The Official VRaging Bull thread

[Guy_With_A_Stick]

Post anything related to VR Raging Bull here.

As of 6/15, nothing can be seen yet relating to this.

[JaminOut]

How long have dispatch times been for other VR rides with a similar capacity?


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[stergmi]

How long have dispatch times been for other VR rides with a similar capacity?


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Ninja at SF STL has been 6-7 minutes for 28 rider trains. I'm hearing similar for Superman at SF NE as well.

This has also lead to the ride host assigning all seats even denying people that want to wait for front or back rows. It's going to take an extremely popular yet very high capacity ride and turn it into a nightmare while Demon sits out at 15 minute waits most days.

[RollingCoasting]

When is it going to start?

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[Viper 88]

I don't know what the usual dispatch times for a full RB train are so maybe someone that has been on it enough can weigh in here but each train has a capacity of 36 with a theoretical capacity per hour of 1560. So going on from here the math is up to you now.

[JaminOut]

Approximately every 84 seconds.


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[depotrat]

SFNE has now had VR on STR for one week. The normal line wait time has generally doubled. Perhaps the crew will get better over time but we are not hopeful. For most of us STR will now be ride it once first thing in the morning and that is it for the day. For me, it will mean much fewer visits this summer.

[Viper 88]

please tell me they are going to have more than 1-3 sets of VR headwear. If they don't thats going to slow the line even more. If they were smart they would have about 7-9 sets of headsets. This way 2 for each train could be in service. while one sits in the wings charging. Also they shouldn't pass these out in the station they should pass them out to the first 36 people and so on and so on just before the station, this way by the time they reach the station they are ready to sit strap and go. aren't they going to need to have more staff to collect clean and disperse the headsets as well? Are they going to be robbing nearby real estate to do so?

[ThemeParkFan07]

Another idiotic decision. I'm very happy I've decided not to go this year. Let's completely destroy capacity for the only ride in the park that can actually move people, what a great idea!

[depotrat]

please tell me they are going to have more than 1-3 sets of VR headwear. If they don't thats going to slow the line even more. If they were smart they would have about 7-9 sets of headsets. This way 2 for each train could be in service. while one sits in the wings charging. Also they shouldn't pass these out in the station they should pass them out to the first 36 people and so on and so on just before the station, this way by the time they reach the station they are ready to sit strap and go. aren't they going to need to have more staff to collect clean and disperse the headsets as well? Are they going to be robbing nearby real estate to do so?

At SFNE the completely remodeled the STR station. They squeezed the gate area smaller to make room for the VR headset storage, charging and cleaning areas. The squeezed station led to the no choice of seats decision. A LOSER all the way around.

[Tardis1972]

I agree there's no reason for them to do this. I know I won't be trying it out once it's there. I just hope the back row isn't chosen for it.

[Dan The Coaster Man]

SFNE's Superman sounds atrocious. Great, I'll be going in a month. Just what I wanted.

[Guy_With_A_Stick]

Well, at least our trains are wider. Hopefully our operations are better.

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[depotrat]

quote="Guy_With_A_Stick"]Well, at least our trains are wider. Hopefully our operations are better.

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I do not know this station or your ops but the width of the train will probably not be any factor. The time lost on dispatch is due to the time it takes to get people squared away with the headsets secured and working. I don't see how it will matter if they are sitting four across vs two across time wise.

[anewman35]

I agree there's no reason for them to do this. I know I won't be trying it out once it's there. I just hope the back row isn't chosen for it.

It's perfectly understandable that a person here who goes to the park a lot wouldn't want them to do this. However, they pretty clearly have some pretty good reasons to do this. This is going to get them a bunch of publicity and news stories, and it's a new thing they can promote. I promise you there ARE going to be people who weren't going to go to the park this year, but then they see a news story or a commercial for VR Raging Bull and decide to visit. On the other hand, I doubt there will be many people without season passes who were planning a trip and are now skipping the park entirely because of this. I suspect most/all of the people who do have a negative reaction to this news ("now lines are going to be worse!", "now I can't pick a seat", etc) are season pass holders, and they ALREADY have their money, I don't think they care if you go on Raging Bull anymore this season.

So, in short, from the Six Flags perspective I don't really see any downside to this, especially if Samsung is paying for most/all of it.

[Muck Finnesota]

It's perfectly understandable that a person here who goes to the park a lot wouldn't want them to do this. However, they pretty clearly have some pretty good reasons to do this. This is going to get them a bunch of publicity and news stories, and it's a new thing they can promote.

I don't get to visit often. I have a season pass and can pull off 2 visits, typically one in-season and one in the fall- maybe twice if things work out. The wait times at this park have been steadily getting comically bad and this does nothing but make that worse. St. Louis added this to Ninja-it's an easily avoidable ride. Chicago and Boston add it to what were probably already their most popular attractions, and Atlanta adds it to their misplaced, already awful-capacity Eurofighter in a busy as hell park. I would have loved a heads-up prior to spending on a pass- most of the other parks inflicting this mess on themselves managed that courtesy.

When is it going to start?

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Very interested in this so I can get a visit in and avoid the park like a pile of dog crap in the middle of a sidewalk until it goes away. The out-of-place box with the video ride 25 steps away was not enough, it appears. I hope this backfires on them tremendously, and I hope other chains don't dabble in this clown business so that I can give them my business.

[stergmi]

When is it going to start?

