New reride policy on Top Gun at Carowinds

Well, this is a policy I had heard about at some other parks - the one I remember was this was on effect on Kraken at Sea World.

At today's passholder ERT session on Top Gun, we were told that we could only ride two consecutive times, then had to exit the train. Not get up and change seats, exit the train and station. To add insult to injury, they
wouldn't let us just re-enter the queue even if nobody was in our line- we had to go around.

Apparently somebody got sick on the ride Saturday after multiple rides, so this new policy just went into effect. I was highly pissed off. Most ERT sessions I can get 4 or 5, and as many as 8 or 9 rides in a row, switching
seats a few times. It was like that for the last 2.5 years I've been hitting the park for ERT with no issues so I'm not sure why this came about.

I've ridden it 15 in a row on a weekday afternoon when there were no lines in 95 degree heat. I felt a bit woozy, which was probably due to the heat more than the ride. I think it's well within my responsibility to determine if I'm too sick to ride the ride multiple times or not, and that I shouldn't
be punished due to ONE isolated incident. This obviously hasn't been a problem in years past, why overreact now? If someone gets sick after one ride, are they going to shut down the attraction completely and remove it?
I don't think it would bother me quite so much if there hadn't been mass confusion among the ride ops about the policy, and if it hadn't been something that seemed to come about on the whim of some pencil pusher - or
worse yet, one of the ride ops. One that seemed to enjoy being strict to the point of being rude on Thunder Road seems to now be some sort of crew leader on Top Gun - and it didn't seem that some of the other longtime ops on the ride were very happy with her. They were willing to at least let us exit to the queue line and reboard the next train, but that wasn't in Ms. Crew Leader's plan so that wasn't allowed. She was always *****y about
anyone switching seats on Thunder Road, where on most other coasters and rides they have no problem with letting us find an empty seat.

I wonder if this is a knee-jerk reaction not only to the "incident" on this ride, but also wariness on their part due to the other recent incidents, especially the Raging Bull death. Now I'm waiting for seatbelts to be added
to all the woodies and Knotts Berry Farm style stapling.

I cut Carowinds slack on not having the latest greatest thrill rides due to having good operations, and perks like ERT on our one "A-list" ride that let me have quite a bit of fun when I visit. Often times 8 rides on a 125 foot
coaster can be better than 1 ride on a 250 foot one. But they seem to be finding new ways to screw up and take the amusement out of the amusement park quite a bit here lately.

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Ken

You're locked and ready to fly!

Ha! Welcome to our world at Cedar Point... wish I could be sympathetic.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
"Pray that your country undergoes recovery!" - KMFDM

Hmm...I have never had problems re-riding at Cedar Point. If there is an open seat you get into it. The ops don't mind.

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SW:):)SH
midwestinfoguide.com

I have, they mad me and my brother do it on the gemini....Haha this one kid brought a big cup of coke on the gemini and the ride ops didnt even care.......it got all over the fricken place to. Well it did kind of make me mad.

Last time that I was there, it seemed to me a common practice on the B&M coasters that if there was an empty seat - fill it. Lots of people were doing it (especially on Mantis).

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SW:):)SH
midwestinfoguide.com

We had some sucky ride ops that night then.

I guess a lot depends on who is working. Oh well, hopefully I will have good fortune next time I am there again.

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SW:):)SH
midwestinfoguide.com

On Friday at SFGAm on Ricochet, me and 5 other friends wanted to stay on again but the op didnt let us because there were 3 othere people in line (it was 8:45 at night). So we had to go through the exit which goes through the arcade and then back in the que and then back on the ride. Pointless. After the re-ride we wanted to go again and the op let us because no one was in the que line. I think that could be a factor too on some rides.

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"Please stand behind the yellow line as the gates in front of you will be closing"
Clear for launch............. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!

Carowinds was extremely cool with letting people stay on/switch seats when we were there on the 3rd. We rode Top Gun so many times in a row that I actually lost count.

