TTC Stories and Secrets

I've never really told you guys a lot about the bus operations, TTC or the monorail ops. Some, but let's put it all in one place.

I'll start at the TTC. Did you know there is no Mickey Mouse parking lot? Nope. There's not a one. There are several different parking lots including six named after the seven drawfs. Which drawf doesn't have their own parking lot and why?

Anyway, as you may know, the TTC is where you can catch the monorail to the resorts on the line, an express monorail to the Magic Kingdom, one to Epcot, a ferryboat to the Magic Kingdom, or bus transportation to Disney's Hollywood Studios or Disney's Animal Kingdom. This is also where I went first almost every single day. I had to start at the TTC with both the monorail and the buses.

Know what's under your feet at the TTC? That's right. Underground rooms. These are mostly offices and meeting rooms for the different transportation people. This includes the bus operations room. I've never been in there, but it has the ability to track most buses and do some other cool stuff.

Let me explain the bus procedure when I was there at the resorts. The most time between buses for each park / DTD should only be 20 minutes. If it got to 18 minutes, I would contact the field supervisor. He would check the deployment of the next bus and we would confirm what buses had most recently passed. Occassionally, a bus would have the wrong marquee or be significantly early or late due to traffic. If it was apparent the bus would not arrive soon, an emergency bus in a nearby staging area would be deployed. If the original bus looks like it would probably be close to on time, we would wait for its arrival. If 22 minutes had passed, I would contact bus operations and ask for the ETA of my next bus to whereever.

The bus ops would look up the bus number and track it using GPS. If it appeared to still be in route, we would wait it out some more. If it was off course, an emergency bus would be deployed. Sometimes a bus would get the wrong deployment assignment or it would fill up at a previous stop and not contact the supervisor. There are any number of situations that can occur that would put a bus off course.

I would contact the supervisor if there were other unique situations in the bus load zone as well. Three wheelchairs for example (since a bus can only hold two). Or if it's only been 10 minutes since my last bus, but it appears that there are more people waiting than there is room for on the buses. If I got several buses to the same park back to back to back (it would have to be at least three), then I would call. It was likely one of them got the wrong assignment and should have gone to a different resort or one is significantly early putting a massive gap for the next one. If I was the first stop for one of the buses and it got pretty full, I would contact so people down the stream would not have a bus fill up before it got to them with no bus in sight.

How many people can fit on a bus? About 72. So if you ever hear a Signal 72, the bus has filled up and not accepting more guests.

It's not unusual to see some buses come back to back. For the most part, it is difficult to have the buses change their marquee and go somewhere else. In fact, the only time I know that is even possible is the floater (emergency) bus. That might happen if say an emergency bus is deployed for a park but a regular bus shows up at the same time and can handle the situation. If there is a wait or large crowd for somewhere else, it might possibly be changed.

See, the way the buses work is each park and Downtown Disney have their own bus fleet. Buses for say the Magic Kingdom would go to the Magic Kingdom and get their assignment through a computer, perhaps Saratoga Springs. It would pull into the Saratoga Springs load zone at the MK and then head off to the resort. After going through the resort, it would return to the Magic Kingdom. Once it hits a certain point, the GPS sends a new assignment that gives the driver their deployment and automatically changes the marquee. It will be a new resort, perhaps All Star Movies. The computer monitors how long it deploys buses to the various resorts, but there is a human operator that can override the deployment if necessary. GPS spot is normally further outside the resort.

That system kicks in around 10:00, maybe 11:00 as people are going to and from the resorts and parks. Before that, most people are just trying to get to the parks so buses will only drop off. They unload at the closer resort stops to the entrance and immediately depart for their next resort. However, there are guests that need to use the buses to get from the parks to the resorts. Each park has one or two buses specifically for those assignments. These buses are called upstreamers because it handles guests going against the flow of traffic. Most upstreamers have to return quickly to their park to get more guests, so they rarely pick anyone up at the resorts. These buses generally pull into an empty load zone to avoid confusion.

Ever seen a bus that says STITCH, ARIEL, or REMY? If asked by a guest, I would say there was either a little blue alien on the bus and the driver is calling for help; Ariel is on her way to breakfast with Prince Eric, but she has trouble walking; or Chef Remy is preparing a secret recipe. Basically, guests are not getting on that bus. What those signs really mean are the bus is on a special assignment and guests are not boarding that bus. These are your upstreamers or emergency floater buses before the driver manually enters the marquee code to change it.

