Six Flags Over Texas new que for New Texas Giant

[BBH]

This ridiculous procedure could have been avoided if they changed the Gerstlauer trains to RMC ones in the offseason. Hopefully this is just a temporary measure until they do so.


Posted while reading your mind.

 

[Ian]

What a silly, knee-jerk reaction. It's like having a briefing before going in one of those Lazer-Quest games. Tbh, it would make more sense to have a cut-out shaped as the maximum size of a rider. Every guest has to walk through that. If they can't get through, then they can console themselves with a free bag of donuts or something.

It's about time being fat was discouraged like smoking and drinking is. If you choose to overeat /don't excerise, then you forfiet your chance to ride a rollercoaster. Don't accommodate larger riders and then there would be no need for these pathetic procedures and less chance of an accident.

 

[Tomatron]

Another one for the **** ridiculous camp. That's what you get when you nuture a lack of personal responsibility for how to look after yourself and a blame for a claim culture.

Just one day in Holland has cemented even more how society should function. I'll get on that later on my trip report from today.

 

[caffeine_demon]

Or the family guy rule:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaZxXoR2JuA[/youtube]

 

[rollermonkey]

Oddly enough, yes I have been to a theme park, which is exactly why I suggested the above techniques. Whilst it remains shocking that you still have to kick 20 people off a day, compared to the throughput of larger guests over the day, the fraction of guests who do indeed act irreverent of the signs is comparatively small, showing that the signs do work to an extent. Since you've made the point that the signs are 'as blatant as you can get', how much more blatant would the new NTG procedure be? You cannot guarantee everyone will be listening in a group of 10-15, just like it is in the classroom. Therefore, most of the methods I suggested would be equally effective in both communication and safety.

Remember this is not about how the primary restraints are checked nor getting rid of seatbelts completely. I'm talking about lap bars here; in OSTRs, the belt and restraint are one integrated package. I'm not advising the complete ditching of any kind of checking, merely saying all the operators should do is check the primary restraint, and before that occurs, they should be asked to buckle up and pull on their seatbelts themselves, saving a great deal of time and effort where the ops need not go back and forth checking seatbelts, waiting, then checking restraints. It is for this reason that Scorpion dispatches more quickly than Gwazi.

You need to work in a park.

You will quickly realize that some 90% of guests leave their brains in the parking lot, along with the ability to read or comprehend verbal instruction.

The percentage of guests that read safety signs in the queue, for all intents and purposes is ZERO.

I've worked at 6FGAm and Wild Waves, and for liability reasons, almost no park will ever permit guests to self check ANY restraints, primary or secondary. Apparently Hershey is an exception (I never noticed in my several trips there) and I know that there are many rides at Disney parks where the attendants never do physical restraint checks.

In a perfect world, guests would be responsible and pay attention to signage and safety spiels, and comply with all of it, with no further guidance, but the reality is that the typical behavior is to ignore all of it, and do whatever the heck they feel like.

Lawyers and insurance companies are the motivations towards more and more ridiculous safety requirements, such as separate physical checks of seat belts and lap bars, when simultaneously physically checking one while visually checking the other is/was the standard for many years at non-Disney parks.

As for asking guests to pull on a restraint, some places this works, others, it's just too dang loud to get the message through and you end up having to do it yourself anyways.

I dunno. I wish it was easier to do all this, but between the dumbing down of America, the decrease in personal responsibility and the increased propensity to sue for the smallest imagined slight, it's going to get a lot worse before it ever gets better.

 

[bmac]

I've worked at 6FGAm and Wild Waves, and for liability reasons, almost no park will ever permit guests to self check ANY restraints, primary or secondary. Apparently Hershey is an exception (I never noticed in my several trips there)

I went there a few weeks ago and they actually touched my restraints on Skyrush! It was only two fingers but compared to last year they just looked at it and said I was good to go.

In a perfect world, guests would be responsible and pay attention to signage and safety spiels, and comply with all of it, with no further guidance, but the reality is that the typical behavior is to ignore all of it, and do whatever the heck they feel like.

God I wish it was like this, I really do. There's been a few times where people have hopped the air gates at Bizarro to either ride with their friends or get back in line without leaving the station and we have to stop our cycles, verbally call them out, and then kick them off the ride. It happened three different times today with me and a group of girls I kicked off the ride had the biggest **** eating grins on their faces like they won a prize or something. I wish we were allowed to publicly shame these people, but that's not politically correct so we can only nicely tell them what they're doing wrong, hope to god they listen, and then kindly kick them off the ride and hope they don't find guest relations because they're 'always right.'

