One million Diamondback riders?

A few weeks ago Kings Island announced their 1 mlllionth Diamondback rider.
I got to thinking about something....there are no turnstyles on Diamondback's line nor platform so how do they keep track of how many riders to date?

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2087 :)

Could they possibly do a visual count of each train? It's probably not that difficult to do. It's not like they have to do a head count, but rather do an empty seat count. Knowing the train holds X at maximum, and visually they see Y seats empty, they can deduce that X-Y is their train load.

Do the ride attendants have handheld counters. Something that they click for each rider that gets onto a train?

How does this matter to anyone?

Well,if ride counts are so important to parks and it's just as easy to do a manual count. It would mean you could get rid of those damn turnstiles. :)

Ok, so that probably won't happen. But, I can dream can't I?

Think Disney World. They're counting you and most of the time you don't even know it.

Yep.

There are no turnstyles at Disney. They have a set of sensor eyes at each attractions entrance or exit to count the number of people. They are hidden quite well.

All rides with computers keep track of the number of cycles that have been completed. From there, if they don't have turnstyles, they probably just estimate the average number of riders per train and multiply the two numbers to get their count.

Given Cedar Point's (and consequently Cedar Fair's) obsession with knowing numbers I am very surprised I have yet to see a turnstile added anywhere there wasn't one since the takeover. The cycles per day just seems way too inaccurate to be accepted in the offices now, unless KI's park operations has managed to stick to their way of counting riders.

One thing I certainly don't miss are the nights in Park Op redoing Scrambler's DOR because someone screwed up the hourly readings. One off and you had to hunt down the mistake.

Jeff said:
How does this matter to anyone?

It must matter to Kings Island since they made the announcement.

I was referring to the method for which they count.

Are there any maintenance schedules that are determined by number of riders (ex. oil change every 3,000 miles)?

If not I would guess that some might be determined by the number of ride cycles.

Under Paramount ownership their operating protocol was to count empty seats and subtract that from the theoretical hourly capacity to determine the amount of riders each day. This was years ago when I was there and I am sure it has probably changed now under Cedar Fair but you never know!

James Whitmore said:
Are there any maintenance schedules that are determined by number of riders (ex. oil change every 3,000 miles)?

If not I would guess that some might be determined by the number of ride cycles.

My recollection is maintenance requirements are based on manufacturer guidelines for daily, weekly, monthly, yearly inspection schedules, etc.

If they subtracted empty seat from theoretical capacity, The count would be way off. ;)

I find if fascinating that DB got a million riders during it's first season so easily. It probably wouldn't have happened with another coaster manufacturer, imo.

^Rock'it will pass a million by January...2011. ;)

Any big themepark knows on the hour how many riders either are in line or have been on the coaster

Same goes for any Wal Mart, Mc Donalds e.t.c. You will be counted knowingly or not

The guy assigning seats has a clicker, or at least he did through my last trip there (June.)

Those clickers are very, very accurate.

In promos like "millionth rider" it's probably not as specific as we'd like to think. The park, using general capacity statisitics, figures out about what day, maybe time, that it should/could happen. Then on that day they hang out, maybe start up some kind of random final countdown, and select the "lucky" customer. (Have you noticed these things usually go to a kid, or deserving family?)

In the end, no one (except, maybe, that 999,999th rider) really cares- it's all for publicity.

Once at Disney we were handed a card when we got in line with instructions to hand it to the loader. Rather simple, but it's their way of periodically measuring the wait time for stand-by, and in turn, I suppose, a way to adjust fast pass time, too. Those electronic eyes capture, to a good degree of accuracy, the total number of riders.

I always chuckle, knowing CP's penchant for numbers, when I see some kid take hold of the turnstile and give it a few good spins. Maybe it balances out with those that feel the need to jump over or duck under.

^i.e. ducking under Millennium Force's last row rail and thereby avoiding the turnstile like Jaime and I always do.