just startin may 6

Entrance is a punishment? Everyone on my crew usually loved to go to entrance...

DBCP said:
Entrance is a punishment? Everyone on my crew usually loved to go to entrance...

Haha, well, at least you guys HAD entrance! ;)

But, yeah, the autospiel we had was incredibly annoying as well.

DBCP said:
Entrance is a punishment? Everyone on my crew usually loved to go to entrance...

Haha, yes, it is. Well, opening at entrance is. I preferred opening at load.

I don't know what I'm gonna do now that I don't have Carrousel to threaten people with...

That's what crowd's purpose is at MF...

Thanks, I'll remember that! ;-p

To be fair, though I may have threatened it from time to time, I think only two people made me mad enough to banish to Carrousel, and they were both from other rides...

danman_725 said:
That's what crowd's purpose is at MF...

You mean "Pet Farm," right? :)

Ok, now that we are talking about entrance positions.........why did management take away our second entrance position at TTD? It is a B*&%^ to catch all the sh&% that goes through the entrance now. We used to have 2 people watching for all of the restricted items and now we only have 1 person. We had to send so may people back down the exit to put their stuff in lockers because the person at entrance can't catch everything anymore. For the sake of the crew, and the safety of the guests on the midway under the drop zone, that crew better hope they are allowed to have 2 entrance people again.

Unless they changed it last season, TTD starts rotation from the 2nd entrance position. So really, it's just a matter of making sure the crew gets through rotation in a timely manner to get your second entrance person back. By the way, when I first heard of that, I thought the same thing, but it's really not that bad. You're always gonna have to send some people back, but a good person at entrance can definitely multi-task enough to watch the line and deal with test seat/special access/questions/whatever...

But, no single person can handle everything that's going on in line and at the entrance at the same time, which is why it was nice to have two people at entrance.

I don't think that position at Top Thrill Dragster, or Millennium, will be coming back. It certainly isn't the decision of Rides to only have one person there...

Edit: Typo.

Basically its have two people at entrance on TTD or not have enough people loading trains on Corkscrew for example. Loading trains safely is a higher priority than an extra person at entrance.

Doug is right when he says that Rides don't want it that way.

If you want to look at it like that, we haven't had a "dedicated" line monitoring position since Freeway was removed in late 2005. Even then, the Freeway position was often cut early in the day until the stamp times kicked in to help with staffing in the rest of the zone or area. Really, if you're at entrance, your priority is the people AT the entrance. If you wanna get technical (and here's a sign that I've been doing this job waaaaaay too long), the manuals specifically say that the entrance host is not to pay attention to the main queue, just the people entering. If that's all your job is supposed to be, then I really do believe that it is perfectly reasonable for one person to handle. And, at least at TTD, the queue really isn't visible unless you've got a good-sized line filling the first few switchbacks.. Granted, two is definitely nice, but one person can clearly watch people entering, assist with the test seat, and answer questions. This is coming from someone who's done Dragster for two seasons, one of which had only one permanent person at entrance.

And yes, it would be nice to have someone dedicated to watching the line. It would be nice to have the second entrance. But, while the crowd position's visibility is limited, at least it's better than entrance, and they should be able to respond to any emergencies in the actual queue.

When I worked entrance alone at TTD it was impossible to help people with the test seat and pay attention to the guests going by at the same time. I started closing the entrance when I had a guest that I had to attend to in the test seat because I could not do both jobs correctly at the same time. Maybe I was more concerned about the guest that had to wait 2 hours in line and then got sent back to the lockers because the one entrance person could not do both jobs. (THAT HAPPENED A LOT LAST YEAR WHEN THEY DECIDED TO PULL OUR SECOND ENTRANCE PERSON).

Dude, people got stuff by entrance all the time even when we had two people down there. It happens. You can't see everything, even if you'd have 5 people. If someone has their cellphone or MP3 player in one of the dreaded "non-fastening pockets", you're not gonna see it or know about it. Plus, you have an extra set of eyes at crowd, like I said. They're perfectly capable of escorting someone to the exit to take care of their stuff so that the platform hosts don't have to take time away from checking seats to do it. Remember, I worked for one summer when we had 2 people permanently at Entrance (and at least 1, if not 2 at Crowd and sometimes 1 at Freeway) and one summer where we didn't...and guess what? Didn't make any difference at all.

You ignored my other point, too: the best way of keeping two people at entrance for the greatest amount of time is to ensure rotation happens quickly. I've worked the ride, I know how it goes. Unload #2 will stop and chat with the person in the Unload booth, and then the host at Load Controls will drag their feet leaving the air-conditioned goodness of controls to walk down to entrance. Or people will run to the lockers to get something out of their bag or whatever before moving on to their next position. Yeah, it happens, stuff comes up, I understand completely (like I said, I spent 2 summers there)....but all the delay time in the rotation process takes time away from having the second entrance person. Rotation on that ride can easily be done in less than 10 minutes, but it typically took close to 15-20 or more on a lot of rotations. Y'all (we all) shot (y)ourselves in the foot with that. Management and Supervisions saw that we got by without having a permanent 2nd entrance, and I really wouldn't expect to get it back...the ride can rotate from Crowd, after all.

As far as I know, TTD and MF are the only two rides in the entire park that even allow for the possibility of two entrance people. Not Raptor, Mantis, Magnum, WT, etc...not even Maverick, I'm pretty sure. They seem to get by just fine with their loose articles, SA, questions, and test seats (and yes, I'm well aware that all of those elements aren't present at all of those rides, roll with me on this one). I know change is scary. Honestly I'm often the first person to gripe about it. But it's not the catastrophe you're making it out to be, either.

My argument against it is not as much that it's being done as much as it is the reason it's being done... And the reason certainly isn't because they feel that the job can be done by one person.

I agree with Craig. If you're doing your job correctly, and there is a person at crowd, it shouldn't take two sets of eyes to get things out of line.

I'm going to be lame and bring up WildCat and point out that we don't even have an entrance person, haha. I'd rather have one than have to walk people down the employee entrance for bringing their huge camera or basketball into the line, or get a call from Iron Dragon letting us know there is alcohol in our line.

Yeah, I know it was cut for budgetary and/or staffing reasons. And I agree that it was nice to have, don't get me wrong. I'll even concede that it may have made things slightly more effective, or at least more efficient. However, in terms of cost/benefit (I'm an econ major, I really can't help but to see things in that light a lot), it just wasn't there. The second person didn't improve things to sufficiently significant magnitude to justify the expense of the position. Try to look at it in a more positive light (and yes, I actually believe in this): I'd MUCH rather cut the line schedule (i.e., the extra positions) as far down as possible to provide full days off and/or shorter shifts for my crew, or send someone home who's sick, especially in the early and late season. Remember, it's not just our own individual ride, it's the rest of the Zone, and to a lesser extent the Area and the rest of the park. They're fairly serious about balance...crews don't get short shifts or days off unless there's sufficient staffing for the entire department to get them.