Busch Gardens Williamsburg Project 2023: DarKoaster (Multi-Lap Intamin Straddle Coaster)

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Since they can't launch the train until the other is off the course, it is possible that they were just filling time.
 
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CoasterAuditor said:
I have to think this ride would have benefitted tremendously from an exit platform of some kind to allow a third train.
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It depends on what the theoretical minimum dispatch interval is and how close the crew is currently getting to it. If unload and load is taking about the same amount of time as the min interval, an unload station wouldn't help at all (or maybe even hurt depending on whether or not the ride has multi-move and how long trains take to park).

It seems to me like the real issue here was that they went with such low capacity trains. The straddle trains are enormous. They could have easily doubled the capacity of the coaster by simply selecting a different train design. Hell, probably could have even been cheaper trains—maybe with on ride audio. I think the straddle trains are turning out to have been a very silly move.

Speaking of capacity, someone on Twitter used Dispatch Timer to give us some actual data this afternoon!

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Needless to say, brutal. Now the question is, what's the theoretical max and how close is the crew currently running to that max?
 
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Nicole said:
Since they can't launch the train, until the other is off the course, it is possible that they were just filling time.
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One ride late at night we were waiting stopped at end of ride waiting for the other train to dispatch while they were doing “are you ready to ride”.

Another time eater I witnessed was a small girl was loaded, all
seats checked, ready to go then they unlocked the harnesses to check her height. Thing is there was no where to check it so with her parents on the train they sent her off the ride to walk somewhere down the loading steps looked like somewhere near where you used to get the 3D glasses to get checked again.
 
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Hopefully this is true. The portrait could be switched to a preshow every couple of minutes. I wonder if the lighting in the queue will be similar to DarKastle's when technical rehearsal is over.

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Mr_porkchop21 said:
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Hopefully this is true. The portrait could be switched to a preshow every couple of minutes. I wonder if the lighting in the queue will be similar to DarKastle's when technical rehearsal is over.

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Hopefully it will be more stuff coming because it just feels like something is missing and I wonder too because I asked a worker today about the lights and he said they’re going to stay on, but I guess it’s just for the technical rehearsal
 
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Tankb4real said:
They really think people are going to stop and read that little sign is hilarious to me they should’ve just went with a pre show smh
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I agree that a preshow might have been better, but I still really like that they included this plaque. It at least tells the basic DarKastle story. I like that it’s a clear callback to DarKastle because as far as I can tell, it’s a nearly word-for-word, albeit abridged, retelling of CODK’s original preshow script. It makes me happy to see that story being told at the park again. A couple of additional thoughts this gives me:

- It looks like they added a new bit to the original story about a winter storm descending on the castle, freezing it in time. The “frozen in time” part is of course one of the most memorable lines from CODK, but I don’t remember a winter storm being mentioned as the cause. Seems like a logical and fitting update to the original story to tie in the “storm” setting of DarKoaster.

- The plaque seems to further complicate the theory that BGW lost the rights to most of CODK’s IP. If they’re able to reuse the preshow script almost word-for-word, what else do they still have the rights to use?
 
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Mushroom said:
I agree that a preshow might have been better, but I still really like that they included this plaque. It at least tells the basic DarKastle story. I like that it’s a clear callback to DarKastle because as far as I can tell, it’s a nearly word-for-word, albeit abridged, retelling of CODK’s original preshow script. It makes me happy to see that story being told at the park again. A couple of additional thoughts this gives me:

- It looks like they added a new bit to the original story about a winter storm descending on the castle, freezing it in time. The “frozen in time” part is of course one of the most memorable lines from CODK, but I don’t remember a winter storm being mentioned as the cause. Seems like a logical and fitting update to the original story to tie in the “storm” setting of DarKoaster.

- The plaque seems to further complicate the theory that BGW lost the rights to most of CODK’s IP. If they’re able to reuse the preshow script almost word-for-word, what else do they still have the rights to use?
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Haven't ridden yet, but I've seen clips of the portrait and it seems very cool. I don't think moving it is out of the realm of possibilities
 
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I feel like the best idea is either an animatronic or a live person doing the preshow, kinda like fast and furious at Universal.
 
I feel the need for the obligatory post of this is like a soft opening, their first attempts at getting the public through, that what’s happening with member previews should not be indicative of the long term prospects of load times.

I remember both Invadr and Pantheon taking 2+ min dispatches in member/soft previews and now they are both much quicker in my experiences.
 
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@warfelg: That would be fair if the problem was the crew, the restraint sensors, a difficult to check restraint, a lot of size rejections, etc. What I saw Thursday was the DarKoaster ops consistently stalling for time with a fully checked train waiting for the previous train to park on the final block. The full 30-ish seconds (I timed it) that it takes for a train on the final block to actually park in the station is another nasty (but less fatal currently) issue.

It's hard to say anything conclusively yet because we don't have solid numbers for the length of the ride cycle from dispatch to parking on the final block. That said, right now, it looks to me like a problem with the coaster, not a problem with BGW's operations of the coaster (like Pantheon).

Intamin is almost certainly still on site so hopefully programming improvements can be pushed next week to speed things up. BGW can't be happy with the current situation.

It seems to me like the ride should be able to dispatch a train once the previous is in control of the pre-switch-2-brakes on its second lap. If, for some reason, the train ending its cycle doesn't clear the brakes before switch 2 or switch 2 doesn't switch, the ride can simply not launch the new train at launch 2 forcing a rollback. Seems like a change in programming like that could really speed things up.

Then, if a change like that is made and the the choke point does actually become load/unload times, multi-move in the station area should be a big priority. Some of those 30 seconds between a train departing and having a second ready to unload could be precious additional load/unload time.
 
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Zachary said:
@warfelg: That would be fair if the problem was the crew, the restraint sensors, a difficult to check restraint, a lot of size rejections, etc. What I saw Thursday was the DarKoaster ops consistently stalling for time with a fully checked train waiting for the previous train to park on the final block. The full 30-ish seconds (I timed it) that it takes for a train on the final block to actually park in the station is another nasty (but less fatal currently) issue.

It's hard to say anything conclusively yet because we don't have solid numbers for the length of the ride cycle from dispatch to parking on the final block. That said, right now, it looks to me like a problem with the coaster, not a problem with BGW's operations of the coaster (like Pantheon).

Intamin is almost certainly still on site so hopefully programming improvements can be pushed next week to speed things up. BGW can't be happy with the current situation.

It seems to me like the ride should be able to dispatch a train once the previous is in control of the pre-switch-2-brakes on its second lap. If, for some reason, the train ending its cycle doesn't clear the brakes before switch 2 or switch 2 doesn't switch, the ride can simply not launch the new train at launch 2 forcing a rollback. Seems like a change in programming like that could really speed things up.

Then, if a change like that is made and the the choke point does actually become load/unload times, multi-move in the station area should be a big priority. Some of those 30 seconds between a train departing and having a second ready to unload could be precious additional load/unload time.
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I was timing ride length at about 1:45 over multiple cycles when I road so I would think it's going to average out pretty close to that.
 
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A preshow something like was with Darkastle would bee cool, but also it would requite atleast another team member working and we know how that goes. Also the old drop down door between preshow and loading not has a handrail with no break through it.
 
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Darkoaster feels like a tumblr fan fiction of the Darkastle lore. The ride itself was decent and the timing on some of the effects was nice. It could definitely be better and is lacking in some scrims to hide the ride area. But overall it was enjoyable.
 
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