Have you ever worked for an amusement park?

It seems that a lot of you in this forum are very knowledgeable about the park industry. Do any of you work/ed for a park, or are you just an enthusiast? If so what do/did you do while working at the park? Myself, I used to work at a Disney park, and must say that it was the best job I ever had! Any takers?

[CoolestCoaster]

Hey RCT2Fan, I'll take you up on that one. I work at a Six Flags park named "Astroworld". I really enjoy my job but I am only a seasonal employee, but I am considering Full-Time. I used to work as a stock boy at Wal-Mart, but that just totally sucked then I happened to decide to inquire about SF and then applied online and got an interview! I was happy, kinda scared they would hire me to a dumb position. Well, I got hired as a ride operator, but some shifts I have to work at front ticket booth, or once a week we must all put time in as a footpath (don't know why they call it footpath, they must play RCT alot.) sweeper. I find working for SF a great opportunity, and very enjoyable. Plus they don't pay half bad!

[Joshua H]

I also used to work for the Mouse...were you on the WDWCP? I would agree, BEST JOB EVER!

[IronWolf98]

I worked at Six Flags Great America as a Rides Lead for four years. It was tons of fun, but after a few months it gets to you. It's good to have the winter off.

[Xzentrificenceo]

Well I work at a major animal park in San Diego back when I was 16-17. Spent 2 summers doing that. It was fun and I met a few cool people. That and I worked outside all day. The pay was better than most fast food places teens end up working.

[Harpo]

I spent 4 summers working as a Weight Guesser at Cedar Point. Just give me the microphone, and let me go!

I've also been a Cedar Fair stockholder since 1990.

[raptorrvnge4928]

On a side note, Harpo, do you have to work at CP for a certain amount of time to be vested in stock, or is it public, where anybody may buy it? I would love to have a little piece of CP's pie.

[Harpo]

Cedar Fair, L.P. stock is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The ticker symbol is FUN. You can check it out on Yahoo here: FUN Stock

It pays a very good quarterly distribution. You will want to be aware, however, that the Limited Partnership rules make for some complexities at tax time. Because of Cedar Fair, in addition to my usual Michigan and Federal tax returns, I also need to file returns in California, Ohio, Missouri, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania. On the other hand, of all the stocks I own, Cedar Fair is the only one that provides discount coupons to the stock holders. I certainly wouldn't mind if GE or Exxon-Mobil did that!

[beck2003]

i am the assi. foreman of dejavu at sfog, (basically i run the ride) and i really love the job. in fact it dosent even seem like a job, more like fun time. i only took the job cause i love coasters and i am studyin civil engineering to design coasters one day so i figured working around them would be beneficial. so if you come to sfog ill be operating dejavu...im the only white dude there . and i try my best to make it a memorable ride once your seated and strapped in, cause ill scare the crap outta ya!

[Harpo]

Originally posted by beck2003
ill scare the crap outta ya!

Are you really that frightening looking? Certainly you can't mean the ride would be so scary. It didn't scare me at all at SFOG or SFMM. (It was broken at Great America, so I didn't get the opportunity to yawn on it there.)

Speaking of dejavu, when is SF Great Americe ever gonna re-open it??? I was only able to ride it once last year, and both times I went there this year, its been closed. Any info about it???

[BurntToast]

I used to work for Riverfront Restaurants back in '94 to '99, then quit to work for Electronics Boutique and Interplay. I went back in '00 to grand open Disney's California Adventure in Golden State Attractions... now I'm at the Disneyland Hotel at the Front Desk.

I've been around... I'm a Disney ho :I

[raptorrvnge4928]

Originally posted by Harpo
Are you really that frightening looking? Certainly you can't mean the ride would be so scary. It didn't scare me at all at SFOG or SFMM. (It was broken at Great America, so I didn't get the opportunity to yawn on it there.)

No silly Harpo, he means he will do what a few people did to me and my roomate at SFGAm. They wont check ride restraints and give you an overall impression that the ride is unsafe....

