Long Term Appeal

GateKeeper is a very good ride. Probably a top five coaster for me in the park, but it doesn't quite reach Millennium or Maverick status in my books.

I'm curious on how lines will be for this thing five or six years from now. Of course that'll depend on what is brought in/taken down, but I don't see this ride having the long-term appeal that Millennium or Maverick has had thus far.

Being in the front of the park will likely keep lines long at the beginning and end of the days, similar to how Raptor also has the inflated ride times, but once the "new ride" feeling wears off, I don't see this ride being more than a half hour to forty-five minute wait at most.

Similar to Raptor I'd imagine.

Really long lines early in the day. Throughout the day, the line will shrink. It helps that GateKeeper has great capacity.

Can anyone varify whether the line for GK shrinks throughout the day right now?

I think it's a quality ride that will have lines and ridership similar to Raptor for many years to come. For as good as MF and Maverick are when you get to ride them, there are a great number of people who are frustrated by their lack of reliability and capacity. Raptor and Magnum are still giving more rides than these two each season by several hundred thousand. I suspect that Gatekeeper will maybe not have as lengthy of a line as MF or Maverick in a few years, but it's more a function of its better capacity than anything.

Comparing the number of posts complaining about the restraints on Maverick & the number complaining about the restraints on Gatekeeper, I'd guess the long term appeal will be about the same. :)

Not a bad opinion for not having ridden GK yet ;)

To Matt's point, appeal and wait times aren't entirely related. Sure, you can typically get on Raptor in less time late in the day, and Magnum only has long lines on busy days. Both bury Maverick in terms of rides given in a year.

What you might be asking is if lines will be less long over time. I don't think we can do anything but guess.

Renegade said:
It helps that GateKeeper has great capacity.

Gatekeeper has great *theoretical* capacity. Like I said in another thread, due to the way the station unloads and the delay for the gates opening, I don't see any way it will ever come close to those numbers.

Yeah, I am honestly surprised CP did not go with an unload/load station somehow like MF. Would have helped capacity quite a bit.

I don't see how that would have worked with flip flops and such. MF and TTD are sit downs so they dont have to worry about that.

Two stations would not have made a difference. Someone here did the math.

Watching the ride yesterday, I can see they're getting closer. It looked like they need to shave off about five more seconds to hit a sweet spot.

Train 1 hitting the 3/4 course block, train 2 leaving the station, train 3 advancing to load, unload is open for train 1. I can see it working in a perfect world. I was wanting an unload station on media day, and seeing how it could've worked. It is what it is.

Three trains yesterday and great intervals combined with lines extending only to the stairs made for a great time. As far as appeal goes, I believe this coaster will be a favorite or a close second for many people for years to come.

+1 on that! It is such a smooth, fun ride that it will be a favorite of many people for a long, long time. I really think rides that are a lot of fun but not extreme like, let's say TDD, have a broader appeal and become favorites of more people.

I have a hard time believing that a second station would have not done anything.

When that train is sitting outside of the station with people on it doing nothing, it is hurting interval. When that train moves in, a good 15-20 seconds is wasted unloading the guests in the train before the gates even open to load the train. Generally that train waits outside of the station for 30-45 seconds, at least, which would be perfect to unload and have that train come right in and ready to load right away.

Now if they ran the ride so well that the train hits the block outside of the station for only 10-15 seconds before advancing I would say no, it would not be worth the second station... But generally it does sit there quite a bit longer.

You add a 2nd station, then you are adding another ride with a zero loose article in line policy, because there would be no bins.

But because of dangling feet, a place to store flip flops and loose shoes will require a bin. They are very good at telling people with bags, basketballs, stuffed animals to get a locker, as on MF and TTD. I just got back from spending the afternoon there, and the ride ops really seem to be making great time. Most of the time, the train was dispatched as the third was just entering the brake block. I rode twice today, and the line kept moving very quickly. At about 3, the posted wait was 45 minutes, I was on and off in under 35. Around 5, a 30 minute posted time was less than 20. Kudos to the GateKeeper ops!

^Was probably in line for it around the same time you were. And I agree, they were running trains pretty quicky. When we first got to the park (around 4) for the most part one train would be at the top of the lift hill going into the wing over drop when the train in front of it was just pulling into the final break run. As the day went on, it slowed a little bit, but they were still making great time. When talking to one of GK's employees yesterday, he said they've been running about 1,600 people per hour. I can't believe they are as close as they are to getting the theoretical capacity.

Jeff said:
Two stations would not have made a difference. Someone here did the math.

Does anyone remember, when the calculations were made, did they assume the gates would open right after the train parked? At least at media day, there was a sizable delay between when the train parked, and when the gates opened.

For the purpose of the discussion it wouldn't matter because those are things that can be changed today.

I do think the line has been shrinking as the day went on. Yesterday I rode at 11AM, the wait was 75 minutes, I rode again at 3PM and it was 45 minutes, and again at 5PM and it was closer to 30 minutes. So at least yesterday the line def shrank throughout the day.