For ride ops, which was the hardest ride to operate?

[psyclonerider]

This is for all the ride ops out there. I would like to know, out of all the rides you've ran, which was TGE hardest to operate, and why Thank you

[Steven]

I never found any of the rides I operated to be really difficult. Though, the complexity factor goes up when you throw a coaster into manual mode. Still, I can't distinguish which one was the hardest.

[Chris H]

Out of the three rides I operated, none were extremely hard. The one that was hard on my body was Beast doing the restraints, pulled my back pretty heavy. But Crypt and Diamondback were the easiest.

[psyclonerider]

Out of the three rides I operated, none were extremely hard. The one that was hard on my body was Beast doing the restraints, pulled my back pretty heavy. But Crypt and Diamondback were the easiest.

Speeking of crypt (a topsin), I'd imagine that running one of those things in manual mode would be quite difficult at first, at least getting it to the flips the way you want it. To see what I mean, just go to youtube and type in anything about topspins at european fairs. Some of the manovours they do are insane, and probably take at least a little amount of skill by the operator.

[Chris H]

Thankfully, Crpyt at Kings Island and I'm positive at Kings Dominion are programmed ride cycles.

[Racer]

There really isn't much to operating rides... Or at least I don't find it that hard.

[screaminkid2005]

The hardest ride I've had to operate was Sky Coaster at SFNE, but it's not to bad once you get the hang of it.

[CoasterOhio]

Out of the three rides I operated, none were extremely hard. The one that was hard on my body was Beast doing the restraints, pulled my back pretty heavy. But Crypt and Diamondback were the easiest.

You should have taken video of OperatiDiamondback, I would love to know how.

[Steven]

You aren't allowed to do so at most parks.

[steel]

I worked at Adventureland for about a month and a half and operated/assisted at around six rides (one of the reasons I quit was that the training was so dismal). The hardest on my body was Tornado - like Chris said, it's hard on your back checking PTC restraints for seven hours straight. The best and most fun by far was Infant Ocean, a kiddie boat ride. I did it solo for one evening. I loved not having to deal with annoying coworkers and getting to work with little kids, and I pretty much had the area to myself after all the families left before sundown.

[Chris H]

You should have taken video of OperatiDiamondback, I would love to know how.

I could have but it's against park policy. Also, holding a camera and trying to do restraints isn't a good idea because it could be knocked out of my hands and I often collected loose articles to put them in the bin. While physically operating the coaster, I had to use two hands to even send the train out of the station, holding a camera wouldn't have worked.

With my employment at Kings Island, I focused on making our guests have the most enjoyable experience they could while they were on my ride, I wouldn't have been able to do so if I tried taking a video.

The best way to learn how to operate a coaster or a ride is to get a job at a park and work in rides. It's not for everyone.


My question for current or past ride operators: What was the funniest interaction you had with a guest? (Please leave names out of it and please be respectful when talking about the guests)

[Vekoma6382]

I've operated every coaster at Knott's with the exception of Ghostrider. I've also operated most of their flat rides with Camp Snoopy being an exception. With that said I'm going to go with Xcelerator. It's not hard to operate per se but when training it's A LOT of information to absorb. I loved training at Xcelerator.

[Ryan F]

The carousel wasn't hard to operate by any means, but it was by far the worst. You had to sit there and listen to the music non-stop; the 2 hour opening and closing rotations were hell.

[life on jars]

Flats that only require 1 op. Not that they are hard to operate or really require any skill, it just sucks to be by yourself and it's more fun to work within a team...

[life on jars]

The hardest ride I've had to operate was Sky Coaster at SFNE, but it's not to bad once you get the hang of it.

Completely agree. I worked Sky Coaster during SFKK's last season. It's a lot to learn but once you get it you actually find yourself with some down time and not having to run constant cycles.

[coasterstar]

I was a old school op at DMT at SFOG. Back then it was a manual dispatch ride with a large crew. I was one of the last 4 train ops. You had to use both hands to hold brake buttons down You had brake one, brake two, brake three and dispatch. With 4 trains you had to dispatch a train every 30 seconds. You could not see the trains in the ops. box, so you had your lift host on the phone telling you where you trains are. It was a hard fast paced ride to operate but I loved it. It was easy to run trains into each other when it rained cause the brakes slide the trains. The ride was changed and now never runs more than two trains.

Another hard one was Thunder River, but I never ran that one.

[coasterlove]

I've never worked as a ride op so I have no idea but have been curious about this sort of thing and happened to notice this thread. I always have thought at least on a physical level, wooden coasters have to be hardest with all the constant bending to check seatbelts and restraints. I know at least one person mentioned it. The coaster trains are so low and having to constantly bending down has to kill your back. I would think that inverted coasters would be easiest physically because the restraints are more or less the same height as the ride ops so little bending would be needed. Other similar coaster restraints like flyers and standups would be similar, I'd think. Am I right?

[coasterell]

I'd say the worst, maybe not the hardest was the spider ride at Geauga Lake, it was all manual, meaning you had to line up the arms and legs just right, and it had a foot pedal in which you had to stand on for the ride to even work. Not to mention the thing had to be balanced, and if it wasn't balanced properly it would oscillate on its own.

[Tom Zeliff]

Any ride requiring the operator to balance the load gets tougher to operate. The hardest I operated (not counting a Sky Coaster) is the Pacific Wheel, a Chance Grand Wheel operating at Pacific Park. With 20 gondolas and motors that could only handle an imbalance of 2 full gondolas, keeping track of the load and scaling up or down the number of gonodlas required some thought and attention to detail.

-Tom

[Geoff Mcmahon]

one of the hard ride is the the Zierer Hexentanz aka Inferno only 3 of them by the way. if one of the arms does not get to the right point on "landing" it takes 4 people to do the resetting with people on ride one to plug the brake box in and turn off the brake to the arm and 2 to keep the cars on the arm in the right spot to re lock the arm in the right spot and one to lower the ride after the unplug of the brake box and also need to keep a tool to unlock the restraints if the auto unlock is not working. in this way the inferno is has to be balance all way all the time. still fun though.

[PANTSFREE]

From a safety stand point - Two Face The Flip Side at SFA. From the booth you could not see much of anything in the line or the station so you had to rely on the loaders to due a good job and trust them.

From a physical stand point - A scrambler (Cyclone at SFA to be specific). Tons of walking with no protection from the sun. Checking all the seats by yourself. Very exhausting job.

Working greeter at any ride that requires lockers can be very demanding.