That Time I Got Stuck on It’s a Small World

Lets face it. Getting stuck on a ride isn't fun. It eats up your precious park time. I've been stuck a few times. Once, back in 1996 I was stuck on Splash Mountain for 30 minutes. I heard "How do you do?" sung by a audio animatronic toad 4 million times. But imagine hearing THE SONG over and over. You know the one. I actually don't mind the song, but throw in a clown? Shivers. Ladies and gentleman, I give you Lisa Green - Nick

That Time We Got Stuck on It's a Small World

By Lisa Green  

Sometimes I think I’m so cute and clever.  Those are the times I should be most aware of how life can sneak up on you and, well, kick you in the pants.  Not long ago, while Raymond and I were enjoying that blissful week alone at Walt Disney World, I had one of those moments.  In anticipation of our trip, I’d purchased a couple of limited edition Disney tee shirts.  They were the ones commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Carousel of Progress and It’s a Small World – since I was also celebrating being 50 years old in 2014…well, you can see how cute and clever I thought I was being.

On one of the days we’d be spending in the Magic Kingdom, I donned my new It’s a Small World shirt and thought it would be great to ride the ride…you know, wearing the shirt.  How wonderful!  Here’s what happened… 

Begin flashback sequence now…..

 

We were having a really terrific day in spite of some bazaar goings-on when we first arrived at the park (an omen, perhaps?).  Main Street was looking gorgeous when we stopped by Starbuck’s for coffee and a bite to eat. 

We headed over to Adventureland to hit our first attractions of the day.  That’s when we first noticed that Magic Kingdom was experiencing some technical difficulties, as was the My Disney Experience App – many rides were not running and the app actually showed every ride as “closed”.  We’d gone to ride Pirates and it was closed.  PhilharMagic? Closed.  Winnie the Pooh? Nope.  There were a bunch of angry people!  We weren’t among them though.  I have a motto, “When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping!”

We’d had plenty of Magic Kingdom time already the day before and would be coming back again later in the week, so we decided to jump on the monorail and see what was going on along the loop.  We’d hit the shops, see the sights, and make our way back to the Magic Kingdom later for our dinner at Be Our Guest.  Going with the flow was working great for us!

After we checked out everything at the Grand Floridian and the Polynesian, we decided we should go back and see if we could at least ride It’s a Small World before dinner on account of the special shirt I’d worn that day.  When we got back, things were somewhat better (still no Pirates) so we found we had time to ride Peter Pan, see PhilharMagic, and YAY! ride It’s a Small World.  The line moved quickly and I was feeling pretty cute in my new tee.

That’s probably what did it – my feeling cute and clever.  We were sailing along in the front seat of our little boat while I was happily snapping pictures here and there.  We got right to the far side of the blue room and the boat stopped.  Not a pause, the boat was dead in the water – along with all the other boats.   We were sitting with the honking geese directly to our right and that balloon that goes up and down with the clown in the basket on our left.  The automatic announcement came on that tells you that everything’s going to be fine in a moment.

 

I’m not scared of much – at least not the usual stuff.  Lizards, mice, snakes, bugs – those don’t phase me much.  If you hear me holler about a bug, it’s only because I don’t have anything at hand to squash it with and I don’t want it to get away. 

 

Getting stuck on It’s a Small World seems pretty innocuous, doesn’t it?  I don’t know what started freaking me out first.  It might have been the clown in the balloon going up and down and up and down or the geese that would not stop honking. It might have been how the people behind us all started singing along with the ride’s well-know song.  I suspect it was the not automated announcements that did me in, but a cast member instead.  I’m sure she was just trying to help.

After the first auto-announcement, this female cast member’s voice came over the loud speaker and basically repeated the information from the first announcement.  At least in the beginning.  In reality, I’m guessing we were stuck on the ride somewhere between 8 and 10 minutes.  It seemed a lot longer because as that cast member made her announcements, she became increasingly frantic in her bid for guests to stay seated.  By the fourth or fifth time she made the announcement, she was sounding actually panicked, “PLEASE!!!  Remain in your boats!!!!”  Of course this made me suspect that we were never going to be rescued.  That, in fact, we would have to swim for our lives.  Perhaps she sounded so desperate because the exodus had already begun in another room? 

 

Those geese were honking a warning…the clown would be climbing out of that balloon basket to commit unspeakable atrocities upon the unsuspecting passengers of the “Happiest cruise that ever sailed” and I’d be first because I was wearing the SHIRT!!!  This is what happens when you feel cute and clever!!!

Yes, you’re right.  Nothing bad happened.  Aside from my momentary clown-paranoia and homicidal thoughts towards both the announcer-girl and the singing people behind me, the boats finally moved on and we were able to enjoy our dinner at Be Our Guest.  Just in case though, I did not ride the Carousel of Progress on the day I wore that particular shirt.

What rides have YOU been stuck on?

This article was originally posted on Lisa's Living a Disney Life Blog.
She can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/LivingaDisLife and on Twitter at @life_of_green

Please be sure to check out Lisa along with me and David Hodges on The Disney Exchange Podcast!