[CoasterDad]

We made the mistake of spending Memorial Day Monday at the park. We got there before opening, went through security, showed our season passes and headed for our favorite rides. After a quick hop on Reptar for the sake of my 48" son, we headed for Afterburn. Since South Gate was open, a good many had already gotten in line so there was a short wait. After our initial ride, my oldest daughter and I grabbed some empty seats for another. Upon trying for a third ride, though, we were told that NO MORE RE-RIDES WOULD BE ALLOWED ON AFTERBURN. We didn't argue and headed out the gate, but I did ask one of the workers when this occured and he told me the order came down about 2 weeks ago because IT WAS JUST TOO CONFUSING AND WAS CAUSING PROBLEMS WITH GETTING EVERYONE UNLOADED AND RELOADED AGAIN. I can understand this for busy days, but...

I wonder if this will hold true on quieter week days? We know of other parks with similar rules - got scolded one time really bad at Dorney. Normally, we do this inconspicuously without asking, but we are easily recognized with our "coaster gettup" on... in fact, the Busch people are generally eager to accomodate re-rides, even on fairly busy days, especially when they recognize you as a true coaster nut!

Oh well, another negative for good ol' Cedar unFair

[falula]

As an employee, it really is quite confusing to have people jumping on and off the ride. We encounter a ton of complaints each day about people being bumped out of a seat due to a simple misunderstanding or lack of communication with guests who are re-riding. Also, Carowinds has a general rule that after two rides, guests must walk around (even on a slow day) in order to clear their heads and settle their equilibriums. Our rules are in place not to disrupt your day or keep you from riding but for your safety and our ability to expeditiously load our trains. We apologize for any inconvience and appreciate your patience.

[RollerBee]

As an employee, it really is quite confusing to have people jumping on and off the ride. We encounter a ton of complaints each day about people being bumped out of a seat due to a simple misunderstanding or lack of communication with guests who are re-riding. Also, Carowinds has a general rule that after two rides, guests must walk around (even on a slow day) in order to clear their heads and settle their equilibriums. Our rules are in place not to disrupt your day or keep you from riding but for your safety and our ability to expeditiously load our trains. We apologize for any inconvience and appreciate your patience.

You must be in management, if not it sounds like it. I remember working at Hurler/Drop Zone we always had alot of seat hoppers that made it confusing. At one point, we stopped allowed re-rides ourselves do to seat hopper. Cedar Point did not allow re-rides when I was there in 2005. Personally, I don't mind walking around the que again. As long as they don't say "You can only ride each ride once a day, I don't see the big issue. Of course, I am also the same person that doesn't make big deal out of line jumpers.

[GriffonBoy69]

I believe that was me you were talking to ( were you wearing a red carowinds shirt?)
Well, as falula had stated, it becomes very confusing when you have guests that jumped into what they thought were empty seats only to have the guests who were putting their stuff away in the cubbies come back to see their seats taken. After that, us employees have to sort out the confusion and get the proper people in their seats before we stack the trains ( which gets very frustrating very quickly) So this new policy is to lower the confusion and to speed up our dispatches so that we can get more guests on the ride.

And to answer your question. I believe we will be enforcing this on slow days as well, however that is up to my supervisor, and not me.

[CoasterDad]

Yes, I was the guy in the red Carowinds shirt. I thoroughly understand the confusion and have seen it many times over the years. At this point in my life it doesn't matter. As a rule, we usually come on off days to the park, but needed to bring another family with yesterday who hadn't had the enjoyment of coming to the park in many years ~ I made sure they got the front seats on Afterburn, which they enjoyed greatly ~ still my favorite inverted, next to Montu.

I can also understand the general rule in not riding something over twice in a row, just for your own constitution. When we were at Busch-Williamsburg, last fall, a couple of guys had ridden Apollo's Chariot over 100 times that day ~ I wondered then how they could take it! One of them sat with me and my two daughters on one hop and I asked how this was possible ~ he told me that he was an ACE'r and that BGE was very accomodating to special requests, which I personally found easy to believe with a "top drawer" park like BGE. Not something I would need to do, for sure...

Bottom line, I don't see why it would be a problem to re-ride Afterburn once on a very off day OR early in the morning before the masses arrive. Remember that GREAT season pass benefit under Paramount when, as a season passholder, you could enter the park on Summer Saturdays at 9am and ride several coasters before the general attendance plowed through ~ thanks Carowindsman, for letting us ride Top Gun as many times as we wished, in those good ol' Paramount days!

[GriffonBoy69]

I understand where you are coming from as well, especially seeing as I used to be someone who would do that many times throughout the season. Honestly, I dont have a problem with it on slow days, but then we would have people getting mad at us (which happens no matter what we do....) for changing our policy. Also keep in mind that it was not my decision to change the policy, I was just told the new policy, and that we all needed to enforce it.

[bgwfreak]

This was actually the policy last year too, it just depended on who was operating the ride. Usually I could get a 2nd ride no problem, but after that had to leave.

[falula]

On a slow day, if no one is in your line waiting to ride, you will be allowed to ride a second time as long as you do not have to leave your seat. This is in effect for all coasters except Vortex which requires that all riders step aside while the seats are reset.

I hope this somehows alleviates your disappointment with our rule.

[RollerBee]

On a slow day, if no one is in your line waiting to ride, you will be allowed to ride a second time as long as you do not have to leave your seat. This is in effect for all coasters except Vortex which requires that all riders step aside while the seats are reset.

Unless Carowinds morphs into SFOG where they reset the seats while guests are still on the trains. I guess they are trying to launch you out of the station.

[Edwardo]

This was a company wide policy for Cedar Fair before they got Paramount (was enforced at the parks I'd been to previously), and so it's likely to finally be enforced here as well. I rarely re-ride unless it's ERT.

[chargercrazy]

I know this wasn't a Carowinds enforced rule (at least on TR) when I marathoned Thunder Road (see sig). I never left the station the entire time. The only time I changed seats was when someone was in line for the one I was sitting in. I just moved to another empty seat. Of course this happened on the day that Carowinds was as empty as I have ever seen it (they even closed 2 hours early I think).