Theme the Witches' Wheel.

Maybe they could enclose it in a cauldron similar to what Kennywood did with their Enterprise ride. Or paint it black or something. It might add interest to an old ride.

Inclose an old ride?! Theming?! We all know what happens when CP attempts these tricks. I personally enjoy the Witches Wheel and think all it needs is a new paint job, new queues, and maybe new lighting for night riders.

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Proud to be a Shoeless Rider!

Live life to the hight.

It would be a real shame to enclose the Witches' Wheel. However, I do think the queues need a major rethinking. I think the paint on the ride is good, however, I would like to see the orange around the ride replaced with maybe gray or silver. I think the current flashing scheme with lighting is perfect. I think Witches' Wheel could use some ride music. Maybe even a halloweekends theme.

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- Chris -
Monster/WW ATL 02
Monster WW TL 03
Antiques/Swings TL 04

I have to say that this is one of my favorite flat rides no matter what park it's located at. It would be neat, although difficult, to pull off a theming attempt on a ride such as this. As far as the queue for WW goes, I really don't see it needing anything other than a good fresh coat of paint. It doesn't really need re-designing to be honest since it's never totally full. (or at least I've never seen it that way)

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This ain't no book you you can close, when the big light hits your eyes. Cropduster-Riot Act-Pearl Jam

Having worked Witches' Wheel only for a week last summer, from what I remember about the queues, they were pretty messed up. You either could have no queues open, or had to open all of them, and then go stand at the other end of the "waiting area" where you count out people. Then you'd have to push your way past all the people you just let in to open the gate for them. It seemed pretty odd to me, and it confused the guests.

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Brent Haley
Gemini Crew '02
Dragster Crew '03, ATL '04

I wish they would operate Witches Wheel with the same efficiency they did when it was new. During those days, they would count riders and put them in the pre-ride holding area while the ride was cycling. It would really speed things up. Also, it seemed like the loading process took less time in general.

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I'd rather be in my boat with a drink on the rocks,
than in the drink with a boat on the rocks.

We do count riders while the ride is going to speed things up. But sometimes that is hard because there are only two people working and you can only do that when there are three people working WW. The only bad thing that I have found about giving out numbers before hand is that some guests don't remember the car number that they are assigned, or if they tell us they have two riders and then decide to split up once they can board the ride. Also like brent said, they queues can be confusing, because if you open up the long part, you open up a really really long set of queues, and the guests become confused and start cutting through the line because they don't know that they need to go around. As for putting a theme to WW, I wouldn't do it. Why fix something that isn't broken. Anyways CP doesn't always do well with putting a theme to a ride. But little things could be done to make the ride better. Painting the queues for one thing, and maybe a repainting of the ride itself, to help it stand out a little more now that the Dragster tower is right next to it. Oh and they definitly need to replace the tree that was blow away in that storm back in August. We need some kind of shade over by controls.

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Monster/W.W. Crew '04
Monster/W.W. Crew '03

Whenever we had 3 people to work Witches' Wheel, there would always be the push to pre count people in order to get things going faster. We would have a new cycle going on average every 3 minutes. To put things in perspective, the actual ride time I timed on my watch many times is 2 minutes.We didn't assign cabin numbers and put people in the holding area much last year because either the line was never of good length most of the season or we were just to fast for the line.

In 2002 we were assigning cars and staging people in the holding area every day. The line would extend out to the midway every day. We would get a new cycle going about every 3 1/2 mintues in 2002.

Although assigning car numbers it a very efficient way of working the ride, a lot of people do forget their numbers. I put in several requests last year for numbers to be painted on the ground in the staging area. They would be very useful in the effieciency of the ride should they ever be painted there. A very easy way for people to remember their car numbers.

Now Monster ( the other ride the WW crew operates) on the otherhand, efficiency there is bad but effective for the the amount of hourly riders. After talking to someone who worked Monster it's opening year, Monster had 9 hosts working it. Now there are 3 at the most. Although I did make use of a fourth person when it was very well needed. ;) The original concept was 1 host for each of the 8 lowered cars. In fact there are still 8 gates for each of the hosts to stand behind. It was tough spending almost 2 summers trying to get a 3 person operation equal to an 8 person.

Back to WW, the crew I had under me last summer was just awesome. As I mentioned kind of before, practically the entire sumer, we made a 2 person operation at WW exceed the efficiency level of a 3 person operation. It all depends on the people you have working on the ride and how motivated they are as to how good or bad effiiciency is. Not really the technique, although technique as a lot to do with it.

The queues at Witches' Wheel definitly need a redesign. There are two entrances to the staging area, there is 1 very short queue and one very long queue, whenever the line gets to an in between point and the long queue is open, there is a lot of confusion made amongst guests when we had to close off the long queue and people saw two lines, and didn't know which one was the end. We would try to empty out the line before we would switch the queues over, but that is newarly impossible to do in July.

There is a lot to be done and desired at WW, but I myself would be happy if that orange paint would change to a more eye appealing color. :)

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- Chris -
Monster/WW ATL 02
Monster WW TL 03
Antiques/Swings TL 04

wow, I guess I really was wrong about those queues at WW. I never really paid that much attention to the design of them since anytime I ever rode it, they were never full. Of course, I stay away during the busy months of the season so that must by why. I totally retract my uninformed opinion. ;)

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This ain't no book you you can close, when the big light hits your eyes. Cropduster-Riot Act-Pearl Jam