Advertised Capacity vs 2024 Numbers

For those of you that have been at the park recently or have previously worked on a ride and dispatched trains, I'd love to hear your thoughts here.

Whenever I get close to my annual visit each year I get real excited and I start watching the webcams. Recently I've picked up that something just felt different about the park in terms of dispatch intervals. Some rides that I always equated to capacity monsters like Raptor and Gatekeeper felt like they were taking forever to get trains out. Because I had nothing better to do, I timed a handful of dispatch intervals for a few of the rides being shown in the webcams today and saw the following:

• Raptor: 2:20 dispatch interval = ~823 per hour (51% of 1,600 advertised capacity)
• Gatekeeper: 1:55 dispatch interval = ~1,002 per hour (59% of 1,710 advertised capacity)
• Valravn: 2:40 dispatch interval = ~540 per hour (45% of 1,200 advertised capacity)
• Millennium Force: 2:15 dispatch interval = ~960 per hour (74% of 1,300 advertised capacity)
• Maverick: 2:05 dispatch interval (group of 2 trains) = ~691 per hour (58% of 1,200 advertised capacity)

I fully recognize that the advertised capacity numbers are what would be considered max-efficiency, but the actual numbers are way low compared to what I figured would be the targets for the park. Is this due a lack of staffing or just a less stringent focus on getting trains dispatched as quickly as possible? Or has it always been like this and I just have a flawed sense of past reality?

Operations efficiency has been awful this season. However, in the past week things have started to look up. Steel Vengeance was dispatching trains with a vengeance the past few days. Gatekeeper is starting to hit its stride and Millenium is down to about 20-25 minutes at the stairs. That was about 40 minutes a few weeks ago.

Of course this is a completely scientific study of parks operations that I conducted and not simply anecdotal evidence from my 10 plus visits this season!

I'm assuming Millennium Force would also run most efficiently with all 3 trains due to the separate load/unload stations. Is that accurate? The numbers I pulled were during a 2 train operation so that should be noted.

It’s supposed to run the best with 3 trains but when it takes over 5 minutes to load and dispatch 1 train most of the time the 3 trains were just stacked up at the station. We’re headed to Millenium after Rougarou so I’ll pay closer attention to what’s going on today.

I feel like the reduced focus on efficiency has been a gradual thing and it ebbs and flows through and between seasons. For all the **** we give the last of the Kinzel years and all of the wonderful things Matt Ouimet did in his first season, combined with the passion and personality we got with Jason McClure in his tenure as GM, operations were on the decline during this time. And not just dispatch times on coasters, but things like having rides ready at park open, having rides ready for Opening Day (or even the month of May) just didn't seem like the priorities they once did. Absolutely some of this is related to staffing and a more challenging job market for employees.

I don't even count 2020, or even the first half of 2021 for that matter as far as holding CP (or any park) to normal standards. But in the 2022-present era, it's just so hit and miss. There are days where certain crews are running rides like the Kinzel-Spehn days and other days where it feels like we're at a Six Flags or SEAS park. Some days the park and rides are ready to go at 10am (or 9am for Early Entry rides) and other days, again, I feel like they are as focused on getting stuff ready for the day as a mid-level Six Flags. It's just so inconsistent.

Steel Vengeance, Magnum and for the few days it was open, Top Thrill 2 crews could easily be straight out of a Bill Spehn or Peggy season. Maverick is usually good too in part because the interval is so long anyway. Millennium Force and Raptor in particular this year have just been atrocious. And Blue Streak, Gemini and Corkscrew have been "4 minute dispatches or bust" since before the pandemic. Which can make those rides lose their walk-ons and lengthen the line just long enough to skip over. And I don't buy for a second the people on social media that claim it's intentional to sell more Fastlane. That's ridiculous. It's just not the priority it once was.

Dispatches have been slower overall since Covid, it seems. I was there this past week. Gatekeeper seemed efficient--i didn't time them but they seemed to definitely be getting trains out quick. Iron Dragon (small ride, i know) seems to usually be pretty good too. One common theme there is that neither of those rides has bins... Everything rides with you... So that reduces transition time. Blue Streak is definitely slow and Millennium stacks trains pretty consistently. The millennium crew just didn't seem to have any hustle.

No experience as a ride op, but if my bosses don’t push a quick dispatch I am not rushing all day to do that. I’ll take my time and do it right, it’s a marathon not a sprint.
After waiting an ungodly amount of time for Hurler one year while it ran one train I am just happy to see any coaster run two trains or more.

jerrand:

Dispatches have been slower overall since Covid, it seems.[...]

