Millenium Force rip off
my thought on your comments:
1. I totally agree. I've already paid to get in, to park, etc....but to me, what's one more buck? I'm already in the hole for at least $50. c'est la vie....parks are an expensive habit.
2. I work for a living also. How else could I afford this? lol. It seems that the people complaining are fairly young, and if they're not, it's a way to say that the older people are being a bit childish about this.
3. I concede that point!
ok, so I'm a minimalist, and I realize most people aren't. One thing I don't like about the bin system at SFGAm is it really clogs up the exit (especially with the turnstiles some parks have at the exit which is a whole other topic) and it seems every time I put something in a bin it gets dirty or wet.
what I'd like to see is bottled water be at least 1/2 cheaper than pop! heeheee.....
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"No one likes a math geek Scully" - Mulder
I've also seen people wear backpacks on the Hulk. They strap in on like normal, but put te bag over the back of the seat. I personally would not do this, but I've seen the ride ops force people to ride like this because they were too stupid to not use the free lockers. The ride ops @ the Hulk are VERY good, and dispatch trains like there's no tomorrow.
-Matt
Jeff said:
As for your wife in a wheelchair, I don't remember what MF does (the queue was designed to be wheel chair accessible, as many wheelchair-bound people prefer not to get the special treatment), but you can certainly park that chair and everything on it at the exit platform and board there. No hassle at all.
We let wheelchairs in at the entrance after they've waited a designated time, as marked on their Special Access passes, through a queue that merges with the line at the ramp that goes up to the station, and then we let them in on the Unload platform at the special access gate. If you have a wheelchair you can just leave stuff (backpacks, water bottles, cameras and such) on the wheelchair on the unload platform (of course, we're still not responsible for it...).
Just explaining the policy on this as it applied to MF as of the 2001 season.
*** This post was edited by AirtimeSROS on 11/29/2001. ***
Jeff,
I don't know much about CP's wheelchair policy. The only experience I've ever had with a wheelchair, ( and hopefully the last) was recently at PKI. I was only trying to point out how something can so drastically change your point of view. Kids have done that with me also. As far as the parent swap is concerned. I'm not a big fan of it. My tactic was to pay to have someone come with us when my kids were small. We brought a friend with us and paid their way entirely with the understanding that they would stay with our kids while we waited in line for Mantis and Raptor. I prefer to wait and ride with my wife, rather than alone. Now we ride together as a family, but there is still alot of stuff to bring with us.
*** This post was edited by PointMan on 11/29/2001. ***
Everything I need, including tampons, my son's meds, sunscreen, even my glasses and my son's all fit into my fanny pack.
But I concede the food, special refillable glasses and souvenier items. Quite frankly, any food I carry stays in a cooler in the car. Ever eat a squished sandwich that has been carried onto coasters half the day? And any time we've purchased or won souveniers, I simply do not WANT to carry them around all day. I either leave the souvenier buying, game playing until near the end of the day, or take it out to the car. Admittedly, this is difficult for teens who ride buses, but that's why CP has larger lockers at the Maggie entrance and the main entrance.
I guess if you are willing to spend the bucks to win that nice large stuffed toy, you should have enough to pay 50 cents for a locker.
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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead
AirtimeSROS said:
Koaster King said:
Nope. I just know a little bit about something called life. Ever been there?Are you serious? Are you REALLY accusing someone with 10+ years of experience over you, who's been out in the real world, had a real job, and has a life for himself with a wife and house and everything of knowing less about life than YOU?!! OMG I gave you TOO much credit in earlier posts (you should've seen the deleted one).
I guess you completely missed my point here Natalie. Jeff made a comment which I responded to that I believe would offend anyone who has a family and has had to go through experiences either personal or as a family where they need their bags or purses. And it's not that hard to know "a little bit" about life which is all I claimed by just looking at your parents, how they live, and evrything around you growing up if you take the least bit of observation in. I'm sure he knows more about life than me and most people older than me do. It had to do with the specific comment he made. And actually, I do coach guys older than me. Since I broke my ankle at the beginning of last season, I've been assistant coach on my high school football team the past two seasons. It's the same age Jeff coaches and I have a lot of say and plays, preactice, and everything done since I actually took/am taking two college courses and Sports Med on it this semester.
How do you parent swap at MF? I'm serious here. I've never seen it done. The diapers would still be an issue because you said not to bring any stuff to the park at all you couldn't wear I guess.If you leave it with a non-rider, as there will inevitably be when you have a parent swap, then the whole diaper argument is completely invalid, because you can't take a baby through the line anyway, so why would you need to bring the diapers in line??
