robbalvey

Has anyone else had experiences with the new “moveable fluffy, fluffy bunnies filled with medicine and goo” system? I was lookin into it for my CP trip at the end of August. But based on that it doesn’t work right, I am thinking about steering clear of it. I’m having some wishful thinking hoping maybe this was an isolated event and it typically works, so I am curious if others’ experiences with this system. It worked, but I had to go through the process at each new kiosk to cancel out the locker at the previous location because the "end rental" button never worked. It's still a deal if you plan on renting more than 5 lockers at $2 each. If not, just rent one at each individual ride.

Agreed. I will never EVER understand people who rush out to a new park/ride/attraction right when it opens only to complain about the growing pains or longer than normal lines they may be experiencing due to the fact that it just opened. Last I checked this isn't a Disney park. Please try a bit harder next time you make an analogy like this.

I do not understand how the park thinks this is even remotely acceptable.

Well you are right about one thing, that is the LAST POST they are going to be making here on the forum!

Ugh, you're an awful human that is adding to this mess and not helping it. While I think the policy is horrible and stupid, you know what I do? I RESPECT IT!!! And I hope that a better solution is presented in the future. But by saying "They tell me to take my stuff out of my pocket, but I'm an entitled Californian so I don't bother to listen to them and I do whatever I want to" just makes you one of the worst people on the planet and I hate you because of stupid people JUST LIKE YOU is why we have these obnoxious rules in the first place. Get off our forum. You're not welcome here. Well actually I don't think they tell you to take cell phones out of pockets. It might be on the signage. In any case secured in a cargo pocket is just fine. So you hate Californians in general or all people. I am not directly violating any rules and have never lost an article on any ride. So your hate is ignored and your forum is appreciated. I hate self-entitled lying assholes which you appear to be making a perfect example of being one. Get off our forum. You're not welcome here.

Ugh, you're an awful human that is adding to this mess and not helping it. While I think the policy is horrible and stupid, you know what I do? I RESPECT IT!!! And I hope that a better solution is presented in the future. But by saying "They tell me to take my stuff out of my pocket, but I'm an entitled Californian so I don't bother to listen to them and I do whatever I want to" just makes you one of the worst people on the planet and I hate you because of stupid people JUST LIKE YOU is why we have these obnoxious rules in the first place. Get off our forum. You're not welcome here.

And lets not forget this annoyance.... In pretty much EVERY case where I went to use a locker I was stuck standing in line behind 3 or 4 people struggling to use whatever kiosk system the park had installed. Either due to user error, or more often times poorly maintained hardware as many screens weren't very responsive, credit card readers didn't work, etc. There were at least more than a few times where I went through the entire process only to not have the card reader work and then I had go to stand in ANOTHER line at a different kiosk. Should I even mention the fact that NOT ONCE did the "transferring locker" work at Cedar Point no matter how many times I pressed the "End Rental" button? Every single time I went to go rent another locker it would tell me "You've already rented a locker" and I'd have to go through the process to cancel it out. Make no mistake about it, these locker systems absoultely SUCK HARD and it only impacts the guest experience and increases the amount of annoyance and frustration you have during your day at a park. Actually, there was one exception to this.... Knoebels! Here's where I went to get a "non mandatory" locker that I needed to store one of my bags in after we were doing filming. Guest what? I put 50 cents in and it gave me a locker for the ENTIRE DAY. No hassle. No annoyance. And did I mention it was FIFTY CENTS??? Remember these little keys? They worked just fine for many many years!

OK, well... you're wrong. Totally and completely wrong in every way with everything you just said. And the fact that you think you are right just shows me you have no clue at all what you're talking about. EDIT: Side note - I don't disagree that if you want to bring your crap to a park, get a locker, but that's not really what I'm talking about. The fact that bins or other type of storage areas DO WORK on the platform, especially for small items such as phones or shoes, is what I am mostly talking about here. But that being said, I have seen plenty of examples where bags, hats, wallets, phones, keys, drink cups, etc, can be placed on the other side of a platform without impacting operations at all.

