Ride Separators

[Bansheelover]

Don't get me wrong, I love the separators. I believe they make the line organized, and flow better. However yesterday after waiting for quite a while for Diamondback the separator assigned us to rows 3-4.  He asked us if that was ok, which I thought was a little odd considering how busy they were. Then right as our train entered the station he moved us to 7-8, and placed four different people in our previous location. I was like whatever, but the kids were upset after the ride because they wanted to ride towards the front. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

[standbyme]

I had an odd/bad experience on our last visit at Diamondback. The op asked us how many were in our party...three...then assigned us to two different cars?!? We ignored his assigned choices and stood in a car where we could all be together...when he saw what we did he didn’t confront us, but he did give me a death stare. I was about to go over and explain why we did what we did but the gates opened for us to board.

Why bother asking how many in your party if you’re going to split them up?!

[silver2005]

The thing that weirds me out with them is when you request to go in the front row of a coaster, the line for the front is really long, and they still make you wait before the separation despite the fact they allowed the front seat line to be super long in the first place.  

[flightoffear1996]

Just now, silver2005 said:

The thing that weirds me out with them is when you request to go in the front row of a coaster, the line for the front is really long, and they still make you wait before the separation despite the fact they allowed the front seat line to be super long in the first place.  

That’s strange. Usually when I request front row and the line is long they make me go to a different row. 

[silver2005]

^I've mostly had that happen with Beast.  Sometimes if they request that I take another seat, I'll wait another ride cycle to get it, and they actually go along with that request more often than not from my experiences.

[TheRickster]

I really don't care for the separating at all. I get it if it's on busy days, but if the park is dead and the ride is a 10 minute wait who cares where anyone sits. 

[calakapepe]

I really enjoy the line splitters usually. You don't have to worry about keeping your group together. But sometimes an employee will give you attitude.
Simply requested the front row after he gave us numbers (party of two), and just short-like said, "I said row blah blah blah." Like, dude, if it's that big of a deal you can say, "sorry, we need to keep the lines even." and just be polite about it, or... just let people wait for the front. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if we just let people cut us till we get a row we want :p 

Never done that, cause I'm only that petty in my imagination, but.. I mean.. someone has to get the front eventually, right?

I think if you are a group of 2, there's almost never a reason to not let someone request a certain row.

[TheRickster]

I don't mind riding with other people, even if they are smelly lol, but what I don't like is when they pair me a grown man with someone's kid... It's just awkward.

[Joshua]

14 hours ago, TheRickster said:

I don't mind riding with other people, even if they are smelly lol, but what I don't like is when they pair me a grown man with someone's kid... It's just awkward.

That's been happening to me a lot this year. I especially hate when it happens on Banshee, and I, a 33 year old, am stuck with three pre-teens (or even teens) all I can think of is just how awkward it probably is for them to be stuck with some older dude. 

On a slow day, when the lines are extremely short, the ride is a two-seater and entire rows are being sent empty, I'd rather not be paired with anyone at all.

[Magenta Lizard]

Every year, it takes a while for new ride ops to learn that people seat themselves pretty well and nearly fill trains, if you just pulse the line and let a couple trains worth of people through at a time, and that doing so is a lot less stressful and angers people a lot less than trying to micromanage seating arrangements. Some of them start off the year thinking it is their job to micromanage seating, but eventually they’re going to send out half-empty trains because they’re interrupted by something like a height check, they’ll have riders annoyed because they can’t choose their seats, etc. The most effective job of a separator, in my opinion, isn’t to get fully packed trains, especially on days with short lines anyway. It is facilitating a smooth flow of loading, preventing too many people into the station at once (which can make it difficult for people to naturally fill in empty rows, coordinate riding with their friends, etc), and getting trains as full as possible without sacrificing rider comfort. And generally, for every one of us who has a specific seat we want and are willing to wait a couple more trains to fulfill that, there are others who are willing to take whatever seat allows them to get on a train without waiting. Micromanaging makes at least half of us unhappy, pulsing the line allows each type of rider to get what they want, and generally ends up with nearly as full seats.

And I agree that the worst is being placed with a kid by a seat-filling micromanager. A child generally wants to ride with a strange adult even less than I would like to ride with a child.

[ldhudsonjr]

On 6/3/2019 at 11:51 PM, TheRickster said:

I really don't care for the separating at all. I get it if it's on busy days, but if the park is dead and the ride is a 10 minute wait who cares where anyone sits. 

This. When the park is packed it's fine, but it really is annoying when the park is slow and a separator is trying to send you to the middle row on Banshee when hardly anyone is in line.

[radishman]

Think the whole line assignment has been the only negative aspect I've experienced in the park. It's annoying, but obviously it's something they've done for a while and isn't going away. It has led to some head scratcher moments, but I understand it's probably a stressful job that I certainly don't envy.

I dunno if it's the norm as I don't ride The Bat as often as other rides (no fastlane and it takes forever to walk down that path just to get into the line) but the times I've gone on it, it didn't even have a separator and everything seem to go just fine. It's been a few trips since I rode it last though.

[TheRickster]

On 6/30/2019 at 11:02 AM, radishman said:

Think the whole line assignment has been the only negative aspect I've experienced in the park. It's annoying, but obviously it's something they've done for a while and isn't going away. It has led to some head scratcher moments, but I understand it's probably a stressful job that I certainly don't envy.

I dunno if it's the norm as I don't ride The Bat as often as other rides (no fastlane and it takes forever to walk down that path just to get into the line) but the times I've gone on it, it didn't even have a separator and everything seem to go just fine. It's been a few trips since I rode it last though.

Separator was really only added as a Fast Lane need then it's turned into what it is now. They used to only use them when they had gold pass perks in early 2000s as well.