J/K

[beck2003]

well, dejavu is the most popular ride at the park. not a lot of people have had the opportunity to ride it since it has been open up until this year since the mechanics finally saw the light and figured the ride out. we have been operating all summer long non-stop. also there arent really all that many extreme rides in our park aside from acrophobia. so our line is constantly filled up no matter what day of the week it is cause everyone wants to ride. so since so many people are so excited to ride the ride once theyre strapped in i make a few announcements to enhance the excitement and it works. i might scare them by informing them that "dejavu is taller and faster than acrophobia" or "you will be going for 0-73mph in less tha 4 seconds" and may crack a joke like "you will be completely vertical meaning all of your body weight will be on those unreliable green shoulder harnessess" ill say more stuff over the intercalm like "we hope you dont have to pee" right before they leave" or we ask if anyone wants to get off, (often there are a couple) and tell them "its too late" by the time i dipatch the train the people on the ride are either cracking up, or freakin out! they love it! they waited 3 hours for the ride, im gonna make the damn thing memorable for cryin out loud. so dont hate! i know dejavu is nothing compared to a lot of rides out there, and i have been on a lot of rides out there, but it is all sfog has, and everyone loves it. our ride and staff has gotton more praise and complements at guest realations than any other ride in the past two years combined! weve hardly had a single guests who hasnt enjoyed the ride. i have people come up to me all the time after they ride laughing and telling me that they have been all over the country riding rides and they had never heard anyone scare the crap outta them like that before they rode at all, and they loved it. im sorry if u think dejavu sux harpo, and yes to hundreds of rides out there it does. but sfog is the one place where it dosent suck. its our tallest, fastest, most inverted, most extreme, and most popular ride in the park and im kinda proud to be operating it. so back off.

[Harpo]

Well, I am sorry, but SFOG's Deja Vu is the only place I've been where it was regularly taking more than 7 minutes between train launches. At that rate, only 274 people per hour can ride, far less than the specified capacity of 870 people. It just wasn't worth that kind of wait. It should be noted that the queue also had more trash than any queue I've ever been in.

Sorry for the negativity, but I have to call 'em as I see 'em.

[Harpo]

It's really not going to help blowing a gasket with me. I call it as I see it. I recorded the time multiple times. Yes, that was last year. I have not been back this year. As for the 870 number, that's the capacity listed by RCDB. Don't like it? Complain to them. Meanwhile, Wicked Twister, with similar harnessing and seating, typically has about a 30 second turnaround time, allowing trains to generally be launched in under 2 minutes. Yes, guests do sometimes slow down the ride prep, and I'm understanding of that. Maybe you've improved this factor, but, last year, it took more than 1 minute after the harnesses were released for the crew to even open the air gates. That's something I absolutely do not understand, and it is not the fault of the guests.

Could I do the job better? Perhaps. We'll probably never know, as I'm busy with engineering for the automotive industry. Certainly, when I worked at my game at Cedar Point, I was one of the fastest in the park. But, beyond that, of the 116 parks I've visited, SFOG was absolutely the least efficient.

You've added trash cans? Good. It needed it. But, last year, the cans were overflowing, and staff was actually kicking the trash rather than doing anything about it. At SFOG, the condition of the queue may not be your responsibility. I don't know about that. At Cedar Point, the entire ride condition is the responsibility of the ride lead, including the queue.

If it makes you happy to kick me for my observations, well, have fun. But, you're only shooting the messenger, and that never solves any problems.

Good day.

Edit: Incidentally, I do not merely gripe on this board. I sent two letters to Six Flags in 2002, and I spoke with one of the GM's by phone, commenting on the issues and offering suggestions for improvement. I've been to enough parks to see what can and cannot be done. While the guests may cause issues, the best parks NEVER blame the guests -- they just find a way to fix the issues and move on. And, at the best parks, trash at the park is considered to be EVERY employee's responsibility. You may wish to watch a Discovery channel item on Cedar Point. During the interview, Dick Kinzel, CEO of Cedar Fair, noticed a piece of trash on the midway. He picked it up. Employees at Cedar Point can and do receive disciplinary action if they are found to ignore any piece of trash that they spot on the midway. The requirement to pick up the trash goes for permanent and seasonal employees. (Incidentally, for the 7 minute timing, not only did I take several measurements, as is typical for an engineer, but the time was confirmed by people I met in the queue who timed it independently. They commented to me when they saw me timing the ride.)

