pluk Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 AFAIK the move was purely to stop the bag drop backing up the queue right before the ride so causing empty seats, photos returning was never on the cards. Don't know why they've moved it back, it worked much better at the front even if it looked a bit of a state. If I had to hazard a guess I think it might be because of the total blockage it caused to the exit when the bag people couldn't cope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 Having the baggage at the front was causing massive problems in the morning causing massive queues to form at the entrance. Also it required 2 people to operate otherwise the people leaving would start forming a queue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 You also need two people on the current one, otherwise the ride goes with empty seats and you build up a massive queue onto the offload platform. What is it with thorpe and it's ridiculous obsession to completely understaff and therefore stress out the hosts in baggage holds? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 They don't understaff, they just try and use the minimum. They don't want to employ excess people as they would have to pay them. If you ran a park you would try and save costs everywhere to ensure maximum efficiency and maximum profit to keep those share holders happy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 ^ Incorrect. You'd balance staffing levels so you gain maximum customer satisfaction and maximum employee satisfaction so you increase spend, increase visitation and increase brand loyalty whilst reducing employee turnover. Or you run thorpe. OldFarmerDean, pognoi, Benin and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pluk Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 Having the baggage at the front was causing massive problems in the morning causing massive queues to form at the entrance. Also it required 2 people to operate otherwise the people leaving would start forming a queue. That doesn't make sense as a reason to move it. Both points are exactly the same inside the building, but with the added problem that that bag queue directly stops people getting on the ride where as the long queue line after it at the front creates a buffer so the ride can still be filled. Fred 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 I'm glad its moved back, the queues at the exit at times were horrible, I personally think it works much better inside simply thanks to the amount of extra space they have. Coaster 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchada04 Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 Whilst I prefer the inside bag room, with only one staff member it does not work! The queue was 40 minutes inside the building when we did it and moved so slow! Because, one person in the bag room led to empty/ half empty trains being sent! Our little group of 5 got one row each, half a train full. The lady was trying her best but it's not physically possible! It gets even more messy when the operator tells people on the ramp to go past those with bags to fill up the trains. Chaos. paige 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paige Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 I still don't understand why the host didn't get us to pair up or something though, as there were a number of people behind us and we were taking the mic a bit really. The throughput was dreadful, that could've been the case for most of the trains that were dispatched. Guess that's the problem with an indoor ride with such an extensive indoor queue which is practically a maze and possibly the most confusing bag area ever with regards to the fact there's 2 of them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 There's no space to go past anyone wanting to put bags in, the baggage hold is in awful location. Answer? Two hosts. One for entrance, one for exit. Shutter Swarms baggage hold and use those staff... oh wait they never staff that properly/its closed on offpeak anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 In thorpes mind it is cheaper to hire less staff and have the bags suffer. Yes its annoying but to the general public they care more about the ride and will be excited to get on the ride so they wont care if it takes a minute or 2 to put the bags away. Just becuase it took slightly longer than usual to get a bag will not prevent them from coming back. So it works out to be more efficient and cost effective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paige Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 There's no space to go past anyone wanting to put bags in, the baggage hold is in awful location. They still told those without bags to pass through to the station, even though the area around the baggage area was clogged up pretty badly. They also said that if there's a group of us to allocate one person to go forward with all the bags, which was just more faffing about and caused more backlog IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coaster Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 In my opinion you should be able to take bags on with you. I've been on plenty of coasters bigger than X where you take the bag with you and I don't see a problem with it. Unfortunately with some of the people Thorpe attracts I don't see that being possible. paige 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paige Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 Even if they were to work out a system which is similar to the things that rotates which banks, ticket offices etc. have between the two stations I think it could be a better system than the current one and it'd be a more efficient way of baggage collection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 I dont think there is much of a problem with the baggage area when there is 2 people. Its if they stop to have a chat every now and then which causes delays. if there is only 1 person then maybe they need to reallocate some staff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 In thorpes mind it is cheaper to hire less staff and have the bags suffer. Yes its annoying but to the general public they care more about the ride and will be excited to get on the ride so they wont care if it takes a minute or 2 to put the bags away. Just becuase it took slightly longer than usual to get a bag will not prevent them from coming back. So it works out to be more efficient and cost effective. Someone hasn't worked at theme parks very long to realise this is not the case then . General public quite enjoy being able to smoothly put their bags in and go on a ride in a quick orderly fashion filling majority of seats so they know they haven't wasted queueing time because the company they've parted money with cannot do their job properly Any decent member of staff can chat and do bags. Don't come up with stupid reasons to prevent it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 I more meant the common thing