Today at Dorney I tried it on Talon and they made me go back around. Same thing always happens to us at Cedar Point. I guess it's a Cedar Fair thing.

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www.coasterimage.com
Dorney Park Visits in 2003: 7

I think that ins ome cases Cedar Point is too leintent iwth their ride policies. For instance, last year on MAgnum I had a backpack filled to the brim with clothes, CD player, snacks, and other things making the bookbag very heavy. I went to go do what you do at most parks and set it to the side of the station. The op threw the bag at me and said that they could not accomidate this and that I had to take it on the ride with me. I felt this was very wrong cosidering the weight of it and expecially on this ride with so much air The bookbage flew back and hit the child behind me. He immedily started to cry and I felt it was horrible how CP handled the situation. Now I'm not saying this is juast at Cedar Point, this is just the most extreme story that I have.

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every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.

Yeah, they make us take all our stuff on Mangum too. They basically gave me permission to do a POV. ;) If you put the bag behind your leg or are able to put your leg through a loop on it then that works great.

At my local park, rerides are not rare at all. While all the "first year" ops don't allow them, the seasoned ones will let you get unlimited rides. In fact, while there is an hour line it is possible to get "single rider rerides" (taking any single seats.) It's great. Too bad back east they are so old fashion. ;)

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www.CaliforniaCoasterNews.com
www.SFMWZone.com

On Timberhawk they let us stay on as long as nobody is waiting for that particular seat. The ride ops are also pretty cool about people who want to ride again switching seats, but I can see how this might lead to problems, such as people squabbling over available seats.

Since Wild Thing opened, Enchanted Village has allowed each train to run through the cycle twice. I guess they are trying to compensate for the coaster's small size by giving guests an automatic reride. Personally, I'd rather they just let it go through once and follow the same reride policy as Timberhawk. Silverwood runs their Corkscrew this way and I've never had to wait more than five minutes...AND we get to choose where we sit. I'd rather wait 15 minutes for one cycle than 30 minutes for two.

*** This post was edited by Railshark 6/16/2003 4:06:19 AM ***

I've had the same experience as Lord Gonchar at Dorney. There could be no one in the line and the ops will make you go all the way around through the queue again anyways.

Six Flags is a completely different story. As much as other things about what the ops do annoy me, the one good thing is that in general they don't seem to care about re-rides.

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Men are like parking spaces... the good ones are all taken and the rest are handicapped or too far away.
www.TiggerMan.com

Personally, I look at Re-rides as an added bonus... not the norm... not even an expectation.

At parks where POP and Tickets are both used (i.e. Wrist Bands and tickets) or during Pay as Your ride events with wrist band options, it just makes it easier... everyone goes around again... instead of "those with bands can stan, those with out must go" (and then they have to check).

Some parks make you circle around again because they like everyone to go through the turn-stiles each time they ride so they can keep an accurate count of the number of riders.

Most do it I suspect simply because it is a "no brainer" on the ride-op's part... make everyone go through the queue again so they don't have to try and sort things out in the station.

At Hersheypark I know some ops make you go around again, and other's don't (especially on the less than busy sooperdooperlooper). At PKD, they will let you ride again on most coasters if no one is waiting for your seat (or you can switch to an empty seat if there is someone waiting for yours)... they don't announce this on all coasters, but the op on Grizzly was stating this in his little "Welcome back..." speach.

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Kind of hard to take a post as objective if a park or coaster name is part of the "user name"

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Jeff said:
Ha! Welcome to our world at Cedar Point... wish I could be sympathetic.

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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com - Sillynonsense.com
"Pray that your country undergoes recovery!" - KMFDM

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Wish I could be sympathetic with someone who lives close to Cedar Point. Anyway this must just be something with Top Gun because we could ride Hurler(ironically named for the thing that caused the Top Gun change) as many times as we wanted yesterday

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JOHN
RCT INSOMNIACS
KIMBERLY LAKE INC.

