Originally Posted By hammertime I too will be there opening day and have already told my family that I'm willing to wait in a 2+ hourline. Question about the wheelchair line? Does the whole party go in wheelchair line? Well have a party of 8- might make the Wheelchair line a little chaotic. We have no problems with half or more of us waiting in the regular line while my dad and mom wait in the wheelchair line.
Originally Posted By ni_teach > When Pirates reopens the lines will be at least twice as long as Indiana Jones Grand Opening. You probably will have no chance of riding it opening day. Pirates higher capacity than Indiana Jones. Also it will be open on a Monday, which mean's that those of us that have to work, like myself, can't be there.
Originally Posted By deadmentellnotales <When Pirates reopens the lines will be at least twice as long as Indiana Jones Grand Opening. You probably will have no chance of riding it opening day> this comment made me laugh, it's only a ride not Mt. Everest. While the ride will be packed for sure it will be open for 14 hours @2200 people an hour = 30,800 people so about 1/2 the park capacity. Now take into account that it'll be a monday and summertime, just after school gets out so the average person has a pretty good shot at getting on, an LPer though should easily get on and several times, since he/she knows the system quite well and would make this their first / fireworks / fantasmic /last ride of the day.
Originally Posted By PirateJohn >>Question about the wheelchair line? Does the whole party go in wheelchair line? Well have a party of 8- might make the Wheelchair line a little chaotic. Technically the limit is six, but I've let in groups of eight many times. Depending upon the CM there, your group may get split up. If your group does get split up, whoever shows up to the dock first just has to tell the CM that the rest of their group is on the other side and the CM can accommodate so your group can all go in the same boat.
Originally Posted By PirateJohn >>@2200 people an hour This kind of HRC for Pirates is beyond worst-case scenario. I doubt an hour will go by with a ride count of less than 2600, and most will be over 2800.
Originally Posted By gadzuux >> Is 'small world' comparable? I would guess it would be. Not even in the ballpark. << What would account for the difference? The capacity of the boats? The number of boats in the flume? Amount of guests queued? The proficiency of the CMs? The reason I'm curious is that both attractions use essentially the same design, and they're both approximately the same age.
Originally Posted By gmaletic The Small World boats are smaller, and the younger--as well as older--age of the boat occupants don't make for quick loading and unloading.
Originally Posted By PirateJohn >>What would account for the difference? The capacity of the boats? You just answered your own question! The Pirates boats hold 22 people each and the SW boats hold 12, IIRC.
Originally Posted By juicer When I worked pirates in the early 90's we had a tight crew and when we did 2300 people an hour we were doing great - I can't recall ever doing 2500 per hour - And FYI - When we were on the "load" position we had to ask nicely "how many people in your party please" then we had to load the boat fairly evenly according to the weight of the groups of guests - Meaning if we load too many big guests in the front end of the boat and mostly small or light people in back - The boat will create and huge splash at the end of the drops and most of the guests would get really wet - On the other hand if the boat is loaded heavy in the back - The boat could derail at the end of one the the drops - As a side note...One day a VIP hostess brought in Roseanne Barr and two of her kids through the employee entrance so they could avoid the line - Roseanne insisted that the three of them sit in the front row all by themselves - The lead nicely explained that if we allow this they would get really wet when they go down the drops - She insisted loudly and we allowed them to go - Needless to say when they were soaked when they got off the boat - She was really upset and got mad at us for not warning her more!
