jbum123 Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Carowinds now has a monitor mounted in the station showing train stats. Restraint status, dispatch time and dispatches per hour. Pretty snazzy. IMG]http://i68.tinypic.com/2ngubt2.jpg[/img 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marth555 Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 I didnt think they could get any faster with dispatching trains 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freaks76 Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Good idea, keep that line movin'. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbum123 Posted March 29, 2016 Author Share Posted March 29, 2016 I didnt think they could get any faster with dispatching trains Not today... Hoping its just new crews but both KD and Carowinds were both slow dispatching on almost everything. They need to get their hustle up before peak season hits! Unfortunately, I-305 was the worst. Still waiting for it to dispatch. (It was closed all day yesterday) 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Creed Bratton Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Leviathan at Canada's Wonderland has a light system at the front of the station that shows which seat isn't locked. Pretty cool, I think the Fury monitor may be better! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbum123 Posted March 29, 2016 Author Share Posted March 29, 2016 Hopefully CF is testing these and will roll them out on all their big B&Ms. It seemed to get people moving. Should add a countdown clock and another in the front of the stations so riders can play the game of try and beat the previous dispatch time. Safely of course. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeeastFarmer Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 I'm looking forward to riding Fury 325 tomorrow. I got to Charlotte later than planned, so I only got to ride Intimidator, and it was a fun ride!! Ride ops are a little different than KI, but there was a protein spill and a very rude woman who had security called on her because her child was not tall enough to ride. Looking very forward to seeing this park for the first time in daylight! 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honorarius Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Hopefully CF is testing these and will roll them out on all their big B&Ms. It seemed to get people moving. Should add a countdown clock and another in the front of the stations so riders can play the game of try and beat the previous dispatch time. Safely of course. If only the clock would help... I know a B&M giga that has a countdown clock... It was set at 45 seconds, and would often dispatch in time... Then they added seatbelts, and changed the timer to a minute... And it rarely/never hits the target 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Heaven forbid, in the event of a serious accident, trial lawyers will have a field day with this. Even here, safety got mentioned as what looks like, to an outsider, a mere afterthought. "Yeah, we care about safety, sure...now break the dispatch record." I'm sorry--this is EASILY painted as putting throughput--and MONEY--above all else. There's never been an ejection or a death on a B&M. All day Power Hours, every day. Not good. Not good at all. Think too of the differently abled, who need more time to board. It's just a matter of time until some ride op, fascinated with throughput records, rushes someone who can't rush. Perhaps they are autistic. Bedlam results. And/or a lawsuit. Safety and guest service are supposed to matter. Best day ever? I'm sorry--I am strongly opposed to putting capacity and throuhput over guest safety and guest service. Grandma doesn't care about how many coaster trains are dispatched in a day. Little Jimmie, who seldom speaks, and his family, wants to be treated with dignity and respect. Henrietta is afraid, and wishes the ride ops be very sure her restraint is locked--she doesn't know or care there's a visual monitor in the station. And ride ops, pushed to their limit, day after day, make mistakes, get rude and uncaring. Best day ever? 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dare-to-fly Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 They manage to do it at Knoebels and not even be rushed. 20 second dispatch anyone? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Interpreter Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 I have no problem with Knoebels. I have problems with how it's done with power hours, dispatch monitors, etc. I've not been treated nor seen guests treated rudely at Knoebels. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freaks76 Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 Wouldn't you think the monitors would make it safer? I would think it would give the crew a better idea of what's going on with the restraints instead of having to wait on the driver to tell them about them. But I can see what Terp is sayin, too. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merthecat Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 This was, if I recall correctly, installed near the end of last season. It's fun to look at while waiting in line. (Although you don't really get much time to look at it, because they dispatch the trains so quickly.) