Horrible Park Operations

[alilstronger]

The worst operations I ever ran into were at La Ronde.

[Rai Fox]

It pains me to say that the worst park operations I've seen in the last couple years have been my last two trips to Kennywood. I love the park, and always will, but the staff has really let the place down the last couple times I've been there. Horribly slow, entirely disinterested ride ups taking ages to load and run rides, without ever saying a word. Staff watching guests jump lines and actively bully other guests, without making any move to intervene at all. The person working Noah's Ark who just gestured everyone in and pressed the button to start the fake elevator without a word. Then there was the tragicomedy of loading Black Widow; how hard is it to count 40 people to let into the ride area, or to figure out that you've counted too many when there are extra people and no seats left? Every single ride cycle...

 

Really crossing my fingers that it's better when I get back there in a couple months; I hate to see such a wonderful park run so poorly.

[djboss302]

Mt. Olympus.....That's all I need to say.

[Mr.Peabody]

The Silver Comet at Martin's Fantasy Island rarely cycled the train in less than five minutes, and that was even before the new draconian lap bar policy. They normally only have 2 or 3 ops on the station platform. Also, they will not dispatch a car on the Crazy Mouse unless there are at least three people in it, regardless of the length of the line or wind conditions. I stopped going because of the lap bar Nazi stapling fiasco but may return this year for a single visit. I very much doubt anything has changed, though.

[beatle11]

^ I remember on Silver Comet that they wouldn't allow you to put your own lap bars down. The ops had to do it themselves. If one person puts their own lap bar down, everyone's lap bar goes back up and they start again. I was there very soon after the Ride Of Steel accident at Darien Lake so that might have something to do with it. Can't really fault them for not wanting to take any chances but that was pretty annoying.

[The49er]

I'm not very experienced in this department, but both Six Flags parks I've visited seem to take the cake here.

 

SFDK: This might be because my last visit was on a Music in the Parks day (read: lots and lots of teenagers), but I have a feeling that if almost every ride has a 45-minute wait, there are some operation issues. Kong was the worst culprit here; I had to get all of my friends out of line because a Vekoma SLC isn't worth waiting several hours (we had waited for 20-30 minutes and only advanced 2 or 3 switchbacks thanks to slow one-train ops).

 

SFMM: Dear Tatsu ops,

Yes, Tatsu is my favorite coaster, but I'm afraid I can't ride it again if a 75-minute line is involved when you have a second station available and when trains are double-stacking on the brake run.

Sincerely,

Me

[El Toro_Ryan]

Nothing I've seen was as bad as Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa. I swear we sat on the break run for longer than the actual ride was waiting for the crew to load the next train. This was when the ride still used PTCs thought. I'm not sure if the situation there has improved since the park installed Millennium Flyers.

[djcoastermark]

^ Nope, still just as bad.

[JFrombaugh]

Fantasy Island in the UK is the only park I've been to that had universally bad operations. I went there to ride their two awesome vekomas in 2006, and found everything closing in the rain, Jubilee Odyssey stuck on the lift hill, Millennium Coaster taking forever to dispatch...but the real kicker is the way the market is integrated into the park, resulting in a lot of shady dealings going on, right in the middle of the park.

 

I've heard many reports that Thorpe Park has really gone downhill under Merlin Entertainments as well.

[DoinItForTheFame]

HANDS DOWN!!!! ... Magic Springs.

 

I have NEVER in my life been so disgusted with a theme parks operations. Keep in mind this trip by best friend had driven 6 hours to get to me, and then we drove another 3 hours to get to the park, and I was taking my partner for the first time. Neither of them had EVER been to Magic Springs, and I had done nothing but talk about how fun X-Coaster was, and how friendly the staff was. Holy Sh!t was I proved wrong. We arrived at the park shortly after 11am. We headed straight for X-Coaster... It was down. . . Disappointed we headed over to "The Gauntlet" ... We waited about 45 minutes... Which is a LOT in Magic Springs world. Usually your wait time is one train wait. We were next to get on when... Go figure the ride broke down. After about 20 minutes we asked the ride attendant if they had any idea how much longer the down time would be. The response we get with of course the ghetto attitude "I don't know. That's not my job. We don't even know what's wrong with dis thang." She then proceeded to go sit down in the train, and text. Hot and annoyed we headed back to X- Coaster which was open, had a great ride, and then went to get some lunch. We waited 45 minutes... I kid you not (I checked the time I was texting on my phone) There was 1 family of 4 in front of us who was trying to get a refund because they were charged twice for something. We FINALLY got to the window. My friend went first and ordered a bottle of water. 6 minutes later the employee returned with her debit card, after disappearing from view. Livid I refused to order anything and waste any more time. We headed over to Arkansas Twister... What a mistake. They were dispatching in 5 minute interclass. Why? The ride attendants were not paying attention to the empty train in the station. By this time it was about 5pm, and I was beyond livid. I went to guest relations?? There was a line with about 50 people in it wanting to complain. I gave up, we left... and I was BEYOND embarrassed... I did nothing but talk highly of the park, and they did nothing but disappoint. Should have went to Silver Dollar City for Outlaw Run instead. NEVER going back to Magic Springs. EVER.

