No Confidence Spiral

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

We are already within a litigious society. Suing WnW because she valleyed on Aqualoop, and panicked and hurt her arm carrying on like a twatwaffle because she was concerned someone would come down on top of her, despite signage making it clear it wouldn't happen? Suing Movie World for falling off a garden bed?

People will sue for anything these days. It doesn't mean they'll win, but its all over bad publicity. The steps I suggested would be scaleable - if you are calling for maintenance \ security \ management - then clearly it's reached a stage where a more formal procedure is needed. Documenting the steps taken is critical evidence for anything that might happen later.

A little compensation, even when most people wouldn't think it was necessary goes a long way - Disney frequently does this even when you'd think it completely unnecessary. Nothing says it has to have cash value - what about a front of the line pass? A bottle of water is hardly going to break the bank, but it shows the park CARES. All you need to do is look at the detail of a lot of these 'facebook complaints' to see the biggest complaint is that nobody talks to them. I would suggest that in some cases, the staff were there, and willing to answer questions if they were asked, but most guests would grab their shit and go because they don't want to waste any more of their day. BUT - if a staff member is handing out 'something free' - people might stick around long enough to hear a quick message from park management about how\why\etc, get their bottle of water or voucher or whatever, and leave feeling that they were never in danger (content of most facebook posts), the staff cared, they were provided with compensation, and given an avenue to come back to the park if something else went wrong.

If someone was e-stopped on a ride that caused them to stop violently, and they got off 'feeling a bit sore' but checked out ok with the nurse and continued on their day, but waking up the next morning they had chronic neck pain, went and saw a doctor and found out something serious had happened involving some sort of major medical issue - would you want that person to reach out via public facebook? would you like them to ring the 'infoline' number that seems to go unanswered (according to many facebook posts that say they called, left a message and got no reply), or would you like them to contact you via a dedicated process, holding a card that contains an 'incident number' so you know exactly what day, time, staff members involved, and log sheet of events?

It comes down to the CARE principle - Cover Ass, Retain Employment.

Ok sure - it might be considered overkill - but if the last 4 months have taught us anything - its that the parks need to have a far more detailed, structured, step-by-step guide on "how to deal with ride stoppage" that is scaled based on the event, or the impact of that event (impact being - 5 minutes stuck on Justice League is very different to 5 minutes stuck on Giant Drop)

1 minute ago, mission said:

What does that mean - it sometimes doesn't make it over the top hat and rolls back down?

Precisely.

[mission]

Well there you go, I'd never heard of that happening before.  However I did think it seems to cut it fine with speed (as in, it only just seems to make it) going over the top hat.

Has Superman rolled back with passengers, or only during testing?

In regards to Top Thrill Dragster, wiki says this about roll backs:

"On very rare occasions, a combination of the weight distribution of the train, the force of the launch, and the wind can stall a train on the top of the tower. When this happens, a mechanic takes the elevator to the top and pushes the train down the hill. "

The old fashioned give it a push to get over lol

 

Back on the topic of theme parks caring - my daughter had her arm strapped (just tape on arm, no sling or cast) from a minor volleyball injury and was rejected to go on AA at MW.  She was told to go to customer service on main street for them to check her out and give her a wrist band to show which rides she can and can't go on.

After they gave her a band, they also gave her a fast pass to SM that we could all use, 4 of us in total.  They didn't need to give us anything, but it was a nice way to ease the pain of being rejected off AA after waiting a while.

Edited January 30, 2017 by mission

[red dragin]

What needs to be kept in mind is, that to the GP, these rides are "scary and dangerous".

Us tragics know how the winch system on Superman works, the block systems, brakes on Giant Drop etc. Quiz the average punter and they would probably think it possible for Giant Drop not to slow down, and that Superman is powered directly by a big electric motor. 

Education and communication is the key to this issue in my opinion. 

[andrewt92]

2 minutes ago, red dragin said:

What needs to be kept in mind is, that to the GP, these rides are "scary and dangerous".

Us tragics know how the winch system on Superman works, the block systems, brakes on Giant Drop etc. Quiz the average punter and they would probably think it possible for Giant Drop not to slow down, and that Superman is powered directly by a big electric motor. 

Education and communication is the key to this issue in my opinion. 

You're correct. After all, that's what makes them so thrilling. If they weren't scary and dangerous, they wouldn't be wasting their time or money. It's the thrill of being close to 'danger' but not really. So when something unexpected does occur, it breaks the 'illusion' of safety to them - where in fact it's not the case, the ride was and is designed around safety. 

