Seat Poaching on Coasters

I understand seat poaching shouldn't be allowed. But what about re-rides when there's no line or no one waiting for the row you were sitting in (of course only re-riding with the ride op's permission). I know a lot of parks allow re-rides under these conditions. But at my local Six Flags park just this year re-rides are completely banned. All rideops no longer allow you to re-ride, even if there's absolutely no one waiting in any of the gates on the platform. I don't really understand why this new policy has been started, but it happens to be enforced by a new head operation's director who came from SFGAm...

*** Edited 5/23/2004 9:37:27 PM UTC by Cameraman***

B, I have done a couple times on PKI's SOB. and I ahve just stayed in the seat on Top Gun for three rides in a row last october, because there was noone in the gate waiting.

I bring a really cute 10 year old with me and make her ask. :)

I've been guilty of the quiet, no permission sneak as described in A, B, and D a couple of times, but it's not standard practice for me.

I am more judicious (+4 ;) ) with my "rail jumping" at IB, though. I see lots of kids jump the rail and cut off a big group of people heading up the stairs...that's not nice. Jump the rail, fine, but let those people who are walking up pass you.

In response to Cameraman's post, things could get ugly when too many people try to get rerides in. On slow days, there are people that refuse to leave their seats even if someone is standing right there in their face waiting to get on. So I guess that they figured the best way to deal with that is to ban rerides all together.

The park may also want an accurate count for the number of riders for the day. Walking around to the queue again forces you to go through the turnstile for every ride.

However, some parks count only train dispatches rather than riders. I've sat in Cornball Express several times for the full 15 minutes before they dispatched the train because there weren't enough riders, as explained on signs in the station. The CE ride ops make you exit the station and don't allow immediate rerides, but they don't care if you hop the rail where the exit and entrance queues meet, and will actually wait for you if there are any empty seats.

I wish every queue had a easy way to get from the exit to the entrance queue when the lines are short. Raging Bull, Dueling Dragons and Titan come to mind as having nicely designed shortcuts, where Viper (SFGAm) and Boss have practically a 15-minute walk to get back in line.

By allowing re-rides, it leads to commotion at the station unless the station is empty. If you say yes to only people who dont have anybody waiting in their row, then others departing the train will try to jump into seats that are open. This maybe alright when you have only the front row with people waiting or what not, but what if you are on a train that has 13/15 rows full?

With that said, it doesnt hurt to ask. Last week, I was able to get an extra lap on Raging Bull this way, but it was also within the first 15 minutes the park was open.

Dawn....did you make Autumn ride the BACK row on GL at SFKK? ;)

Good girl! (Both of yous)...:)

I've created a monster. I even rode T2 with her 3 times in a row because she was getting such a kick out of it! :) Then DannyP and I left her in the station to seat poach...she's young enough to get away with it!

I agree with Rideman. I have only "poached" on one coaster and that is Roar (SFA) where it is allowed.

If the rules allow it, then it is fine so long as no one is trying to board before the airgates close. If the rules don't allow, it's never okay.

Sean
-who must admit that he was extremely tempted to do "B" on Lightning Racer yesterday-

I have no problem with any type of poaching if the seat would go out empty. Especially, as Homey said, if I had to travel long and hard to get to the ride. It doesn't make any sense to me to let rides go unhad, especially if I had to wait longer in line because people refuse to fill trains (which is so frustrating...especially watching three or four doubles go by themselves on a B&M because they didn't want to sit next to anyone). Especially on B&M's where there's almost a guarantee that there will be 4 or 5 empty seats per train. As long as you're civil about it (not racing onto the train and diving into the seat to beat the other poachers) and you're not messing with people who actually waited, I say go for it.

In the case of C, I say if they're not going to claim their seats (getting the ops to re-open the gates) then go for it.

I actually wonder if it helps the line to re-open the gates in situations like that. You're holding up a full train of people who're ready to go and only moving two people up by one train.

Another type of poaching that I like to engage in is the preferred row swap:

E: I almost always queue up for row 2 of Nitro (I'm usually there as a single) and wait for an empty in row 1. When I see it, I come through the gates, step to my left and hop into the empty in the front. No sense in letting that ride go unused. *** Edited 5/24/2004 5:02:41 PM UTC by ApolloAndy***

Performed A & B several times on Viper last Saturday at CBCon just before the park closed! Never have done C or D and I don't think I ever would. A & B though I would do anytime, especially on something with as long a queue as Viper.

