Zac Skellington
Well-Known Member
Question: Are they there to stop the ride if guests are not buckled in? If so, why can't this be achieved remotely, using a camera?
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Kali River Rapids reopens.... and guess what??
- Thread starter marni1971
- Start date
Question: Are they there to stop the ride if guests are not buckled in? If so, why can't this be achieved remotely, using a camera?
There is a camera there and they do stop the ride, but the camera isn't angled to where you can see the belts. You can only see if someone is standing, so they have to send a CM up there to verify they are seated and buckled. Problem is that it is a LONG hike up there. There's not a direct route, and it can take a good 10 minutes each way. That's a 20min downtime for each person standing. Put a CM there, the downtime goes down to about 2-3 minutes.
devoy1701
Well-Known Member
seriously? It wasn't an issue for the first 10 yrs of operation....Build the CM a tower/perch above the effects and get them working again.
Alektronic
Well-Known Member
There is plenty of room for CM's to walk around in the Burn Zone. Fire effects being turned off is for a different reason.
If people are standing up in any ride, then the Operations CM's are trained to stop the ride, tell the guests to sit down, then restart the ride. And sometimes the boats or ride vehicles stop in the wrong places like in between two sensors then they can't restart the ride then everyone has to be evacuated off the ride, then they move the RV or boat to the proper position and then restart the ride and that usually takes 45min to 1 hour. Then they can admit guests again, and it was all due to guests not paying attention or following the rules not because the ride "broke down". 95% of all ride stops are guest related, Maybe 4% operations CM's cause and 1% are actually parts breaking.
If people are standing up in any ride, then the Operations CM's are trained to stop the ride, tell the guests to sit down, then restart the ride. And sometimes the boats or ride vehicles stop in the wrong places like in between two sensors then they can't restart the ride then everyone has to be evacuated off the ride, then they move the RV or boat to the proper position and then restart the ride and that usually takes 45min to 1 hour. Then they can admit guests again, and it was all due to guests not paying attention or following the rules not because the ride "broke down". 95% of all ride stops are guest related, Maybe 4% operations CM's cause and 1% are actually parts breaking.
Glasgow
Well-Known Member
Really frustrated and saddened by this. I've been to AK a bunch of times (~10 I'd say) and have never ridden Kali, mainly because the kids had been too small and I always heard mixed reviews. Now I'm really dissuaded from ever experiencing this .. shame.
To give the benefit of the doubt, all maintenance decisions (or lack thereof) come down to budgeting I'm sure, not necessarily that the local or even park managers don't want to maintain the attractions - the problem is that the budgets are cut from the top so there just isn't enough to properly service the equipment. Sad really, as it just comes down to maximizing profit to shareholders and execs.
Now, I never grudge a company from going after a profit - heck, most everyone that has a job on this board hopes their company will succeed. More company profit means a bonus for me, so of course I support money-saving tactics. In this case though, when it ultimately waters down the Product, surely things must change. The problem is that attendance hasn't dropped in accordance with show quality, so the viewpoint from the top gets skewed. Again, tis a shame ..
To give the benefit of the doubt, all maintenance decisions (or lack thereof) come down to budgeting I'm sure, not necessarily that the local or even park managers don't want to maintain the attractions - the problem is that the budgets are cut from the top so there just isn't enough to properly service the equipment. Sad really, as it just comes down to maximizing profit to shareholders and execs.
Now, I never grudge a company from going after a profit - heck, most everyone that has a job on this board hopes their company will succeed. More company profit means a bonus for me, so of course I support money-saving tactics. In this case though, when it ultimately waters down the Product, surely things must change. The problem is that attendance hasn't dropped in accordance with show quality, so the viewpoint from the top gets skewed. Again, tis a shame ..
True, fire effects are not cheap so the budget is one reason they're gone. and where the CM sits isn't exactly right in the fire, but in the summer, it's already an extremely hot position. Bring the fire back, the cast risk dehydration, heat exhaustion, smoke inhalation...it's not just the flames in and of themselves that are safety concerns, I'd imagine.
Bairstow
Well-Known Member
Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
But then, if the budget is slashed, why still schedule a six week refurbishment and do... hardly anything?
MaryJaneP
Well-Known Member
Six weeks of not paying anything for CM's or operational costs!
Timekeeper
Well-Known Member
maxairmike
Well-Known Member
PhotoDave219
Well-Known Member
I take it they also are lysine dependent?
No, we feed them tourists. ALIVE.
xdan0920
Think for yourselfer
Come on.
They are working a little too diligently at spinning this one......
kittybubbles
Active Member
So was it under Michael's watch that DAK stopped evening extra magic hours? I imagine that 'attendance' is recorded as the 1st park you visit so if you get your park to offer EMHs in the AM only instead of wasting a day by having them at night, you get more guest to visit your park as their fist park of the day and you eventually get a rise in 'attendance' over a park that only offers morning hours twice a week....
unkadug
Follower of "Saget"The Cult
Neither is park admission.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
See, it was only a matter of time before someone came here and tried to spin their webs, and here they are. No matter how ridiculous or indefensible, it's inevitable that someone will attempt to spin it. Sad but unfortunately true.
It gives me no end of amusement when people go out of their way to try to come up with reasons justifying a corporation screwing them over as customers.
Indeed. Trying way to hard, they're getting desperate due to the lack of any sort of valid excuses.
The Empress Lilly
Well-Known Member
Why should that be?
I think it is perfectly sensible that if a new workplace is added, that any nearby open fire effects are permanently removed. Common sense, really. Call me a socialist, but I don't think a $9 an hour worker should work in hazardous conditions. We don't need Kali to be a killing machine like Primeval Whirl, which kills employees for sports at an even higher rate than that alpha male killer whale at Sea World.
I do have a hard time figuring out where the CM spot near the fire is. I don't remember seeing any there, maybe I just haven't been paying attention. I don't know if CM working conditions is really the cause, or just fan speculation. Certainly, the fire was not deemed hazardous enough not to have it near guests strapped helplessly in a floating raft.
Where's Marni? In the OP he said that the fire was never intended to come back, so perhaps he knows why?
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
The fire has apparently been gone for quite some time before this "new workplace" was added. I visited several years ago and the fire effect rarely functioned even at that time. I seriously doubt it was disabled to make it safer for the cast member. That also doesn't explain the other effects missing in the ride such as the mist. If you're going to disable show elements due to there legitimately being a cast member safety related reason, add new ones to compensate (liking moving the fire effect farther away).
Regardless, I do not buy that they disabled this for cast member safety at all. It's almost certainly budgeting reasons as usual. For Disney internally, it's just another excuse for them to use to provide themselves with some more money to swim around in. Unless actual insiders show up and tell us this decision was done purely for cast member safety, I'm not going to believe this removal was motivated by anything other than greed as usual.
Regardless, I do not buy that they disabled this for cast member safety at all. It's almost certainly budgeting reasons as usual. For Disney internally, it's just another excuse for them to use to provide themselves with some more money to swim around in. Unless actual insiders show up and tell us this decision was done purely for cast member safety, I'm not going to believe this removal was motivated by anything other than greed as usual.
