Back seats empty?

How come it seems everytime I go to CP, the last 3 rows on TTD are always empty in the morning? Then, later they allow people to get in them. Anyone know why this happens?

A few reasons really. Morning is normally when it is more difficult for the trains to make it over the hill, one reason the track is ususally cooler then. Keeping the last few rows empty decreases the chance of a rollback normally. As more trains are run and make it over, they open more rows. You will probobly see more of that coming up here in the fall when it gets very cool at night too.

Halloweekends last year they blocked off half the trains untill 2pm then they left the last car empty. I guess it's a logical solution, but they should launch the train faster so that it will make it over with all the seats full.

I know it seems like a logical idea to just "crank up the speed," but I don't think it's as easy as turning a knob.

I don't think it is possible at all to launch the train faster. This is something that I'm sure sure RideMan can answer as he understands the technical aspects of this ride more than anyone here.

I remember reading in the past that they do crank up the speed but by very small steps. Like 120.3mph, stuff like that. Let's say it's windy in the morning so they launch the trains at 130mph. And then later in the day the wind dies and they then have to shut down the ride to adjust the speed or else it would be clearing the tower to fast that it would harm the riders. So really the empty spots do make sense in some respect.

The ops, I don't believe, have any control over the speed at all. Its all computerized. And the computer averages the last X launches to determine what's working. The sensors at the top of the hill tell the computer if it was too fast, too slow or just right. So in the morning, they run it with empty trains to test, and then slowly add weight. If you vary the weight too much between trains, a rollback will result (as people have noticed when one train has several larger people riding all at once). However, on the next launch, the computer will have made the adjustments.

However, the ops have control of when the train launches. I was at CP August 6th and my cusion and I were sitting in the front of TTD and most of the train had their arms up. So we heard the "Arms Down" thing like 4 times, and then the noise of the engine stoped. Then everyone put their arms down and the engine noise started again and put their arms back up (including myself..haha). Then they stoped the engine nosie again. And we put are arms down. Then finally, we launched. It was the funniest thing ever. The ops all gave eveyone on the train the meanest looks, it was great!

I think the ops have control over when the train launches for pretty obvious reasons. If they see something that is obviously wrong before a launch(like a rider who is completely freaking out or something), they need to be able to stop the train from launching. However, I have seen a train launched while a passenger had their hands up. I guess the op just wasn't looking very closely that time.

Not all the ops care if you have your hands up. It depends what op is working at the time. Some will just let you go with only saying "Arms Down" once. There's those few that want everyones hands down before the launch, even though everyone puts them back up after the launch.