clyttle1

Allow me to give you the ride operator perspective on the common complaints in this thread, a lot of which are COMPLETELY legitimate. 1. Slow Dispatches: To me, there is no excuse for continuously slow dispatches. I work on a flying coaster, and they're a bitch to check and clear. Yet we still get a train out within 3 minutes of dispatching the last train. It could be understaffing on the other parks part, as we have 3 team members checking one train, but that shouldn't be hard to fix. We try to prevent stacking, but most of the time, hanging on the brakes for 30 seconds to a minute is common, just because we rarely run 2 stations, and we can't bring in the train until the other train has started the lift. But if we have a problem preventing us from dispatching in a timely manner, we'll bring the train in on the second station and let guests out on the other side. 2. Preferred Seating: This is iffy. We tend to allow guests to chose where they want to sit. A lot of times, when a guest is scared they'll ask us to sit somewhere in the middle, which we are glad to allow unless it's already filled. Same with the back. The front is always an extra wait. What we don't like to accommodate to is a situation that is going to cause clutter in the loading area. Many times we have a part of 5, 6, 7, or 8 who wants to sit in rows 1 and 2. Since row 1 usually backs up to about 3 trains, and we fill row 2 one train at a time, we have to place the row 2 party on the side until their row 1 buddies are ready to board. This causes SO much clutter. And guests will never want to do rows 2 and 3 instead. Pretty stubborn but they pay to get in, and I get paid to make them happy, so I accommodate. So, I definitely understand why that isn't allowed, but as far as simply asking if you can have the back, that really should be allowed. 3. Re-Rides: Well, our policy is that you have to go through the line again UNLESS you're a pass holder, and even then you have to get off, wait one ride cycle, and then get back on. This isn't to make people's lives harder, its to limit miscommunication between load/unload and grouping staff. When a party is re-riding, unload has to tell load/grouper which row to block off on the next train. Grouper has to plan ahead, so if we allow someone to stay on, it confuses grouper, and the guests they grouped into the row. 4. Rain: Rain is also SO iffy. We run in light rain, unless we got a lightning code and are already shut down. If we haven't got the "all outdoor rides shut down" code, and it's pouring rain, we have to shut down until we have to go ahead to restart. Sometimes we don't get that because the trench under the pretzel loop will flood, and we can't run the ride until it's drained. But light rain really isn't a problem. Since we are open year round, sometimes we don't open in the mornings due to wind or temperatures due to the fact that they can prevent the ride from making a full circuit which would cause a lot of downtime. So really, I understand almost all of these complaints from both a rider and ride op perspective. There is no excuse for crappy service, and no excuse for running one train during peak operating. Here we get kicked off rides if we have a phone on us, and if something happens on your row, because you didn't check it right, you best believe your butt is going to be out of rides faster than you dispatched that train. A good thing to understand when dealing with downtime as a guest, is that it's never a simple process. We almost always have to call maintenance to check a train after we clear an error. We try our hardest, so unless its apparent that it's the employees not doing their job, most problems you face are probably really just understaffing.