cake-is-life

Not a CP employee, but I think a few ages back there was a discussion of a video where one of the managers they could adjust the length of the pause from 0 to 18(?) seconds. If that's true, it would make sense that they're keeping it lower for the time being to increase capacity.

Gotta get that 90-ish second interval to 60, don't'cha know.

Oh, I'm pretty sure it got major offseason work after its first year in action. You remember--after it went down for nearly a month in mid-summer? I'm bringing that up mostly to say this: The rides BEFORE they broke it? You'd think it was Top Thrill Dragster's love child. You'd know better than me--but Xtreme Swing's a Ridership Beast. They'd keep it if it broke down weekly. Perhaps even hourly. Guests love that thing! I can't speak for it's first few seasons, but it is pretty consistent right now. And I agree that they'll probably be keeping it around until something major takes it place (hah, right). Riptide is the problem child of the park. Heck, I've heard more about Venom being a "TTD love child" than Swing.

I'm glad that everyone enjoyed Preview Day today! I missed it last year because it was on a Friday but wow was that a hectic four hours. The first hour or so was rough as we all settled into old routines--or for new people, got to run with people for the first time--but it was quite fun for us Ops. We spent a good 20-30 minutes scrubbing the Corkscrew train this morning, so I say your welcome to all the butts that rode it Ferris Wheel also got cleaned, and I can still feel the sway of the cars from standing in so many for so long. Great start to the season and it only goes up from here.

The night after being trained in Ferris Wheel controls, I had a frantic dream where I couldn't find the stop button (not the E-Stop, but the one to stop the motion of the wheel so we can load people on/off). Apparently I was conscious enough for my sister to ask me what I was doing (while I was hitting my bed frantically thinking it was the control panel) and I responded saying I couldn't find the button

A lot of Ops are still in school, and it's finals season. More often than not the parks are willing to pay to have people to come in and commission/run the rides, but Ops for specific rides aren't available. There's also the struggle of juggling training and commissioning, though for a park like CP where ride teams are generally one ride it's less of an issue (though still relevant). That slows cycles down. If I was management, I would stack the most available people on one ride (ie Valravn) so it can open without delay, and then less-critical rides (like water rides) could be a lower priority. Of course, I'm not management so they may have their own way of assigning teams. VF is trying to do the same (get people during the week to commission) and believe me, if I didn't have to be in class/taking finals, I'd be there in a heartbeat running cycles on any ride

At employee events? That's the only time they turn off the trims anymore, and when they do they turn all of them off (in the back). I felt like I almost got whiplash last year when I got a chance to do it, and we had a train that was about a quarter full. Personal opinion, but it gave better airtime than Magnum without them (though I'm pretty light so I get more than other people). Only some of the trims were turned off, not all of them. Those rides I mentioned were all during regular operating hours (never worked at VF), so I guess I was just lucky. Oo. I know they adjust the number they use based on the day (probably the weather?). It would be interesting to ride it multiple times in a row with different numbers of the trims on to see what the difference is.

At employee events? That's the only time they turn off the trims anymore, and when they do they turn all of them off (in the back). I felt like I almost got whiplash last year when I got a chance to do it, and we had a train that was about a quarter full. Personal opinion, but it gave better airtime than Magnum without them (though I'm pretty light so I get more than other people).

The rides may be up and awake but they're not quite ready yet (at least most of them aren't). We have to finish commissioning and training. Most rides have started the process, though some are still being worked on (Flying Eagles, for example). Wave just got water but wasn't running today, nor was Ferris Wheel. I think we can all agree that the parking lot needs to be redone, though at this point it's too late for them to do it this season. As a side note, I finally saw Carousel today for the first time since last season. I ALMOST CRIED It's getting new gates and the entire top portion has been refurbished. The non-refurbished sections (which will be done over the next two or so years) look shabby in comparison, which is saying a lot because most of it is in pretty good shape.

Tiger Trax to Wild Thing is like a tricycle to a Harley Davidson. If you have kids and want to see animals, go Como. If you want actual thrill rides, ValleyFair. As much as I love plants and animals, I'd still go to ValleyFair.

Have either of you received your IDs yet? Or been assigned your ride team?

Rides leadership has a great weekend back in the park. We started hands-on training out at the rides, which is always fun. The Eagles are all strung up, but it looks like panel work continues. Ferris wheel also seems to be getting new light patterns (It was hard to tell in the lighting). Nothing on the scale of CP but us Ops will enjoy the change in the night's scenery. I laugh at Wild Thing, though. Nothing's changed but apparently they had a fun afternoon with it.

I'm going to disagree about the proximity. When I visited CP last year, it was a 12+ hour car ride, usually being very "efficient" with the speed. That's not close. I can't say anything about Kentucky but the point remains that there is a market here in the Twin Cities for VF to expand into, as demonstrated by the improvements to the MOA park. The only indication I think we'll see of an imminent coaster is the parking lot/toll booths being redone. I think he was talking about Kings Island. Eh, it was a thick chunk of text. Plus because this is the VF thread so my mind assumed that that's what the comment was about

I'm going to disagree about the proximity. When I visited CP last year, it was a 12+ hour car ride, usually being very "efficient" with the speed. That's not close. I can't say anything about Kentucky but the point remains that there is a market here in the Twin Cities for VF to expand into, as demonstrated by the improvements to the MOA park. The only indication I think we'll see of an imminent coaster is the parking lot/toll booths being redone.

