Coaster Seating

When I was at the park on opening day, I noticed that the operators were assigning rows on some of the coasters. Was this because it was busy that day? Most of the time, they don’t normally assign rows, so I was just curious.

Jake, I have been there the first 3 days. The station host was assigning rows for us on ValRavn, Maverick, & Rougarou. They might be just trying to ensure full trains, at least for the rows that are open. Just request an alternate row and they usually accommodate you. They attempt to maintain control of the loading platform, if they let people in haphazardly it becomes a chaotic mess and we know how easily "road rage" develops.

Thanks for the info Jimmy. I wasn’t complaining when I had posted. I was just curious as to if there was a purpose. Peak season, most coasters don’t usually assign rows unless it’s valravn. Now, I understand it’s not peak season yet. Again, was just curious.

Disney assigns rows and it is honestly the most efficient procedure to ensure the highest capacity. Like was said above, Disney will honor your request if you want the front or back and I'm assuming Cedar Point will do this as well. I find Magnum as the station from hell. There's just so much space between the stairs and the actual lines. Also, the front car is very hard to maneuver.

Rode Maverick 3 times yesterday. First two times they tried to assign a row and I asked for the front. They said fine. Third time they were letting enough people in at a time to go thru two cycles. That works well.

Agree they need to put fewer people on Magnum platform.

I just see some amazing assigning some time. I was first for a power tower cycle. Single rider and they gave me number 1. 30 seconds later a group of 3 got numbers 3-4-5. I asked if she wanted me to move to 6 and that way they could put a pair on 1 and 2. She said no. Could have easily sent 12 people instead of 10. I tried.

I was wondering about the assigned seating on Maverick too. We rode during morning early entry and there was an empty row while we (2 of us) stood next waiting to be let into the station. I get that it was their first day, but we finally pointed out the empty row and were let in. They were still doing assigned seating during ERT that night too which seemed kind of pointless. I'm guessing they stopped once Steel Vengeance opened, but we wouldn't know, as we were over there and riding that by that point lol. I don't think assigned seating is necessary on Maverick and it just seemed to slow everything down.

You realize you can wait in any lane you like.
You may look like a jerk for not goin to lane 5 and heading for the front, but they’re not going to do anything about it.

It maybe how they had the empty row you mentioned, and the station host didn’t notice.

She was looking into the station and not even paying attention to us waiting to enter, so I think she just didn't see it. We were one of the first trains on opening day, so it's understandable and hopefully got better as the day went on.
I don't even care where we sit. It just seemed like it took her a lot of unnecessary time and effort to assign people a row when most people will just fill the empty spots on their own, especially if they let two trains worth of people in like they typically did in previous years.

The Rougarou grouper was atrocious. There were less than half empty trains on Sunday when the entire park was dead and nothing had a line, except Rougarou because of the grouper.

Rougarou does not need a grouper, maybe only on the most busiest of days. I don't think Maverick really needs one either, people will fill out the empty rows, the only advantage it provides is pairing single riders together.

XS NightClub said:
You realize you can wait in any lane you like.
You may look like a jerk for not goin to lane 5 and heading for the front, but they’re not going to do anything about it.

That's not entirely true. I made a visit to Carowinds and few years back, park was dead. I asked for the front row on Fury, as the station was empty for the most part, and I was told no and to go to row 2. I went to row 2 and noticed only 2 people waiting for row 1 so I asked them if I could jump in their row and they were fine with it. Just as soon as I made my move, that same attendant who told me no made me move back to row 2. I explained that the people in the front didn't mind, but she didn't care. Told me to return to row 2 or be removed from the platform.

Yea, I've encountered similar on Steel Vengeance once last year. Most other times, they'd accommodate a request for "toward the back" or something to that effect, but one time, the guy was an overzealous douche on a power trip and made us go to row three or four. I didn't really fight it because I could see his brain was going to explode trying to count to 24 or something because he couldn't even get the rows full by the time the gates opened. I saw them sending empty seats several times while he was at crowd. Sort of a sour memory of what otherwise seemed like a pretty good inaugural crew on that ride. It was later in the year and I don't think he was one of the regulars so I can't hold it against them in general. I know they dealt with a lot and they seemed to roll with it all pretty well.

I always prefer the approach of keeping a couple trains worth of people in each chute while watching for and directing people to empty rows if there happen to be any. Some of the stations don't really allow for that though because they're super tight and/or the train holds more than two across like Raptor, Rougarou, and Valravn.

Yes, I agree, the only coasters that could “really” use a grouper would be Valravn & Pipe Scream. The rest, people typically tend to fill in the platform, at least from what I’ve seen in years past.

Yesterday around 5:00pm we rode Millenium Force, approx. 10 minute wait. There was no host at the station, the platform was quite full of waiting riders. It was noisy so that one could barely hear the spewer, but it seemed to me that everything went well. It was more of a fun atmosphere as it was predominantly high school & college kids.

If the employee working the crowd position comes over to you to tell you that you can’t sit in a row you want to after waiting in line, then they are just on some ridiculous power trip and need to get over themselves.

Once you let riders into the station, they will fill all of the empty rows because they’re so eager to finally get on the ride. If they have a requested row to go to, what good is it denying them that row? Just simply ask the next group in line “do you have a preference where you want to sit?” If they say “no”, then fill that empty row. If they say “yes, we wanted the front row”, then ask the next group in line. OR do your job and yell down the line saying “I need 2 (or 4 depending on which ride) riders for a guaranteed seat on the next train”. There will always be somebody who will hop on that opportunity.

A lot of people treat the crowd control position like it’s a jigsaw puzzle, but it’s not hard at all. It was actually one of my favorite platform positions because of the guest interaction, and it’s an opportunity to get the guests excited to ride your ride.

I look at these employees as more station control than assigning rows, and it makes quite a difference to the customer experience when they are used. I love when there is someone controlling the station crowd, as I hate when it is packed. I was at the park today, and noticed someone in place at Magnum, Dragster, Valravn, and Maverick. Maverick stuck out to me as the one that typically does not have one in that role that really benefits when they do. I think Millennium could use someone in this role.

Millennium usually does have the crowd control position. However, it is the easiest position to cut when necessary, and is the position you send to start rotation.

That awkward moment when the crowd control person places their height stick across the turnstiles to hold the line until they can fully rotate but the station starts to really empty before anyone returns. (Usually Gemini for some reason)

Or worse, when they have you wait but then leave and you’re left wondering when is the appropriate amount of time to wait to go through. (About one train cycle for me)

Yea I've seen them starting the rotation from crowd and it seems to be kind of disruptive sometimes when they take forever to complete it. On Magnum, they used to start the rotation with the third person on one side of the train pushing it so they'd only have two on that side until the rotation completed. Early on it was unload (when the spiel guy was tied to the front car because of the mic cord) and later the third person was on load side. Now they won't even open the ride with three trains without the third person on load side because of their IROC rules. I don't think they're ever allowed to not have that person and be running three trains.

MDOmnis, that is correct. At least as of a few years ago and I don’t see why that would have changed since. Didn’t matter that it was a packed HalloWeekends Saturday with an hour and a half wait, weren’t allowed to run 3 trains since there was not enough staffing for the third person on the load side. Even though the unload side always runs with just two associates. And in my opinion, they have the harder job between spieling and dealing with alternate access, parent swap, etc. It never did and still does not make any sense. I personally believe the number of load and unload associates should swap. You can easily get away with 2 on the load side but many times you could use a third on the unload side.