This right here is a GREAT post... 100% agreed! You may never be able to keep all cell phones off a ride (yes, people HAVE somehow gotten them past the metal detectors at Universal) and you may never be able to get everyone to pull down their lap bar. But COMMUNICATION IS KEY here, folks! If you don't tell people directly and in the moment, then sure, most people it will go in one ear and out the other. IMO, those "ride rules" you hear over the PA system is like the airplane safety videos where most people don't watch them because you've heard it a million times before. But if you have a ride where something out of the ordinary is expected of the guests, it is the parks responsibility to COMMUNICATE that to the guest. I absoultely refuse to believe that if they can get people to put away their phones when they get in line, they can also get people to put away their phones when they board a ride. I saw no fewer than three attendants at the front of Steel Vengeance every time I was at the ride. Take one or two of those staff and have them scan the air gates area for phones in pockets. Have the grouper right before you get into the station tell people directly "All phones need to be placed on the other side of the station." I saw small cubbies for shoes at Valravn, why can't they have these for phones also? (And I actually DID see some phones in those cubbies.) It makes my brain hurt knowing there are so many examples of solutions that work, and yet we still have one of the largest most respectable parks in the world with one of the worst guest policies I've ever seen. (And I'm also looking at you Great Adventure if you are doing this as well. Personally, I've never seen it.) Don't let Universal be the park that others follow in their bad example, be the park that comes up with a BETTER SOLUTION!

OK, hold on there for a second. This is a completely stupid example. I honestly don't blame your average guest for accidentally pulling down their lap bar out of habit because EVERY SINGLE ROLLER COASTER SINCE THE EXISTENCE OF ROLLER COASTERS you would get in and then pull down your lap bar. So don't give me some bullshit about how people don't listen because for decades and decades people were wired to get in and pull down their lap bar. if the park wants to have some out-of-the-ordinary rule where guests don't pull down their lap bars then have trains where the lap bars are locked in the up position until they are unlocked. Doesn't the GCI Millennium Flyer trains do this? So why does it work perfectly fine at a park like Holiday World then? Really? Because I could sit here and site many many many examples to you of where it works perfectly fine. Would you like me to do that? It's clear to me you don't know much about theme park operations so I'd suggest you stop talking out of your rectum.

They only bitch about capacity because the parks do a poor job of moving people through the process. At pretty much EVERY park in Japan, in between ride cycles one or two employees will come through the station telling everyone at the airgates who is about to board the next train coming in to take off their bags, pull cell phones out of pockets, and they "prepare" everyone for putting their stuff in the bins. Here in the US, no park that I've ever seen does this so you have people at the very last minute getting their crap together after the air gates have already opened. I will never understand why more parks don't go through this simple process especially when most of the time I just see park employees sitting there bored while waiting for the next train to come in. EDIT: I was just reminded that Holiday World not only does this, but the employees will actually TAKE YOUR BAGS and offer to put them off to the side in between trains. Again, the process only works as fast or as slow as the park makes it happen. Guests are not there to think about the daily operations of the roller coasters, they are just there to ride. So if a park offers bins for people to put their stuff, but they see that it is slowing down capacity, IT IS THE PARKS RESPONSIBILITY to speed that up or come up with a solution that does not impact guest satisfaction. And I will say it once again that I have seen examples at parks all over the world that work, and I only blame the park for their laziness if they cannot come up with a solution.

Was the cellphone policy the same on Steel Vengeance during ERT as it is during the day, or were you able to work with the park to allow some other arrangement? But otherwise, glad you had fun! Looking forward to the full report in that thread. Cell phone and bag policy was the same during ERT. I was allowed to have one phone in the station to take pictures of the group. All other bags, phones, etc, went in the lockers.

Since you mentioned it...

We ended our 3-day visit to Cedar Point last night where we had three hours of ERT over those days. Two hours on Steel Vengeance and an hour on Maverick. The crews were amazing to work with... I think we sent out about 50 trains on Steel Vengeance and since we had less than 40 people in our trip, people got in a CRAZY amount of rides if they wanted to! I'll post a full trip report soon. At the airport now and totally exhausted! Need to get home and rest from an absolutely amazing trip!

Going to move this into the main forum so more people can comment on it..

We ended our 3-day visit to Cedar Point last night where we had three hours of ERT over those days. Two hours on Steel Vengeance and an hour on Maverick. The crews were amazing to work with... I think we sent out about 50 trains on Steel Vengeance and since we had less than 40 people in our trip, people got in a CRAZY amount of rides if they wanted to! I'll post a full trip report soon. At the airport now and totally exhausted! Need to get home and rest from an absolutely amazing trip!

