Loading Times on VR Rides Always This Slow?

Howzabout they put a ride simulator next to each VR coaster, allowing those guests to enjoy the VR version of the ride without holding up the actual coaster line for geezers like me, who just want to ride a damn roller coaster?

I will say I'm sort of okay with it on rides like Shockwave at SFoT or Revolution at MM which were far from the marquee or headliner attraction at the park (sorry, Gator). But taking the 2 Supermen, Dare Devil Dive, Goliath (La Ronde), or S:KC which are still top draws at their respective parks and cutting their capacity by 2/3 seems like a bad move.

I had the chance to try the Superman VR on saturday at SFNE and i was blown away by how good it is. I ended up waiting 35 mins in a line that should've been around 15mins but by the time i got off the line was almost 2hrs long. The line has been staying at around 3-4hrs long so i doubt i will be riding it much this season. I will ride it early in the morning one time before there's a big line.

Is it me, or does the CGI on the Superman ride look embarrassingly second-rate?

My thoughts exactly, Vater. The sound design too. The whole idea, actually.

And a four-hour wait to do something like that sounds like a huge letdown. It's not for people who only go once a year with their friends or family. It's for people with a season pass who have nothing better to do than to wait in line for a new attractions so that they can brag to their high school buddies on Facebook.

In my opinion, anyway.

Until the VR can be built into the ride somehow (restraint comes into position and so does the VR unit) and not a device that has to be distributed, given back, etc, I wish this nonsense would just go away. 300 riders per hour for a B&M!? That is less than 10 dispatches in an hour. More than a 6 minute interval. Give me a break! Why would they try this on Raging Bull!? I've been thinking about trying to get back to Great America. Maybe I'll skip it if they can't see that this isn't going to work and quickly.

Sadly, my camper needs a little work and the nearest "competent" service center is near Cape Cod. I thought I would make a trip out of it and finally experience the only coaster take the #1 Steel Golden Ticket from MF... This VR malarkey makes me not even want to go. I can't stand slow moving lines. Long lines are one thing, as long as you keep moving. But crap capacity makes long waits unbearable.

If you get there at opening you can probably get 2 or 3 laps in without "too" much waiting. Of course, the rest of the day, you'll have to stay as far away from that ride as possible.

ShaneDenmark said:

Sadly, my camper needs a little work and the nearest "competent" service center is near Cape Cod. I thought I would make a trip out of it and finally experience the only coaster take the #1 Steel Golden Ticket from MF... This VR malarkey makes me not even want to go. I can't stand slow moving lines. Long lines are one thing, as long as you keep moving. But crap capacity makes long waits unbearable.

Wicked Cyclone is worth the trip in its self. If you can get there early you can get a quick ride on superman then go marathon WC.

Yeah Wicked Cyclone looks amazing too. It's the only RMC anywhere nearby, at least unless CP does something with Mean Streak. I also thought B:TDK looks fun and I really enjoyed Goliath in its previous life as Déjà Vu at SFMM. But Superman was definitely the main event in my opinion.

I agree the loading/unloading times are terrible now! I have a season pass to Six Flags America in Maryland and I USED to love to go to the park just when it opens to ride Superman a couple of times before the crowds arrive. Well...I CAN'T do that any more. The park opens at 10:30 a.m.... I am one of the first in line and jump on the FIRST coaster, After getting in the car we SIT there for 10-minutes while they adjust everyone's headset. We then ride the coaster, finish the ride... then we SIT behind the the other train for another 10 minutes while they adjust all of those dang headsets. It's unbelievable! By the time I get off (remember I was on the first train of the day) it's 11 a.m., the line is an hour long now and only TWO trains have gone. Prior to these VR headsets, you could ride that coaster 3-4 times by 11 a.m. This is just a cheap gimmick that Six Flags concocted with Samsung. Why spend millions on a new coaster when you can spend thousands on some cheap headsets and market it just like a new ride/experience? Trust me... this can't be chalked up to a bad day... I have gone to the park on FOUR separate occasions since they launched the VR... and I have had an identical experience. I just pray that this fad ends at the end of the year. Six Flags America is far from a great park, however Superman is a decent coaster.... PRIOR to this mess. I doubt I'll renew my season pass if they have this garbage attached to the ride.

I've dubbed myself the T-R of V-R because I just don't get it...

...and this only reinforces my not getting it. Adding a so-called enhancement to a ride as a promotional tool? Get that. Adding said enhancement that requires anyone wearing the headset to (apparently) require individual attention, driving up wait times -- just doesn't make sense to me. Surely someone, somewhere in the corporate office asked how much time these adjustments would add?

We were asking, and decided it was "TBD."

Now that we have a large set of data on what it does to wait times, we can only hope the logical decision would be to VASTLY improve the methods used to add the VR, or that the VR will be scrapped altogether. (I'm hoping for option B).

It's likely another perfect example of a situation where we can try to compare GP and enthusiast attitudes.

If it comes back, it's not generating complaints and the enthusiast is overly sensitive to capacity and wait times. If it goes away, is highly modified or goes full upcharge, it was an issue to the average guest.

.... oh that damn Lord Gonchar, The Voice Of Reason....

If it were an upcharge, it could help customer satisfaction by making the wait time less. Then again, making it an upcharge would make it a bigger disappointment for those who pay for it, because it is generally said that the experience is not very impressive.

That's my basic thoughts on it right now, anyway.

If it is an upcharge, you're still going to be waiting a nearly the same amount of time for each train while the 1 or 2 people boot up their VR headsets and make sure everything's working.

True.
The only people it may help are the folks waiting in line for the VR.

It kind of depends on the problem. Does each person using the VR devices need attention if their device is not working right? Is it usually just a few people per train who encounter problems before dispatch?

If the price is so high that not every train has VR users, or if they saved a whole train for VR users once every ten, fifteen, thirty minutes, or whatever, it could help.

Their are so many factors at play here.

And this could get really complicated, and turn into another whole big thing. HAHA!

I would guess 10-20% of users need specific personal attention every time. However, often times this overlaps (i.e. a whole bunch of people waiting for the same thing, like their VR to reboot). Having one person wait takes only a few seconds less than having a whole bunch of people wait on avg.