Horrible Park Operations

[FeelTheFORCE]

Most B&M's cannot cycle in windspeeds higher than 25 mph because they have a chance to valley.

 

Yep, that happened to Raptor at Cedar Point a few years back because of high winds.

[VivaLaVibora]

Deja Vu has groupers at the park where it is located. A big reason besides the capacity thing why they are there is because you feel like a tuna in can when there isn't a grouper. Thus, the park should have put lines that go back and forth in the station, but no they can't think smart enough to do something like that. It's too obvious.

 

Groupers and stopping people from going to the rows like with flashpass usually means that there will be some empty rows because the groupers can't fill the train anyway. Parks need to realize to not make the stations for rides big. It's so darn stupid. Make more lines that go back, and forth, and have a very small station. Judge Roy Scream at Six Flags Over Texas is the type of station that I think every ride should have. The worst station I can think of is Viper at Great America, and than you have Deja Vu.

[CoasterGuy06]

You would think, of almost all the enthusiasts that despise SFA that they would get enough complaints from the general public to actually do something about these slow operations.

 

Has anyone ever written a letter or an email to them about a bad trip and gotten a response?

I did. I was sent a response back with the standard "We're sorry" park talk.

[socaldude818]

Knott's has been really bad lately. Running one poorly dispatched train on all major attractions on weekdays.

[VivaLaVibora]

I got nothing back from SFA. SFOT emailed me back, and they painted Batman the Ride the next year. Problem solved. That wasn't a "problem" with operations, but I just told them it looked really bad. Let's face it; they knew it was looking bad already.

[coastergirl26]

Carowinds-only running 1 train on nighthawk every time I go making the line a hour + wait and not letting you pick what seat to ride.

[Goliath513]

During Coasters After Dark last night at SFDK, no food places were open. My friend and I wanted dinner, only to find that all the places had shut down before 6. Now normally, I'm not too thrilled about buying overpriced amusement park food, but when the only options for dinner are funnel cakes, and churros, this may irritate you (unless you happen to be a sugar hungry ACEr). Now I know it cuts down on costs to have them closed down when the park is not very full, but if they had at least left Johnny Rockets open, the park could have made so much money last night. What upsets me even more, is that all the midway games were open. Does the park really think that people who come for Coasters After Dark are there to play games? There's a reason why they have the word "coasters" in the name. It's as if the park is turning down potential income. Instead of my money going to the park, it went to my local In-N-Out when I got back home around 11:30pm last night. One last note, when we were looking for an open food place which sold real hot food, we met up with our friend who works in management in the park. He told us that many others had complained about not being able to eat dinner in the park because everything was closed. The reason for this? Apparently at coasters after dark last year, attendance was much lower than this year and it was not profitable to have food places open. Lets pray that SFDK gets it right next year.

 

 

Another thing that pissed me off (but not nearly as much as the whole food fiasco) is the one-train operation on Kong and Roar this whole season. I have been to the park three times now this year and I don't understand why they can't run 2 trains. The wait times were horrible for both these rides because of it.

[handy-andy]

Gardaland was a terrible park and I think many people will agree with me. They were either real slow at dispatch or dangerously slow, they didn't even look to see if you were safe. There are tons of other problems with that park too.

[BigThunderMtn]

Things people CAN complain about:

 

Waiting in a long line for a ride that generally never has a long line.

(If you see ride ops. working hard, but see they're understaffed, yell at guest relations, and not at the ride)

 

Amen to that. I can't tell you how many mornings at WDW's Splash or Big Thunder there'd be a short ride fault or 'stupid guest trick', which would build up a bit of a queue until it was fixed. Because there aren't heavy crowds first thing in the morning, the ride opens with a bit of a skeleton crew, filling out as the day goes on. So you'd get people yelling at the Cast because there aren't enough operators to handle the line. To be sure, not an appropriate reaction, just made everyone's day more irritating.

 

Although in what was an absolute coincidence, the guests doing the most yelling at Splash tended to get the wettest over the course of their ride...

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

^I have found by working at Magic Mountain that people love arguing and yelling because they think they'll get comped for something. In the seven months I worked there I've had about 15 people kicked out for arguing.

[Scaparri]

^I have found by working at Magic Mountain that people love arguing and yelling because they think they'll get comped for something.

 

Yep! I was working Raptor one time, when there was a sensor/proxy issue which caused the train to roll straight through the station and back onto the lift hill, where it was promptly stopped. I was responsible for walking up the lift hill to talk to the riders on the train. Nobody really seemed to care, except for this soccer mom in the front row who demanded ride passes for this. I informed her that she was getting a second ride momentarily (in the front row, none the less) but that apparently wasn't good enough for her. I eventually just walked away to another part of the train. After the re-ride she proceeded to chew out the TL and demand ride passes. I couldn't believe her nerve. The husband just stood a little distance away, looking embarrassed. She never did score the ride passes, though.