[gerstlaueringvar]

I think our day at Magic Springs was fine except for the 30 mins lunch wait. Maybe I was imagining myself on Outlaw Run during our Magic Springs stay.

[VF15]

When I went to Six Flags Great America back in August, the operations were overall pretty good, but I encountered two instances of bad operations on Batman and Viper. At Batman, they were running two trains, but the dispatches were so slow that while I was waiting in line, I thought they were only running one train until I reached the station. However, my Viper experience was worse because shortly before I was about to get on, the ride was stopped for about 15-20 minutes because one of the ride ops just left the station without any reason. I know it's a Six Flags park, but seriously, I should not have had to wait as long as I did.

[The Yeti]

Nothing I've seen was as bad as Gwazi at Busch Gardens Tampa. I swear we sat on the break run for longer than the actual ride was waiting for the crew to load the next train. This was when the ride still used PTCs thought. I'm not sure if the situation there has improved since the park installed Millennium Flyers.

 

I agree that Gwazi's operations are pretty terrible. The one time I visited after Gwazi had Millennium Flyers, the operations were worse than I have ever seen since Gwazi stopped dueling. They were only operating the Lion side, and on top of checking BGT's way of checking the seat belt and lap bar separately, I have never seen a ride op walk as slowly as one lady on Gwazi that day. I almost feel bad because she could have been injured or she may have had some disability that prevented her from walking more quickly, but if that is the case then she should probably not have been checking restraints...

 

When Gwazi was dueling, it was an absolute nightmare. I remember that more than once they dispatched the trains separately due to other train not being ready to go. Dueling Dragons also had problems with dispatching separately while dueling due to one train not being ready, but at least Dueling Dragons was otherwise operated much more efficiently.

 

I've waited in long lines and endured long station waits on top of those long waits due to employee or guest issues, but Gwazi is probably the only coaster I can really complain about in terms of consistently horrible operations.

[jackandylan123]

I may just have to put Oakwood in here, I have never seen a park operate it's coasters so badly on a peak day! Their Eurofighter, Speed, was on a 1 car service, with a wait time of about 3 hours! (no exaggeration here…and before you think "Well, the others might not be operational" They are!)

Edited October 10, 2014 by jackandylan123

[Diamondbacker27]

Fire hawk is really bad IMO. It might also have something to do with its double stations and such.

[mike541x]

^^Yeah I was really not a fan of Gwazi's operations last year. While the ride ops themselves were actually doing a decent job, the whole checking seatbelts and lapbars separately was ridiculous and I'm sure they weren't to fond of it either. Can you blame them?

[cfc]

Gwazi's operations have always stunk--every year.

[Sharman19]

I think that the operators at Kings Island talk to the riders more than focusing on getting the stupid train out of the station.

[ejot]

I don't whine much but this seems a good spot to get a bit off my chest.

 

As a gauge: I rode Tatsu 19 times this year without any significant frustration. Dispatches are slow and they're a little lazy, but I don't think it's over the top. It's a tricky coaster to run efficiently. By comparison, my experiences on Nitro this year were absolutely infuriating. The op rudeness, the over-the-top laziness, inexplicable three-car stacking, 4-5+ minute dispatch intervals, violent clamshell stapling, mass chaos on the platform EVERY rider exchange, ops unable to control crowd behaviour, it was just an absolute poopshow every ride. As if we can't already tell fluffy bunnies are a desperate grab at every last dollar of consumer surplus. What a joke.

 

Not being able to choose preferred seating really irks me. I think this is a terrible operations policy on managements' part. Cedar Fair, I'm mostly looking at you! They must be losing more in the annoyance caused than any gains in efficiency, which I don't even think are there. The worst examples are where they literally assign you a row, a la YOLO, Wicked Twister, Goliath SFNE, Flight Deck CGA .... Slightly less annoying but potentially just as bad is when they make you fill in "all rows" each ride, so you may get unlucky and stuck in undesirable seat. Eg Thunderbolt SFNE, Dragon Coaster Rye, Gold Striker (seriously...WTF?!... they completely annoyed someone EVERY lap, when there's plenty of space for waiting)

 

