Reride with No Line Policy

Shades said:
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.

I get that you've given up discussing and are simply trying to be snide, but yeah, they have a pretty accurate measure of how many people come to the park each year. Because, just like knowing with a high level of accuracy how many people ride each ride, that data can be vital.

JuggaLotus said:
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 agree that the analogy wasn't perfect, but the point was that consistent, well-thought-out standards really improve the customer experience park-to-park.

Whether or not Platinum pass holders and enthusiasts represent a small proportion of the guests really doesn't matter. As the parks' biggest critics, the policies should be designed to appease even them - then, nearly every guest should be satisfied.

Then, no one would have to deal with the hassles of entering various Cedar Fair parks with a Platinum pass, wonder why their Beagle Bucks/gift cards don't work park-to-park, miss their favorite ride due to the park's line-cutting procedure, get scolded when they try to re-ride a ride at certain parks, be left without when certain parks don't take credit cards at select venues, be confused where to park and exit when certain parks have directors and others don't....I could go on with many more examples, but I think we get the idea.

Actually I think the enthusiasts are the most understanding group to a no re-ride policy. Try explaining to some guest who comes once a year who sees no reason they shouldn't be able to occupy a pair of seats for another ride when nobody is waiting.

Again, it's one of those things they could do for customer service but don't under the apparent guise of 'we need to count everyone' which I don't buy into, nor do I understand the importance of 'counting everyone'.

I look at it this way. This is my job, and that's against the rules. If I get caught breaking the rules, I get in trouble. Getting into trouble causes points on my employment. Points on employment in excess cause termination. Termination causes unemployment...So be understanding when we don't let you reride :D

bholcomb said:
Try explaining to some guest who comes once a year who sees no reason they shouldn't be able to occupy a pair of seats for another ride when nobody is waiting.

Perhaps the park values accurate ride valuation (via an accurate rider count) more than it worries about pleasing what I would be is a statistically-irrelevant percentage of guests. I mean, how frequently does this "no re-ride even though no one is waiting" situation even occur? And even when it does occur, I highly doubt the customer is left with a bad taste in their mouth, considering the park is slow enough that no one is queued up to ride.

...under the apparent guise of 'we need to count everyone' which I don't buy into, nor do I understand the importance of 'counting everyone'.

And how many amusement parks have you run? :)

TheDevarious said:
I look at it this way. This is my job, and that's against the rules.

You could have stopped there with no further explanation. :)

I'm just making sure if people can't put two & two together that they understand where I'm going :D

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering....See even Yoda does it hahaha

TheDevarious I totally understand why you can't allow re-rides. The issue is far beyond ride ops.

Brandon how many amusement parks have you run yourself? How is that even relevant? I can say from someone whos worked at the park that hourly counts aren't so hourly, people spin turnstiles and I never saw a visible policy change or operational policy that had to do with the counts other than 'make sure you record them on the hour every hour'

I've not run any, obviously. It's relevant because you're essentially saying that these parks are doing work that doesn't have value to the company.

Ralph Wiggum said:

decil76 said:
What I find unacceptable is when they cut off the line Before closing time. So if there's a 30 minute wait, they'll stop people from getting in line 30 minutes before close.

I absolutely hate when parks do this. It pretty much makes closing time a mystery as you go from ride to ride trying to find one that hasn't cut their line off yet.

When I worked at MA, and WHEN it was busy enough to do this, they only cut the line off of Shivering Timbers when it was going to keep the ride open for 2-3 hours longer. They cut the line off and became the most unpopular people in the world. But those guests don't have to be right back there at 10AM the next day, do they?! And how is it that 11 hours isn't enough time to get a ride in?

If they left these rides open, you'd have people freaking out and the line would swell up. Usually at that point of the night, the ride ops and management just want to get out of there and the guests have had enough time to ride throughout the day. /endrant

The official CF re-ride policy is no re-rides, ever. However, we used to be trained that re-rides would be looked over (management would look the other way) at the end of the night. Either last year or the year before, that was changed. I believe at MA, they still (unofficially, of course) allow re-rides on one of the trains just because there aren't enough people to fill the other one. But, 9.8 times out of 10, you will never get a re-ride.

I asked 5 parks what their policy was. So far only Canada's Wonderland and Dorney have responded. I will post the other results if/when they respond.

Dispatch Master Transport said:
They cut the line off and became the most unpopular people in the world. But those guests don't have to be right back there at 10AM the next day, do they?!