 

[rollermonkey]

One day I called security on a guy who was hanging off the side of my station building doing chin-ups.

Never mind that this was Raging Bull, which station is about 35 feet above ground level with nothing but rocks below.

We ought to have a thread here for current and former ride-ops to tell our stories of stupid guests... It would be hysterical, and nobody would ever suggest that guests are part of any solution concerning throughput.

 

[caffeine_demon]

Can anyone confirm whether this is actually policy now, or is this just another OTT story made up by someone?

 

[bmac]

It's actually currently apart of NTG's policy, Lance even posted a picture on screamscape about it.

 

[ECG]

It was policy but while the mandatory test seat fitting is still required for everyone who wants to ride the coaster, they have stopped the grouping and safety speeches. People just get in the test seat, a buzzer sounds if you fit and you are waived on into the main queue area, which has sped things up quite a bit. Meanwhile in the station, everyone just gets in their seats and fastens their seat belts, then ride ops come to put down and check each lapbar and done. Gone is the stapling and double check of the entire train for seat belt then lap bar. So yay for a more common sense approach.

 

[gavin]

Spoilsports.

One of the best things about amusement parks is watching shameless gluttons being made to haul their behemoth-like arses back out of the train while everyone in the station stares and tuts.

 

[bmac]

One of the best things about amusement parks is watching shameless gluttons being made to haul their behemoth-like arses back out of the train while everyone in the station stares and tuts.

I happily invite you to sit in El Toro's station for a while and suggest you bring some popcorn. We specifically call out their car and then if they're even more unlucky after the stapling they get to do the walk of shame.

 

[Intricks]

So what your saying is, you shame them by blatantly calling them out on their gluttenous belly jiggles?

Yay! I get to experience some basic form of human interaction! Weeeee! :3

In all seriousness though, I typically head straight to the test seat, unless I've ridden it while slightly thicker in the thighs when going on anything with a lap restraint. I honestly dont see why other people dont have the common sense to do just that.

 

[bmac]

So what your saying is, you shame them by blatantly calling them out on their gluttenous belly jiggles?

We don't directly shame them but when the car number is called out they usually realize that they're the one causing the issue. When only one attendant checks usually it's fine but if it's two or more or the supervisor comes and explains to them then it really becomes an indirect shaming since all the attention is just focused on them. There's no hiding in El Toro's station instead of say like Batman where the trains can obscure most of the other guest's views bar the people sitting right behind the air gates for your row.

I honestly dont see why other people dont have the common sense to do just that.

Everyone is always in a rush, that's one reason why it's an issue. The only people I've really seen use test seats are the ones who are fully aware that they're large, and don't mind if they're too big to ride. When the line is relatively short people tend to just walk by without even looking at all the nice red and white signs and end up getting told by the entrance person to put their stuff in a locker, heck half the time with me I have to tell them 2 or 3 times and then I end up getting a "you mean me?" and sometimes a **** excuse as to why they should be able to bypass the rules. When the line is long and really starts at the entrance most people notice that the test seat is there and that they should try it. I've also noticed that if the test seats get removed tons of people ask if they could use a test seat like we'll just magically pull one out of our ass or something.

 

[caffeine_demon]

And don't forget that sometimes, the test seats aren't totally accurate.

Also - If it's an "unmanned" test seat - and I'm borderline on the don't fit side, and I think the ride op may be able to shove the restraint down enough, I'm joijning the queue and taking my chances!

 

[Intricks]

I fit the test seat of Bizarro (SFNE), and still required a small shove for it to register as good. I also fit the Diamondback test seat and required a Hulk Hogan leg drop to get it to read as good. So there small variations between test and actual ride seat.

 

[NAPayne31]

And don't forget that sometimes, the test seats aren't totally accurate.

Also - If it's an "unmanned" test seat - and I'm borderline on the don't fit side, and I think the ride op may be able to shove the restraint down enough, I'm joijning the queue and taking my chances!

Some test seats have the locking mechanism that you can engage for accuracy. The best example for this is at Busch Gardens Tampa with Cheetah Hunt.

 

[AJ]

No obligatory seat testing of any kind a few weeks back #justsaying

 

[gavin]

They should just weigh people at the entrance and send the obese people straight to the nearest buffet restaurant.

It'll save them the embarrassment of trying to get on stuff; it's for their own good and they'll be happier anyway.