Capacity - It's great, but what could be improved?

The bins on Raptor......that's all I have to say.

Putting a count down clock in view invokes a sense of urgency- sometimes with the general public, and it should always with the crew. I like to see it on Valravn as I'm sensitive to efficiency (i too buckle seat belts on the empty seats next to me). I wouldn't mind seeing one on every ride actually.

Shades said:

... I do notice when things are not running right.

But your idea of not running right and Cedar Fair's idea of not running right may be two different things.

Luna 58D8 said:

Putting a count down clock in view invokes a sense of urgency- sometimes with the general public, and it should always with the crew.

(I too buckle seat belts on the empty seats next to me).

I can't help but notice things; one of the joys of being on the autism spectrum. I suspect most guests are more interested in chatting with their friends than noticing countdown clocks.

I also pull down restraints and buckle seat belts if they're empty :-)

Getting rid of bloody FastLane.

Umm... What?
How would that help with capacity?

Actually I'd guess that fast lane people are trying to ride more, seeing as they paid for it, and are probably moving faster and paying more Attention then snail-lane.

XS NightClub said:

Umm... What?
How would that help with capacity?

Actually I'd guess that fast lane people are trying to ride more, seeing as they paid for it, and are probably moving faster and paying more Attention then snail-lane.

It doesn't decrease the ride's capacity itself. But it inevitably cuts into the main line's capacity, slowing it down.

Not all great parks need a fast lane. Remember how I mentioned Europa-Park? Yeah, I don't think they have a fast lane system.

Also, call me a conspiracy theorist, but in theory, Fast Lane gives the park an excuse to slow down operations to annoy people into buying Fast Lane. (Though this seems like a Six Flags move to me, given that CP and CF ride operators tend to care about capacity, unlike some ride ops at SF parks.)

TTD 120mph said:

The bins on Raptor......that's all I have to say.

True. During Power Hour, there was always one person with a bin who slowed down the crew's momentum.

GigaG said:

It doesn't decrease the ride's capacity itself. But it inevitably cuts into the main line's capacity, slowing it down.

Yes, but ... the park's concern isn't the "main" line. The park's concern is that X number of people are riding the ride each hour. Whether those people come from the "main" line or the FOTL line doesn't really matter.

People who choose to pay for expedited access to a ride are getting what they pay for. People who choose not to do so are getting what they paid for.

If I want a steak, I can choose to go to Ryan's Steakhouse Buffet or to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Whatever I choose, I'm getting what I pay for.

GigaG, I like your idea about Fast lane. However, I feel they need to limit how many people they let in at a time. A lot of times on a busy day, they'll let the entire fast lane line ahead of people that have to wait in the normal line. I don't think that's fair to people that have to wait forty five minutes to an hour in line. I've noticed this a lot at Magnum and Millennium Force. I mean yes I get it, they paid the money they deserve to wait less, but please limit how much of the Fast lane you let merge in the queue. Don't let the entire fast lane on the platform.

Ahhhh!! And yet another seemingly innocuous thread hijacked by the Fastlane debate.

Ok, I give up. What is a power hour?

XS NightClub said:

Actually I'd guess that fast lane people are trying to ride more, seeing as they paid for it, and are probably moving faster and paying more Attention then snail-lane.

This is absolutely not true in my experience. For the most part, the FL users I see appear to be "once a summer" visitors, usually families that I assume are using FL to make the most of their visit. And more power to them!

But given that they're filthy casuals, they don't have nearly the same awareness and sense of urgency that us enthusiasts have. We're the exception. Very, very few people, I would imagine, even consider capacity outside of the abstract view of wait time.

Shawn Meyer said:
GigaG, I like your idea about Fast lane. However, I feel they need to limit how many people they let in at a time. A lot of times on a busy day, they'll let the entire fast lane line ahead of people that have to wait in the normal line. I don't think that's fair to people that have to wait forty five minutes to an hour in line. I've noticed this a lot at Magnum and Millennium Force. I mean yes I get it, they paid the money they deserve to wait less, but please limit how much of the Fast lane you let merge in the queue. Don't let the entire fast lane on the platform.

YES.

Whoever asked what a power hour is, it's basically a time period where ride ops on a certain ride try to achieve the highest possible capacity.

In reference to RCMAC, it's what enthusiasts do. You critique things, debate it, weigh choices, etc. That's just the culture. Now in terms of this thread, so far I've defended ops or given reasons for slowdowns. Unless it's evident that a crew is bad (like Diamondback last year) I let it be. Sometimes someone has a bad day, it's ridiculously hot, fat guests, etc. Stuff happens. Plus like you mentioned it is a spot of pride to get at or super close to your rides capacity, it means you're hauling ass and a very cohesive team.

There are little nitpicks that are warranted sometimes, like policy changes or operation changes. Remember after Magnum got a new station? The trains used to park slow as hell, that has improved dramatically, it was bad before.

In a way we're kinda like movie critics. We LOVE the parks, I mean I could spend days on Point, hell several at the beach alone. Then to have a perfect spot to ride rides? Sweet. On the flipside, we see day in and out what the parks do, and it usually means we're also the largest group of critiques. A family that visits once a year may not notice Magnums trains park slow. Those of us that go multiple times every year do notice these things.

