Corkscrew Stacking

I haven't been on the ride since they added seatbelts, but even from a distance the stacking looks rediculous.

That brings up another question that I was going to ask... Has anyone else noticed their "two-finger rule?" I saw them check a guest or two using it. Essentially the harness must come down to be within two stacked fingers of the 3 little metal grates on the side of the train right near your head, or else you cannot ride. Didn't seem like there were many people having trouble meeting the requirement; I only saw one person that had some trouble, but I did find this a little odd...

"Paranoia, paranoia, everybody's comin' to get me..."

Thanks to sue-happy America, that is exactly what the park is thinking.

Is the stacking happening all the time, or some of the time? If it's not happening all the time, then capacity is improved by running 3 trains. I really don't know. I've only ridden it once this year, it's not exactly on my must-ride list.

All I know is I noticed the wait last Saturday was posted 3/4 hour which is unimaginable to me. My son remarked 'those people are stupid for waiting that long.' I didn't like that assessment, so I assured him 'they must not get here very often.'

No, it's continuously stacking.

Jeff said:
You know, it's the natural order of things for Corkscrew to stack at least one train anyway.

Stacking one train is the way Corkscrew almost always ran, but the reason I'm complaining is that it stacked two. (The brakerun shakes like crazy when the train is going through the corkscrews BTW.)

Corkscrew doesn't need three trains ever. The ride never has a wait longer than 20 minutes. Two trains are efficient enough even if the seatbelts weren't in place.

To be honest, the seatbelts aren't the problem, the crew to me was being slow and lazy. CCMR has a very similar situation going on, but that ride isn't stacking.

CP always seems to get the right crews on Raptor and WT.

Corkscrew doesn't need three trains ever. The ride never has a wait longer than 20 minutes. Two trains are efficient enough even if the seatbelts weren't in place.

I've waited as long as 45 minutes for it in the past, and seen lines that were even longer. It does, like Iron Dragon and Blue Streak, actually get a pretty good wait as you get into peak season.

Oh, never knew that.

The 20 minute figure was probably true when it was at peak capacity two years ago. Now, it's fairly common to wait longer for Corkscrew than for Magnum - and that ain't right! :)

What they ought to do is fix whatever the problem was that caused them to put the seatbelts in as a "band-aid." I'm finding it hard to believe that all these Arrow loopers ran without anyone coming out of them for 30 years and all of a sudden there is some flaw in them that makes them need seatbelts. There was more likely a flaw with the maintenence on the ride - either someone screwed something up, or a part wasn't up to spec.

The question is, is there really a problem? Or are they doing just as a precaution for some reason?

DBCP said:
That brings up another question that I was going to ask... Has anyone else noticed their "two-finger rule?" I saw them check a guest or two using it. Essentially the harness must come down to be within two stacked fingers of the 3 little metal grates on the side of the train right near your head, or else you cannot ride.

I'm pretty sure this rule is actually in the ride's manual, although I've never seen them use it before. It's been a while since I've seen it, but I definately remember the manual saying something about the harness in relation to those metal grates.

The ride's Arrow produced manual or the CP produced SOP?

I've never seen the Arrow manual for Corkscrew if one still exists, but the "rule" he's talking about is in CP's SOP manual for Corkscrew. Not sure if this is still the case, but there was a picture of Bill Spehn in there sitting in a Corkscrew train and you could see the gap was greater than two fingers, so it said, "This man is too large to ride Corkscrew!" :)

I wont ride corkscrew anymore,because of those stupid seatbelts,im tired of getting wacked in the head with them,and you cant buckle them while your sitting in your seat, and its just as bad when your trying to get them unbuckled when the ride is over,who ever thought of that idea is a real idiot
*** Edited 6/24/2006 1:58:59 PM UTC by brieeee***

Ah, Bill. Yes, I've seen you at the Quaker Steak and Lube AYCE nights. ;)

There are several reasons for stacking trains at Corkscrew, the most noticable is of course the seatbelts. Another thing is that people seem to have a problem storing their loose articles in the designated bin. Also if you haven't noticed the new red lines/dots that the ride hosts have to stand on or behind. This puts them far away from the trains making it take longer to pop pedals and clear trains. It also hinders walking up and down the platform to prepare guests with loose items. The 1-finger rule is in effect with 2 reasons; 1 being the harness needs to be tightly locked and 2 if you cant get it down that far you probably cannot buckle your own seatbelt and then you also cannot unbukle it upon returning causing even more delay. there are so many factors that have really slowed Corkscrews operation down this season. And even with stacking, more riders are acheived with 3 trains versus 2. The crew is getting better everyday, the 3rd train only stacks for a brief moment compared to earlier in the season when it sat there forever. Another disadvantage for the ride ops this year is the automatic spiel which doesn't allow for personalization in giving commands in areas that need focus like fasten your seatbelt before pulling the harness in the way so you can't see where is goes. any suggestions are always welcome.

Does anyone else think that calling him Mr.SS makes him seem more like a Gestapo officer than someone who continuously changes ride operation for the worse? (Although I highly doubt this specific move was his decision...Just my opinion)

I noticed the stacking the other day while I was in the brake run. I didn't like it at all, especially being in the brake run and not moving at all while the next train was already coming down the first hill.

Banshee - there was a reason I called him Mr. SS.