VelociCoaster is an Intamin-manufactured roller coaster at Universal Studios’ Islands of Adventure theme park. The ride features an over-the-head lap bar restraint system with no seatbelt. It can run up to four trains at once.
Persons Per Hour, or Riders Per Hour, is a measurement of how many riders the operations are allowing to partake on a certain ride within one hour’s time.
VelociCoaster is interesting to look at because we can compare 2-train operations to its full-capacity 4-train operations.
Left Chart: 2-Train Operation
Right Chart: 4-Train Operation
If there are issues with certain trains or some vehicles are in service, Velocicoaster may operate with only 2 or 3 trains instead of its maximum 4.
VelociCoaster does not have a Skip-the-Line system as of early 2022, for this reason, the main line takes up most of the capacity on each train! This is one of the fastest moving lines of any roller coaster, but it still does not meet the manufacturer’s best-case scenario at over 1700 riders per hour, around 48-second dispatches! If the line stretches out towards the lagoon and outside of the covered portion of the queue, you can still expect to be on in approximately one hour, that is some great capacity!
Islands of Adventure is open anywhere from 11 to 15 hours each day, meaning it can theoretically get through an amazing 20,500 people per day if it is running in peak condition!
Universal Studios can improve on this capacity by expanding the locker space. During the early morning, they cannot get enough people through the locker area for a large chunk of the first hour. This results in a lot of waiting for dispatches so riders can get to the ride station. Riders also still seem a bit confused when they sit in the seat. A simple, “quickly sit down and pull down your restraint”-themed message could help out here. Most of the time the guests are to blame for a slow dispatch on VelociCoaster.
The manufacturer really worked to bring the highest possible capacity to this attraction. I don’t see a need for two stations or an unload/load simply because the restraints come up quickly once parked, and there is no seatbelt to fuss around with.
With the park working on putting its fastest employees on the station platform and just a bit more organization, I feel this ride could shave 10 seconds off each of its dispatches and get closer to the maximum theoretical number.
