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[Jemmicat]

"I dont know how the PTB arrive at the "Expected attendence",  But yestarday's  magic number was 7000 people.."

I have always wondered this. From what I was told some time ago, they base it on historical trends for the day. Not really related to weather. And that is how they get burned in my opinion. I mean, when a historical trend for say April 18 is 7k people without taking weather into account, there really is no way to be correct. If you staff for 7k people and it is an 85 degree day, you make everyone angry because you are understaffed. And if you staff for the same amount and it is 50 and raining, you have WAY too many people.

I do not know how far ahead they schedule workers, but it seems like using a historical attendance without taking into account so many other factors is what most of the problems are.

I go back into looking at it from an engineering perspective... If you look at it based off past value plus about 4 other factors, you could probably get your staffing estimates within about 10% and also keep a lot more people happy. SDC truly needs an industrial engineer or someone like that on staff. And why they don't is a bit beyond me...

I think it would be a fun job to do that. And perhaps you even pay the person a lesser amount and then they get bonuses based on accuracy of prediction and savings in labor or guest happiness.

[sanddunerider]

Another slow day at the park...

expected about 7,000

today at 4:00 ---  3900 people..   

the weather is supposed to be cool and rainy again this weekend, not a good start for the year.. .

[sirwillow]

Anybody know what a normal attendance total would be for a weekday during WorldFest/Festival of Wonder?  I have absolutely no idea, so there's really nothing for me to compare with the 4,000 through the gate on Wednesday number. It doesn't sound too bad for a Wednesday in April, but maybe SDC is hoping for better numbers this year.

4000 people is a light crowd.  To help translate that, it will mean that most rides are short to no waits, the train might run half full on almost all runs, and the shows won't be anywhere near capacity.  A more "proper" weekday crowd that would actually be closer to meeting their budgets would be around 7000 to 8000 during the week.
Being below 4000 means there is a good chance they are losing money on that day.

Busier times of year you should see 9-10,000 on weekdays.  Weekends shouldn't be below 12,000, and on a summer Saturday should be over 15,000.  Busy days will have 18,000, and the Christmas crowds you're looking around 20,000.  The busiest days the park has had are going to be in the 24,000 people range.  When the park is over 19,000, well, those are days you don't want to be there with the long lines for everything and it feeling on the packed side.

[sirwillow]

I have always wondered this. From what I was told some time ago, they base it on historical trends for the day. Not really related to weather. And that is how they get burned in my opinion.
I do not know how far ahead they schedule workers, but it seems like using a historical attendance without taking into account so many other factors is what most of the problems are.

Employees want their schedules ahead of time. Well ahead of time.  The goal is to have employee schedules done at least a week ahead, and oftentimes 2.  That's only fair to the workers so they can plan instead of having to wait until the last minute to know if they are going to work or not.

Unfortunately that doesn't work in conjunction with weather forecasts, which will often change, and may be unknown until 3 or 4 days ahead of time.  I don't know anyone who wants to be finding out if they work or not 2-3 days in advance, but if you're trying to make schedules based on weather reports, that is what you would end up doing.

While basing it on past attendance isn't perfect, it does at least show trends for festivals and times of year, along with events, and until someone learns how to see in to the future, I'm not aware of a better way to figure out what it might look like except to see what it was like averaged out in the past.  But it does mean "missing" sometimes, one way or the other.

[sanddunerider]

Actually making the work schedule for SDC wouldnt be any worse than any other retail orientated company...
you check sales and attendence for the same day a couple of years in the past... the current weather forecast would have nothing to do with setting a schedule ahead of time..  I am sure they schedule 2 weeks out at a minimum,..
average out sales and attendence, 
schedule employees accordingly for the expected sales and your done... 
IF you have bad weather, you send employees home early,, Bad deal for employee, smaller paycheck, But it really is that simple...   
However I would not be surprised if SDC has a scheduling program on the puter that does it all automatically..  That would save the labor cost immensely.

[sanddunerider]

Fridays numbers....  expected about 8500-    as of 3:00- 7500 in the gate

[Jemmicat]

I would not expect schedules changins 2-3 days beforehand, but I think a week ahead is not horrible. I mean, weather forecasts DO change, but they usually (key word) don't change drastically a week ahead. So if say I got my schedule for the next week on Friday, would not be horribly off.

Most hourly people I know it's about like that... they get a schedule for the next week on Friday.

It is not the days where there are too many employees that there are problems... Yes, they send people home - which sucks FAR MORE on a paycheck than finding out a few days early if you have to work or not. The problems stem when they play for 4000 and have 24000 because it is a nice day and the previous years there were not nice days. That is when complaints go up and it just goes horribly wrong.

