For those who can't walk or struggle walking, have you ever been on a ride where the guests needed to be evacuated?

[DisneyMama811]

I got the experience everyone dreams of...getting stuck on It's a Small World...haha! We sat in the boat for about an hour until they decided to get everyone off. (Also yes...they did play that dang song for most of that time. When they finally turned it off we knew we were really stuck). CM's came in the water wearing "wader" overalls and what not - they pulled the boats closer to the side for us to get off. I told them that my knees are terrible and they were bad after sitting scrunched in that boat for over an hour. They did ask if I needed full assistance (which I guess was calling the Fire Dept. to help) but I told them if they could offer hands to hold (and my son was there to help pull me up) that I could make it. I think I was the last one off and it was slooow going but I got off the boat. After that we walked out through the back of the ride (kinda cool).

I can see that if you weren't mobile at all or very little that this ride is one where they would have needed to call for some strong people to lift you up and into a stretcher or other device to take you out. I also think we went up or down stairs in the back stage of the ride (which I can do - just very slowly. In the end it was a very memorable experience cause everyone on the boat kind of bonded and chatted and then it was cool to get to walk all through the back of that ride. Plus I can tell everyone I really DID get stuck on the ride everyone jokes about getting stuck on - haha!

I wonder if there is some video that talks about how different rides are evacuated (always wondered about Peter Pan). All the times I've been that (Small World) was the only time I was evacuated cause the ride broke down. **also I think if they had called the fire dept. for an evacuation on that ride they would have parked in the rear and come through the back and helped the person out after others had gotten off so it wouldn't have been a big public production.

TPMvids on YouTube often does videos on "Disney Fails" which is usually ride break downs or animatronic malfunctions, often times they've shown footage (sent in by viewers) of various rides being evacuated, it's actually very interesting!

Supervisors were immediately on the scene and the first thing said to us were assurances that we were safe from any possible animal attacks. To tell the truth, that hadn’t even crossed my mind until they mentioned it. The rest of my party walked out and they said they went up and down a steep stepped area and a gate, so they definitely crossed over a containment berm.

What surprised me is that there were at least two, if not three, vehicles stopped behind us that also were evacuated. I couldn’t figure out why those weren’t simply turned around to go back. Apparently there’s no alternate route of getting them back to the unloading area.

The mechanics gave an estimate of 30 minutes to fix the tie rod once they had the parts and tools there. The time estimate ended up being right on target. I have to admit it was kind of fun.

I love this pic, one guy working 4 guys watching

 

[Goldelpack]

I used a scooter last week. One CM actually asked me about if I could walk down some stairs if I needed to be evacuated. Unfortunately, I can’t remember which one it was.

Every single time on Spaceship Earth! Thankfully I have am still pretty good at walking down, but not so for walking up

 

[HappyDisneyWife]

First, I want to say sorry that you have that fear in the back of your head @Simba's Mom … but I get it. My abilities vary pretty wildly depending on the current state of flare in my body. I usually walk unassisted around my home (we actually downsized to accommodate myself & our youngest daughter), but there are times that it is still a struggle, and I’m no longer able to do long walks, stairs, or ramps (without significant pain).

Well, I got stuck on Toy Story Midway Mania in the last year or two. I was in my motorized wheelchair, and I was not allowed any option except to wait for the Reedy Creek Fire Dept. It was the end of the night. I was in one “car” with my niece & my sister was in the other attached “car.” None of us were allowed to evacuate bc of my wheelchair. (Those “cars” are much higher off the ground than I had ever realized!!) My sister kept joking that we were being held hostage & tried all sorts of reasoning with them to let us out of there… but it was a hard no. We all had to wait. Since it wasn’t an actual emergency, we waited a very long time. They made sure to have at least one CM with us during our entire wait. It was quite memorable!! As we left, one of the kind CM’s suggested that we stop by guest services to see what they could do for us. We felt silly (we had been inconvenienced, yes, but not “wronged” in anyway), but my sister & I would never pass on possible pixie dust, so we went… and we explained to GS exactly what happened (especially telling them how wonderful the staff was in taking care of us!). We made sure they knew we were not there to complain. At the time, Rise was VQ only, and we hadn’t been able to ride it yet during that particular trip. My sister asked if there was anyway for us to get on it… but we were leaving for home the next day & our park pass was for a different park. Somehow, the gracious GS CM found a way to get us passes to Rise that we used the next morning! It really was a perfect end to our trip & we were so incredibly thankful!!!

So, even though I never want to go through that again.., they found a way for me to look back on it as part of a fond memory of yet another wonderful trip to Disney

 

[Simba's Mom]

Since you had such a long wait to be evacuated, maybe I should give a thought to making a rest room stop more often!