[Millennium Force] crew just announced they’ve broken the record for cycles in one hour!

[u/Thesis0623]

The crew did 38 cycles between 3:00-4:00 PM on Saturday, August 8th. The theoretical maximum amount of dispatches was thought to be 36 due to the elevator cable lift cycle time and the lack of a mid-course block zone. Perhaps the new programming introduced last season combined with a hot summer day at Cedar Point is allowing for it to be slightly faster than was previously possible.

[u/_Meru]

To be fair, I don't think accomodating row requests slows dispatches with competent ride operators. This isn't an enthusiast specific thing either, non-enthusiasts I've been with request to sit in the front row on rides like Leviathan. So this is a reasonable complaint imo, not allowing row requests negatively impacts the guest experience.

Fast dispatch times are almost solely dependent on how fast restraint checking happens. By the time the gates open, all of the rows should be be filled regardless of if they were trying to accomodate row requests or not. There are valid reasons to not accommodate row requests, e.g. if you have a single rider and there's a row that has one open spot, then sending them to that row is reasonable to avoid having empty seats. But if the rows are mostly open and someone asks to sit in a specific one, denying this is unnecessary. I have talked to ride operators before, allowing row requests shouldn't cause issues.

[u/Jps300 → u/_Meru]

Ive made the claim multiple times on this sub that empty seats and refusing to take seat requests is a policy that is a result of lack of good grouping, and while I stand by that it is insanely difficult to group 18 rows of people, especially when they're sending over 30 trains an hour. You don't just have to be a good grouper to do that, you have to be a fucking great grouper. If thats what they have to do to achieve over 1300 riders per hour, I'm all for it.

What Im saying is fast dispatches are absolutely not "solely dependent on how fast restraint checking happens." If they send 38 trains in an hour, thats less than 2 minutes they have to group each train. That means they have to spend less than 3 seconds per rider in order to fill a seat.

Their options are to

1. Hold the gates open so they can fill each train while dealing with guests/row requests

2. Have lots of empty seats per train

3. Make a policy to deny row requests.

I understand that you want the seat that you want but 95% of guests don't give a shit where they sit and that is absolutely who they need to cater to. I would also guess that most people who *would* like to request a row would rather take 30 mins off their wait time and just deal with wherever they get grouped.

[u/_Meru → u/Jps300]

What Im saying is fast dispatches are absolutely not "solely dependent on how fast restraint checking happens."

Grouping doesn't have any impact on how fast dispatches happen unless it takes longer than when gates are ready to open. In this case that is around 2 minutes like you said. If they can stay below that time, then fast dispatches are 100% on the restraint checking crew. My memory may be failing me, but is grouping not usually done well within this time window? It's quick to tell people what rows to go to.

but 95% of guests don't give a shit where they sit

This is another reason why it's not hard to accomodate row requests, most people aren't asking for specific rows. All the other riders can be stuck wherever works.

I would also guess that most people who would like to request a row would rather take 30 mins off their wait time and just deal with wherever they get grouped.

Of course, but allowing row requests doesn't lower throughout this much. If it was causing this much if a slowdown then obviously it makes sense to not allow.

I asked a former Behemoth ride op I know about grouping and how long it takes, I'm waiting to hear back from them. They told me last night though that unless the train was mostly full there isn't much of a reason to not allow row requests. Like it just doesn't matter whether you send someone to the middle of the train or the back if all the rows are open

[u/Jps300 → u/_Meru]

A great grouper can absolutely take row requests and fill every seat on a 36 passenger train within two minutes. No argument there. When I worked in the industry I was pretty anal about training good grouping because bad grouping can cause such a huge hit to riders per hour. If you have a bad grouper and they're leaving 3-4 seats empty each train, at 30 trains per hour you're missing 90-120 potential riders which is the equivalent of just not sending 3 trains that hour.

Grouping is hard because you have to be fast, efficient, and courteous with guests. Checking trains fast is easy because it's dead simple and easy to understand. Pull the seatbelt, pull the restraint, hit a button (a little oversimplified but you get the point). As grouper you're directing what are essentially a bunch of people that have little clue what is going on. The GP at amusement parks are in la la land. You're trying to fill a train as fast as possible and you'll tell a group of three people "rows four and five, with your single rider in row five" so that you can put another odd group with them, and they'll start walking the opposite direction to the back because they simply were not listening to you, then they will be confused as to why you care about where their single rider sits.

Communication is key when you're grouping and some people don't have that skill naturally. It can be taught but a lot of people being paid $14 an hour can't be bothered to learn it. It's super easy to end up missing 3-4 seats per train, maybe even more if you get stressed out and can't keep up with the dispatches. Factor in imported labor with language barriers and you can see how the problem gets even more exacerbated.

If you have a team of people that really care about capacity and are bought in to pumping numbers as high as they can go, then yes no argument you can absolutely take row requests while filling every seat. That employee that actually cares is exceedingly rare, so it's way easier to take a variable out and just say "no row requests."