Worldwide Operations/Throughput Timings Thread

[Matt N]

Hi guys. I don’t know about any of you, but one thing I personally like doing at theme parks is timing ride throughputs and observing the operations on rides. With this in mind, I decided to make a thread for like-minded people who are interested in throughputs and operations to share their throughput timings and operational insights from parks around the world. Whether your timings and operational insights are from Chessington, Europa Park, Six Flags, Cedar Fair, Oakwood or anywhere else in the world, I’d love to hear about them and I’m sure many others would too!

My reason for deciding to create this thread is because I have some throughput timings and operational insights of my own to share. Currently, I’m coming towards the end of a trip to Florida, so I thought I’d share some of the throughput timings and general operational insights I was able to log at Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Florida, SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa.

For various reasons, I could not time throughputs quite as comprehensively as I would normally like on this trip; things like metal detectors and themed queues obscuring sight of the rides at Universal and queues that were often too short to get a comprehensive average at SeaWorld and Busch Gardens meant that I had to rely more on chance occasions where I was standing within eyeshot of a ride at Universal in particular and as such, the averages are often based on lower amounts of dispatches than the 10 I normally aspire towards. Nonetheless, here are some of the throughput timings and general insights I was able to gain from Universal Orlando, SeaWorld Orlando and Busch Gardens Tampa.

Islands of Adventure

• Flight of the Hippogriff (Theoretical: 993pph on 2 trains) - 951pph (2 trains, 12th June 2023, average of 3) Note: I did not ride this, but I got a good vantage point from the queue line of Hagrid’s.
• Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure (Theoretical: 1,700pph on 12 trains) - 1,617pph (unknown number of trains, 12th June 2023, average of 10)
• Incredible Hulk (Theoretical: 1,920pph on 3 trains) - 1,138pph (possibly only running 2 trains (as I did not stack, which I didn’t think was possible on 3), 12th June 2023, average of 4), 1,608pph (unknown number of trains, 21st June 2023, average of 3)
• VelociCoaster (Theoretical: 1,800pph on 4 trains) - 1,489pph (unknown number of trains, 17th June 2023, average of 3), 1,566pph (4 trains, 21st June 2023, average of 6)

Universal Studios Florida

• Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit (Theoretical: 1,850pph on 7 trains) - 1,329pph (unknown number of trains, 13th June 2023, average of 3)

SeaWorld Orlando

• Ice Breaker (Theoretical: 650-750pph on 2 trains) - 564pph (2 trains, 16th June 2023, average of 2)
• Kraken (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains) - I did not get an exact throughput for this, but the ride was running 2 trains and stacking on the brake run was routine. According to the dispatch timer in the station, the ride’s average park time seemed to be around 3 minutes. (16th June 2023)
• Mako (Theoretical: 1,680pph on 3 trains) - 960pph (2 trains, 16th June 2023, average of 4). In terms of general insights, there was quite often a gap in the station between trains and the dispatch timer showed the train being parked for as little as 60 seconds on some occasions.
• Manta (Theoretical: 1,500pph on 3 trains/2 stations) - I did not get an exact throughput for this, but the ride was running 2 trains and 1 station, and stacking seemed fairly common. (16th June 2023)
• Pipeline The Surf Coaster (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 474pph (2 trains, 16th June 2023, average of 7)

Busch Gardens Tampa

• Cobra’s Curse (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 trains) - 527pph (unknown number of trains, 22nd June 2023, average of 2)
• Iron Gwazi (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 493pph (2 trains, 22nd June 2023, average of 5). In terms of general insights, stacking was routine and park times in the station averaged around 2.5 minutes according to the station dispatch timer, sometimes going as high as 3 minutes.
• Kumba (Theoretical: 1,700pph on 3 trains) - I did not get a reading for this, but the ride was seemingly only running 1 train. (22nd June 2023)
• Sand Serpent (Theoretical: 1,120pph on 10 cars) - 331pph (4 cars, 22nd June 2023, average of 4)
• Scorpion (Theoretical: Unknown on 2 trains) - 357pph (1 train, 22nd June 2023, average of 2)

I hope you find this interesting; I know I certainly found this data interesting to gather! If I’m able to do any notable readings at Universal tomorrow, I’ll report back, but as my Florida trip is mostly over, I thought I’d report my current findings.