Interesting. I went to Carowinds for the first time this year on the Monday of my spring break, rode and rerode Top Gun so much in a short time period (30 rides or more I believe) and I'm still fine. I got sore later on, though. Luckily I had stayed at Top Gun all the time because I bumped into four friends from school and I was supposed to go with another friend of school, but had to go alone.

I don't think rules like this should be set up, but people should be cautious to their health. Don't they ever read those signs?! ;)

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The Jet Coaster ROARS!
Will Johansson

hurry! It's time to call the WAAAAAAAmbulance!

So what, you "only" get 1 re-ride before having to walk around the queue again. That is one more re-ride than most parks allow you to get.

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--George H
---Currency tracking experiment... http://www.wheresgeorge.com (Referring to The "George" on the $1 bill - Not Me)

This policy kinda reminds me about Alton Towers. Why if you are with a coaster club and you have an ERS on something, they dont let you stay on the ride at all, and force you to run round each time for another time, Its discusting. I remember last year when I went with the ECC and they gave us a ERS on Oblivion(Not Nemesis because they apparently double booked us with another group) and while the ERS was 1hr, they made us run round each time which was bad enough cause it takes ages running round for another ride. Also because of this, they kept sending out empty trains too, Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Also Alton are like it in general, they absolutly refuse you to ride anything even if there is no queue, I have managed it a few times, but its extremly rare.

However nearly all other british parks are fine with reguards to letting you stay on rides for as many times as you like, and Thorpe park is probably the best example in the UK, I rode NI about 5 times in a row, yet I saw a bunch of kids ride about 10 times in a row. they also dont mind you riding everything else for as many times as you like if there is no queue, I have also ridden Detonator,Vortex,Colossus,Flying Fish constantly a few times.

Other European Parks are ok with this too. Europa Park is a stunning example and are always too pleased to let you stay on rides if there is not a queue, Its great :)

I think overall though, it is down to the Ride Op's discression, I have been refused staying on rides at some parks before but other times its been fine and its all been down to what staff are on duty. Basiclly most of them dont care what you do whereas others will tell you to get off and go round again.

Re-read the part where I've been going to the park almost every Sunday for ERT for the last *3 years* and have NEVER had this problem. Is it good that we get rerides when some other parks don't allow it? Yes. But if that's how the park normally operates, I'm going to complain if they change that procedure arbitrarily.

In addition - the park advertises ERT as a passholder benefit. This has traditionally been 30 minutes before opening every day of the week, with an hour of ERT on Saturdays. They had a sign stating the times that used to be at the start of the queue, and had a ride op checking passes to make sure it was only passholders that got in until the park opened at 10:00. Now they often don't check passes, or maybe do at the top of the station stairs after a few trains worth of GP have already gotten in line, don't even let us into the park often times until 9:40 or 9:45 when ERT is supposed to be at 9:30 or 9:00. So often times I'm lucky to even get a few rides in during "ERT" since I'm having to fight the GP for a seat. Now they're making me go around and go through this same crap even if there is nobody in my line.

Call it whining if you want, but I expect a park to be consistent with it's policies and to honor it's promises. I've had more visits where ERT - an often-advertised benefit of owning / upgrading to a season pass - has been non-existant than where it's been run correctly this season, and now in addtion they've limited re-rides. Sorry if you're used to Six Flags or something where this is the norm, but when a park that has impressed me with their operations and treatment of passholders for two seasons has slipped quite a bit this year in those areas, I'm going to complain. Especially since this smacks me more of "ride-op power trip" more than anything else.

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Ken

You're locked and ready to fly!

Then fine, complain to guest relations about the eroding of your ERT benefit. If they changed the rules to make you go around, that's their perogative. I have been to MANY coaster events, where ERT is provided, and I have ALWAYS had to go around even if a seat might have been available.

Also note, if you go to GR with a bad/pissy attitude, don't expect to get any results. Be calm cool and collected and most of all, be respectful. Dropping phrases like "ride-op power trip" will not earn you any bonus points.

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--George H
---Currency tracking experiment... http://www.wheresgeorge.com (Referring to The "George" on the $1 bill - Not Me)