How about a bus that says DHMU or DHGF, DHCB? These are deadhead buses. These buses have no guests in them. The last two letters indicate where they are going first to pick up guests. Most of these buses are on their first assignment of the day or after a break, perhaps going to a break.

Walt Disney World has three different types of buses. The Gilig, the Nova, and the RTS. The Gilig and Nova are very similar buses as far as the guest experience is concerned. Don't worry if one of these rolls in. You can tell them apart because the Gilig says GILIG right on the bumper. It's indented in there. The Nova is also a good one and you can tell it by its round headlights. Both of these are lowriding buses, so it means a smoother ride. RTS's are taller, so they tend to sway a little more. Plus, if you have a wheelchair catching your bus, you definately want a Gilig or Nova to roll up. They both have those ramps that come out. The RTS has a lift which can take FOREVER! And I normally don't speak bad about guests, but I'll just offer up a tip: If you are not used to driving those motorized chairs and the one you are on is rented, put the speed into a low setting when driving on the bus. I'm just saying you can control the chair a lot better and you probably won't hit everything on the bus and in the loadzone at the resort. Just a suggestion.

Now, let's look at the monorail operations (which I have the same recommendations for loading and unloading with a ECV).

The monorail uses a lot hand signs since there is no marquee. Really, its just five. The first is tapping the head. This is used by a platform cast member to a pilot to indicate a beacon on the monorail is incorrect. The monorails are all colored, but each monorail can travel on any of the three beams. Now, Monorail Tron is only suppose to travel on the Epcot line, but it is possible for it to transfer to another beam. The beacon on top of the monorail indicates where it is going. Green is the express line, amber for resort, and red is Epcot.

Monorail Tron?



Yes. Disney wrapped one of the monorails (I don't know which one) with this advertisement. I have mixed feelings, but generally don't like it. The monorail is iconic and doesn't need help looking sharp. The advertisement is not over the top though. Yes, it is the whole train, but it's not yelling WATCH THIS FILM! It's just the yellow and blue racers with the movie title. And I have to admit it's a little cool looking.

Know what else is cool looking?



That picture is actually on a bulletin board inside TTC.

Anyway, back to the hand signals. If you see a Monorail Host hold up his two hands and bump them together, don't bother running up the ramp. They've given the signal to the pilot that the platform is secure and the train is ready to close its doors and depart. Now, if they hold up a fist to the pilot, you are in luck. They are holding the train for some reason.

A circular motion with both hands means there is a wheelchair on board. You do not see this on the resort line, but you will more often with the express and especially with Epcot. These exit platforms do not have cast members on them and it is the responsibility of the pilot to assist with the ramp for guests with mobility issues. You won't see it on the resort line as much because there are cast members at the resort stations. After the train departs from loading the guest, the cast member will call the station where the guest is exiting. This doesn't always happen, so Monorail Hosts have to pay attention and look to see if there are guests in chairs and ask if they need assistance.

An important signal you'll generally never see is the T symbol (like timeout). This is an important safety symbol because it means the train must depart immediately. Why have such a signal? For safety purposes. See, every day when a train is first brough into operations, the entire train is check top to bottom. I don't know every bit of safety the pilot goes through, but I know that each car is inspected by a cast member, each phone is check to make sure it can be accessed, send and recieve a clear transmission. The fire extinguishers are checked to make sure their pressure is okay. The PA system is check in each car as well. The doors are also checked. Each car can have their doors opened individually seperate from the other cars. They can also be opened all at once. All doors do shut at the same time with the announcement. The doors are opened individually and seperately to check all systems.

So what about that T symbol? Well, there is an anti-collision system on each train and they are tested every time they come out into service. To do this, a train sits in a station with a pilot inside. The train is ready to take off quickly. A cast member stands on the platform outside the station where the pilot can easily see them. Another train is brought up from the rear and tries to get close to the other train. If it appears the approaching train is not going to stop, the symbol is given to depart to avoid a collision. The system on both trains indicates their proximity, gives warnings to the pilot, and will stop the train.

