I emailed Cedar Point

I haven' t been to the Point yet this year, I'm going in late June, but after all the talk in every single TR that Millennium Force's line is outrageous I decided to email CP because they always respond to any of my questions.

People have been emailing Intamin and that's not going to do anything. They don't care if the line is 5 minutes or 5 hours. Cedar Point is the one who cares how long the line is.

So, I emailed them two days ago and here's the response:

Dear Dan,

We, at Cedar Point, have the safety of our guests as our number one
concern. We pride ourselves in having a fine seasonal staff that can
handle themselves in being able to follow all policies and procedures as
they are trained to do so. The long line at Millennium Force is currently
under review and we are working to rectify the situation.

Again, thank you for bringing this situation to our attention.

Sincerely,

Karrah Yerage
Assistant Manager
Ride Operations
_____________________________________________________

I didn't actually think they'd respong, but they did, and I was very impressed.

At least the problem is 'under review' so maybe something will be done.

Not any big news or anything but maybe a little insight to what's going on.

Just thought I'd share :)

If the problem is "under review", the email response was probably computer generated. It sounds like it, from the read of the thing. Maybe they are getting a lot of "feedback" about this issue. Who knows? Just remember, John Q. Public won't complain or even actually notice there is an issue.

Yea I hope they are really fixing the problem and not trying to shut people up.

Long lines cant really be helped and the Freeway just makes it longer for us without them.
But I'll admit that capacity was slower last I went. I would guess that they would just have to speed up loading/unloading time of the trains.
That is if other factors are preventing loading/unloading time to be increased.

If there IS an "answer" is out there somewhere then Cedar Point will find it........I hope. *** Edited 6/7/2005 9:08:54 PM UTC by TTD 120mph***

What if they were to just have like 10 operators checking restraints and at least 3 at the entrance, one checking heights, one choosing people to go in the test seat, and one checking the people who are in the test seat.

Even if people are kicked off the ride, at least the dispatch times will be down if there are more ride ops checking the lapbars.

I agree with more ride ops. I also just emailed Cedar Point in hopes of getting a resolution of the problem. Great topic!

More people checking lap bars would take a lot longer. Takes longer to put up clears, and it's just a lot easier with 2 people on each side. The line has been running a lot more smoothly lately after the new 1/2 inch rule was put into place.

Yea but also remember the loading train has to also wait for the train on the circuit to return to the station, or at least close to the station before it can leave, seeing how there's no blocks on the track

There's no blocks on the track? That doesn't even make sense. There are blocks on every ride.

I don't know about previous seasons (we've been to the Point only two times), but when we where there in May, I noticed that the lines took more time than what was advertised at the queue entrance. Sometimes it was double the time. I noticed that in part, the slowdown has to do with the seatbelt restrictions. I guess they were still requiring a full inch of slack after the end of the red mark.

I was asking myself why wouldn't the park requires that guests of exceptional size be measured on the test seats at the queue entrance. Since ride ops are required to measure kids to make sure they are tall enough, I guess the same should apply here. I mean, I rather be told that I will not be able to ride MF or TTD at the beginning of the queue, than to wait in line for 90 minutes (or more) and eventually being taken out of the train for the same reason.

How would more ride ops slow it down?

Sure, they would still have to wait for the train in front of it to clear the bunny hop before they can dispatch, but wouldn't that be the same as it had been in previous summers and allow it to revive it's original capacity instead of the 2 hour lines we see now?

You guys only see Cedar Point as a place to have fun. You don't think about it in the sense of a workplace and business. Park operations designates a certain number of positions to each ride and that number won't go up just because it MAY add to a ride's capacity. The park would simply be paying for overhead at that point and that's not the Cedar Point way...:) Former employees can feel me on this one.

If the cause is because the crew is being slow then adding more people would encourage a lack of efficiency. If the cause is because they have to wait for large riders to figure out they can't fit then there's really nothing the crew can do. An employee can recommend that someone tries the test seat but they can't force them to, so it results in a significant decrease in capacity.

I doubt that response was computer generated 'form mail'.

Karrah is a real live, breathing person.

ballpointpens said:
There's no blocks on the track? That doesn't even make sense. There are blocks on every ride.

There are no blocks on MF. The ride was designed for 3 trains - one on the track, one loading, and one unloading. No need to have blocks if there isn't going to be more than one train on the go at a time. There are no scenarios to even make it possible to have more than three trains on the track. Back in the day this was pretty efficient, but with the new seatbelt situation it is taking people longer to get in the seats and get strapped in. My 2 rides yesterday there were 3 people having problems getting the belt fastened. 2 had to exit the ride, third made it with the help of a ride op. But it took extra time as the ride ops tried to help these people (as they should). None of the three would be riders I would consider to be of 'exceptional size'. CP has no control over the seatbelts they have to go with the recommendation of the manufacturer (Intamin).

Yes there are blocks. Load, lift, safety, and unload.

When riding you'll notice that the lift speed will increase at a certain point. This is when the previous train has cleared the safety block and has occupied the unload block indicating that the track is clear and a train could be stopped outside of the unload station at the end of it's run safely.

*** Edited 6/8/2005 3:15:08 AM UTC by Red Garter Rob***

I remeber the year before last. Millenium Force used to have one train on the lift one over half way through the track and one in the station.

If I remember correctly.

K lemme rephrase that - there are no mid-ride blocks which is what I think most non-ride ops people refer to when they talk blocks on a coaster. All 4 of the MF blocks are at the station with the exception of the lift. Once the train clears the lift you are commited till the safety stop literally yards before the station.
*** Edited 6/8/2005 3:28:58 AM UTC by CPLurker***

CP_bound said:
You guys only see Cedar Point as a place to have fun.

Customers can be so silly! Seeing an amusement park as a place to have fun? Get right out of town!

x3ro said:
I remeber the year before last. Millenium Force used to have one train on the lift one over half way through the track and one in the station.

If I remember correctly.

Nope, never happened. Maybe you're thinking of Magnum or Raptor because this is how they operate with three trains, but when the MF crew hits interval, the train will not even leave load until the previous one is nearly all the way back. If they hit interval, the train coming back will roll right in to unload without stopping. If they do not hit interval, it will stack behind the train in unload. Problem is though that with the seatbelt situation, that train will sometimes sit there for minutes at a time. A ride that used to get probably 11-1200 people per hour (2001 was the ride's best year for numbers so maybe someone from that crew can confirm) is now getting 900 in a good hour and much less than that normally.

I don't think the response you got was computer generated. It may have been a copy/paste response, but your e-mail probably was at least read by Karrah.

Which style of load station do you guys think is more efficient? The alternating 'side-by-side' style popular at many of the SF parks? Or the stacked load/unload stations like MF and TTD?

CPLurker