So, what's the worst parts of working on rides at a park?

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maXair-Best Spin Cycle On the Planet!

I'm sure everyone can answer this one. Even I can. The worst one can be really stupid guests that break rules even though you warn them and stuff.

Dealing with all the guests. Especially when parents get pissed off at you for telling them that their kid is too small and that it isn't your decision. It isn't too bad when you have more than one person running the ride but on the smaller ones where there is only you, it sucks.

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"Fahrenheit-97 degrees and falling fast...Welcome to Hersheypark 2008."

"Virginia Tech Hokie for life...Recognize..."

Stupid guest. Thats really the only problem i have. Guest who don't know how many are in their group and guest complaining that their kids can't ride.

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2009 Carolina Cobra Crew
Go Panthers! 4-6: Week 12 @ New York Jets

#6 North Carolina Tarheels 4-1

Wow, I hope the good things out number your list of bad things!

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maXair-Best Spin Cycle On the Planet!

With the part about long lines are you payed for that?

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1 year on TN WOOT!
http://myspace.com/gurlfromthe21stcentury
Hi! I am a forum signature virus. Please copy/paste me to your signature to help me spread!

Yes your still being paid. They have to pay you since your still working.

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2009 Carolina Cobra Crew
Go Panthers! 4-6: Week 12 @ New York Jets

#6 North Carolina Tarheels 4-1

In this order

1. Guests who do not agree with our park policies and refuse to adhere to them; thank GOD we have security guards on patrol to help crackdown on such guests!

2. Guests who litter or vandalize the park.

3. Guests that ride the same ride 10-15 consecutive times with the intention of annoying the operator.


and a very distant fourth

4. Very long hours and exhausting nature of the work.

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ThrillNetwork Lead Moderator (Originally known as Hurricane)

It's time to play some DEFENSE!

In this order-
1. Guest who does not have on their shirt and shoes when its posted at the enterence of the water ride. And they try to get all pissy and upset about it.
2. Guest who get upset when you assign them a row they dont want. And they hold your line up when its like an hour long arguing with you that they want the front row.
3. Guest who swing their hair after getting off a the water ride and the water off their hair gets on your face. TALK ABOUT NASTY
4. And working Scooby Doo Haunted Mansion. When guest ask what the guns are used for. I have had guest ask if the guns are microphones, water guns and one even asked if it was a freakin HAIR DRYER.

Yea thats about it. lol

LOL, thats some funny questions. The only question i get tired of answering about TG is "Why does his/her seat have two belts and mine has one?"

I get tired of answering this qeustion 100 times a day.

Some people even refuse to sit in the single seat belt seat, They complain that they want the double seatbelt cause it must be safer.

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2009 Carolina Cobra Crew
Go Panthers! 4-6: Week 12 @ New York Jets

#6 North Carolina Tarheels 4-1

The following mostly pertains to Blizzard River:
1. "Can we take off our shoes?"
2. "Will I get wet?"
3. My seatbelt won't work/is broken."
4. "Can we take off our shoes?"
5. "Can you hold my cell phone for me?"
6. "Can we take off our shoes?"
7. "Where do we put our things that we don't want to get wet?"-Completely ignoring the buckets in front of them for items left behind during the ride.
8. "Does this center ring steer the boat?"
9. "Where is the dryest seat?"
10. "Can we take off our shoes?"
11. "Can we take off our shoes?"
12. "Oh, I'm not riding; I'm just going to cross over to the other side"-Completely ignoring the people that are exiting on the same sign they entered.
13. "Can we take off our shoes?"
14. "You mean our swim suits have to be covered up on this ride?"
15. "Oh, but little Johny is only an inch too short; come on man, let him ride."
16. Me-"How many poeple do you have in your group?" Guest-"Uhhhh, hmmmm, I don't know."
17. "Can my child sit in my lap?"
18. "What you mean I can't smoke in line?"-Because it's for the convenience of those around you who actually like living.
19. "But I just bought these $200 shoes this morning, and the water will ruin them."-Why would anybody come to an amusement park wearing $200 shoes? I mean seriously, $15 pair of cargo shorts, $5 shirt that says "Vote for Pedro", and $200 shoes. It just doesn't make sense to me.
20. "Can we take off our shoes?"

But after all these complaints, I still enjoy my job. The occasional BELT FOOOOOOOOOO (you would have to work there to understand) and the funny spiels my senior team leader gives are just two things that make my job worth-while.

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I'm going to be in a movie one day about all the people who enjoy riding T2. The movie will be called The Fantastic Four.

^ And the winner is can we take off our shoes? lol

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Please remain seated until the ride comes to a full and complete stop.

Yes, I believe so.

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I'm going to be in a movie one day about all the people who enjoy riding T2. The movie will be called The Fantastic Four.

By far the worst thing is dealing with the parent that is determined to get their child on a ride. These lovely people come in a few different styles...

1. The child is too short and they understand it is for their safety - These are the ones that I wish I could have had every day, but instead I had these more like once a month.

