No loose articles in Top Thrill 2's queue (and no free lockers either)

Are we surprised at this point? The thought/care behind any decision at the place is long gone.

Offer free lockers if you make them mandatory, that's all. Easy as that.

But, nope.

It just seems a little early to be staging a protest when not one of us has seen any of this in practice. It requires a little up front planning, and I'm not crazy about paying for a locker, but I guess I'm willing to see how it goes in practice. Admittedly, the operations reputation hasn't been great in the last few years.

Solving the locker problem seems straight forward with the right vendor. Double-side the lockers on the midway side of the track (like Velocicoaster), move the entrance up track a bit. They could run the locker series a few hundred feet down that side, routing the queue past it along the track side, then doubling back toward the tunnel. You could U-shape the path toward the midway even for more lockers, if you had to (might need to remove trees though). They can't do that by opening day, obviously, but it seems like a workable problem.

eightdotthree:

We can't be critical of a bad decision?

It's not that we can't be critical. It's the "just a money grab" "totally don't care about the guests" etc. etc. etc. It's so tiresome and predictable. Yes, they f***ed up. But Hanlon's Razor still applies.

Raven-Phile:
I saw someone commenting that they have to carry a rescue inhaler in case of an asthma attack, and that’s a valid concern for them.

And presumably the park will make exceptions for medical necessities by either allowing them to enter with it or providing disability access, just like they do in all kinds of similar situations.

Raven-Phile:
people may find themselves needing water, but without a wallet, you can’t buy from a machine.

I was not aware that all of my credit cards were tethered to my wallet and I couldn't just carry one in my front pocket. That's often how I roll in a park anyway, because I don't want to lose my wallet on a ride. Unless the park is going to install airport nudie-scans, no one will know or care.

Jeff:

It just seems a little early to be staging a protest when not one of us has seen any of this in practice.

We already saw them do this with Steel Vengeance originally, before they added the double sided lockers there.

This was something that should have been planned for, since they knew it was going to be a problem from the start. They just didn't care enough, and they are going to be making money from the inconvenience.

Once the hype from the ride dies down in a few years, they will come up with a better solution just like they did with Steel Vengeance....but for now there is money to be made.

That the park apparently refused to consider this as a possible eventuality, and to therefore have contingency plans in place, does represent a pretty lackadaisical attitude toward guest satisfaction, so I see it as very fair to criticize them for being unprepared for this. This is a "problem" they solved years ago on SV.

I don't see a whole lot of complaints here about the money, nor claims that the end is nigh, and I certainly don't see anyone planning protests.

If this had happened in a vacuum, absent the other shortsighted moves the park/chain has made recently, I can see giving the park/chain the benefit of the doubt here. But this didn't happen in a vacuum. It happened against the backdrop of many other questionable decisions made in the interest of saving money in the short term.

djDaemon:

I don't see a whole lot of complaints here about the money

ORLY?

"I don't think that expense should come out of my pocket"
"At least we know how they're paying for part of the lawsuit."
"I don't like needing to [...] spend $5 (SWAG on what they will charge) to be able to ride the coaster"
"Only a wrathful God would create a universe with paid lockers."
"requiring paid lockers is a real cash grab"

To be fair, this is 100% bone-headed, and I would have expected an opening day solution that is better than this one. But, I also though the extra shade in the queue was a welcome touch, so win some lose some I guess.

But I have no sympathy at all for the flip-flop crowd. None. I am judging each and every one of them.

I’d love to hear your opinion about Crocs 🙃

You're joking about the "extra shade", right? Because they sure as hell didn't put that queue roofing in to provide shade for their beloved guests.

Also, I'm relatively sure at least a couple of those so-called "cash grab" complaints were somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but maybe that's just me.

I visited Busch Gardens Williamsburg a few weeks ago, and they have a strict no loose articles policy on most of their coasters. Even though a multi-location locker rental for the entire day was a reasonably-priced $10, it was $10 that I should not have been required to spend. It's an unadvertised roller coaster riding tax.

But what really gets me about "Son of Dragster" (LOL) is the flip flop policy. Maybe they need to lease some retail space to a shoe store near the entrance to the ride. People would easily drop another $50 to $100 for a cheap pair of Nikes to be allowed to ride TT2.

