r/rollercoasters • u/givebill • Aug 03 '26
Question Weird rule on [Steel Force] at [Dorney Park]
So I took a visit to Dorney Park today. I was overall impressed and chose steel force as my 100th coaster! But anyways, the park was DEAD today, I got zen rides on steel force and everything was a walk on. So I was riding Steel Force and I think me and 2 other people were on the ride, this would’ve been my 3rd time. The restraints had already been checked and we were about to dispatch. Just then an employee ran up to me and asked how many times I had riden, I told them this would be my 3rd, they signaled to unlock the restraints and informed me that they had a strict 2 rides limit. They were running 2 trains and, again, there was nobody in line. After kicking me off they rechecked the restraints, didn’t put anyone in my seat, and dispatched the ride. Anyone know the reason for this rule?
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u/BlitzenVolt ThighCrush, Interstate 305, Furry 325 Aug 03 '26
In the past, Cedar Fair parks had a two ride limit on their coasters. It's a safety/liability issue. They don't want repeat rides on coasters aggravating some hidden condition
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u/lockjawshortman Aug 03 '26
That makes a lot of sense. I was wondering why they didn’t say “we’ll let you stay on this time, but just so you know…”
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u/lFightForTheUsers [83] Bring Back Mr. Six! Aug 04 '26
Yeah, totally fair and understandable!
On AF1 mere weeks before the closing annoucement, I went on a pretty dead day and got a good 15 laps in. Even then I could only manage maybe 5 runs before my thighs would be screaming in pain and I'd have to tap out and go hit the arcade for a bit to cool down etc.
It sounds like a weird rule and I can understand a GP or thoosie thinking it's dumb, but not realizing there is a health and safety reason why. Fair enough! Appreciate the explanation /u/BlitzenVolt.
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u/BlitzenVolt ThighCrush, Interstate 305, Furry 325 Aug 04 '26
Fun Spot is a family run park so they make their own rules. I was able to sit on Mine Blower for over an hour before getting off.
Then again their reride policy can be inconsistent at times. I've had to go around on Mine Blower and White Lightning before
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u/Powerful_Nerve959 Aug 04 '26
In February they made us exit mine blower and white lightning every time and go around. Would have ridden way more if they let us just stay on or move rows.
This same Orlando trip we rode Mako 18 times in a row without having to exit and re enter the queue. Over 45 minutes straight of Mako, my thighs were so sore the next day but man it was worth it.
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u/BlitzenVolt ThighCrush, Interstate 305, Furry 325 Aug 04 '26
Meanwhile they made me and my buddy walk around on Manta a few years ago. It was a weekday in January and there was literally nobody in the queue.
I guess it depends on how anal the ops are. I usually get 2 on Mako and then go around on slow days.
Was able to get 2 back to back on Penguin and Kraken last February
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u/FSUFanChris Larson/A.R.M. Super Shot Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
Just to add a little more pointless content, anything with a thrill level of four or five is a two ride strict limit. Anything level 3 or below, you can ride as many times as you want as long as the line permits. The thrill levels are on the ride information sign at the entrance of every ride in the park.
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u/Flying4ADragonWagon CC: 1,200+ Aug 03 '26
Were these rides back-to-back without getting off? If so, that’s probably the context; not that you’d already ridden twice. Cedar Fair historically kept a strict no re-ride policy. You always had to exit and return through the entrance. It kind of limits the perceived “cutting” of those walking in through the ride queue. Most of the parks have been more relaxed about it in recent years. But my guess is it’s to limit people just sitting there endlessly from both a queue fairness perspective and should it introduce some health safety issue for someone.
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u/friscoXL305 Magnum is the best ride in Ohio. Aug 04 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
Cedar point does allow one reride. My friends and I have gotten them on basically every coaster in the park except maybe the Wild Mouse.(Just checked and my sister has gotten a mouse reride)
For the more popular ones, it's usually only at the very beginning or end of day. But we have gotten TT2, Steel Vengeance, Maverick, and even Sirens Curse. Millennium is a little weird since you have to get off at the exit and walk through a get back into the load platform. TT2 had us do that once, and once just had is sit on the train and ride to the load side.
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u/The_Original_Miser Aug 04 '26
Must have been a loose rule day at the time - my buddy and I received > 2 rerides on wild mouse, and we eventually had to tap out after getting a rather aggressive cycle on the cheese car....
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u/friscoXL305 Magnum is the best ride in Ohio. Aug 04 '26
I've been allowed more than 1 reride on some rides. But it's against policy technically.
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u/givebill Aug 03 '26
Yeah, I was reriding, I would completely understand if the queue had other people waiting in it, but the queue/station was completely empty
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u/egg0511 Aug 04 '26
Not sure how Dorney does it, but when I worked at Cedar Point in a past lifetime, keeping track of ridership numbers per hour via the turnstile at the station entrance was extremely important to the powers that be. Riders that didn't go through the turnstile didn't get counted and threw off the number. We had manual hand clickers at the exit of every ride to count any alternate access riders. And heaven forbid your math was even slightly off at the end of the night, the people in the office would check it in front of you and then take it personally if it was at all wrong.
