people who get mad at breakdowns

[americawestguy]

whenever a ride broke down and i was in line sweeping, people would ask me why the ride broke down. i wanted to say "how would i know that, i am not working the ride". or i would try to be creative and say well the snakes got loose in indy. then guests would get mad, and want to know the real reason.
it is like mamn your not going to understand, so why should i tell you even if i knew.
you are not to understand that something stalled on lift b or something that.

[Yeti Chaser]

A new twist on "my dog ate my homework" response ala Disney.......... "The Yeti got loose in the mountain chasing after a yak. Chris, whose turn was it to feed the Yeti today ? " That type of remark usually leaves the guest even more stumped :confused: because they know they won't get a "real" answer. This is usually after the guest has heard from every other CM "we are down due to technical difficulties". They might be still mad, but that's life..............

[darph nader]

It's all about being selfish. Just tell them "It's probably the Apollo 1 syndrome,or a major malfuntion in the Heisenberg compensater". :cool:

That will baffle the hell out of them. :confused:

[mentu]

after having to deal with this question so many times, I will no longer ask people how much longer the ride is down.

Honestly, sometimes you get a phone call to stop people at Greeter and you wait until you get a call to re-open and that is all the information you are given.

[mechurchlady]

No matter what you say someone will get angry or not think your answer was funny, correct or sufficient.

It is also a common guest misconception that all staff know everything there needs to be known about a business. If the staff does not know then they will immediately be able to call someone who can take care of the problem or answer the question. Some guests will get bullistic if you do not know the answer. Never give out false information as that can get you in trouble and face the fact that no matter what you do there are still going to be upset people.

From years of public service I have learned that you are broiled if you do and broiled if you do not. Sorry but you know that phrase. They are the same people who demand to know why the shake machine is not working, why the doctor is late, why goldenrod colored paper is out of stock, or why they the part needed for their car is still in a warehouse in Japan. Make some people laugh or feel good and ignore the rest.

Not a cm, never will be and opinionate me advice from years attending parks and working with customers.

[darph nader]

Churchy,you can say "darned' if you want.We wont think any less of you. :)

[BirdMom]

We had a horrid 8-hour breakdown on Pirates the day of the O.J. Simpson car chase, so we were telling the guests that O.J. was loose in the ride, and no one got it (before the days of streaming news).

[mechurchlady]

I was not thinking of having fixed socks as in darned but as in the word that you say when the beavers dammed up the river behind your house which is now flooded.

I do not drink, do drugs, or use tobacco ever in my life so cussing is my weakness and major sin after gambling probably. You should see me on this one board where i was mad at a dude who got very drunk and while keeping him from going to jail I hurt my achilles tendon. Boy can i cuss at times.

Who just poked me?

[Notatourist]

My thing about cursing, Churchy, is when you use similar, and correct words from the dictionary. It's harder for folks to understand, but it gets the job done.

Although I have been known to use passhole when needed.

[Scream162]

I like using themed phrases just like some of the ones mentioned above.

At Pirates for any 101: "After 39 years, the dog at the jail finally gave up the keys. The pirates escaped and are now pillaging about. We cannot re-open until we get them back inside their cell."

At HM when Leota's projector goes out of alignment: "Madam Leota has lost her head."

[mechurchlady]

My thing about cursing, Churchy, is when you use similar, and correct words from the dictionary. It's harder for folks to understand, but it gets the job done.

Although I have been known to use passhole when needed.
I been banned and in trouble enough in life and being a churchlady as the title, well, people do not cotton to me cussing. I got to live up to my title just like Zazu lives up to his title.

[PirateJohn]

A guy from security taught me the best response when people would ask why a ride is broken -- "I broke it."

Stops people dead in their tracks. Gotta say it convincingly, though.

[darph nader]

A guy from security taught me the best response when people would ask why a ride is broken -- "I broke it."

Stops people dead in their tracks. Gotta say it convincingly, though.

I am Spartacus.
NO, I'm Spartacus. :rolleyes:

[felinefan]

I used to tell people at Knott's that machines break down occaisonally, but that we were working hard to get the ride fixed. Not as fun but it did the job.

[Mansion Butler]

I like using themed phrases just like some of the ones mentioned above.