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

^Lol! I was in charge at Riddler's one night and someone came up the exit with a handicap pass The park's policy is that you have to WAIT at the EXIT rather an waiting in line for rides where the standby line won't accomidate a wheelchair. You still have to wait the length of the line. I told here it was about a 45 minute wait. She told me "The guy in GR told me I could get right on". I love that line, becuase "that guy" never has a name. I showed her on the pass where the policy was, and even called GR from the ride and confirmed the policy. After they were convinced I would not let them right on they were arguing for a refund-at 8pm. I told them that there was no way that GR would give them their money back for being in the park for so long. What made the situation even more funny, the lady I was talking to (middle aged woman, with her husband and sister) told me she couldn't stand there and argue with me because her leg was starting to hurt because she had just had surgery on it. Hello!!! Doesn't every rollercoaster in exsistence tell you not to ride if you have had recent surgery? After she told me that, I recommended that she not ride at all (Stand-up ride+Leg problem=worse leg problem). She demanded to speak to a supervisor and would not leave the loading dock until she spoke with a supervisor. I can tell anyone here that If you obstruct the operation of a ride intentionally at MM that causes them to halt operation, there's a 99.9% chance there kicking you out. As they were waiting for that supervisor, a group of five people came with the same pass, and jumped on the same band-wagon. As we were waiting there, I was called all kind of names, which is funny because I still spoke as nicely to the group as possible, because if you tell a guest something they don't want to hear, they'll make up enough stuff anyway. In ethier case, when supervision came, the group thought cursing out the supervisors would get them somewhere which it did. Kicked out.

[almightyfire]

I went to Kings Island last week and the ride operators were playing and not paying attention on the BackLot Coaster. Everytime a train was dispatched, the guy who was to load the trains would go in the booth with the operator and play around. Trains were ready to be dispatched and everyone in the line had to yell lets go to get their attention.

as u can see they are playing

[ttd rox]

Mt Olympus- They don't even care a bit!

 

Cedar Point- They won't run a lot of the rides even when there is hardly any rain! Not really the ride ops fault though.

[Bolliger&Mabillard]

bad park operations go far beyond just crappy ride ops.

[almightyfire]

I used to work on the Texas Cyclone back in the 70's and It was totally a no no to have 2 trains in the station unless it was an emergency. We had to check lapbars, seatbelts, seatbelts on lapbars, check to see if anyone was riding alone and making sure the heavier person entered the train first. All of that was done within 60 secs. Nowadays the trains practically load themselves and it takes 4 times as long? Come on now. I see ride ops moving slowly, unenthusiastically and not smiling. All ride ops should move to the front of the train and work their way back to the end. Also the gates should be opened immediately when the train enters. Waiting until the train totally unloads and everyone has collected their belongings and exited to open the gates to load is a no brainer. U have just lost 2 to 3 mins and the other train has totally gone through the cycle and is on the brake run.

 

Again i say they need to let some of us work on the rides for a day and show how it can be done with a little hustle. You CAN hustle without jeopardizing the safety of the guest and u can also be friendly in the process.

[mike robinson]

I worked on Excalibur and it was the same with three trains. All three trains could not be in the station so it was Dispatch, Dispatch Dispatch! I think we had a 50 second window? We used to compete with you guys on the Cyclone on hourly counts!

 

It is different now as it seems that dispatch times suffer for a variety of reasons. For old ops like us, it is frustrating to watch. Remember those big crews we used to have? They seem like a thing of the past.

[orangeblue]

^Lol! I was in charge at Riddler's one night and someone came up the exit with a handicap pass The park's policy is that you have to WAIT at the EXIT rather an waiting in line for rides where the standby line won't accomidate a wheelchair. You still have to wait the length of the line. I told here it was about a 45 minute wait. She told me "The guy in GR told me I could get right on". I love that line, becuase "that guy" never has a name. I showed her on the pass where the policy was, and even called GR from the ride and confirmed the policy. After they were convinced I would not let them right on they were arguing for a refund-at 8pm. I told them that there was no way that GR would give them their money back for being in the park for so long. What made the situation even more funny, the lady I was talking to (middle aged woman, with her husband and sister) told me she couldn't stand there and argue with me because her leg was starting to hurt because she had just had surgery on it. Hello!!! Doesn't every rollercoaster in exsistence tell you not to ride if you have had recent surgery? After she told me that, I recommended that she not ride at all (Stand-up ride+Leg problem=worse leg problem). She demanded to speak to a supervisor and would not leave the loading dock until she spoke with a supervisor. I can tell anyone here that If you obstruct the operation of a ride intentionally at MM that causes them to halt operation, there's a 99.9% chance there kicking you out. As they were waiting for that supervisor, a group of five people came with the same pass, and jumped on the same band-wagon. As we were waiting there, I was called all kind of names, which is funny because I still spoke as nicely to the group as possible, because if you tell a guest something they don't want to hear, they'll make up enough stuff anyway. In ethier case, when supervision came, the group thought cursing out the supervisors would get them somewhere which it did. Kicked out.

