Gatekeeper Bins

OK, what's the deal with the Gatekeeper bins? What's the purpose of them really? They are big enough to fit a small kid inside but yet you are not allowed to bring small backpacks (I can live with this one) and you're not allowed to bring souvenir cups on anymore!! WHAT!!! They tell me the bins are for hats and glasses. OK, that's a mighty big bin for just glasses and hats.

They tell me you need to rent a locker for your souvenir cups. Sounds like a money making scheme to me!!! Why rent a locker for a cup!! Seriously!! Come on....

Back packs I get...but cups, get real.....

Thoughts???

They need to start making the ride and refresh bands available for purchase. Who wants to carry a cup around all day?

It might be so they can dispatch trains faster, It also might be the money making aspect of it (I just leave my cup on top of the lockers)

In the past, depending how full it is, I've put my drink bottle in my pocket to get in line, then put it in the bin on the ride no problem

Buying the drink bottle in the first place is a "money making scheme". Water is free, forget the bottles and ride.

We were there all day Friday and for ERT that night and had no problem taking our souvenir cup in line and stashing it in the bin while riding.

TriumphBonneville said:
We were there all day Friday and for ERT that night and had no problem taking our souvenir cup in line and stashing it in the bin while riding.

You got lucky!! We were told "you can't bring them on!!" Oh well it be what it be

Every one just wear your coaster riding shorts and every problem except drink bottles will be solved ;)

I can deal with this one since the lockers are right across from the ride. The ride that annoys me with this rule is Magnum. You cant bring your cup with you because there are no bins, but there are also no lockers there to put your stuff in. Stupid.

Just walk to Dragster entrance.

Or just read Tony's latest blog post.

Aren't there lockers near Magnum's exit?

I've went full circle on this. At the beginning of the season I was in the "DON'T GET RID OF THE BINS!" side of the argument.

Over the season I've been in the park 1-2 times a week. I've seen just how much those bins slow down the loading / offloading process.

In particular, on Maverick it's atrocious. They could reduce that wait by a solid 20-30 minutes if they got rid of the bins. I don't think they've ever hit interval on that thing the entire season.

So now? I'm all for getting rid of the bins. Just... Give me an option other than the stupid souvenir bottle. I'd like a season "Ride and Refresh" pass. If that's not possible at least let me buy a wrist band when I get to the park. Currently the only way to get one is bundled with a ticket purchase.

I believe they may have the key lockers over there still, but I can't be for sure, I don't look out for lockers while in the park :P Need someone else to confirm..

Edit: Maverick can and has hit interval, the ride does cycle pretty good. Yeah it doesn't have the best capacity to begin with and yeah people place things in bins, but honestly I see LG's being moreover a disruption of platform ops than articles. Maggie could still run with bins if they didn't take so long to park a train, why the system changed like that I still don't know. I've bounced ideas around with Dave all season regarding this..

I don't think removing the bins would help much on Maverick. From my observations, removing the bins would make little if any impact on wait times. The interval is already long. They can't dispatch the next train until it reaches the mid course tunnel. Most of the time when the next train is ready to be dispatched, everyone is buckled in and waiting.

According to Wikipedia Maverick has a capacity of 1,200 riders per hour.

A few weeks ago the ride ops were really excited because they were hitting a season record of 900 riders in an hour.

I understand it's hard to hit that theoretical capacity, but it's hard for me to believe they're consistently hitting interval when on their best day they're only 3/4 of the way there.

I'm not an amusement park expert (and I'm not trying to start an argument). Just my observations :-)

HaHa, my daughter got into a huge argument with the lady at the front of the line about the souvenir cups. The lady said they don't want the cups in the bins because they don't know if they have liquid in them and they might spill on people's stuff (ie. cell phones). My daughter said, first of all, the cups are transparent, so you can see if there's liquid in there and anyways Cedar Point is not responsible for lost or damaged items, so what's the big deal? She was fired up!! She wants to write a letter... "Dear Mr. Cedar Point, I am a white woman, in America..." (Thanks to White Chicks!)

@Thatbo, thank you..

^^Wanna hit higher numbers, tell guests to speed up and use the test seat. Slow guests & LG's cause more issues than a bin, I use the bins with no problem just to store my hat, keys and phone, no issues whatsoever.

^Get into an argument all you want, rules are rules..Best thing to do is accept for now & talk w/ Guest Services or email in a complaint respectfully.

No, don't you get it? She's special, so the rules should not apply to her.

;)

Julie S. said:
HaHa, my daughter got into a huge argument with the lady at the front of the line about the souvenir cups. The lady said they don't want the cups in the bins because they don't know if they have liquid in them and they might spill on people's stuff (ie. cell phones). My daughter said, first of all, the cups are transparent, so you can see if there's liquid in there and anyways Cedar Point is not responsible for lost or damaged items, so what's the big deal? She was fired up!! She wants to write a letter... "Dear Mr. Cedar Point, I am a white woman, in America..." (Thanks to White Chicks!)

That's funny.

I get backpacks and stuff, it's getting out of hand like carry ons are on airplanes. But a stinking souvenir cup, come on! When you look at the bins and think, geez these are for hats and sunglasses. Mighty big for just those!!

Just don't get it. Personally I think it's a money making scheme to get you to rent lockers or not buy the souvenir cup and waste money buying drinks you can't refill. Just the way I see it.

Regardless, I'm a platinum pass member, always will be, love Cedar Point, small potatoes compared to issues at other parks!! I guess some of us regulars are just reluctant to change!

Ride on!!

Staaber said:
But a stinking souvenir cup, come on! When you look at the bins and think, geez these are for hats and sunglasses. Mighty big for just those!!

The bins are for necessary loose items, like hats and sunglasses. Souvenir cups are not in any way necessary.

They can also potentially spill and ruin someone's hat.