Disney guests land chest-deep in water after something goes wrong on Splash Mountain
Disney’s iconic Magic Kingdom Park ride Splash Mountain might need more fixing than a theme change this summer. A guest-filled boat sank on Sunday.
Just two months after Disney announced it would rebrand the attraction to get rid of racist stereotypes, a malfunction nearly submerged five guests under 950,000 gallons of water.
Skyelar Ingersoll and her friends were preparing for the ride’s final drop when water began rushing in from the back of one of the ride’s log-shaped boats.
“We definitely started freaking out a bit,” said Ingersoll, 20, who has traveled from Los Angeles to the Orlando-area theme park for the weekend. “We all got an adrenaline rush. The water kept coming in.”
The ride stopped and started again twice, before park staff powered it off, she said. Employees warned the group to stay in the boat.
“Do not get out of the underpanel,” a Disney “cast member” can be heard saying in a video shared by Ingersoll. “This is a safety hazard.”
But the water was rising up their legs, the boat was tipping backward and Ingersoll said they felt an urge to leave.
“We were stuck for what felt like 15 to 20 minutes,” she said.
She said they were nearly chest-deep in water and the boat was sinking under the log in front of it by the time they pulled out of the lap bars and stepped off.
“Reedy Creek Fire Department responded immediately to this event. Everyone got out of the boat safely,” a Disney spokesman told reporters after the incident. “We worked with guests individually so that they could enjoy the rest of their day in the park.”
But Ingersoll, who works at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Los Angeles, said the park staff could have managed the situation better.
“The way they handled the situation wasn’t cool. Working at a theme park myself, I know these situations are hard to handle, but [the staff member at the ride] didn’t even ask if we were OK,” she said.
Ingersoll said members of management, who were called after the guests were safely on dry ground, were more understanding, but asked them to keep their voices down as they left the ride.
This was at least the second time Disney guests found themselves far more underwater than they expected. In February, a boat at Magic Kingdom’s Jungle Cruise ride also sank, leaving guests stranded in murky water.
