Primeval Whirl Reopens After Getting a $69.000 Fine
The infamous spinning roller coaster at Disney's Animal Kingdom has finally reopened after being closed for more than six months. The ride was under refurbishment when the accident happened on March 13, 2011. A Walt Disney World cast member, Russell Roscoe, was working on the ride when he was hit by one of the ride's vehicles, causing his death. This tragic event lead to some quite heavy fines for Disney, which amounted to a total of $69,000 according to Wesh 2 News. Primeval Whirl is said to be now back in operation.
Now, a question comes to my head: do they need to see more accidents on that ride, before deciding to close it for good? The ride has had other accidents, and the most recent one (after this year's) happened in 2007. It is definitely something I will personally never ride again, not only because of the nature of the ride (which is an un-themed, uninteresting spinning coaster), but also for a principle.
What's your opinion? Are we being too hard on the ride, or do you agree with us? Please, share your comments on this story, as it is important to let Disney know that they may be doing a mistake by reopening that ride. I believe that none of us would like to hear that another person got struck on Primeval Whirl.
I think this needs to close and a version of Journey to the Center of the Earth from Tokyon DisneySea needs to be put in there. The dinosaur area is boring other than the ride and is always hot because of the black asphalt. Animal Kingdom needs a new ride and this area would be perfect for it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Anonymous. A Journey to the Center of the Earth attraction would be really great, and it could be still themed to Dinosaurs (with an erupting volcano).
ReplyDeleteI enjoy reading about the supposed theme of this area in the imagineering book for Animal Kingdom. The flooring is their most complex & expensive to do in all parks despite it looking cheap & broken as this is how it was designed. The "theme" does appear to cover what is just a cheap "drop in" section to eat guests. The area might eat guests but I doubt it would be missed. It isn't an "escape" like the rest of the park and should be demolished aside from Dinosaur, which I love.
ReplyDeleteThe question about Primeval Whirl is actually about safety...let's leave the whole placement of the ride out of it. As I see it, EVERY single ride with moving parts at WDW could have an accident of this nature. I believe the 2007 accident involved a CM falling from a raised platform (maybe the loading platform?), that could happen at RnR, Space Mt, Splash Mt, you name it, just about any attraction with a loading station. This latest accident I really can't figure out. Unless the person hit by the vehicle was on a track and couldn't get out of the way, I don't understand how the person didn't hear the vehicle coming. Anyway, my point is that PW has had a lot of bad luck. Sadly it seems as if it was a procedural failure that caused this mishap and not the attraction itself. If there was a design flaw, I think that the company would have fixed that liability by now. Now I'll leave you all to debate the merits of Dino Rama, but they really have nothing to do with ride safety.
ReplyDeleteLet's leave the whole placement of the ride out of it... debate the merits of Dino Rama. So basically don't discuss thoughts on the ride/theming until you're done with your comments about safety?! No one suggested the poor theming had anything to do with the accident(s) but discussing a ride is a springboard for such discussion, and the article asked for such thoughts. I agree with you though that accidents will happen and could do on most rides as with any construction/maintenance work unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteI know I am in the minority here, but I like the "theme" of DinoRama (or whatever it's called). Sure, PW isn't a great attraction (up to Disney caliber), but it does fit in with that "1-week-only-mall-carnival" theme. But on to the topic at hand, as others have said, accidents, unfortunately, do happen on other rides as well. It's not the theming of this ride that is causing the accident (well, in my opinion, anyway).
ReplyDeleteHowever, I do wonder if some of PW's liabilities are caused because it is an "out of the box" attraction versus a Disney-created-and-built attraction? Not sure.
Its how Disney operates this ride that is unsafe. This type of ride is in parks all over the world without all these problems. It is insane that they had someone working on the coaster without a lock secured on the e-stop for his safety. Disney is really bad these days when it comes to safety.
ReplyDeleteI will continue to ride it, but I still think it should be removed. Not because of safety, but because it's not a Disney Imagineer-created ride. I like the big, original, themed attractions created by Imagineers, not carnival rides that you can ride at most amusement parks. With that said, if you've ever ridden The Dark Knight at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, it's basically an indoor dark ride version of PW. I must say it's pretty good. If they enclosed PW and made it a dark ride, it has potential. But perhaps it would be too much like a high speed Dinosaur. Just a thought...
ReplyDeleteIf they closed every ride someone died on, there would be no rides left at WDW. You do know that, right?
ReplyDeleteWe love Primeval Whirl and will continue to ride it.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we made a mistake in the wording of our comments. We know that there have been accidents in other rides, but Primeval Whirl should go (in our opinion, of course) not only for the poor theming and the nature of the ride (which is still a carnival ride, in a park that already lacks a good amount of rides), but also because we see Primeval Whirl as one of the rides that causes the most issues. In addition to that, most of the accidents related to the ride usually end up with the death of a cast member. It's rare that they end up with just a scratch. This means that it is very unsafe, despite the safety upgrades hat Disney has done on the ride.
ReplyDeleteI think you are over reacting. Yes, the deaths are tragic. But, we don't know all the details. Was it the CM's error that led to his death. It is a valid question. I agree that they whole thing/area is a disaster, but that is not the conversation. This is not a situation like the tiki room where we could leverage a fire into a desperately needed re-do. I have worked at an amusement park, and rule #1 was cross the tracks, and get fired!
ReplyDeleteI ones did Dino Rama. The castmember sat me next to a big fat guy and I couldn´t breath. The ride was hell and I will never ever ride it again.
ReplyDeleteIt´s also not to the regular Disney standard and the worst part of Animal Kingdom (best park in my opinion). I hope they clean the place up soon and put a awesome attraction in there.
Love the ride and will ride it again. I also don't mind Dinoland and I think it's better than the similarly themed "amusement park"; California Adventure. There's a WHOLE park dedicated to old rides of the past. :)
ReplyDeleteThe ride is 100% safe. As Ron White said, you can't fix stupid. Well when you got kids running these rides your going to have some stupid ones out there.
ReplyDeleteIf Primeval Whirl is removed just for a few accidents caused by human error than Space Mt, Big Thunder, Mission Space, Everest and Rock N' Roller need to be removed then. All are safe, just people are stupid. They don't read the warnings about "If you have a heart condition don't ride this ride". They don't follow the safety procedures.
If you don't read the warnings or follow the procedures then chances are your going to get hurt. Not because the ride malfunctioned, but because your basically asking to get injured.
And actually anonymous, DCA is not a whole park themed to old rides. Not sure how you came to that conclusion at all given its one of the better parks that Disney has built lately which will show to be true when the construction finishes in may.
I'm not sure now but when I rode this last week only the left coaster was open. The right coaster was still boarded up and there was no cars on the track.
ReplyDelete