Didn't know you couldn't take a baby or up to 2 year old into the line as I've never attempted to do so before. My impression was that the entire family(mom, dad, baby) go through the line together and then they do the swap. Plus, not all parks do it the same, so maybe that's where I had the different view of it.
And I'm here to tell you that I witnessed, authorized, explained, and even took part in parent swaps at Millennium Force. You do a parent swap at MF pretty much the same way you do it on any other ride at Cedar Point. One person brings the purple slip through the line and gives it to a ride operator at unload when that person gets off the ride. Said person goes down the exit ramp to meet the rest of the party with the child, and the people (there can be 1 or 2) come back up the exit ramp and tell the ride operator the name on the parent swap slip. The unload hosts then let the person who came up the ramp into the line through the special access gate at unload, to get on the next trainload. Real tough, right?Yeah, a lot more difficult than I assumed. Especially when I like to go through long lines with my party and not me or someone else have to wait 1 or 2 hours at the exit. Not fun or pleasing at all which would hurt my experience of the park. Since MF had seperate load/unload stations I wondered how this worked. Does the person get in the train at the load or unload site though? I thought people couldn't go through the area between the two.
If I was a woman, I definitely wouldn't want my tampon flying out of my pocket and landing on someone's lap. I'm sure she would at least need and want a purse for this one. Most women like to have their purses.ROFL!!!! Now that's just pure comedic genius. Is she going to change her tampon in line? Is that why she NEEDS to bring it through the line with her, instead of putting it in a locker or leaving it with a non-rider?
What if there are no non-riders and maybe there are no vacant lockers, doesn't trust them, doesn't want to pay, or maybe they're too far to want to return when one of that time occurs?
And I'm sure she'd prefer it if her tampon flies out and lands in someone's lap, rather than the entire contents of a purse, maybe an expensive cell phone and a wallet with money, etc. in it and a checkbook?
I've never had a problem storing my bookbag under my legs on the trains. And I took it on MF. Did they miss me or is a book bag big enough to not fly out? I would thing the speed would be able to hold the bag in there. Not saying it was safe, but a bookbag under a lap bar on Thunder Run and OTSR on T2 at SFKK made it through the trip. I didn't do this though. My "friend" evidently wasn't thinking... and neither were the ride ops.
After they get off a wet ride and don't expect to ride another, usually they don't like to feel all squishy and yucky throughout the park, so you might need to change.
Okay so they could...oh yeah, leave the change of clothes in the car. OR leave it in a locker.Gave points to both of these before.
$.75 is not going to break a person, and you can leave it in the locker all day if you please. Better yet, there's a bin rental in the front of the park which costs $1.00 for all day and you can go back to it unlimited times. Not too many people know about it. Ask an employee, explore your options rather than just being one of the uneducated masses.Maybe I didn't bring any extra money with me. Maybe I packed my lunch because of expensive food, brought my cell phone, etc. and wasn't going to buy anything else. Plus, my locker points are above and above again in my last post.
My uncle needs special meals fixed that contain as little to no sodium as possible which is hard to come by at parks and I have a friend who can't have dairy or peanut products, so he needs to have a special lunch with him as well. In case my friend does come into contact with one of those, he has two medications he needs to take and an inhaler which must be with them as well. Any other questions here? Think about more than just what you know on the surface.And there's a reason these can't fit into a fanny pack, like Greg does? Also even we Nazis at MF will accommodate someone with a medical need who wants to carry their medication aboard, surprise! Though that's still not recommended, we WILL be accommodating in that situation.
Thank you! And how can special needs food fit into a fanny pack? Medication in pockets doesn't "fly" with me either.
Some people like to do this at the park. Just looking out for them.How can a park possibly accommodate EVERYBODY? These people will have to deal with putting it on when they can get to it, which would NOT be when they are in line for a ride.
Well most parks let it happen,... but I know, CP's not "most parks". I like most parks, especially when they accomodate all guests possible. I understand certain rides restrict this, but the entire park doesn't restrict bringing bags and purses for things.
Well, if they don't want to put them on a strap while they're on the coasters in case they still have fear on losing them, they'll probably want to put them in a bag. There are chances they could break in your pockets.And putting them in a bag that you'll have to put at your feet and that will get jostled around A LOT if you're actually allowed to take it on the rides (all the coasters at CP except Raptor, Mantis, Millennium Force and Corkscrew fall into this category) isn't going to break them?
I don't get why you're responding to all these like we want to take everything actually on the rides. We just want a place to store them, while we ride that are both free and easily accessible. Thanks Paramount and Six Flags parks for letting us do this!
What if it's warm at the beginning of the day and the it starts raining and gets cooler or the opposite?Reiteration of "Jackets or sweatshirts around the waist."
