So I'm guessing tonight was the debut of our 9th maze.. Refundz: Angry Guests of Fear..
Out of nowhere Southern California had a thunderstorm. Maybe that was the reason for the closures because the ticket states the event occurs in the rain. Thunderstorms though? I wonder what happened over at Fright Fest and Scary Farm!Apparently the line for refunds at guest relations snaked all the way down to the fire towers tonight. Anybody want to tell me what happened?
Out of curiosity, I wonder if this may convince operations to have more than just mazes open for the event.
That would make sense, as Orlando had to reopen Simpsons last night due to how crowded it was. But in this circumstance, virtually nothing else was available for guests; outside of two of the mazes (and I assume showtimes for Jabbawockeez).
I really want to support Universal, but even I'm a bit irked they just said, "may have experienced delays". Frankly, that's a bit insulting to me. It wasn't just a "delay". Key attractions were flat out closed, there was a lot of chaos and confusion in general.
I can even give USH some benefit for not knowing mazes were going to flood... sometimes you just don't know until you get a rain (though having uncovered portions without a back up plan does not seem wise--but it's possible even covered sections ended up leaking unexpectedly). Even so, GR should have been more prepared with a rain closure policy for this situation. If the ticket says, "open rain or shine", it's implied the attractions will remain open. When it says "rain or shine", but the main attractions close because of the rain, that's a very different story.
On a side note, if mazes really did flood, I hope there wasn't any damage to them.
This is definitely a freak incident. Last time I remember this happening was in 2014 on Halloween night I believe. But I don’t think it was nearly this bad resulting in almost every maze to be closedHonest question, how much does it rain in LA during this time of year? If this is a freak incident then I'm not too worried.
Again, I come back to my first question: how often does it rain at this time of year in LA? If this was a freak storm then what could they do to prepare? "Oh there might be a huge storm tonight lets call in more Guest Relations TMs"?
This is similar to last year when HHN Orlando had a massive power outage a week after the hurricane. Parade building and tent houses, MiB, and Simpsons were down with emergency lighting on. They issued refunds to everyone who asked but what can Universal say beyond "experiencing delays"?
I don't seem to recall it being too common... I do remember vividly last year, there was not a single day in October that went below 90 degrees. So at best, it's been a while.
To answer your questions, no, they didn't have to call in extra GR for a freak storm (though they could've tried, and any that were available sure would've helped). What should have already been in place, though, was a thought out plan ahead of time (before HHN even starts!) that covers what to do in case of rain, power outages, or any other unforseen closures:
And instead of "experiencing delays", they could've said, "unforeseen closures". To me, "experiencing a delay" means you had to wait an extra 30-60 minutes or more, but you still got through it... you were just inconvenienced. But this was more than that... nearly every maze was flat out closed, and they need to acknowledge that. That's an honest assessment of what happened, yet still corporate enough to be palatable for management.
- Organizing a queue for GR
- A plan of how to handle the situation quickly (refunds or rainchecks), and an attempt to move through guests as quickly as possible.
- There were still team members available at the Tower and the outdoor GR that could've been called in as back up. For instance, they could've sent all guests who would be willing to settle with a rain check to go to the Tower and pick them up, while other guests with different complaints or unsatisfied with that could've stayed at GR. Heck, the tower sits right in front of a huge queue area for UM that was sitting totally unused since the maze was down. They could've funneled guests into that queue for a quick raincheck. I don't if people would've been "happy", per se, but they'd probably be a lot less upset than they are now.
As I already said, if they say the event is "rain or shine", that implies they're prepared for rain and that all mazes would remain open in the rain (possible pass for Terror Tram). Clearly, that did not happen.
Blumhouse and Purge temporarily reopened around midnight, but both flooded and closed again within maybe 20 minutes and never opened againSo to be clear, no maze to my knowledge reopened after they originally went down. Operations TRIED to get them back open - as hard as they could. Actors were sheltered and on standby. The Metro mazes were probably never going to reopen, as to my understanding those areas are designated rain basins and almost immediately flooded.
"Delays" is a joke. Half of the event was closed and never reopened. I WILL say I'm glad they didn't attempt to continue the mazes through the rain - that would have been dramatically unsafe and miserable for everyone. Hopefully, everyone who emails is comp'd a day.
I would guess there wasn't a lot besides maybe to the outer walls, and maybe mildew in the carpetsCustomer relations fiasco aside, has there been any damage to any mazes?
I wouldn’t worry too much about their black walls suffering much water damage. They can always paint over any of it.Customer relations fiasco aside, has there been any damage to any mazes?