robbalvey

I would actually be willing to pay MORE money to take my phone in the line with me! How's THAT for an option? Come up with something where if you want to take your phone in line with you, you have to pay an extra $10 or $20 bucks for the day and wear a neon-glow sticker or wristband that loudly says I HAVE MY PHONE WITH ME so that when you get up to the platform, the ride ops know to take it away from you and put it in a bin. Sure, there may not be that many people who would actually pay to do it, but it's an "option" and that's all I'm asking. These parks are creative enough to come up with some of the most amazing crazy rides in the world, I refuse to believe they aren't creative enough to come up with an idea that is better for their guests regarding this issue.

Are you kidding me? Have you ridden Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom? That ride has some moments of ejector airtime that riders don’t expect and can’t prepare for. Still I ask the question... I’ve ridden Rock n Roller Coaster holding a tri-pod in my hand and a back pack but I can’t have my phone on Steel Vengeance? And I’d argue that most Disney guests are probably less seasoned Coaster riders and Disney’s coasters are open longer, have a higher capacity, thus creating significantly more riders and a much larger potential for incidents, yet there are very few to no problems. Why? Space Mountain runs TWENTY SIX trains at a time and is open 12-15 hours a day 365 days a year. If cell phones and loose items are really such a huge issue why aren’t we hearing more about them on rides like that? But even still, my issue isn’t even about if I can take my phone on the ride or not, just let me have it in a two hour line.

Really? Because here it's being reported as a "small roof fire" https://wtkr.com/2018/07/21/small-fire-breaks-out-at-busch-gardens/ Also, you're banned for spreading "fake news."

I mean, you're only in theme park operations, what do you know?

Posted this to our Twitter:

That's why I say it's a poor "Guest Satisfaction" decision. Sure they are weighing "people taking pictures in line" with "potential injuries and the PR side effect of that" and obviously rider injuries is going to win over someone posting a photo to Instagram, but that also doesn't translate into good guest satisfaction scores. I guarantee people are going to bitch and complain, and rightfully so, when they are told they HAVE to put their phone away in a locker for the duration of their 90-120 minute wait for Steel Vengeance. I would fully support and encourage those complaints because forcing someone to put your phone in a locker when you have a two hour wait in line is STUPID! It's a complete "SCREW YOU" to the guest. Come up with a better solution that doesn't create an annoyance for your paying customers.

I guess this policy is very very new and wasn't being enforced on Monday.. news article just popped up on my Google news feed Like I said, on Monday, they had guest put all loose articles, phones included, down their shirts and tuck their shirt in. Maybe they were testing that before going full blown It's disappointing for sure. Thankfully I never go to the park without a Fast Lane Plus so I won't mind putting my phone away for 15 minutes in a locker. But I will absoultely choose not to ride any ride where I have to wait in any sort of significant line without my phone. (I've ridden Hulk a total of ONE time since it re-opened!) It annoys me enough already with rides like Steel Vengeance because I would love to take photos while in the queue, in the station, as I'm a responsible adult that can put my phone off to the side in a bin. I don't like being punished or treated like a criminal by a park when I haven't done anything wrong, especially when one of the reasons sited as to why they are enforcing the policy is because of an issue at another park 500 miles away. So basically I read that as I'm being preemptively punished for something that I didn't do, am not going to do, and that didn't even happen in their own park. Yeah, that doesn't fly with me and I will not agree that policy is a good look for any park. Poor guest satisfaction right there. But I get it... we live in a world full of idiots. Thanks idiots. It's just sad that parks in other countries can come up with better solutions, but we cannot here in America. Par for the course...

I really feel like the main reason you've seen single rider lines disappear outside of Disney parks is that most parks aren't able to handle the operations needed to keep them flowing organically along with the regular queue. For most single riders lines I've seen outside of Disney parks, they seem to be more of an afterthought than fully incorporated into the queue design and flow of operations. Most amusement parks also do not assign seats or group people which is another reason why it doesn't work. At a Disney park, the single rider line is woven seamlessly into the organic operations of the rides that include them.... Two people, row number one. Four people, two on row two, two on row three. Five people, two on row four, two on row five, one on row six, single rider, row six Two people, row number seven Three people, two on row eight, one on row nine, single rider row nine... And it happens just as quickly and easily as that. Most other parks do not have the operational capacity or organization of the queue to be able to handle this. It takes a well-oiled machine to successfully operate single rider lines and outside of Disney, it is often not done to a satisfactory level.