BGW doesn’t have metal detectors though. If something fits in your pocket they’ll let you ride with it.

djDaemon:

Because they sure as hell didn't put that queue roofing in to provide shade for their beloved guests

I thought it was covered in fabric. That's not stopping anything. But, maybe I missed that detail.

And yes, the "People gotta store" line was definitely tongue in cheek.

LostKause:

But what really gets me about "Son of Dragster" (LOL) is the flip flop policy.

I wear these things all the time. The reverse launch is almost certainly why they're banned. Flip flops like to fall off while just walking backwards; I can easily see people losing these due to inertia on the reverse trip. As much as I enjoy flip flops, I forgive this rule. The lockers though, that's BS.

djDaemon:

If this had happened in a vacuum, absent the other shortsighted moves the park/chain has made recently, I can see giving the park/chain the benefit of the doubt here.

Of course this. And since one of my comments was quoted...

"At least we know how they're paying for part of the lawsuit."

That was tongue and cheek, but also some well-earned sarcasm by the park.

I love Cedar Point. I also dislike the direction the park is trending in. We're in a coaster-nerd forum, and compared to some of the more livid responses on Facebook and other platforms, I would say the reaction(s) here and on P-Buzz are fairly informed and, while perhaps somewhat reactive, mostly tempered.

I'm not complaining about loose articles in line. True, it feels like overkill that you can't even get in line with things in your pocket and I still wonder how items in line could pose a threat. Maybe they think people will throw things at the train as it passes by, though spectators could do the same thing.

My issue is passing that cost to the park guests because it essentially makes TT2 an up-charge attraction. And sure, I can afford that just fine, but I cannot help but think how when I was a kid, Cedar Point was the biggest trip of the year. My mom and I lived with my grandmother and a few other family members in the same house. We took our food to Cedar Point to avoid paying the cost of in-park food. Small amounts of money mattered and that's true today with a lot of folks.

I wish that Cedar Point had come up with a creative solution. Put a load of lockers outside the queue and rope it off so that no non-TT2 riders could use them. They don't even have to be smart lockers. My gym has lockers with combination built in and if someone forgets their code, we just ask them to describe what's inside before opening them as proof that it's their stuff. That would give the park an opportunity to bring in lockers that are similar to Steel Vengeance.

We talk about how regional parks are suffering because of the rise of Disney and Universal. Experience at a park matters. It's small things like this that kills the experience. Folks already talk about how Kings Island is a better experience than Cedar Point, which blows my mind. But Kings Island spends money on experiences.

Brian Noble:

I thought it was covered in fabric.

They went with a steel (or maybe aluminum?) clad structure this time around.

Because, as you mention, fabric isn't going to stop anything, and according to the report, decidedly did not stop the flag plate as it tore through said fabric, ricocheted off the shade support, and struck the guest.

What I find funny about this is how much it seems they didn't learn from past successes. My wife and I visited both Cedar Point and Kings Dominion last year, and we both were (honestly) impressed with how smooth the metal detectors and lockers worked on the rides that had them. But it seems here as if Cedar Point completely forgot what worked well with the other rides in building a new ride. I try to go into the park with a minimum amount of things, but honestly, I really do not like the idea of being away from my wallet and absolutely all forms of ID - medical cards, driver's license, etc.

Jephry:

Put a load of lockers outside the queue and rope it off so that no non-TT2 riders could use them.

Universal solved this ages ago.

Hershey has free time-limited lockers as well. It's amazing how much you can improve the guest experience if you don't nickel and dime (or more accurately, Lincoln and Hamilton) your customers to death.

The best thing about the Universal setup where the lockers are before the ride entrance is that the free timer fluctuates with the queue length. If the wait is 120 minutes you get like two and a half hours. But if it's a walkon you still get an hour or so for rerides.

Even if there was zero actual need for this policy with TT2, I called this back when they announced the ride as something they would do simply for optics after the accident with the original ride. I'm not surprised at the policy, but am (not actually) surprised at the lack of free lockers and/or a double sided locker bank mid-queue.

I miss the Matt Ouimet/Jason McClure years. The customer service was at the peak level for the park and I always felt those two put genuine care into every decision both in terms of customer service and preserving/expanding the history, reputation and future legacy of the park.