Parks/Rides with the best operations?

By far, the best operations I've seen were on Fury 325 back in May. Once the train was parked in the station, they opened the gates and the operators would yell "Go, Go, Go" at the guests to get in and sit down. A lot of the time, they had the train loaded and ready to dispatch before the train cleared the lift. The loading screen in the station consistently showed them hitting at least 40 dispatches per hour. Wish more ride crews could be like Fury's.

Cedar Point had excellent operations on all of their coasters, but the best crew was definitely Gatekeeper. They were rushing to check restraints and got the trains through was very little stacking. Almost as efficient as the Fury crew mentioned above.

On the whole, Dollywood had very good operations on most of their rides. One that really stood out was the Thunderhead crew, they were able to dispatch the train before the other train reached the brake run. For comparison, I've never seen the Renegade crew at VF run two trains without stacking the second train.

[Coasterkidmwm]

They stack Renegade? Lol amateurs.

[Paradox]

I've heard Europa Park has God-tier operations.

[herman116]

Europa Park indeed has some very good operations.

I also remember going to Liseberg Gr??na Lund. Just about 15 minutes before closing time, the woman who was checking the lapbars literally ran across the station to check al the lapbars so the trains could be dispatched as fast as possible. That was one of the most motivated themepark employees that I've seen!

Holiday World has always impressed me with how fast they cycle Thunderbird. Almost every time, right when one train hits the brakes, the other is rolling to pre-launch.

[slosprint]

Knoebels through and through. The way they handle crowds is downright incredible, and on an average day they cycle Phoenix in 20 seconds from station stop to dispatch. I have never seen lines move so damn fast as they do in that park.

[Coasterkidmwm]

Do they have seatbelts and bins?

Overall, Cedar Point probably has the best operations of any park I've been to. They generally will run all available trains and are often ready to dispatch right when it is clear to do so. As a result, lines often take about half as long here as they typically would at other regional parks.

Disney parks are generally very good in my experience, but I wouldn't call them the best.

While I've only visited the park once, Dollywood had really good operations when I was there. Even though we purchased a TimeSaver, we didn't really need it as nothing was more than a 30 minute wait (and some attractions were walk-ons even in the middle of summer). Note that this visit was pre-Wild Eagle.

Lastly, Holiday World is the other park I've visited that sticks out to me. For the most part, their rides aren't super high capacity, but I'm guessing they probably get fairly close to the theoretical capacity on a regular basis.

[slosprint]

Coasterkidmwm wrote:

Do they have seatbelts and bins?

If I remember correctly Phoenix is buzzbar and seatbelt with bins, and Twister is standard PTC and dispatches slightly slower.

Hilltopper77 wrote:

Holiday World has always impressed me with how fast they cycle Thunderbird. Almost every time, right when one train hits the brakes, the other is rolling to pre-launch.

20 riders per train, that's why, I guess.

Europa Park doesn't have fast pass because even on busy days they manage to keep the queues short, unbelievable operations

I think the only park where I found the operations on a regular day to be really great was Cedar Point

However, the best operations ive ever seen were on Steel Force @ Dorney Park during a world record attempt at most costumed riders. I think the team achieved 330 riders in 30min or something crazy like that. It was insane to be part of. I don't know if i can count that though because it was just a single night.

[mkingy]

Liseberg, runs as many trains as required, plus usually have 4 staff checking harnesses to get the dispatches out quick.

What about the second best operations, because I don't feel like asking the second least?

[Dirk_Ermen]

I would say Toverland, Phantasialand and Europa Park are all parks with definitely some of the better operations.

They all know quite quickly how to pitch in on unexpected crowds and manage to run their rides even quite early on maximum capacity in order to work against that. I've been on days that any of the park were packed, but the queues still were only like an hour maximum. They kept pumping guests in such rate that you'd never really stood still in the queue either.

Plus side from Toverland and Europa park as well is that they don't have any Fast Pass type of queue. So everyone queuing goes into the rides.

Another good team I should mention was the Vortex crew at KI in June 2015, they were very effective at running at three trains efficiently. Restraints were checked quickly and I don't recall ever seeing them double stack.

[Paradox]

Busch Gardens Williamsburg has great operations. They were running 3 trains on Apollo with only a station wait and at most 2 trains for front and back.

For me hands down it's Dollywood, keep in mind I've mostly been to Six Flags parks.

The SpongeBob crew at Nick Universe was on it with the fast dispatches last Friday. They were running three trains (they usually only run two) and doing so with hardly any stacking. Fastest dispatch I timed was 31 seconds. Granted, it only has eight seats per train, but still fairly impressive compared to some other parks.

[mkingy]

Dirk_Ermen wrote:

Plus side from Toverland and Europa park as well is that they don't have any Fast Pass type of queue. So everyone queuing goes into the rides.

I do wonder how bigger effect this has on queues and guest satisfaction - I find it much more manageable queuing if you are constantly moving as opposed to standing around for ages - then a huge move forward. Makes the Smiler queue unbearable at times when you have fast pass AND a limit on the amount of people allowed in the station building at any one time due to fire safety restrictions.

Of the parks I've been to, Disneyland (both parks) and SeaWorld San Diego have some amazing operations. On a busy day, JTA runs with all 3 stations, two restraint checkers per station, plus the op in the foremost station. So they tend to dispatch every 30-45 seconds. Manta normally has two ops, and four restraint checkers, plus with the addition of that unloading station, they really help push up its capacity. Although the last time I went they were understaffed, just two trains, two checkers, and the rear station was out of service. Disney though, they say California Screamin' can dispatch every 36 seconds, I timed it at 26 seconds, they are amazing with operations. Though I have to admit we were combining the fastpass and handicapped pass, and only waiting like 20 minutes per ride, everything was still lightning fast with dispatches.

Liseberg is by far the best I've experienced (I haven't done the major European parks like Europa, but I have been to all the Orlando ones). They just make the efficiency of the UK parks look laughable.

[Turbo]

Liseberg was nearly flawless. Excluding disney because they take naughty dog quality and apply it to their ops I'd say it might have to be Grona Lund. The only real piece that made them better was each op was interactive with the guests and all seemed to be genuinely having a good time. IDK it's a close call for me.