If you have any throughput timings and/or general operational insights from a recent park visit that you’d like to share, I’d love to hear about them in this thread!

 

[Poisson]

Freestyle - Cavallino Matto

Full train or a dispatch every 10 minutes. 144pph if a full dispatch every 10.

Mandrill Mayhem - Chessington

406pph. Not sure how much more it can be improved.

Vampire - Chessington

360pph. No batcher and free batching not allowed. 4 minutes a dispatch. Dismal.

 

[Burbs]

360pph. No batcher and free batching not allowed. 4 minutes a dispatch. Dismal.

How does that work then? Is it one of the station staff doubling as a batcher?

 

[NuttySquirrel]

How does that work then? Is it one of the station staff doubling as a batcher?

I tried to explain it in the Chessington thread, it was a bit farcical tbh.

Simply, not enough staff - and inefficient use of the two staff they did have. They weren't batching guests for the next train until the previous one had been emptied and the platform cleared, so the train was sitting empty in the station for at least a couple of minutes between dispatches.

That and the ride host having to clamber across railings to cross over to the exit platform behind each train coming in and then back again to batch main queue...

There seemed to be another staff member whose only job was to batch the RAP queue and nothing else, possibly not fully trained yet?

It really wasn't a busy day yesterday, if they don't sort out their staffing issues soon the summer season is going to be extremely painful for all concerned.

 

[MattyH]

@Poisson and me timed oblivion as averaging 120 seconds between cars on Wednesday. Still better throughput than mandril mahem

 

[John]

Please tell me that was in single station mode!

 

[Poisson]

I assume it was. We took one look and noped out of there. We were clocking it from Spinjam

 

[Burbs]

Salama, the Maurer Spinner at Linnanmäki, is currently achieving a whopping 275pph. Not that it matters because the park is relatively quiet so a few slower moving queues are fine. Is this worse than Dragon’s Fury at present? There’s also no RAP/fast pass here so the main queue is getting the full throughput.

 

[Burbs]

Me again, was at PowerPark earlier and clocked the following throughputs. They are… laughable. All rides bar Neo’s Twister were running a 1 train service and they *did* all manufacturer not unsubstantial waits.

Joyride (L&T Compact Coaster) - 390pph
Neo’s Twister (Fabbri Spinner) - 379pph
Cobra (Vekoma Boomerang) - 313pph
Thunderbird (GCI Woodie) - 292pph
Junker (Gerstlauer Infinity) - 213pph
Pitts Special (Gerstlauer Infinity) - 145pph

Fabbri to the rescue?!?!

 

[Poisson]

L&T Systems topping the list must be a first. We did it's sister ride the other day (Project 1)

 

[Matt N]

I’m back! This time, I have readings from my first ever visit to Flamingo Land, and this is one that I was quite interested to time the throughputs of, seeing as it reputedly has throughputs and operations on the other end of the spectrum compared to somewhere like Europa Park or Universal Orlando. I was led to believe that if Europa has famous operations, Flamingo Land has infamous operations.

Here are the readings I managed to gain today:

• Hero (Theoretical: 600pph on 6/7 cars) - 167pph (2 cars, 7th August 2023, average of 10)
• Kumali (Theoretical: 1,125pph on 2 trains) - 214pph (1 train, 7th August 2023, average of 2)
• Mumbo Jumbo (Theoretical: 480pph on 5 cars) - 171pph (3 cars, 7th August 2023, average of 6)
• Sik (Theoretical: 1,250pph on 2 trains) - 373pph (1 train, 7th August 2023, average of 4)
• Velocity (Theoretical: 518pph on 1 train) - 252pph (1 train, 7th August 2023, average of 4)

These are some of the slowest operations I have ever personally witnessed, but in fairness, I managed 9 rides, and the longest queue all day was 40 minutes, so I can’t really complain too much.

