Dominator

[I305Evan]

Never heard of that happening. Only guest related evacs ive heard of are when someone enters a restricted area and the ops have to e-stop it. Even then, if security can get the tresspasser out and maintenance can get the ride restarted pretty quickly (within 10 min), sometimes the ride can be restarted with guests onboard. Not saying it isn't possible, but how would you know someone is too short when the train is leaving/already left the station, especially when they already made it past an entrance, grouper, and platform team members? Usually, platform would catch them once they noticed they weren't sitting in the seat right, or they took off shoes that were really tall.

I'm sure hopeful BGW is different, but at KD this is a frequent occurrence. So, the board operator typically does a final check of the train as it is leaving the station and will stop low lift if needed. Looking at height wristbands is the easiest way to tell or the guest may be obviously too small. I have personally been apart of about 10 or so coaster evacs in a 3 year span... probably only 2 of which were mechanically related- all others were height / restraint related. But even with height bands, a lot of operators still miss the height check and the board operator can only see but so much of the station depending on the ride. So they typically catch it too late.

Usually, they only evac the guest in question and will restart the ride once everyone is out of the area.

 

[Furyous Baco 325]

Sometimes evac's are not always mechanical/ electrical related, but guest related. Most of the time it is guest related is is due to an operator accidently letting someone too short on the ride.

Finnegan’s Flyer’s cycle got cut short when I was waiting in line because someone took their phone out. I assume that’s a valid reason to stop a coaster too.

 

[ControlsEE]

Finnegan’s Flyer’s cycle got cut short when I was waiting in line because someone took their phone out. I assume that’s a valid reason to stop a coaster too.

We would often stop the lift. After that point, we would usually give them a talking to if we noticed it too late. No evac nessisary, though if they refused, we would normally call security, then restart the lift and they would be escorted out as soon as they get back to the station.

I'm sure hopeful BGW is different, but at KD this is a frequent occurrence. So, the board operator typically does a final check of the train as it is leaving the station and will stop low lift if needed. Looking at height wristbands is the easiest way to tell or the guest may be obviously too small. I have personally been apart of about 10 or so coaster evacs in a 3 year span... probably only 2 of which were mechanically related- all others were height / restraint related. But even with height bands, a lot of operators still miss the height check and the board operator can only see but so much of the station depending on the ride. So they typically catch it too late.

Usually, they only evac the guest in question and will restart the ride once everyone is out of the area.

That's really bad if a wristband gets past 3+ people and the only person to notice is the one person who only sees the guest for a split second.

 

[EdK]

Finnegan’s Flyer’s cycle got cut short when I was waiting in line because someone took their phone out. I assume that’s a valid reason to stop a coaster too.

Same thing happened to me when I was on Finnegan's Flyer but it was because a woman lowered her face mask and you could see her nose. That resulted in everyone on the ride getting covid (just kidding). This was when the park first opened during the pandemic so everyone was extra careful.

 

[horsesboy]

We would often stop the lift. After that point, we would usually give them a talking to if we noticed it too late. No evac nessisary, though if they refused, we would normally call security, then restart the lift and they would be escorted out as soon as they get back to the station.

That is what I have witnessed at KD before. heck last year I saw them hold a train on the brake run at TT till security arrived to ensure it was addressed.

 

[CoasterAuditor]

Heads up big guys, the seatbelts on dominator are shortened…..a bit. I almost got walked of shamed just now and I’ve ridden it a lot this season and haven’t gained any weight back or anything. A ride op told me straight up the belts were shortened. Yikes that’s ominous.

 

[ControlsEE]

Heads up big guys, the seatbelts on dominator are shortened…..a bit. I almost got walked of shamed just now and I’ve ridden it a lot this season and haven’t gained any weight back or anything. A ride op told me straight up the belts were shortened. Yikes that’s ominous.

Wonder if they were concerned after the Orlando tower incident...

 

[AlpenChariot]

Is there anyway that the next time one of you is at KD and riding Dominator you can count the clicks required to buckle the seatbelt? From what I remember/know about B&M it was 3 clicks previously. It has 8 total clicks.

 

[bill s]

Belts seemed identical to me today, 2 diff. seats. However I did notice a VERY short belt on FoF, row 4 left. Like 2" of slack when no one was even in the seat. If something seems inconsistent, try moving.

 

[CoasterAuditor]

It could just be in the larger seats honestly. I haven’t been outside of row 4 and 5 in a long time. Joys of being 6’3 with broad shoulders.

 

[horsesboy]

Can someone enlighten me as to is this is typically a manufacturer call or a park or chain call?