There was, of course, the accident involving Monorails Pink and Purple. I pretty much think I know what happened. I won't say exactly what, but there were a number of things that all happened at once. It is unlikely such an accident of this kind will happen again because pilots no longer change tracks in reverse (which is what one driver was doing). This is a new procedure that took effect immediately after the incident. At the time I was there, guests were also not allowed to ride in the front with the pilot to avoid distraction. Monorail cast members (like myself) were and I have to say it is an incredible and amazing view.

Beyond testing the monorail trains, the stations themselves were inspected each morning to ensure they were operating properly. This is relatively simple and mostly involves insuring a working PA system, telephone system, and power to the beam. The concrete beam itself if perfectly fine to walk on. In fact, in an extreme emergency situation, that is the procedure for getting to safety in the even a train is stranded on the beam away from a station and towing, train-to-train rescue or train-to-ground rescue are not possible or too timely. But, there is a trench in each station to catch loose items and it is possible a person would get in there. Granted, they would have to jump over the fence or do something incredibly stupid to get there, but it is possible. The fall into the trench would not likely be too harmful, but the electricity on the lower part of the beam down there would be.

Each station has at least two ways (I think maybe even three) to immediately cut the power to the beam inside the station. The train would not be able to enter and no one would be shocked inside the trench. Cast Members keep an eye out for people and if anyone even crosses the fence (say to pick up a lost item), the station is shut down right then. So if you drop your toddler's shoe, you can pick it up at lost and found the next day.

By the way, have you ever noticed on each beam holding up the monorail is a number? Those numbers are actually very significant. As a pilot, you have to know each number because the location of another train on the line will affect where the trains stop. Say you are on the express beam coming into the TTC from Magic Kingdom. But there is a delay in departure with the train currently in TTC so you know the anti-collition system will shut down the train if you get too close. That's everything shut down. Air, lights, you name it. And it takes a while to reboot. You don't want that, but you want to be as close as possible, where do you stop? Well, if you know your posts, you stop at the right number. No, I don't remember that number, but I do know it is right across from the tiki face on the Polynesian. That's why you will hear that announcement something like: "Ladies and gentlemen, we are currently holding for further traffic clearance. Once the monorail in front of us moves a safe distance away, we will resume our forward motion."

Do not blame the monorail pilots. Most often, its the hosts that hold up trains due to delay in getting guests on for one reason or another. Oh, FYI, the max speed for a monorail Mark VI train is 40 miles per hour on 600 DC Volts coming from the powerline on the beam. That top speed of 40 only occurs on the trip to and from Epcot. Post also mark speed limits. If you speed through a zone where it suppose to be a lesser speed, you get warnings and possible a system shut down.

As a monorail host, I was in charge of crowd management. I am very grateful I was not working there on New Year Eve, the busiest day of the entire year.



You may have heard me refer to the trains as females with their own personalities. They certainly do have their own ways. This is more apparent is you pilot one, but if you pay attention (and ride them as much as I did), you can pick up on them as well.

Monorail Blue
Monorail Teal
Monorail Green
Monorail Orange
Monorail Red
Monorail Black
Monorail Yellow
Monorail Gold
Monorail Silver
Monorail Coral
Monorail Lime

I don't remember everything about every one, but I do know some of them. My favorite was Teal. She was quick, clean, and slowed real easy. Black was great too. She got up speed quick and easy too. Red broke my arm, so I'll always have a grudge against this one. Coral was perhaps the worst. I didn't like her because she tended to shake a lot. Blue was patethic. She would break down a lot. It was more usual to see her in shop than on the line. I will forever avoid Monorail Orange and always love Monorail Green. During a drill, I had to stay in Orange for hours until Green came and picked us up.

Speaking of drills, I looked back at some of my earlier blogs and totally forgot about this, but I now remember it quite clearly. They intentionally shut the Monorail doors on my arm. It didn't feel great, but it didn't cut it off or anything. Lesson here, please stand clear of the doors or they will not shut. They won't hurt you, but they won't shut and you can't go anywhere until those doors shut.

I suppose that's about it. A look into the world of Walt Disney Transportation's Buses and Monorail. As a special bonus, let's revisit some photos of Monorail Teal during her first day on the line as well as me in my monorail costume.



Oh, and did you guess what drawf is missing their own parking lot?