EDIT: After reading ApolloAndy's little bit I have done option E on MANY occaisions. Most of the times I just yell at the op "you need a single up front?" and I get waved up. This happens a lot even when I'm back a bit in the line. I will also do this when I am waiting for the front row and I will still manage to get on four trains before I'm supposed to. *** Edited 5/24/2004 5:00:44 PM UTC by Kick The Sky***

I don't think I've poached during regular park hours, only during enthusiast events. My method is to look for single riders and take the empty seat if no one else in the queue is going to step up and take it.

Nackwhacker rules state that only one ride is necessary for a credit so why risk offending someone for another (no-credit) ride?

My name is Mike and I have been guilty of poaching. POACH, PowerridingObssesedAceCreditwHores

My wife and I had a very interesting experience at Knotts last year. We were both able to fit in Xcellerator, but only in one seat and only because of the generosity of the ride ops. Mind you, we WERE able to acheive the "inch of slack" required, so we were safe. It was a Tuesday, the day after Memorial day actually, and the park was "walk on". I rode first. The ops asked if I would like to ride again. I was flabergasted, they would allow me to ride again without getting out??? WOW. Now, there were very few people in line for the ride, and about half of the rows were empty. I did have a couple of folks who rode with me in the same row because they wanted to ride with someone who had "been on it before". He he... then it was my wife's turn. Great crew...

HOWEVER, I asked each and every time we got back to the station if it they needed me to get off to make room (again, there were many empty rows each time) and each time the ops said, "Go ahead and ride again if you wish." I did about six rounds before I decided I had had enough.

I would suggest that if there are empty rows INCLUDING YOURS that it is certainly OK to ask the ops if you can stay for another ride, but if they say you need to go around, then do it - no need to cause a scene. Poaching a seat is poaching a seat, even if the Queue is empty. But if you ask permission and the ops say go ahead, then I see nothing wrong with it. I think you'll find as I have that if you ask, 9 times out of 10, the ops will let you stay on - or even move to a different seat, if there is one available.

-Escher (Who STILL thinks highly of that great crew on Xcellerator - especially now that there is NO WAY someone my size would be allowed on that ride.)

I agree with Rideman. If the park allows you moving to empty rows, no problem. If they want you to walk around, hey I could use the extra trip up the stairs :)

Scenarios C and D are what I like to refer to as "Snaking". Basically it's camping out on the exit platform looking for an open seat. Again, if the park really doesn't care I have no problem with it, as long as you don't take someone else's seat. When you go that far, then I've got a problem. Someone mentioned a Scenario E about "upgrading" if there's an open seat in another row. Again, no problems here. Heck, some parks (CP namely) actively upgrade on some rides.

There's also a Scenario F where you are in a group that outnumbers the seats in front of you and it's one train operation. Part of the group rides first. When the second part of the group boards, there will be an empty seat which could be filled by a member of the first group. Should someone from your group get a double ride??

Many parks I've been to ask if there's a single or two riders to fill the train in circumstances you guys are describing. (ApolloAndy and KTS)

I dont think I've ever seen a B&M go out with 2 riders in a row on a day that trains are filling. Ride ops will often look for another pair to fill the row and usually when that's not happening the guests fill the rows using common sense.

For example, a pair of riders is up for the next train in. Behind them is a group of 4 riders together (three also works) and behind them me and a partner. The people in front of us will often turn around and ask if we'd like to jump ahead of them as they won't be getting on and we'd fit on the next train. I see this sort of thing happen all the time - more often than not.

I'm wondering what parks you guys are talking about where things are so unorganized and uncivilized that trains are running half empty with full queues, ride ops don't seem to care if the trains run empty or not and guests waiting to ride don't 'self regulate' it for the most part anyway.

With ride ops looking to fill seats and guests using common sense most of these seat poaching situations shouldn't even arise.

Lord G, if there is one complaint I have about Great America it is their tendancy to send out half empty trains with full queues. With four B&Ms in the park, that means 4 coasters with 4 across seating and many rows have two or three riders. Getting trains out without stacking is one thing. Filling the trains full is another thing that would increase capacity at that park greatly.

EDIT: Should specify. That is SIX FLAGS Great America! *** Edited 5/24/2004 5:56:39 PM UTC by Kick The Sky***

Add a single-riders line and there won't be any seats LEFT to "poach"....and no half-empty trains!

Oh, that's right, you all don't live in FL....:)

No, some of us were lucky enough to get out. ;)

Florida - America's Wang.

KTS - 3 people in a row of 4 is one thing. Single riders can be tough to dig up on the spot (without those wacky single rider lines native to Florida). But 2 riders in a row of 4 is totally unacceptable.

Kind of repeating myself, but between the ride ops and the guests themselves, 2 empty seats in a B&M row should get filled.

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Lord Gonchar said:

Kind of repeating myself, but between the ride ops and the guests themselves, 2 empty seats in a B&M row should get filled.

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And almost never do at SFGAm...