Ridiculous Changes

When I worked for Cedar Point I lived by the saying "Be Safe yet Efficent" with that being said I've noticed a lot of changes in the park this year. The thing that is most upsetting to me is the Magnum load platform. The new V shaped areas for the ride host to stand in while the trains are exiting and entering the station are ridiculous. This new area is rather unsafe. I tend to believe that your vision of a unfastened seatbelt would be impaired due to the fact that you are standing behind a pillar. Another thing would be the ability to pack trains. I am a firm believer in packing trains as some of you pointbuzzers would know or heard me yelling the past 2 years. Not only does it make the day go by faster, it increases your riders. I've been told by employees that they are not able to leave the Vs while a train is in motion therefore no packing trains. I also noticed the speed of the crews working seems to be really slow compaired to years past. There is no reason why you can't hit interval on rides that don't stack with a few exceptons like Special Access Guest. Ride set ups are no fun and you run the chance of someone getting hurt due to a sudden stop. None of this would fly if Bill Spehn was still at the park. I didn't realize how cool the guy was until he left. I'm sure I left a lot of stuff out but I'm sure it will come to me later.

I do agree with the comments I have seen in regards to the "V"s. I can understand the safety issue from the Operator's standpoint but it does make things a bit awkward.

Is your comment on speed in general or is it in regards to Magnum? I have not had any problems with Magnum's crew. In fact I continue to applaud them for their effort and enthusiasm.

The changes to the Magnum station have done more to hurt the safety of the ride than improve it, in my opinion. First the rear dispatch person is hidden away where they can't really see, now the platform people are tucked behind those pillars where they can't adequately see anything.

Stupid.

The 'V' areas was the stupidest idea ever. I didn't even really think about how they couldn't easily see seatbelts, but its hard to even see a clear from behind those pillars. What if you had to call a hold for a reason? Good luck seeing that.

I can't agree more that the last few years, things seem to have de-generated really badly. They're trying to force the crews to be 'too safe' and they've got too many solutions in search of problems.

Having the Magnum Ride hosts up by the train has never been a problem in the past. All of a sudden it is? Give me a break.

I've noticed it all around the park. Especially noticed it when I worked there last season. Seems like the fast moving lines/capacity that Cedar Point is so known for is taking a back seat to these solutions in search of a problem.

I can look all over the park now, and just think 'what were they thinking?' This is especially true on Magnum's platform. Really, what were they thinking?

What does it mean to 'pack' the trains?

I haven't been to the park yet this year, I'm going next week, but I've never had a problem with the lines. But I agree Bill Spehn did a great job and I wish he was still there.

The ride hosts on Magnum would walk the lines of people waiting between the trains, and would check to make sure everyone had 2 riders. If there was a single rider, they would call for another single rider in an attempt to not send empty seats.

Magnum's crew this year is mediocre compaired to last years crew. However, they do have one of the top 2 crews in the park which isn't saying much.

Its not the crew's fault, they are just following orders. I do think they are doing their best considering......

When I was told last night that now the Magnum crew is no longer "allowed" to pack trains, it just confirmed in my mind that something is really wrong with CP these days. Operations is something that has been setting that park apart for years. Do you really think three million or more people would travel to Sandusky, Ohio of all places each year if the place was run like a Six Flags all this time? I know I wouldn't.

Having worked Magnum for three years, I can attest that it became increasingly difficult and less fun as they made more poorly thought out changes. Here are some examples of changes they've made over the past few seasons.

1.) First it was the airgates in 2002 which I can't really say I disagreed with, but why on earth is the dispatch enable button behind a pillar in the back of the station? And why did they remove the diagonal rails for the front three cars making an already confusing situation lining up for those seats worse?

2.) Then it was the removal of human spiels halfway through 2003 which took away from the enthusiasm and a level of guest interaction.

3.) Then the no loose article policy, which again, I can't say I disagree with, but at least change it during an offseason or give the crew a little help in dealing with guests that are used to taking their stuff on the ride for over 15 seasons. Millennium Force and Dragster have two entrance people or at least a security guard there. And quite a few more people walk into Magnum's line (over 2 million compared to 1.5 million for MF and just under 1 million for Dragster)

4.) Last year a manager came up and told us that instead of the frontmost host standing at the front of the train, when we were clear, we were to stand behind the first pillar. Okay fine, but the first car can't be watched (for people unding seatbelts, etc.) as it goes out of the station.

5.) Now this year, they have the load hosts hiding behind pillars and the unload hosts clearing away from the train, rather than over it. It might solve the concern of a guest reaching up and "high fiving" a host as the train is moving, but it opens up a whole bunch of other problems. Hosts are barely visible to eachother, and the outgoing train is much less visible to the hosts than it used to be. BHolcomb's point about holds is important too. They will be much harder to call from behind a pillar. Last year, after they implemented the no loose articles policy, we would walk up and down (while packing the trains) and make sure people didn't have loose articles BEFORE they got into the train, because once they are sitting down, they are usually much harder to deal with.

