Horrible Park Operations

[viking86]

I was at SeaWorld Orlando a couple of weeks ago and the operations on Kraken were really poor. I can understand why they were only running one train as the crowds were low, but with very slow staff the wait was quickly up to 20+ minutes. Now that isn't a long time to spend waiting to ride a major rollercoaster, but it's just annoying when the staff doesn't put an effort into getting the train out quickly. Later in the day they added a second train, after that I don't think there was ever enough people in the station to fill a whole train.

[Ridewatchers]

SFMM...but not for their attractions: the customer service is quite good. Instead it's their food service operation that needs some fixing. QUICK.

 

Johnny Rockets: stone-cold hamburgers. They are actually serving cold patties to people and this is quite dangerous. Meat should never be served cold. Danger danger danger health hazard! I wrote a letter to management suggesting that they replace JR with a Dairy Queen, especially since Valencia regularly sees 90-plus-degree temperatures during busy season. Then they can serve all the cold stuff they want!

 

Teen Titans Power Pizza. COLD pizza slices...sitting on cold counters. They had about 10 of them just standing there.

 

Chicken strips: Cold/tepid. Stop serving cold meat, please!

[jray21]

Every time I see this thread I instantly think of Mt. Olympus. Nothing has ever come close to being that terrible.

[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.

[Chlobeast13]

Last year I went to SFMM and the ride ops on Riddler's Revenge were annoyed when I asked for help to get the seat down (I'm 5'1", and the seat was all the way up and it wouldn't BUDGE). And apparently they didn't check the restraints very well because near the top of the lift hill I realized the shoulder restraint wasn't clicked in... I pushed it down and it clicked down for me up there, thank God...

But I'll never ride it again. Honestly scared the s*** out of me and during the whole ride I was afraid I'd fall out.

[DevinC049]

Park- Mount Olympus.

 

for 2014- Diamondback has been driving me crazy.

[gerstlaueringvar]

Can't believe I'm saying this but Ocean Park was definitely worse than SFMM this August.

[rubysparkles]

Can't believe I'm saying this but Ocean Park was definitely worse than SFMM this August.

 

They've started taking photos while you are sitting in the station on Hair Raiser for you to buy at the end. Row by row. So after the restraint is locked a photographer takes a photo of the entire row or part of the row.

 

Yeah, let's just wait while you take a photo when you could have dispatched the train 3 minutes ago.

[Meteornotes]

^I remember this happening at some parks in China. I'm not much of an on-ride photo person, but I can't see the appeal of a photo where you're just sitting in the train. Not very exciting. Plus, like you said, it's terrible for capacity. Overall this is not a good idea.

 

dt

[gerstlaueringvar]

Can't believe I'm saying this but Ocean Park was definitely worse than SFMM this August.

 

They've started taking photos while you are sitting in the station on Hair Raiser for you to buy at the end. Row by row. So after the restraint is locked a photographer takes a photo of the entire row or part of the row.

 

Yeah, let's just wait while you take a photo when you could have dispatched the train 3 minutes ago.

And it's even more annoying that I would have to smile and pretend I'm having the time of my life in case the people next to me want to buy that photo.

[larrygator]

^I remember this happening at some parks in China. I'm not much of an on-ride photo person, but I can't see the appeal of a photo where you're just sitting in the train. Not very exciting. Plus, like you said, it's terrible for capacity. Overall this is not a good idea.

 

dt

 

Some Chinese parks were still doing that in 2012, quite humorous. Surprising to hear it happening at the most Westernized park (outside of HKDL)

[GwaziBSRider1]

^ I remember they did the same thing at Parque Bicentenario on Montana Rusa. I bought the picture for two reasons: 1. I actually felt sorry that they already printed it out (I'm sure this is the marketing ploy), and 2. It was my first Chinese knock-off and the look on my face was priceless.

[gerstlaueringvar]

^I remember this happening at some parks in China. I'm not much of an on-ride photo person, but I can't see the appeal of a photo where you're just sitting in the train. Not very exciting. Plus, like you said, it's terrible for capacity. Overall this is not a good idea.

 

dt

 

Some Chinese parks were still doing that in 2012, quite humorous. Surprising to hear it happening at the most Westernized park (outside of HKDL)

I know Chimelong only do that on some flat rides, but waiting for 2 minutes is already bad enough. Happy Valley takes forever to dispatch one train thanks to their weirdest process ever.

[Thunder_Run]

Six Flags Over Georgia.

 

For the most part, we had a blast at the park, but Georgia Cyclone and Mindbender had atrocious operations. Georgia Cyclone had three people operating it, one who seemed amused and chatty, only doing the visual scan and not helping a woman who was doing the lap-bar check.

