Rider needs during a shutdown

I've never been involved in a ride shutdown and left stranded in a car or on a lift I'm just curious how it works. I understand that it is more dangerous to remove the riders and after a prolonged wait the ride operator goes up and tells them to sit tight, while the problem is begin worked on but what about if there is an individual riders need. You hear people say "oh my gosh I'd pass out", well possibly but you're sitting there anyway, not like you'll fall out. I'm thinking along lines of bodily functions, gotta pee, throw up, or just bad sunbrun since you had to leave your hat in a locker. What, if anything, can employees do to alleviate the discomfort? That said I do use bathrooms as often as possible, never know how long line can be, especially after a few beers

Last edited by Maggie May,
99er's avatar

There isn't much that can be done for those situations. It really isn't much different than getting stuck on a subway, airport taxiway, in an elevator, etc. You hope it doesn't happen but the world isn't perfect so thats the risk you take when you board these type of machines.


Does anyone know what the weather was like yesterday in Sandusky? Across Erie in the Detroit area it was blistering hot around 2. That seems to me like it would be the worst part of getting stuck.

ImpulsivePhoenix's avatar

It was a hot day, sun would most certainly be blistering anyone stuck on a ride yesterday.


Sacrificing playing video games to ride roller coasters.

Cargo Shorts's avatar

One reason I always bring travel sized sunscreen with us. I have two very pale redhead boys that would fry without it and make them reapply every couple of hours.

DSShives's avatar

I got stuck on CCMR once for an extended time with a storm blowing in off of the lake. The lightning made for an impressive light show but not exactly the place you want to be in a storm. We did manage to get back going after about 25 mins or so in a massive downpour.


Steve Shives
First Cedar Point Visit - 1972
Dockholder-Cedar Point Marina

I’ve been stuck three times. Once on the Condor ride at Hersheypark, once on Manta at SWO, and the other on Peoplemover at WDW.
The one at Hershey was quite a long time up there. While I knew we’d be safe, I could hear every creak and feel every knock so little thoughts started creeping in. Mainly, “how the hell are we gonna get down from here?” while I pictured myself trying to get from the swinging car to a fireman’s ladder. They eventually cranked it down so we could get out and I was looking for an exit pass. But no, they passed out tickets for a small Coca Cola.
On Manta we had just rolled out of the station and the front part of the train had started up the lift. It wouldn’t have been so bad if we hadn’t been suspended face down the whole time. It finally got hard for everyone to hold there heads up. We wound up finishing that ride but I was already over it.
At Disney we were walked down as a group. We landed somewhere along side the base of Space Mountain and had to walk through the grass and bushes of the Speedway ride to get out.

Once on Maverick after several failed launches/roll backs they walked us off from the base of the lift. Also on Maverick I got stuck about two trains back on the final brake before the station. I lost the better part of early ride time waiting to get off of there.

At CP they send an op up the lift or to the stuck train to greet the riders with apologies, instructions (remain seated) and encouraging words. There’s nothing to be done, though, and an evac is the last resort after all else fails. Heat and bathroom needs are the prevailing complaints.
I remember one day when Jumbo Jet stalled on the spiral lift and there were no good catwalks to use. Those people sat there for a few hours and they got pretty vocal about having to pee.

I got stuck on Drop Zone at Carowinds a few days ago. It was upper 80s and sunny (so not pleasant, but everyone was well behaved.) We were up there for about 30 minutes before they slowly lowered us. We then sat near the ride for about 20 minutes while waiting for supervisors to come with a "care package" for everyone. We got the following in voucher form:
* Fast Lane Plus
* Single meal
* Single day unl drink
* Admission ticket

I wasn't expecting to get all of that stuff! We were joking around that we hope to get stuck on more rides in the future. The FLP made our day awesome. We were able to basically walk onto anything that we wanted (which was nice since we only had one day there.)

Sidenote: Carowinds is super lax with their loose articles policy. We wore hats (with straps) and sunglasses (no straps) on every ride and were never hassled about anything. Also, we saw plenty of people holding cell phones/taking selfies without issue. The next day at KD we had to take off our hats on every ride (even puny coasters like the Peanuts and Bobsled one.)

I was stuck on the brake run of Rougarou for about a half an hour on Monday during the power outage. The ride ops came out and sat with us and gave us water while we waited for maintenance to bring out a floor piece that they could put over the track to let us off, but since so many rides went down at the same time they said it might be a while. Before maintenance was able to show up they were able to get power to the ride and get us off.

The funniest part to us was that we were stuck and every ride we could see was down as well except for Dragster of all rides. It was running smooth as butter while the rest of the park was offline.

jimmyburke's avatar

Yesterday (Wednesday) at 10:15am or so, we were the fourth launch on TTD. Prior to disembarking they announced it was down for mechanical issues, we were stuck for awhile. It took approx. 15 minutes before we moved forward to the exit area. My concern was for my son next to me who has Autism and frequently transitions into some profound meltdowns. I'm not sure what they would do if someone had that type of situation occuring. He handled it well & it was on to Magnum for the no-wait ride.

Side note for Magnum, while making the turn back into the station I put my arm onto the seat-back and felt something rather moist on my arm. It was a fresh pile of bird poop. Thankfully I had some lysol wipes on me.

Tip's avatar

Been stuck for long periods on Valravn, Mantis, and Frontier Lift, also on the watercoaster at Volcano Bay (Universal Studios Orlando).

Val was the worst because of the restraints...45 minutes stapled in place and sweating. Prior to maintenance putting in a temp floor and releasing us, it was helpful to pull the vest away a couple of inches. Not a fan of tight OTS restraints.

Got to enjoy an evening thunderstorm on Mantis' brake run. We were shivering and drenched after 25 minutes of that.

The others were little problem, since it wasn't terribly uncomfortable.

Those few times riders were stuck on other parks' Windseekers for over an hour... if they needed to go badly enough, it would be polite to yell a warning to those below.


Just say no to trims

Cargo Shorts's avatar

Always a good idea to have a change of clothes in the trunk.

SteveDePoy's avatar

Got stuck at the top of Power Tower a few years back. Got to the top and just sat there a couple minutes before they slowly started lowering us back down. No issues for me, but the girl sitting next to me was losing her mind.


GO IRISH!!

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