Funny you should mention that...

It seems that every time something happens either here or at another park, or any time someone gets a "brilliant" idea, something gets added to the operating procedures in order to make the whole thing "safer". Let's add seat belts to the ride. Let's try having the operators stand on designated locations when the trains are moving. Let's physically check every lap bar. Now tug on every seat belt. Now do all of that twice. Now do it while doing a triple backflip through a hoop and simultaneously whistling the Star Spangled Banner.

Individually these changes don't necessarily mean much. And usually they are born of a perfectly logical reasoning of how it might reduce the risk of some kind of incident. But it appears that in the aggregate the policies and procedures never seem to get reviewed to figure out what the effect has been, whether the new procedures have resulted in an actual risk reduction, and whether there has been any increase in other risks, or any non-safety impacts to the operation of the attraction. A policy gets added, and we're stuck with it forever, or until it's countermanded by another great idea.

But COVID introduced at least the appearance of new hazards which had not been considered before, and in an effort to address those hazards, some of the added processes did get reviewed, and a few actually got changed. Notice that even today they aren't generally tugging on seat belts anymore? That wasn't merely a mitigation for a potential COVID hazard, it was also a reversion to a process that had never proven to be ineffective, but had been superseded by a process that seemed it might be more effective, but had never actually been evaluated for its "improved" effectiveness.

You see, this is the safety and security problem. If you don't do the right thing, and something bad happens, obviously you missed something or didn't do enough. But there is no similar penalty for doing too much, even though doing too much can, in fact, result in something bad happening. Case in point: Which is the more serious hazard? For a train to leave the station with a safety belt unfastened? Or for two trains to collide on a service brake? Most of us are aware of just this sort of issue, where something broke, and two trains ran into each other. But I suggest that the proximate cause of the incident was not that there was an equipment failure which allowed the collision to happen, but rather the procedural failure that delayed a departing train for so long that the safety system (which failed) had to be deployed in the first place. The failure of the safety system was, in fact, a secondary cause of the incident.

COVID gave the park an opportunity to rewrite some of the procedures, and in doing so to re-evaluate some of the things they had been doing, and in some areas that seemed to actually lead to operational improvements over pre-COVID performance. Magnum, for example, seems to have been a particular beneficiary of this review.

But I have no idea what is going on over at Gemini. I've watched them run six trains without stacking, 3,400 PPH by my stopwatch. Now they can't get a second train out on time, resulting in that emergency stop on the safety brake on nearly every cycle, with only four trains running.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

As for Gemini, yesterday we were on the 12:10pm blue side. Guests were very slow securing items or placing said items in bins. Two Ride OPS on right side tugged everyone's belts and even asked some if they wanted them more tight. Left side had only one Ride OP to check full length of train which obviously extended time. As for the ride itself, it was one of the most enjoyable in quite some time as both trains' guests were enthusiastic with banter back and forth beginning prior to the lift-hill as well as plenty of hand slapping. At completion after the brakes proved capable of whiplash we rolled right into the station without a wait.

RideMan:

Now do it while doing a triple backflip through a hoop and simultaneously whistling the Star Spangled Banner.

That's it. I'm having fish for dinner.

It really feels like ride operations has taken the backburner the past few years.

Legend has it CCMR used to run 6 trains, now they consistently stack two. Gemini used to run 3 per side, now they stack 2 and the spare trains are sitting in storage somewhere likely being cannibalized for parts. Iron Dragon is down to 2 trains. When we were at the park last week MF was running what felt like 5+ minute dispatches. I remember 10 years ago they'd often have an MF train ready to dispatch by the time the 3rd train was hitting the bunny hill outside the station.

One thing I haven't noticed the last couple times I went was the old "ready (the ride can dispatch now) / ready-ready (we need to dispatch now before we stack or stop a train int he safeties)" callouts from the controls operator. Those seemed like good cues for the folks on the platform to know how quick they needed to be moving and getting things loaded. Not much use calling them out anymore though if the park doesn't care about intervals.

I did find it interesting that with current operations/safety procedures like air gates, stand on the dot while a train is moving, etc, they'll load and unload kids on wild mouse while those cars are moving through the station.

