Soak City 7-8-07

My husband and I made a short trip in the evening to SC. I was shocked to see the CP lot almost FULL on a day where temps. were close to 100. Crazy!!! I would NEVER go on a day like that...only to the waterpark.

SC was OK, it looked like people were already clearing out, which was fine with us. (We got there around 6:30).

We noticed that there was an overabundance of empty tubes floating around in the Renegade River, as well as the wave pool. I figured maybe the guards just didn't have a chance to clear them out?? It made it look like these attractions were full, when they were not.

Around 7:45pm, the guards moved the rope in the wave pool closer to the ladder. My husband and I were wondering WHY??? Because it seemed like all of a sudden, a crowd of people headed over to the wavepool. (A guard was clearing out the empty tubes, finally.) My husband said to me..."This is DUMB. Why would they do that? Now it's WAY too crowded in here. Let's go."

Anybody know why?? SC closes at 9, so it couldn't be because they were trying to close. Unless...they use this technique to clear out the pool quicker??

Lifeguards have pretty strict requirements in terms of number of hours working. I suspect they "move the rope" in order to eliminate a chair or two.

They cannot staff day to day depending on the weather. They have to go on historical information for crowd size and, while the hotter weather may have driven a higher crowd later in the evening, they cannot just keep guards on duty longer like they do on rides.

Cheif Wahoo is correct in saying this. But to explain the tubes, SC was packed during the day and this is normal on a Sunday but also the weather had a lot to do with the crowd at SC. I can't really explain the influx of people in the park itself though. I was in the park and the SC lot was almost full at 11:00 in the morning. I worked in traffic so I know that when this happens that by late afternoon the place will be completely packed. Thats why at 6:30 the rafts were still floating around. People had just cleared out for the day and they hadn't gotten a chance to get them yet.

WOW, at Michigans Adventure, each lifeguard clears out empty tubes, all the time from any ride. Lazy river and the wave pool is where I saw them do that.

I think is a safety measure. If there is an empty tube, where is the guest?? But leaving a lot of them empty at SC? Got me.

^ Lifeguards will remove empty tubes, but you have to give them time to do so. At the end of the day many people are leaving, and thus a lot of empty tubes will be in the lazy rivers, wave pools, etc, until they can be cleared out by lifeguards.