I’ve had a few great responses to my desire to know how Disney’s recent spate of deaths and injuries has affected your travel plans, if at all. I’m happy to say that everybody appears to be fairly sane, is a little more cautious.
I wanted to post this response I got through another channel as I thought it was quite good:
This topic has been on my mind for a while now. My sisters and I are regular visitors to Disneyland as we live in the area. We were on the California Screamin’ rollercoaster about ten minutes before it had its little accident last week. While by all accounts the accident was minor, it’s yet another in a series of accidents that seems to represent Disney’s shift in focus from safety to cost-effectiveness.
While the number of actual deaths and injuries has been small – one
killed by a metal cleat ripped off of a ship, another killed after a
train derailed on Big Thunder Mountain – these instances can all be
attributed to negligence on Disney’s part. The former president of
Disneyland, Paul Pressler, was once quoted as saying, "We have to ride
these rides to failure to save money." This desire to do things on the
cheap led to inadequate employee training, the scaling-back of
preventative maintenance, and undue stress being placed on certain
rides (Disney’s California Adventure relies heavily on flagship rides
like California Screamin’ and Soarin’ Over California, to the point
where these rides cannot go down for lengthy rehabs because guest
satisfaction and attendance would plummet). All of this has led to a
series of accidents that are directly Disney’s fault – where in the
past, most incidents at Disneyland could be attributed to either
natural causes or dangerous guest behavior.
On the positive side, Disneyland has a new president who seems less
financially cutthroat, and, unlike Walt Disney World, accidents at
Disneyland are subject to investigation by the state and rides cannot
reopen until the state approves it. But last week’s accident adds to my
persistent feeling of mistrust surrounding safety at Disneyland. My
sisters and I haven’t been back on Big Thunder Mountain since the
fatality over a year ago (the ride continued to have problems after it
reopened), and there are certain rides we won’t go on because we are
genuinely afraid of mechanical error (Mulholland Madness, a "Wild
Mouse" ride, is scary enough just being a Wild Mouse ride – never mind
that it’s an off-the-shelf ride intended for seasonal use, being run
for long hours year-round!).
But this hasn’t dissuaded us from visiting the park, nor has it
prompted us to avoid thrill rides altogether. It’s just made us aware
that the reputation for safety Disneyland enjoyed in the past is no
longer applicable to the present day. The park is not being run the
same way it was 50, 40, 30 years ago.
(Posted with permission from brookedel)
[ttags:disney, disneyland, disneyworld, disney+world, disney+vacation, travel, accident, injury, death, californiaadventure, dca, wdw, dlr ]