Safety

What are the safety procedures followed at Cedar Point in the case of a stuck rollercoaster? Breakdown?

One of the first steps would be to call it in. You'd probably say {name of ride} down loaded/empty. If there was a train on the lift you "might" wanna send an attendant "to da lif" hehe. Im not sure past that.

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Adventuredome Ride Op
MGM Grand Adventures Ride Op
Future CP Ride Op

You'd send operators out to the trains and have them reassure the riders that the ride will be going, that this is the safest place to be, that it is the safety system kicking in, not that the rides broken. If the ride won't be going in a very few minutes, you may have to do a "walk-down" which is to get the riders out of the trains and escort them back to the station. You cannot do this until management is present and okays it, and then there is (supposed to be) a ride host in between every 1-2 guests. Lap bars/harnesses are released a few at a time (if possible), and everyone goes back to the station. CP will provide compensation like a free drink coupon, CP money, or a chance to walk up to another ride (usually of choice) and get on without waiting if they actually had to take people of the ride; most of the time, at least.

'97 Disaster Transport Crew; '98 Iron Dragon Crew
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PO!NT OF VIEW - A Different Look at Roller Coasters
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vegasbadboy, Cedar Point differs from many parks in that the ride crews have an amazing amount of authority over their rides. Not knowing all the details of how CP runs its rides, I'm fairly certain that the crews have the authority to perform certain "unusual" tasks to reset the ride and get it running again that, in other parks, would require the presence of an area manager or maintenance person.
(Any CP crew people care to confirm, deny, or elaborate?)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I realize that, thas why I said I wasn't sure. Its funny though that MGM Grand Adventures was run almost exactly like Cedar Point in that ride ops had most of the work ourselves. The only time we needed management was if we had to evacuate a ride. Some simularities include:

1.) Taking steps to reset a ride if is down. If that doesn't work then we call it in.
2.) You stay at one ride. Usually you would be trained on all of them, but youd stay at one most of the time.
3.) Seasonal operation - closed during winter
4.) Able to make spiels fun and exciting
5.) In the morning, ride ops are responsible for opening the ride. This includes testing ride equiptment, clearing blocks if necessary, etc. Once we signed a slip from maintenance the rides were ours.
6.) At night close the ride on our own. Including e-stopping and all that great stuff.

Even tho this is off topic. The park i currently work at is rn more like Six Flags where you have to take a test for each position and you dont get controls right away. Also, you cant vary your spiels that much.

For normal operational setups (taking too long to get the next train moving), ride ops have to call Park Operations and report that they're down-loaded-whatever reason, and then it's up the the ride ops to get the ride running again. Most setups - at least on the smaller rides, I don't know about the others - only take 3-7 minutes to clear a setup. Then they call Park Op and say they're running again, no problem. If you don't call to say you're running, Park Op may call you and ask if the problem is solved or not. The only thing I can recall that requires management is a walk-down, and of course if there is a trouble (RED) light, you have to have maintenance check it out and managment will drop by too. But the ride hosts do have quite a bit of leeway.

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PO!NT OF VIEW - A Different Look at Roller Coasters
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What really drove it home for me was an incident last season on Millennium Force. I was next in line, so I was standing on the platform waiting to board, but for some reason...presumably a bad wheel...the train was being switched. This was during the days of two-train operation; they were swapping yellow for blue or something like that. Anyway, there were no less than a dozen mechanics, Intamin project people, and even a CP rides manager standing around in the station. But even with all these maintenance people standing around, it was the ride crew who were operating all the controls and swapping the trains. Maintenance didn't come out, shut down the ride, and switch trains...instead, maintenance came out and requested that the crew change the trains. Through the entire procedure, it was the ride crew that was operating the equipment.

Personally, I think that operating procedure is part of the reason Cedar Point seems to have better ride operation crews than most parks I've visited, but that's just an opinion...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

that might be a union thing too??

CrystalKat (or others),

Did you ever have anyone freak out when stopped on a lift hill ? How do you deal with that. Personally, I would like to be stopped on a lift hill. I have no fear of heights. However, I have been with people who are and would not like the idea of being stopped on the hill for a period of time. Also, I have noticed on most coaster the lap bar release is under the train. How do they release lap bars when not in the station ??

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:) "Did you know this goes up-side down" :)

On most CP coasters, if not all, there is a separate foot pedal on the onside of the train to release the lap bars. Cedar Creek Mine Ride is a good example in that they don't have an automatic relese system for the lap bars and have to do it manualy every time.