I've pulled the ridiculous O-C shift followed by an opening shift the next day in rides plenty of times. I even did at least 5 O-C's in a row on a couple of occasions. I never thought it was that bad, but I can see how it has the potential to be exhausting.

However, from a guest's point of view, I don't give a flying monkey's behind how the park schedules their employees. At most parks, lines are short to non-existent by closing time anyway because most guests are simply too tired to ride anymore, so I don't see that being a significant issue.

Remember as well, MA employees still have to drive home after the park closes. There isn't housing a 5 minute walk away from their ride.

Kings Island said:
It is up to each rider associate to determine if you can remain seated or if you must exit and re-enter.

Have fun on your next visit here at Kings Island.
Jennifer
[contact info omitted]

Cedar Point said:

I would first like to thank you for your interest in Cedar Point, and taking time to write us your questions.

Our re-ride policy is as follows; we do not allow re-riding by our guests with the exceptions of different situations. There are times where we need a certain amount of weight on a coaster train to run it and there is no one in line to ride, or on the water rides on cold days and there is no one waiting in line so we will allow our guests to re-ride. We do not allow re-rides on a regular basis other then these reasons because we can not see most of our lines from the loading areas and there may be someone coming up on platform that you would then me cutting in front of.

I hope that this answers your question, and you enjoy your time while visiting Cedar Point.

Sincerely,

Steve
[contact info omitted]

Cedar Point was the only park to send me a PDF as a response, rather than just typing an email.

Interesting to see the very different policy of each park, Chuck. No parks have said anything about maintaining accurate ride counts.

I most agree with Canada's Wonderland's simple policy, which I really think is King's Island's too.

Cedar Point's kind of makes sense on paper, but in the real world, it's poorly thought out. They're basically saying no re-rides because if someone is running through the line (unseen) and gets to the platform, then they could have lost their ride to a re-rider and become upset.

Well, in all my time re-riding at King's Island, I've simply never seen this happen. Here is why Canada's Wonderland / King's Island policy makes more sense:

1. When a guest in the line is not seen, they are typically not going to know that a person was re-riding. So, what they don't know doesn't hurt them.

2. The gates are open for such a brief period of time, that a person not seen in line typically won't make it to the station in time.

3. On re-ride days, there is usually more than 1 empty seat available, so re-riders and people not seen in line all will have a seat.

4. On re-ride days, there is obviously no line, so a person not seen in line having to wait an extra 1-2 minutes for the next train (if the previous train was miraculously filled 100% because of re-riders) is going to upset no one but the most miserable people on Earth.

5. Which scenario would affect and upset more riders? Guests trying to re-ride (A couple on Mean Streak, which happen to be the only riders on the train, are told to make the LONG walk through the entrance for another ride) OR the unseen person walking through the Mean Streak line, that miraculously makes it to the station before the gates close...and the train is miraculously 100% filled because of re-riders, and they miraculously belong to the most-miserable-people-on-Earth crowd that are upset that they must wait another couple minutes for the next train?

So, basically, we have a very common scenario vs a once-in-a-lifetime scenario. King's Island / Canada's Wonderland re-ride policy was designed around the very common scenario; Cedar Point's was designed for the once-in-a-lifetime situation.

The main issue I have with Kings Island's policy is that it is not consistent park wide. One ride op might decide to allow re-rides, another might not. That can be confusing to riders.

I was surprised by Cedar Point's response. It sounded very conversational in the way it was written. This makes me think that the policy is not one that is written down anywhere.

On Thursday my cousin and I did 9 rides in a row on Racer and 6 on Adventure Express. The ride ops couldn't care less.

Yeah, I'd say the most re-rideable ride at KI is Flight Deck. For making that long walk back to that short but sweet ride, I never leave without 3-4 rides in a row. I've even had re-rides on the very front seat on the really dead days.

Your mom: How crowded was KI for this time of year on a Thursday? Was the park dead, or was this just because it was end of night or something?

Flight Deck is awesome. If you like suspendeds (and now that BBW is gone), head up to Canada's Wonderland and check out Vortex: an identical plan to Flight Deck, except built on the 'mountain' and over a pond. Also much fun.

I agree, Flight Deck is really awesome. A little short though. I have never seen a line for the ride either.

I went to KI Thurday and Friday last week, and it was a walk-on and re-ride day all day both days. I got re-rides on both Beast and Windseeker. Diamondback's line was not more than 5-10 minutes at any point in time. Other than the waterpark, it was dead. Granted it was 98 degrees both days...