At Pirates for any 101: "After 39 years, the dog at the jail finally gave up the keys. The pirates escaped and are now pillaging about. We cannot re-open until we get them back inside their cell."

At HM when Leota's projector goes out of alignment: "Madam Leota has lost her head."

When our Leota (who likes it very much firmly planted on her table, thank you) goes out, I like to say she's taken an unscheduled break.

[GMC]

This works every time. Many theories on why, probably all valid.

G: What happened?
GM: We've run out of spoons.
G: Oh, ok.
and they were never heard from agian!

G:Is the ride working
GM: no, we're temporaly closed.
G:Why?
GM: No spoons.
g: no spoons?
gm: No spoons.
g: so like what really happened?
gm: well, we had a lot of spoons, and then we ran out. You cannot run a roller coaster without spoons, R have you ever heard of running a roller coaster without spoons?
R:I hate you so much, GM
GM: See, just like I said, no spoons. Sorry.
i've sent people away laughing and crying, but never sure or what had just happened.

R of course is whoever is out front with me.
other options for CM "R" are as follows
R:...
R:Yup
R:What the hell are you talking about GM?
R:Out of spoons.
R:I thought It was the goat and the crow agian?
GM:Nope, spoons is what they told me.
R: ooof, bad news, come back in four hours, that should give us some time to fill out the DR22sbBLUE forms and get the spoons shipped in.
R:GM, I, R, am telling you this. I HATE YOU. It was an M.E.S. for a safety violation on A lift. Yes little billy, if you stand up on rides, we have to shut them down so you won't fall out and DIE, then we send you home early!(only got that one once. He was having a bad day)

[SWTexasBelle]

I will ask a CM "Do you have any idea how long the ride will be down?" and usually get "No", which is fine - but I have been told "Probably 1 - 2 hours" which was helpful cause I could then plan when to come back. I always figure the poor CM who drew the short stick and has to tell everyone to go away probably has no idea what's wrong with the ride - and I'd much rather the ride be closed then possibly dangerous or full of, um, a protein spill.

[BirdMom]

I will ask a CM "Do you have any idea how long the ride will be down?" and usually get "No", which is fine - but I have been told "Probably 1 - 2 hours" which was helpful cause I could then plan when to come back.

Here's the deal - if a CM is not inside the ride during a breakdown and doesn't happen to be in the vicinity when the mechanics and leads are discussing the nature of the problem, they honestly have no idea how long it's going to be before the attraction is working again.

Sometimes it's a little thing on one of the older attractions that doesn't require a computer related reset of 30-50 minutes and sometimes it's a big thing, like in the case of our 8-hour Pirates breakdown when the rear axel of the back load belt disintigrated and one had to be fabricated from scratch since there were no spare parts of this nature.

You just never know, so it's sort of unfair to expect the poor CM out front sending people away to know the exact nature of all the whys, hows and how longs. They aren't omnicient.

I also have a thing against SG's at the entry turnstyles of the Parks asking the poor Ticket Takers if they know if a particular ride is working again. Look around - the people at the turnstyles don't have radios, intercoms or telephones, nor are they connected to Attractions in any other way so how on earth would they know if a ride is back up from a down time??? Have some common sense people!!!

[Polar33]

I also have a thing against SG's at the entry turnstyles of the Parks asking the poor Ticket Takers if they know if a particular ride is working again. Look around - the people at the turnstyles don't have radios, intercoms or telephones, nor are they connected to Attractions in any other way so how on earth would they know if a ride is back up from a down time??? Have some common sense people!!!
I got that quite a bit back when I was working on the wagons. I'd be asked if a ride clear on the other side of the park was running. Every time the answer was always "I see no reason why it couldn't be". It was never quite the answer they wanted, but it wasn't a lie.

[The Canuck]

This past summer when the child unfortunatly died on the Rock'N Rollercoaster, I was in training for ODF (ODV) in Epcot, and had someone ask me if I knew if the Rock'N Rollercoaster was working again yet.

Not only was I no where near it, I was in a whole different park! I literally told them that I had no clue it wasn't working, and my trainer gave them a phone number for the Disney/MGM Studios that they could call for information.

Still though, it's not like all 67000 WDW employees are telekinetically connected!