Do people hate on Millennium Force??? I actually thought it was quite loved by theme park fans. While it may not be in my top ten or the most forceful ride on the planet, it most certainly one of the most "fun" rides ever and I enjoy every single ride I take on it!

It opened today. Just rode it. Standby line was about 45 minutes. Fast Lane line was about 15-20 minute. Not a bad line at all today.

REGISTER for our forum to leave a comment! Be sure to follow our Twitter and Instagram Stories for live updates from our trip! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Next stop: Busch Gardens Williamsburg! Our day started with filming on the three B&M coasters: Griffon, Alpengeist, and Apollo's Chariot and ended with some night ERT on their fairly new wooden roller coaster, Invadr! Check out some photos and video... Greetings from Busch Gardens Williamsburg! TPR is happy to be back to one of the most beautiful parks in the country! We’ve started our day doing some filming on three coasters! First up... Griffon! Gotta love the water splashdown on Griffon! Next up was Alpengeist! It’s an amazing inverted coaster... and it’s themed to skiing! LOVE IT! Alpengeist is over 20 years old now and it’s still intense and very well themed! Our rides on Apollo’s Chariot this morning were fantastic! Apollo’s Chariot was one of the very first B&M hypercoasters and it still delivers a super smooth, fun ride! So many happy TPR riders on Apollo’s Chariot! Back seat POV! Every time I go to England it looks just like this! When it is hot outside, this roaming team of “water misters” travel around the park spraying guests! Look! Even Kristen is riding coasters today! Love that Busch Gardens has a pressed penny machine for most of their roller coasters! I really like these triple launched coasters from Premier Rides! Do you dare brave the Black Forest on Verbolten? Let’s just say we got at least a “little” wet on the Log Flume today! It’s ok... we needed it! Grogan’s Pub was a popular hangout for TPR today! The three B&Ms of Busch Gardens Williamsburg is a wonderful collection of roller coasters! The group loved the new Battle of Eire VR attraction! And they thought the head gear made them look sexy! What do you think? The Lochness Monster is 40 years old and it rides just like you would expect a 40 year old Arrow Dynamics coaster would ride! I love how photogenic Griffon is! The theming around Invadr looks GREAT! Wonderful design that really adds a lot to the attraction! Night time ERT has begun on Invadr! Invadr is kind of a “wooden family coaster” as it only has a 46” height restriction. GCI did a wonderful job with this one. Super fun ride without being too intense for younger riders! Huge thank you to the Invadr crew! We had a great time hanging out with you guys! Now, POST YOUR COMMENTS!!!! After all, we took the time to write this report, the least you can do is post something nice about it!

Sorry... I feel like I have to take a little responsibility for this one!

Trips during that time wasn't that much different than now. We would mostly target newer coasters that we knew were opening at parks. In those earlier years we still had the internet but more in the form of Usenet groups or AOL message boards and there were roller coaster and theme park groups then. Sure, there was a lot more "paper maps" than "Google Maps" and booking hotels and flights over the phone instead of online, but I don't think overall our trip planning is that much different then as it is today. Even in 1996 many of the bigger parks had websites. Take a look at Six Flags in 1996: https://web.archive.org/web/19961218225259/http://sixflags.com:80/ And don't forget, Theme Park Review technically went online for the first time in 1996!

AWESOME! Look forward to seeing you guys again!

To be fair, I don't mind people posting videos, but when that is ALL YOU POST and you do it in such a way so you have to click out of the forum to get to the video, that's just not cool. We have an easy-to-use feature on the forum that lets you embed videos so you can watch it in the forum and discuss it here...

I just had to clean up more drama. I don't have the time or patience for stupidity. If you are going to come on our forums and create drama and stupidity, you will be banned. No questions asked. No second chance given. We have no problem at all with people weeding themselves out of our forum. So please, keep it up...

And when your 7 day ban has been lifted, CedarFair1, you are no longer allowed to post videos from your channel on our forum ever again. If you would like to be an active member of our community, that's fine. But I will no longer provide you with a platform to spam your videos on. If you post another video to your channel on our forum again, your ban will become permanent. Thank you to Larry for bringing this to my attention. I was unaware that it was going on.