Perimeter Fireworks and Road Closures

[mapo]

OK, so if you have not checked your calendar, I would like to point out that it just turned October. That means that Magic Kingdom has been having perimeter fireworks for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween (MNSS) Party for about a month.

Now, why do I bring that up? Well...seems that the same Cast Members that work at Magic Kingdom and the surrounding resorts are surprised that the roads are closed for perimeter fireworks.

If you have not driven the roads surrounding Magic Kingdom recently, then let me point out:

• A Frame signs are on road reminding you of perimeter fireworks with approximate start and end times on sign
• Huge orange road signs in International symbols and others with words indicating that roads are closed or flag man ahead
• Cast members are SELLING tickets to the event

Yet, with all this information, Cast members are steaming mad that the firework road closures are "making them late for work" or "I have worked here [10, 20, 30] years and I only know one way to go home".

There is even a story out there that a cast member decided to try to walk to the car from the park! Yeah, the cast member walked from the park backstage, trying to go through security to get to his/her car to drive home. Scuttle butt has it that the individual does not have to worry about not being able to go home during perimeter fireworks any more. :twisted:

Can anyone explain why Cast Members seem to be even worse than guests when we have a big holiday or event? I keep thinking we are on a permanent full moon cycle...but I am also staying far, far away from so many Cast Members thinking that they have all lost their minds.

Oh, and imagine my joy and wonder when I get to listen to these crazy people when the running event happens this weekend! I gotta remember my ear plugs and crank up the IPOD to not hear all the whining about the road closures for THAT annual event.

I am just getting a bit scared -- cause lately the guests (yes, even the SG and even the DRUNK ones) are sounding so much more reasonable than the Cast!

Ideas?

mapo

[Zazu]

I am just getting a bit scared -- cause lately the guests (yes, even the SG and even the DRUNK ones) are sounding so much more reasonable than the Cast!

Ideas?

When life gives you "food and whine" season, take part in "food and wine"! :winetost:

[Shorty82]

Either find another way home or just wait the road closures out. The view of the fireworks from West Clock is a unique one. Bitching about it isn't going to help. After 10 years if perimeter road closures surprise you and/or you don't know alternate routes to or from work then there's something wrong! I'll admit I was surprised about a perimeter road closure before, I hadn't been a CM long and had spent my day off at Epcot or somewhere. I was headed home that evening going the way I knew, going around the MK, when I got stopped by the closure for a Pirate and Princess Party (remember those?). I had to find another way home and I did without getting to lost in the process. I learned that night to keep track of the party schedule and to learn alternate ways home from wherever I am on property. Over time I learned multiple ways I can go home from most anywhere on Disney property.

My excuse is that I was a relatively new CM who hadn't yet learned my way around property nor the importance of knowing the major events going on anywhere on property that may affect travel even if you aren't planning on going to that particular park that day.

[YANXWIN]

Please don't think that this problem is limited to cast members and visitors. I work in an industry where we close roads every day from early April to mid October. You can not even imagine the number of people who only know how to get to their house one way. If we close that way for a day, and explain it to them the day before, they go into full body convulsions and have a mental breakdown. We knock on every door affected and deliver a notice explaining the reasons and procedures. We talk to as many residents as possible and still cause havoc and chaos. It is awesome to hear some of the concerns. The "what if's" are my personal favorite. "What if I have a medical emergency in my home? Are the paramedics going to be able to get to my house?" I would like my response to be, "No, we are going to let you bleed to death while the medics are held back by the barricades." My real response, with kindness in my heart is, "Yes. We will move the barricades, fix the road after they drive in our material, and even clean their vehicles after the emergency is over." People are funny.

[hobie16]

I work in an industry where we close roads every day from early April to mid October.

Back on the Mainland our home was located at the entrance to a cul-de-sac. One of the neighbors who lived towards the back of the cul-de-sac was, and I'm cutting her a lot of slack, crazy.

The city determined our street was in need of repairs and decided to put down an asphalt slurry. That required the cul-de-sac to be closed so they sent out notices, put leaflets on windshields and posted a large sign a day before the work was to begin.