It's Doc. Why? Because there is a lot of boat transportation in Walt Disney World and it could be confusing if there was something called doc because it's so very close to dock.

On Deck: Epcot's Japan
In The Hole: More Resort Secrets

Monorail Evacuation Today

Well, as many of you know, there was a monorail evacuation exercise today.

I'll tell you as much as I feel I can, but again I'm going to withhold some detail for security reasons.

To start off, I woke up at 2:00 to get ready for the event. I arrived at about 3:00 and the exercise began(ish) at 3:30. They asked for four volunteers to start off. I raised my hand with a few others and was selected for the assignment. We didn't know what the assignment was, but we quickly learned that we should not have raised our hands.

We loaded in a van and headed to the Epcot. We were going to open up the Monorail station. Perhaps they should have said what we were going to do. I work in buses. Another volunteer currently works in watercrafts. The other two were night shifts and frankly haven't opened up a station since before me!

Anyway, we were driving from the Ticket Transportation Center and got off for Epcot. And we missed the gate. All of us were quietly asking the driver (a monorail coordinator) "Um, where are we going?" "Aren't we opening the Epcot Monorail station?" "Isn't the gate back there?" and the sort.

As it turns out, we entered through a back entrance. We drove backstage for a bit and actually entered the park in our massive van though the gate at Test Track. The point of us being in the park was to visually check the monorail beam throughout the park for obstructions. We drove all over ALL OVER Future World. Universive of Energy, through Innoventions East and around the tear drop (around the dancing fountain towards World Showcase).

Now it was time to head west towards The Seas with Nemo and Friends and such. They were doing some cleaning in that breezeway at Character Spot. They had moved some benches and the van was almost scraping the mirrors on one side against the Character Spot windows while the tires were only inches away from the temporarily located benches. That was a little intensive. We moved into the west around Imagination, past the Land, and around the Seas pavillion before heading back.

Driving under Spaceship Earth, we exited the park through the turnstiles. There was a security guard stationed there who looked almost in shock to see a group of young adults pilling out of a white van inside the park. Oh, I should probably mention that we were not in costume except for the monorail pilot. Anyway, we walked up to the station where a pressure-washing crew was just finishing their work.

Well, we started up the power, checked all the safety features of the station and did a safety check on the train in the station, Monorail Green. As we started the checklists, something occurred to me. All of the important big-wigs will be at this exercise. Monorail Green is slated to be the "rescue monorail". It was very nerve-racking. Here I am preparing for an emergency with the watchful eyes of a lot of important persons and I haven't done it in about three months!

Well, we got the station up and running and dispatched the train. About ten minutes later Monorail Orange arrived with 20 plus monorail pilots also participating in the drill. Slowly, all of the other major players arrived in the station. We were given our scenerio from the Manager of Emergency Management for Walt Disney World. Here's what was going on:

"Monorail Orange suffers a fire in Car Six and all fire extinguishers in the car do not operate properly. Due to abnormal circumstances on and around the beam, it is impossible for the monorail to return to Epcot or continue on to the TTC station."

Many of the emergency responders had never executed this type of exercise before and the goal for the morning was not necessarily speed but getting things right.

Normally, a monorail experiencing problems will go to the next monorail station for assistance. It is also possible to bring out a work tractor to tow the train (which is a lenghty process if done accurately) or to evacuate onto the roof of the train and be transported to the ground via ladder firetrucks. However, the roof evacuation is extremely risky and dangerous. Many monorail beams run very close to another beam and it is possible to bring another train alongside the disabled train and transfer guests from one train to the other.

That would be our fate. Go from one train to another out on the beam.

So, we leave the Epcot Monorail Station and experience "technical difficulties" near the toll plaza. So there we were. We used the emergency phones to contact the pilot with a head count of persons in the car and a status on those people (should anyone require medical or special assistance). A whole series of events was put into motion, but let's stick to what happened out on the beam.

Monorail Orange was just sitting there with all of us inside. Monorail Green pulled up a short time later with firemen in the cars. They had with them portable bridges. After they stopped the monorail and removed power from the beam, the manually opened the doors on Monorail Green using a special key (no, it is not possible to open the doors yourself).

Meanwhile, firemen used a ladder truck to board Monorail Orange on its roof. There was some banging on the roof as the firefighters entered the cars using the roof hatch.