 

The woman definitely seemed unenthusiastic, as when it came to check the lap bars, she could just casually and tiredly walk alongside the train. When we got seated, the woman was about to check, when her coat fell off one of the queue bars... she kept trying to put it back up for around two minutes, each time she heard it fall over she turned around as she was just about to start checking the lap bars. I had never seen anything like it. Unbelievable.

 

Mindbender wasn't as bad, because we understood that it had one train operations. But the queue was moving at a horrid snails pace, and when we got to a good view of the station, we saw it was taking them 4 minutes average to dispatch. It got better when we finally reached the station, averaging up to two minute dispatches, but they apparently thought it was a good idea to not alternate between flash pass and the people in the normal queue each train, and packed as many flash pass people into a train for 3 dispatches in a row. In all, we waited AT LEAST three hours for Mindbender. It was worth it in my opinion however, because we were able to essentially get a night ride and earn myself a new all-time favorite coaster.

[dstephe9]

Sfog used to be really bad but they have greatly improved.

 

I haven't experienced ride ops like that in a while at sfog but that used to be the norm there!! Hopefully it won't go back to that

[FaithPlus1]

SFMM is easily the worst Ive been to.

[GwaziBSRider1]

I've been thinking about this again, and I remembered Darien Lake being really bad when I visited in 2012 with TPR. It seemed like everything in the park broke down at least once and all of the dispatches were incredibly slow.

[jray21]

For me, nothing will top Mt. Olympus.

[VF15]

When I was at Kings Island for two days back in June, the operations were pretty good for the most part, but when I rode Diamondback, the operations were very slow. They were double stacking about 80 percent of the time, which is very surprising considering that B&M hypers are usually capacity monsters. The slow operations could have been caused by several factors, but my guess is that the redundant seatbelts are the main reason for the bad operations.

[baileybrucem]

WoF's entire staff lineup this year is pretty awful. Detonator is slower than ever, most often Mamba and Patriot run a single train, and they are so understaffed it is rediculous. It shouldn't take 20 minutes to find an open DRINK stall.

 

I know I make it obvious I am from KC, but I contribute what I can

[LuminousAphid]

my guess is that the redundant seatbelts are the main reason for the bad operations.

YES. Both small parks I have been to recently, slow train dispatches were definitely due to seat belts. All the coasters which had seat belts took at least 2x as long to send because for whatever reason many people can't figure out how to buckle their seat belts. I don't get mad about it because that's just as stupid, and I understand how kids would have trouble, but it's baffling to me how many adults can't figure out a seat belt. Timberhawk @ Wild Waves has 2 trains, but last time I was there (on a very slow morning, 1/2 full trains at most) the second train would always stack for 1-2 full minutes while we waited in the station for people to get their damn belts on.

 

Same @ Silverwood; both woodies were horribly slow to dispatch due to seat belts--the ride ops did a fantastic job helping people, sometimes just grabbing the belt and doing it for the guest--but all the other rides were perfectly efficient most of the time. Corkscrew was a good example- 1 op could run the whole ride at pretty much max capacity without even hurrying because there are no belts to fasten/check.

 

Rant over!

[coasterlvr]

When I was at Kings Island for two days back in June, the operations were pretty good for the most part, but when I rode Diamondback, the operations were very slow. They were double stacking about 80 percent of the time, which is very surprising considering that B&M hypers are usually capacity monsters. The slow operations could have been caused by several factors, but my guess is that the redundant seatbelts are the main reason for the bad operations.

 

i've read this before and it shocked me because last year i was so impressed with all of kings island and especially diamondback. they were hitting their 45 second target over and over. the crew would come over, get your belongings, and take them to the storage units for you. boom, into seats, quick check and go.

[LaRondeQC]

La Ronde's ride wait times are terrible. The only ride that they care about is The Goliath, the others are just neglected with 1hr+ wait times with small lines.

[mike541x]

I'll have to say that Kings Dominion's operations were terrible the two times I visited this year. One of the days my friends and I went was on Joyfest, one of the busiest days I've seen KD, and even then the ride ops for a majority of the rides were terribly slow and acted like they didn't give a sh*t except for the paycheck. The stacking on Anaconda was atrocious! After a train would return to the station, one ride op would keep walking into the control booth to chat with the girl at the control panel for a good minute or two before they would open the airgates and let people board, while people on the other train are under the hot ass sun, waiting on the brake run. To add insult to injury, they were very slow when it came to checking restraints as well, stopping halfway down the train to talk and joke around. At least the employees at other departments weren't the same.

[kcurry11]

I visited SFGAm about 3 weeks ago. Our first ride was Goliath, and we were in the front half of the line when they opened the ride up. They were stacking for 7 minutes at a time, sometimes more. We waited 75 minutes. There were 9 trains that went before the train we were on. It was horrible, easily the worst I have ever seen.