The operations didn’t seem overly disproportionate to the crowd levels at the park, for the most part; they could have been faster, for sure, but a park of Flamingo Land’s calibre is never going to be hammering trains out at light speed and getting 1,800pph on every ride, and I honestly don’t think they really need to be given their visitor numbers.

One thing I did notice, though, is that the people batching the rides were the same ones who checked the restraints and dispatched the rides. I don’t know if this is par for the course at Flamingo Land, but the number of staff operating each ride seemed low compared to most other theme parks I’ve been to. Maybe the operations would be faster if the rides had more staff?

 

[Burbs]

Today I’m at Tivoli Gardens. The B&M Floorless Coaster, Dæmonen, is currently achieving 319pph on one train. It briefly went on to two earlier in the day but dispatches seemed no more frequent and it was constantly stacking.

 

[John_P]

That's awful, especially considering the throughput of Reustebanen (the scenic railway) (apologies for the spelling) which is one of the fastest moving queues I've ever been in.

 

[Shaggy_Dog_]

Today I’m at Tivoli Gardens. The B&M Floorless Coaster, Dæmonen, is currently achieving 319pph on one train. It briefly went on to two earlier in the day but dispatches seemed no more frequent and it was constantly stacking.

I was there on Tuesday, Daemonen started off on one train that day and then they did add a second but it wasn’t too long before it went back down to one again for some reason. Maybe the park just like having it run on one train most of the time?

What I did find interesting though was Monsunen, the Zierer inverted Magic Carpet. That looked to be a bit of a throughput monster for a flat ride of its type, seating 40 riders per cycle and with a fairly quick turnaround. Something like that would be very welcome at Towers.

 

[Matt N]

I was at Thorpe Park yesterday, and I managed to get some throughput readings on the major coasters! Overall, I’d say operations were pretty good; in some cases, there were truly excellent operations that were the best I’ve ever seen on the respective rides!

• Colossus (Theoretical: 1,300pph on 2 trains) - 592pph (2 trains, 15th September 2023, average of 7)
• Nemesis Inferno (Theoretical: 1,150pph on 2 trains) - 693pph (2 trains, 15th September 2023, average of 6)
• Saw: The Ride (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 8 cars) - 770pph (unknown number of cars, 15th September 2023, average of 3)
• Stealth (Theoretical: 1,000pph on 2 trains) - 867pph (2 trains, 15th September 2023, average of 8)
• The Swarm (Theoretical: 1,100pph on 2 trains) - 983pph (2 trains, 15th September 2023, average of 6)

I should say that I was unable to get as many readings as I would normally like (I normally aim for 10), as the queues often weren’t long enough (a very good problem to have!).

I should also say that on both The Swarm and Stealth, the averages I’ve listed here were skewed by an instance of “guest faff” that produced one particularly slow dispatch. Without these instances of faff, both ride teams were managing faster averages than the averages I have listed here. The Swarm was seemingly managing a consistent string of 90 second dispatch intervals with mere seconds of stacking (if any at all) all day, and Stealth was managing a pretty consistent string of 75-80 second dispatches, with the operators quite literally running down the train to get restraints checked! I was very impressed with the operations on both rides; the throughputs were the best I’ve ever seen on those rides in both cases!

Saw was also operating absolutely brilliantly; the average I got for it is as good as I’ve ever seen on that ride. The average listed above was also lower than what I saw at another point in the day; I did a longer string of readings earlier in the day where it seemed to be getting somewhere in the ballpark of 800-850pph, which is the best throughput I’ve ever seen Saw get, but I accidentally messed this string of readings up by pressing the dispatch button twice, so I could not save this reading and save the final average…

The picture of excellent operations was not entirely consistent, however.