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gad198 Posted March 29, 2016 Share Posted March 29, 2016 I was down at Carowinds this past Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. I got 20 rides on Fury 325 during the course of those 3 days and never once felt as though operations on that ride were anything less than stellar. I would almost argue that they spent too much time on guests having a hard time fitting in the seats, as I witnessed them spending 30 seconds or more on helping guests fit. Otherwise, that crew works like true professionals and are absolutely terrific. Honestly, Fury 325 operations are the model on which every other B&M hyper should follow. I can be very critical of some ride crews - when it's deserved - but I will also make a point to highlight excellent ones. The Fury 325 crew is exemplary. The board showing whether the restraint is locked or not is brilliant. It allows the ride ops to quickly check to see which seats are not locked and not need to wait for the person at the controls to yell out row and seat numbers. It wouldn't surprise me at all to see similar boards at more rides in the future. Fury 325 does have an advantage in that there are no loose article bins in the station. I still firmly believe that if rides like Diamondback, Intimidator and Behemoth got rid of the station bins they would push through a couple hundred more people per hour which would dramatically reduce wait times. B&M hypers have the potential to move more people in an hour at seasonal parks than any other ride type, and with as popular as they all are it only makes sense to find ways to maximize the capacity. There's nothing that says that safety and capacity have to be mutually exclusive. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeeastFarmer Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 I have to say that I have never seen such dedicated ride ops crews as I did today on Fury 325 and Intimidator. They were safety keen and dedicated to speed, and got the crowd to buy into it. One was literally running back and forth and entertaining the crowd after the safety check and before the all clear. These employees are to be commended. (Yes, I stopped by Guest Services and actually spoke with a Rides Manager.) 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rhyano Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 I have to say that I have never seen such dedicated ride ops crews as I did today on Fury 325 and Intimidator. They were safety keen and dedicated to speed, and got the crowd to buy into it. One was literally running back and forth and entertaining the crowd after the safety check and before the all clear. These employees are to be commended. (Yes, I stopped by Guest Services and actually spoke with a Rides Manager.) Great to see the Intimidator crew finally stepping it up, when I went last year, they were stacking every time, how are the operations in the rest of the park? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freaks76 Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 I just can not wait to get there this weekend. Hurry Friday. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcgoble3 Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 I just can not wait to get there this weekend. Hurry Friday. ...but don't hurry through North Carolina. jcgoble3, cross-threading 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freaks76 Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 Or Virginia. Cruise control will be my friend. Phil, who does not wanna get fined or tazed this weekend 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbum123 Posted March 30, 2016 Author Share Posted March 30, 2016 Just drove through Saturday/Sunday/Monday/Tuesday and not a single cop/trooper sitting by the road and waiting was seen. We did the speed limit and were passed like we were sitting still. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homestar92 Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 There's a very delicate peak when it comes to capacity. Yes, capacity and throughput are among the priorities, but are just one piece of the puzzle. Safety first. Then guest relations (AKA, not being rude, assisting those who need assisted, etc). THEN capacity. I'm not saying throughput isn't important; it is. Ride operators should not dilly-dally about for no good reason. That said, I've never seen ride operators dilly-dallying for no reason except at Mt. Olympus, which is a park that no other park should ever, ever, ever try to emulate in any way, ever. Every delay I've seen holding up a dispatch at other parks has been within reason. There are right ways and wrong ways to improve capacity. Right ways are eliminating loose articles a la Banshee, as that eliminates delays caused by people walking over to the bins and gets people out of the station faster when they unload. Wrong ways would be to rush for the sake of rushing in an attempt to hit a completely arbitrary interval. Arbitrary management-imposed deadlines cause things to be missed and cause the work being done to be done in a substandard way. Ask ANYONE who's worked an office job. We've all had to rush to finish something because management had set a tight time limit and we couldn't get everything in time. If you rush and forget to put a cover sheet on your TPS report, someone might be a little inconvenienced, but life goes on. If you rush and forget to double-check the restraint on seat 1-4, someone could be seriously injured or killed. This is not the time or place for arbitrary deadlines and shame on Cedar Fair for pushing it in the way that they are. A computer can only tell you that a restraint is down past the minimum acceptable level. Basically, all it can tell you is, does this rider fit on the ride. I am a very thin fellow. I could very easily get the restraint down to a point where the computer says it's OK but still be in very real danger. The readout of the status of the restraints is useful ONLY to quickly identify SOME seats that are DEFINITELY not buckled to an acceptable level. It is NOT a substitute for properly checking every restraint and I can only hope that it is NEVER treated as such. I would much rather wait in line a little longer than have that be the last line I ever wait in. