Cascades, Downtimes, and SGs

[Theme Park Where]

RnRC used to use a double grouper like EE but has since switched to a single. The double caused problems with large parties who would sometimes have to be distributed across the whole coaster because they wouldn't fit in just the front or back half. Convincing people that they will ride together even though they're in different lines was a challenge. It's also extremely loud in the RnR queue, so I think some of the load problems were with guests not hearing us at all. Another problem was with language. Groups of three were the biggest problem. Mom, Dad, and a kid who didn't speak much English wanted to ride together so they thought they had to be in the same gate together. The other big problem was with groups who were "together" but only told us they were 2 and 2 and 2, etc. We also had the back row as a frequent request, which made grouping fours difficult since you group from front to back and you usually weren't even across the coaster if someone specifically requested the last car. We did try to keep 3s and 4s together in the same car for photo purposes too, which adds another element to the mix. The single grouper seems to go more smoothly. We were frequently pulling 1s or 2s out of the queue from further back to make the lanes even for larger parties, and now the single rider line gives the grouper a quick fix to those types of problems.

[kurtisnelson]

I think they are back to double groupers again. They have someone up front that puts people in the right row there, so I think that counts.
I think the singles line solved some of those problems? It is still a really slow moving singles line.

[Yeti Chaser]

There are certain coordinators at Soarin' that are a little too obsessed with efficiency. A flight time under 9 minutes is easy, 7:30 can be tricky. There's always something (i.e. a guest) who's going to hold up a dispatch. The most important thing I think is to hurry them along without showing the urgency.

Okay, I just had to butt in in this one. When we opened the attraction in 2005, we had dispatch times of 7:30 or less. I was on that team. Had no issues with getting guests loaded and were able to answer questions. The 7:03 you had is attainable. Oh, I know I'm going to catch it for these comments, but it is Monday and anything goes.

BTW: We did all of this while maintaning the 4 Service Guidelines :D:

[CMGUY89]

Okay, I just had to butt in in this one. When we opened the attraction in 2005, we had dispatch times of 7:30 or less. I was on that team. Had no issues with getting guests loaded and were able to answer questions. The 7:03 you had is attainable. Oh, I know I'm going to catch it for these comments, but it is Monday and anything goes.

BTW: We did all of this while maintaning the 4 Service Guidelines :D:

Yes, yes we hear about how amazing the opening team was all the time. But also they recently implemented a new procedure which adds another 30-60 seconds onto dispatches after someone got locked in the theater. We have to do a "hold" walk after our "s" walk going up the side of the carriage ensuring the theater is clear. That is the majority of the reason that times have gotten worse since opening team.

[Euterpe]

I know nothing's ever as good as when you were there (I still like to think that the best CP's at Port Orleans' Food Court was Fall 2004:o :) , but between adding an extra walk, and with the ride becoming more popular, and therefore more busy, it's only logical that there will be more guest issues. Because no matter how much you hurry, how fast you run, there's always that one guest that forgets to put his kid's seat belt through the safety loop, and when you fix it, there are the 6 other people in that row that think that now they need the loop. There are still going to be the people who simply will not put their cameras away, or who ask you to take pictures of their family. There's the completely flawed Lost and Found system where people come in the exit and shuffle around trying to figure out where they sat. There's the group of 11 ECV's that come in, and we have to find places to put them all. It is possible to get a 7:30 flight, I'm just saying you need 87 competent guests, and little to no guest interaction.

I'm not the most positive person to talk to about the gates. I get panic attacks when I had to work the gates. I would much prefer to be Stand By, Fast Pass Distribution/Return, or Merge. I really like guest interaction.

[Syndrome]

Because no matter how much you hurry, how fast you run, there's always that one guest that forgets to put his kid's seat belt through the safety loop, and when you fix it, there are the 6 other people in that row that think that now they need the loop.

I remember riding once and being next to a mom and mini-aviator. Mom put the loop through the belt for herself and didn't even bother for the poor little kid!!