 

[b.mac]

Can someone enlighten me as to is this is typically a manufacturer call or a park or chain call?

Park call, manufacturer recommends a maximum length for the belts to ensure minimum down but it's up to the park on how long the belts they order are.

 

[horsesboy]

Park call, manufacturer recommends a maximum length for the belts to ensure minimum down but it's up to the park on how long the belts they order are.

Thanks I had noticed fairly consistent length on the different B&Ms I had ridden and assumed that the set one standard for them all. Nice to know that this might be isolated to KD or CF parks.

 

[b.mac]

Thanks I had noticed fairly consistent length on the different B&Ms I had ridden and assumed that the set one standard for them all. Nice to know that this might be isolated to KD or CF parks.

Go to California and ride those B&Ms, they're noticeably tighter than the ones on the eastern seaboard.

 

[CoasterAuditor]

I’ve found the larger 2 seatbelt seats to be somewhat inconsistent over the last year.

Griffon - shorter than Alpengeist and Dominator this ride was a struggle to get on most of last year for me
Alpengeist - Longer than Griffon, I will note this one has a rather strict sensor especially for one seat belt seats
Dominator - used to be longest in VA but now they are insanely short if they are struggling with me at this weight now. I’m talking shorter than KUMBA for comparison at least in row 4 today on the train I was on.
Great White - Longest I’ve ever seen
Montu - Shorter than Alpengeists longer than Kumbas
Kumba - Yeah this one was a struggle but i did notice an inconsistency between trains
SheiKra - Surprisingly longer and in 2 seats than Griffons one center seat.
Afterburn - consistent with Montu and Alp.
Kraken - consistent with Dominator before they cut them by 60% presumably.

Um yeah dominators belts are shorter now but figured I’d share the above info on the inconsistency I’ve seen in the B&M OTSRs. Definitely don’t trust Intamin OTSRs after my experience with Fahrenheit and Storm Runner last year.

 

[Gavin]

Seatbelts stretch overtime as well, Volcano never had a minimum down, and depending on how old the seatbelt was the length could vary by about 2 inches.

I mean, stuff like that happens far more often than you'd think. Depending on the age of the ride, shutdowns that require a ride evac happen 5-10 times a season. The most I ever saw as a ride op at BGW was 23 the year Flume got a new control system. Any time the pumps shut off, evac required. One time was even with my family on board.

I’m not even sure the number of times we evac’d Volcano in a season, it was pretty much a daily thing.

 

[CoasterAuditor]

Did not appear to have a similar issue in another train today. So I guess it appears one of the trains on Dom have brutally short seatbelts on the larger seat. They also could have just revisited this since last week.

 

[CoasterAuditor]

Alright Dominator follow up about the belts, one of the trains DEFINITELY has significantly shorter belts than the others. I was even eye balling it out from he loading platform and they were honestly shorter than the standard belts. I got on that train absolutely no shot of riding, the supervisor knew Immediately that it was the belts being obnoxiously short and let me on the next train which had significantly longer belts by an absurd comparison. So if you’re a larger rider and you see one of the trains has some fresh looking very orange belts, it might be worth waiting for the other one.

 

[outhikn]

My son and I got to be evacuated off Dominator today.

Waiting on the transfer track after the ride, they dispatched the train into the station like usual. First attempt the train traveled about 5 feet on the track before coming to a halt. They recycled it again, and this time about 3/4 of the train managed to make it into the station before coming to a stop, yet again. At that point they tried for about 20 minutes to get it to move again, but no luck.

With most coasters, especially when it's mostly back into the station, it's easy enough to manually unlock the restraints on each car, and have the passengers step out. But of course, it's not that easy on floorless models.

So though my son and I waited a full 30 minutes, it was pretty cool watching the unload procedure:

• With four seats across, each row is divided in two, where a rectangular floor section is placed down spanning the gap to the middle of the train - where the floor section is stored on either side of the station itself, something I never noticed before.
• The front row has its own special floor section, with its own set of hand rails on the front half to assemble, to ensure guest safety when they step out.
• All the other rows of the train can then share a second/simpler type of rectangular floor section, which does not accommodate hand rails.
• However as the last two rows of our train did not make it into the station (which is where I was in row 7), maintenance had to get a third type of floor section (which is stored on the far end of each side of the catwalk).

So though I love riding floorless coasters, I had never given much thought to the effort needed to evacuate passengers from a train... and now have respect for all the work park ops must do each time.

 

[ControlsEE]

So though I love riding floorless coasters, I had never given much thought to the effort needed to evacuate passengers from a train... and now have respect for all the work park ops must do each time.

Don't even get me started on evac'ing Griffon....