I know this is going to seem somewhat hypocritical (not to mention bizarre) for a webmaster to say something like this … But — you know — you can’t believe everything that you read on the Internet.
Take — for example — the rumors that are currently flying around the Web about the ultimate fate of Disneyland’s “Big Thunder Mountain” attraction. Were you to believe some of the stories that have been popping up on various Disneyana discussion boards, it would seem like the Walt Disney Company is getting ready to send a wrecking crew out to Anaheim tonight. And that these burly guys will soon be tearing down “Big Thunder Mountain” to make way for a brand new Frontierland ride. Something that (no doubt) moves very slowly and probably involves pillows.
Well, after calling a few folks fairly high up in the Mouse House food chain, let me state for the record that Disneyland’s “Big Thunder Mountain” ain’t going anywhere. That — following a two or three week long investigation — this Frontierland attraction will reopen for business later this summer. And that — God willing — the “Wildest Ride in the Wilderness” will probably run for many decades yet to come.
How do I know this? I can give you three very good reasons: The “Big Thunder Mountain” attraction at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, the “Big Thunder Mountain” attraction at Tokyo Disneyland and the “Big Thunder Mountain” attraction at Disneyland – Paris.
To put it bluntly here, folks: “Big Thunder Mountain” is a franchise for the Mouse. A pretty popular (And — more importantly — profitable) one at that. And — were the Walt Disney Company to ever permanently close this Disneyland thrill ride for “safety reasons” — that would put the “unsafe” taint on all of the other “Big Thunder” attractions operating around the globe. And Disney’s financial partners (I.E. The Oriental Land Company and EuroDisney SCA) just wouldn’t stand for that.
So Disney’s going to do its damnedest to try & quickly find out why this Frontierland attraction has had such a run of bad luck lately. (Though — from what I’ve been told — both last Thursday’s incident as well as March’s unfortunate collision between two empty trains appear to be a case of pure operator error. As in: The cast members who were manning Disneyland’s “Big Thunder” seem to have lost track of where the trains actually were in the station area. Which is what ultimately caused these two unfortunate incidents.) Then — after the current investigation’s complete — look for the Walt Disney Company to mount a huge PR campaign to try & convince the public that “Big Thunder” is once again safe to ride.
Of course, when this happens, look for Disney’s PR flacks to issue a statement saying that brand new safeguards & procedures have been put into place which virtually guarantees that something like this will never happen again. Which will only make longtime Disneyland employees laugh …
“Why would longtime Disneyland employees laugh about something like that?,” you ask. Here, let me let you in one of the Anaheim theme park’s deep dark little secrets. This trains-bumping-into-one-another-in-the-station-area thing? It’s been going on for years.
Mind you, we’re not talking about horrific accidents like last September’s crash which claimed the life of poor Marcelo Torres. Or even unfortunate incidents like what happened back in March of 1998 when 5-year-old David Fackler got his foot crushed as the train he was riding rolled into the attraction’s offload area. Which resulted in this little boy losing several toes.
No, I’m talking about your garden variety scuffs & bumps. When someone at the “Big Thunder Mountain” operating console accidentally misjudges the distance between trains in the loading/unloading area and/or isn’t paying attention for a few seconds and forgets to switch the track over as they’re bringing a trainload of guests into the station.
Said one Disneyland vet (who — for obvious reasons — asked not to be identified):
Since this attraction first opened back in 1979, we’ve probably had at least one incident like this for every year “Big Thunder” ‘s been in operation. Where trains would bump into one another in the load/offload area. Or a train would come to a sudden stop while the ride was in motion, giving everyone on board a nasty scare as well as some bumps & bruises.
Of course, this was before the state was paying such close attention to theme park safety problems. More importantly, this was back in the day when Disney actually had a reputation for keeping its guests safe, treating its customers right.
So — when something like this would happen — Disneyland’s managers would rush on over to Frontierland, armed with pocketloads of free passes to the park, free meal coupons, even vouchers for several nights stay at the Disneyland Hotel. And then — after apologizing profusely to all the agitated guests and then offering to refund everyone’s admission price to the park that day — they’d then begin handing out all those free tickets & food vouchers. Usually, that was enough to do the trick. Which is why incidents like this never ever made into the papers.
Of course, there were always those people who couldn’t be bought off with free Disneyland passes or food coupons. They’d hold their necks, cry “whiplash” and threaten to sic their attorneys on us. All we’d ask them to do — before they talked with reporters — was to have their lawyers call Disney’s legal department. That’s when we’d typically offer a cash settlement if they’d agree to keep quiet. All those nondisclosure forms really helped keep the company’s reputation for guest safety intact.
Mind you, this was back in the ’70s, ’80s, even early ’90s. Before people got jaded and greedy. Nowadays everyone wants their turn in the spotlight. So — when something like this happens — they’re quick to contact the press.
And — in the age of mobile phones & the Internet — it’s obviously a whole harder to sweep these sorts of things under the rug. Not that we don’t still try, mind you. But after Marcelo Torres’ death, “Big Thunder” is obviously on everyone’s radar. So whenever anyone so much as gets a paper cut while riding this attraction, we’ve got news copters flying over Frontierland.
So — sure — Disney will undoubtedly spend the next few weeks cooperating with DOSH. Doing everything they can to help speed along this investigation. I’d even anticipate that the company will OK making some pretty sweeping changes to the station area this time around. Doing everything they can to help improve sightlines for the operator, so that it’s that much easier for cast members to keep track of where the trains actually are once they finish their run and enter the station area.
But will this new set of precautions actually prevent accidents from ever happening again on Disneyland’s “Big Thunder Mountain” ride? I doubt it.
If this ride’s historic pattern holds, we’re still going to see more incidents like what happened back in March, what happened last week. Relatively minor incidents. But — as for what happened to that poor Torres kid and little David Fackler — hopefully we’ve seen the end of that sort of accident.
But let’s face facts, Jim: “Big Thunder Mountain” is a piece of very heavy, extremely complicated equipment operated by humans. And humans make mistakes. You can put all the safeguards you want in place, but humans still make mistakes.
So — yes — I think that Disneyland’s “Big Thunder Mountain” is going to have more of these trains-bumping-in-the-station-area incidents in the future. I just hope that — once we get this ride reopened later this summer — that we don’t have another incident like this for another couple of years.
“Big Thunder Mountain” needs to be an accident-free zone for the next couple of years. Otherwise, people will always refer to it as the ride that that guy died on. The Disneyland attraction where the trains keep crashing into one another. And — in order for Disneyland to continue to be thought of as a safe & friendly place to take a family — we really can’t afford to have any more incidents like this.
So there you have it, folks. These bumping-in-the-station-area incidents HAVE happened before with Disneyland’s “Big Thunder Mountain” ride. Perhaps dozens of times over the past 25 years. But — because Disney’s usually been able to play these incidents down, keep stories of these accidents out of the press — we’ve never really heard about them … Til now.
Which brings up an interesting question: Have any of you JHM readers ever been involved in something like this at a Disney theme park? Where a ride or attraction malfunctioned on you? Which resulted in Disney reps swarming all over you? Offering you theme park tickets, meal coupons or even hotel vouchers? If you just agreed to forget about the incident?
Inquiring minds wanna know.
Your thoughts?