The throughput of Colossus was not terrible compared to what I’ve seen in the past, but it wasn’t particularly amazing either; I’ve seen it go slower, but I’ve also seen it go faster as well.

Nemesis Inferno was also letting the side down a bit; when I sat down and timed it, it was getting a pretty consistent string of 2.5-3 minute dispatches, with the average above only being as high as it was due to a faster dispatch at the very end. Every time I rode, stacking for a fair period of time was routine, and in general, the operations seemed slower on Inferno than elsewhere in the park.

Overall, though, the operational picture from Thorpe Park was very good yesterday, with numerous rides having some of the best operations I’ve ever seen on those rides! The operations also weren’t causing much issue, for the most part; there was always a coaster queue below 15 minutes somewhere on the park, and to my knowledge, no queue exceeded an hour all day. At one point, Inferno hit “55-60 minutes” as per the tannoy, but that was pretty isolated to that ride and didn’t last all day; nothing else got a huge amount above 30 minutes, and even Inferno dropped to more like 30-40 minutes after that brief period of 55-60.

 

[John]

Saw and Stealth aside, those are some dreadful numbers. Colossus no longer surprises me as it's badly designed but the Inferno numbers are embarrassingly low - that should be easily getting 1000.

 

[rob666]

Saw and Stealth aside, those are some dreadful numbers. Colossus no longer surprises me as it's badly designed but the Inferno numbers are embarrassingly low - that should be easily getting 1000.

Off peak, with low numbers on park, and short queues, why would you expect them to be banging them out?
Despite those "dreadful numbers", Matt still managed to have a very good day out, one of the best, with no big queues.
Measuring throughput should always be taken in context...it was a quiet off peak day...simple.

 

[Matt N]

I’d also argue that on Saw, Stealth and The Swarm, they were “banging them out” to the best of their ability! All three rides registered the highest throughputs I’ve ever seen on them!

The Swarm would have been getting about 1,100pph had there not been an instance of guest faff during my reading, and Stealth would have gotten 900-1,000pph without its instance of guest faff!

The only one that I’d say was really letting the side down compared to usual was Inferno. It usually attains roughly a train every 2 minutes or so, which would lead to about 850pph, but on Friday, it was more like 2.5-3 minutes per dispatch for quite a few dispatches in a row for reasons I can’t quite ascertain.

My day at Thorpe was certainly fruitful, anyhow, and queues rarely got much above 30 minutes.

I’m off to Chessington today, so I’ll be back at you with another throughput summary later. Whether Chessington will be quite so fruitful as my day at Thorpe was on Friday remains to be seen… seeing as Vampire and Dragon’s Fury were both consistently above 60 minutes when I was checking yesterday, I’m not expecting miracles, but I’m open to surprises!

 

[Matt N]

I went to Chessington World of Adventures yesterday, and I managed to get throughput timings and insights from the 3 coasters I did.

• Dragon's Fury (Theoretical: 950pph on 8 cars) - 497pph (unknown number of cars, 17th September 2023, average of 10) Note: This number assumes that all 4 seats in a car were full for the sake of simplicity. Due to a rule imposed by Chessington allowing no more than 3 adults per car, seats were going out empty more often than not; some cars were going out full, but most seemed to be going out with only 2 or 3 seats filled out of 4. Therefore, the actual attained figure is most likely a fair peg lower than the one given above. For some idea, the average dispatch interval I timed was approximately 28 seconds, and in the period I wasn't timing, I'd say that the average interval looked to be somewhere around the 30 second ballpark.
• Mandrill Mayhem (Theoretical: 840pph on 1 train) - 575pph (1 train, 17th September 2023, average of 9)
• Vampire (Theoretical: 1,200pph on 3 trains) - 418pph (2 trains, 17th September 2023, average of 6)
• Tomb Blaster (Theoretical: Unknown on 5 trains) - I could not time Tomb Blaster exactly, as I was ushered onto the ride too quickly to gain any timings, but my very vague timing (aka checking my watch) of the dispatch I was on came to roughly a 3 minute dispatch interval, which would equate to around 600pph if all 30 seats on the train were full. (unknown number of trains, 17th September 2023)

Overall, I'd say that the park was mixed to weak operationally, if I'm being honest. The staff on the ground were working very hard and trying their best, but I would say that the park had some of the lowest throughputs I've ever seen relative to the crowds it gets. The throughputs of most of the rides I did seemed to be stunted to some degree by either procedure, a lack of staff, or both; the operations were certainly no fault of the staff themselves.

