Raptor hits 1 million riders!!

Congratulations to the Raptor crew for breaking 1 million riders yesterday!!
This is one of the most fun, best and hardest working Raptor crews CP has seen in a LONG time! You will notice the lines are moving right along and before you know it you are kicking the sky!!!

Intervals anyone???? :)

Congrats to Schuyler, John and the entire Raptor crew!!! You guys totally rock!!! :)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2055 :)

That's good to hear.

I knew Schuyler joining the crew was going to work out.:)

I had my doubts...

j/k, congrats to the crew! :)

There's a lot of great crews this year.

woot, i was there yesterday and had 2 rides on Rapter.

CedarPointGeek said:
woot, i was there yesterday and had 2 rides on Rapter.

I was there yesterday and had 12! :)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2055 :)

So thats what the ride op was going on about. We walked on to it last night. Weird night. 1.2 hours for Millennium Force, 1/2 hour for Magnum and 10 minutes for Raptor.

I wonder if Magnum hit it yet? They always get higher ridership than Raptor. Oh well congrats Raptor Crew!:)

Coastern3rd said:
So thats what the ride op was going on about. We walked on to it last night. Weird night. 1.2 hours for Millennium Force, 1/2 hour for Magnum and 10 minutes for Raptor.

same here only 10 minutes, they were rushing people on and off too. They wanted the next train on the track as soon as they were allowed to dispatch. they wouldnt let us use the bins either, they made us sit on our sandals, Do they do that often?

I had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago. Having worked on the Raptor in 2007, I definitely know how much of a challenge it is to hit interval. However I felt that this year's Raptor crew might be crossing the line between being efficient and being rude. The crew member spieling when I rode was reminding us that we pay to enter the park "not to wait in line, but to ride." This is very true, but I'd much rather wait a few more minutes in line than feel herded on and off the train.

In my opinion, hitting interval should never come at the expense of making your guests feel like cattle.

It great to hear! I love the Raptor! I usually make a point to hit it first thing in the morning and ride it a few time before the crowds! Go Green! Thats what the crew was saying the other day which I liked!

This year's crew is definitely doing a much much better job than the last couple Raptor crews. It's nice to stand in line and not see all three trains stacking every other time. If you want to have chit chat, go talk to the people at the admission booths at 3 in the afternoon or the guys standing on the steps at Breakers or the guy in the marina store or a sweep. As for me, I'd rather see crews working their tails off to get people on and off the ride as safely and quickly as possible. I've ridden Raptor a few times this year and I didn't feel like cattle and didn't see any rudeness - just some hustle that has been lacking for the last couple years at that ride.

Having said all that based on my observations of watching them work and moving people pretty well, it seems kind of late in the season for that ride to be hitting 1 million. I think we hit 1 million around the first week of July at Magnum back in '04 and Raptor was about the same. Have they had tons of downtime?

Now having worked Raptor last year i know what it takes to run that ride and it is one of the hardest if not THE hardest ride to hit interval. Not trying to put this years crew but from what i have seen it does seem like they herd them like cattle. We did that for one day last year was kept hitting interval, but we had recieved so many complaints about being rude and rushing the guests that Park Op told us to slow down. Plus also if you rush you miss harnesses or seatbelts which has happend way more times than last year. Last year i only recal one operational for accidentally hitting ride stop instead of close gates. No harnesses or seat belts that i can remeber, that's a different story this year. And also we hit 1 million riders just around the same time last year the last week of july so thier numbers are the same. Lastly good crews are ones that interact with the guests making the guests have fun on the platform when they are waiting, and also ones that keep the ride itself in good working order. If you notice at each ride there are flags, there are 5 total, Appearance, Attendance, Proficiency, Capacity, and the most important one I think GUEST SERVICE. if you have at least 3 i would consider you are a good overall crew since you have more than 50%. this years crew only has capacity due to the fact of numbers of getting people in and out, but at the same time they don't have guest service, which a crew gets if they have under a certain # of complaints to park op or it might even be 0 complaints to Park Op in a month. and i know schuyler is a member on here so he'll read this, you witnessed last year on how much fun Raptor '08 had, fun spiels, hurrying people without making them feel like cattle, really interacting with the guests. i haven't seen you guys have fun with everyone when i have ridden. But not to but the crew down in any way, congrats on hitting one million.

