Maleficent Dragon Caught Fire

The fire-breathing dragon caught fire during the afternoon parade at the Magic Kingdom. So that's the biggest news out of Disney yesterday.



Ouch! I hope they will repair or rebuild it, because this was the highlight of that parade!

Zz.

Fatal Accident at Disney Race Track

... and they were already planning on closing it this summer.

A tragic accident at the Disney race track in WDW left the passenger of a Lamborghini dead and the driver hurt.

It wasn't immediately clear if the driver was a track employee or a customer. The driver was hospitalized with minor injuries. The passenger was a 36-year-old man from Davenport.

I wonder if Disney will just pull the plug on the whole thing now and end it immediately after this accident.

Zz.

Disneyland Toontown Evacuated After Explosion

Thanks to Gene for pointing to the news.

Even Disneyland is not immune to people who are stupid.

A small explosion from an apparent dry ice "bomb" at Disneyland's Toontown on Tuesday afternoon forced officials to evacuate people from the popular area, law enforcement authorities said.

No injuries were reported from the blast, which rocked the theme park about 5:30 p.m., the Anaheim Police Department said. Toontown, a popular area for families with small children, was reopened about two hours later, police said.

The dry ice appeared to have been placed in a plastic bottle that was left in a trash can and the explosion was confined to the can, police said.

The device appeared similar to other devices that have exploded in Anaheim neighborhoods in recent months, Sgt. Bob Dunn said.

Like I said, whoever did this should be eliminated from the gene pool and not allowed to propagate their stupidity.

So now what? The bag check security will look out for dry ice? In a cooler?

Zz.

Earthquake at Disneyland

They were either testing a new attraction or there was an earthquake at Disneyland.  A 4.1 tremor was felt at DLR on Aug 29, according to this story at wdwinfo.com. 

The rides at the Disneyland Resort were shut down briefly, but after safety testing, were then opened back up. At 2:00, a visitor at the theme park posted that they "felt the quake at Ariel's just a few bumps no shaking."

So, which is worse: a hurricane at WDW or an earthquake at DLR?  I would rather deal with a hurricane which at least has plenty of advance warning.

Santa asked to change clothes at WDW

Santa was visiting WDW in the middle of summer, or at least that's what people must have thought.  Disney asked "Santa" (aka Thomas Tolbert) to change his clothes so as not to confuse people.  This story was reported by wdwinfo.com and many other sources.

Disney released a statement about the incident, saying, "The guest was asked to change his attire because it was disruptive to our operations and confusing to our other guests, particularly children who asked to take photos with him. He was not asked to leave, instead, we tried to work with him so that he could continue his visit."

For those with a devious streak, you could get someone to dress as a large squirrel and head for the monorail at MK. How far would the squirrel get?

Here's a photo of Thomas Tolbert
 

Characters In Flight Balloon Ride Pulled

Following an accident on a similar balloon at Hong Kong Disneyland, the Characters in Flight Balloon ride at Disneyland Paris and Downtown Disney at Walt Disney World has been pulled for inspection.

The Standard, an English-language news Web site in Hong Kong, reports that five people were injured when a balloon sprang a leak and plunged to the ground from a height of more than 60 yards on Thursday. None of the injuries was serious.

There is no word yet on when — or if — the balloon will resume ferrying passengers into the sky above Downtown Disney.

Oh my!

Zz.

Central Florida Theme Park Injury report

A number of sources have reported on the 1st quarter 2012 Central Florida Theme Park Injury Report.  This story from DIS News is referenced because it has the most detail, but it contains one error worth mentioning.  Based on all the other sources, WDW had only 10 injuries, not 16 as reported.  WDW, Universal and Legoland had a total of 16 injuries between them.  Note that the injury report also contains medical incidents, such as heart attacks and seizures.  Given the number of people who attend the parks, this number of reported incidents seems pretty low.  Some people no doubt have pre-existing medical conditions which they may or may not be aware of.

Drunk Loser at Tower of Terror Attraction, DCA

Not only should you not be this stupid to be totally drunk while on Disney property, but you DO know that nowadays, almost everything that happens stays on YouTube.

A belligerent and drunken man (always a good combination) had to be pepper-sprayed a few times outside of the Tower of Terror attraction at Disney's California Adventure. Of course, someone was there to preserve this stupidity for eternity and uploaded it on YouTube.




