Jew

^There's a bunch of other flaws in his logic (including the numbers he posted), but it's not even worth debating at this point.

I should start by saying that I agree the policy is annoying. In a perfect world, it wouldn't exist. But the world isn't perfect. People are careless with their stuff and don't want to take the blame when something goes wrong. That's just the reality of the situation. Anyways... Have you ever worked in the amusement industry? You said yourself they are only doing it on their popular rides...perhaps that is because on "popular" rides, EVERY extra person you can push through counts. By your logic, parks shouldn't have a single rider line, since single riders only add 50 people at best an hour to the counts. Your math doesn't make sense either. Going from 1200 to 1400 guests on Tatsu would be a 16% increase. Going from 400 to 600 on Deja Vu is a 50% increase. How do you figure that lockers would be SO much more effective on Deja Vu than Tatsu? I can tell you from my experience as an operator/lead at RRv, bags were a huge cause of delay. Ride operators weren't supposed to handle guests bags (to limit liability), so all guests with bags had to walk their stuff over to the counter and come back to their seat. Since those trains are pretty narrow, it added about 30 seconds on average to a dispatch. I worked the ride when it still had 3 trains available, and that was probably the #1 killer of any momentum we had built up when we hauling ass and not stacking. Plus, as I said...refunding $1 and explaining the policy costs a lot less than dealing with someone who has had their stuff lost or stolen on those rides with multiple trains where it is more difficult to control the platforms. The capacity increases are just an added bonus. I also don't understand how you can complain about the lockers, and then criticize the park for not having it on other rides? Not having it on rides where it is not necessary (meaning loose articles cause minimal delays and it is easy to ensure the security of the items) just proves it isn't about the money. Otherwise they would be enforcing the locker policy on those rides too!

There's no doubt the locker policy is obnoxious. But it is what it is. I don't think $1 is too much to pay for the security of your items. If any guests are upset, $1 is easy to refund. And FAR less expensive than replacing something an operator accidentally damages or dealing with guests upset their stuff got stolen. Plus the added benefit of not having the excuse of bags will allow the park to better hold their operators accountable for crappy dispatches!

A bidding war is going on for ownership of it. It won't be around much longer once that is done. Especially with new neighbors Echelon and Fountainbleau moving in soon.

It's not just the charm...it's everything that's gone downhill. The employees, the operations, the clientele, and Haunt have also gone downhill since CF has taken over. ^^^Said it best: It's not human anymore. It is all about the money. They treat their employees like crap, and it is obvious the guest experience has suffered as a result from everything mentioned in this thread. KBF=SFMM 10 years ago. They're decline has only just begun.

One thing to remember is that times have changed A LOT since 1976. It's not a fair comparison to say "but they did it back then...they can do it again now!" Magic has to protect themselves in a sue happy society. Plus any changes have to be approved by the manufacturer, inspected by the state, etc. Not to mention the target audience has changed a whole lot as well. Another issue could be their insurance company: rumor has it they want the OTSR's because of all the claims filed from people being flung forward. That is just a rumor though. If I'm Jay Thomas, Revolution is at the bottom of my list. Perhaps in 2016 they will retrofit it and use its anniversary as a marketing gimmick, but until then...there are much better ways to spend money. It's just not a sound business decision right now.

To me it seems like the OTSR's are a little too high up to be the only restraint.

^^To be fair, that loop is very forceful for a "standard loop." I think the best we can hope for is more padding on the OTSR's. Wishful thinking would be a redesigned lap bar system to prevent bodies from flying forward.

Barry. Just stop. Please. Someone had to say it.

What if the company doesn't want that? Wouldn't that make it a "bad business practice" to not close the park early/all day if it is going to cost you special events (which is guaranteed admission, food sales, etc.)? The cost of dealing with the complaints is FAR less than the cost of losing a special event client.

My question is this: what is there to be skeptical about with X2 at this point? They never said 3 trains at opening. They also made it clear at WCB that the tunnel and other ideas were not finalized. If you want to cite the press release, fine...but really, have you ever seen concept art/press BS descriptions EVER be 100% correct? So I think you are grasping at straws. If you want to call them out for problems after the ride opens, that would be fair criticism. But for now I don't see how you can possibly complain...

