Epcot Power Outage SG Tales

[glendalais]

Not sure if this goes here, but as you may or may not know, Epcot suffered a power outage earlier today:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business ... 5209.story

Just wanted to see if any WDW CMs had any interesting SG tales to share with us as a result of this. Epcot Guest Relations certainly earned their paycheques, lol.

[CMGUY89]

LOL, I know that last time this happened the Soarin' Carriages were "in-flight" and the ride automatically power disconnected so it took a little time to get the generators up and bring the carriages down. Of course CMs Spieled the whole time and kept them informed. But when they finally brought down the carriages some SG told a reporter something to the tune of "My whole family was traumatized and our vacation was ruined". Oh please! That's why we have emergency lights so its not like they were in the dark. Give me a break! If I was there I would have enjoyed every minute of it! But that's probably because I am a Soarin'-phile.

[Shorty82]

I heard a rumor about the outage from a coworker today. The rumor made it sound much worse than it really was. The rumor had all of Future Word East dark. Later one of my coordinators said that it was just a rumor and that only Imagination was down. I guess at the time he checked everything else had come back up except for Imagination.

[turkeyham]

Where I live in Seal Beach, there was a transformer that blew. It was on Easter a few years ago. The power was out for 4 hours. I ended up calling the fire department because my neighbors got caught in the elevator.

I have seen the power go out at Disneyland and about 20 minutes the park had some power from back up generators. This does happen in the summer time at the parks. It is normal.

[Shorty82]

Where I live in Seal Beach, there was a transformer that blew. It was on Easter a few years ago. The power was out for 4 hours. I ended up calling the fire department because my neighbors got caught in the elevator.

I have seen the power go out at Disneyland and about 20 minutes the park had some power from back up generators. This does happen in the summer time at the parks. It is normal.

Maybe the norm at Disneyland but not at WDW as far as I know. WDW gets it's power from a number of different sources and the entire grid is designed to handle the huge loads the parks, resorts, and everything else puts on it and was designed with hot Florida summers in mind.

One of the things WDW has going for it is more control over the grid than DL has.

[CMGUY89]

Take a look at this!!! GRRR!
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Some rides at Epcot came to a sudden halt, Friday, when the power went out.
The park's front entrance and parts of Futureworld were affected.
Disney said a circuit breaker tripped around 11:30am morning. It caused a sudden change in voltage around those two areas of the park and triggered the rides to shut down. No injuries have been reported.
A flicker of lights at Disney's Epcot was all some guests noticed. But others found themselves stuck, strapped into seats in the middle of a ride through Spaceship Earth and several other attractions.
A Disney spokesperson called the outage an “insignificant episode” and said all power was restored within an hour, allowing employees to begin safety checks and restart the rides. But some guests have demanded refunds.
“(There are) two hour waits in line and the park closes at 8pm so there's not a lot of time to look at Epcot,” said one guest.
The Das family from Delaware got a taste of the irritation when Aerosmith's Rock ‘n' Rollercoaster was shut off for just 45 minutes.
An outage in July 2002 shut down the park in its peak season and prompted refunds. This time, Disney said it's working to appease guests on a case by case basis by offering Park Hopper passes or tickets for another day.
Copyright 2008 by wftv.com

Let's examine this closely, hmm?
No injuries? Of course there were no injuries! It is just a simple power outage, not a major catastrophe!

Strapped into their seats in Spaceship Earth? Last I checked there were no restraints and you aren't "stuck".

Two hour waits? Cry me a river! Everyone else deals with it EVERYDAY, that's what you get for going during PEAK season.

Rock'n Rollercoaster? Thats at Studios!!! It is on a separate power grid!!! It probably had a simple 101.

I hate the media some times!!!

[Shorty82]

It's because some of the media have it in for Disney because WDW is the big boy on the block. It doesn't matter how small the situation is but if something happens at WDW then someone in the media will report it and blow it out of proportion. The exact same thing can happen at Universal but because they aren't the big boy nobody will report it in the media.

[Notatourist]

Sorry, Shorty, you haven't lived here long enough on that one. They report Universal stuff a lot more than Disney. They don't call it the Slantinel for nothing.

[goofyjoe]

No injuries? Of course there were no injuries! It is just a simple power outage, not a major catastrophe!

Strapped into their seats in Spaceship Earth? Last I checked there were no restraints and you aren't "stuck".

Two hour waits? Cry me a river! Everyone else deals with it EVERYDAY, that's what you get for going during PEAK season.

Rock'n Rollercoaster? Thats at Studios!!! It is on a separate power grid!!! It probably had a simple 101.

I hate the media some times!!!

I wonder if the power outage shut down the monorail to the Studios ;) :p:

It's not like SSE doesn't stop every time you ride it, anyway! It usually stops right after you turn around and right before you begin your descent. I think it's usually due to load / unload.

(I still love the new SSE; my 17 month-old nephew got on the screen!)

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

I loved the fact that a story about it actually included a quote from a family, that it "ruined the magic" for them!! I wonder if they have read "some where" that the magic phrase could get them free stuff??

Give me a break people, if its a power outage, take a break, drink some water, enjoy the view....get over it.