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Monster Ride Host for 2 Years
3 Years Total @ CP

Blue Streak and Mean Streak require that an operator pop the latch with a little meat hook. Wildcat has a mechanism on the side of the car that can easily be operated from outside. Mine Ride, Corkscrew, Gemini, Iron Dragon, and Magnum XL-200 all have foot pedals on the cars. For Raptor and Mantis there's a little handle that fits over the end of the linkage rod to give an operator enough leverage to release the latch. I believe Disaster Transport has a foot pedal on the back of the car, Woodstock Express has a set of plungers on the platform side of the train, I'm not sure how Jr. Gemini is set up, and Millennium Force has a battery box that plugs into the back of the train.

(Did I miss any?)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

(Yes, Disaster's bar release is a pedal on the back.)

Sure thing, I've had people absolutely go berserk when they're stuck on the lift. Once, I had a guy that was flipping out because he was claustrophobic. Mind you, this was on the Iron Dragon, and I'm thinking "if you're claustrophobic why are you on a ride with a horsecollar harness?" But he was demanding that I let him out, which I don't have the authority to do without management, and some people really take that badly. Another woman (same train even, I think) was all about pointing out to me that there was a storm coming and that this was a steel coaster - as if I didn't know that I was standing on a metal staircase at the time.

I've never had a guest get really belligerent about getting stuck - most of them really do understand that it's more or less a minor thing and that we don't mean to do it. Most of the panicking type of stuff is just because they don't know when they'll be moving again. And we do get them going as quick as we can!

Once, when stuck on Disaster for an undetermined length of time, I had the whole shuttle in Brake 2 (just after the satellite) doing the wave and singing while we were waiting. Just think, they got to ride 10x as long as anyone else! So what if it wasn't moving... :)

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PO!NT OF VIEW - A Different Look at Roller Coasters
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Brake 2...That's the one with the audio track isn't it? And the work light that always seems to be left on?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

hey gang, CrystalKat have you worked there before because when i get older i would love to work at CP could you give me some ways to do that thanks a bunch p.s. thats if you have worked there because u said up top that you were 97'Disaster Transport Crew; '98 Iron Dragon Crew just wondering thanks!

tt

This topic was about safety, direct your questions to the employee lounge...thanks.

Brake 2 does have the audio "I'm losing control!" ad nauseum. The light is left on now because the lights in "Alaska" (the very final turn of the ride) have burned out and are very difficult to replace - something with the types of bulbs. Disaster can set up the safety system really easily, and you can tell how close you are by watching Brake 2. If a shuttle stops there, you have about 5 seconds to get it moving again (move all the other shuttles in front of it) before the ride sets up. Since we can't see Alaska anymore and see if a shuttle is in those brakes, we use Brake 2 to see how close we are to a setup. Kind of a jury-rigged way to "fix" the ride, though most of the ops don't like it. As if the effects weren't degraded enough already! *Grin*

(Yes, I've worked there - check out the Employee Lounge section for lots of employee stuff, or check out my website for insider info!)

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PO!NT OF VIEW - A Different Look at Roller Coasters
http://www.crosswinds.net/~justmayntz/thrills/
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Although it wasn't at CP, I did get stuck on the lift hill on the Double Loop at Geauga Lake a few seasons back (when it -was- Geauga Lake!).

We were there about 20 minutes in all, and an operator was there about 10 minutes in, claiming they had to wait for maintenence to reset because, she said, a bird flew in front of a safety sensor and shut down the ride!

It's possible, I guess.

But she couldn't let us down, so she kept everybody chatting.

Except for a growing need to use the facilities, it wasn't bad at all...nice view, and we were up there a little past closing time.

The best hting about it was that Guest Services gave us all a free pass to return to the park anytime during the season!

I was stuck on the lift of SFO'S Double Loop this July for about 15 minutes. There was two train operation, and the other train took too long coming from the safety brakes into the staion, so the sensors shut us down. I knew it was going to happen about 5 seconds before the lift stopped, because the other train was nowhere near in the station, and we were already 3/4 up the lift. Nobody came to check us, and there were a few small children who were a bit scared. When we finally started again and came into the station, the ops told us nothing, and didn't apologize or give us a free coupon or anything.

Yeah, well, Brett in that case a delay in getting your train out was probably the cause of the set-up... :)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Who notes that when Mine Ride ran three trains for the first time last season, it set-up on every third train...the computer brings the trains into the station way too slowly.