The only thing I disagree with on the enthusiast side is we want things or believe they should be like X, Y, or Z. However, the park has so many assets and tools in it's hands to assess everything. People may think we NEED to do this or that, but the park knows otherwise. As someone who has acquired several LPs and has seen consistent growth in my cash distributions, I won't argue or complain. They do exactly what they need to do, because what numbers they present are right on track for a 500 EBITDA.

RCMAC said:

Here's a few questions for the group.
Why does anyone here care about capacity or stacking? It's a serious question, too, I really want to know.
Is it because you just get impatient for your next ride and think if what amounts to an additional cycle or two per hour that it will make a difference in your day? Do you think you may be in a minority with such concerns compared to, say, the day trippers?

Yes, I get impatient standing in line. And no, I don't think I'm in a minority. I mostly get impatient when people are doing dumb things and making me stand in line longer.

I get impatient at the mom who argued with the Troika op for 2 minutes about why her daughter who was easily 3 inches too short should be allowed to ride and kept the line from moving.

I get impatient when slow pokes stroll over to the bin to put their <whatever> in and the ride op secures the restraint on the seat that they were going to use because they were so slow and now they have to unlock the restraints and recheck them.

I get impatient when people who are clearly not going to fit in the restraints make the poor ops try. I get especially impatient when there is a test seat before you get in line.

I get impatient when somebody pulls a cell phone out as Power Tower begins its cycle and they have to bring it back down and confiscate the phone.

I get impatient when after a similar event happened at Drop Tower at KI, a girl who was already on the ride decided to scream until the ops released the restraints to let her off and then have to recheck the entire ride again.

I get impatient when people don't listen to the op who gives them an assigned seat on rides like Windseeker, MaxAir, or Drop Tower and then everybody is guessing on where they need to go.

I get impatient every time Maverick or TTD malfunctions because of Intamin's poor designs. (And don't lecture me on safety being important. A false positive is just as much of an error of poor design as a false negative). I got impatient when I had to wait 20% longer for STR because the middle seat could not be used thanks to Intamin's poor design.

I listened to the men behind me in line for Diamondback get impatient with the girls in front of me. The girls started with two in their group and a half hour later there were seven. They trickled in one by one. I don't usually make a big deal about a couple of line jumpers, but these guys were drunk and called them out on it when the first one showed up and then again every one after that. After five even I would have said something if I didn't think it would escalate the situation with the drunks behind me.

This doesn't happen much at CP, but I get impatient at other parks when ride ops are standing around instead of doing their job efficiently.

To be fair, it's not just at amusement parks. I get impatient at restaurants, stores, and banks when dumb people waste my time doing similar things.

I'm glad you made that "fair" by assuring us that your issues extend beyond the gates of amusement parks. I'll be sure to watch for you out here, too.

For many years I drove a truck on the job. I learned very quickly that there would be people out there all day long trying my patience. I also learned that I had two choices in the matter. I could stress about uncontrollable matters until I was angry, or I could keep my cool after considering whether or not actions I observed along my way would have any bearing at all on the final outcome of my day. Or my life. Guess which choice makes things easier for everyone involved?
There were a number of the "angry" types on my crew, and they were the ones who never had a good day, found trouble everywhere they went, and hated their jobs. I was always grateful to just be out there on my own and took whatever steps that were necessary to make sure everyone stayed safe. And if that meant someone taking up a bit of my oh-so-precious time then, oh well.

It's interesting to note that the many impatience-inducing items you list are things that other people do to you. And on topic, how little control an amusement park has over these perceived infractions. I had to laugh when you made the Troika situation all about you when in actuality it was the poor Troika ride op that was suddenly having a bad day. But I imagine she was able to shrug it off after it was done and return to her duties. After all, the lady was one of a million and was coming from some kind of place- who knows? The sure thing is by now the ride op has long forgotten about it, but there you are, still standing there with smoke coming out of your ears. We're all just human beings out here, bud.

thedevariouseffect- thank you for your response. What you say makes perfect sense, but truthfully, and I guess some of it is what I know already. We're all enthusiasts here, and are certainly more attuned to the minutia surrounding our hobby than Joe Schmoe would ever be. And that's the same for any hobby anywhere. My brother will analyze a golf course until we're all dead from boredom.

I guess the conclusion I need to draw is that our particular subset will dwell on these matters even when it doesn't matter to much of the rest of the world. And even when there's little for any of us to do about it.

Except maybe excercise a little patience....

Capacity is something that John Q. Tourist recognizes more than people realize, and I might wonder if that's partly because it seems to be an inverse bell curve. Parks are either really good at it, or not. I was standing in line once for Kraken at SeaWorld Orlando, and they were running one train, and not in a big hurry to load it. A family of Brits in front of me were remarking about how different it was compared to Islands of Adventure, where they were cranking trains through. I think poor capacity is more noticeable when a park is not busy.

And why shouldn't it matter to enthusiasts? Typically they want to ride as much as they can. It's just that they seldom have the answers to improve it.

Well said Mac, I used to let perceived slights and stupid/ discourteous actions of others bother me too. Not anymore, and I'm much happier for it.

Jeff, I must say, it feels nice agreeing with you regarding efficient operations for a change.

Even with only a couple cycle wait, it is frustrating to wait during one train operation. And is a park really saving much money on maintenance by removing a train from service because wait time are not long enough?

GigaG said:
Whoever asked what a power hour is, it's basically a time period where ride ops on a certain ride try to achieve the highest possible capacity.

That term is annoying. What do they do the rest of the day, slack off? The ride ops should try to achieve best possible capacity all day long, not just for an hour.