The strongest operations of the day were on Mandrill Mayhem, by my reckoning. Yes, the procedure that means that guests can't wait on the platform behind the airgates is a considerable stumbling block for efficient operations, and that's probably something that could have been avoided during the design phase, but there's not a lot that they can do to rectify that now. With all things considered, I thought the ride was being operated very well. With the cards that have been dealt in terms of the intrinsic throughput of the ride and the H&S-related loading procedure, I thought that an average dispatch interval of just shy of 3 minutes was very, very good, personally; I was certainly pretty pleased with this figure seeing as the ride only has 1 train and has to load in the way it does. The ride seemed relatively well staffed, and the staff were doing an excellently prompt job of checking restraints and such. Great job, Chessington!

Weight limits notwithstanding, Dragon's Fury definitely wasn't operating as promptly as Spinball Whizzer at Alton Towers mostly does. On Spinball, the cars continuously motor through the station, with the continuously moving loading system being well utilised and not really having any kind of delay, and dispatch intervals as quick as 20 seconds are achieved. On Dragon's Fury, however, the continuously moving loading system was not really being used (I could have sworn it had one the same as Spinball's from previous visits, but I could be wrong there), and 2 or 3 cars or so often seemed to be stacked up in the station at once. With that being said, a good number of cars were seemingly running, and 30 seconds certainly isn't a terribly slow dispatch interval by any stretch of the imagination, although the weight limit definitely limits the throughput potential of the ride and the likes of Spinball do show that faster dispatches can be achieved with the same ride hardware.

Vampire definitely had some of the most surprisingly slow operations of the day, and this was due in large part to the fact that the ride was seemingly lacking staff. One operator was running the whole show for the main queue, being left to both batch and check the restraints on the entire right hand side of the train. They had one companion, who was batching what appeared to be the RAP queue and checking the restraints on the entire left hand side of the train. These staff were working incredibly hard and certainly putting all their energy into checking the restraints and batching, but at very least, I feel that a separate bayloader for each queue would not have gone amiss and would have sped things along considerably. The whole process of the operator checking restraints, pressing the send button and then having to jump over the separating fence and batch people before jumping back over to check the restraints for the next train and repeat the whole process again definitely slowed things down, and as a result, dispatch intervals of over 4 minutes were timed in some of the slowest cases, with the overall average coming to around 3.5-4 minutes per dispatch, despite Vampire looking like a ride that could quite easily attain quick dispatch intervals on paper. It reminded me of Flamingo Land, where they run things in a similar manner, and with queues being markedly longer at Chessington than they were on my visit to Flamingo Land, I don't think this method is as proportionate to the crowds at Chessington as it is at Flamingo Land.

The situation at Tomb Blaster was very similar to that on Vampire. One operator was running the entire show on their own here, being left in charge of batching, checking restraints and sending the ride. The operator was working very hard and doing a very prompt job, but the fact that they were having to do everything slowed things down, and as a result, a ride that looks like it should attain fairly quick dispatch intervals on paper was dispatching around every 3 minutes. To be fair, though, the queue was not as long for this, with me only waiting around 30-35 minutes, and the ride's fairly large train means that a throughput of roughly 600pph would still have been attained, which, if I had properly timed it, would probably have been the highest on park. Similarly to Vampire, though, 2 additional staff members (one bayloader and one operator sat in the cabin sending the ride) would not have gone amiss and would have sped things up notably, in my view.