Couldn't these possibly fly out of the coasters?
Must be you. Not a lot of shelter all around CP and sometimes rides are still open and you want to wait who line. Who doesn't like to ride in the rain?
So now you want to carry a potentially dangerous, possibly sharp-tipped item onto a ride that moves 93 mph? Great idea, let's go ahead and impale people with umbrellas! I'd also like to add that rides other than MF and Corkscrew *will* in fact hold umbrellas for you in the station while you ride, we DO understand that it rains and our lines aren't very well sheltered.
Thanks for the second part, but about the first part, again, read above about wanting somewhere to store them with, etc.
Once we took a map into the park. One of those big US map booklets to see what our route to SFWoA would be the next day, because my mom didn't want to ride all the coasters and thought she would look at that while we were on them. Money can fly out of your pockets. I know. It's happened a couple times to me.
So where's the problem here? Your mom, if she wasn't going to ride the coasters, could just hold on to your tampons and diaper bags and underwear and money and maps, hey look, a solution! And if the money flies out of your pockets, it's not secure enough.There was only a few she didn't go on but they had very long lines. Heck, if I was her or someone else who had to wait, I would take a bag with like a CD player, books, magazines, etc. And I like to stick my tampons in my diapers in my bra. Have a problem with it? Or my sarcasm?
Sorry I have to mention it again, but besides for the praise they've recieved wanting to run FOF to be left open and the "going out" year for KC, I would have to say Paramount's Kings Island. Plus, there's Islands of Adventure, Universal, and the Disney parks when I've gone.
IOA doesn't hold your stuff.Did for us and everyone else I saw on all six days we've been.
I'm not even going to touch capacity at Paramount parks.
Honestly, I don't know about the others, but PKI certainly does the best they can. I know the majority of their ops and they're hard and enthusiastic workers. Were there not two trains running on Face/Off that day?
Now, PLEASE resume going away.I thought that was your job Ms. "I HATE Cedar Point and will not return to work there next year".
-Natalie
Sick of some people's egotistical, self-important, NON-JUSTIFIED attitudes, but not mentioning any names.Right back to you! And with a passion.
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DannyWhat did Cedar Peter say to Island Merlin?
Flaggy Maggie ain't getting anywhere near my Peninsula!
After a ride on Volcano, if they have three trains running, you will sit on the train, after the ride, forever, while no trains are on the course. Stand & wait to see people "blasted" out, it happens quite infrequently, where it should be almost "scheduled", or you'd think.
When you're on a time frame, & you'd like to ride as much stuff as possible before driving five or six hours & you don't feel like being there from open to close, seeing people waste time is no fun. These people will never get it. Lockers could be free, but lockers break, & I'd probaly keep the keys for souveniers(:), see), and a free locker program would mean dirty lockers because more of them would be used. Plus, paying the guys it would take to help people out with free lockers. The minimal cost is added there to make it work as a system. It has to have at least some cost to guarantee availability, free lockers would be abused, people who need them wouldn't find one where they needed it.
And as far as water costing the same as soda, it's sad. But, it's really the bottle we're paying for, doesn't much matter what's in it. Water from soda companies, anyways. They'd sell all water & no soda, which is why they're around in the first place.
Koaster King, what was that? Nobody can make sense of that, LOL, it's like a bad sequel.......
Jeff said:
quailroberts said:
"Once again anyone that even hints at criticizing the smallest detail at CP is ridiculed. Notice how the CP defenders here keep getting more and more irrational? It's cause they're running out of arguments to defend a policy that is flat out dumb."Hahahahahahaha! You're joking, right? Flying tampons and people stripping to their underwear to change clothes in line are rational? That's rich!
If you reread the posts you will find that YOU were the first one to mention either of these possibilities.And you have yet to provide a solid reason for why there couldn't be a shelf between the two platforms. They're not THAT far away from each other. Repeating different forms of "'It can't be done because it can't be done" doesn't count as a reason. It would have little, if any, effect on capacity; there are plenty of workers there. Safety is a very minor issue, and people's stuff would not get stolen (I think some of you underestimate the human race when you suggest this). The only argument that you have left is that it is a hassle for the ride ops. Well, they're getting paid; it's a job, not playtime. And it's not that bad anyways, I worked rides at PKI all summer and carrying people's bags was not on the list of my complaints.
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Ohio - Coaster capital of the world
Koaster King said:
A poorly formatted, incoherent, and just all around stupid post.
