Credit: DisneyA routine ride up the escalator at Disney’s Contemporary Resort turned into a genuinely frightening moment for a group of guests this week. What should have been a simple trip to the monorail platform suddenly became a safety scare when the escalator backed up, leaving riders with nowhere to go and no room to step off.
One guest who shared the experience online described the moment vividly, saying the escalator “actually backed up pushing us into the guests on top with nowhere to go.” About ten people were caught in the pile-up, all packed together on the moving steps as the escalator continued rising beneath them.
The guest added, “I was freaking out for the people below us who could have easily fallen down.”
Panic Builds When the Emergency Stop Doesn’t Work
As the pressure increased on the tightly packed group, people tried to hit the emergency stop button, but the first one they pressed didn’t seem to do anything. Other riders attempted it “several times and it did not work,” according to the guest’s account. In the chaos, there wasn’t much time to figure out which of the two panels at the top of the escalator actually housed the real shutdown switch.
Someone eventually found and pressed the correct button on the opposite side, bringing the escalator to a stop and giving riders a chance to climb off safely. Moments later, a Cast Member arrived and told the group that the actual stop button was on the left side. The guest recalled the CM saying it as though they should have known, adding, “LIKE THIS IS OUR PROBLEM?” in disbelief.
Other guests commenting on the situation noted that escalators at the Contemporary can be confusing because they have multiple panels, and only one features the true emergency stop. Some speculated that the button riders were first hitting may not have been the right one at all.
Crowds and Confusion Create a Perfect Storm
The night was already stressful for many people moving around the monorail resorts. The guest explained that only buses were running at the time—no monorails—which meant the platform area above the escalator was backed up and completely packed. Guests heading up the escalator had no idea there was nowhere to step off once they reached the top.
“We would have not gone up if we’d known the trains were not even running,” the rider wrote, noting that no one at the bottom was directing traffic or warning guests about the congestion ahead.
Other Disney fans chimed in with similar stories from different parks or even unrelated events, sharing how quickly an escalator pile-up can become dangerous. One commenter said they had experienced the same kind of crowd crush at a concert escalator, while another pointed out that escalators “are some of the nastiest pieces of machinery that people come into casual contact with.”
Aftermath and Safety Questions
The ordeal has left the guest shaken enough to change how they approach escalators at Disney moving forward. As they put it, “Now I leave a LOT of space between me and the next person on Disney escalators lol!”
Several commenters encouraged the guest to report the incident to Disney’s Safety Services hotline so the company could investigate what happened and determine whether additional signage, staffing, or crowd control measures are needed. Others expressed concern that the emergency button confusion alone could be a hazard in a high-stress moment like this.
It’s the kind of incident that sticks with you—not because anything catastrophic happened, but because it easily could have. A combination of unclear crowding, unclear emergency controls, and timing during an already busy transportation crunch created a moment where riders felt genuinely unsafe.
As of now, Disney has not issued a public statement about the escalator shutdown or the guest report. But for those involved, it’s already become one of those unexpected Disney stories they’ll never forget. As the guest joked after the ordeal, “Now this is my top memory from WDW—‘remember when we almost died on the escalator?’”