On 8/10/11 at about 1:00 PM, me and five other guests

became stuck on the Python for about fifteen minutes.

Apparently the cars ahead of us became stuck at the drop-off point

so our cars were stopped mid-ride.

The ride operators did a good job getting help to fix the problem.

However, we were left in limbo why we were stuck and when we could expect

to get down. The only communication was from one of the ride operators was

"Hey, your gonna be there a while!" We didn't even see who said it!

So we waited, and waited and waited some more.

Finally,we started screaming down at the operators.

Then finally, the mechanics were able to get us down.

Two of the guests were young children and were becoming more scared

with each passing moment.

The ride operators definitely need to stay in direct communication with

the patrons during the entire episode. For this, they get a "F."

pilotank

I had a similar experience on Maverick during opening day, sans the operator communication issues. They did a great job, and had a ride op walk up and talk to us while we were stuck on the platform. Another 30 minutes later we were helped off the ride, and down the nice skinny 50 foot high spiral stair case. It made a huge difference though, having the ride up there on the platform.

This happens when the other car on the track isn't moved forward to the "load up" point from the drop off point. While the operators should have communicated better, it happens frequently so it probably didn't even cause the operators to worry.

While that is generally the case, there are some circumstances that have happened this year, which resulted in the train progressing too far into the breaks before the unload station. When that happens, the normal block system override will not work, as the operators cannot clear the train out of the unload station. The only way to fix that is to have maintenance release the brake under the train just outside of the unload station.