Special Access?

Just an observation I made yesterday at the Point, and maybe I'm wrong. It seems that for quite some time people receiving special access entrance to MF weren't allowed to sit in the front seat. I remember them being there all the time two years ago, and maybe the begining of last year. After that, whenever I saw people get special access, they were not in the front seat. I figured it may have been a policy change or something to prevent the people waiting for the front from getting mad. On my last two trips though, while waiting for the front, there were many trains coming in with special access people in the front seat.

Now, I know that they wait just as long as everyone else to ride, they just don't do it in the line. My question is, when they get the front seat, do they have an additional 40 minutes on their wait to account for the front seat line? I think that it would be a little unfair if they didn't have that extra wait. I know this sounds like I'm being a jerk, and I'm really not trying to be. I get mad when I hear other people make comments when someone in a wheelchair takes the front seat. I (along with several ride ops) were explaining to people that they waited just as long as we did.

However, after waiting 55 minutes for the front seat and seeing 5 or 6 special access trains go by, I couldn't help but wonder if they are waiting that extra amount of time for the front.

------------------
-Chris Woodard
"We got pop and Gatorade over here for $100 a bottle, so have your credit card ready. Seriously, the food here is so expensive, I just eat the condiments because I can't afford a meal." - MF que DJ 6/16/03

Unless things have changed, when getting the boarding time the ride host ask if they want the front seat. If they do they add an additional 45 or so minutes to the boarding time.

The only thing that I have a problem with is the Parent Swap. I will wait in line for the front seat, but when my wife went to get on they told her that she could not sit there. I have not read any policy for this, and if it is the rules then I can understand that, but I wish that someone would have told me.

------------------
Beer and golf Thursday thru Monday, Cedar Point & beer, Tuesday and Wednesday.

That's good. Now I can be sure that I'm telling the truth when I tell people the system is a fair one.

------------------
-Chris Woodard
"We got pop and Gatorade over here for $100 a bottle, so have your credit card ready. Seriously, the food here is so expensive, I just eat the condiments because I can't afford a meal." - MF que DJ 6/16/03

Agreed on the Parent Swap side... if you wait for the front, your spouse should be allowed to sit there as well. After all, they waited on the midway the extra time, too.

------------------
18 straight years of real thrills and counting...

i hate special access. especially when there are no stairs.

------------------
Guess what? I got a fever! And the only prescription... is more cowbell!

I have a comment because I used special access this year, on MF (and also on Wicked Twister) I was specifically told to come to the entrance of the ride as opposed to going to the exit of most of the other rides. This was because on MF when you use special access it's the same as having a Freeway pass, you go up to the Freeway point and wait the 5 or 10 minutes from there. I didn't wait for the front, but if I had wanted to I would have had to wait just as long for the front as everyone else, plus with a little more pain from standing with crutches!

Special access is a very fair policy and I was very thankful I was still able to enjoy the my trip even with the crutches.