Maverick's single rider line.

Ok, this has been bugging me since my last visit.

We all know that maverick has a single rider line, and where it is. I had a lady cutting thru the whole line, in order to get to the single rider line. She bypassed several hundred people in line to get to the single rider stairs. She kept telling people"excuse me, I am going to the single rider line".

I am under the impression that you had to wait in the full line untill you reached the point of the single rider stairs.

Can you bypass the regular line to get to the single rider line?

I know at some parks they have a single rider line at the begginning of the line like they have on diamond back.

You have to wait in line like everyone else. Once you get to the stairs then you can go up the single rider line.

I can't believe she did that.

Which is not really the right way to implement a single-rider line. Because the distance is so short, there's no time saving because there won't be enough people in that stretch who are single riders.

Which is probably why they have it at the ride entrance for Diamondback. Although, then you deal with the alternate problem of groups entering the single rider line thinking it's a 'shortcut'.

If groups are willing to not ride together for a shorter wait, so be it. It helps fills seats that would otherwise go empty.

It's designed just as it should be, and the best way to implement a single-rider line. It's not designed to be a "time saver" for single riders...that's a ridiculous concept. It's designed to help ride ops and single riders easily fill empty seats like bholcomb stated.

Okay, while on the line jumping type of topic here, am I the only person who will block a queue line when I see a linejumper coming and pretend I don't notice them trying to get around me? Am I mean for doing it? Am I just a grumpy old man who thinks everyone should wait their turn? Discuss among yourselves :)

^^But it's usually empty so it isn't doing any good. It would be if people had any reason to use it, but since it offers a whole 5 minutes of saved time in exchange for riding separately, nobody does. There just aren't enough people who actually come alone to sustain it.

Last year I talked to Park Operations about this on Maverick. I was told by them that once you reach the metal bars of the station, you CAN bypass people from that point and go to the single rider stairs. I don;t do this, but I have seen several people do it.

bholcomb said:
If groups are willing to not ride together for a shorter wait, so be it. It helps fills seats that would otherwise go empty.

Except that what usually happens is after the group goes through the turnstyle they het back together as a group and ride together anyway.

A single rider line would work great on Raptor and Mantis. At a certain point in the queue, I would make 2 seperate queues leading to the stairs on both of these rides. Putting groups of 2/4 % 1/3 would be more efficient when getting up to the station to fill every available seat. Or Cedar Point could just make 2 separate queues, (Mantis already has this), and give single riders an advantage, this could easily be done on Maverick also because there is a certain part of the inside queue that isn't used and it could be used for single riders.

The only things that Cedar Point would have to worry about are:
-People saying they didn't know it was a single rider line
-Guests can easily switch into their groups in the station.

Ways to solve these problems would be:
-Put them in the singles group anyways.
-Only have the ride host fill the station up 2X trains worth of people at a time and maybe bnot let them pick their seats.

Just don't have a single rider line at all. Do the same thing on all the big rides that they do on Millennium Force, Dragster, and MaXair. When a single seat is open, announce it and let the first hand raised take the seat. Works great on those rides, and solves any issues with the "fairness" of wait times.

^Have you ever been to Disney?
Test Track would be the slowest ride at the park if they did not have a single rider queue.

It makes sense for rides with 4 seats across, or always have many empty seats on a train + moderate-slow wait time (Millennium, Dragster, Maverick, Wicked Twister). Pretty much every Arrow Dynamics roller coaster at the park (for the exception of Cedar Creek), have trains transporting out of the station to quickly to make a single rider line effective. Magnum would be a nightmare with one but I remember the ride hosts used to walk around and try to fill every seat.

^Yes I have, both California and Florida, and hope to never go back. Granted it was better than 20 years ago when I went to both parks, so I couldn't tell you if they had single rider lines back then or not.

You could accomplish the same thing on 4 wide trains as on 2 wide trains though. 2 empty seats, ask for 2 riders, etc. If no response after 5 or 10 seconds, fire the train off and move to the next one. I can't count the number of times that my wife and I have ridden Raptor or Mantis with two complete strangers.

Where would you put a single rider line on Raptor and Mantis anyway? The stairs to the loading platforms are narrow enough that I don't even want to think about trying to cram 2 queue lines into them.

Where is the second queue on Mantis? Also, when it's busy, like last weekend, all of the queue lines on Maverick were open and filled.

^ -The Stairs are wide enough on Mantis & Raptor for a banister to be put in between the stairs + both of them do have their old freeway queues along with Millennium, TTD, and Wicked Twister.
-I don't know why people give a crap when they are sitting next to strangers. There are 4 seats, use them. Unlike Cedar Point, I have seen Busch Gardens Williamsburg force people to move down in their seats to make room for other guests on Apollo's Chariot.
-On Maverick, for the past 2 years they have 2 small rows of queue chained off. I don't know why, but on Columbus Day Saturday (arguably the most crowded day at the park) they even had them closed off.

As it has been said, Maverick's single rider line is not done right.

Maverick's single-rider line needs to cut in right when entering the old WWL station. Then, on busy days, an employee should pre-fill one set of trains at a time. If only 1 person is in a pre-fill que, then the employee quietly can direct the pool of single riders. Simple.

I've only been to Cedar Point once single, and to be honest, the way they handled single riders kind of made me feel depressed. Since I was riding alone, the ride op's all started announcing "we have a single rider here" over the PA system...they said it 2 or 3 times while everyone just stared.

All the attention drawn to me riding alone made me feel a little down or embarrassed, seeing almost everyone as couples or friends. It was always a relief when the ride operators simply let me ride alone without the announcement...or if someone quickly just sat down next to me without asking.

Cedar Point is supposed to be a fun, positive experience; not an announcement that you're alone to the world imo. Though I didn't have to use it at King's Island, Diamondback's system appeared to work flawlessly. A clearly labeled line at the entrance for "Single Riders," making you feel normal. No single announcements. 100% fill rate the day I was there, and everything was going smoothly.

Kevinj said:
It's designed just as it should be, and the best way to implement a single-rider line. It's not designed to be a "time saver" for single riders...that's a ridiculous concept. It's designed to help ride ops and single riders easily fill empty seats like bholcomb stated.

Which is why you're wrong. No, it's not intended to be a time saver for single riders. I don't think anyone suggested it was. It's intended to have a steady flow of single riders to fill empty seats. In order for it to do that, it needs to have its own entrance, as it's done at virtually every other park on the planet, including the Disney parks who know capacity better than anyone. As it's set up now, the supply of single riders is far less than the available seats, and trains go out with empty seats.

i think the whole concept of single rider line is flawed. Too many things to go wrong, from abuse to embarrasment. I like the way it is done on MF. Ask for single rider, wait 5 secs., then send train.

Unless the time savings is spectacular, I generally avoid the single rider lines. I don't like being on "standby", and I don't like not being able to pick my row.

elmerfritz said:
i think the whole concept of single rider line is flawed. Too many things to go wrong, from abuse to embarrasment.

I don't see either of those things occur anywhere. Favorite examples include Apollo's Chariot and Test Track.