Massive Power Outages

[BrownStreak]

I am unemployed at the present time and have yet to have the chance to fulfill my theme park need this year so I am living through this site right now and something that I read reminded me of a moderate day back in 1999 when I was working in Camp Snoopy at Cedar Point...

 

The entire back of the park- from Magnum all the way around to Mean Streak lost power. It was kind of scary but mostly it was just interesting to see how all of the mid-course breaks worked and how the coasters were evacuated.

 

The only thing that I had to do during the outage was ensure that the no longer inflated giant Snoopy inflated bounce thing deflated into his pen and not onto the midway. The most interesting thing about the outage is that the Woodstock coaster was on its lift hill and it did not have lift stairs (don't know if it does now or not).

 

Another interesting thing happened when I was a boat Captain for WDW transportation. The monorail suffered a "power outage" (that's the reason they gave the guests) and the massive "after fireworks rush" had to be emptied on the ferries and buses! It was hectic but exciting!

 

Anyone have similar stories?

[FeelTheFORCE]

^ That's pretty funny that there were no stairs. This pic was taken in 2002 and you can clearly see them, I guess they just didn't get around to it yet.

 

 

 

Staying on topic, no, I have never experienced a power outage at an amusement park.

[BrownStreak]

I moved out of Camp Snoopy not long afterwards (and became the park's first male sweeper!) and I have a vauge memory that they added the lift stairs after the outage, but I wasn't 100% sure so I didn't want to say anything about it.

[swampfox]

I haven't experienced it, but it'd be interesting riding some rides when the power goes out. What happens to a raging rapids ride when that happens?

[kidcoaster]

It happens all the time at CLP. Twice we lost power and the train on the bluestreak was going up the lift. They had to walk the guests down the hill. And The park went black for about 5 minutes when the Bluestreak got struck with lightning last June.

[IceDragon]

It happens all the time at CLP. Twice we lost power and the train on the bluestreak was going up the lift. They had to walk the guests down the hill. And The park went black for about 5 minutes when the Bluestreak got struck with lightning last June.

 

Adventure Island went pitch black once. All the rides shut down and the lights went out. It was really creepy.

[BrownStreak]

I haven't experienced it, but it'd be interesting riding some rides when the power goes out. What happens to a raging rapids ride when that happens?

 

I am not 100% sure but since the water is for the most part gravity powered in the troth it would seem there would be enough water to carry the boats around to the end.

[IceDragon]

I haven't experienced it, but it'd be interesting riding some rides when the power goes out. What happens to a raging rapids ride when that happens?

 

I am not 100% sure but since the water is for the most part gravity powered in the troth it would seem there would be enough water to carry the boats around to the end.

 

Either that or the force of the water would carry on for a bit, then it would stop at the wave machine part if it has one.

[Airtime&Gravity]

I haven't experienced it, but back in 05, all of GAM lost power. I think I remember reading that V2's lim's got fried when the power came back, and that is why it was closed for a while.(including the 2005 TPR trip)

[arrowfanman]

The week after I was done at Magic, I went back to visit my friends and the entire park went under a short, like, second-long outage. It was enough to pretty much send all of the coasters down.

 

I was glad I didn't have to help fix that mess!

[Masked_Maverick]

Holy crap I remember one at CP. I was on working Woodstock's platform that when it happened but the train was just waiting to be dispatched. Also that huge power outage back in 2003 I went back into CP to walk around that was erie.

[dandaman]

The August 2004 outage occurred just as I was passing by Canada's Wonderland, coming home from Algonquin camping. Saw a few lift-walks. (Ironically, I was supposed to go for my first CP trip the next morning... moved it until that Sunday.)

[Dorneypark_fan]

Last time I was at Hershey of last year the whole park lost power for like an hour

[Goliath513]

Several years ago when my friends and I were going to SFDK, we got there to find that the park had lost power. There were several rides that were stuck on their lift hills (Kong and I don't remember what else) but since the park had not yet opened, nobody was inside. There was a tremendous line waiting at the front gates for the power to come back. Fortunately, they eliminated the $10 parking fee for that time. After waiting in the parking lot for half an hour, we went over to Wendy's and had lunch and decided that if the park was not open when we were done, we would just come back the next day. Well it did not reopen so we just left and came back the following day.