[EeyoresButterfly]

Dumbo was quite prone to SG issues. We group people two to an elephant except under certain circumstances (larger guests might get one, families with small children typically request to put three people in a Dumbo). We give each party a ticket, there is one ticket per Dumbo. We then explain the boarding pass procedure: place the ticket on the ear, no ticket, no Dumbo.

This is where things get interesting. Whenever I have a couple with a child that requests one Dumbo for three, I always remind them that Dumbo is a baby and therefore not that big. If they insist, I let them, most of the time they fit no problem. The issue comes when they decide it's really not big enough and try to split up. The other problem is teenagers and other groups wanting a Dumbo per person, but not telling us that. Whenever we have somebody with a boarding pass standing around, we have to find the Dumbo without it, and make a switch- this kills our OHRC.

The worst I had was a lady who came up the exit (verified by witnesses) who then parked herself and child in a Dumbo and tried to claim that I had failed to give her a boarding pass. There were a couple of issues with this:
1.) We had witnesses saying that she came up the exit
2.) I would have remembered seeing her in the line
3.) No guest spoke up and said she was in the line with them, and believe me, they will tell us when we are wrong.

She refused to get out (this was her last ride and then she was going home) so we had to call security. We were on hold for at least five minutes. Thankfully the coordinator and manager backed us up, especially since I was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt and offered to get her on in two rides. They called down to guest relations and made sure that they did not listen to this lady's story. It's always nice when GR backs us up. :twisted:

Philharmagic is also prone to SG issues- specifically if people do not walk all the way to the end of the row. I do not let guests climb over other guests (safety issue) and many times the guests will not do it anyway. I've had to hold the show numerous times because people could not get seated before the lights go out.

Snow White has some cascade issues, typically related to people being too slow. It's pretty bad now that there is no grouper, we have to try to group from the panel (which seems dangerous since it diverts our attention) and the guests don't pay attention. We also have lots of problems with little kids trying to run into the tracks which causes us to have to station stop the ride.

The other ride with cascade issues is Pooh. I feel very bad for guests with wheelchairs, it's darn near impossible to load the wheelchair honeypot without causing a cascade leading to an e-stop. It takes quite a bit of experience before you can do it. What really gets my goat is when CMs ignore the safety aspect of it to keep the ride from E-stopping. This typically means not strapping down the chair or not having the able bodied person sitting with them fasten their seatbelt. I know it is hard to get that seatbelt fastened, but if the ride stops and it is discovered that person went unbelted, you can be in some serious trouble. I would much rather have an auto e-stop than a safety violation.

There was one point when they considered taking out that honeypot due to OHRC issues (it takes awhile to load and is a frequent cause of downtimes due to problems with a switch.) I always hate it when they do that because people who cannot transfer have very few rides they can ride. There is also a problem with CMs hurrying the people and making them feel like and inconvenience. I know they don't do it on purpose, but we should never make a guest feel this way just because they need the wheelchair honeypot.

[hhsrat]

Snow White has some cascade issues, typically related to people being too slow. It's pretty bad now that there is no grouper, we have to try to group from the panel (which seems dangerous since it diverts our attention) and the guests don't pay attention. We also have lots of problems with little kids trying to run into the tracks which causes us to have to station stop the ride.

I believe they may be looking into removing a vehicle from the ride, so as to help minimize the cascades. (Still doesn't solve the problem of having no grouper, but that's a whole 'nother story ... and now they're trying to group at the Tea Cups ...)

[Big Wallaby]

The only time I've been on Snow White, the timings were messed up because the cars were so backed up. The audio didn't sync up at all and audio loops would often start as I was leaving the scene. I was rather unimpressed at that moment.

[Elena (aka: Bubble Lady)]

[font="Palatino Linotype"]aaarrrgggghhhh...while in a leg cast i caused peter pan to go down cuz it took me so long to get in the ship...i was so embarrassed...but then we did get to ride it with the lights on :) [/font]