The day began with everyone moving their cars out, barriers going up and work starting. They had just finished laying down the slurry when the crazy neighbor showed up at the barrier. She demanded that she be let through. One of the workers tried to explain that her car would be covered with tar if she went through but she was having none of it. She backed up, drove over the curb onto the sidewalk to bypass the barriers, and headed up the street leaving two deep furrows behind her.

The workers must have been through this before as they pulled some tools off the trucks and pushed the slurry around to fill in the furrows. They were close to repairing them when "Crazy" came out of the house, fired up the car and drove out of the cul-de-sac leaving two more furrows in her wake.

I waited a couple of days before walking back in the cul-de-sac to see what her car looked like. What a mess. On the plus side she was never going to worry about getting the car undercoated.

[YANXWIN]

That's an awesome story dude. That is exactly what we do, and yes this has happened to us on multiple occasions. If the slurry hasn't set yet, we can try and smooth it out. The funniest part of this is what it leaves on the driveway and what they might possibly track into their houses. We had a crazy woman in Park City do this a few years ago and then go to the city and try and get us to clean her driveway. We had the traffic control documented so they knew she drove around the signs and they made her clean it herself.

When I was about 13, we were working at Bryce Canyon at a hotel just outside the park. Back then we the old "A" frame barricades made out of metal. I had a section of the hotel blocked off and a lady, I'm guessing about 70 or so, drove up to the row of barricades, got out of her car, moved one of those heavy beasts, got back in her car and drove to her supposed room (wrong room number). She got out and tracked the material all over and then got back in her car. I finally made it to her car after running dead sprint to her while screaming and watching this from across the complex. She yelled at me and said we would have to clean the carpets in her car and the sidewalk. The hotel owners knew what went on and told her to go pound sand. I'm a little older now and have seen a lot of things in my day, but that is one of my favorites. I have some other great ones if time permits.

[DisneyMom]

Not Park Related, but my favorite road closure story was the one where the SUPER bright school bus driver went PAST the "Road Closed" signs taking my son and another special needs student home-it had been raining the day before, quite torrential, and said driver discovered the wall of mud and water beyond those signs. To his credit, he tried to turn around, but by then he either got stuck or water flooded the engine. We were wondering why my kid was late home when we got a call from the Transportation Supervisor for the school asking us if we were watching the news.....The copters were filming everything from overhead. A swift-water team was employed to rescue the stranded passengers. The video made the Countdown with Keith Olbermann that night, and the Bus Driver is presumably working as someone's Supervisor as we speak.

[shilohmm]

We were waiting in traffic once to go down the far right lane of a usually three-lane road, watching them put the last finishing touches on the left two lanes of nice, fresh asphalt, when a city bus driver pulled out, veered over to the left lane, and trundled down to the blocked-off road he wanted, leaving deep tracks in his wake and completely ignoring the construction guy directing traffic.

First time I ever saw an non-actor fling his hard hat to the ground. He then picked up his hat, stomped over and gave the bus driver a Stern Talking To. Beautiful demonstration of a guy righteously losing his temper; he stayed on focus and never crossed the line to abuse or revenge, but that bus driver definitely got the message.

[YANXWIN]

Better than hitting the car going around the flagger and the flagger hitting the car with his stop/slow paddle as he went by. Oh, did I mention that the car was an off duty cop? I got to play mediator on site for that one. Needless to say, they were both in the wrong.

[felinefan]

When I was in 7th grade, there had been a pretty good rain a few days before this happened. I lived in El Toro at the time--now called Lake Forest--and some streets were still dirt roads. The one my school bus was driving on was one of those dirt roads, and we were coming home from school. Well, the bus got stuck in the mud, and try as he might, the bus driver couldn't get the bus out of the mud. So he called for help. So we calmly sat in the bus, talking, getting ahead on our homework, etc.. Next thing we know, there's the supervisor, another bus, and the fire department. The fire department helped us off the bus and we got one the rescue bus. the rescue bus took a detour, and we all had an interesting story to tell our parents when we got home. The kicker was seeing the picture of the still-stranded bus, empty of students, in the local newspaper. Wish we'd cut it out and kept it. Maybe we did, but it got lost in moving.

Not park-related, but still one would think the bus driver would've seen the mud and called to ask for a route change.