 

Wow, that sucks, glad they got what they deserved. It always ticks me off when people get their way at places by throwing a tantrum like a 3 year old.

 

I did find it interesting, though, that the people with a handicap pass have to wait the same amount of time as everyone else at SFMM. At most places, the handicap pass is essentially a front of the line pass, which leads to a lot of people who aren't really handicaped ("I have ADHD so I can't wait in long lines...") abusing the system, like the people that tag along with one handicapped person and get free rides with them. While I have no problem with people that are truely disabled having certain privlages at rides, the amount of abuse and exploitation of the system that goes on annoys me, and I'm glad certain parks are doing something about it (though honestly I think Six Flags adopted that policy only to sell more Flash Passes )

[almightyfire]

yeah i know. was it the excalibur then or dexter frebish?

[BigThunderMtn]

Wow, that sucks, glad they got what they deserved. It always ticks me off when people get their way at places by throwing a tantrum like a 3 year old.

 

I agree, that was the most frustrating thing about working at WDW for sure, the Mouse likes to generously reward rude, mean, or rulebreaking guests for their trouble, even while the Cast Member/other guests/both that have been abused stand nearby, mouths hanging open in disbelief.

 

Or in the case of a Cast Member of course, standing nearby silently, pleasantly smiling.

 

They call it "Good Guest Recovery," but when someone whose FastPass is invalid flips out and pushes (literally) past three ride operators and 750 patiently queuing people, and then stands on the platform yelling and screaming for 10 minutes at the station crew (who have no idea who this person is,) using lots of words not suitable for the scared little girls in Cinderella dresses standing nearby, with no concern for the fact that the entire ride must be stopped while they have their foot over the yellow warning line on the platform (causing a big 'ol dispatch cascade which disturbs the rides of 100+ other people), and says a lot of hurtful things about your mother...

 

only to have the supervisor show up, apologize for the fact that the guest isn't pleased with our FastPass system, give them passes for reentry on another attraction for their trouble, and then put them in whatever row they'd like on the very next vehicle, well there is nothing "Good" about that policy. Nothing.

[haiderodes]

Deja Vu has groupers at the park where it is located. A big reason besides the capacity thing why they are there is because you feel like a tuna in can when there isn't a grouper. Thus, the park should have put lines that go back and forth in the station, but no they can't think smart enough to do something like that. It's too obvious.

 

I believe the groupers at SFMM's Deja are more due to the confusing nature of the row assignments. People already lose their minds when they get assigned to a row, think how bad it would be without it. Each car seats 4 but each "row" handles two with the back two being split by the middle two...very confusing for the GP.

 

The loading side of the station isn't all that small, but its also not big enough for much more queue and I still don't think it would help anything. Keep in mind, they do have a single rider line which can significantly cut down on wait time for those that choose to use it. That's not to say you will get on instantly, however.

[haiderodes]

Goliath at SFMM cannot run unless there ar 15 riders due to weight distribution when the train hits mid-course and main brakes.

 

I'm tempted to believe this is more of a SFMM operational policy versus a manufactuers rule due to the sheer braking force that is exerted on the train in the MCBR. When the ride first opened, the brakes were never on that hard...now the train nearly stops. This is probably why they now want 15 people minimum in the train so it wont valley.

 

At the same time, I'm not buying that it has something to do with the final brake run. Not only is it on a slope, there are drive wheels at the ready brakes/transfer.

 

So with that I have a question...when doing morning testing do they fill the trains with sandbags/water dummies to get to that 15 person weight minimum?

[cycamps]

Cedar Point's rain policy...

[mike robinson]

I think a lot of this is just the progression of our society and technology.

 

When I worked on rides (early 80's) there were no air gates, just a yellow line. The lack of gates worked find, you just yelled "Stand behind the yellow line please!' and mashed toes with the height checking stick. I worked a lot of hours on coasters with no gates and never saw an injury due to the lack of them.

 

Safety Systems were analog as opposed to the digital systems we see today.

Since everything went with PLC's staffing has been reduced on rides in general. With Analog systems, you really had to be on your toes and it was possible to do things such as trip limit switches to increase capacity. That is impossible with a digital safety system that uses prox sensors.

 

Restrains have become more complex resulting in longer load times.

 

I really think these three items make operations seem worse than they are, but in todays "lawsuit happy" world, parks have taken the approach that most people (guests and employees) are idiots and need to be protected from themselves.

[adeuce02]

i second that cedar point rain policy. It was ridiculous today.