Please note that all blog posts before 8 April 2007 were automatically imported from LiveJournal. To see the comments and any LiveJournal-specific extras such as polls and user icons, please find the source posting at http://brianenigma.livejournal.com/2005/12/Our hotel caught fire last night–specifically, the oversized fake tree in the lobby.
We were greeted by a 3am wakeup call consisting of loud fire klaxons. While I got semi-dressed and shuffled down the stairs, I assumed it was a false alarm–some kid pulled the alarm or someone was smoking in their room. All of the hotel guests congregated in Downtown Disney.
We knew it was probably a bit more serious when the park/hotel staff said we might be there a while and proceeded to search for better temporary accommodations. They opened up a castmember entrance to California Adventure. This was actually the second castmember entrance we got to see that night–earlier, we attempted to leave during the fireworks. We had seen them from the balcony the previous night and really did not need to see them again. Because Main Street was so clogged, we got to leave via a secret road/area to the right of Main Street–and got to see where they store the riverboats for Jungle Cruise.
Anyway, we ended up inside California Dreamin' Soarin' in the wait queue, staring at old photos of aviators. People came with coffee, cocoa, water, and blankets. At 5am, they warned that the ride's wait queue music would kick in, so we exited and went to the restaurant next door (Test Pilot something-or-other.) There we sat around with tea and pastries until 5:30am 7am, at which point they let us back into the hotel.
The hotel's lobby is an open 6-story affair and the Christmas tree took up a good portion of that. Upon returning, we noted that many thing were soaked, the carpet was scorched, and the ceiling had some pretty good smoke damage. Good times!
We're safe, which is the important thing. Tired, but safe.
