Do you all remember the large lifeguard chairs with people sitting in them near the lines of the most popular rides? The people sitting in them would be watching to make sure those in line weren't cutting or jumping the ropes to let friends in. I particularly remember seeing these chairs and people in the lines where we all waited to ride The American Eagle in Gurnee. There would be occasions where they would have to throw someone out of the line because they had cut, or caused a problem. Wonder when they got rid of the lifeguard chairs and people watching? I assume Santa Clara had them too. Didn't these people watching have a special name? What a job...
Also interesting was to see how once a ride lost its popularity, the number of "stockades" used to keep people in line were eliminated. There would just be a concrete area, void of the posts and ropes once used.
Last edited by JW65 on Mon Jul 25, 2005 2:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.
This is the first I have ever heard of someting like that. I don't ever remember seeing them in the Santa Clara park. Maybe Californians are more trustworthy . I do remeber in the early years how long the lines were for the big rides, taking at least and hour. After the park had been open about 5 years the lines would seldom take up more than 50% of allocated cue space. Unless it was the first year of a new ride. The last year I worked there I liked to look at the old cue space and how long they were. and reflect on the days when they were all full.
I do remember that as well. Just as a reference, here is a picture showing the Eagle Queue area. Everything on the right side of the Tent is queue. If the whole tent is full, the wait for the ride is somewhere between 75 and 90 minutes. There have been times in the last few years that the park has needed to use part of this area. It has been many years since I have seen the entire thing full.
Last edited by BrianPlencner on Sun Sep 18, 2005 8:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.
===========================================
Mr. Brian Plencner
SFGAm Employee: 1988-1992
I remember line watchers at Gurnee for the Loggers Run queue. They would sit in an elevated chair like that for a lifeguard. This was set up in the area of the queue that had many switchbacks on the boardwalk along the water.
Well, I suppose that they got rid of the "linewatchers" because who wants to pay someone to just sit around all day....besides those number tickets they use at Gurnee now on busy days works a lot better anyway.
redfishpaw wrote:I may have experienced this during the Superman line. Which rides is ticket system typically utilzized?
It has been used on Batman, Superman, Raging Bull, and I think Viper. I know when Shockwave was still in the park, they used it on it as well.
Don't really mean to bring up such an old topic, but did want to chime in on the tickets.....was just at Gurnee today and they broke out the tickets for Raging Bull, the line filled the queue houses as well as went as far back to Viper (good lord thats a 3 hour wait thank god I had Exit Admission Passes)
Anyways the real point, the ticket system must not be used TOO Often, I remember seeing those tickets almost 10 years ago when I worked there and the ones they were using tonight for Raging Bull were printed out with Batman's name on them and still had the OLD Blue and White Six Flags Logo on them, which also was funny because they are using old logo stuff there, but the "Loaner coats" that wardrobe handed out were black with the blue and white logo (when I worked there) had a current logo patch ironed over the old logo (it was hilarious)
. I do remeber in the early years how long the lines were for the big rides, taking at least and hour. After the park had been open about 5 years the lines would seldom take up more than 50% of allocated cue space. Unless it was the first year of a new ride. The last year I worked there I liked to look at the old cue space and how long they were. and reflect on the days when they were all full.