[leftcoaster]

Still though, it's not like all 67000 WDW employees are telekinetically connected!

"I see no reason why you couldn't be."

[BRWombat]

"I see no reason why you couldn't be."
rofl, leftcoaster!

[hobie16]

Still though, it's not like all 67000 WDW employees are telekinetically connected!
John Lasiter is working on that. :D:

[bpgstudios]

Yes, BirdMom is right. though even sometimes you could be right there and still not know what happened. I was at Pan merge one afternoon, and the ride stopped. I looked over to load, and couldnt figure out why we stopped. I had guests asking me how long. And I was right next to the load belt, and still didn't know. So reality is, nobody can give a definite answer. Read your park ticket: All entertainment subject to change.

[kurtisnelson]

Still though, it's not like all 67000 WDW employees are telekinetically connected!
Then how do all of you know when the 3:00 parade is? And that it is going to be raining tomarrow? And that the wait time REALLY is 60 minutes?

[EpcotFan]

To be fair, I've sometimes received very useful information from the cast member at greet when a ride is down. I'll accept "sorry we don't know yet" because I understand that in the event of a mechanical failure, it takes some time to determine what needs to be done to fix the ride. But I've also sometimes found out that a ride definitely won't be back up that day (in the case of Thunder Mountain when the maintenance people decided to start a scheduled down period a few days earlier) to "check back later this afternoon". I wouldn't expect a ODV cart CM to know about a ride's status, but if anyone would have the info I would expect it to be the CM at greet for that ride or the CM at the ride times board near the hub. So its stupid to get mad about a breakdown (although you can't blame a guest for being disappointed) I don't think it stupid to ask if you know when its going to be back up.

[darph nader]

Too bad you just can't tell them "Yes folks,the ride heard YOU were coming and broke down just to piss YOU off ". :twisted:

[LinaraQ]

MY biggest pet peeve is when people come to my shop and yell at me or my cast members about the ride going down. Like we had anything to do with it.

The other night, Space Mtn went down at 2130 for an e-stop and did not reopen since we closed at 2200 that night. At about 5 till 10, this SG comes up to me at the photo location and starts screaming about how he was stuck for 30 minutes, missed the fireworks (which were cancelled anyway) and he wanted to speak to guest services. I tried to calm him down, call Space (who didn't answer the phone), and help him, but he just kept yelling and then stormed off. Maybe he just wanted to yell... I guess next time I won't try to help... Don't know what I could have done for him anyway as we were closed by the time he left... LOL

[DLRFantasmic!Dan]

I'll accept "sorry we don't know yet" because I understand that in the event of a mechanical failure, it takes some time to determine what needs to be done to fix the ride. But I've also sometimes found out that a ride definitely won't be back up that day (in the case of Thunder Mountain when the maintenance people decided to start a scheduled down period a few days earlier) to "check back later this afternoon".

But we can't say that we don't know and we definitely can't give them a definite time the ride will open back up again.

[DevilDuckie]

MY biggest pet peeve is when people come to my shop and yell at me or my cast members about the ride going down. Like we had anything to do with it.

The other night, Space Mtn went down at 2130 for an e-stop and did not reopen since we closed at 2200 that night. At about 5 till 10, this SG comes up to me at the photo location and starts screaming about how he was stuck for 30 minutes, missed the fireworks (which were cancelled anyway) and he wanted to speak to guest services. I tried to calm him down, call Space (who didn't answer the phone), and help him, but he just kept yelling and then stormed off. Maybe he just wanted to yell... I guess next time I won't try to help... Don't know what I could have done for him anyway as we were closed by the time he left... LOLHeh. One the last night of out trip, the fireworks got cancelled due to wind. One member of out party had really been wanting to see them and quietly expressed her disappointment to the rest of us on the monorail.

Another woman heard her and *flipped out*. Started screaming and ranting about how they'd BETTER do fireworks and she'd paid all this money and blah blah and she'd MAKE them do fireworks.

:rolleyes:

My friend said watching the lady get all freaky was almost as good as the fireworks.