I can't see anything saying that it's closed on the site? Maybe they forgot to remove that bit from Haunt. I remember there being at least one train on the tracks last weekend.

No. They must summon the aliens the boat.

They only change the actual map itself for additions/removals. Really the only "theme" that changes from year to year on the park maps is what areas they're highlighting, like how last year they pointed out Rita's. I haven't seen a physical copy of the map myself, but I would think they'd at least change the background color? Of course, blue is a very appealing color so I can see why they'd keep it the same. We didn't hear anything about it so I'm curious as well.

Um, yes they do? 95% percent of the GP is just in the water park to cool off on a hot day. How do you cool off? Water. SHADE. That's just common sense? When I said minor changes I didn't mean anything like 300+ chairs. I'm talking minor minor, like policy changes... like things that don't cost much money but still go towards making a better guest experience? For example, we no longer have to physically pull on the orange seat belt on Corkscrew; it's just a visual check. That's going to shave time off of our cycles so we can get more in in an hour, and people get to ride more and don't have to wait as long. I also think it's important to remember that VF is in a growing phase right now. Changes are gradual.

You're just going to have to wait and see.

The only thing that needs two weeks is the authorization for your background check. Everything else just needs to be completed before your first orientation/training day, at least the day before. Leadership training was super fun! There's a ton of awesome things going on in the park (including some minor things that I've not seen announced yet) so it's going to be a great season! Unless we seem them announced before opening, it's going to like a scavenger hunt as you guys find them As a comment about the slides: the backs are still their original colors, so I assume it's some kind of coating? No one really knows why or what it is exactly. There's was discussion among the Park Ops department about rash guards while riding the slides as well, so if anyone has problems with burns I'd recommend looking into it. They are tight to the skin unlike T-shirts, from my understanding, and may eliminate some of the painful friction burns.

The group interviews are pretty low key; they rotate through people for each question. So three people will answer one question and then another set of people answer the next one, and so on. I'll answer the hours question alongside your last question about working weekends. If you work weekends you'll be working part time until you'd be able to work full time, at which point you get at minimum one full day off per week (which runs Monday-Sunday at VF). You can request a specific day off during the week (for instance always having Sunday as your day off) or just allow your supervisor to randomize the day (I once worked 12 days in a row because I had a Monday off and then the next week's Sunday off). Beyond requesting a day off or setting a limit on the number of hours you want in a week, there's no real way to request hours in rides? Our days start around 7 or 8ish for a morning shift, and evening breakers start at 4, until close. Extras are dismissed around 2 in the afternoon or 8 at night. In terms of working only weekends until August, it's hard to say. I know someone did it last year but they were a veteran. August is also typically when people start leaving for school, so that's when we start needing more people and management may like that about you. I'd guess you'd get the job, though. The Park Ops management is also super chill if you refuse an offered position before the start of the season/training. It only becomes a problem if you quit early. TL;DR: Scheduling is a bitch, but if you communicate your schedule well enough in advance it's usually not a problem. I averaged 60-65 hours a week through the entire season as a Lead.

I thought Renegade was running pretty smooth minus the last turn, last weekend. I thought that Enterprise received LED's last year, but I am not entirely sure. All I know is that I heard a couple people say that Enterprise looked really good at night, this year. I know one of the cars has LED lights, just cause it's super annoying compared to the yellow of the rest. Car 1's unit lights were upgraded by maintenance before the start of the '14 season (or the very beginning). There's also some new blue bulbs on the wreath if you ever feel like looking for them. I'd personally love to see the arm get repainted a nice white/off-white shade because I think it looks snazzy with the color scheme it's got going atm

Found this little tidbit while scrolling on the Rollercoasters subReddit. It's from summary of CedarFair's 3rd Quarter report apparently. Basically, we can expect to see some nice things coming in the next few years? I'm not ruling a rollercoaster out at this point, but I'd hedge bets that VF will be focusing on infrastructure and related projects in the next few years before moving onto larger projects such as a coaster. Believe me, as a Ride Op there's nothing that I want more than a shiny new major ride to work at, but y'all need to chill your butts if you're still on the "not going ever again because no coaster" train. VF is showing it's age in comparison to CP and they're trying to be smart about making any renovations/expansions be the best for the future. A new coaster coming around with the park in it's current state would be all sorts of problems.

As a ride op, depending on the day and if a supervisor was around, I'd probably let people snap to their hearts content. There's worse things to worry about.

And some of you thought the delay meant we were getting a coaster I'm a but surprised and disappointed by the amphitheater portion of the announcement, but it is what it is at this point. I would've loved an actual demo and new ride there because Enterprise will always be my baby and it could use a new ride by it (from a team perspective). If the show is anything like the one at CP this year, everyone is in for a treat. Now the real question is where the heck the Eagles will go.