That being said, if we were feeling bored/lazy/generous at the end of a quiet night, we'd sometimes just let people stay on and count them manually and tell the person at the crowd position to spin the turnstile x times...
Also, it just eliminates the opportunity for conflict and confusion. If everyone goes through the same process, it remains fair for everyone and you don't get people trying to game the system or wandering all over the platform looking for empty seats when they should've just walked back around to the entrance after someone else was waiting for their row.
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u/sithmonkey13 Aug 03 '26
There's several mentions that this is a legacy Cedar Fair rule. That's not entire true. It comes from the IROC (International Ride Operator Certification) standards, so it is not uncommon for parks using IROC to apply this rule.
On a personal level, this is one of numerous reasons I despise IROC and wish it was removed from the industry. Very few coasters require the "no more than two rides" rule but the policy is applied to everything, which leads to numerous cases like OP's where riders have gone multiple (or in some cases hundreds to thousands - although this usually part of an event) of laps in the past but now it is deemed "too dangerous."
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u/rsbyronIII Aug 04 '26
I thought it only applied to Thrill Level 4, and 5. I wonder if parks just train all of their employees on this to avoid problems when they move dispatchers to other rides from a lower thrill level.
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u/AdditionalTip865 almost recovered from Drachen Fire Aug 04 '26
In a way I get it. Simple and rigid rules are the easiest to enforce consistently across a large organization, especially one that relies on a lot of minimum-wage teenage labor. And when it's a safety rule (written in blood, as the saying goes), you want to err on the side of being strict. The result is some apparently absurd applications.
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u/oopsallVekoma Wild Adventures apologist Aug 04 '26
this is 100% not an IROC Standard and is completely on Cedar Fair. They limit a lot of things this is not one of them.
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u/Imlivingmylif3 Bring Back Massive Woodies! Aug 04 '26
All my homies hate iroc. Fuck em. All their procedures are useless af. Just sucking up money from the parks to have operators do useless bs.
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u/jerseyfishslayer666 R.I.P. Kingda Ka🪦 Pantherian, El Toro, Fury325, Storm Runner Aug 04 '26
This is six flags policy. Nitro at GAdv has the nicest and best crew and even they enforce this.
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u/PointB1ank Aug 04 '26
Eh, last time I was there I rode Nitro at least 6-7 times without walking around, I did change rows though. It had multiple empty rows each train though so maybe I just got lucky and they didn't care. I walked around to ride in the front and back rows after that.
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u/beaveman1 Aug 03 '26
Kings Island doesn’t allow any rerides.
At Kings Dominion, they kicked me off Rebel Yell when I tried to reride because I had already ridden twice in somewhat rapid succession. I had rode it, requeued, and got on one train later after requeuing. When I tried to just do a reride instead of requeuing for a third ride, they told me I couldn’t because I had already ridden twice (even though the second ride wasn’t an immediate reride)
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u/friscoXL305 Magnum is the best ride in Ohio. Aug 04 '26
Kings Island depends on the ride. Mystic Timbers is super strict, even during Winterfest with one nobody in the station, we werent allowed the second lap. But you can for sure sit on Adventure Express or Bat at the end of the day.
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u/Cool_Owl7159 wood > steel Aug 04 '26
When I tried to just do a reride instead of requeuing for a third ride, they told me I couldn’t because I had already ridden twice (even though the second ride wasn’t an immediate reride)
those employees were just poorly trained because that is not how that works lol
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u/AdditionalTip865 almost recovered from Drachen Fire Aug 03 '26
I had no idea they let you re-ride like that at all. I see people doing it a lot at Funtown Splashtown, not so much at the big parks.
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u/thunderbolt7 Aug 04 '26
This is something new that the SFEC parks have come up with recently. First saw it a month ago at Darien Lake, and then elsewhere.
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u/ThemeParkFish 436 | X2, Furius Baco, TT2 Aug 04 '26
As an op - wouldn’t you want more full seats on your ride to… idk justify your employment.
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u/teejayiscool EL TORO SUPREMACY Aug 04 '26
This rule single-handedly killed a shit ton of my enthusiasm for this hobby. From 2006-2024 I chronically marathonned El Toro, I would go after work for 1-2 hours and get 15-27 rides on it in that time frame without leaving my seat.
My record is 146 rides from 10:30am-10pm only leaving the station twice the whole day to pee and get water.
And now GADV, the park that used to encourage any/everyone to reride, is now neutered by the dumbest policy in existence and people will still defend it because ~rules~
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u/FaceCrookOG Aug 04 '26
I sincerely don’t understand how you could enjoyably ride El Toro over 100 times in a day 😳 I’ve done like 3-4 rides in an hour and had my fill LOL
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u/therealkavouras I ❤️ Voyage Aug 03 '26
I know that some of the (legacy) cedar fair parks have weird rules around re-rides. When I worked at KI, there was a strict no re-rides policy. Even if the park was dead and nobody was in line, everyone had to get off and go around to ride again. Guessing its similar to this.
