Stupid Guest Tricks

Sorry for the length of my story, my inner Disney storyteller got the best of me:

I was visiting the Magic Kingdom on December 22, and happened to notice something strange going on at Splash Mountain. My sister and I had two Fastpasses each because it was evening and our parents didn't want to get wet. Everything was normal as we went though the Fastpass line the first time except for the fact that a cast member came over the intercom about every 30 seconds (okay maybe not quite that frequently, but we heard it three times in a Fastpass line). At the time, I thought nothing of it. Once we got to the platform, a cast member collected our Fastpasses and another CM hastily directed us to a row. I was sort of surprised at the fact that she was rushing us like that, but I figured she must have her reasons. Once our log pulled up to the platform, CMs urged the exiting riders to exit quickly as well. We were hardly seated when they dispatched our log. In fact, the couple behind us had not even lowered their restraint yet. As we were moving up the first lift, the CMs were shouting to them to lower it. After the ride, we got the same strong encouragement to exit quickly as the riders ahead of us. When we went through the line and rode again, the same thing happened. We even heard guests in one of the boats behind us being asked (more like shouted at) to lower thier restraints while moving. Again! I talked to the CM at the exit turnstile about the lack of care for safety, and he said he would pass on the message and politely asked if I would like to speak to a lead. I wish I had gotten his name and sent him some sort of thank you for his assistance.

Now, can anyone tell me why all the CMs were in such a rush? Could they have been involved in some sort of speed check? If anyone can tell me what was going on I wouzo ups certainly appreciate it. Oh, one more thing: in the case that I was the SG in this scenario, I sincerely apologize.

Well if you went on Dec 22. That is peak season I would bet that Splash has a monster line and the cm were trying to expedite it.

This is not an excuse to sacrifice safety.

Management was probably leaning real hard on the cast to be more "efficient" (in other words, get more people through the ride faster). From things I've heard some areas are really big on efficiency and some seem to worry more about that than safety.

In my opinion it would be more efficient to make sure lap bars are down BEFORE dispatching the ride as if the guest doesn't get it down in time the CM's will have to stop the ride which is less efficient that waiting a few extra seconds to dispatch the boats. And if someone's bar doesn't get secured and the CMs didn't notice the injuries that could easily result will kill efficiency real quick as the ride will have to be shut down.

Probably trying to get the counts up and move the line faster. I hated it when management would ask us to load "quicker" because it took away from safety and friendliness, two things which should come before speed. I don't care what management says, an extra 100 guests per hour is not worth a possible accident or the complaints about rude employees. This is one of the reasons I don't work at in rides anymore, management can be too demanding for the wrong reasons.

That last line of Teddykeiko86, +1. I decided this last week that I am done with rides. I might go over to transportation or guest services, but I am done pushing people through rides for the sake of high counts.

Do you want it done right or do you want it done right now?

Big Wallaby wrote:That last line of Teddykeiko86, +1. I decided this last week that I am done with rides. I might go over to transportation or guest services, but I am done pushing people through rides for the sake of high counts.

Thankfully that is one thing we're good at in watercraft, each boat crew is responsible for their own boat and nobody can tell them to put more people on if they say they're at capacity. Or if it's become unsafe.

All of our safety issues are caused by rental boats...

hobie16 wrote:Do you want it done right or do you want it done right now?

Ugghh, we get that all the time. They tell us to cut corners, go home, then bitch that it wasn't done right or wasn't done. They also tell us not to drop any pallets to be worked and bitch that there isn't any merchandise on the floor. Well duh!!

I don't remember Splash having restraints unless that changed since I was there. It's been a while.

I can see it becoming a problem if the ride vehicles are being dispatched before Guests are seated. Would hate to see somebody loose a life or limb that way.

I'm surprised that they're pushing for efficiency as much as they are. When I was there it was always safety, show, courtesy, efficiency.


BW, you should do CR rails!

Monorail_Red wrote:I don't remember Splash having restraints unless that changed since I was there. It's been a while.

It may be different out on te west coast, but I don't think WDW had them last Spring. As far as I can tell, the restraints on Splash Mountain (a single lap bar for both adjacent seats) is more for keeping people from standing up / getting out than to keep them from falling out. Of course, now we have doors on our trams, the SG count must be at a record high.