[beck2003]

im sorry but wicked twister and dejavu's harnesses/restraints are nothing alike, wicked twister has only the harness and the seat bel on the side. we have the harness, a seatbelt around the waist and a seatbelt that attaches to the harness. and if there is an empty seat we have to fasten the seatbelt a certain way that take a little extra time. we sometimes have a problem with setabelts getting twisted up and stuff, or maybe an overweight guest trying their best to squeeze into the seat. you have no idea what the reason may be once you sit down and why its taking a little longer than usual, you cant see whats going on on the whole dock while your seated. cry about it. also all the rides at cp have at least 5-6 staff members checking harnessess. dejavu is only allowed 3 max. also we can only open the air gates when the dock is cleared of all people.

[Harpo]

You have successfully identified one of the problems about which I've complained to Six Flags: the parks are understaffed, sometimes dangerously so.

While I'm seated, you're right, I cannot see the whole dock. But, while waiting and/or observing, it is possible to see the whole dock on most rides.

Of all the rides I've experienced, Perilous Plunge at Knott's Berry Farm has the most complex harnesses I've yet to see. However, they still take less time than what I was witnessing in 2002 at SFOG.

Crying about it? No need to. I just spend my money at other parks. But, if Six Flags wishes to learn from the experience of someone who's been to many parks, witnessing some great and some rotten operations, they really should listen to me. Listening wouldn't hurt, whereas fighting me on it and calling me names is only decreasing my already low opinion of Six Flags. When I've had issues with several other parks, and have shared those issues with them, the response was quite different. They may not have agreed with my opinions, but they didn't belittle my opinions, either. In some cases, I've returned to find significant improvements, showing that they apparently listened. I happen to have a passion for the amusement industry. As a result, I'd like to see EVERY park be exceptionally well run, so I try to help by providing my comments. So far, only Six Flags has managed to further annoy me when I've made my comments.

As for opening the air gate... I know that most Six Flags parks put the turnstiles at the exit, which tends to significantly slow down the clearing of the loading platform. I don't recall where the turnstile was for SFOG's Deja Vu. If it is at the exit, may I suggest that you recommend it be moved to the entrance, where there is not a problem with the bottleneck that always appears at the exit compounded by people trying to get through a turnstile.

It should also be noted that most parks I've visited do not feel it is necessary to wait for the loading platform to be cleared before opening the air gates. That's something I've primarily witnessed at Six Flags parks, although Six Flags is fairly consistent about it.

[beck2003]

our ride has no turnstile. and back to loading, first off, it takes a minute for people to secure their loose articles since it is diffucult to migrate through the train. blame vekoma for that. secondly i announce over and over and over again that all riders must only fasten the orange safety belt and not touch the green shoulder harness until instructed to do so. no matter how slowly, or clearly or how many times i say it we will still have several guests pull down their green shoulder harness. so we basically have to start all over, unlock the harnessess check seatbelts and re-lock. is that the employees fault? nope, blame vekoma. i am so very sorry you had a bad experience,last year. so did i when i was a guest, but ive come along and changed it. i still dont think you have a clue what your talking about though, you didnt make a 100 on the operators test after studying the 100 page manual for two weeks like i did. i know how the ride is ran, had been ran, and will always be run. according to vekoma's instructions on the ride operation, 3 attendants max are allowed on the dock, this has nothing to do with the staffing or anything like that. now what i mean by 3 attendants is 3 max checking harnesses, this does not include the person grouping. all parks have to operate the rides under the manufacturers instructions. it has nothing do do with six flags ad staffing. no matter how many different ways you put it or dont put it, dejavu's loading process is a little longer than a lot of rides, especially at sfog. most guests assume the seating is like batman and forget about the orange safety belt. most guests are so excited they do not pay attention to instructions. and thats our fault? if anything it is the guests stalling us from doing our job! i dont blame them, cuase they arent supposed to come on the ride knowing everything like we do. but you however act like you do when you dont. and that is the type of guests i cannot stand most, a guests that thinks they know more than the employee when they seriously dont. and dood, you seriously have no clue what your talking about. i do agree however that last year did suck for the vu, in fact the past two years have sucked with all of its technical problems, but things can change in a year, and your never going to find a perfect park that meets all of your demands, so quite being so picky and just be thankful you actually got to ride the ride, cause there are so many people who would do anything to ride dejavu. trust me i know.

[Harpo]

Whatever. I'm tired of arguing the point. I'm not going to convince you, and you absolutely are not going to convince me, especially with the name calling.

