New trend at Cedar Fair parks - more single train operation?

^^ 5000 miles? My tires are warranteed for 85,000 miles. My OIL used to need changing at 5000 miles, but I switched to synthetic oil :)

This Isn't A Hospital--It's An Insane Asylum!

Although capacity on CP's coasters has been cut a little, what has really suffered has been the flat rides. The Witches Wheel example above is pretty typical of what I've experienced in the last few years. CP used to be king of flat ride throughput but the budget cuts during the Kinzel era have really affected operations of the flat rides. It's mostly a staffing issue where many rides that used to have 3 people have been cut to one or two.

I'd rather be in my boat with a drink on the rocks, than in the drink with a boat on the rocks.

You also see fewer ride ops on the flat rides hustle than did in the past. So many of the ride ops now just meandor their way around the flats checking/releasing restraints.

Captain Hawkeye said:
^^ 5000 miles?

Umm, you missed a zero in his post. :)

coasterimage - lordgonchar

Yes, the flat rides are a disaster at Cedar Point. It takes far too long to load and check the rides, then once checked the ride cycles are much too short. As a result, people choose not to ride and the flat rides don't serve to shorten the lines for everything else.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

    /X\        _      *** Respect rides. They do not respect you. ***
   /XXX\      /X\     /X\_      _     /X\__      _     _        _____
  /XXXXX\    /XXX\   /XXXX\_   /X\   /XXXXX\    /X\   /X\      /XXXXX
_/XXXXXXX\__/XXXXX\/XXXXXXXX\_/XXX\_/XXXXXXX\__/XXX\_/XXX\_/\_/XXXXXX

While the short cycle times of the flats at CP is true, I've always been happy with them, as they're not long enough to make me really sick, on the verge of puking. I always assumed this was one of the reasons why they were so short...less messes to clean up.

It's fairly obvious which flats need two operators. When it takes more than 3 minutes to unload/load/check....then a second person helps greatly. Can't help but notice that MANY parks will over-staff the newest, latest, greatest flats only to leave most of the rest dreadfully understaffed. I've seen many "single-op'ed" flats where that one employee was BUSTING their butt trying to keep the line moving, only to walk down the midway and see five or six extra employees standing around near the biggest flats or most recent coaster...this has been true at CF and SF parks. (Note that Disney pays for enough staffing to keep everything moving on pretty much every ride)

Agreed. My post about Witches Wheel was not a knock at the employees work-ethic. In fact, I am fairly confident she was going as fast as she could. She was just all by herself, and I vastly underestimated how long it takes to check-recheck every car, etc., between cycles.

I mentioned in some other thread somewhere that it's been a few years since I've seen Titan run 3 trains and NTG hasn't run 3 trains since the first few weeks of its life. But I also don't go during the middle of the summer, so maybe I just didn't see the days that they were there?

Hobbes: "What's the point of attaching a number to everything you do?"
Calvin: "If your numbers go up, it means you're having more fun."

I was at Carowinds last Sunday and there was a 2 train operation on most the coasters (3 on Intimidator, 4 on Thunder Road). The park wasn't super busy and it made for some quick re-rides.

There were only 3 coasters running 1 train, the Hurler, The Carolina Cyclone and the Nighthawk (and of course the Boomerang). So, the lines were obviously much longer.

One thing that has bothered me the last 2 visits to Carowinds was that they had only 1 operator for the Flyers. With a half full que, we waited over 45 minutes. Finally, another operator came in later in the day.