I went to Six Flags Great America today.. Since it was really hot (only day my friend could go) we decided to just see all the shows. We were in "Tribute to the Stars" and they CUT the show. They ended it right in the middle of a Prince song. They played an announcement to please exit the theatre.. Everyone was wondering what the heck was going on. So we exit the theatre thinking it was some technical problem.
We started walking around the park and decided to go on a water ride. We noticed that EVERY SINGLE ride was CLOSED. This made absolutely NO sense. There was power.. It was like this for over an HOUR. NOTHING WAS RUNNING. The paths suddenly got HUGE because everyone had to exit the ride lines. They dispersed ALL of the characters to try and keep us happy? Well, it wasn't working... it was HOT and no one could go on ANYTHING so everyone was pretty mad.
Does anyone know what happened? It was SO bizarre.
It either may have been too dangerous for the employees to stay out in the heat or it may have been too hot to operate the rides (Texas Tornado/Zonga had the problem when it was at Astroworld.)
That'd be my guess also, with how hot it was the power could have been acting funky with brownouts and spikes, and neither is good at all for rides and expensive show equipment.
Favorite Wood Coasters: The Voyage, Ravine Flyer II, Thunderhead, Balder Favorite Steel: Voltron Nevera, Steel Vengeance, Expedition GeForce, Olympia Looping Parks visited: 239, Coasters Ridden: Steel: 937, Wood: 179, Total: 1116
it was a power outage. I was there for one last year, and it was crazy. the longest line in the park was to leave the park, and people were pretty pissy. everything was short afterwards though, so it was all good.
It just really weirded me out. At first I assumed it had something to do with the heat but then I started to get a bit skeptical thinking something could have happened.
LAFFfan4lyfe wrote:it was a power outage. I was there for one last year, and it was crazy. the longest line in the park was to leave the park, and people were pretty pissy. everything was short afterwards though, so it was all good.
No, it wasn't a power outage. I was there for the one last year also and it wasn't like it was today at all. Everything was working.. it had to of been the heat.
the hydrolics were going crazy, the rides were closed due to extensive heat on everything that was exposed to the sun. but i don't know how that could be because of the stations but it could happen.
It was a power shortage in the area. The reason things were still operable is because they still had some power, but if they were to run the rides, there would not be enough power to keep everything up. Therefore, for safety reasons, they shut down the rides incase people got stuck on them in the extreme heat. Also, last year, there was a power outage and a power shortage, so it happened twice last year. The one time I was there, it was the power shortage. Places still had power, but the park was running on low power. The power went out completely maybe for a minute or so. I was on Raging Bull as everything went out, but all of SWT was still operating, while all the other rides were stuck somewhere on the course at a block run. Then they shut down SWT for safety reasons and had the power being used in those rides, which were barely functional at the time, be used throughout the park. All in all, what you experienced today was a power shortage.
Also, one last question, were they giving out free tickets for people leaving? I ask this because last year they gave out free tickets for people to leave within 45 minutes after the shortage began. The ride-ops were told to tell the guests to go to the front and recieve a free ticket to come back another day. Maybe this only happened in the line we were in or all of them, but I am pretty sure they did give out the tickets. We did not get one because we had season passes.
Universal Orlando Mechanical Engineer Marathon down, Goofy to go.
On a day like yesterday when you get a quick power blink the majority of the rides stop where they are during that time. They run 3 phase motors so should that happen they do not restart by themselves when power comes back. Maintenance then runs around like a chicken with their head cut off trying to reset everything.
Suf03sfgam wrote:On a day like yesterday when you get a quick power blink the majority of the rides stop where they are during that time. They run 3 phase motors so should that happen they do not restart by themselves when power comes back. Maintenance then runs around like a chicken with their head cut off trying to reset everything.
haha i couldnt have put that any better.
http://themeparkcritic.com/scripts/profile/ViewProfile.asp?ViewID=2909 A furious storm once roared `cross the sea, catching ships in its path, helpless to flee. Instead of a certain and watery doom, the winds swept them here to Typhoon Lagoon!
Suf03sfgam wrote:On a day like yesterday when you get a quick power blink the majority of the rides stop where they are during that time. They run 3 phase motors so should that happen they do not restart by themselves when power comes back. Maintenance then runs around like a chicken with their head cut off trying to reset everything.
Exactly. Everything resets. If you lose power, computers and PLC's shut down, motors stop, water drains. Its a real mess. All it takes is one second or less of no electricity and all hell breaks loose.
So the park did have power, but that does not mean that you get everything back right away.
OMG WHAT IF THERE WAS A POWER OUTAGE AND DEMON GOT STUCK UPSIDEDOWN!!!
http://themeparkcritic.com/scripts/profile/ViewProfile.asp?ViewID=2909 A furious storm once roared `cross the sea, catching ships in its path, helpless to flee. Instead of a certain and watery doom, the winds swept them here to Typhoon Lagoon!
LAFFfan4lyfe wrote:it was a power outage. I was there for one last year, and it was crazy. the longest line in the park was to leave the park, and people were pretty pissy. everything was short afterwards though, so it was all good.
Please don't remind me about the one from last year.
im the last person who would say that and be serious
http://themeparkcritic.com/scripts/profile/ViewProfile.asp?ViewID=2909 A furious storm once roared `cross the sea, catching ships in its path, helpless to flee. Instead of a certain and watery doom, the winds swept them here to Typhoon Lagoon!
Power Failure wow could you imagine people getting stuck on every ride in the park that would be a big mess for them to fix and save all those people. Dont they have generators for emergency power to run the park does anyone know? Did they at least leave the water park open? Good story except for the bad weather it look like you enjoyed your day I hope. Did you take lots of pictures of the characters that they force out to keep people happy?
http://themeparkcritic.com/scripts/profile/ViewProfile.asp?ViewID=2909 A furious storm once roared `cross the sea, catching ships in its path, helpless to flee. Instead of a certain and watery doom, the winds swept them here to Typhoon Lagoon!
I'm curious too as to how much of the water park ended up closed. I'm sure the pumps need power to get water up to the top of slides and such, but in the end it'd just become a typical pool, and I don't think a pump needs as much time to reset as a ride.
What you don't understand you can make mean anything.
