They just sent an empty train through edit: They just said they are sanitizing the ride
COVID-19’s Impacts on BGW
- Thread starter WDWRLD
- Start date
I mean sometimes you gotta decide, “Dude do I want to risk getting COVID-19, or go to the back row and get that sweet, sweet ejector airtime?”
Today’s bound to have a lot of issues. It’s the member preview night, the park has been closed for months, and all of these procedures are new. Not following protocol, especially health procedures, is not acceptable, but with all new things it’s going to take time and practice. I think the true test to judge the enforcement and implementation of these new procedures is to see in a week how the park is holding up. Hopefully these things change, Hampton Roads is a hot bed right now and the last thing the park needs is to be getting publicity for all the wrong reasons.
Yep they are sanitizing the trains I wish they would have made the delay frame more clear several people just pushed their way back through the line not wanting to wait. The line is nicely distanced and managed but they need to open the full line it's backing up to far and at one point was into the plaza where I saw no markers.
Invadr
On the other hand Invadr's and FF's crew both seemed to do a great job. Alson Invadr has seats marked as no seating areas maybe they need those on Nessie.
The issue is two fold they were assigning seats and I was assigned the front row back car. The other two were actually assigned one two cars in front and ignored it. This happened in full view of four different staff members you completely ignored it. I had already sat down and lower the restraint so I did not even have the ability or option to get up and move to take myself out of the situation. This is not acceptable in my opinion and anyone that has followed my comments should be able to easily see that I am far from overly concerned about the virus. If I am worried about this there will be many that are completely freaked out by this. Yes this is new and everyone needs to to adjust but the fact that they are assigning seating means there is some training that was ignored here even with what appeared to be a supervisor in the station. This again is not ok and is dangerous for the park if they want to continue to operate.
On the other hand Invadr's and FF's crew both seemed to do a great job. Alson Invadr has seats marked as no seating areas maybe they need those on Nessie.
Kevin is in new france and Suzy sheely is in trappers line
I haven't been in awhile - I thought the waterway past FF was reconnected back to the rest of the pond?
According to Kevin the high backs make that safe on Nseeie. Um that is a big no for me sadly I think I will be crossing rerides on her of my list.
On the other hand I am fairly please with what I saw at Trappers. Very nice line control and distance in the eating areas. Big thumbs up there.
On the other hand I am fairly please with what I saw at Trappers. Very nice line control and distance in the eating areas. Big thumbs up there.
He said that right next to each other should only be people from the same group but that two groups can be in two separate rows of the same car because of the high seats. This runs contrary to what I saw in place at SFA and have heard about at other parks. I won't argue that higher seats provide SOME protection but don't see it as a solid enough barrier to permit this practice in the current environment.
I was expecting worse, but the only red flag was Nessie’s operation. I wouldn’t advise people against going, but would certainly tell them to avoid Nessie.
The Nessie situation is really bizarre. I figured that the park had to be making the argument that the design of the ride basically serves as a barrier between seats, but that seems like a VERY confident position to be taking with a virus that we still don't fully understand, and I'd love to hear the specific scientific position and/or epidemiological opinion that led them to that call.
But I think the bigger issue is that it's bad optics: you go through the park, and they're cordoning off entire rows on Invadr, and putting two seats between guests on Griffin/Finnegan's (I know that @Zachary and @Nicole had some thoughts on Finnegan's but I think the park is on more solid ground with that situation than with Nessie), but then you get to this coaster and they're loading every row without any explanation as to why. When I questioned being placed in the second row behind another party, the line manager said something that amount to "You're fine" and then something I didn't catch clearly about the virus, as though I was irrational to be concerned. And I think that wildly underestimates how anxious people are about the virus in general, and why if you're going to be loading every car you need to explain that up front and offer a good reason as to why. They seemed really flippant about objections, and while they didn't fight me when I leapt back into an empty car and made my own social distancing since the line was dead, you could tell they had really internalized it wasn't a problem and that was a strange choice given the circumstances.
Otherwise, though, Ride Ops were handling the distancing well and I only had one queue distancing issue (two tweens/teens who got too close behind me but did immediately step back when I pointed it out, claiming they're "not used to this social distancing thing, so I sure hope they're not going back to school in person anytime soon.). Definitely didn't feel like an unsafe experience at these crowd levels, although it's hard to say what the sweet spot is where increasing capacity would tip the scales into concern.
But I think the bigger issue is that it's bad optics: you go through the park, and they're cordoning off entire rows on Invadr, and putting two seats between guests on Griffin/Finnegan's (I know that @Zachary and @Nicole had some thoughts on Finnegan's but I think the park is on more solid ground with that situation than with Nessie), but then you get to this coaster and they're loading every row without any explanation as to why. When I questioned being placed in the second row behind another party, the line manager said something that amount to "You're fine" and then something I didn't catch clearly about the virus, as though I was irrational to be concerned. And I think that wildly underestimates how anxious people are about the virus in general, and why if you're going to be loading every car you need to explain that up front and offer a good reason as to why. They seemed really flippant about objections, and while they didn't fight me when I leapt back into an empty car and made my own social distancing since the line was dead, you could tell they had really internalized it wasn't a problem and that was a strange choice given the circumstances.