[LittleDollClaudia]

That reminds of of a guest we had here who was majorly pissed off that he had scheduled his vacation at a time when the fireworks shows were only on weekends. He was staying Sun.-Thurs and he yelled at us about even though he was PROMISED a fireworks view room, why didn't we call Disney and demand that they have the show so his kids wouldn't be upset? Then he had the gall to ask for his money back because we had no authority over Disney. We didn't give in and finally he just accepted it and shut-up. I bet you he checks the website now before he goes on vacation! Or maybe not, he is an SG..

[darph nader]

What,PLAN AHEAD??? :eek: NEVERRRR. :mad: Shit,another board I belong to (we'll call it board X),you can ask the same question. Over,and over,and over.The best part is,you get the same answers,over,and over and over. :eek:
I mean how STUPID can you get? :confused:
(sorry,please don't answer that.I need a smoke.Be right back) :rolleyes:

[DLRFantasmic!Dan]

Another woman heard her and *flipped out*. Started screaming and ranting about how they'd BETTER do fireworks and she'd paid all this money and blah blah and she'd MAKE them do fireworks.

Oh, I love to see that!! I want to see a guest "make them" do the fireworks!!

[hobie16]

Oh, I love to see that!! I want to see a guest "make them" do the fireworks!!
Maybe they could get Don Rickles to drop his pants and fire a rocket. :eek:

[ktulu]

It amazes me that people don't realize that 1) rides need routine maintenance, 2) they occasionally breakdown, and 3) they need to be updated at some point. If Tomorrowland was never updated, they'd have to change the name. Yesteryearland just doesn't work for me.

[Mansion Butler]

But we can't say that we don't know and we definitely can't give them a definite time the ride will open back up again.

At the Magic Kingdom we're supposed to say we don't know. Even if we actually do know, which is rare, we're not supposed to detail the information. You're permitted to be clever and in character (the Pirates took an unscheduled break), but if you're not clever, or if a guest demands honesty, you're supposed to say that you don't know. Which is usually true, anyway.


We're NEVER to tell them when the ride will come back up, although we can suggest a time to come back by.

[DLRFantasmic!Dan]

At the Magic Kingdom we're supposed to say we don't know. Even if we actually do know, which is rare, we're not supposed to detail the information. You're permitted to be clever and in character (the Pirates took an unscheduled break), but if you're not clever, or if a guest demands honesty, you're supposed to say that you don't know. Which is usually true, anyway.

We're NEVER to tell them when the ride will come back up, although we can suggest a time to come back by.We tell the guests to check back every hour or so. We are also encouraged to use theme phrasing, such as "Star Command has been over run by Zurg, so Buzz Lighyear is fighing very valiantly to kick Zrurg out, but he is stubborn." and "Professor Wayne Szalinski blew up our power generator while conducting one of his experiments, so, we have no power." That way, the guests don't get mad and keep them entertained.

[bpgstudios]

I can't wait for the day when small world goes 101 and I have to say that thhat all the dolls hit puberty and had to be given helium and lots of coffee :p:
Or that they all went mad and viciously attacked a boat full of people.

At pan I tell people that the crocodile is loose and has been chasing captain hook all over the place, and that we have to catch them.

[leftcoaster]

I can't wait for the day when small world goes 101 and I have to say that thhat all the dolls hit puberty and had to be given helium and lots of coffee :p:
Or that they all went mad and viciously attacked a boat full of people.



"A boat full of people went postal after hearing the song, got out the boat and started attacking the dolls."

[BRWombat]

"A boat full of people went postal after hearing the song, got out the boat and started attacking the dolls."That's just as likely to be the actual reason. :eek: :D:

[LittleDollClaudia]

I admit that when I am a guest that I enjoy the reasons CM's come up with. There have been a few that made me laugh and although yes we know it's some technical problem, I like hearing that some cowboys did a holdup on Big Thunder or that the Abominable Snowman tried to eat the mountain climbers and he had to be tranquilized.

[darph nader]

I can't wait for the day when small world goes 101 and I have to say that thhat all the dolls hit puberty and had to be given helium and lots of coffee :p:
Or that they all went mad and viciously attacked a boat full of people.

At pan I tell people that the crocodile is loose and has been chasing captain hook all over the place, and that we have to catch them.

I kinda like the dolls hit puberty....and got BUSY! :twisted: