Station Filling

I will be putting a trip report up later for those interested, but long story short the sign for Millennium yesterday claimed that the line was 45 minutes as well as it looking to be about that long based on experience. However, by the time we actually got off the ride we had waited about 1 hour and 45 minutes. I am pretty sure the key cause of this was a significant change in how its station is run. I noticed it happen every once in a while last year but yesterday they were only letting 36 people into the station, then once they chose the car they wanted looking for groups to squeeze in, assuming there was time to find groups before loading the train (hint: there wasn't). In past years, they would just let as many people as possible flow into the station and let people figure things out for themselves and this tended to fill each train where yesterday it was not uncommon to see multiple empty rows on each train. Does any one have any idea for why this changed? Were we just incredibly unlucky with the group that was working? Or is there really some other major problem?

As a guest, I prefer when they do this. A chaotic station is very overwhelming for me. I don't mind when they do two trains worth of people, but when they filll the station absolutely jam-packed with people, it makes it very hard to figure out how to group people in my group.

The sign out front can frequently be incorrect, and a time that exceeds what you may think based on experience can be increased by more than one thing. Were three trains running? Did a train get transferred on or off the track during your wait? Was there a vomit incident that slowed things down? Was there a brief mechanical failure? When you're waiting in line these incidents can sometimes go unnoticed, and can significantly alter the wait.

As for the station management, I also prefer the station when it is managed this way. It makes things run much smoother, and as long as the trains are running consistently and without incident should actually make the whole experience much more efficient.

This type of station management has been going on since MF opened, but from 16 years of MF, it's rather hit or miss. That is, even on the same visit it is run one way or another. I can only assume the changes have to do with either staffing or whomever is the team leader for the crew.

I'm sure someone here has some actual experience with actually working on these rides that could clue you in as to why a difference can be noticed on a day-to-day basis.

Due to the fact of how the queue is set up I am not aware of vomit. All three trains were running the entire time and the trains seemed to be running often enough where the was no mechanical incident. One of the things we noticed was that most trains were going with generally one or two empty rows as well as multiple seats the could have been filled with single riders. I agree that the station shouldn't be incredibly hectic, but at least make sure each row gets filled is what I am saying as opposed to sending out empty rows.

They should make the effort to make sure there are enough people to fill things up but I hate when there is well over 3 trains worth of people in any station. You all end up in big jumbles and sometimes you don't even know what seat a line is for there's just a glob of people. Magnum can be the worst for this.

I prefer it done the way explained in the OP. Carowinds does it with all their rides. It was weird at first, but I've grown to prefer it. It is organised chaos when it is line up at your own will versus assigned. And out of all the coasters Magnum's platform turns into absolute chaos when they have it as a free for all.

I agree with the idea that flooding the station is a bad idea. It does end up in a little bit of chaos. I can't stand it though when they are letting only one train worth of people in though. It almost always results in trains being dispatched less than full because they can't get folks in before the gates close. In my experience, 2-3 trains worth is about the right number. That keeps that station less crowded but yet still results in fully loaded trains.

Semi-related, the whole assigning rows on some rides can be annoying too. It was really bad on Rougarou Saturday evening. It was a total walk on but yet the guy at the station entrance was still trying to assign rows.

The assigning rows thing is really crappy for Valravn. We were sent to the front, the Front of the line employee sent two extra people in front that made it too many people in the front, then the main line guy sent people to fill every other row, causing us to be stuck in a purgatory, and it caused a 2 or 3 minute delay because the operators were arguing about something.

Filling on MF was terrible on Saturday. We were in line around noon and only two trains were running.

Each train seemed to have 2 to 4 single riders. Seriously; how hard would it be to put the single riders together and get more guests on the ride.

If they were running 3 trains it's not horrible to have 1 or 2 single riders on a train. I don't like it but I can deal with it as the line is moving.

When only two trains are running it's very frustrating.

Similar issue on MXL on Saturday morning. Only 1 train was running and I'd see single riders often. It seems they never make an effort to pair single riders anymore.

I've noticed that early in the year for the first few weeks of the season the ride operators are generally more strict when working the station entrance post - they probably were told by the crew leaders to not allow more than one train worth of people in the station at a time, and they abide by that directive despite the tendencies of single riders or entire empty rows to be sent out. Eventually as the operators get used to working the ride more it usually gets better. They will let more than one train worth of people into the stations, but not to the point that the station is flooded with people. Single riders and empty row problems are generally solved after that. I would give it a few weeks and see if that continues this year.

bgiese said:

Similar issue on MXL on Saturday morning. Only 1 train was running and I'd see single riders often. It seems they never make an effort to pair single riders anymore.

You're absolutely right. The "effort" that they make on some rides is only at the turnstile position. If it's not done there, they don't even bother to try doing it at the train. Of course, they're all required to stand on dots and not move and in some cases to hold a button, so they can't walk up and down and check with people to make sure they have two riders like we used to do when I worked there. Three empty seats per train is about 10% of your capacity. Missing interval by 7-8 seconds is also 10%.

Another thing that irritates me to no end is when they have rows chained off and are actually creating a line. Rows should only be chained when there are insufficient people to fill the trains. If there are eight people in every chute, that is not the case.

Saw chutes full of people on Magnum Saturday night and half the train was chained off. Terrible.

Gemini was running only the red train all weekend and the wait was pushing 30 minutes. Hated that too.

The best crew at the park at the moment is GateKeeper's. I got around 14 rides in just over an hour and a half, and they had perfect intervals (no stopping at the transfer track at all, so not any stacking) no less than 6 of those times. They were dispatching trains every 30 seconds, as soon as a train got to the top of the lift, and there were maybe 2 seats per train open. They were going very close to max capacity.

I don't understand why Cedar Point didnt just go with a dual loading station like the Busch parks for Valravn. The capacity when I was there was insane.

Interesting, because Busch parks aren't usually known for insane capacity...

To be honest, I don't see anything wrong with the single loading station. The new people follow in behind previous people and there's no big holdup. For the most part, the passengers unloading are never a bottleneck. Dual loading stations or load/unload setups really fall apart when less than the max number of trains are running (see Millennium Force with two trains). On Valravn, the lift hill is super fast (almost needlessly fast given the realistic dispatch interval that is attainable), so it's not like they're ever waiting for a train to be available.

The biggest "problem" I see with efficiency is that the floor and the gate at the front of the station take forever to get out of the way and return to position. When the floor starts to drop, it takes about 10 seconds for that to complete and the gate to open. After that train leaves, the next train comes in right behind the first and parks really quickly, but it's at least another 10 seconds before the restraints are released as the floor comes up and the gate closes. The "dwell time" on the board starts counting up before the restraints even release which isn't exactly accurate or "fair" to the crew since the crew can not control that part.

I think if Valravn had the 10 across trains rather than 8, it would have about the same capacity as Griffon or Shiekra. The double loading station would just require more staffing and more complexity for little

Shane Denmark said:

Interesting, because Busch parks aren't usually known for insane capacity...

I agree there. The times I have ridden Sheikra and they are using both stations, the dispatch times are so bad that it really doesn't matter. On all of their coasters in Tampa, I usually wind up sitting stacked on the brake run longer than the actual duration of the ride. Unless of course they are only running one train, which is common these days on Montu and Kumba. Not sure if Williamsburg suffers from this issue as well.

I was also there Saturday the 21st. That millennium wait was nasty, posted at 1 hour by the entrance and we waited just over 2 hours in the middle of the day.

Millennium is by far my least favorite ride to wait for in the park. Always seems to take forever & a day!