2018: Park Operations & Ride Availability

[speedy]

What they should have done is gone down a similar route that Europa are doing with Eurosat – CanCan Coaster and Eurosat – Coastiality. Both Air and Galactica could have existed simultaneously, with one of the stations hosting Galactica and the other Air. They could even market is as two attractions!

That would require running both stations, which they weren't doing last week

 

[Josh]

Some operational changes on Galactica that I don't think have been mentioned yet: the old fastrack entrance and merge point are back in use rather than sending all fastrack guests down the old SRQ. Merge hosts now seem to be minimising the post-merge queue to no more than a 2-3 train wait.

This means the queue now moves faster and there's no more waiting on the bridge for 45 minutes, the only problem is that the non-vr rows seemed far less popular than the vr rows yesterday, and they were sending several empty rows at times.

A move that has turned out to be unpopular for fastrack guests

Don't see why, when fastrack used the old SRQ it moved painfully slowly resulting in fastrack queues that were so long they ended up longer then the main queue meaning station 2 had to be closed off and run for fastrack only. The gap after the merge point now is big enough that fastrack should only queue around 20 mins for VR or 5 mins for non-VR.

Merge points are a much better system for fastrack then going straight into the station now that the park is busier again.

 

[imanautie]

Don't see why, when fastrack used the old SRQ it moved painfully slowly resulting in fastrack queues that were so long they ended up longer then the main queue meaning station 2 had to be closed off and run for fastrack only. The gap after the merge point now is big enough that fastrack should only queue around 20 mins for VR or 5 mins for non-VR.

Merge points are a much better system for fastrack then going straight into the station now that the park is busier again.

It works out better assuming there's not a guest wanting to fastrack the ride with no vr.

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[Josh]

It works out better assuming there's not a guest wanting to fastrack the ride with no vr.

I don't understand your point

 

[John]

Fastrack users can still choose to ride with or without VR though?

I don't know why they changed it in the first place really. Going straight to the station offers no real benefit as long as the person at merge manages the queues properly.

 

[imanautie]

Fastrack users can still choose to ride with or without VR though?

I don't know why they changed it in the first place really. Going straight to the station offers no real benefit as long as the person at merge manages the queues properly.

They had split queue from the bridge to a vr and non vr but people in the vr queue didn't let the non vr riders pass meaning when doing laps of Galactica without vr you will get stuck waiting for no reason which didn't happen with fastrack down the side.
Yes fastrack can still ride with or without.

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[John]

The new system is vastly superior for guests in the main queue, obviously the VR/no VR system they have at the moment still causes problems but that can easily be rectified by killing off VR.

 

[imanautie]

The new system is vastly superior for guests in the main queue, obviously the VR/no VR system they have at the moment still causes problems but that can easily be rectified by killing off VR.

I suppose they could use the former fastrack as the no vr side.

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[Josh]

They had split queue from the bridge to a vr and non vr but people in the vr queue didn't let the non vr riders pass meaning when doing laps of Galactica without vr you will get stuck waiting for no reason which didn't happen with fastrack down the side.
Yes fastrack can still ride with or without.

This was just as much of an issue with fastrack using the old SRQ as most fastrack users want vr.

It's all dependant on the merge host really, if they manage the queue properly then the post merge gap should go straight up to the vr split in the station.

 

[imanautie]

This was just as much of an issue with fastrack using the old SRQ as most fastrack users want vr.

It's all dependant on the merge host really, if they manage the queue properly then the post merge gap should go straight up to the vr split in the station.

When I've been most of the fastrack queue has just gone (and I quote a few here) "let's just get on the ride" then gone on non vr.

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[John]

This was just as much of an issue with fastrack using the old SRQ as most fastrack users want vr.

That in directly raises a good point, fastrack getting choice of seat could really mess up the main queue if one version of the ride is consistently more popular with FT and main - it would be like having fastrack lead straight into the front row for Nemesis. Merge point should be before the queues split for choice of seating so that the main queue is not disadvantaged (Rita gets round this by not allowing FT users onto the front row - excellent design IMO!)

 

[Josh]

Tbh, fastrack using the old SRQ was always a flawed system as it reduces the throughput to one station as apposed to two if you enter via merge. That's why the SRQ never worked well either when it was there. The only reason fastrack going straight to the station has worked over the past few years is because the park was so quiet queues rarely went passed the merge point, whereas now the queues are longer. And this goes for all the rides now not just Galactica.

 

[John]

I always liked merge hosts who tried to keep SRQ moving by sending any groups of 3 to station 2, it made sense but it was hardly ideal.

Fastrack usage will presumably be much higher this year too which I'd guess is the main problem. The previous set up wasn't designed to cope with more than 4 people every other dispatch, which on Galacita is about 60-70 people per hour. In theory the reduction in throughput on station 2 was balanced by RAP going to station 1. Presumably the intenion was for there to be never more than 1 row on each station taken away from the main queue. In reality the throughput of the ride isn't enough for that to work.

 

[spinba11]

When I was there Saturday I literally saw 4 or 5 crafts being sent with only VR rows filled.

 

[monkeyboy]

When I was there Saturday I literally saw 4 or 5 crafts being sent with only VR rows filled.

Last 4 rows vr rhs que rest non vr lhs que. station 2

 

[GaryH]

Just thinking - if they were to rid Galactica of VR - what other ride could they transfer the VR system to? I'm thinking maybe inside Sub Terra during the drop process perhaps?

 

[imanautie]

Just thinking - if they were to rid Galactica of VR - what other ride could they transfer the VR system to? I'm thinking maybe inside Sub Terra during the drop process perhaps?

If they were going to install vr on sub terra a system similar to dbgt would surely be more suitable then one running off individual android devices.

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[ringo]

Just thinking - if they were to rid Galactica of VR - what other ride could they transfer the VR system to? I'm thinking maybe inside Sub Terra during the drop process perhaps?

Would never happen because lack of space on the cars but Spinball would of been ideal, literally a simple pinball video game.

 

[Alsty]

Just thinking - if they were to rid Galactica of VR - what other ride could they transfer the VR system to? I'm thinking maybe inside Sub Terra during the drop process perhaps?

They should transfer the VR to the nearest skip and write the whole thing off as a failed experiment. To do otherwise is falling into the trap of Sunk Cost Fallacy.

 

[GaryH]

Would never happen because lack of space on the cars but Spinball would of been ideal, literally a simple pinball video game.

Hmmm not sure - VR does tend to make people feel queasy.... imagine VR on a spinning coaster! Plus the spinning is not predicable, so the VR wouldnt work unless it was realtime motion with whatever way the car is spinning.