Rumor Stitch's Great Escape Replacement— Don’t Hold Your Breath

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
however, while the amount of people cycling thru every hour is exact in both instances, at any given moment, the former scenario is taking 30 guests off the pavement, while the later is absorbing 54

To really 'eat people' you don't want more RVs that will eat a few dozen people, you want a longer queue that will eat a few hundred people!
 

DinoInstitute

Well-Known Member
I was invested in this discussion until I realized we're in the Stitch thread, and now I'm very confused about how we all got to this point.
Binge-reading the past 20 pages or so was quite an adventure...and unexpected math/logic lesson! :p

If Haunted Mansion was one minute shorter but still dispatching vehicles at the same frequency the hourly capacity of the ride wouldn't change.
If dispatches don't change, the number of ride vehicles has no bearing on hourly capacity.
I guess I've had a misunderstanding on what the technical definition of hourly capacity was. If this is the case, wouldn't a more relevant thing to measure be how many guests are in the attraction at any given time (not sure what to call this) in relation to crowds? Also, I guess I'm still missing a piece of the puzzle, but shouldn't all omnimovers have the same capacity then if they load at the same speed?
 

peter11435

Well-Known Member
Binge-reading the past 20 pages or so was quite an adventure...and unexpected math/logic lesson! :p



I guess I've had a misunderstanding on what the technical definition of hourly capacity was. If this is the case, wouldn't a more relevant thing to measure be how many guests are in the attraction at any given time (not sure what to call this) in relation to crowds? Also, I guess I'm still missing a piece of the puzzle, but shouldn't all omnimovers have the same capacity then if they load at the same speed?
Not all omnimovers load at the same speed. Different omnimover attractions move at different speeds, have different vehicle spacing, and different seating configurations.
 

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
If this is the case, wouldn't a more relevant thing to measure be how many guests are in the attraction at any given time (not sure what to call this) in relation to crowds?
What you describe is “instantaneous capacity” and is something that is measured. It is actually a more theoretical number as it assumes every venue to be full when that is not the actual case over a period of time. This is less of an issue with an Omnimover where loading and unloading is nearly continuous but you do have other attractions where there can be a large variation in guests from instant to instant.
 
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geekza

Well-Known Member
Mostly because Disney and modern guests seem to value a hard number of attractions they can accomplish in a day. Not the amount of time physically spent in a ride vehicle. Otherwise Energy would still be a thing.
I think what you're describing, however, can be attributed to changes in how much of a park guests can conceivably experience in a day. In the past, except on the busiest of days, you could go to the MK, spend a day, and experience pretty much any attraction or show you wanted, some of them twice. People didn't mind longer attractions like the Country Bears, Tiki Room, etc. You could relax and just enjoy them and still experience everything you wanted.

That isn't the case any longer. Now, with the massive increase in visitors, FastPass+, dining reservations, and leap in the cost of admission, guests who want to experience as much of the park as they can and feel like they've gotten a fair return on their substantial financial investment must either spend multiple days or plan their single day down to the minute. Even then, it really is impossible to see everything at the MK in a single day (most of the time) and experiencing favorite attractions multiple times means that something else has to go.

It's a shame, because I'm one of those who is all for a longer attraction that is done well. I didn't mind either of Energy's incarnations because I felt like I was given a quality experience from beginning to end (though both incarnations had their faults). Splash Mountain is one of my all-time favorites, mostly because of it's length. It's one of those rides that is so enjoyable that, whereas a lesser attraction would end right after the big drop, Disney delights us with another show room with a rousing finale. To me, it's a perfect attraction.

I think, honestly, that longer attractions could make a comeback, but to do so the root causes of the very real phenomenon you described need to be addressed. I think that, eventually, they will be, somewhat, once guest satisfaction dips below a certain level and attendance numbers drop. The possibility of the latter happening anytime soon is next to none, however, at least until after the 50th. It will be interesting to see what happens once that is out of the way and Galaxy's Edge isn't the "new thing" any longer. That's several years off, though, which means that, if you're a fan of the longer shows like the Tiki Room, etc. you'd better enjoy them now. Park real estate is more valuable than ever and for every new thing that they want to put in, something else is likely to close. Adventureland is so congested now, with the silly Dumbo-alike Magic Carpets, that the large Tiki Room building feels like it's barely holding on.

Sorry for being so long-winded. Just finished my second cup of black coffee this morning. o_O
 
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MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
This discussion highlights that when it comes to "eating people" there are different quantities that can me measured.

1) The throughput of a ride, that is it rate of dispatch or "people per hour" (PPH) or it Theoretical Hourly Rate Capacity (THRC) is important because it's a measure of how many people can ride that ride in one day. When you have a high-value ride like FoP, everyone that shows up in the park that day wants to take a ride on it. But if it has a low THRC, it can't accommodate everyone. And for those it does accommodate, a lot of them wait in really long lines, thus lowering people's enjoyment of the park. So, THRC isn't unimportant.

2) Then there's the holding capacity. A flume ride where there's 10 people per 'log' and has 10 logs in transit will 'hold' only 100 people at one time. But if the ride was lengthened to hold 30 logs, then 300 people are being held at once, even though you haven't changed the THRC of the ride. If you make all your rides longer, then you can make a dent on the crowds 'in the street' and 'eat them' up. This has the side effect of usually lengthening the time spent on the ride, which increases guest satisfaction.

The problem with lengthening rides, however, is one of ride infrastructure. E.g., if you wanted the Haunted Mansion to be twice as long to hold twice as many people at once, you'll need to build another giant show building as big as the first. And it's unlikely you can make a roller coaster into a ten minute ride with four times the number of 'blocks' in order to have more trains out there on the tracks; and that's mainly because of how fast it goes, which means building a immensely long track -- unless you build in slow parts... and you're back to building a giant show building for it.

Some rides, like a spinner, can't accommodate more RVs. Unless you build more spinners. And that's what MK did with their 4 spinners (six if you count TeaCups and Carousel as spinners). So, instead of lengthening the ride (making the spinner much larger increasing its circumference so as to add more RVs), they build more spinners. Which points to another solution for 'eating people'... build more rides.
 

geekza

Well-Known Member
Some rides, like a spinner, can't accommodate more RVs. Unless you build more spinners. And that's what MK did with their 4 spinners (six if you count TeaCups and Carousel as spinners). So, instead of lengthening the ride (making the spinner much larger increasing its circumference so as to add more RVs), they build more spinners. Which points to another solution for 'eating people'... build more rides.
It made total sense to add the additional Dumbo as it is considered a classic and always had trouble with long lines. Now, the shorter wait time means that the attraction feels more "worth it." I really wish they would have gone down that route earlier, rather than putting in the pretty-much-identical Flying Carpets. They could have moved it to where it is now, since that part of the park had already been developed into Mickey's Birthday/Star/etc. Land and Adventureland could have maintained its openness and the lovely sightlines of the Tiki Room. Oh well. I'm armchair Imagineering at this point.
 

larryz

I'm Just A Tourist!
Premium Member
Some rides, like a spinner, can't accommodate more RVs. Unless you build more spinners. And that's what MK did with their 4 spinners (six if you count TeaCups and Carousel as spinners). So, instead of lengthening the ride (making the spinner much larger increasing its circumference so as to add more RVs), they build more spinners. Which points to another solution for 'eating people'... build more rides.
There's another direction you can go...
Beston-kiddie-double-deck-carousel-for-sale-BNCR-123.png
 

WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
This discussion highlights that when it comes to "eating people" there are different quantities that can me measured.

1) The throughput of a ride, that is it rate of dispatch or "people per hour" (PPH) or it Theoretical Hourly Rate Capacity (THRC) is important because it's a measure of how many people can ride that ride in one day. When you have a high-value ride like FoP, everyone that shows up in the park that day wants to take a ride on it. But if it has a low THRC, it can't accommodate everyone. And for those it does accommodate, a lot of them wait in really long lines, thus lowering people's enjoyment of the park. So, THRC isn't unimportant.

2) Then there's the holding capacity. A flume ride where there's 10 people per 'log' and has 10 logs in transit will 'hold' only 100 people at one time. But if the ride was lengthened to hold 30 logs, then 300 people are being held at once, even though you haven't changed the THRC of the ride. If you make all your rides longer, then you can make a dent on the crowds 'in the street' and 'eat them' up. This has the side effect of usually lengthening the time spent on the ride, which increases guest satisfaction.

The problem with lengthening rides, however, is one of ride infrastructure. E.g., if you wanted the Haunted Mansion to be twice as long to hold twice as many people at once, you'll need to build another giant show building as big as the first. And it's unlikely you can make a roller coaster into a ten minute ride with four times the number of 'blocks' in order to have more trains out there on the tracks; and that's mainly because of how fast it goes, which means building a immensely long track -- unless you build in slow parts... and you're back to building a giant show building for it.

Some rides, like a spinner, can't accommodate more RVs. Unless you build more spinners. And that's what MK did with their 4 spinners (six if you count TeaCups and Carousel as spinners). So, instead of lengthening the ride (making the spinner much larger increasing its circumference so as to add more RVs), they build more spinners. Which points to another solution for 'eating people'... build more rides.

The third TSMM track and Soarin' theatre is a good example of a solution for rides that can increase their capacity.
 

Cesar R M

Well-Known Member
If Haunted Mansion was one minute shorter but still dispatching vehicles at the same frequency the hourly capacity of the ride wouldn't change.
Haunted mansion is an omnimover. You cannot add more units because the entire track is filled with motion vehicles already.

The boat one depends entirely on the speed of the boats, the number of boats , dispatch time and length of the ride.

longer ride means more boats INSIDE at same time.

If dispatches don't change, the number of ride vehicles has no bearing on hourly capacity.
It does if there is "idle time" when loading after you lengthen the ride.
 

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