Breakers Express Fire

On Sunday 8/19, around 10:30pm my wife and I were staying in Breaker's Express after a 12 hour rainy day at Cedar Point we were greeted by a power outage, then customers and kids running down the hall saying there was smoke in the stairwell, followed by the fire alarms going off and we were forced to evacuate. We stood outside for 3 hours in the rain while the Sandusky FD went all through the building before we were allowed to come back in.

My TR is coming because we had a great time in the park even though it rained the entire day. But after this happened we cut our trip short and just wanted to go home.

Anyway, my question is, does anyone know what actually happened?
*** Edited 8/21/2007 6:15:33 PM UTC by Carpy***

I don't know what happened, but as a theory, what if it was kids pulled the alarm and then started saying there was smoke in the stairwell? (as a prank).

Should the hotel have to refund people's money because some kids played a prank? I know it sucks, but it doesn't sound like they handled it any differently than I would have expected them to.

Sounds like rare occurance. I don't think that should keep you from staying at a CP resort. Maybe you shouldn't stay at BE again, but you should try Lighthouse Point. The cottages on the lake are beautiful and the cabins can hold 6-8 people, AND you won't have to worry about a fire alarm being pulled.

I think no matter where that would have happened at you would have been faced with the chaos after the ordeal was over. If there would have actually been a fire the situation may have been different, but since there wasn't you were still able to spend the night it changes the outlook.

^good point. How does staying at a different hotel solve that problem at all? I highly doubt that in the same situation a Motel 6, or even a Hyatt/Mariott would refund you for that night.

Hence why I just cut our trip short and drove home.

Anyway, does anyone actually know what happened?
*** Edited 8/21/2007 6:16:37 PM UTC by Carpy***

So then are you never going to stay at any hotel ever again?

I can tell you after this I will never stay a CP resort again.

It seems like you're pouring blame on CP that they don't really deserve.

Ok, look.

You guys are taking this topic way off base already. I understand most of you believe CP never does anything wrong. That's fine. Since noone can get past the fact that I brought up something negative about CP I'll just edit that part out and bold the whole point of the topic.

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?

If you can't answer that question then there's no need for you to respond. Sorry to be a jerk.

I don't know what happened that day but I can tell you those things happen more frequently than the management would like. Almost all of the time it is a prank of some type. It could be someone cooked something in a microwave for too long.

3 hours outside sounds like a bit much. If it were me I would have had the employee bus come over and transport guests over to Castaway Bay to wait out the search or whatnot. I suppose they didn't know how long it would take but, after the first hour, they should have organized a bit.

One way to avoid the "crank" alarms is to avoid booking in the shoulder season when a lot of youth groups might be staying. I've stayed in Orlando hotels before during cheerleader week and it is a miserable experience.

^^hahahaha that was one of the funniest rants I've seen in a while.

I don't know what happened. Why didn't you just ask that in the first place? ;)

Because most of the time they won't tell you. Just like the ops won't tell you the real reason a ride is not operating.

Or maybe he just didn't feel like asking on Sunday after spending 3 hours standing outside in the rain.

So he came here to see if he could get the "unofficial" story.

^haha I meant in this thread.

He did. It was there the whole time at the end of his first post. (he has since high-lighted it).

Its also the reason that I pre-faced my post with "I don't know what happened". He didn't just post a rant and then later ask a question.

Dvo said:
^^hahahaha that was one of the funniest rants I've seen in a while.

I don't know what happened. Why didn't you just ask that in the first place? ;)

sigh. note the " ;) " for sarcasm...

So my question is if you couldn't go back into the hotel for 3 hours, why didn't you just sit in your car? :)

-Tambo

No idea what happened.

BE refunded 1/2 of my money for testing the fire alarm during Coastermania 06.

Castaway bay just refunded my mom her money for one night after putting her in a room where the tub would not drain. They said someone would fix it while we were in the park and no one did.

Putting you out for three hours in the rain with no explanation and some hearsay from kids warrants a refund in my book.

Try writing a letter and calling CP. If you don't get a response, try consumerist.com

*** Edited 8/21/2007 8:05:08 PM UTC by Coastern3rd***

tambo said:
So my question is if you couldn't go back into the hotel for 3 hours, why didn't you just sit in your car? :)

There was a night when most of the park and employee housing lost electricity and the fire alarms were going off. After standing an hour outside, I did just that; went and slept in my car. Good thing I did too, considering they went off for more than 5 hours.

Thanks for the responses. I didn't sit in the car but my wife did because it was cold. Managers kept coming in and out and every few times they would say something like "We have had an incident but want everyone to stay calm, we're looking into it. The FD won't let anyone back in yet" etc, etc. I didn't wanna miss what was happening.

Thanks for the advice, Coaster. I will do that.

But yea, plain and simple, since the hotel kept everyone in the dark probably for their good name, I wanted to see if anyone here knew exactly what happened. When I stand out in the rain for a few hours in the middle of the night at a hotel I paid alot of money for I'd like to know why.

Power outages do screwy things to the fire systems and often trigger the alarms to go off. I'm pretty sure they still have to treat power outage triggered alarms as if they were real. Fire alarms happen in hotels, no matter how "classy" the place may be. I've been in several different hotels when it has happened. I was stuck in a restaurant for two hours this summer due to a fire alarm going off. The dining area was on the second floor, my friend who I was with is in a wheelchair, and the fire alarm freezes the elevators until the fire department comes to turn them back on. That was pretty miserable.

Then again, when you're used to college housing, the fire alarms don't really bug you too much after the first dozen or so....

the first time we stayed at Breakers back in 1998, the fire alarm went off at 3AM.

we were all evacuated and went outside. after about an hour, we were allowed back in. there was no explanation, just that they would find the culprit and kick them out.

we went to the front desk that morning to complain. turns out some brat on a school trip held a lighter up to the sprinkler in his room and set off the alarm. because they were part of a group, they werent kicked out.

we were expecting some sort of apology/compensation, but all we got was "just be glad it wasnt a REAL fire" and "this happens at LEAST once a month with the kids."

we just kinda let it slide, as we were having a GREAT vacation (our first one there, and not the last) and chalked it up to "just one of those things".

and although it WAS a little chilly, and we DID sit in the car for a while, it was kinda nice being out there under the darkened park and Maggie's lighted lift hill....

sorry you had such a bad experience, but if CP gave refunds for every incident, there wouldnt BE a CP.

If they started giving refunds because of someone tripping the fire alarm, it would happen all the time.

What an easy way to get yourself a free night.