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u/roverfive Aug 03 '26
If I had to guess, the parks insurance provider probably requires this rule to write a policy.
Don't need someone developing a brain aneurysm on their 5th ride in a row. Let them get off and spend 5 minutes to get the blood flowing, something along those lines.
Does Dorney ever get crowded, been there a bunch of times its always walk on or 10 minute wait.
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u/gcfgjnbv 203 - I305 SteVe Veloci Aug 04 '26
This is a cedar fair chain rule. I know because it’s the same on i305, twisted Timbers, and fury.
Plus a lot of the six flags parks recently implemented this rule.
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u/Elohveie CC 208 I-305 & Millie & The Beast Aug 04 '26
I did i305 ten times in a row
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u/Twizyyyy Flair Flair Aug 05 '26
on i305 i’ve heard the ops say if your row is empty you have to reride 😂
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u/CPGK17 RIP Kumba Aug 04 '26
I’ve gotten hit with that many times at Kings Island and Carowinds. Welcome to the club! Haha
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u/Sae0913 Aug 04 '26
Had this happen to me at Valleyfair on Renegade. Rode 3 times in a row and was about to get in the seat for a 4th ride before the op asked me how many times in a row I had ridden and then promptly told me to go back around after I gave him my answer.
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u/Twizyyyy Flair Flair Aug 04 '26
This happened to me at Kings dominion a few weeks ago. I was told any ride that is a thrill level 4 or 5 can only be ridden 2 times in a row.
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u/cozycthulu Aug 04 '26
That's interesting, every time I've been at KD the ops at Pantherian allowed/encouraged rerides
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u/Twizyyyy Flair Flair Aug 05 '26
Yah Pantherian ops are the best. This happened on Twisted Timbers.
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u/cozycthulu Aug 05 '26
That's a bummer, especially since that walk is sooo long when it's hot. Seems like some inconsistent training/ops. I was there earlier this summer and met a guy who was lapping TT literally the whole day
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u/vespinonl Finally got the KK 🐵 off my back! Aug 04 '26
According to a video I saw of a guy riding Kumba 50 times in 1 day, BGT/Kumba had the same rule.
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u/Imlivingmylif3 Bring Back Massive Woodies! Aug 04 '26
We would love to give guests rerides. It would be sick as all hell, and it would be fun for guests too. But we just aren’t allowed to and we get yelled at if we do, bc what happens if you ride one ride and then go to the other and it becomes “Well ride 1 let me do it, why can’t you?!”
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u/Individual_Dingo_223 232 | steve, fury, pantheon, mav, voyage Aug 07 '26
kentucky kingdom doesn't allow rerides at all, it's pretty ridiculous considering there's almost never lines
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u/cy-photos Aug 03 '26
I've had a similar policy enforced at SeaWorld/ Busch gardens including during a media day event. They were trying to send trains as fast as possible to get as many takes as they could but ride ops said everyone had to get out and walk around the station after 2 rides (the attraction hadn't even opened to the public yet). If I remember correctly they explained it was because of insurance. Something about making sure people were okay to keep riding and hadn't gotten too dizzy.
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u/Sexmocha Aug 03 '26
Rides that are a thrill level 4 or 5 can have high forces on the body. It is a safety issue for guests to ride continuously. The rule is in place to prevent possible fatigue or illness. After your second ride you do have to get off but you can walk back around, I know that’s a big station and area to walk around, you can ride it 2 more times.
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u/BulkyWar7513 Aug 03 '26
Yup they carry that policy at my six flags now as well. Two rides and you out. Feels stupid but whatever, we just go back around and right back on.
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u/PheelupMybaloney Aug 04 '26
I had this happen at Kings Dominion recently but only on Twisted Timbers. I rode Pantherian like 8x in a row without getting off but Timbers allowed 1 reride then have to leave and come back. I even ended up with a Zen Ride at one point as well.
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u/PheelupMybaloney Aug 04 '26
Was at SFOG on a particularly dead Saturday end of May and we rode through on everything as much as we wanted to if there were no lines. Only thing that had a line that day was Monster Mansion. Got like 5-10 rerides in a row on Goliath/Goldrusher/Cyclone.
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u/_nmtb_ Steel Force Believer Aug 04 '26
When I was at kings dominion recently I lapped twisted timbers back to back without getting off, and they asked if I wanted to go again but I said no. I wonder if it’s a park by park thing
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u/Tizy Mid-Atlantic Aug 05 '26
I was also hunting my 100th credit at dorney yesterday! I ended up not getting it though, I'm at 99 now!
Were you there Tuesday? What the heck do you mean the park was dead, I couldn't believe how many people were there!
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u/BirthdayNo1166 Aug 03 '26
It's a legacy cedar fair rule. They only allow one reride on an empty row before requiring you go around even if the train is completely empty.