to happen in the swarms baggage area where the 2 people in there will for no reason just stop and chat despite people waiting to collect bags. Its happened many a time whilst ive been there, so dont go saying its a stupid reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pluk Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 In thorpes mind it is cheaper to hire less staff and have the bags suffer. Yes its annoying but to the general public they care more about the ride and will be excited to get on the ride so they wont care if it takes a minute or 2 to put the bags away. Just becuase it took slightly longer than usual to get a bag will not prevent them from coming back. So it works out to be more efficient and cost effective. Sorry, that is just nonsense. That couple of minutes multiplies and multiplies for each person as the ride is going round empty, I think you'll find the amount of rides guests can get on is quite a big factor in their enjoyment of their day (and therefore likelihood to return). This problem does not exist with the hold at the start of the queue. The lengths the parks go to to achieve throughputs, they will not be happy if this has an adverse effect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Project LC Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 True but the station becoming empty is very rare. I go to Thorpe very often and I have not seen the station on X become empty despite a queue. Also my statement I said more as a general thing rather than X specific, a wait to put a bag away will not have a massive effect on the peoples opinion if the trains are still full. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marc Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 True but the station becoming empty is very rare. I go to Thorpe very often and I have not seen the station on X become empty despite a queue. I do have to agree, I've seen more problems with the baggage hold at the entrance (such as running out of space / huge queues at exit / people not realising to put their bags there!) than I ever have with it at its new (old) location. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flipper Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 Shutter Swarms baggage hold and use those staff... oh wait they never staff that properly/its closed on offpeak anyway. Just to highlight on this Swarm's bag room will not open on a one train operation, because it doesn't need to. Due to the nature of loading and offloading at the same place, people can leave their bags alongside the gates, ride, climb off, and take their bags with. I don't see an issue with that? On two trains, the bag room is open. It has to be. And always has a minimum of two staff in it, one loading one offloading. Offloading is slower because by the time everybody walks around from the far side, to the bag room, the next train can be in and offloading, creating queues when staff are dealing with probably best part of five-to-ten groups queuing at any given time, whilst the loading side, is battling it out trying to take bags in. Another big issue with Swarm's bag room is the fact it runs out of places to put bags. Even when you get groups to share, and with best part of sixty 'big bag' boxes, everybody has big bags now. Even handbags have become a lot more rigid and chunky, thus filling up boxes quicker. So, if you consider a backwards queue for six trains on each side, and each side potentially holding six trains of forwards seating each, you're looking at the potential of 168 people queuing in the station alone to ride, with a further two trains loaded, and the potential of another two equivalent offloaded and making their way round or queuing. It's a lot of bags, and thus it creates the bag room to run out of boxes - yes, it's a bad design for that to happen - but it can't physically fit any more boxes in. So it's tough tits basically, and the staff clearly try to do the best they can at Swarm with the limitations they have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 Yes, and even though I'm an avid fan of baggage holds I honestly think they should scrap it on Swarm and get something like both heide and garda has which works so well! Although that's not complete - put your bags in (2 peoples worth obviously) then it rotates so its hidden away whilst other is loading! Very cool indeed.Then all you need where the baggage point is is a merge point and left and right queue (where people decide). Then batch exactly 14 people each side each time a train goes out, and boom!Well, that'd be perfect if they didn't have backwards facing seats. Cal and Flipper 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pognoi Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 People say 'Oh yeah they don't under staff they just work with minimums'. If that's not efficient isn't that basically understaffing? As people have already said the system was'ne good on Sunday. I ended up being the bag guy for the group (all 11 of us) and stood there whilst 2 trains dispatched, waiting for a girl who looked like she'd have a heart attack from the sheer amount of baggage to put them in boxes and give me bands. The train I finally went on had just 5 people on it. I think 2 people are needed at least, no matter which area the bags are being taken in to, especially around this time of year. One to collect wrist bands and unload, and one to do the opposite. Alot better then one person running round like a headless chicken. Because its the final term for schools plenty of school trips will be coming along now too, meaning big groups, meaning big groups of bags. I just hope they sort it out or the throughput will be lower then slammer. Gggggggg 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fred Posted June 24, 2014 Report Share Posted June 24, 2014 The only people who defend thorpe and say that are the ones who work there and somehow think they need to protect what is obviously an issue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benin Posted June 25, 2014 Report Share Posted June 25, 2014 The bag system on Swarm has always been flawed, considering in the opening season there were moments when the queue would be backed up to under the lift hill... As Fred said, they should just have followed the same procedures as Gardaland and now Heide for bag drops... Especially as it would reduce the number of staff required to actually run the ride... What makes it REALLY daft is that they actually have a huge amount of space inbetween rows to put in such a system... As for X, I certainly prefer the bag drop being just before the station... Given the state the building gets in during hot summer days, it's beneficial for guests to have bags to hand anyway, for water/snacks/etc... They just have to be efficient at the bag drop (which X tends to be in my experiences, Swarm is really the only one that I've ever seen done awfully)... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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