[Santa07]

1 hour ago, mission said:

What does that mean - it sometimes doesn't make it over the top hat and rolls back down?

It's time for you to take a lesson in "Becoming a Theme Park Enthusiast 101"

[rappa]

Best chance of rollback is for a very light train (or empty) to be launched before you and you be in a very heavy train. Especially on a cold day or the start of the day. 

 

The launch system measures each trains speed and adjusts the launch power through the day based on the historical data, so if you have a train that is suddenly very heavy with cold bearings and wheels then it might not make it. 

 

Much less likely on superman as the top hat isn't very high. 

[red dragin]

Last train of the day half loaded and you are in for a really quick launch to top speed.  

[New display name]

Ad just came on the radio.  Nine news tonight "I go behind the scenes to find out why our rides keep breaking down"

 

Edited January 30, 2017 by YLFATEEKS

[rappa]

It's on in about 5 mins

[rac2703]

 

[Life]

They made such a big deal, yet very obviously cut it short... Looks like they went in hoping for excuses for breakdowns, and got hit with facts on routine stops instead so cut it short...

[New display name]

It's a start but I think our parks need to spend some off their own money to get the message across and not rely on the devil to deliver the message.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

1 hour ago, Life said:

They made such a big deal, yet very obviously cut it short... Looks like they went in hoping for excuses for breakdowns, and got hit with facts on routine stops instead so cut it short...

They made such a big deal TO GET YOU TO WATCH IT. It's like facebook - 

He found her in bed with another woman. You won't BELIEVE what happened next! <click here to read more>

The promos ran with '.... on 9 news at 6 (yet it aired at 6:53 - once most of the news had run - so now you've seen their news instead of the competitor, seen their commercial breaks and paid advertising instead of their competitor, and you've seen a small piece correcting the damage done by them and other media outlets in the preceding 8 weeks. It ran exactly as I thought it would. I would suggest they came at the invitation of the park to correct some factual inaccuracies, i'd say they were obligated to run the story given the misinformation run previously. The fact that Greg's 'final word' appears to be cut off doesn't matter because the public don't trust Greg - the public trust the reporter. They sent a big gun - he's one of the anchors - not just the 'gold coast correspondent' - the people that watch 9 news trust him, so he did most of the talking - telling people about the hundred sensors on green lantern, and the hours of safety checks, and the ride system that stops safely. The fact that they spoke to the GM only serves to give credibility to what the reporter is saying - not the other way around.

1 hour ago, YLFATEEKS said:

It's a start but I think our parks need to spend some off their own money to get the message across and not rely on the devil to deliver the message.

I agree, but definitely good to see the devil start singing a different song. I wonder now whether we'll see the vultures other outlets like Ch7 and Gold Coast Bully and Courier Fail start to change tack.

[GoGoBoy]

2 hours ago, rac2703 said:

 

Thanks for sharing. I actually thought Nine News did a pretty good job with this segment, particularly considering their extremely tight time restraints. I liked that they even showed you the proximity sensors on the Green Lantern coaster that detect where the cars are and operate the block system, as I referred to in my post here: 

 

[elemist]

Well that was a good start at least!

Have to say i'm amazed they didn't bring up the GL incident during the piece!

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

^2:20 segment - not enough time.

[GoGoBoy]

4 hours ago, elemist said:

Well that was a good start at least!

Have to say i'm amazed they didn't bring up the GL incident during the piece!

Yes I was slightly surprised Movie World chose Green Lantern as the focus.

[mission]

4 minutes ago, GoGoBoy said:

Yes I was slightly surprised Movie World chose Green Lantern as the focus.

Maybe because it's a highly visible ride and has been subject to a few reports over the years.  Maybe MW wanted it on that one too as it's the most advanced in terms of safety, systems etc (I'm assuming this as it's the newest, but could very well be wrong). 

 

 

[iwerks]

2 hours ago, GoGoBoy said:

Yes I was slightly surprised Movie World chose Green Lantern as the focus.

Good point, because it's the only one that seriously failed and the riders were left in an awkward position. Yet the media treated that incident no differently from all of the routine stops.

[themagician]

It was good to see that after putting a downer on the parks, channel 9 did try to show why these are happening and that the rides are very safe. They could've gone into more depth or showed that all these ride stoppages are supposed to happen, but they've probably cut those bits out because of the time constraints for the show

[rac2703]

Edited February 8, 2017 by rac2703

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Shit. that's a great idea. Why didn't we think of something like that?

[New display name]

@AlexB We are dangerous.  We should run the world.