Maybe if you could format a post (and that goes for your friend http://www.somethingawful.com/jeffk ....I mean quailroberts too) I would actually think you had something worthwhile to say. Man, you should be glad that Jeff is somewhat nice, on another board I post on you'd be gone by now. Once again, maybe that's why I post on there more now.
-Natalie
Who has yet to see a complaint besides yours and quailroberts about any of HER posts...but sees quite a few about yours.
There can't, see Volcano's operation, even. That's why the guy pushes the cart, LOL. The less that's there, the better. BTW, your stuff never leaves that cart, for supportors of hold my stuff, those carts are portable cubbies. The guy looks for you, BEFORE you're next to board, gets your stuff, pushes back on one of three carts, and people still make it slow things down. Imagine if there were shelves BETWEEN stations on Volcano, LOL! It would be a nightmare, neverending.
"and people's stuff would not get stolen". That's why there are so many people out there that are afraid to leave thier stuff laying around, get lockers and prepare for the park responsibly,
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SFA 2002-What are they building?
the stealing/abusing factor is negligable. this may just be my belief, but I think that humans are naturally good. ignoring that, if someone abuses the system or steals, there will be people there to reprimand them (I'm not talking about the ride ops). if the free locker solution is such a problem then why would a park the size of IOA use it? I'm pretty sure that Universal doesn't just take the first idea that comes to mind and throw it out there without testing it to see if it will work or not.
I have gone to parks with nothing. I have gone to parks with everything. my experience was not diminished in either case. there is a bottleneck to get out of the station because the station itself is a bottleneck, not because there are bins. the station goes from the size of a coaster train to the size of one and a half persons standing abrest in an instant. removing bins isn't going to help that. the people who don't have things will continue out the exit while those getting their things will follow right behind them without missing a beat because they have to get their things will everyone else exits. this may actually help because it means that there are that many less people pushing and shoving twenty other people through a three foot wide hole.
again, if bins can't be there because of dual stations then its up to the park to provide a close, free source of storage.
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Knott's Berry Farm Cuba ~South Park
quailroberts said:
If you reread the posts you will find that YOU were the first one to mention either of these possibilities.
Actually your friend Koaster King came up with the flying tampons gem.
And you have yet to provide a solid reason for why there couldn't be a shelf between the two platforms. They're not THAT far away from each other.
Okay, take this from the perspective of someone who had to look at the MF platforms day in and day out for a good part of her summer this year. There is NO way you could put a shelf between the two platforms, they are indeed too far away from each other, not to mention the fact that the load platform is split by the gates and the line for the back seat takes up that entire side of the platform. And on the unload side, there's an operator there with a control panel, and it's hard enough getting people off the platform and handling parent swaps and special accesses in that same exact area without the confusion of looking for stuff.
Safety is a very minor issue, and people's stuff would not get stolen (I think some of you underestimate the human race when you suggest this).
Okay then, if you're so confident in the human race, then just leave your stuff on a bench somewhere.
Q: Why are there law enforcement officers at amusement parks?
A: Because people break laws, frequently, and this goes for amusement parks too.
The only argument that you have left is that it is a hassle for the ride ops. Well, they're getting paid; it's a job, not playtime. And it's not that bad anyways, I worked rides at PKI all summer and carrying people's bags was not on the list of my complaints.
Haha, so what rides did you work at PKI?
You see, at Cedar Point, they actually provide us with ENOUGH to do that we don't really have TIME to carry and watch people's bags.
If you are at load, your full attention must be on checking lap bars, making sure everyone's seatbelts are on, making sure people's hats are down shirts or behind backs, making sure the loose articles policy is enforced, making sure people REMAIN seated as the train leaves the station, and making sure that the train coming INTO the station has a clear path.
If you are at unload, you are either (a) helping people get out of the train by unbuckling seatbelts (yes, people DO have problems with them), checking the train before it leaves the unload station, ensuring the unload platform is clear of guests, cleaning up any guest illnesses, putting special access into the train (checking seatbelts, lap bars, etc), taking special access through the gate, putting parent swaps in through the gate, and watching the line as it goes by for loose articles or (b) working the unload control panel which requires your full attention.
If you are at crowd control you are too busy explaining the seating policy, doubling up single riders, counting people in the station, watching for loose articles, and keeping every single seat in the train filled to worry about watching or carrying people's stuff for them.
Now with the entrance person (or people, depending on the crowd that day) and controls person obviously out of the running for this, who do you suggest to babysit people's backpacks and purses?
-Natalie
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If you're skating on thin ice, you may as well tap dance.
If you think this is bad, just wait until some kids get new computers for Christmas...
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"As far as I can tell it doesn't matter who you are. If you can believe, there's something worth fighting for..." - Garbage, "Parade"
Closed topic.
