![]() Which raises the question: If rides like the Log Ride are so popular, and so efficient in handling crowds, why don't parks build more of them? Why do regional amusement park chains such as Cedar Fair and Six Flags continue to spend millions a year to build roller coasters that put through hundreds of visitors per hour instead of investing in dark rides and log flumes that could serve thousands per hour? That Knott's Log Ride is leading the park in ridership speaks not just to its capacity, but its enduring appeal to visitors, as well. Flume-based dark rides often stand as their parks' capacity kings - Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean and It's a Small World are crowd eaters, capable of putting through more than 2,000 riders per hour apiece.īut all the capacity in the world won't make an attraction a park's top dog for ridership if people don't want to go on it. ![]() ![]() Log flumes, with an ever-flowing supply of "logs" to fill, typically put through more riders per hour than roller coasters, which have a limited number of trains that must be kept far apart from one another on the track. The fewer people a ride can put through in an average hour, the longer everyone who wants to ride will have to wait. Popularity brings people into the lines, sure, but low capacity is what really drives wait times. You might think that coasters have such long lines because they're popular. One awful secret of the amusement business is that most roller coasters have terrible ride capacity. I suppose that makes sense, if you know about ride capacities. With all the money that Knott's (and its current owner, Cedar Fair) have invested in multi-million-dollar roller coasters over the years, it's still the Log Ride that's putting more people through day-in and day-out, more than forty years after its debut.
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