Locker policies/comments

[Bob O]

I wonder how long into the season SFGAM will keep 3 employee's in front of the entrance to rides that have lockers??? When I went on rides that did have lockers it seemed they had 2 employee's watching to make sure no one brought anything on the ride with them and one employee helping with the lockers. This cant be cheap for the park and does little to enhance the guest's enjoyment of the park.

And I wonder what the park will do in summer when rides get lines that are 1 1/2 to 2 hrs in length when guests may go over the 2 hour limit and what will happen when they run out of locker space which I think is likely to happen on bnusy summer days.

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[T.K.]

Hmmm... Increasing number of ride ops. on ride's platform; doesn't mean decreasing long lines\wait. It all depends on how good the crew is. I really do not like how some people over judge time wait of ride's lines. I used to be a ride op, and trust me it's shorter then people say. Next time go in line and time it. When I worked at Viper (2 people on platform), and when the entire queque was full, the wait time was 22 minutes. People waist a lot of time going back and forth to rides that are totally oposite sides of eachother. RB to SUF to Viper to AE to Whizzer and on on on... Walking from RB to SUF is 12 minutes, walking normal speed.

[tsalas08]

Does anyone know what happens when your locker reaches the 2 hr limit? Do you have to pick your stuff up somewhere else? I actually saw an instance where the lockers would have done some good. An old guy who snuck up the exit after his wife was arguing with the op at the beginning of the que on AE kept holding the line up as he rifled through the pack constantly at one point the staircase up to the platform was empty as he played around with his pack. Luckily, he was ejected for line-jumping.

[jm2775]

^ If you don't get your stuff out before the time is up, they take your stuff to lost & found. At least that's what is supposed to happen.

[Aaron084]

They've only got 100 lockers at each location, half that for AE I think. I could easily see Raging Bull's lockers filling up on a busy day when the que is full. I have no idea what they're going to do then. On Saturday, the Superman crew was doing a great job sending the train out of the station to the point where the other train never had to stop on the final break run. Some of that speed seemed to be because nobody had to put there stuff in bins before they got on. Everyone just walked right to their seats, strapped in, and went.

[Chitown]

^That's good. The lockers are doing what they were intended to do.

[Bob O]

While at the park on SAT. I saw no difference in dispatch times/waits between rides that had lockers and those that still had bins as compared to past seasons..
At BTR you still had people taking off flip flops and putting them in the container or on the side which slowed dispatch the same as before, though how cold it was SAT i was surprised people were still wearing flip flops. When summer comes and alot more people are wearing flip flops you will have the same issues as before of people walking to the side to put there flip flops away. And if people can do this for flip flops there is no reason someone couldnt do the same for a small prize they won at a carny game/refillable sport bottle etc.

What does the park expect someone to do who has won a prize at a carny game that wont fit in the small locker??

My only guess is make them spend probably about 30 mintues to 1 hr of time (considering where they are parked and how fast they can walk) going back to there car.

[cdnelson]

I saw MANY people there that were not happy about the "carny" prize thing. This gives people absolutely NO incentive to play the games now...not that I ever had much before.

On a side note...why do the locker kiosks not take dollar bills? First you have to have singles, then you need to get the $1 coins from a changer. This seems an even more pointless waste of time.

We didn't have to do this too much on Saturday as the only ride open that used the lockers (that we ride anyhow) were BTR and Eagle. We're going to see if we spend more than $9 next time to see if an all-day locker will be worth the effort.

We're going to try and use fanny packs next time, but how RUDE the backpack nazis were to us virtually guarantees that I will not be spending ANY extra money in the park this year at all.

I'll echo the sentiment that having 2-4 people monitoring these lines makes absolutely no sense $$ wise, and also that the dispatch times seemed no different to me. In fact Viper (with the bins) was the fastest dispatching ride that I saw on Saturday.

[tsalas08]

the only ride in which i noticed people actually using the bins was V2 and the dispatch times were on the slow side on SAT

[Danhockey04]

Keeping these lockers staffed isn't really employing more staff this year from last because of the removal of Vu and SWF. Vu had a minimum of 4 on platform and a grouper and Splash usually had 2 or 3. Now that isn't that bad. Also, the lockers have helped with dispatch speed, it seems the only thing slowing them down now is the riders that are too big.

[CoasterDude12-2]

I thought the loading times were terrible on Sunday. Viper was stacking with NO ONE in the station, and 3 ride ops. Raging Bull and Eagle had no difference in time either.

[Bob O]

How many rides have lockers?? Im guessing 6 rides, I didnt pay attention to the list as I wont use a locker.
But if you are going to use 3 extra employee's per ride with a locker that is more employee' s that were used for DJV/SWF, and they will have to be used the entire time the ride is operating.
And this is money that could be saved due to the rides not operating, or the employee's time could be better used in service of guests needs, rather than playing locker guards. Why dont they these employee's also measure kids to see if they are tall enough to ride, or see if people are too big to safely fit on the ride, as these issues cause more slowdowns than some one putting something in a bin.