Hum... a lifetime ban from entering any Disney theme parks? Yeah, that sounds about right.

Zz.

Final Report On Monorail Collision

The NTSB has issued its final report on the tragic monorail collision from two years ago that killed a Disney monorail operator.

The agency faulted Disney itself in three areas.

First, investigators noted that the resort did not require its employees to follow an operating guide in which monorail drivers were supposed to switch from the front cab of their trains to the back cab before driving in reverse, so they could operate the trains while in a forward-facing position. The driver of the train that hit Wuennenberg's trains told NTSB investigators that it was "not an uncommon practice" for trains to back through track switches while drivers were still operating their trains from the front cab.

In addition, NTSB noted that Disney's policies did not require that the central coordinator be stationed in the control tower when directing monorail movements. The tower is equipped with both a grid showing how the monorail beams are aligned and an emergency shutdown switch that can stop all trains on the tracks.

Lastly, the resort's procedures did not require that the employee in the monorail shop responsible for operating the track switches verify that the beam had been realigned after entering the switch command into a control panel.

One can only hope that something that is this preventable would not occur again.

Zz.

A Dropped Backpack Stopped California Screamin'

Oy vey! I would be royally pissed if this happened to me.

A dropped backpack onto the tracks of California Screamin' at DCA stopped the roller coaster in its tracks, literally!

A dropped backpack has brought a roller coaster to a halt at Disney California Adventure in Anaheim, prompting the rescue of 24 people from the ride.


Disneyland Resort spokeswoman Suzi Brown says the California Screamin’ ride came to an automatic stop around 6:30 p.m. Friday when someone’s backpack fell onto the track.

The question is, where exactly can a guest accidentally drop a backpack onto the tracks of California Screamin'? The only place that I remember where guests can actually look DOWN onto the tracks is right at the launching area. Here's a picture to illustrate my point.

But dropping a backpack on here doesn't require that much of an effort to "rescue" the guests. Besides, one can just not start the ride. So my guess is that this dropped backpack happened elsewhere, but where? Does anyone else know where, along the ride, can a guest drop something like a backpack onto the tracks?

Zz.

Woman Unconscious After Space Mountain Ride

Unfortunately, another medical situation occurred on a Disney attraction, this time, on MK's Space Mountain.

Walt Disney World shut down its popular Space Mountain attraction for inspections Saturday after a woman was found unconscious at the end of the ride.
.
.
.
According to Assistant Chief Bo Jones, the woman was unconscious but had a pulse and was breathing on her own when transported.

Hopefully, it was just from too much "excitement" and nothing serious or due to an established medical conditions.

Zz.

Monorail Crash Lawsuit Voluntarily Dismissed

The lawsuit brought about by the mother of the monorail pilot that was killed in the accident has been voluntarily dismissed.

A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the mother of a Walt Disney World monorail worker killed in 2009 while he was on the job has been voluntarily dismissed, according to court records.

Part of the court record is now sealed, but an electronic records shows the case was "dismissed pursuant to settlement after hearing."

I'm guessing that both sides have reached a settlement on this. It was a tragic event, nevertheless, something that should have never happened.

Zz.

Earthquake and Tsunami Stranded Guests At Tokyo Disneyland

The effect of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan yesterday has effected Tokyo Disneyland. Reports are coming in that the parking lot is flooded and that guests are stranded at the theme park. It also seems that the roads leading away from the resort may also not be safe to travel.

Hopefully, no one was injured.

Zz.

Disney Dream Near Collision Exaggerated

I'm not sure what they consider as a near collision for large ships like this. I'm sure the standard is very different for when the ships are at full speeds versus when they are in the port trying to maneuver themselves into place.

That is what I think happened here. It appears that the Disney Dream got to roughly 20-30 feet of a Royal Caribbean ship that was docked. I like the description given by one of the passengers on the Royal Caribbean:

According to the description, the amateur videographer was standing on the Monarch during a safety drill when the Dream "began to turn around."

"Mickey got closer.... and Closer.... AND CLOSER!!!!!" the descriptions says. "We were all certainly bracing for the BUMP!!!!"

.. and this is bad?

:)

Anyway, better not ruin that ship before *I* get on it!

Zz.

Disney Cast Member Hit By Tomorrowland Speedway Car

Oh, I am so longing to hear how this actually happened.

