Originally Posted By dresswhites just wondering how many cms generally work matterhorn. how many generally work in the tower? do three people generally work the unload and load area? who dispatches the sleds, the people on the ground or the person in tower? just curious. when i worked at the park and when i now visit, it seems matterhorn is a fun attraction to work
Originally Posted By USCSurfer The numbers working Matterhorn depended on how busy it was when I worked there. On a busy day, running maximum sled capacity, there would usually be one person in the tower monitoring both sides, an A-side grouper and a B-side grouper, someone stationed out front at the turnstiles, one person at B-side unload and one at A-side unload, one person at each load position, and then sometimes as many as two people at each of the belts/dispatch locations. (Most of the times I worked it though there was usually only one person at belts/dispatch. If they needed a little extra time to secure a belt, they could hit the e-stop on the rock and hold the sled.) The later in the evening it got we'd drop positions as we started pulling sleds. Matterhorn was definitely the attraction to work in Fantasyland for many, but I preferred World....it was slower paced and more relaxing. I will say though that Matterhorn was less stressful than working Space Mountain where dispatch times were quicker. I preferred Matterhorn over Space, but preferred IASW over both of 'em.
Originally Posted By USCSurfer And dress, the person at the load console was responsible for releasing the sled from load to the belts/dispatch positions. The sled would then automatically move to those next two positions before entering the mountain. The sled could still be held if necessary by both load and belts, and the tower had the power to stop the sled too. It's been a long time since I worked it, and my memory on details is beginning to fade, but I seem to remember the position just before the sled entered the mountain as being called "dispatch" (though "belts 1" and "belts 2" sounds familiar too--- for when you had 2 people working that part of the station), the position between that and load was "belts," then you had load, unload, and holds 1-4 as you worked back toward the pond. Tower was responsible for monitoring belts from above, making sure everyone's belt was secured, and then if the ride went 101, they had to know what to do to oversee the procedure of handling the breakdown. If A side went down, they'd have to signal B side what to do, and vice versa. If both sides shut down, same thing. Any time something was out of the ordinary, you might hear a bell signaled from the tower. You found yourself automatically looking up to the tower from the station to get hand signals, phone calls, whatever, that would tell you what was happening and what you were to do next. Sorry for the long posts.
Originally Posted By wonderingalice ^^Ditto... That was fascinating, USCSurfer. The "choreography" of the operation is definitely noticeable even to those of us just having fun, but the details let us see how involved it really is. Thanks!
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 Yes, thanks for the info, very interesting dresswhites thanks for asking Matterhorn CM's do usually seem to be having a good time and are enjoying bantering with each other. I do find it odd when there is no "grouper" and we usually end up kindly instructing the newbies in line in front of us to stand on a number If they are short staffed I'd much rather have them checking belts that telling people to move to a number.
Originally Posted By -PLP- Good topic..Thx Dresswhites..and the posts from USCSurfer were informative...TY also :')
