SFDL Complaints and Praises

I was at Darien Lake the other day, and it wasn't one of the better days at the park. I was thrilled Superman was open, but when my brother, who has been on Superman before, as well as the front seat of Millennium Force AND Dragster (he's 7), was refused a ride on Superman because for some damn reason they change the height requirement to 54 inches.

Now I realize he can't go on beemers because of their 54 inch requirement. I under stand that, that is what it is designed for. But it really pisses me off when a park does not go by the manufactuered height requirement. The ride was designed to allow those who are 48 inches to ride. WHY NOT? Raise the requirement by 6 inches?

When I was told that, I got mad, not at the ride op because it wasn't his fault, but it sorta set for a bad day. I mean Superman isn't 1/10 as intense as Dragster.

Well luckily, even with the queue have full, i almost fainted when i saw 2 trains running. Not only that but the crew was flying!!! They were comprised of a bunch of german guys mainly who just were running running running checking lapbars, undoing seatbelts when the train returned, and helping people lower lapbars and checking them fast. Good work. There was stacking for about 10 seconds not because they were too slow but because the new restraints suck. However, they did a great job all things considering.

Now to the worst...so i wanted to go on Mind Eraser with my brother since he got screwed with Superman...we stand for 20 minutes and move about 5 feet. For those of you who don't know, there are queue lines going back and forth in the station...and it was out of the station. No big deal right? Well there was one train operation :( and the ride ops were SO FREAKING SLOW. They just stand there, take their time walking down the side of the train. For at least five minutes I saw a guy in front of the 1st car just standing their looking into the distance...somethings got to be done...

Whats the driving force behind good ride ops and bad ride ops?

Also what do you think about the new height requirement..

Thanks for listening to my ranting, please comment.

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Ride of Steel said:
Whats the driving force behind good ride ops and bad ride ops?

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This has been discussed many times, my opinion has always been management.

I would imagine the new height requirements came along with the new lapbar designs and safety requirements.
*** Edited 7/15/2004 2:39:14 AM UTC by eightdotthree***

Are you saying that management told the sros ride ops to be fast and the Mind Eraser ops to be slow? Or are some being paid more than others?

The new height requirement is SF's excuse to prove to the state that the rid is safe. If a 48 incher has ridden for the past, what like 6 years? I think that they can ride now. The ride has only gotten slower.

THANK YOU CP FOR HAVING APPROPRIATE HEIGHT REQUIREMENTS.

I believe most Cedar Fair parks actually have higher height requirements than what are provided by the manufacturer in many cases. Didn't the height requirements at Geauga Lake for some rides go up this year? I must wonder why the height requirement was raised on this and not Millennium Force though.

Millennium Force's was originally 54 inches.I'm assuming because even though it was designed to be 48 inches, they didn't belive intamin until after the first year or so, and then they changed it to 48 inches.

But Dragster being less than Superman? Dragster's seats are designed for bigger riders to begin with.

Doesn't make sense

The Giga/Hyper coaster seats (smaller ones) are designed for 48 inches.

The Rocket Coaster seats which are bigger are designed for 52 inches.

Enough said.

Again off topic, but some workers want to work and others don't; I think it is that simple.

I worked at a call center for over 4.5 years. The typical expectancy for any person at the job was only a few months because of the things people had to put up with. But, I stuck through it for 4.5 years and continously was receiving awards and special perks for my effort and doing a job well-done.

Most of the others figured it was a paycheck and they would leave after they got the car paid off or to pay for a vacation they wanted. We are talking about high-school kids and college kids here.

Management at that call center was extremely bad. I know I was called into the office several times; everytime for BAD news; never good news. Every time I was told that they would have had to fire somebody over something I did but since I was a good employee, they would just write me up. Bulls**t like that.

With proper training, incentives, perks, and friendliness of management themselves I believe this CAN and WILL turn those hateful employees into eager working employees.