2. The child is too short and the parent will try to barter with you, saying things like "Well I assume responsibility for what happens to them." or "Well what if we just slip by and you 'don't' see us?" and don't forget the best one of all.... "Well we went on Mine Ride already today and that is 48" too!" Now I don't care who they are, if they are not 48" according to my height stick I'm not putting my job on the line, sometimes it is extremely hard to get it through their heads!

3. The stuffers. Simply put, people shove stuff in their child's shoes, tissues, toilet paper, paper towels, anything that would give them an extra inch or so. Or even the people who have 2" Thick heels on. Now when these people walk up I could spot them a mile away, simply because they couldn't walk at all. With their shoes stuffed it not only makes it hard to walk, but it also makes your ankle show up really high above the top of your shoe. When confronted they usually begin to plead, which doesn't work since I really at that point would have the urge to call for security to explain to them that they are knowingly endangering the life/safety of their child. The ones with shoes that are too tall were fairly simple, you swap their shoes with their parents or my own shoes, if they made it they are fine, if not sorry not tall enough.

4. The sneaky ones. They are usually people who have tried to get in through the main entrance and will then ( at least with Gemini) try to go partially up the exit, and then cut across the grass, as the exit/entrance lines pass relatively close to each other. I guess these people never realized the people on platform watching them cut across the lawn.

5. The child is tall enough, but doesn't want to ride. These are the fun ones. I was called so many bad words its not even funny by these types of people. At Cedar Point each rider has to show a "willingness to ride", basically if they are crying and saying they don't want to ride, then they are not riding period. But then the parent will say to us "NO They are going ON." These can lead to some quite serious confrontations, but the train is not moving with the child on it, if they say "No" then they are not riding, plain and simple.

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Kyle Rehm

Mine are the know-it-all type of enthusiasts... the ones that try to tell me how to run the ride, and the ones that try to defeat the restraints.

Other ones I've hated...
- Guests who try to bring beer, cigarettes, basketballs, etc. in line.
- Guests who attempt to abuse the Special Access (for disabled guests)
- Parents who tried to get their kids on rides when they were too short (I heard the excuse that they either were previously on this or another ride... I just told them to go to Park Ops and get officially measured)
- Line jumpers (you leave to do anything, your forfeit your spot, simple as that... they'd continue to argue, to the point where I said I'd call security and have them escorted out of the park)
- Those novelty cups
- People who decide to bring a giant Odie onto the ride (back before Cedar Point cracked down on loose items).

... and other things that are said above.

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ThrillNetwork Webmaster/Systems Administrator -- My Official Fansite -- Get Firefox!
Everytime I ride a coaster, it valleys. I've never been on a stalled coaster or had one roll back (except Wicked Twister and what was Superman: Ultimate Escape, which does that by design).

Here my my problems.....

:Can I take off my shoes???

:Has any one died on this ride??

:Is this ride safe???

:He rode yesterday

: He cut line! (No I didnt what had happen was...)-Security issue not mines

: Is that real fire??

:etc cant think right now





THE NUMBER ONE THING THAT IRRATES ME IS WHEN I tell the board operator to open restraits. The thing is my roller coaster has 16 seats if you want to unlock one seat you have to unlock all seats so once I check all 16 seats its always one guest that wants to get off or "unable" to ride. so I unlock the restaits all the people on the coaster" EXCUSE ME??!! SIR! SIR! HEY!! MY SEAT IS LOOSE!!!!!!!11 HEY SIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 OMG! SIR! CHECK MINES! SIR!!!!! OMG OMG OMG HEY HEY HEY HEY YOU!. No matter how may times we say "your restraits are unlock recheck" over the p.a they still panic. And I know when there waiting in that 2 hour line they see we do unlock the restraits sometimes. And if we did unlock it we still have to recheck it. Who in the heck would dispatch a train without it being rechecked? Thats the number one thing I had to "get into"

^Wow, it's like the same thing at Chang when we are waiting for the restraints to lock. "SIR MY RESTRAINT WON'T LOCK" "I CAN'T GET MY SEAT BELT IN" "HEY I NEED HELP" I literally have people yelling at me because their retraints won't lock. It's quite sad actually.

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I'm going to be in a movie one day about all the people who enjoy riding T2. The movie will be called The Fantastic Four.

yea I had to yell at people to because they yell at me. Its not a case of monkey see monkey do I just simply dont like being yelled at by a complete stranger who doesnt know me. When I yell back all I say is "SIR CALM DOWN!" or "HOLD ON!" sometimes I give them the silent treatment dont say anything until I check there seat.

While I agree with you on that one, I do see where the guests are coming from. If you're in a 2hr line and suddenly feel like you're about to do something in your pants you're forced to leave the line. I think parks need to devise some kind of system for this (porta potty's in the line maybe).

