Credit: Unsplash

The guests were stuck on the boats for about 90 minutes.

Maybe I’m just paranoid, but every time I get on a theme park ride, I do a quick calculation in my head to determine what’ll happen if the ride suddenly freezes up. If you’re on a merry-go-round, just get off, if you’re on the swing ride, just merrily swing around a bit, and if you’re on a roller coaster upside down, well, try not to pass out. I do this just in case something silly happens and the ride freezes up, requiring me to waste an indeterminate amount of time. It’s something that probably would’ve helped a few of the people who got stuck on Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean over the weekend.

Over the Halloween weekend, a group of guests at Disneyland in California boarded the classic pirate-themed boating dark ride. Everything seemed normal at first, at least until the procession suddenly ground to a halt.

“We were at the point in the ride where the women are chasing the men around in circles, and Jack Sparrow is peeking out of a barrel at a pirate who’s talking about the location of the secret treasure,” California native Brian Rokos told SFGATE. “Then suddenly, we stopped.”

Disneyland guests didn’t know what they were in for when they stepped into the idling boats at the entrance of the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction on Sunday night.https://t.co/9csP1pDJLr

— SFGATE (@SFGate) November 2, 2021

Rokos and the other guests remained in their boats for about 20 minutes, presumably as the staff attempted to restart it, before the lights eventually came on and a loudspeaker directed the staff to assist the guests out. Thankfully, nobody panicked, not even the children, but it was another 20 minutes or so before staff members appeared in the tunnel in rubber waders to help. The guests weren’t able to find clearance past the water, requiring the staff member to manually push the boat back down the track until they reached a safe perch. Once everyone was safely off the ride, they were offered Fast Passes as consolation, and we’re also thanked for not yelling at the staff members.