And while yes, you probably can often predict employee needs at retail shops by analyzing previous years, how could anyone possibly think this is a smart way to do it for a theme park that is VERY weather related in attendance? That seems moronic to me... And if that is how they are analyzing things... well that explains most of the problems

[HumphreyHawk]

Actually making the work schedule for SDC wouldnt be any worse than any other retail orientated company...
you check sales and attendence for the same day a couple of years in the past... the current weather forecast would have nothing to do with setting a schedule ahead of time..  I am sure they schedule 2 weeks out at a minimum,..
average out sales and attendence, 
schedule employees accordingly for the expected sales and your done... 
IF you have bad weather, you send employees home early,, Bad deal for employee, smaller paycheck, But it really is that simple...   
However I would not be surprised if SDC has a scheduling program on the puter that does it all automatically..  That would save the labor cost immensely.

I can contribute to this conversation that at least one large retailer that has a HO in the area.....does include both historical weather and weather forecasting in making both staffing plans and merchandise planning.  Of course the merchandise planning is more of a seasonal forecasting thing.  Surely SDC tracks historical info around attendance and weather to help them make decisions along with the upcoming forecasts.

[chittlins]

Actually making the work schedule for SDC wouldnt be any worse than any other retail orientated company...
you check sales and attendence for the same day a couple of years in the past... the current weather forecast would have nothing to do with setting a schedule ahead of time..  I am sure they schedule 2 weeks out at a minimum,..
average out sales and attendence, 
schedule employees accordingly for the expected sales and your done... 
IF you have bad weather, you send employees home early,, Bad deal for employee, smaller paycheck, But it really is that simple...   
However I would not be surprised if SDC has a scheduling program on the puter that does it all automatically..  That would save the labor cost immensely.

I can contribute to this conversation that at least one large retailer that has a HO in the area.....does include both historical weather and weather forecasting in making both staffing plans and merchandise planning.  Of course the merchandise planning is more of a seasonal forecasting thing.  Surely SDC tracks historical info around attendance and weather to help them make decisions along with the upcoming forecasts.

The same large retailer with such top notch SuperCenter managers that when they go down to a single register with a human running it at 9pm on a Saturday night in a college town and put a girl on it that's under 21 to run it so.she has to constantly go hold to call someone over to complete the transaction? I actually stopped the front end manager as he was walking away and told him to look at the 7 folks in line cause I did and that 6 had beer or wine and to stay put. I may have asked who the dumb@$% was that put her on that register.

[sdcfan88]

Went on Friday and was very surprised by the light crowds despite how nice a day it was. One thing that is apparent which I am actually liking, TT has taken all the coaster crowds lol. Everything including PK was a one train wait or a walk on. Only things that had any sort of line or crowd was FITH, TT and of course the train.

[Duelist]

Glad to see Fire in the Hole is still drawing crowds.  We had to wait almost every time we rode it last year (which was a lot).  Still one of the best after all these years!

[sanddunerider]

what does a cool rainy day on Branson on a sunday mean...??

1800 people at SDC>!!>

[Okiebenz]

what does a cool rainy day on Branson on a sunday mean...??

1800 people at SDC>!!>

Sounds like a good day to be there today.

[HumphreyHawk]

Actually making the work schedule for SDC wouldnt be any worse than any other retail orientated company...
you check sales and attendence for the same day a couple of years in the past... the current weather forecast would have nothing to do with setting a schedule ahead of time..  I am sure they schedule 2 weeks out at a minimum,..
average out sales and attendence, 
schedule employees accordingly for the expected sales and your done... 
IF you have bad weather, you send employees home early,, Bad deal for employee, smaller paycheck, But it really is that simple...   
However I would not be surprised if SDC has a scheduling program on the puter that does it all automatically..  That would save the labor cost immensely.

I can contribute to this conversation that at least one large retailer that has a HO in the area.....does include both historical weather and weather forecasting in making both staffing plans and merchandise planning.  Of course the merchandise planning is more of a seasonal forecasting thing.  Surely SDC tracks historical info around attendance and weather to help them make decisions along with the upcoming forecasts.

The same large retailer with such top notch SuperCenter managers that when they go down to a single register with a human running it at 9pm on a Saturday night in a college town and put a girl on it that's under 21 to run it so.she has to constantly go hold to call someone over to complete the transaction? I actually stopped the front end manager as he was walking away and told him to look at the 7 folks in line cause I did and that 6 had beer or wine and to stay put. I may have asked who the dumb@$% was that put her on that register.

I hear ya...that's not just a problem just in college towns.  Our local market seems to only have underage cashiers pretty much every evening after 7ish.  You'd think the only adult manager in the store would get tired of running up front every 5-10 minutes.

[chittlins]

what does a cool rainy day on Branson on a sunday mean...??

1800 people at SDC>!!>

Sounds like a good day to be there today.

My Sister in Law and her crew went yestwrday, said is wasn't bad in the afternoon