Early Entry Enforcement?

So forgive me if things have changed in the past couple years, but I was surprised yesterday to find that the Resort Gate was not enforcing the Early Entry rules yesterday morning. I'm not complaining about it, because I got into the park at 9:25 instead of 10, but I was just curious if anything has changed. We simply walked up to the gate, had our tickets scanned and we were in... Has anyone else seen this?

Did you have a platinum pass?

Up front there is a checkpoint by Raptor. Not sure about other gates.

coasterblu said:

Did you have a platinum pass?

Josh M. said:

We simply walked up to the gate, had our tickets scanned and we were in...

Doesn't sound like they had passes.

I noticed that at the main gate a year or two ago.

And we also experienced a complete lack of credential checking at Raptor this year (and GK the year before).

As I've said, if they want to get rid of ERT, or are going to open up some rides early for all guests, fine. But they can't do that and advertise ERT as a Platinum Pass perk at the same time.

As the years go by, there's more and more battle over our entertainment dollars, and we spend more time each year discussing whether or not a CF pass is a worthwhile value. Morning ERT is an absolutely huge component to that equation, as we probably do 80% of our riding each year during morning ERT. I had assumed the GK free-for-all a while back was an anomaly. But with each new report of this, I'm beginning to wonder what's going on. How hard is it to train people to check for certain credentials for 1 hour each day?

We did not have passes. We only had tickets on our phone that we had purchased that morning. I'm surprised that the tickets even scanned before 10AM. Years ago, when I was a passholder, I think (if memory serves me correctly) that there was a separate line for passholders/resort guests, and another for those waiting for the regular 10 am opening.

Josh M. said:

We did not have passes. We only had tickets on our phone that we had purchased that morning. I'm surprised that the tickets even scanned before 10AM. Years ago, when I was a passholder, I think (if memory serves me correctly) that there was a separate line for passholders/resort guests, and another for those waiting for the regular 10 am opening.

Last year or two years ago, there were a few lines at the gate for season passholders, and the rest were for ticket guests. We got in much, much faster. I also think that we got in just before 10.

I have witnessed a complete lack of credential checks on many occasions over the last number of years. I can think of once in 2013 when I noticed it being enforced. It has made me feel like I got virtually no benefit from the resort guest early entry privilege. The only reason I use the qualifier "virtually" above is because of the masses being ignorant to the lack of enforcement.

Has anyone brought this up with the park, and if so, what was the response?

I know you really like pointing that out over and over and over MCBR and over and over. But the thing is, it's not our responsibility to guide park management in running the park in the manner in which it should be run. I'm paying good money to have then run it for me, not to have them only run it properly after I've told them how it should be run. This, along with many other problems that seem to be a "2015 thing," are not one-offs. They are fundamental issues with operations that they really need to shape up on their own.

Actually, I did email the park about this issue last year and got only a polite response with no encouragement that anything would be done. I had asked several people in line at Gatekeeper if they had platinum passes, or were staying at the resort, and the majority said no. They had just entered with regular tickets.

Chris

I feel like talking to someone in person about issues can be more effective. With an email, you may just get a computer generated "we're sorry" message.

Moving Chemical Reaction Boundary?
Modified Cramer-RAO Bound?
Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business?

This past Friday the entrance ride op checked no passes on Raptor, everyone just walked on. I did get “carded” at the “entrance” though.

I don't usually make it up for ERT in the morning since I'm not a morning person. But I do agree that letting everyone in defeats the purpose and the perk is basically non-existent. I think they should just check it right at the gate, if your pass or ticket scans, you go in, if it doesn't, you wait until 10.

So, I showed up at 9am today, everyone was let in, and we headed straight for Rougarou. Before we could even get to the Coliseum, we reached a checkpoint where we had to show our passes in order to make it past that point. So some of the ERT rides were for passholders, and others were for seemingly everyone.

The checkpoint used to be at Johnny Rockets, those with passes could continue, those without stayed behind til 10. Pass holders could backtrack down the other side for Raptor if they wanted. That seemed to work just fine.

The other gates, I don't know. I do know when I've stayed at the Breakers (not this season) I've used my Platinum Pass for early entry at either resort gate and intended to use my resort pass for any friend(s) that might show up to meet me but only had daily tickets. No matter, though, back there nobody ever checked, my friends went in early anyway.

Scottyf said:

...it's not our responsibility to guide park management in running the park in the manner in which it should be run.

True enough. But a company can't fix problems if they don't know there are problems. Twenty complaints on a coaster enthusiast website does pretty much zilch to alert the company there's an issue.

I agree mostly, but are those the only two options? Maybe park management should walk around around and more directly poll people. Perhaps they spend some time with people in various lines and ask them what's going on from their perspective. I know they'd get some strong feedback from folks in line for Giant Wheel or Tiki Twirl. If I were managing, and I saw long lines for things that really shouldn't have lines (Giant Wheel - and it ALWAYS has a long line), I'd walk over there and look into it. So many of the issues brought up here are not obscure things that management would say "holy crap, we never knew that." These are obvious things that anyone even casual observation would find. This thread is focused on the early entry, which for the last couple years has become a joke for the various reasons stated here already. I don't even bother shooting for it any longer, nor really consider it a major perk anymore.

Point is, management should be taking more proactive approaches into gauging how their park is being run, not relying solely on...whatever it is they are currently relying on, be it fan sites, customer complaints, etc.

I will say that guest feedback was crucial to the experience when I went to Universal in November. Throughout the park and at the exit gate in the evenings, there were people with clipboards doing surveys nonstop. It didn't add to nor detract from my experience at the park, and it seems a better use of time than having 17 people standing at the front gate on the way in taking pictures that nearly nobody wants to have taken.

^ That's a great idea. Going into the park and asking to get my picture taken is so annoying. Give them a clipboard instead of a camera. Then we could see some good changes.