My trip last week was mostly spent with our kids in the different kid areas, and oh my goodness they need more operators. You could fit 3 or 4 ride cycles in the time it takes the single operator to walk around and unfasten all of the seatbelts, help kids out, open the gate, let kids in, help kids into seats, check and help fasten every seatbelt, go back to the controls to lock the gate, walk to the gates and make sure they're locked, and then go back to controls, read a spiel that nobody can understand because the speaker setup on those rides is terrible, and finally run the ride. One more operator on a lot of those rides would have sped things up so much.

Cartwright:

other days where it feels like we're at a Six Flags or SEAS park.

In some ways, you are.

Maniaman:

One more operator on a lot of those rides would have sped things up so much.

As would eliminating 90% of the process you described above.

^Agree, removing the entire boarding process and not letting any children ride the rides would certainly speed up cycle times.

Mine Ride never ran 6 trains. I’ve been riding since it opened and the most I remember is three operating at any given time. And before I knew how things work I’d get really nervous to see a train on the helix while one was still in the station. Even back then there were block sections.

I will say that back then there were no gates, no seatbelts, and no checks. The operator used the foot pedal at the front of each car to lock and unlock the bars and that lent enough confidence to the operation. So if things seem less speedy these days I’m not surprised.

I believe Mine Ride did run 5 trains at one point, but I don't think it ever runs even three anymore and I'm not even sure its capable of it or if a third train exists at this point.

Raptor and Gemini were both atrocious and worthy of being called out during my visit over Memorial Day weekend on Sunday. Both rides stacking every single time and producing waits way longer than they should have been. on Raptor in fact, I waited an hour in line and then they shut down for weather (supposedly wind, but at least an hour before the storm actually arrived) as I got to the stairs. Magnum was better, but not like the old days on Sunday and on Monday it was only running two trains even though much of the rest of the park was down for wind. Steel Vengeance on Friday was decent, but not as good as I've seen it in past years. Still bugs me that they don't enable multi-move to get the train into the station quicker and just give them that extra 10-15 seconds and lower the stress level. Part of me wonders if they're purposefully trying to run less cycles on that ride because of constant structural issues. On Saturday night, I got in line for Maverick about 5 minutes before close and boy waiting in that line after Fastlane finished up and the crew wanted to go home ASAP sure felt refreshing! I did not try Millennium, but that one has been bad every time I've attempted it for the past few years.

I'll echo a lot of what Dave said with regard to added nonsense in their procedures playing a big part in it, but sometimes it seems like there's just no pride anymore and that's sad as a former employee of the park. IROC/IRT probably is required to come up with one new stupid thing each year to "make things more safe" or prove their worth or something like that. Another thing I notice is that running the ride always seems to take a backseat to anything now like a guest coming up the exit or the phone ringing or needing to do a rotation. That stuff should always be secondary to keeping things moving. Supposedly Six Flags had IROC/IRT and ditched them. Hopefully Cedar Flags follows suit.

While I wouldn't argue that capacity hasn't taken a hit, with a measurable lack of urgency, talking about the glory days of 6-train Gemini and 5-train Mine Ride don't really add anything. A well-run Gemini would be fine with four, but often doesn't even need that many. Mine Ride with two, same. Of course there are anecdotes and edge cases, but if you're being honest, those are exceptionally rare.

There have been very few rides that I have seen this year where running a 3rd train was even worth it. Valravn, Gatekeeper and Steel Vengeance. I am not sure what the difference is but every now and again when riding one of those the crews seem to have an urgency to get folks moving to the point where trains are being dispatched on time so they are not stacked up. Its proof that they can do it, but for whatever reason they choose not to do it.

Millennium is still the one that gets me though, there are separate load and unload stations, there aren’t any bins. All the crew has to do is get folks seated and check restraints. Very seldom has it even been worthwhile to put a third train on that track as the riders just sit for a few minutes on the final brake run waiting to get into the unload area.

My argument about Gemini is that while it is highly unlikely that they ever need to run six trains on that thing, there are times (Saturdays in October, for example) when it would be extremely useful if they could run three, as I am pretty sure they could run three trains on the red side with fewer crew than four trains on both sides...and ultimately get higher capacity out of the thing.

Mine Ride could only ever run five trains and I am not sure it ever did with any regularity. My understanding is that when it opened it had a crew of 26, and I figured that meant thirteen at any given time running the ride, just because it would need ten people to kick the pedals in the two stations. Now they can barely justify running two trains most of the time, and it's only blocked for three with the current control system (and lack of two mid course brakes).

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Dave,

I agree that three trains on one side of Gemini could, in theory, actually help capacity (and lower staffing needs), but I'd argue that a non-racing Gemini is a far lesser experience not worth any staffing savings/capacity increases.