I just think it is a JOKE that the park is trying to sell $12.99 refillable sport bottles, then make you pay a dollar a ride if you want to keep it when you go on a ride. If you ride 13 times on a ride that has a locker, which isnt hard to do, you will pay more for locker rental than the bottle itself. It would no work for the park to let people put the sport bottle right where people are storing flip flops if they cared about the guests!!!

[RagingBullFan]

There are not 3 extra Rides employees at the front of each ride, there is 1 at the ride entrance only. The other 2 employees are SmartCarte employees (SmartCarte is the operator of the lockers).

[rct2wizard360]

If you seriously all hate these lockers so much then DON'T bring anything into the park. Plain and simple.

Bob O, they aren't wasting any employees. They have greeters at the entrances to most of the rides now. Telling me to enjoy my ride, checking heights and for loose articles.

With how the crews were with an empty park on Sunday, I don't think they were up to par. I think once the park starts getting packed again, you guys will see the difference in capacity.

[joiclarrissa]

My dad is ticked off about it. Thanks to this new policy we won't be coming back to sfgam as much as previous years. Six Flags has turned even more money hungry. I didn't think that was possible.

[tsalas08]

^ while I can understand people being angry about the policy, Six Flags isn't even turning profit on these lockers. There are other reasons for them to install these lockers.

[Bob O]

SF is paying for any employee who is working at the park. If a employee is working for a private company that is contracted by SFGAM, then the price of these employee's are factored into the cost of the contract for the lockers.

The greeters/locker guards I saw at the park on SAT, werent checking any one for height requirements, and I didnt receive any greeting before riding any ride that had lockers, they were only on the lookout for items that had to be stored in the lockers, and every ride I went on with a locker had at least 2 people in front with regular SF shirts.


If SF isnt trying to turn a profit on these lockers, which I agree they wont, then what is the reason. If it is to increase ride capacity, then it surely wont work, and will piss off far more guests than those who will find this to be a good idea.Why dont they ban flip flpos, as these shoes will cause longer delays than time saved by putting items in lockers. I hope this results in people spending less money in the park on items they would then have to store in these lockers,

[Jerrykoala2112]

This is what I would do
1. Dont play games cost money(unless if you have coupon)
2. Dont go on coasters if you have stuff to carry
3. Fight with the employee its your choice to waist money on a locker
4. Never even rent a locker, wayyyy to expensive!!!!!
5. Listen to tall of the above

[tsalas08]

^Bob, there is probably quite a large amount of people who do agree with the locker policy, or can at least understand the concept - But these people rarely go to park employees and say "wow, what a great idea!" so you don't hear about it. Six Flags did trial run this at other parks first,and in an interview Mark Shapiro mentions how they also help keep loose items off the ride itself, the more employees checking for loose items the better(IMHO). In short, I really think that SF found something in these lockers that they feel will make the park safer or more efficient. Especially if it has to do with something that would so obviously irritate many guests.

[tsalas08]

And to touch on the flip flop comment, to ban flip-flops in line wouldn't be feasible, just consider the health issues/injury liability that would raise!

[DejaVu2001]

3. Fight with the employee its your choice to waist money on a locker

Yeah, thats a great idea. You'll be thrown out of the park so fast your head will spin

[themanoftheland8]

Personally, I don't think the lockers are that big of deal. I think it will greatly increase capacity, as many have been saying.

A little off topic, I do think that if employee's/ops are going to be standing at the entrance of the rides anyways, SF should purchase stand-alone signs (Like cedar point) which tells guests the estimated time they will have to wait to ride.

[tp41190]

They could use computers for monitoring the line wait. There would be a turnstile at the entrance and the exit. Then it would monitor how many people are entering and leaving the ride. Then there would be a display in front of the entrance that would say how long the wait will be.

It would also work with the Q-Bots.

[viper1988]

They could use computers for monitoring the line wait. There would be a turnstile at the entrance and the exit. Then it would monitor how many people are entering and leaving the ride. Then there would be a display in front of the entrance that would say how long the wait will be.

It would also work with the Q-Bots.

Aww thats funny! Just so you know theres no such system in the theme park industry! All they do is just type in how long the wait is on a panel for the box and thats what it displays. Unless I'm completely wrong and some company has went and designed a machine that calculates exactly the moment a person enters and exits the line accounting for downtimes, slow crews, or fast ones, and possible security issues. Overall though it would still be a hellavalot easier for a person to just ask someone "how long did you wait in line?" or just estimate the wait time based on the point that it stretches to in the queue and type it into a machine.

[rico28]

DISNEY DOES THAT ALREADY! Electronic eyes sensors at the the start of the line and exit of the ride. Then calculates time to wait at the entrance of the line and ride board times near the front of the park!