Stupid Guest Tricks

Everyone who works Entertainment knows that, in addition to often being considered some of the laziest CMs at the resort , one of the things Parades are best it is crashing floats into the wood burm at the roundhouse just before Small World / Parade Stepoff Gate.

What's far less common but much funnier (IMHO) is those few people who have managed to actually SINK something.

A current lead of mine once worked show support on F!. As some of you may or may not be aware, some of the larger barges on F! are mounted on large pontoons with wheels so they can be rolled out of the water and towed back to the float warehouse. One thing that F! support crew used to always be told was not to worry, because it impossible to sink one of the barges on the big pontoons. One of those barges is the crocodile that chases the Columbia with Captain Hook. Well several years ago when my lead was working F! he was assigned to the Croc barge. He wouldn't tell me how, but somehow he managed to SINK the barge! He struck something, and the barge began to take water, so he bailed out and let it sink! I imagine it stuck out of the water a great deal since RoA is maybe 6-8 feet at the deepest, and the Croc is a lot bigger than that.

F! isn't the only place where barges have been used, though. During last year's X-Games there were several parade barges on Paradise Bay, which at its deepest is about 16-18 feet (or so I am told). One crew member wasn't paying attention when pulling into the dock, and slammed it very hard. The barge immediately began to sank, requiring her to bail and leaving the barge to sink to the bottom of Paradise Bay. Apparently, it was completely submerged -- including the canope that had been covering it, and all you could do was look down into the water and see the top of the canope!

The sunken Croc...I think I remember who did that; and while a captain is supposed to go down with his ship, Show Services is smart enough to bail out and live to drink another day.
:twisted:

During Light Magic, there were bumps, crashes, wrecks, JACK-KNIFES!!! (yes) and scrapes a-plenty. I personally tore a 4x6 hole in one of the LM floats one night, going through Egg House gates. Nasty sound, that shredding fiberglass. I hooked and dragged an onstage trash can during Xmas parade in 99 when driving the Ice Rink- but never, EVER came close to hitting a Snowflake. They loved me for that. (Back then, they were ALL hot-like-sauce, too). The toy block floats like to get their caster's caught in the railroad tracks on Main St., and it's a pain to get 'em out.

Let's not get started on the EP bug that got it's steering yoke pulled out one night in 96 and puked all of it's hydraulic fluid out on Main St. Beyond brutal.

I've only heard rumors about it but supposedly someone sunk a jungle cruise boat. does anyone have any info about that

well there was one time when a rehabbed boat wasn't properly sealed...

and another time there was a double derail at schweitzer. that's the closest I can come to any info on that

thundercatjamie wrote:I've only heard rumors about it but supposedly someone sunk a jungle cruise boat. does anyone have any info about that

It didn't actually sink, but the way I heard it....

It happened one day at the Magic Kingdom's jungle. It had been raining heavily (natch, it was summertime in Florida!) and the river was higher than normal -- running right at the overflow.

A light boat (lots of kids) was running a bit too fast as it approached the temple. The boat sloshed out of the track, slewed sideways, and before the pilot could stop the engines, it had sideswiped one of the "monorail" columns.

The boat took minor damage and was back in service two days later. The guests were taken out by "walking the plank" as the boat wouldn't go through the temple without being hoisted back into the groove. OTOH, it took nearly two years to get a new column built, installed, painted, and weathered!

One can only guess at the guest satisfaction challenge of *backing* all the other boats back to the dock to unload. Glad I wasn't there that day!

whaddaya think, guys, would this be a good thread in which to detail my extensive damage (entirely accidental, mind you) to an MGM Backlot Tour shuttle?

it'll most likely involve a diagram or two...

CujoSR wrote:

StrangeTikiGod wrote:whaddaya think, guys, would this be a good thread in which to detail my extensive damage (entirely accidental, mind you) to an MGM Backlot Tour shuttle?

it'll most likely involve a diagram or two...

YES!

So be it...unfortunately, I have to head off to work right now, but when I get home I'll throw together a diagram in Paint Shop Pro and begin my recounting of the tale.

And thanks for your enthusiasm, Cujo. It warms the cockles of my n00b heart (or maybe the sub-cockle area). :)

Ok, eleven hours and a few drinks later, here is "The Shuttle Story, or How I Did Approximately $36,000 of Damage to Disney Property and Lived to Tell the Tale"


Observe the diagram. Here is the legend:
A. A decrepit Backlot Tour shuttle, used to cannibalize parts. Note the grass growing on the roof.
B. Shuttle #38, the one I was driving
C. Shuttle #36, the most technologically advanced of the fleet.
D. Shuttle #Not Appearing in this Story
E. Two cars that are parked on Perimeter Road, windows rolled down and talking to each other, the bastards.

OK, so Shuttle One, our lead at the Backlot Tour (hereafter called the BT to save me from typing it out every time) tells me to bring Shuttle 38 online. So my spieler "J" and I go out to the Wash Site to get it up and running. We do all the morning tests and start to make a right turn in front of Shuttle D in the diagram, and onto Perimeter Road. Unfortunately, there's two yutzes with their windows rolled down stopped on the road having a little chat, so "J" and I decide that we'll go between the cannibalized shuttle and Shuttle #36 and make a hard right past the Maintenance building, figuring that the tracking mechanism on the shuttle will make sure everything goes smoothly.

The problem in our plan lay in two places. 1. There's a metal rung below the driver and passenger cab doors to help you get up into the shuttle and 2. I made the right turn too early. The rung started scraping along the fiberglass wing-door type panel on the first car of Shuttle #38, making a nice groove in the paint. "J" hits the emergency call button and tells me that we've just made contact with Shuttle #36. We decide that we'll just keep going rather than call Backlands maintenance and have them put the shuttle in reverse. That was a huge mistake.

We creep forward in our shuttle, get clear of Shuttle #36 and pull onto Perimeter Road, and then I call Shuttle One to report a "Signal 4," an accident. He tells us to pull up into the Unload zone so he can take a look. We do, and there we discover than the metal rung has scraped the paint on the first three cars of the shuttle, and gouged into the fiberglass doors of the last three cars like a hot knife through butter. I also mucked up the metal rung on Shuttle #36 and knocked the left front turn signal off, sending the shuttle out of commission for several weeks.

Needless to say, as a College Program CM, I'm freaking out and preparing to be told to head back to Vista Way start packing my things.

Mercifully, Backlands One, the Guest Service Manager that day was a very understanding guy, and had a Signal Four of his own one day that not only damaged a shuttle, but also took Catastrophe Canyon out of commission for several hours. Thank goodness he was very cool and relaxed about it. We went back to the Backlands office, I recounted what happened, "J" recounted what happened in a separate interview, and our stories matched up completely. On the BT, if you lose five points, you're terminated. For this incident, I lost two.

Those were the only points I ever lost. I stayed on that day, but didn't feel up to driving a shuttle again until well after lunch. Weeks later I found out that I had done about $36,000 worth of damage in about 90 seconds. I felt about three inches high and was still marvelling that I wasn't terminated and my pay wasn't permanently docked (like I'd ever make enough as a CP CM to pay off that much damage!)

That event went up on the board in the BT Shuttles breakroom as "Great Moments in Shuttle History #25," and they never asked me to bring a shuttle online again. Well, that's not entirely true; they asked, but I would go pale and shake my head so hard I'd pull a muscle in my neck. They got the idea...

The end.

Nice