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Re: The dumbest thing you have ever seen a guest do!
Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:17 pm
by felinefan
Reminds me of a sign I once saw on a glass cage of poisonous snakes: "Please don't tap on the glass. What would you do if it broke?" Next to it was a drawing of a snake emerging from a hole in the glass. Can you imagine what would happen if an aquarium glass wall suddenly broke? :sharkbait
Re: The dumbest thing you have ever seen a guest do!
Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:43 pm
by GRUMPY PIRATE
felinefan wrote:Reminds me of a sign I once saw on a glass cage of poisonous snakes: "Please don't tap on the glass. What would you do if it broke?" Next to it was a drawing of a snake emerging from a hole in the glass. Can you imagine what would happen if an aquarium glass wall suddenly broke? :sharkbait
Since most of those are plexiglas, several inches thick, If you were strong enough to break it, I don't think whats inside would give you much concern!
Re: The dumbest thing you have ever seen a guest do!
Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2008 10:03 am
by hobie16
felinefan wrote:Reminds me of a sign I once saw on a glass cage of poisonous snakes: "Please don't tap on the glass. What would you do if it broke?" Next to it was a drawing of a snake emerging from a hole in the glass. Can you imagine what would happen if an aquarium glass wall suddenly broke? :sharkbait
That happened in 1985 at the old Marineland of The Pacific. One of the killer whales got pissed about something and broke out the glass in one of the observation windows. About one-third of the water was lost.
Re: The dumbest thing you have ever seen a guest do!
Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 11:21 am
by jsilvers
hobie16 wrote:That happened in 1985 at the old Marineland of The Pacific. One of the killer whales got pissed about something and broke out the glass in one of the observation windows. About one-third of the water was lost.
Apparently that wasn't the only time. See
http://www.geocities.com/theorcaocean/O ... ssion.html.
Re: The dumbest thing you have ever seen a guest do!
Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:05 pm
by turkeyham
One night I was watching the news. There was a story that came from Sea World San Diego. One of the trainers was performing in a show when the male orca snapped for some odd reason. The orca used the trainer as a toy and tossed this poor trainer all over the tank. The show was immediately cancelled and they got the trainer out of there. The trainer had some major injuries.
One of my friends, was a trainer at Sea World San Diego. He works in costodial here at Disneyland. When he had that job, he was in his 20's. He did mention that the Orca's have bad days and take it out on the trainers and them selves. I wonder if we should give the Orca a xanax. It would get it out of a panic attack and mellow the poor animal out.

Re: The dumbest thing you have ever seen a guest do!
Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:24 pm
by GRUMPY PIRATE
turkeyham wrote:One night I was watching the news. There was a story that came from Sea World San Diego. One of the trainers was performing in a show when the male orca snapped for some odd reason. The orca used the trainer as a toy and tossed this poor trainer all over the tank. The show was immediately cancelled and they got the trainer out of there. The trainer had some major injuries.
One of my friends, was a trainer at Sea World San Diego. He works in costodial here at Disneyland. When he had that job, he was in his 20's. He did mention that the Orca's have bad days and take it out on the trainers and them selves. I wonder if we should give the Orca a xanax. It would get it out of a panic attack and mellow the poor animal out.
I remember seeing the news clip in the 70's where, for a commercial, they were filming a lady (in a bikni of course) riding on "Shamu" around the (old) pool. Shamu decided he didn't like it and bucked her off, grabbed her by the leg and swam her around the pool a couple of times.
They figured out that the "lady" they were using (a secretary at Sea World) was unknown to Shamu, so he probably freaked on the stranger. (They never said why the just didn't use a trainer) Net result is that she was okay, but it made for some interesting news footage.
Re: The dumbest thing you have ever seen a guest do!
Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:47 pm
by turkeyham
I think the orca was teaching swimming lessons. I have read the stories that was on earlier. In Newport Beach, OR they had at the Marine Science center an area where they did rescure an orca with a broken dorsil fin. They were going to release it into the wild. The did not do it for some reason. But a few years ago it was sent to a Sea World park.
Does anyone know what happened to Kayko? I think it was based on the movie "Free Willie."

Re: The dumbest thing you have ever seen a guest do!
Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:49 pm
by GRUMPY PIRATE
turkeyham wrote:I think the orca was teaching swimming lessons. I have read the stories that was on earlier. In Newport Beach, OR they had at the Marine Science center an area where they did rescure an orca with a broken dorsil fin. They were going to release it into the wild. The did not do it for some reason. But a few years ago it was sent to a Sea World park.
Does anyone know what happened to Kayko? I think it was based on the movie "Free Willie."
Yeah, she was in a pen in the ocean (off norway?) and eventually died.
(sleeping with the fishes?)
Re: The dumbest thing you have ever seen a guest do!
Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 12:58 pm
by Monorail Piglet
I had a guest the other night ask me if it was okay to climb over the green railing at the MK monorail station so their kid could go to the bathroom. Little did I knew that while I was "distracted" by this guest, the child and the dad went to a tree to take care of business (if you know what I mean).
The funny part is that as soon as I saw what was going on, other guests saw it before me and went to the dad saying "disney thanks you for giving them free fertilizer and now their tree will be stronger than ever."
I literally died laughing when I overheard that.
Re: The dumbest thing you have ever seen a guest do!
Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 3:43 pm
by Amphigorey
turkeyham wrote:I think the orca was teaching swimming lessons. I have read the stories that was on earlier. In Newport Beach, OR they had at the Marine Science center an area where they did rescure an orca with a broken dorsil fin. They were going to release it into the wild. The did not do it for some reason. But a few years ago it was sent to a Sea World park.
Does anyone know what happened to Kayko? I think it was based on the movie "Free Willie."
It wasn't that the movie was based on Keiko's life; Keiko WAS the orca they used in "Free Willie." He grew up in a small aquarium in Mexico, and was rescued by the Newport aquarium, with the goal of rehabilitating him to send him back to the ocean. He did eventually get well enough to be sent to a sea pen in Norway. He died of pneumonia in the wild in 2003.
His dorsal fin wasn't broken as such; whales don't have bones there. It's made of cartilage. However, orcas in captivity not infrequently have limp or misshapen dorsal fins like Keiko. Could be depression, could be an insufficient diet, could be something innocuous; we don't really know.