I agree. And I hope they continue to expand. It's the same with Gyu-Kaku in the USA versus Japan. It's great that we have it here in the US, but I kind of wish we could be trusted more to have things like the iPads to order from and not have to be constantly reminded "don't touch the gold ring...IT'S HOT!!!"

We need someone who can take decent pictures and write a nice trip report to go to the media event for the opening of Thomas Town on July 27th. If you'd like to volunteer please email me at robbalvey@themeparkreview.com

Nah, the people who ask those questions are just flat-out morons. The people who are all "Does this rule REALLY apply to me" are both flat-out morons and people with a sense of self-entitlement who are just trying to game the system for their own personal benefit.

Hi there Bill. Welcome to this new world filled with self-entitled people where they think the rules don't apply to them. I hope you enjoy you're stay here. Or at least as long as you can stand it before you want to kill yourself and/or everyone else... or maybe the other option is a move to Japan where they probably still have a few more years left before the entitlement plague infects them, too.

This is actually kind of my thought exactly. I'm really hoping this is more "let's get people to REALLY police themselves" and less "this is a stop-gap until we start using metal detectors." I'm pretty much against any park not allowing you to have a phone while waiting in a super long line. If I have a Fast Lane and I'm waiting five or ten minutes, fine. But I don't really want to be without my phone if I'm stuck waiting in some super long queue. I'd rather choose not to ride. Also, from the Steel Vengeance queue, you can get some pretty amazing photos of the ride! Why wouldn't the park want people to get some of these photos to post to social media? This is not an ideal solution either: But Universal Japan will wand you if they see something in your pocket as you're getting on the ride. I would rather spend extra time in line for this process than to be without my phone for the duration of the queue. And maybe as people see this happening, they'll just police themselves even more to put their crap on the other side of the train in the station to avoid these delays. But who am I kidding? Our world is full of morons.

^ Ugh. Those pictures disappoint me. The fact that they have to say things like "Don't put your plate back on the belt" and have labels for so much stuff just bums me out. Why can't everything just be as simple and efficient as it is in Japan?

Like I said, our world is full of idiots, and this IS our new normal.

Yep. My thoughts exactly. I mean, we lived just fine before we had cars, but now we have cars. So let people have their phones with them in a long line. I would rather be patted down in the station or wanded right before getting on a train if it looked like there was still something in someone's pocket, and told to put the phone off to the side than be told I can't carry my entertainment device in line with me at all. I haven't been on any of the coasters at Universal Orlando for quite some time for this very reason.

Are you asking a real question or are you just trolling? Please say you're just trolling...

I agree with this 100% and it annoys me to no end... But... we live in a world full of idiots. Welcome to our new normal. Get used to it.

Oh for fucks sake shut up. It's like a dollar or two. If you can't afford a dollar or two at an amusement park and are going to bitch about it, DON'T GO TO THE PARK. No one wants to hear your stupid annoying complaining about something so god damn petty.

Yup: http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=75295&p=1823822

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Exactly.

Exactly. This ride is absoultely nothing to write home about or go out of the way for. I think I've driven right past this ride on a number of occasions. Been on it once, and was never worth going out of my way for again. Isn't this the ride that had to have the lift motor re-built because some idiot ride op was screwing around with the lift hill stopping and starting it "for fun?"

Joe Ahh yes. Joe Draves. Very cool, thanks for sharing! Having that team (Alan Schilke also works at Ride Centerline) behind the design definitely makes me more excited! I purposely didn't "name drop" and mention a full name because I wasn't sure if that was appropriate or not, but I guess it's too late now... My goal was simply to relay information, not brag about who I know.