Otherwise, though, Ride Ops were handling the distancing well and I only had one queue distancing issue (two tweens/teens who got too close behind me but did immediately step back when I pointed it out, claiming they're "not used to this social distancing thing, so I sure hope they're not going back to school in person anytime soon.). Definitely didn't feel like an unsafe experience at these crowd levels, although it's hard to say what the sweet spot is where increasing capacity would tip the scales into concern.
I kinda want to explain in depth what happened to us on Nessie.
Unlike InvadR, none of the rows were blocked off, and they seemed to be filling all of them. The claim we heard from the ride ops (and @horsesboy confirmed with Kevin) is that somehow the tall seat backs provide adequate protection against the spread of an incurable, airborne virus.
There were seven of us. The grouper directed us to specific rows, saying that we could not make any requests. The result was that @Pretzel Kaiser was told to sit next to a stranger and @Zachary and I were placed in the same car as two people we didn’t know. The seats we were sent to honestly seemed a bit random.
Since the two women behind us seemed as uncomfortable as we were with the seating arrangement, we moved ourselves to the back car, which was completely empty. Especially given the apparent indifference to capacity on both Griffon and InvadR, I am at loss to understand why the park felt the need to fill Nessie’s trains. Moreover, why would they choose to bunch everyone together in the front, when the train wasn’t full? We had actually specifically requested the back, when we first arrived.
As we were moving, another ride ride op informed us that we would not be allowed to switch rows like that in the future. He then explained the theory about the seats forming a barrier. So, I guess their guests’ feelings of security were not a high priority?
Since people in the back row can touch people in the front and given how air actually flows in a speeding train and considering the vertical space between the seats (so it is not a solid barrier), it just doesn’t feel safe. Additionally, it does not resemble anything we have seen at any other park. I have no idea what the science is behind this system, but as @Memles pointed out, the optics are also important.
Unlike InvadR, none of the rows were blocked off, and they seemed to be filling all of them. The claim we heard from the ride ops (and @horsesboy confirmed with Kevin) is that somehow the tall seat backs provide adequate protection against the spread of an incurable, airborne virus.
There were seven of us. The grouper directed us to specific rows, saying that we could not make any requests. The result was that @Pretzel Kaiser was told to sit next to a stranger and @Zachary and I were placed in the same car as two people we didn’t know. The seats we were sent to honestly seemed a bit random.
Since the two women behind us seemed as uncomfortable as we were with the seating arrangement, we moved ourselves to the back car, which was completely empty. Especially given the apparent indifference to capacity on both Griffon and InvadR, I am at loss to understand why the park felt the need to fill Nessie’s trains. Moreover, why would they choose to bunch everyone together in the front, when the train wasn’t full? We had actually specifically requested the back, when we first arrived.
As we were moving, another ride ride op informed us that we would not be allowed to switch rows like that in the future. He then explained the theory about the seats forming a barrier. So, I guess their guests’ feelings of security were not a high priority?
Since people in the back row can touch people in the front and given how air actually flows in a speeding train and considering the vertical space between the seats (so it is not a solid barrier), it just doesn’t feel safe. Additionally, it does not resemble anything we have seen at any other park. I have no idea what the science is behind this system, but as @Memles pointed out, the optics are also important.
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Dumb thought, but could the whole situation for Nessie be related to not having run with guests in a long time?
So although they're saying stuff about seats being barriers (which is bizarre to say the least), it's really more to load trains in a way that would either warm it up or provide a much better ride experience.
Again, dumb thought
So although they're saying stuff about seats being barriers (which is bizarre to say the least), it's really more to load trains in a way that would either warm it up or provide a much better ride experience.
Again, dumb thought
We need a deep investigation into this decision. Good thing @Zachary doesnt use his face on pictures so he can sneak into spots to get that quote!
Oh wait....they know him.
Haha. But genuinely I’m curious if this is a decision from higher up of if this some someone being lazy and using fake reasoning to do something like this because it seems really strange.
Oh wait....they know him.
Haha. But genuinely I’m curious if this is a decision from higher up of if this some someone being lazy and using fake reasoning to do something like this because it seems really strange.
Brambo
Cyberdyne Systems Software Engineer
The weirdest part about loch ness yesterday was they clearly did not need to pack everyone in front to back. Invadr and griffon had slight lines for very short periods, but other than that were complete walk ons (I got like 8 rides on griffon in a 1 hour span). Loch ness was even more sparse then the other two coasters. They could have easily given one group per car, front row, with the last row open in the last car as most other 2x2 cars seem to be doing.