I'm going to pause for a second to explain that this was not done nearly as quickly as I typed it. All of this was a very lengthy process. It took some of the cars a little while to figure out how exactly to open the doors and keep them open. It also took a while to set up the ladder truck and raise personnel onto the roof. Again, they were making sure to do things right, not necessarily quickly. We're talking well over an hour (close to 90 minutes) for everything to be done, including some things I haven't mentioned yet.

Also, because this was not an actual emergency but a simulated one, more emphasis was put on preserving the magic. For example, not everyone responded with lights and sirens because that puts another risk factor on the road. Anyone driving fast creates a dangerous condition. Frankly, emergency vehicles with lights creates something of a danger themselves when in motion because people are either distracted by them or may miss them entirely. That's sometimes why you see a police car going pretty fast down the street but without sirens. They are responding to a call, but it's not life-threathening so no need to endanger anyone else.

Plus, like I said, this wasn't a real emergency so they didn't want to cause any unnecessary cosmetic or structural damage to anything (landscaping, monorails, whatever). In a real emergency it wouldn't be a big deal if the ramps scrap up the floors or firefighters put little dings in the paint due their bulky equiptment. So things were taken a little bit slower and extra precautions were taken to ensure the trains were ready for guests later that day.

Okay, back to the train. After the rescue persons entered the train they got a head count and checked the medical condition of everyone. Once the situation was assessed, they opened up the doors facing Monorail Green, the rescue train. A bridge was then deployed between the two trains, complete with hand rails! The firefighters were strapped to the train and the bridge was also secured.

Here comes the big moment. The reason I woke up at 2:00 in the morning. The reason I was so excited that I got almost not sleep whatsoever the night before. The entire reason we were all there.

I took two steps and went from Monorail Orange into Monorail Green.

That was it. The firefighters were extremely careful to have a strong grip on me the entire way across. We were pretty high off the ground. I estimate, based on the clearance marker some distance away, that we were 35, maybe 40 feet in the air. The distance between the two trains was maybe six feet, probably less.

Safely aboard Monorail Green, we sat and watched all of the emergency equiptment shift into Monorail Orange (a much quicker process). Soon, we were given the dispatch to return to Epcot. I must say, it is a little ironic to hear the recorded speil about the glories of Spaceship Earth and Epcot after such a "tramatic event".

After returning to Epcot, we got off the train and waited. Again. This time for all of the coordinators to come back and do a quick summary right there. There are a ton of managers involved from a host of departments and agencies. The most important part of the exercise was safety. That was certainly a success as no one was injured. From what I can tell, it was a success overall as well. Granted I don't know the goal of each department for the exercise, but I did my part.

So that's what happened in the early morning hours at Walt Disney World.

I know there's not a lot of pictures to help illustrate the story, but I hope the words suffice. But I can't have no pictures at all, so here you go! Some of my favorite Monorail photos...



TTFN

Sorry for the Delay!

Sorry for the delay. And you're not going to like this. A short blog entry with minimum pictures.

I'm just exausted. I've been working up a storm on the platforms of the Monorail. I'm really starting to love it. I don't begin drive training for a little while, but I'm excited to do that.

There's not a ton that's happened since the last entry. Strike that. A lot has happened!

Stephanie visited and Mom and Abbey are coming in one week.

Yay!

The photos below are from the Stephanie visit. I'll try to have more soon. I'm going to go the resorts in the near future and take photos of all of them. Neato.

Stephanie and I went to Epcot by the way and got a lot accomplished. And we had spectacular seats for Illuminations, the nighttime fireworks show. We sat in Mexico next to another off-duty cast member. Let's just say it was ackward. She started chatting me up the minute Stephanie went to China for some food. And then she sang the words along with the song in the finale. Yeah, a little ackward feeling.

But that wasn't nearly as bad as Italy and the mime.

Okay, to set the stage Stephanie doesn't really like to have attention drawn to her. Notice in all of the pictures of me in costume on this blog, she's nowhere to be found. She has this phobeia about it. Which is okay. She just wants to blend in. Not be singled out.

Now, we are in Italy and a mime comes skating out on a mockup of a boat. We decide to stay and watch. Then he starts pulling props out when the crowd gathers. So far, so good. He pulls out a fishing net and a soccer ball and tosses said ball into the hands of a kid in the crowd.