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freaks76 Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 Just drove through Saturday/Sunday/Monday/Tuesday and not a single cop/trooper sitting by the road and waiting was seen. We did the speed limit and were passed like we were sitting still. Yep, still gonna play it safe, let em fly by me all they want. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IBEW_Sparky Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 Just tell the Officer, that you are trying to increase throughput on His/Her Highway :D I know... if done in an obviously joking and Respectful way... if I were told that when I was an Officer, it would have garnered a smile and chuckle from Me, and if I ran your DL and it came back clean without a laundry list of prior speeding offenses, it would result in a verbal warning. I had a pretty good sense of humor then, and things like that helped to ease the tension of the Profession. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freaks76 Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 Followed by "oh I see you have no sence of humor". Next thing i see is his billy club. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dragsterguy21 Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 The day Diamondback gets lockers needs to be the day you can buy all season lockers. I wouldnt mind paying $40 to $50 for unlimited lockers all season because that's probably what i pay rn 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoasterOhio Posted March 31, 2016 Share Posted March 31, 2016 I didnt think they could get any faster with dispatching trains Not today... Hoping its just new crews but both KD and Carowinds were both slow dispatching on almost everything. They need to get their hustle up before peak season hits! Unfortunately, I-305 was the worst. Still waiting for it to dispatch. (It was closed all day yesterday) I question why you are talking about dispatch speeds on the first opening weekend... Plenty of people are new to the Rides Department in any park every year, as well as all other departments, which is why plenty of things are slow on opening day. While people get training, you still are new at the whole business of safely making sure all restraints and seatbelts are check and sending the train out. So yes, dispatching will be slow for the first few days. to weeks, maybe even the month of April. By the time it's June or July, those same people will be sending a train at a good targeted pace. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbum123 Posted April 1, 2016 Author Share Posted April 1, 2016 I didnt think they could get any faster with dispatching trainsNot today... Hoping its just new crews but both KD and Carowinds were both slow dispatching on almost everything. They need to get their hustle up before peak season hits!Unfortunately, I-305 was the worst. Still waiting for it to dispatch. (It was closed all day yesterday) I question why you are talking about dispatch speeds on the first opening weekend... Plenty of people are new to the Rides Department in any park every year, as well as all other departments, which is why plenty of things are slow on opening day. While people get training, you still are new at the whole business of safely making sure all restraints and seatbelts are check and sending the train out. So yes, dispatching will be slow for the first few days. to weeks, maybe even the month of April. By the time it's June or July, those same people will be sending a train at a good targeted pace. Except for when the ops are slowly walking around and checking restraints at their leisure. Two parks, three days, similar experience. Some ops hustled. Others looked like they just woke up. Last year, they had hustle when we visited at the same time. Even in Planet Snoopy there were some ops that had hustle and others who were practically sleeping. You had some ops that were having fun and interacting with the riders and others who would rather have been sleeping. We hit a delay on Fury and were held right outside the station. One op was arguing with the other about having to walk out to the train and talk because it was sooooo far. That's just lazy. Wait until summer when its actually hot and guests get grumpy. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marth555 Posted April 1, 2016 Share Posted April 1, 2016 I think Dollywood has the most enthusiastic ride ops of all the parks ive been to 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoasterOhio Posted April 1, 2016 Share Posted April 1, 2016 I want to see this monitor in action. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jbum123 Posted April 1, 2016 Author Share Posted April 1, 2016 I want to see this monitor in action. Carowinds is open all week! Just don't speed through NC..... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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