The worst I've seen was when my friends and I were waiting 6.5hrs for TTD. The ride was down so they thought we'd have time to go to the bathroom, but just as they were leaving the line opened and we ran in the line. Little did we know the ride was going to go down again due to weather. My friends stuck it out though, they did the pee-pee dance almost the whole time but they did it. But what if the line was longer or they had to do something else? It's not far to those who have legit reasons to leave the lines.

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ThrillNetwork Moderator
The user formerly known as WildeFyre
UOIT Mechanical Engineering Student

Well If I'm a entrance operator and if I see some one who leave the line and attempt to enter back in after 20 mins past. And if they attempt to enter the line again I will stop them if they tell me why such as went to the bathroom what I would do is. Ask the guest to go to the ride exit and wait there until he/she see the party there with.

Line jumpers and people that sit on the handrails. 'Cause that means I have to get on the P.A. and sound like an uptight A-hole, but it's protocol - gotta follow it! Luckily, line cutters weren't a problem when I worked at the Calico Railroad at Knott's. Mostly people that sit on the handrails/bars.

Some of my responses to that rhetorical question include....

"My only job is to strap you in and see what fate holds for you in the next minute or two."

"We'll find out after the ride whether you're still alive."


If there is one thing I absolutely love doing is playing mind games with the scared/nervous guests -- especially teenage girls -- as they board the ride or after I lock them in their seat; nothing like playing with their minds, not in a way to talk down at guests, but just to make innocent comments that probably does NOT sound very comforting to riders.

On the Eruption, the one thing I like say to guests who appear to be scared of heights of any kind....

"It's not that high; you're only going to be 255 feet in the air."

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ThrillNetwork Lead Moderator (Originally known as Hurricane)

It's time to play some DEFENSE!

^I do the same thing with Chang. "Oh it's only 154 feet tall." Now I don't have a problem with heights so I can say that with no problem, but if the person I'm talking to has a fear of heights, then it's pretty funny.

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I'm going to be in a movie one day about all the people who enjoy riding T2. The movie will be called The Fantastic Four.

^Hrm...I do that sometimes. Like I'll be it's not that high and your not up there for very long. Like for TTD I say you go up 420feet and drop down. You don't even know what happens because the ride is so fast.

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Xtreme Coaster Enthusiast
2005-2007 Cedar Fair (G.Lake, C.P.)
2008 Disneyland Merchandise
Finding my way in the world, and riding some awesome coasters while I'm at it!

^Yea and for the time you are actually on top of TTD's tophat, you don't have enough time to look around. Out of the three rides I got on it, I had enough time to look around once, and I still didn't even see much. MF, even though 110' shorter than TTD, was definitly better for looking around.

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I'm going to be in a movie one day about all the people who enjoy riding T2. The movie will be called The Fantastic Four.

The worst part about operating rides never comes from the guests. Is it dumb when people ask me to take off their shoes? Of course. But it gives the chance to have some fun. Stupid people = funny jokes.

The worst part(s) of ride operation, for me of course, are:

1) Crappy staffing. This makes rides hard to operate efficiently, pisses off all the guests, and worsens the mood for the operators. This leads to point 2):

2) Not getting a break. Being an adult, I am not required to have a break in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Being the Senior Team Leader, it is my duty to see everything done properly and to keep my Team Members happy. Sometimes these in combination with 1) keep me from taking a break. In a 14 hour day, THAT SUCKS NUTS.

3) The heat. Not so much that it is hot, but being hot makes me sweat, and I just have a personal distaste for smelling bad.

But these all balance out because my crew is awesome, I love operations, and making fun of guests is tight.

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Ah, for real?

Oh yea, I forgot about the staffing and heat. I can't believe I forgot about the staffing, but for the heat, just kick it like its hot.

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I'm going to be in a movie one day about all the people who enjoy riding T2. The movie will be called The Fantastic Four.

The worst part of working rides is when you tell the people over the P.A. that they need their shoes on to ride the freaking ride and then they take em off anyway. But overall my job is awesome. I love it.

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THANK YOU!!!!!!! OMG you don't know how many times i ask how many and they say "2", so i let them on. Then their like "well we wanted to ride with them too". I tell them, "next time someone asks how many, say the number of people in your group, not just you and your partner."

And when parents get mad at me when i say their kid is too short. They always say, "They already road it today" I tell them, "Someone wasn't doing their job earlier and i'm telling you your kid can't ride".

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Kennywood Team Member 2004 Kiddieland
2005 Racer/Jack Rabbit Crew
2006 Racer/Skycoaster/Paddle Boats Crew
2007 Thunderbolt/Turtle/Gold Rusher Crew

I get the dumb guest you say have no idea how many are in their group. I have had several people sctually turn around and count how many people in their group and turn back to be and say I don't know, or i'll get some people who will say 2 then 10 sec later their like no wait we have 4 then 10 sec later they will say no we have 3.

The really dumb ones just look at you weird and say i don't know. i get that alot.

C'mon folks it's not that hard.

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2009 Carolina Cobra Crew
Go Panthers! 4-6: Week 12 @ New York Jets

#6 North Carolina Tarheels 4-1