Several news reports are reporting that a Disney cast member was hit by one of the cars in the Tomorrowland Speedway at The Magic Kingdom yesterday. No, really!

Reedy Creek Fire Rescue said they responded to the call at 12:53 p.m. after the cast member stepped in front of the moving vehicle.

The cast member suffered leg injuries and was flown to the hospital by helicopter.

One just doesn't step in front of a moving vehicle, so there must be more to the story than this.

Zz.

Orlando's SeaWorld Trainer Killed by Killer Whale

Not a Disney news, but still, it's tragic news.

A SeaWorld trainer in Orlando was killed after she slipped and fell into a pool, and then attacked by a killer whale.

"The trainer was explaining different things about the whale, and then the trainer that was down there walked away from the window. Then [the whale] took off really fast in the tank, and he came back, shot up in the air, grabbed the trainer by the waist and started thrashing [her] around," Biniak said.

Wow. This is horrifying.

Condolences go to the trainer's family and friends. This is just tragic.

Zz.

Fatal Acciddent at "Indiana Jones Stunt Show"

Oh no!

They are not having a very good year over there at WDW. A cast member rehearsing for s stunt for the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular Show got hurt and has now been pronounced dead from the injuries. This is just horrible!

This is the 3rd fatality in 7 months at WDW. It started with the awful monorail accident, and barely a week ago, a performer died due to a freak accident during a Pirates show.

When we were there this past June, a performer got hurt while doing some tumbling during the Indiana Jones Stunt show, but it looks like it was a twisted ankle or something. They stopped the show while they took care of the injured cast member. And I think this isn't the first time this has happened. It is a show full of stunts, and accidents do happen, even occasionally. I think the same goes for Lights, Motor, Action!

Our thoughts go out to the family and friends of the cast member.

Zz.

2 Disney Busses Collided

As if Disney needs another bad reputation for their transportation, now comes news report of a bus collision.

The rear-end crash happened about 2:40 p.m. when one southbound bus stopped to merge as the World Drive narrowed from three to two lanes, said Sgt. Kim Miller, an FHP spokeswoman. The second bus, which was traveling slowly, did not stop in time.

Oy vey!

Zz.

Full NTSB Statement On Disney Monorail Crash

The NTSB has released the possible scenario for the WDW Monorail crash. It looks like several of the earlier guesses by a number of people on what might have happened are quite close to the NTSB's version.

The one thing that still is a bit confusing for me is this part:

The Pink train was then instructed to back through the track switch, towards the Magic Kingdom loop. At about the same time, the Purple train, which was inbound to the TTC station, was instructed to stop at the station to detrain passengers. For undetermined reasons that are currently under investigation, the switch had not changed position needed to allow the Pink train to be routed to the Magic Kingdom loop, which resulted in the Pink train backing down the same track it had just come from, putting it on a collision course with the Purple train. The Pink train passed through the TTC station and struck the Purple train while it was outside the station.

So, was the Purple train already moving backwards when it got stuck? If it was detraining the passengers, it should be fully in the train when it got struck, and stationary. So how come it was struck "while it was outside the station"? The only possible reason for this would be that Purple was already reversing itself and not moving fast enough outside of the station. But this doesn't make any sense either.

Now I'm confused.

Zz.

WDW Monorail Back Online

The WDW Monorail is back in operation.

After the dust has settled a few days after the tragic event at WDW, we are now getting a little bit clearer picture on the event itself.

The announcement came as other investigators looking into Sunday's crash appeared to zero in on what may have been a botched attempt to switch a train from one track to another.

The crash early Sunday occurred as one of Disney's trains was supposed to be using a spur to transfer from the resort's Epcot line to a Magic Kingdom line so it could return to the maintenance bay for the night.

But the switch was never completed. Instead, the train apparently moved in reverse back down the Epcot line -- with an onboard collision-avoidance system likely on override -- and slammed into a second train carrying a handful of passengers.

Someone at work asked me the other day if I would ride in the front cab again. I replied, without hesitation, that I would. When this all happened, and before I even heard of the circumstances, I had a very strong belief that what happened was a result of a "non-standard" or "non-operational" maneuver that they were trying to execute. In other words, this would not occur under normal, operating conditions. And after this tragedy, the monorail system will be even safer than before, which was already damn safe as it was.

So yes, if they let me, I would ride in the front cab this very second.

Zz.