Tales From the Turntable: Seat belts. Why'd It Have to be Seat Belts?

Seat belts. We all know how to use them. You are legally required to use one when you're in your vehicle. My toddler knows how to do her seat belts in her car seat and swing. Many guests FLY to Orlando for their Walt Disney World vacation. And what is a requirement before an airplane takes off? Seat belts buckled.

So why is it that seat belts are this new, unexplainable, hard to comprehend idea when boarding a raft in Disney's Animal Kingdom?

Upon boarding your raft please sit down and buckle your seat belts First!

Part of a spiel the Expedition Base cast member would read periodically shares this reminder of how you WILL get wet and possibly soaked, and to please buckle your seat belt first. Uh yeah, nobody listened to that spiel, or if they did, they forgot as soon as they took their first step on the moving turntable.

Here's how it works, ideally .... guests would come down the ramp, say how many are in their party, head to the raft they are directed to and step down into the raft. At this point, in our fantasy world, they would slide around to the back, sitting down in groups of two with people in their own party. Odd number groups would be awesome if those two odd folks could then sit together in a seat. Each seat is a pair and the two people would share one seat belt. If we had our way they would sit down, buckle up, and then worry about their belongings they wish to keep dry and be on their way.

FANTASY!! This isn't the Magic Kingdom, but we still had a fantasy!

This is how it really went...

At Guide:

Hi! How many in your party?

     What?

How many in your group today?

     We are group.                                                      mmmm, okay....   OR

     4 

Great, head on over to that raft right there!

At Load:

Welcome Rafters, come on in and please slide allllll the way around to the back. To the back please. Hi, could you keep moving all the way around to the back? Thank you. Two people per seat please, two people per seat. Are you two in the same party? Cool, can you please seat together? Watch your step, please keep moving all the way around, two people per seat. Thank you!

And now at Checker:

Hello Rafters! I need everyone to please sit down and buckle your seat belts first. Please sit down. We need everyone to sit down first please. Seat belts go over both people. One seat belt for two people (this comes with arm movements to explain everything!). No, sir, the seat belt goes over both of you. One seat belt for two people. Ma'am it isn't broken, this side pulls over to meet that side. It is just one long seat belt for both of you. No, there isn't anything in the middle. You each have the end in your hand. Those two buckle together. One seat belt. We need all seat belts buckled first, please. (At this point we have already slowed the turntable speed down and are about to stop the entire turntable because the raft cannot leave without seat belts buckled.) Just click them together. This side goes in right here. Just like an airplane seat belt! Okay, is everyone buckled? Great, have a wonderful time!

And you do all of this with a happy attitude and smile on your face. All. Day. Long.

Sometimes it gets even more complicated. Bobby was kind enough to remind me of a total Hank move.

How many in your party?

        2.

No, you're 4.

I'll let you think on that for a bit.

Four? Well, you cannot ride if you can't get buckled in.

So ... sometimes guests are a bit larger than the seats may allow for two people to sit together and you need to count a person as two. Do you need to SAY that, Hank? No. But we all mentally SHOULD do it. That's when it gets awkward. When you are loading or checking and you see you have a situation where people are not going to get that seat belt over them no matter how hard they try.

I actually had to move a raft over to our private wheelchair dock so a guest could continue trying to get buckled in. He couldn't and he had to get out of the raft, missing out on the opportunity to enjoy the Chakranadi River. Seriously awkward. And it really annoyed me anytime the Guide - or even the Loader who was telling the Guide how many seats were left - didn't take size into consideration. No guest should be embarrassed like that, so if we can think ahead and prevent this situation that is always preferred!

Fun fact: I actually had to show Dana Carvey how to buckle his seat belt.

Fun fact: Years later I ran a Disney 5K dressed as Dana Carvey/Garth Algar!

All of that was for English speaking guests. Just imagine how it goes when they don't speak English! Heck I made some guests happy when I actually used my Indonesian words with them, and then I made some other guests happy when I did not speak their language. I was given a very angry "Don't you speak Swedish?"  Um, no. I don't.

And you wonder why the lines get so long and slow some days.

Sampai Jumpa!

º0º See ya real soon!