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Very interested in this so I can get a visit in and avoid the park like a pile of dog crap in the middle of a sidewalk. The out of place box with the video ride 25 steps away was not enough, it appears. I hope this backfires on them tremendously, and I hope other chains don't dabble in this clown business so that I can give them my business.

Cedar Point tested it out on Monday with Iron Dragon to see the operations impact VR would have.

[stergmi]

I agree there's no reason for them to do this. I know I won't be trying it out once it's there. I just hope the back row isn't chosen for it.

It's perfectly understandable that a person here who goes to the park a lot wouldn't want them to do this. However, they pretty clearly have some pretty good reasons to do this. This is going to get them a bunch of publicity and news stories, and it's a new thing they can promote. I promise you there ARE going to be people who weren't going to go to the park this year, but then they see a news story or a commercial for VR Raging Bull and decide to visit. On the other hand, I doubt there will be many people without season passes who were planning a trip and are now skipping the park entirely because of this. I suspect most/all of the people who do have a negative reaction to this news ("now lines are going to be worse!", "now I can't pick a seat", etc) are season pass holders, and they ALREADY have their money, I don't think they care if you go on Raging Bull anymore this season.

So, in short, from the Six Flags perspective I don't really see any downside to this, especially if Samsung is paying for most/all of it.

But they most definitely care if we don't buy season passes next year. That's the folly in saying "well we already have your money so whatevs".
I feel like only STL, Texas and Magic Mountain got this right. They took rides with low ridership numbers and gave them new life with VR. To me it doesn't make sense to throw it on your already most popular ride. I knew this was coming and was pretty excited for it but my thinking was it would come to the Demon.

[Muck Finnesota]

When is it going to start?

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Very interested in this so I can get a visit in and avoid the park like a pile of dog crap in the middle of a sidewalk. The out of place box with the video ride 25 steps away was not enough, it appears. I hope this backfires on them tremendously, and I hope other chains don't dabble in this clown business so that I can give them my business.

Cedar Point tested it out on Monday with Iron Dragon to see the operations impact VR would have.

That's alarming, but far less damaging/impactful to the overall experience than if they did it to Millennium Force, even Rougerou or Magnum. If we're discussing candidates for next coaster being removed at their respective parks, Iron Dragon or Ninja might realistically be brought up. Millennium Force, Superman The Ride, Raging Bull would not.

[Tardis1972]

Here's what I think. Six Flags will only run all these VR's until Fright Fest. This would make sense because of how much busier the parks get during Fright Fest.

[anewman35]

I guess have to see what happened, but I'm not really assuming all these VR things are FOREVER. At the very least, the equipment is going to age, and they're not going to want to spend money to keep it up. In my mind, it's the equivalent of turning a ride backwards for half a season. I could clearly be wrong, we'll have to see.

The other important thing to always remember is that the general public is not us. It's pretty hard for me to imagine any scenario where this goes so badly for Six Flags that there's some sort of backlash - most park operations already suck and it doesn't stop people from showing up...

[zrosen96]

This is some bullshit. This park already is crap at dispatch times this VR shit is going to turn Raging Bull's queue into a 6 hour wait. If I want people to pick where I sit I'll go to Disney World. I really hope that by next year this Samsung stuff either A.) Gets dropped completely or B.) The park gets super good at dispatching these garbage headsets. Hopefully VR goes the way of the Buffalo just like what happened to 3-D a couple of years ago

[Johnska]

Imagine:
The first video from SFGAm in 2017 shows up on YouTube. There is a picture of V2. EVERYONE thinks it's going away. JK. It's VR V2 (or VR2) it turns the worst RPH coaster in the park to the worst RPH coaster in the world

[SFGAM_Hog]

Imagine:
The first video from SFGAm in 2017 shows up on YouTube. There is a picture of V2. EVERYONE thinks it's going away. JK. It's VR V2 (or VR2) it turns the worst RPH coaster in the park to the worst RPH coaster in the world

Hahahaha SFGAM likes to make some of their teasers have nothing to do with the ride. Velocity can't get VR. If they did which would be terrible, the wait would be WAY longer than it already is because of the low capacity.

[Jodon]

First off, in my opinion this is a terrible idea, though I'm actually ok with Samsung and SFGAm putting VR on a coaster. However, Raging Bull is one of the only coasters in the park that has good capacity despite the parks lackluster operations. The dispatch times are going to be horrific to try to get 30+ VR headsets to work per train.

Plus there are so many logistical issues:
-Where will the VR headsets be charged/stored and given to guests?
The RB station is not large at all. I can't imagine where they will put the cabinets for all the headsets and chargers in the actual station. I wonder if they will use the little patch of land between the exit and the stairs past the Flash Pass merge point to house and hand out the headsets. They might be able to use some of the exit side of the station, but even that doesn't have a ton of room.

-Will there still be 3 train operations?
My best guess is that the park will assume that dispatch times will be so bad that they won't use the 3rd train, which is awful in my opinion. On the other hand, if they are using 3 trains, my guess is that the park will need at least 400 VR headsets, and I don't see the park being able to maintain and clean 400 headsets with any semblance of regularity.

All in all, I'm really disappointed the park chose to put VR on Raging Bull. I truly believe that it is the worst possible coaster for them to chose. Demon was and is the obvious choice for this. Still can't believe that Six Flags thinks its a good idea to put VR on some of their flagship attractions, here and SFNE. It's just bad, and the more I think about it as I typed this, the more ticked off I get at the parks short sightedness.