Should Rides Have Ratings?

[RagingBullFan]

Costs would not approach anything near that, there is a inhouse painting department that is at the park year round. It is their job to paint and design items like this. ( And they do a darn good job at it.)

Material costs would be minimal, if all that would be needed is a hand painted sign, it most likely not cost anything due to the amount of wood that is lying around. Most of the current signs are even simpler, they are just a nice wood board with a vynyl sticker ( the information) applied to it. Printing those ( especially in bulk) is cheap and easy. If the state required it, it could be done easily.

[Aero737]

I understand that Mike, but some mother or father who has never ridden a rollercoaster has NO idea what to expect out of a ride. They don't know what an inversion is like, they don't know the effects of high gee force.

These people arn't enthusiasts, they don't know what the effects of all the elements are. And rides such as Batman, Iron Wolf, American Eagle, Whizzer, you can't see what the entire ride does, which might lead someone to underestimate a ride.

It's not like these ratings are going to cut into YOUR coaster time, in fact, it might even make some lines shorter. The rating system would be to help inform non-enthusiasts and help people make descisions.

[RBull4life]

It is a parents responsibility to know whether or not certain rides or attractions could pose a threat to the safety of there children.

Thank you Galvan.


Your right Aero, it wouldn't cut into our coaster time, but how would the rating system work? From a scale to 1-5, how would they explain 5? Would it be; intense, high G forces, high speed coaster, or flat? All of that is already explained on the signs in front of the ride. Have we become so stupid, and lazy that we can't read the posted warnings, and that we have to have a rating system to explain it to us? Everything that the rating system would have is already laid out for guests as you enter the ride, with the exception of G forces, which maybe would not be a bad thing to have posted.

The young boy that died, did not die on a coaster. He died on a slow moving boat ride, because he stood up, and because he failed to follow the simple basic rules. "Please keep hands, and arms inside of boat." How would have a rating system helped in that situation?

[LAFFfan4lyfe]

i don't think a ride rating system is necessary. Shouldn't a parent be able to judge if the ride is too intense or too much for their child. I'd think by looking at coasters or rides at least in SFGAm that people would be able to tell if their son/daughter should go on the ride. I don't know about other parks, but i think if you see a coaster with a lot of loops and stuff, and your son/daughter is really young, but still meets the height requirement, that'd ring a bell in the adult's head on if they should ride. I don't know, I just think parents should be able to decide which ride is safe enough for their children...that's all.

[Aero737]

I already said, parents might not be able to judge a ride. Before I rode a rollercoaster, I had NO idea what to expect on them. A lot of parents don't want to ride the ride themselves but their children do, they give in eventually and who knows, maybe after the ride, they realized it was far too intense.

I don't see why everyone is so up in arms about something that wont affect them in any way. It's not meant to do parenting for children, it's just to standardise an intensity rating.

[Galvan]

^

How do you figure people are getting up in arms over putting a rating on a rollercoaster?

I dont see anyone getting all bent out of shape because they disagree with the notion of putting ratings on the rides.

However, I will continue to say that it is still up to the parents to parent there children, And not have to rely on some sign to tell them how to parent there kids.

[v2guy13]

MOD note: proper grammar and spelling^

it's their not there children

I think, however, that rides shouldn't have ratings either.

[Aero737]

But how would adding ratings hurt ANYTHING?

[twixmix0303]

They wouldn't hurt anything, but it all comes down to necessity. Warnings make a ride look imposing, guests may realize that there are risks involved and combined with everything in the media (i.e. Final Destination 3) they may no longer want to ride. Generally, the less information a guest has to comprehend, the better. Thinking caps and common sense are usually the two things checked at the gate.

As for pricing, you're probably right since it is all done in-house. I never realized that. Although, I would say you still have to figure in labor costs just because those painters, etc. could be doing something else but now have to work longer or more workers have to be in at one time. On another note, I looked up the price of an Allen-Bradley E-Stop button (for my car lol) a few months ago and I was suprised to see that this particular model (12 V DC or something like that) was over $100.

[Aero737]

(offtopic) Talk to Kyle about buttons and such, I know he has two mounted on his computer.. I think one is go and one is Estop. (/offtopic)

[FRD714]

Why the hell do you need an e-stop button for your car?

[RagingBullFan]

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If you want to talk about it more either PM me or really it'd be easiest to make a topic about it in the off-topic forum.

[Ilovthevu']

I can't see what this accident has anything to do with a rating system. How does a slow moving dark ride compare to a fast moving rollercoaster? The kid died because he didn't listen to instructions, and got out of the boat. What does this have to do with any type of rating?? Did you follow the instructions or not is the real question? All the sign needs to say is that this ride is a dark ride. That's it.

If you are going with the ratings spiel, how can you determine if a ride is a 1,2,3,4 or a 5. According to boringness, I would put RagingBull at a 1 (This is to me, and not to other people), and Fiddler's Fling at a 5. I would suspect that if the park did this, they would put Fiddler's Fling at a 3, and Raging Bull at a 5. To me, Fiddler's Fling is a lot more intense than Raging Bull.

If I were to look at Ragin Cajun, and Raging Bull. How can these again been the same intensity at a 5. In my opinion, RC is alot more intense than RB will ever be. In the parks opinion, I would imagine that they would actually give the lower rating to RC just because it's not elevated as much as RB.

It' s all opinion. Again, ratings would never help that boy that died!!! I don't think that ride would be intense. It's a dark WATER ride for goodness sakes. It is probably similiar to Monster Plantation at SFOG, and that was slow moving. Put a dark water ride on the sign, and that's all you need to do.

[Trailblazer Tony]

Before my trip to florida, I would think that rating a ride would be sort of a waste of time, however, I now think otherwise. Of course, one of the first things i did was ride Revenge of the Mummy. It was me and my mom and some teenager with his little brother in our row. The existing height requirement for this ride is 48 inches, which is very reasonable given that the coaster itself is no more thrilling than Eagle or Demon. However, the content of the ride, the heat that the fire and explosions produce, the audioanimatronics with Imotep which are scary looking, and the overall experience of the ride is not for the weak at heart. I can tell you that the entire time on that ride, I spent listening to that kid cry and cry the whole way through. It broke my heart.

After that experience, I am strongly for making ratings on rides. You just can't tell by looking at things how intense they are going to be or what affect it might have on some people. As far as cost, this could be something as simple as an online poll where the general public set the ratings and little bumper stickers on each enterance sign to each ride inform the riders. The online rating would cost nothing for the park and the signage would be baby money for the parks to spend and, especially in cases like Revenge of the Mummy, a rating strongly necessary.

[w00dland]

What is going to hurt? Honestly.

All the ride rating system will do is help parents decide what is right for their kids to ride and what isn't. It's ultimately their decision and it should be, otherwise we have MAY have unnessary deaths like the one at Mission: Space a few months back.

It's not like it would hurt us anyway.

[twixmix0303]

It's not going to hurt anyone, and if the parks want to adopt it, then fine. All power to them.

But is it so important that we should force the parks to adopt a system? Not a chance.

[Trailblazer Tony]

No, not force, just prod a little bit.

I think if there are any rides that can be misleading (Revenge of the Mummy) that it should be a priority, though.

[FRD714]

Any enclosed coaster or ride that you cant see before you get on can be misleading