Stephanie's attention-radar goes off and she stands behind a pole so the mime doesn't see her. I do not stand behind any pole.

Don't beat me to the punchline.

So he tosses the ball and the kid throws it back, sinking the ball, like a basketball shot. Crowd cheers. Another kid, same deal. He then points to a very small child and pulls out a small soccer ball. The kid throws it, makes the shot.

Then, he tosses ME the larger soccer ball. Stephanie has fled to Germany by this point, so I'm on my own. The mime indicates to the crowd that I'm big, so he backs up. Really REALLY backs up. I can't possibly throw the ball that far. And I don't make it. We try again. And I don't make it.

The mime then makes sure I remember that the kids made it, so he tosses me the small soccer ball and gestures for me to step forward. I do, but let's face it, I'm horrible. Fourth time's the charm and I finally make the shot to the sacastic applause of all the on-lookers, sans Stephanie of course.

I spend the next hour trying to find her. Eventually I catch up with her in "Das Teddybar Shop" in Duetchland.

This story is 100% true.

Except for the part about Stephanie running away in horror. She actually stood close by, but she definately stayed behind that pole.

All in all, a fantastic trip. Except for the mime and both of us leaving our phone chargers at the resort.

Oh, and the embarrasment of Stephanie pointing out that beds are suppose to have comforters, not just a sheet and blanket. A 1970's woven, slightly tattered blanket at that. She is a loving girlfriend and helped refurbish my room. And when I said refurbished, I mean took charge and generously helped me out. She's awesome and I love her to death. Thank you so much for my new sheets Sweetie! I adore them!

The picture for tonight at the latest in the Stephanie-Letter Series (this one themed after the Rockin' Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith), Stephanie and I with Winnie the Pooh and friends (Pooh had the hots for Stephanie), the Orlando Airport, the American Adventure Drum and Fife band, and me on a Segway.







Now, to bed. I work the morning shifts which means I'm at work between 5:15 and 7:00, depending on the schedule for that day. That does mean I'm off at 3:00 or so in the afternoon. Everyday I say I'm going to go home, and everyday I end up back in the parks playing!

And let's not forget what today is. We shall never forget.

Monorail Operations

Well, I know it's been a while since I last posted anything. Sorry about that. And I must start with some bad news for my friend Jesse.

Jesse: This is a photo of the menu at the frozen treat stands found throughout the four parks:



I did some investigating and your vanilla / chocolate ice cream Mickey's have been discontinued. At least for now; however, there is no update on a return.

Sadness in all the Kingdom.

On to a different topic. Loosetoon [Hi! Love the new Ghostbusters outfits by the way!] asked me a question that I am happy to respond to. "What are all the monorail colors and where do they go?"

There are currently ten cars in the fleet. It was 12 but, well, two are out of service and their colors will be retired. Those two were Pink and Purple. (Purple contained the pilot that was killed in the accident.)

The 10 colors are: Lime, Red, Yellow, Orange, Coral, Gold, Silver, Black, Green, and Blue.

They do not have specific routes. In fact, they change their routes almost daily. There are three different monorail lines: Resort, Express and Epcot. All meet at the Ticket and Transportation Center. Epcot goes to Epcot. Express goes to the Magic Kingdom. Resort goes to the Polynesian, Grand Floridian, Magic Kingdom, and Contemporary (Bay Lake Tower). Because cars are brought in, taken out, or changed during the day; there are times when there are 10-15 minute delays on some of the monorail lines. No one can move while the track is switching.

The resort line is the highest priority because the Disney Vacation Club just opened up a resort that connects to the Contemporary. Because of this, there is a lot of traffic on this monorail line. A whole lot more than their used to be, so take note.

Generally, they will run a 3-3-2. This means three on Resort Beam, three on Express Beam, and two on Epcot. Epcot has the least amount of traffic because it serves no resorts and there is parking at the park itself. All Magic Kingdom guests have to arrive by monorail, ferry boat, or possibly bus (if they are at a Disney resort not on the monorail line).

There is a way to tell which train is running which route if you pass it by and don't happen to know what beam you're looking at. At the front and back of each car are two flashing lights, one on top and one on the bottom. The bottom is just a safety beacon. The top is the line indicator: red for Epcot, amber for resort and green for express.

