Enthusiast ban list is real
People, it isn't the CEO's or Ride Managers out there that are pushing this. It is lawyers and insurance agents. Why? Because they know the park are going to lose court cases (if they even make it to court) with the way things are right now. Parks, I am most certain, are being told that they can no longer do business as usual.
You want proof?
Airgates, seatbelts, larger...more prominent signage, Ban lists, cancelled enthusiasts events...just to name some of the more obvious measures.
Nitro Dave said:
Tom Servo said:
If that doesn't seem like implicitly condoning on-ride video taping, what does? (emphasis added)And this, folks, is the problem. It goes back to my whole "testing the line" theory: everyone assumes that if it's not perfectly spelled out for them in black and white, then it's okay to do.
I beg to differ. In this case, I don't think that "testing the line" theory is the problem at all. You cannot tell me that this tourist that I saw, who was filming as they were checking his restraints was attempt to see "how far he could push the rules." There's absolutely no chance in hell. This was an example of a rule that probably nobody read that was in tiny print on the back of some brochure, and something that the ride-ops, by seeing this happening and saying nothing, did condone. Implicit conding of an action does not translate to "testing the line" in any way, shape, or form.
I know that on-ride filming is generally frowned upon. I didn't even bother asking at the parks I went to on vacation because I assumed it generally would be against the rules. I have lots of off-ride photos, I do not have a single on-ride. However, I think we all learned from at least reading trip reports from the ACE european coaster trip that rules are different there, and this couple where obviously from Europe, I'm assuming Germany (as they sounded like they were speaking German.) I don't expect them to have read all the rules at the back of the brochure while at the park, but I do expect the ride-ops to say something if they really consider that a rule.
Everyone says, "Oh, Tamar died and times changed," and it doesn't seem to me like they have. If her death had any kind of impact, there would be no need to examine the implicit definitions of ride rules.
Do you think that these tourists, or hell, most of the GP, have any idea who Tamar Fellner is? Sure, right after it happened people knew, they were talking about it on Howard Stern's show, of all places, but they've all forgotten by now. I have a picture up at my office of the turn over the water on Raven, everyone asks me what coaster it is, and none of them associate it with a coaster death this year. Not a single person. The GP doesn't know, and therefore do not have that "Someone died, I gotta be on my best behaviour now" mentality that we all do. For all the times that we've been told by our fellow enthusiasts that, compared to the GP, we don't matter, you'd think that parks would train their ride-ops to not assume that everyone is thoroughly versed in standard park rules. I mean, if we're such a small segment of the park-going population, why behave like all of the GP are just like us?
Yes, we're human. Mistakes are made, incidents occur, accidents happen. But why are we as a community so intent on not taking the responsibility to ensure that we take every measure we possibly can to ensure that an accident DOESN'T happen?
The person described in my post was not part of our community.
*snip*Translate it to our scenario: you have a coaster train of 32 people, and one person has an obscenely high lap bar. If you're in the station, looking over the train, what do you notice? The 31 well-strapped-in riders? Or the one person trying to get extra air?
The GP notices when we try to bend the rules. And perhaps not all the time, but much of the time, it influences them to try something of the like. And when they try something dangerous and don't know how to handle themselves in that situation, accidents happen. Tamar, as an enthusiast, was presumably more aware of the risks of that high lapbar, and an accident still happened.
Methinks that the rest of your post has very little to do with my post, so I'll leave it at that.
*** This post was edited by Tom Servo 10/19/2003 5:26:22 AM ***
Pull your stupid lap bar snug against your body, put your carry on items in the cubbys next to the platform, and ride the darn coaster! Up to a few years ago, this was the easiest rule in the world to follow. What the hell is going on?
*** This post was edited by DWeaver 10/19/2003 6:30:37 AM ***
What you say about common sense is the problem...It souldn't be called common sense since it isn't all that common anymore. The same thing could be said for common courtesy, too - but that's a different topic.
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--George H
Currency Tracking Experiment...Where's George.com
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Comprehensive European ride and coaster reviews
http://www.ukrollercoasters.co.uk
*** This post was edited by Marcus Sheen 10/19/2003 12:03:33 PM ***
mOOSH [doesn't really have anything of value to contribute in this thread right now]
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New holiday & all-occasion cards on sale thru Oct 21st. 2004 Wood Coaster Calendar still available. All at S&D Greetings.
Michael Aschenbrenner said:
Once when i was standing in line for the Phantom's Revenge at Kennywood, I noticed that when the train was leaving the station a guest was talkin on her cell phone right on the ride. The bad part is the ride ops didnt say a word.I'll just leave it at that.
Last nite(10-18-03) was my first visit to Kennywood(TR coming soon...), and the first ride we went to after getting in the park was Phantom. I saw the exact same thing happening when the train was moving out of the station, guy talking on cell, putting it in his pocket when the train started leaving. Ops said nothing. Not sure if they saw or not, but still, you don't answer a cell phone on a rollercoaster, thats just logic.
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"I feel so delightfully White Trash..."
mOOSH
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New holiday & all-occasion cards on sale thru Oct 21st. 2004 Wood Coaster Calendar still available. All at S&D Greetings.
Wolgamuth said:
Why risk alienating a park and maybe miss out on some future media event or behind the scenes access for your website....
Yes, I totally agree and that's why I asked that question -- I just hope others that do take pictures "illegally" take the same approach to this matter.
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SWOOSH
MidwestInfoGuide.COM
MIZZOU-RAH!
I really think the solution is (from both ops and guests) to create an example where rules are followed instead of ignored.
Of course, this is a broad sweeping generalization and there are certainly tons of exceptions.
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Be polite and ignore the idiots. - rollergator
"It's not a Toomer" - Arnold Schwartzenkoph
"Those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know." -Jeff
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