirdMom** » Wed Feb 12, 2003 5:48 pm

Sometimes I think those folks are so overstimulated, they "look" but they don't see. The A-lead used to love me over at Book, because I would pack the boats (a la Pirates) and clear the queue out pretty quick - I think my record was 22 sweater kids and their teacher on one boat when I was on dock crew there - hey they all fit, and the teacher didn't complain. We used to try to see how many sweater kids we could stuff into the Omni-movers over at Mansion too.

BassPlayer2001 · Post by **BassPlayer2001** » Fri Feb 14, 2003 1:27 pm

It all depends on the size of the people. At "it's a small world", you can manage to squeeze 25 people in the boats that are only supposed to hold 15 if they're all small, but then there's the risk of the boat bottoming out and us having to go in, find it, and evac some of the guests off of it, which can be sooo much fun if they decide to push themselves along after they get stuck. :|

BirdMom · Post by **BirdMom** » Fri Feb 14, 2003 5:31 pm

yeah, I remember all that stuff about the size of people being important. When I was trained on Pirates in the late 80's, we were supposed to estimate 175 lbs. per adult (as an average) but if the person seemed especially big or small, we were to adjust the number of people per rows accordingly. Using that weight estimate, it was 22 adults on one of the newer larger boats, 3 in the front and back rows, and 4 in each of the other rows between. Of course, Pirate boats had the problems of not only bottoming out, but going through the wall of the flume at the bottom of drop 1 - it happened when a knuckleheaded cast member loaded the boat back heavy. If you loaded them front heavy, the front row would flood - and subsequent guests would complain about having to sit on wet seats - and of course the remark that "it's only water" didn't make them happy at all...

ya know, there's nothing like having to go down into the show building and try to unstick a boat that's stuck on the brakes or bottomed out and make a bunch of people try to rock the boat back and forth in unison so that it will unstick and go down the stupid drop - been there, done that...

BassPlayer2001 · Post by **BassPlayer2001** » Sun Feb 16, 2003 12:18 pm

haha, sounds like at Small World, when it's raining. "My seat is wet!" They don't take kindly to being reminded that it is raining and the longer they stand and complain about it, the wetter their seats are going to get.

BirdMom · Post by **BirdMom** » Mon Feb 17, 2003 4:08 pm

I always hated having to work book in the pouring rain - management would shut down so many of the route rides in Fantasyland because they were "unsafe" in the rain, yet leave Book - which had no nonskid surfacing on the cement dock - open to give the guests something to do. I can remember being there during a miserable day (when the boats there and on jungle both ended up going off the guide rails) with one particular family all decked out in those horrid plastic ponchos, the rain coming down in sheets and one of their children - a girl of about 10 - refusing to get into the boat, looking at me with this really nasty glare whining "but the seats are wet!" Her mother shoved her into the boat declaring "everything is wet!!!" - thank goodness for one parent with a backbone for once! :roll: