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View Full Version : Assigning you a row -- how?



Werner
04-12-2006, 10:25 PM
I always wondered about this. When you're in a line and you come up to a CM and they say, "how many?" and you tell them, and they tell you what row to get in -- how do they do that? Like on Pirates, do they just have to visualize the rows or do a little quick calculation in their heads? Math was never my best subject but seems like there must be an easy way that they do it -- so quickly and automatically. What's the secret? LOL

potzbie
04-13-2006, 12:24 AM
I dare say, for Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, or any ride where the vehicle has 4 or 6 rows, counting in Base Four or Base Six might come in handy.
:)

e.g.:
One, Two, Three -- Full!
One, Two, Three -- Full!
One, Two, Three -- Full!
One, Two, party of seven? -- Please wait.

CrazyMouse
04-13-2006, 01:35 AM
Nm :-)

Niwel
04-13-2006, 04:43 AM
The answer is ... weight distribution :)
When it isn't very full they have to balance out the front and the back. Kids weigh less than adults AND you can get more of them in a row. So 3-4 kids can equal 2 average-size adults. Sometimes I've seen them fill the first row and the last row and leave the middles totally open....
Parties of two (or two adults and one little kid) tend to get front because of the narrower space....

sdfilmcritic
04-13-2006, 05:31 AM
Ooh, I know this answer! Niwel pretty much covered it, but I want to be a smarty pants for a moment when I actually know a little something about the topic.

Being an ex-attractions operator for LLC I learned about assigning people to seats. The key to success is not only weight distribution, but also the individual size of the person and the number of people in the group. If there is a lengthy line to handle with the employee needs to get as many people to share a vehicle as possible in the most safe of manners. For the rides such as Space Mountain and Pirates of the Carribean that heavily rely on weight distribution you learn to size up a person and the group their with at an instant. After a while of practice you can quickly judged a group at an instant. If you have a group of large people than you may have to either spread them out throughout the vehicle or split them up entirely. You wouldn't want your POTC boat to be lopsided or heavily loaded. If the POTC boat is too heavy with passengers it will move very slowly through the water.

The one thing I learned from working in the position is it's a fine tuned instinct that I gained while on the job. Keeping in mind the safety regulations and limits for one vehicle (similar to seeing a Maximum Occupancy sign for a dining room at a restaurant) you would have to seat people according to the regulations. It may seem like a huge issue to get accustomed to, but it's rather easy once you've been on the job for a little bit.

cstephens
04-13-2006, 06:35 AM
And then there's that whole thing on Pirates where we have 7 people and they try to put us in rows 1 and 2...

FantasmicFanatic
04-13-2006, 12:55 PM
I used to work Pirates. The goal was to always get 22 in a boat (excluding small children).

Row 1: 3 ppl
Row 2: 4 ppl
Row 3: 4 ppl
Row 4: 4 ppl
Row 5: 4 ppl
Row 6: 3 ppl

So i would just do math in my head to fill that boat as best as possible. Weight was a small factor. We could not have anyone in row 6 and that was fine. But if we had a row 1, we needed a 5 or 6. If we had a row 6, we needed a 1. I would get a party of 7 in 1 and 2 or in 5 and 6. I always filled my boats. 2 parties of 2 would seat next to eachother in rows 2-5. Sorry, but we are encouraged by management to make our hourly quotas. I only once made a boat stall, it was when I had 23 club 33 members all good sized adults, who insisted on being togethor in 1 boat. I didn't want to say no to them, so i put in 4 in the last row, a no-no. It got stuck at drop one, I pushed it over, it got stuck at drop 2, we evaced it. hehe

FF

cstephens
04-13-2006, 01:48 PM
There is no way 3 normal-sized adults would be comfortable in either row 1 or row 6.

GrumpyUTboi
04-13-2006, 03:17 PM
We fit 4 of the 6 Grumpys in row 6

Granted it was Mrs, myself and 2 little Grumpys

The Lovely Mrs. tod
04-13-2006, 03:21 PM
We showed up at ToT with five. The CM assigned us to two seemingly un related rows, three in one, two in the other. Lo and behold, when we loaded, we were all in the back row, all next to one another.

Lady knew her stuff.

-TLMt

FantasmicFanatic
04-13-2006, 03:22 PM
There is no way 3 normal-sized adults would be comfortable in either row 1 or row 6.
LOL, I did it daily. Sometimes even 3 full sized adults and a little one. A full boat, is a happy boat :-D.

FF

cstephens
04-13-2006, 05:53 PM
We showed up at ToT with five. The CM assigned us to two seemingly un related rows, three in one, two in the other. Lo and behold, when we loaded, we were all in the back row, all next to one another.

Yeah, that confused me too. But if you look at the chart on the wall, then it makes sense.

dsnyredhead
04-13-2006, 09:18 PM
LOL, I did it daily. Sometimes even 3 full sized adults and a little one. A full boat, is a happy boat :-D.

FF

Except when it gets stuck in Canada :D Ok well maybe some of those people were happy.

JeffG
04-13-2006, 09:53 PM
Except when it gets stuck in Canada :D Ok well maybe some of those people were happy.

I didn't realize that Canada was in the Caribbean... :)

-Jeff

adriennek
04-13-2006, 10:26 PM
cstephens: Get it right... "how many in your group?"

"21"

Rows 1 and 2.

:D

Pirates boats don't get stuck in Canada. They get stuck just outside the bayou. ;)

Adrienne

iwannabeanimagineer
04-14-2006, 08:36 PM
Ways to annoy cast members:

"How many in your group?"
"Roughly 6 1/2 billion; aren't all human beings part of the same family? Artificial divisions and 'groups' are an impediment to peace and harmony. Let's not play the 'us vs. them' game, okay?"

"How many in your group?"
"Uh, all of us."

"How many in your group?"
"999, but there's room for 1000!"

"How many in your group?"
(whispered) "Look, I don't know these people. This 5-year-old and her lovely mother abducted me in Tarzana and brought me here against my will. Can you help me?"

sdfilmcritic
04-14-2006, 08:51 PM
"How many in your group?"
"Uh, all of us."Oh, this one is the worst! It always got me frustrated in a heartbeat. When I would go to repeat the question the person would wave a hand around in a circular motion and give another vague answer like "we're all here." Do I really know who everyone is in your party? Does the whole entire friggin' line your party and wave your hand over the heads of a couple of people will really help me to know who the last person in your group is and how many people there are in the group? :mad:

Burnt Toast
04-14-2006, 09:05 PM
I hated grouping at Grizzly (which I was damned good at) and I would be like, "I need a party of 2! 2! 2! 1 or 2!" and someone down the line would be like, "We have 5!" So old.

Omnitographer
04-15-2006, 11:39 AM
cm's should take height into consideration on big thunder. my long legs dont fit will in the first seat of the cars, so 1,4,7 all are very cramped. although i always try to ask for row 15 if it isnt taken.

sdfilmcritic
04-15-2006, 11:51 AM
^^ Some CM's are very good at sizing people up and others are not so good at it. It all depends on who is working the queue line. Often it is a common practice to rotate positions throughout the shift to relieve people from stress or boredom in the same spot for a whole entire shift.

Disney Vault
04-15-2006, 07:07 PM
I hated grouping at Grizzly (which I was damned good at) and I would be like, "I need a party of 2! 2! 2! 1 or 2!" and someone down the line would be like, "We have 5!" So old.
Hehe :D I love stories like this. How do people like this dress themselves in the morning?