[itsme102]

I remember a park-wide outage at BGE a few years back. I ended getting stuck on Apollo's MCBR. They were only able to get a few of their flats open and they had to cancel Howl-O-Scream for the night. It turned out well, though. They gave everybody free tickets for a future trip!

[kidcoaster]

Last year I was at Kennywood last year. I went because one of our family friends daughters was going to play with her band in the Fall Fantasy Parade. I was in line for Exterminator when It started lightning. When I got inside they shut down the ride. I decided to stick around lost kennywood for when it reopens. I hanged out at the pizza shop then I went to find my parents they were waiting for it to stop storming so they could get on Racer. I went back to Lost Kennywood and waited in the Gift Shop. The power went off and did not come back on for ten minutes then they shut down the park. On our way out they gave us free tickets for another visit but I never used them. Just as my dad started the Car it stoped storming and the whole way home it was a clear night.

[Chris Benvenuto]

I remember hearing the news on the Power Outage effecting riders on the all rides at CP, back in 03'. That must of been fun......

 

But however, I remember being at a local waterpark the day the Niagara-Mohawk power grid went down (03' summer) The lazy river stopped moving riders and we had to get out to the front by walking.....

 

They closed the park for a week due to the water filters being unable to work and a water park without it's filters, is not a happy water park

[Cyber.Fiber]

I have never experienced a power outage before in a park, but I have been on Mindbuster at PCW when it broke down. We had to use the Evactuation Steps on the lift. It was scary as I was only like 10 at the time.

[CoasterEricHP]

We had two this year when I worked at IOA, one was a complete outage and the other a power surge.. coaster ride systems do not appreciate either.

[jamesdillaman]

When lesourdsville lake was open, at our regional ace event (Screechfest) the power went out for about an hour, stranding my brother and I on the chairlift over the lake. We were sitting there about a half hour when they brought out a large handle and cranked the chairlift by hand slowly back to the station. I was 18 at the time, and my brohter was 13. It was pretty freaky, as we didn't know about the hand-crank. We thought we were going to be stuck there until the power came back on. Luckily the power came on a little bit afterwards, so the night-time ERT on Screechin Eagle with the park's lights off (ironically?) went off without a hitch.

 

-James Dillaman

[Disney Dood]

Don't they happen all the time across the pond at Thorpe?

[Evan1127]

The August 2004 outage occurred just as I was passing by Canada's Wonderland, coming home from Algonquin camping. Saw a few lift-walks. (Ironically, I was supposed to go for my first CP trip the next morning... moved it until that Sunday.)

 

I was working (at SFNE) at the time. It was so crazy (understandably so). All ride operators trying to call operations base at the same time because no one knew what was going on. Everyone thought it was just their ride. Besides rides going down, think of everything else operationally. The primary radio channels used are on repeaters (which also went out), so we had to move to backup channels, etc. Just a lot of confusion.

 

Objectively speaking, the park and staff handled it well and we didn't have rides in any difficult places. I think the irritated guests calmed down when they realized it was most of the Northeast and beyond.

[Carnage]

I've been at Cedar Point a couple times for minor power outages.

 

It'd be hell top be on a wave swinger during an outage though. Those things are supposed to be brutal when they e-stop.

[BeemerBoy]

My memory's a bit faded on this one, but I know I remember SFOG experiencing one awhile back. I'm not sure if it was parkwide, but I do remember riders being stranded at the top of Acrophobia for about an hour and a half, or so it was reported! That would have to rank as the worst location to ever be stranded at.

[Gnome]

I was in the observation deck at SFMM when the whole side of the park with viper, X, and rapids were out. Lucky for us, Observation deck and Tatsu were still running.