Ops bending rules for other greedy patrons, and if that has a negative impact on my experience... this also bugs me. I waited for front row of SFNE Batman: TDK for about half hour while other rows had well less than 1/2 that, some just a few trains. I like to ride B&Ms with 2 of my friends who don't put up their arms up, they're happy to give me a free seat between us so I can have some room for my arms up. Of course if a single rider is waiting behind us or in front of us, I'm MORE than happy to ride with a full row. Well, this time, some guy gets off a middle row seat on the ride BEFORE ours (mind you, a decently busy weekend day), spies the free seat between my friends and I, and asks an op if he may sit there for a reride. The op start out saying, "I"m not supposed to let you....", then turns to me, goes, "Is anyone sitting there?" I'm like, "Uh.......well, no, but...." then op just points from the guy to the seat like "be my guest". Jerks! :/

[XM Keeper]

Recently, Six Flags Fiesta Texas has had okay to good operations. The ride ops move at a normal-quickish pace on most rides. I mostly go on dead days where most rides don't have full stations, so I understand why they aren't sprinting through restraint checks. However, the ops on Iron Rattler are always fast.

 

But there is one exception. Goliath. I was eating lunch in front of Goliath (outside the park) and there seemed to be a train rumbling by every 10 minutes. It was unbelievable. I check my phone time and none of the dispatches were under 5 minutes.

[GwaziBSRider1]

I found the operations at SFOT last Christmas to be absolutely atrocious. With FP, I waited 45 minutes for Titan and I was solely in the station. I don't remember how long we waited for NTAG in the full queue, but the trains dispatched so infrequently that we thought it had broke down.

 

Also, SFA a few weeks ago. 20 minutes for Superman and it was only a three train wait. On Joker's Jinx, the other train had stacked before the gate even opened to let people on. It was all because of ride op laziness at its finest.

 

However, the absolute WORST I've ever seen to date was Face Off at PKI back in 2006. The estimated wait time was 15 minutes, and we waited well over an hour. Why? Because the ride ops were having a party during the middle of the day. Trains dispatched every 10-12 minutes, if that quickly. Complaints to management went ignored, and it wasn't until 2012 that I actually rode it again.

[bert425]

However, my Viper experience was worse because shortly before I was about to get on, the ride was stopped for about 15-20 minutes because one of the ride ops just left the station without any reason. I know it's a Six Flags park, but seriously, I should not have had to wait as long as I did.

 

I don't intend to "jump" on you, but seriously?

 

Your phrasing of "without any reason" is the part that's bothering me.

 

you have absolutely NO idea why the operator had to leave the station.

 

1) he got a text his Father had a heart attack, and they needed him at the hospital now

2) from the station, he saw a person fall and injure themselves, and went to go help.

3) he had bad mexican food and had to run to the toilet or else crap himself.

 

 

those are only 3 reasons he could have left the station, none of which involved clearing it with YOU before he had to leave.

 

so you had to wait for a ride. . boo hoo. . you have no idea what could have been going on that caused the operator to need to leave the Station.

 

 

(and no, I would not be responding this way if you said you got stuck waiting because the ops were on their phones texting, or telling each other jokes, or hitting on riders in the trains. If an operator leaves the station without someone to back them up? it's an emergency of some kind, and other guests should understand that).

[VF15]

^

Okay, maybe it could have been scenario #3 (it wasn't #1 because he came back after 20 minutes, and I can tell you that no one fell from the station), but I don't get why they couldn't have run the ride with the remaining three ride ops. I've seen similar coasters run with 3 ride ops. I don't understand why they had to wait for the other op to get back.

[ajfelice]

^

Okay, maybe it could have been scenario #3 (it wasn't #1 because he came back after 20 minutes, and I can tell you that no one fell from the station), but I don't get why they couldn't have run the ride with the remaining three ride ops. I've seen similar coasters run with 3 ride ops. I don't understand why they had to wait for the other op to get back.

 

Things can go wrong with the ride during operation that require an operator to leave the station platform. For many coasters there are several switches, buttons, etc. that are outside of the station. Sometimes simply resetting something takes longer than anticipated. Operators are required not to share information about these issues because explaining the issue is more likely to cause unnecessary panic and anxiety. A coaster's controls do not reside only in a station. There is a multitude of things that can require an operator to leave the station.

 

The problem park workers have with some enthusiasts is the fact they like to criticize operations in a very ignorant manner.

[bert425]

^

Okay, maybe it could have been scenario #3 (it wasn't #1 because he came back after 20 minutes, and I can tell you that no one fell from the station), but I don't get why they couldn't have run the ride with the remaining three ride ops. I've seen similar coasters run with 3 ride ops. I don't understand why they had to wait for the other op to get back.

 

after the death at SFoT, I'd guess they are following mfg. directions exactly.

 

and for some reason, maybe the manual says this ride needs four ops? (I really don't know, just guessing).

 

thank you for not being offended tho. . . it just stuck with me (and simmered for a few days before I responded).

 

I'm right there with you if slow operations are because someone is not doing their job (chatting, playing on phone, etc). . but most times, if someone suddenly disappears, there's a good reason.

 

not always, but most times