It actually hit me to this morning these are the same lights or at least look the same lights used at different events to project on the trees in wild reserve and DaVinci garden for Christmas Town and other events.
Project 2022: Pantheon
- Thread starter Shane
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This will make me not be excited to ride it at all. I really don't enjoy coasters without my glasses. I wear a secure eyeglass strap and it is never a problem. I can't see a damned thing without them.
I hear ya. I just recently got a new pair of scleral contacts so I don't have to have super expensive sunglasses. I'm not sure how this will do for me with high wind hitting them, plus at 400 an eye, I really don't want to risk anything. I'm not a fan of this policy at all now.
This absolutely pisses me off. I get the strap requirement from a safety standpoint but if you really think about it this could be an absolute ADA issue since some people rely on their glasses a lot more than some who just can't read well..... Not to mention, depending on the day, I can sometimes get headaches if I'm in a vehicle without my glasses -- not to mention I'm sure it could lead to others vomiting which doesn't help BGW at all.
Besides that.... what reasonable explanation is there for not allowing you to wear glasses even with a strap?
This isn't just an evac thing -- this is also a a maintenance and inspection thing. The reason for putting catwalks anywhere on a coaster is just as much so that maintenance can do inspections as it is for evacuation.
This continues to be one of my biggest frustrations with most of the chain parks. It's not even only about the money paid for lockers but if anyone has ever taken a kid to a park by themselves you know how much of a pain and frustration the lockers are. Small backpacks are probably the most ideal if people use them correctly.... you get close to the ride platform, put everything else in the bag, then it's just about dropping the bag in the bin. People argue that it slows people down but if the bins are placed on the platform correctly it doesn't..... in fact, I think sometimes it's the opposite when there are delays in dealing with people that tried to sneak something on the ride.
People who slow down a queue with bags are also going to slow down a queue without bags.
In regards to the ADA stuff with glasses - I've been told at places where I've worn my glasses (I'm typically in contacts) that it's about posing injury risk to others and even with a strap there's no guarantee that it wouldn't come off.
Someone at Kennywood once told me they were really strict about it because of people coming to them to try to get new glasses purchased for them when they came off mid-ride and they broke. The long story short was it was easier to deal with complaints of not being allowed to wear glasses than it was to deal with people who wanted money to replace glasses. Not sure how much that holds up, but just what I was once told.
I think more parks are going to have to do the Velocicoaster thing, especially in the day and age of social media. I miss the days when there were ride stories, park infomercials, and other things on videos that played on like 15-20 minute loops to make it more tolerable to wait. So they're going to have to find a way to create a locker system that you can carry your bag much closer to the ride platform.
I know this means cost and some would nickel and dime over the ability to do this (leading to complaints). But if you set up a 2-tier system to make it cheaper to have storage before the queue, and more expensive to have storage before the platform, and wrap it up with a bin barely big enough for wallet and phone on the platform. Basically carry your phone as long as you want, but anything else can be carried longer or shorter.
Personally I think HersheyPark is one of the few that get it right. Lockers around the park if you don't want to carry anything, then bins/drop zones for every ride in case you want to carry stuff. I personally think there should be a fee for carrying that stuff that close to the platform though. I know you think that people with bags would slow it down even if they did not, but it would be a lesser annoyance if they weren't able to do that.
I've personally never been to a park or on any ride that didn't let me wear my glasses with a strap. Pantheon will be the first and, if I can't wear my glasses, probably means I won't be reriding it as much. Many places I'll get asked multiple times if I have a strap on my glasses but I've never been told to take them off.
Why should anyone have to pay to have a bag with them? Bins worked incredibly well for decades -- and continue to work well at the parks/rides that have them. We never had these slow down issues years ago -- it's a very recent thing. Sure, you might want to argue that guests are the reason but the bigger issue why dispatches are slow is because ops don't really have a sense of urgency (often because the parks don't treat them well enough to care) and the guests follow. If there is a reason why you can't have a bin then you should design a system around how most people behave instead of trying to force them to comply with a nuisance and then charge them for the privledge. Plenty of rides already prove this point by having lockers and still having extremely crappy dispatch times.
I understand it's easy for someone who doesn't have an actual need for a bag to understand how incredibly frustrating and difficult this is and how unfair the process of charging for this need is. I personally love the freedom of walking around the park without a bag when I'm only going to that park for a few hours and can deal without the bag but it's something I already have to deal with (and is magnified if I have my niece or nephew with me) on longer days -- Family owned parks, Hershey, and a few others actually let me still have an enjoyable time -- others just frustrate me.
This is very simple to me - safety and security. The safety of eliminating the chance of them making it onto the ride, and the security no one will steal it, reducing theft liability.
Hersheypark does good at the bin thing because of the rides. Look at Great Bear….just like Alpengiest if you have something for the bin it’s easy to cross over to drop it. For Pantheon and other newer rides the seats and restraint system
dosent make it easy to cross the the train to drop your stuff. On Saturday at least there were 4 people checking harnesses. They start checking the front row and back row as soon as they sit down, then they move through the train quickly. One instance a guy in about row 7 on the queue side hands his phone and wallet to the seat checker. She took it then had to hand it off to the person on the other side. They still have like 3 rows of seats to check while the two people checking the front half of the train were finished and back at their dispatch positions. It certainly slows the process down.
dosent make it easy to cross the the train to drop your stuff. On Saturday at least there were 4 people checking harnesses. They start checking the front row and back row as soon as they sit down, then they move through the train quickly. One instance a guy in about row 7 on the queue side hands his phone and wallet to the seat checker. She took it then had to hand it off to the person on the other side. They still have like 3 rows of seats to check while the two people checking the front half of the train were finished and back at their dispatch positions. It certainly slows the process down.
Cargo shorts are back in style. I'm set for the summer - no lockers for me.
They were never out of style, don't let people say otherwise
I never knew they were out of style.
In all seriousness though, I ALWAYS wear them to theme parks in the summer months. Much easier putting my keys, wallet, and phone in zippered pockets than worrying about getting a locker or leaving them in a bin.
*May result in failing the seat checkI'm lovin' it.
And assuming that meal is available regardless of wind speed?
No kidding. 2 Big Macs, 2 fries, and a 20 piece? Talk about Supersize Me!
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I had a similar experience. Got on row 10R, train 1, and they couldn’t get the restraint to stay green when they pulled up. I switched with someone else in my party and tried again on the next train. Row 10R again, train 2 this time, no issue at all and was able to ride.
The next evening tried to ride row 6R, train 1, no such luck. Got off and they said they would try to get me on the next train. This time row 4R, train 2, no issue at all.
One piece of advice I have for us larger folks, bring a friend!! The ride ops won’t use anything more than “reasonable force” (their words, not mine). Based on the couple issues I’ve had on the ride, me sitting down first and them helping with an extra strong push on the restraint before they sit down really made the difference.
Absolutely. I do that for me son (he's 23, not 10 and could bench press me so don't judge
). I've even offered and awkwardly stretched back to the row behind me to help someone on Pantheon. And it's not even always a rider thing. I watched empty trains being run through where some seats showed red after the restraints were pushed all the way down and they had to "jiggle" it until it stay green. So, lot of false reds. Let's hope there's no false greens...
To me, this is simply unacceptable. Clearly there is something majorly wrong with the seat sensors and intamin needs to either reprogram or replace them ASAP.
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