Reride with No Line Policy

Shades said:
...does it screw it up so badly that the ratio becomes worthless with regards to measuring a ride's popularity?

It may not necessarily screw things up, but it could. So, why risk it? Again, we're talking about a billion dollar company here.

Oooh - a billion dollar company. In that case they should not change anything as change might bring risk.

That doesn't make sense in the context of this discussion.

Then I must be reading your posts incorrectly. I am reading them to say "since they are a billion dollar company they should not allow rerides because of the risk that it could bring them"

Canada's Wonderland said:

Thank you for contacting Canada's Wonderland. The policy on re-riding rides if there's noline is that you can stay on the ride, if there is one person waiting to get onyou have to exit then enter the ride again.

Dillon
Guest Service Coordinator

Dorney Park said:

All guests are required to dis-board after each ride cycle. Repeat rides are only available by returning through the entrance line queue.

--Chuck

I find it bizarre that there is no standard across the chain for rerides. I know from experience that Dorney Park and MiA are very strict on rerides. Kings Island and Carowinds actually allow rerides. It seems like this was a policy not changed over from former Paramount Parks.

Surprising when you consider the way Paramount management was chased off after the acquisition.

Knowing a few people who work at several of the former paramount parks, it is surprising to me how many of the previous policies have hung around. It seems that while much of the upper-level management may have been chased off, much of the lower management, supervision, and seasonal employees remained. It's hard to break some of those mindsets, especially when making a move from less strict to more strict policies. There seems to be a general dislike for Cedar Fair, at atleast Kings Island, among seasonal employees who started off working for Paramount. I know there was a bit of an uproar when Cedar Fair made ride hosts start standing on red dots and behind lines...

I'm a bit confused. Isn't it supposed to be a good thing that the parks maintain some level of independence regarding operations and policies, and that they not all be forced into cookie-cutter standards across the chain?

I guess other billion dollar companies (worth millions?) are just flat out stupid, especially that six flags one. I still am not convinced counting people is worthwhile. They should be able to have a ballpark idea of how many guests ride each ride each year just by keeping track of dispatches. If the ride is consistently without a line and sending out empty seats, drop operations down a train till they start filling up. If still not filling up, consider that it might not be a very popular ride. It seems like counting precision is just extra work for many people.

I'm not surprised at the lack of standards across the chain. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the management model is that Kinzel micro-manages Cedar Point while the rest of the chain does as they please.

Well, rest of the chain with the exception of King's Dominion.

^Soon to get a dekinzelectomy, if I guess right.

Ensign Smith said:
I'm a bit confused. Isn't it supposed to be a good thing that the parks maintain some level of independence regarding operations and policies, and that they not all be forced into cookie-cutter standards across the chain?

That's a tough question to answer. If you have well-thought-out standards, they really should be consistent across the business.

For example, I feel Target is a very consistent chain. I can walk into any Target store, and if there is someone not in the department for electronics, I can press a button and someone will be there within 60 seconds. If they're not there within 60 seconds, they get a recorded strike against their record.

Now, what if Targets were given independence regarding that policy? Target A has a red phone, where you call someone for service. Target B has a standard desk bell that you hit when you need someone. Target C's policy is you search the store yourself if you need help. Target D always has someone staffing each department. Target E hasn't thought of the issue at all.

As a result, the independent system leaves a customer unfamiliar with any standard policies, and no matter where they are in the U.S., they can't just walk into Target, expecting a consistent quality shopping experience. This leaves them with a poor opinion of the chain overall. This actually might be Kmart's problem.

The parks can maintain consistent standards, yet still each carry their own identity. They have different rides, games, shows, restaurants, and other offerings to make their identity.

Sure, there are certain procedures that might need to vary from park-to-park, but if they could harm the guest experience park-to-park, they might need to be better thought out.

Except I don't think anybody really thinks of the parks as something uniform like a Target store. I agree on enforcing the well thought out policies chain-wide, but I don't think anyone walks into CP expecting it to be exactly like Knotts.

Shades said:
Then I must be reading your posts incorrectly. I am reading them to say "since they are a billion dollar company they should not allow rerides because of the risk that it could bring them"

Not at all. I'm saying that keeping an accurate count of riders is more important than giving a few guests re-rides. Not that the two are mutually exclusive.

bholcomb said:They should be able to have a ballpark idea of how many guests ride each ride each year just by keeping track of dispatches.

Of course they could. But it's more accurate (and thus, provides a more accurate measure of a ride's value) to count actual riders. Guessing may work well enough when you're talking about a park with a couple dozen rides, but when you're dealing with around 70, there are bound to be instances where guessing isn't accurate enough.

Ffej - that analogy would work if there were 47 Cedar Points spread across 15 states.

I would be interested to know how many people outside of enthusiast circles actually realize what parks are owned by Cedar Fair. I would bet for most guests at Cedar Point, they wouldn't even realize that there is a managing company (Cedar Fair), much less that there were other parks connected to Cedar Point.

I still don't even see the value in having accurate counts. You could even rope off certain seats if a ride wasn't busy, and then you'd almost encourage re-rides if nobody was waiting because it'd help you keep a more accurate count. I just can't see what the value would be in having an accurate count over pissing guests off because "some a-hole ride op wouldn't let me re-ride"

Keeping an accurate count doesn't mean you can't give re-rides.

Besides, out of the nearly 3,000,000 guests at CP each year, how many are getting "pissed off" that they were denied something they shouldn't have expected to get in the first place? I think the issue is being blown way out of proportion (as is typical when it comes to the park not bending to the whims of enthusiasts).

How accurate is that 3,000,000 guest count anyway? Does it account for people leaving and re-entering? Seems like a billion dollar company would want to track that a little closer than they do.