That sucks they make you sit on your shoes. I loved the crew last year. They didn't rush you or yell at you for going to the bin. Durning Point perks last year, a guy forgot to take his shoes off and the floor was dropping. He threw the shoes and it almost hit one of the ride hosts. They were really nice to him and didn't yell at all. It would help if they moved the bins closer to the seats or have seperate bins on the side for each row or two. If they would tell me to sit on my shoes, it might go in there mouth, j.k. :)

Having worked on Raptor in '00, '02, and '03 I can speak from experience as a past ride op and as a Raptor ridin tool when Im not a part of the crew. There is definitely a difference between each year's crew which can and does effect the experience for the guests.

This crew is lack the drama guests can witness from time to time. This crew is doing their jobs, and having fun doing them. They know you are there to ride their ride.

The reason people go to CP is to RIDE the RIDES not stand in line so I see nothing wrong with what the ride op says when he states just that.

Idk what the big deal is about having people sit on their flip flops-they can't go anywhere. How many times has a whole train been ready to dispatch but they have to wait on that one guest who takes their time putting their flip flops in the bin and then walking back to their seat like they have all day? The same holds true for unloading a train while guests are heading for the stairs, other guests are heading for the bin to get their flip flops, put them on and then walk down the stairs, delaying things even more since the guest HAS to put the flip flops on right there on the platform instead of behind the yellow line.

I do not see having a guest get on and off asap as being treated as cattle. There are other people waiting to ride the ride too. I think it is awesome that this crew cares about intervals-it gives them all a team goal to shoot for. I do not see any lack of safety by any of the ops - seatbelts and harnesses are still throughly checked before giving the thumbs up.
So despite the intervals, safety is NOT an issue.

If anyone can remember the '99 Raptor Boys they will remember a crew that put the "H" in hussle. They hit intervals constantly and had guests flying by doing the same thing this crew is doing. The Raptor boys are the pinnacle of crews, the crew all crews look up to, yet the '09 crew is being ridiculed for beng the same way!

I can tell you for the past few years I haven't wanted to ride Raptor as much as I used to because I dreading standing in line forever, dreaded seeing things done by ops (texting, talking, etc) or just a total lack of caring.
I have tried in years past to do my yearly Raptorthon in August, only to find after 2 or 3 rides it would be useless to try to beat the 65 rides I managed in '02, knowing I wouldnt even come close. You can bet this August I will definitely be doing it again! :)

This crew has totally turned it all around for me, I love riding Raptor again, I love watching the guests having such fun, I admire the crews determination, their hard work and love them all! :)

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2055 :)

I've not had any issue or observed any particularly poor Raptor crews the past few years. I'm not sure why we're celebrating that the crew does what they get paid for.

The park has seen some improvement overall in terms of operations, and I think we can pretty much attribute that to one person.

^^ You shouldn't be treated like cattles crap. What would happen if your shoes fell from under you? Yes I agree that there is a reason to hustle but the guests should never feel hustled. On Expedtion Everest at disney they move really fast but you don't feel rushed.

Don't wanna feel hustled? Don't go to a crowded amusement park. Go to a nice secluded beach or something.

LuvRaptor said:
How many times has a whole train been ready to dispatch but they have to wait on that one guest who takes their time putting their flip flops in the bin and then walking back to their seat like they have all day?

Agreed. If people didn't insist on bringing ridiculous amounts of crap with them, or make poor footware choices, the bins wouldn't even be an issue any crew would have to deal with.

coolkid2345 said:
I wonder if Magnum hit it yet?

Considering the number of setups and slow dispatch times I've seen come from this year's Magnum crew, I would doubt it.