More Stories from The Happiest Place on Earth
Part of an intermittent series.
I’m tired of writing about politics, so it’s time for more Disney Cast stories.
When I hired into Disneyland Resort in October 2017 I got a job in Resort Transportation and Parking. There are several “roles” in RT&P, I first got trained to work Trams from the parking structure to the entrance plaza.
Everything went swimmingly until my first shift as “RT”, Rear Tram. The CM standing on the platform on the rear car as it scoots back and forth between the structure loading zone1 and the Parkside loading zone.
As RT you are the final arbiter on whether or not the tram moves. Your only means of communication with the driver is the PA system.
If you see a safety issue, i.e. while the tram is moving a guest stands up, a kid leans out, someone is leaning on a door, you say “Driver Stop” over the PA and the driver stops until you can resolve the issue.
There are seven cars in a tram holding up to of 205 guests. I haven’t paced it out but I estimate that from the RT platform to the front of the front car is about 100 feet.
I’m over six feet so I had to crouch down to watch the guests as the tram bounced along on the tram route. Not exactly comfortable.
We’d spent a whole day on RT training and I thought I was ready for anything, but on my second or third trip from the structure to the park we pulled into the first (of four) loading zones and an empty tram pulled up across the tram route, waiting for another loading zone to open up. This is called staging.
I wasn’t sure if I could approve my tram to move with the other tram staged there. I asked the Rear Car cast member on the ground team and she told me yes, I could, and I should hurry up because there was a loaded tram waiting behind us.
It had just gotten dark, and the lighting wasn’t (isn’t) all that bright at Parkside.
I looked down the loading side of the tram and confirmed all the doors were closed, checked that everyone was seated, looked down the other side of the tram and failed to see that the Front Car cast member had a door open and was strapping down a wheelchair in the front row of the first car.
I looked back down the loading side and saw about six ground-cast giving me the Clear sign. Normally there are a maximum of three cast members at a loading zone, but apparently we were overstaffed (with a brand new crew) that night.
What I should have noticed was that about half of them were facing me. They should have been facing the front of the tram.
Nobody is supposed to give the “Clear” sign unless they see the Front Car do it first. That way there’s no possibility that the tram will, for instance, move while Front Car is strapping down a wheelchair.
So, due to my inexperience & poor night vision, and the inexperience of the crew on the ground I confidently raised my mic to my lips and said, “Driver, you are clear!”.
At that point several things happened at once. The RT of the staged tram next to us yelled, “Gary, you have a door open!”, I yelled “Driver Stop!” into the mic and the tram either moved, or it didn’t.
The (veteran) driver should have checked his mirrors before taking off the brakes.
I should have seen the open door.
The ground cast shouldn’t have given the Clear signal until they saw Front Car clear the tram.
From my place on the RT platform I couldn’t say if it moved or not, and that’s what I put in my report, because I was raised to be truthful.
And I was written up for my first safety violation, less than a week after I was hired. I was devastated.
Now I know that I should have made them wait for a union steward before I talked to management.
Also, I know the phrase, “To the best of my knowledge, the tram didn’t move.”
The driver said that he let off the brakes, but the tram hadn’t moved.
Front Car said it moved about 1/2 inch (any movement is a safety violation). AFAIK nobody else was interviewed or wrote a report.
I don’t know that I would have gotten off without a safety if I’d had union representation, or if I’d used the “to the best of my knowledge” phrasing, but I was the only one written up for a safety that day.
I was told later that the manager assigned to investigate loved to write up cast.
Then again, she talked me out of quitting out of sheer embarrassment. So there’s that.
This made me a lot more careful, and I learned some things about being a Disney cast member, and how to avoid Safetys. But it kind of spoiled Trams in general and RT in specific for me.
I got lots more stories. Watch this space.
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