Each car has it's own personality. Black is by far the best. Quick getting up to speed, smooth speeding up and slowing down. Perfect. Coral is horrible. Constant problems and it's bumpy no matter what. Lime is also pretty rough while Red is generally good.

They are replacing the two monorails to bring the total back to 12. Currently, they are taking suggestions on what colors to have. Any ideas?

Personally, I like white and bronze. We don't have either and since we have red and blue, white is a natural. Same with gold and silver. Plus, there's nothing brownish in the fleet.

Helpful hint when identifying green from lime: the sides have little diamonds cut it it.

So, what is it I exactly do?

Well, my main goal is to keep the trains moving to get guests where they need to be and to prevent the trains from having to stop out on the beams waiting for further traffic clearance. This is timely and annoying to guests on those trains just waiting out there.

Plus, I look after the safety of each guest. Should they do something stupid or potentially dangerous, the power to the beam can be shut off in less than a second. Each beam is 600 DC Volts of power. (I don't know what that exactly means, but it can certainly be fatal.) Each platform has one master control panel with a kill switch. There is also at least one "kill pack" worn by someone that loads guests that also kills the power. So if a kid or someone wanders over the six-foot safety line, the power can be killed quickly. It's not all that difficult to bring it back up so we are encouraged to cut the power when necessary. There are always gates and such to stop people, but they can be climbed over if someone really wants to.

Each method of cutting power is tested daily. We also test all of the intercom phones in each part of the cars daily along with ensuring the fire extinguishers are properly charged. Each car also has an anti-collision system built in which is also tested each time a car is brought into operation.

A car will stop at a station and basically be in neutral. This way it is set to take off quickly. The following train will then be instructed to proceed at a slow pace towards the other car. If everything is working properly, an amber alarm will sound in the forward moving car. This indicates for the driver to stop. If they proceed (like they do in the checks), the car will have a red warning alert and automatically stop.

Should the system fail, both a person on the platform and the driver of the resting train are watching the trailing train's position. If it becomes apparent the system has failed, the immediate depart signal is given and the train goes forward to prevent an accident.

A reverse check is done in the same manner.

By the way, I can't comment on what happened regarding the accident with guests. NTSB is still investigating. But I can say that at the moment, no persons other than the pilot can ride in the front cab. Frankly, they don't talk about it for that very reason: I can't accidently slip up and say something I shouldn't. Of course, people still ask to sit up front and some ask about the accident. Mum's the word.

Okay, WAKE UP NOW! That was probably pretty boring. So, here's some fun pictures from the Magic Kingdom including the Dapper Dans Barber Shop Quartet, the Main Street U.S.A. Philharmonic performing in the Flag Lowering Ceremony, some Halloween Decorations, and the Jungle Cruise (possibly my new favorite ride).



And some photos from Disney's Hollywood Studios including Star Tours, Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc., and the Public Works Department.



Plus the very creepy Hollywood Tower Hotel.



This attraction is better known as the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. It's actually starting to grow on me and I do like to just drop in every now and then.

Casual Thursday

Back to the Magic Kingdom today after a stop at Epcot.

Should I bore you with the details or just get straight to some photos?

I thought so.



It was actually a pretty casual day. I took my time getting from place to place and didn't really take all that many pictures. Right now I'm just trying to take it all in and later I'll do some photo shoots and stuff.

I did run into a few great characters. Rafiki, Captain Hook and Smee.



Too bad the lighting was from the back with the primate. I did sent Stephanie a card when I learned of my new position on the "highway in the sky". I was pretty proud of it. Here it is.



Don't worry. She's already received it so she was still surprised.

Well, I've got to be up at and at work at 5:30 tomorrow, so I'm fixin' to turn in.

Walruses, Dogs, and Bears (oh my!)

Well, it may not be in that order. In fact this entire blog entry is going to be a little bit out of order from what actually happened today. The timeline is this:

Woke up. Animal Kingdom. Drove to Epcot. Monorailed to the Polynesian, Grand Floridian, Contemporary and Magic Kingdom before monorailing back to Epcot.

Let me just say that I really started missing some of my friends today. It started when I saw Baloo at Disney's Animal Kingdom. He was a very friendly bear. It reminded of my buddy Darrell. Big, hairy, cuddly...