LSM's are much more efficient. Each individual LSM turns off after the train passes through. LIM's just all turn on and off at the same time, so even the one at the back of the launch that isn't being used anymore has to remain on until the train is completely clear.

^I still don't understand the logic in that. So because you work in T.V. news, you want to experience first hand the misery of those people who have to live through those awful situations? There's lots of other types of breaking news that don't involve thousands of people suffering while they happen...

Mummy.

^I wonder if you could find their supervisor hanging out in Sky Tower? ^^^I don't recall them ever promising to have three trains running by the time it re-opens. They just said it would have three trains and run all three, but I don't remember them giving a timeframe for that. I personally won't fault them for only having two trains or still fine tuning any effects they add. Very few ride openings go according to plan. Very few rides are really 100% done when they open as well. There also hasn't been a ride I've worked on yet that hasn't ran into unexpected problems (or problems they found but haven't been able to troubleshoot---you posted about Tatsu yourself...), despite years of operation/test cycling. So I can live with that. But at the end of the day, the reality is none of us really know what's up. There's 5,000,000 different things that could go wrong (or 5,000,000 different things on schedule that just don't show on the surface for that matter), 5,000,000 different vendors to blame it on, etc. And still a little over a month left to go. So there's really no reason to complain about any "broken promises" yet...

Key word being "considering." Which begs the question...why would they be considering it? It must have not done very well for them if they are even considering dropping it. So again I say, if you really want to keep this tour...e-mail the park letting them know you are interesting in BOOKING it, not just an e-mail saying how cool it is.

Keep in mind that I was just guessing when I said that. I don't actually know if all three trains will be ready. There could be 50 other reasons for not having flashpass. Or it could be a mistake in the listing. Or just a temporary thing until they see what the actual numbers are with three trains. And so on. I think it's a little early to be blaming the park for anything with a month still left to go before it is scheduled to open...

^That is just speculation... ^^Perhaps it is because they won't have all three trains ready for the opening?

$35? That sort of sucks. IMO, it should just be the difference in the price. It doesn't seem like there would be any actual cost to the park... Anyways...we did a lap of the park on Saturday, and I didn't see anything HORRIBLE like you would in previous years. The park still looked clean and it looked like all the coasters had 2 trains. Plus the Soda Shack had Vault Icee!!! And the employee was really friendly. Now the bad stuff... -RRv was still down with the train on the lift. -Sandblasters: Just from looking in at the queue from the midway, you could see it was trashed. Which I could totally understand if the ride op was locked in to position...but there was 3 employees at the console. One was a lead, one was operating the ride but not paying any attention to the ride, and I have no clue what the 3rd persons deal was. -Soda Shack: the aforementioned friendly employee was in over his head. He said it was first day and they didn't train him at the location. He was out of water and pretzels. He said that he hadn't seen anyone in a few hours and that he was just hoping someone would come by to help him because he didn't know what to do. -Sky Tower: This was always a huge peeve of mine when I worked at the park, so I felt it was worth mentioning...we saw 5 supervisors at Sky Tower. And a lead. Were they hanging out? Working? Training? I don't know. But it seemed pretty busy for 5 supervisors to be up there!!

I have to say that I disagree with contacting the park over a rumor. Unless it has been confirmed by the park, I would suggest waiting for more information before complaining. And if you are going to e-mail the park about it, only do it if you are actually going to take the tour. Getting a bunch of e-mails in support of the tour, bringing it back (assuming it is gone), and then not getting any reservations for it certainly isn't going to encourage the park to keep it around!

^The "landmark status" was granted by ACE. That should say enough. It's meaningless. In fact, IIRC, the plaque has had the tagging on there for a few years.

Thanks for sharing! You can actually embed youtube videos simply by clicking the video button, copying the URL, and clicking video again. I took care of it for you.

I love Japan. Too bad it was closed when we went there.

One thing I noticed was A LOT of international employees. Even some of the former CP employees we were with on the Midwest trip visit noted that as well. Perhaps that is because CP can't attract the best anymore? The only crew that impressed me at all was Raptor: they were actually doing a great job with three trains. Nothing else stood out. Well, except for being rung up for like $300 by an international for a soda.

At the end of the day, the ride still sucks. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. But it's definitely cool of you to share that information.