Just saw a tweet about this and a news alert dated July 1, 2012 on allears.net:
The Characters in Flight Balloon was removed from Downtown Disney (Orlando) 2 nights ago. Balloon employees at DD stated that there was an incident at Ocean Park in Hong Kong so all balloons are being inspected.
http://allears.net/news/hnews.htm
Here's a link to the news story on the original incident that prompted the suspension:
WOW!! I sure hope that it is only a temporary suspension and not a permanent one. We really enjoy it when we go to downtown Disney and it's a must do on our list.
Good they are inspecting all balloons. Better to be safe than sorry. I'd like to try this some day so I hope it's not permanent.
I hope they are able to bring this back. I was hoping to ride when we were there in October but there were clouds and rain on our DTD day so it was grounded.
I'm glad that they took it down for inspections, it's always good to see that they really do have our safety at the forefront.
I'm glad that they took it down for inspections, it's always good to see that they really do have our safety at the forefront.
True, but I believe they were more or less forced into it because of the Hong Kong incident. I think that if the Hong Kong incident had never happened that the DTD Characters in Flight balloon would still be flying.
More then likely Vettelover you are right.
I was wondering where it was the other day when I was there!
We did this for the first time last Christmas.... I sure hope they'll open it again... great views!
I had read somewhere that the balloon was due to come down sometime soon for a replacement anyhow...sometime before Christmas, so the Hong Kong incident just got the ball rolling.
I hope no one was hurt in Hong Kong...has anyone heard if there were injuries in that incident?
Yes according to the article there were five injuries.
Disney uses that same caution on all rides and shows. That's why BTM was closed. The derailment in Paris DL made them re-work the cars and track at all the other parks.
I look at it like this...airline me hanics inspect planes all the time but right after an accident they go into 'super check' mode. Better safer than sorry.
Dee
Member of the 6 castle club and working to pay for my next Disney vacations: 1/5-10/18, September 2018 for my 50th and 2018 the year of Disney cruising.