...then Baloo got uncomfortably close.



This too is sort of a Darrell trait. At this point in our friendship, I'm comfortable with Darrell being uncomfortably close. So in a very weird way, I felt very much at home.

Second, I looked at an email I got from Liz. She send a post she made on her Puppatoons blog. She, along with many of my Black Bunny (geek) friends are so talented. At Gina's birthday (my last event with the group before coming to Disney), we basically dared Liz into making a Jamie Hyneman puppet for when she visits Adam Savage at Dragon*con. In case you don't know who that is, they are the stars of Mythbusters. This show basically asks a myth question and answers it. Like can a human be carried away by holding too many balloons or is the Lone Ranger's silver bullets more effective than regular lead bullets. They use scientific processes and prove or bust the myths. Here's Jamie.



And here is the puppet (sans glasses).



Amazing. Simply amazing. You should check out that earlier link for more puppet fun.

Back to Disney now, even though we never left. Discovery Channel broadcasts the Mythbusters show and Disney owns Discovery. But back to the World.

I did visit the Magic Kingdom again. I saw Pluto and had to stop for a photo.



And I saw the "Celebrate a Dream Come True!" parade. Pretty exciting actually. It's interactive and takes place on the circle just beyond Main Street U.S.A. and in front of Cinderella's Castle.

A lot of character are involved with the parade as you can see by the photos below.



As mentioned, I visited the resorts on the Monorail line. Here's a few shots starting with the Contemporary.



And the Polynesian.



The Grand Floridian.



Plus the Disney Wedding Pavillon.



And a few extra photos just for fun. Why not?



All right. Some hockeycop house cleaning: Let me just explain a few things real fast. First of all, I post a lot of pictures and not slideshows because the computer I use is pretty slow. It takes a while to load the pictures from camera to computer, then computer to internet photo program, then into a slideshow, then arrange the show, then post said show. It's faster to post pictures individually. I am cutting the number of entries down that are displayed at one time to conserve space and increase load times. Click on the "Older Posts" link down there if you missed something.

More importantly, I love getting comments. I really do. Most of you that don't have a blogger account have caught on and leave a name. That's perfect and preferred. I'll try to respond to them, particularly if there's a question or suggestion. I haven't really yet but that's just me having poor manners!

The pictures are also kinda small. But if you click on one it should enlarge.

Another thing: If you want to see something, let me know. If it's not a secret thing I'm not suppose to take pictures of, I'll do my best to fulfill the request.

Speaking of seeing things, I did get into the tunnels last night at work. In case you didn't know, the area Walt Disney World is built on is essentially marshland. It's too soggy to really have basements. When Walt Disney was in Disneyland (California), he saw a cowboy cast member in Tomorrowland. When he approached the cast member and asked why he would basically ruin the show by being in Tomorrowland as a cowboy, he realized that there was no way for cast members to get from place to place without being seen.

Partly due to this experience, he decided to create not just a land of fantasy, but an entire world. So, in the 1960's Walt started buying up lots of property under false names. The project was simply called "The Florida Project". Word eventually got out, but not before 47 sq. miles were owned by Disney.

Walt decided he wanted a tunnel system to allow cast member to move from place to place without being seen by guests. Remember that basement problem due to wet earth? The tunnels were thusly created as the ground floor on the existing land. Dirt was scooped up and place on top of the tunnel structure and the vacated hole was filled with water. This is the Seven Seas Lagoon.

The Magic Kingdom park where you walk around on is actually the second story and about 10-12 feet above the real ground level. And that lake that was created? Well, there had to be a way to get people to the park so enter the ferry boats and Monorail. The Monorail had been used in the Disneyland park before the opening of Disney World, but it was more of an attraction than needed transportation. The whole idea was that once guests park their cars (either in the day parking lot or at a resort), they wouldn't have to worry about anything, including transportation.

A whole world unto itself.

That's a very brief history of Disney World and the Monorail. Hope you enjoyed that, class.

Another little note. I will post an entry then re-read and tweek it, sometimes for a good two hours. That being said: it's probably a good idea to check the time of the entry and check back at least a few hours after that for any additions or changes.

One last picture. This is me right after I got lei-ed at the Polynesian.