Originally Posted By PirateJohn >>When I worked pirates in the early 90's we had a tight crew and when we did 2300 people an hour we were doing great - I can't recall ever doing 2500 per hour - I think when they did the rehab in the late 90's they changed the boats so they could fit more people. >>And FYI - When we were on the "load" position we had to ask nicely "how many people in your party please" then we had to load the boat fairly evenly according to the weight of the groups of guests - Meaning if we load too many big guests in the front end of the boat and mostly small or light people in back - The boat will create and huge splash at the end of the drops and most of the guests would get really wet - On the other hand if the boat is loaded heavy in the back - The boat could derail at the end of one the the drops - That hasn't changed. Grouping at Pirates is an art form. I got fairly good at it by the end of my tenure but I never really liked grouping very much. >>As a side note...One day a VIP hostess brought in Roseanne Barr and two of her kids through the employee entrance so they could avoid the line - Roseanne insisted that the three of them sit in the front row all by themselves - The lead nicely explained that if we allow this they would get really wet when they go down the drops - She insisted loudly and we allowed them to go - Needless to say when they were soaked when they got off the boat - She was really upset and got mad at us for not warning her more! We're very strict about that now. Usually near closing when guests only arrive once every three minutes or so, we just stop loading the front and back rows altogether for that very reason. Not only can you get really wet sitting alone in front, but boats can get stuck in the shallow regions because the boat will bottom out. Sometimes this causes arguments with guests who absolutely MUST sit in the front when there's just not enough people to fill a boat. Made me want to say sometimes, "let me describe the physics of ballast for a moment..."
Originally Posted By juicer I remember it being very agrivating on load when guests would demand to be in front when it was slow evening - So, I would explain why we could not and load them in the middle of the boat...But as soon as they were dispatched we would have guests climb over the seats to the front anyways - The CM working dispatch would warn them over the PA to carefully move back (some would and some would not) - Those that did not move back we would (sometimes) call security to meet them when they approched the exit - Remember the guests (mostly young teenaged boys) that would insist on standing going down the drop's? - Working disatch we would do an emergency stop and over the PA try to convince them to sit down - (not only because of the sudden movement going down - But the low clearance as well) Mind you this did not happen very often - 99% of the time the guests were fine going through -
Originally Posted By imadisneygal I'm glad to hear that there was a rehab adding to the capacity, because my recollection of 2200/hour was from my time there in 1992-1995. I'm glad more Guests are now able to enjoy the attraction!
Originally Posted By juicer Oh my gosh I still remember the speil for greeter at POC: "Ladies and Gentlemen - Welcome to The Pirates Of The Caribean - To speed up your wait in line we ask you to count the number of people in your party - including children and infants and give that number to the friendly pirate at the end of the line - And just a reminder - There is no eating, drinking and especially no flash photography inside - I repeat there is no eating, drinkin and especially no flash photography inside - Thank You and enjoy your cruise on The Piriates Of The Caribean!" After all these years I still remember!
Originally Posted By PirateJohn >>Oh my gosh I still remember the speil for greeter at POC: I made up my own spiel and did the whole thing in a pirate voice. It took me about six months to hone the pirate voice but I had (and still have) it down perfectly. In fact, when I demonstrated it recently to a co-worker who is a semiprofessional voice actor, he said I'd have been a lock if I had auditioned for a pirate character in the Entertainment department.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Just out of curiosity, what is the capacity of the trains? Not if everybody got off after each leg of the trip, but what do they actually run at? I would expect that to be a pretty big number as well. Also, how about America Sings and the Carousel of Progress? I would expect those to be amazing at eating people up. I think the PeopleMover was also pretty high, but I don't know what the actual number was.
Originally Posted By tiggertoo <<Not only can you get really wet sitting alone in front, but boats can get stuck in the shallow regions because the boat will bottom out.>> I can understand if there is a sizable party but even if it is only one or two people? Wow! Considering the dimensions of the boat, a couple hundred pounds in the center front row wouldn't seem to create too much draft. And combined the leveraged weight of the back of the boat (unless the boats are much lighter than I thought), I wouldn't think this would be a problem.
Originally Posted By PirateJohn >>I can understand if there is a sizable party but even if it is only one or two people? Not often, but it can happen. The main reason is because the draught of the boat and the depth of the water before the drops aren't very much different. The boats are about a ton, so two average sized adults -- about 300 pounds total -- can tilt the boat enough in the front that if there are enough waves, the boat can scratch the bottom, triggering an e-stop since the boat will be travelling slower than the computer expects it to.
