I was in the middle of watching Gravity (for the second time) being jostled about in my D-box seat. Annoyingly, I had couples either side of me moving from one D-box seat to another, wondering why it’s not working for them even though it worked for everyone else. If those couples are reading this, YOU NEED TO RESERVE A D-BOX SEAT, IT’S NOT FREE.
Everyone in the cinema came back down to earth from the following announcement.
“Ladies and gentlemen there has been an incident, please leave the building at the nearest exit”
@cineworld Amazing coordination skills when an emergency alarm goes off at your Wembley branch… NOT! Ridiculous! No management!
— Meera Patel (@MeeraPatel18) November 17, 2013
What a F…..up at @cineworld Wembley. .went to see RamLeela..evacuated. staff unable to direct public. # dangerous. .
— Ashima Patel (@AshimaPatel_11) November 18, 2013
Things turned rather uncomfortable when everyone reached the fire exit, only to learn it was locked! At this point it felt claustrophobic as more and more people arrived from the 9 screens, the exit space appeared full to capacity, with the toilets being used as a place to wait.
“OPEN THE DOORS” shouted a man after one member of staff whimpered through the crowd to find out what we already knew; the fire exit doors could not open.
The only member of staff present made no attempt to put us at ease, it was beginning to feel quite dangerous. He then disappeared, we were held there for what seemed like 15 minutes.
To everyone’s relief, staff eventually directed us to a useable exit. What I want to know is why did it take staff so long to find it?
Fresh air at last, level 1 filled with people waiting for staff to explain what’s happening. You’re probably wondering why people waited? Well, this is Wembley and people are not going anywhere if they’ve already paid!
Eventually, staff appeared on the above level and announced we can return to the cinema. This was well received with cheers and whistles from the crowd. One man who was clearly beside himself with joy decided to run up a downward moving escalator, much to everyone’s satisfaction, he fell flat on his face when he reached to the top!!!
All in all, this was a poor evacuation and put people’s safety at risk, what with being trapped in a packed passage way. The public in attendance were a peaceful, patient and passive bunch, Wembley Cineworld should thank them for not running for the exits or panicking.
[button style=”flat” color=”#357ae8″ link=”https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=Olympic+Way&daddr=Wembley+Park+Blvd&hl=en&ll=51.55825,-0.281632&spn=0.004182,0.007929&sll=51.557569,-0.279969&sspn=0.004182,0.007929&geocode=FUDIEgMdOrv7_w%3BFY61EgMdAbT7_w&dirflg=w&mra=dme&mrsp=1&sz=17&t=m&z=17″ text=”#ffffff” target=”_blank” ]HOW DO I GET THERE?[/button] [box style=”light-blue” ]Social media reactions:@LDN_TUBE We are investigating this incident with our landlords as a matter of urgency. We take our customers safety extremely seriously.
— Cineworld Wembley (@CineWembley) November 18, 2013
Were you there at Cineworld Wembley last night? Share your experience below.
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We were, and we did not have to wait at least, because we were shown the emergency stairs, but no one was there to lead the way. We continued down the stairs for a long time and we ended up going outside York House building, where there was NOBODY to speak on behalf of the company. So we had to go home, and miss half of the movie. We are yet to hear from cineworld to at least apologize for this unhandled “situation”.
We are really upset with cineworld – Wembley because of this. And it seems their complaints email inbox is not the way to go with them, because they haven’t even say a word on this….
We were evacuated from Wembley Cineworld last night with no explanation.
We had 10 critical minutes left to the film….wondering if we will be reimbursed!!!
The staff handled it quite well but I’m guessing it was a drill as the car park staff were clueless about the evacuation.