Of course it isn't the crew's fault. There are still a few people around that know how things used to be run and I'm sure silly changes bother them as much as they bothered (still bother as a guest) me. I am sure that the leadership of Magnum are two of the people left that care about the park and will have the crew doing the best they can with a frustrating situation. I do believe that last year's crew was probably one of the best every day in and day out and adjusted well to all the changes thrown at them. I'm sure this year's crew will try to do the same and they will do a good job too.

Magnum's station isn't the only place where things have changed for the worse. They have two people checking seats on maXair and they both go around the entire ring to "double check." Why not have two more ops and why is double checking necessary on that ride, but not others? I haven't seen this done on other frisbies. There's other things like the new boarding system on Ocean Motion, new impossible to undo seatbelts on Woodstock and other rides in Camp Snoopy which are cheap "fixes" for non-existent problems that serve no purpose but to make things more difficult for workers and slower for guests.

"Standard Procedure" is the phrase I seem to hear a lot from park employees this year. As if I'm talking to a robot, which I might as well be since the character of the park has been stripped with the cunning use of auto speils. Not to mention a few of the rides they have ruined operations-wise. CCMR and Blue Streak immediately come to mind. Ask yourself next time, why does it take FOUR complete stops to park a train in the station?

I don't understand it at all, this park has been known for capacity and character. Both of which I'm seeing fading away more and more each season since MF debuted in 2000 and the departure of Miers.

I guess as long as the rides themselves are awesome I shouldn't complain. Blue Streak was phenominal on the night of June 11th, but the operations were little to be desired. Don't get me wrong the ride ops were awesome and friendly. The "Standard Procedure" on the otherhand has indeed gotten ridiculous.

Did Skyride ever had the bolt on the doors to lock it? I just noticed it this year. It really killed effiecency having the host unloading guests locking the door, then the host loading had to unlock it, then re-lock it for dispatch.

Kyle, I think that has always been there, I know it has been the last couple of years for sure.

It's always been that way when running 20 and 26 cabins. The problem is, if you don't lock the door when you send it from Catch/Unload to Load/Trip, people will get in it when it goes by the entrance. Locking the door allows the person whos catching/unloading to send it over to the person whos loading/tripping without people getting in it.

Then the person at load/trip unlocks the door, and holds the cabin while the people get in. It's safer that way, and seems to work pretty well. After being on the ride for a few days, you get really good at locking and unlocking the doors.

Speaking of SkyRide, those doors at the entrance are completely unnecessary and are just asking to hurt someone.

I don't get the double checks on maXair either, especially if each person has to do 50 seats. That's insane. If Huss wired it like the giant Top Spin, the operator can see the status of every restraint from the control panel. Not only that, but how could one person find a restraint closed and another not arrive at the same result?

I'm usually not one to second guess operations at the park, but there's a lot going on that makes you scratch your head.

Things all over the park have been changing, and most of them not for the better. I've noticed that just about all the crews have little to no speed to them anymore. The problems with Magnum have already been adressed, so I won't mention those again.

Gemini almost consistantly stacks with only two trains, which is just increadibly sad. Not only do they move very slow while checking bars, each train gets two bar checkers, and they have to double check. This means one person starting at the front, one in the back, crossing in the middle, ending at the other side, and slowly walking back to where they started before giving the clear. The double checks on Maxair are dumb too, especially with the indicator lights built into the ride.

Adding all these new spring gates everywhere (like the one at Sky Ride platform) is annoying as well. Those gates swing back hard. I've seen smaller kids knocked the the ground by them, I've hurt myself on them more times than I can remember. How many people have been hurt by running into the Sky Ride station when they shouldn't have? Now how many have been hurt by the stupid gates? I've been hit at least three times that I can remember this season, so that's three more potential injuries than they ever had before.

Hopefully Hildebrant will put an end to some of this maddness by next year, but I'm not holding my breath.

I just got a phone call from a buddy at the park who said that Corkscrew now has seatbelts. The belt runs from the restraint to the seat.

Does this mean Iron Dragon is next?

Un freaking believable...

Does anyone know who is pushing all these changes? I really don't to be honest. Is it Matt Ozoskey, who was promoted to Manager of Ride Operations last year, with his "Safety Science" degree? Is it Bob Wozniak? I find that difficult to believe since he's been around a long time and was Manager of Ride Operations for years. Is it someone higher up? Director of Safety (don't know who that is) maybe? I mean the park has a great safety record. Why are these changes necessary?

They probably feel the changes will help keep it that way, Matt. And the Higher Ups are NOT going to turn down a way to make the rides safer. Even if the change really makes no difference at all in ride safety.

Some of them are just too removed from ops to understand that.

MrScott

There comes a point where "safety" begins to negatively impact the guest experience.

Seatbelts on an Arrow looper is that point, IMO. Why the *hell*? Can anyone name any Arrow or Vekoma looper that has a seatbelt?

Like I mentioned, the ones that say make it happen are just too removed from ops to understand. All they hear about is people falling out of rides (at other parks) and "Let's add seatbelts to ours to make sure that doesn't happen here!"

I don't like it either, but what is one to do?

MrScott