Which parks/rides have the worst operations?

Coaster Hero wrote:

At Gadv it's actually very surprising if I catch a ride op crew not stacking. I got used to it

The coasters to watch there are Batman, Nitro, and El Toro. If they avoid stacking, it's good operations in general. It's impossible to avoid stacking on Ka since they only use one station, it'll stack at the launch when Zumanjaro is running and stack behind the station when it's not. On Bizarro it's completely impossible to avoid stacking when all three trains are on.

Kentucky Kingdom. OMG...really bad.

The worst operations for me was at Kings Dominion. They ran only one train on the wooden coasters and Intimidator 305. I only had a walk on for Intimidator and the woodies, but it was still annoying. I'm so glad that they were running two trains on Backlot Stunt Coaster, Volcano, Avalanche, and Dominator. Backlot and Volcano are low capacity (Volcano's lines were actually moving very well. It had the best operations in the park.). The Avalanche crews were very slow, and Dominator was pretty slow too. At least it wasn't a busy day at Kings Dominion.

[Coasterkidmwm]

tiepilot35 wrote:

I meant to make the point a while back that Jonny Richey and Coaster Hero touched on. I think it has everything to do with capacity and up-time and nothing to do with "popularity." GateKeeper is a B&M with a relatively fast dispatch rate. Millennium Force is an Intamin that breaks down I assume daily, or at least every few days. It isn't like MF's line is empty for hours at time while GateKeeper's is full of people. The simple fact that MF goes down and doesn't get to cycle riders to add to the total headcount means it has a lower number at the end of the season. If MF could dispatch exactly as fast and stay open for exactly as long as GK, it would have roughly 36/32, or 12.5% more total riders since its train is longer by that much.

What you can draw from these numbers is that GateKeeper had the most total riders in 2014, not that it is the most popular ride in the park. If someone could get me hard numbers that show MF had more train dispatches than GK did, then it would disprove what I'm arguing because that would show that MF ran more times but had fewer guests riding on it. But I would bet money that [GK total train cycles] > [MF total train cycles] :: [GK total riders] > [MF total riders].

Do you really think anyone keeps track of the number of dispatches?

The PLC does. The trains have to be rebuilt every X number of cycles. Its like mileage on a car.

Dusso Janladde wrote:

Coaster Hero wrote:

At Gadv it's actually very surprising if I catch a ride op crew not stacking. I got used to it

The coasters to watch there are Batman, Nitro, and El Toro. If they avoid stacking, it's good operations in general. It's impossible to avoid stacking on Ka since they only use one station, it'll stack at the launch when Zumanjaro is running and stack behind the station when it's not. On Bizarro it's completely impossible to avoid stacking when all three trains are on.

Bizarro particularly tends to stack all 3 trains, not just 2. I'm not really good with the blocking systems of coasters, but I'm sure it's possible to avoid triple stacking if it has 4 blocks (lift, MCBR, brake run(s) ).

These are all a joke compared to Xcelerator, one train that launched once every 5-10 minutes, I hope they update that ride and add another car and a double station (also that slow countdown to launch only makes it worse).

[Paradox]

Lol try Superman at SFNE with VR. 10 minute dispatches at a minimum and a 2+ hour line when everything else in the park is a walk on.

It really rubs me the wrong way that they put VR on one of the highest ranked steel coasters on the planet. Six Flags has been making me VERY happy the past year or so but some of their VR decisions remind me that they're still Six Flags.

On a park-wide scale, I think it would be difficult to find a major park with worse operations than La Ronde. On my visit, everything except Vampire had one train (though Goliath did add a second later in the day), so even with a Gold Flash Pass it was not uncommon to wait 30-45 minutes. Additionally, the employees didn't really seem to care about being efficient at all. The two B&Ms were routinely taking 3+ minutes to load trains when most parks can load a B&M in two, and a four minute load cycle was pretty typical on other coasters. By the way, this was on a weekday in early August, so it was definitely a busy day at the park (regular lines were generally 1-2 hours). Granted, this was several years ago and things may have improved since then, but until they get a travel-worthy coaster I'm not inclined to go back and find out.

Now Verruckt...

Paradox wrote:

Lol try Superman at SFNE with VR. 10 minute dispatches at a minimum and a 2+ hour line when everything else in the park is a walk on.

If you're getting ready for VR you don't notice, but watching it happens hurts inside... Cedar Point's Iron Dragon VR operations where very fast and efficient, not to mention the graphics are mind blowing! I met the rides manager at the park and complimented her on operations, and said that Six Flags needs some lessons (or training in general)

I think one of the secrets to fast dispatches is to encourage that people to get in quickly, buckle the seat belt, let ride ops quickly run by and check the belts and push the restraints down, and get to positions quickly for dispatch. The operator at GateKeeper did a 54321 go go go thing to push trains, even when it was a walk on!

[Coasterkidmwm]

One of the Coasterforce POVs shows a Mt. Olympus employee walk across the track in front of the train, and another has them dispatching the train while an op is standing less than 1ft away from it. It's the comedic gift that keeps on giving.

[Paradox]

BGW operations are amazing! They ran 3 trains on Apollo's Chariot when the line was a walk on. The Griffon ops were putting out trains like they were running 3, but only ran 2.

I queued an hour for the new VR-coaster mount mara in Bobbejaanland.
When the ride started my VR-goggle stopped working and I wasn't allowed to go again after waiting so long.
They said that those were the rules

[mkingy]

straightbanana wrote:

I queued an hour for the new VR-coaster mount mara in Bobbejaanland.
When the ride started my VR-goggle stopped working and I wasn't allowed to go again after waiting so long.
They said that those were the rules

That sucks You get an exit pass on Galactica at Alton if your headset stops working!

^^ Oh gosh what a nasty experience.

The Timber Wolf crew at Worlds of Fun was probably the slowest crew I've seen at a Cedar Fair park. They usually waited until everyone left the exit platform to open gates, didn't look very motivated at all, and their dispatch times were typically 3-4 minutes long.

The crew at SFoT were pretty bad last time I was there, also it surprised me last time I went to KI that Diamondback's ops werent doing that great, though Banshee was running perfectly. And Maverick is always running a long wait cuz it has terrible capacity.

Aw sorry, Verruckt... I won't change my opinion. That gave me the real shock and I still can't get over it. As for all other rides, I'm game for every element!

Awful situation.