Of course, this person who doesn't know what he's talking about earns a living partially via making process improvements, and has done so for 11 years, and on things far more complex than Deja Vu. My biggest project, for which I earned 2 U.S. patents, was automating a one billion dollar semiconductor fabrication facility containing 450 pieces of equipment. The one facility cost as much to build as 1 year's worth of Six Flags revenue. If you really wish to ignore such experience in process improvements, then good luck to you.

[beck2003]

good for you...balhblahblah mr. big stuff. who do you think you are? take your money and get a life. six flags is not my career swifty. im in college, and i like coasters so i figured i'd get a summer job. so go argue with someone your own age...o-wait you wouldnt win, whats why you have to argue with young people...to make you feel better about yourself. get a life. ignore experience in process improvements? whats there to improve? ive improved everything from last year...do u not pay attention??? stop dwelling on the past...get over it, it was a year ago!

[iAMpaste001]

You've single-handedly improved Six Flags by being a ride op? Do you get some kind of award for that?

Originally posted by beck2003
be thankful you actually got to ride the ride, cause there are so many people who would do anything to ride dejavu.

Sorry...

[raptorrvnge4928]

Wow Beck2003. Thank you very much. You have just single-handedly persuaded me to NOT go to SFOG. If you really are a ride-op (which I doubt you are, let alone LEAD ride-op) you do not seem to have any sense of customer service at your position, and therefore, you are not the one that I would want to trust my safety within. If per chance one day, somebody has an accident and is killed at your park, or even worse, at your ride, are the people still "idiots"? And when people like Harpo do notice problems in safety and efficiency, does it hurt your ego that much that you have to attack Harpo and the likes? Just out of curiousity, you are in college? Well if you put as much effort into your studies as you do to constructive criticism here, I feel you have a rude awakening getting ready to occur. Point being, the attitude you seem to take towards issues seems to be the same type of attitude that man SF employees take. Perhaps its management, perhaps its the employees..... perhaps its human resources. Point being, I can now see why SF stock is down... And I can now verify the incidents as SF: Grt Amer were not isolated incidents, rather an indicator of the way SF theme parks really are.

[IEATPASTE001]

Originally posted by beck2003
well, dejavu is the most popular ride at the park.

Longest line doesn't mean most popular, Its just a boomerang! It can't be that great!

Also someone like Harpo would know this since he has had alot more experience with this of this nature then any of us here. He is a good friend and i know he has been there and done that when it comes to coasters, The things he was saying weren't against you, but the way the ride was operating when he visited last, it isn't personal. So i didn't know 5 garbage cans could solve all of SFI's and Deja Vu's problems, thanks for solving that mystery!

[Harpo]

I had a life once. I sold it for $50 and a coaster to be named later. I think it was a good deal.

Sorry if I've bruised your fragile ego, beck. Like I've been saying, I only call 'em as I've seen 'em. If you've improved the ride ops, good. But, your attitude certainly doesn't encourage me to want to give SFOG another chance.

By the way, when I have discussions with my coworkers, we generally avoid the personal attacks, hence progress is made. It's not about winning or losing, it's about solving problems. You may wish to think about that.

And, of course, when I mentioned some of my experience, it wasn't for the purpose of bragging. It was simply to show that, when it comes to process improvements, I do know what I'm talking about.

Just curious... does Six Flags provide housing at the park for the employees? It's truly amazing what one can learn when one lives 24x7 for 4 summers surrounded by other park employees from all parts of the park.

Hey Raptor what incidents happened to SF GA's deja-vu ride. We all know it still isnt open, but not why. And to Beck, having worked in the industry before, we want to call the guests “idiots”, but only a small portion are. Most of them are just overly excited to be in the park, and their main goal is to get on as many rides as possible. Yes they hear the announcements, but are too involved to pay attention to them, and they go in one ear and out the other. Several times I have gave directions to guests while they are directly in front me, them eye to eye, etc. only to have them give me that “huh”look”. That is where the ride operators come, to double, triple check that everything is good to go. It is part of the job, and in our training on dealing with situations like that. Now as the operating procedure of your ride, is there a way that yourself and other operators suggest more efficient ways of your loading procedures, or are they set in stone. If they know it isn’t working right, why wont they fix it?

[IronWolf98]

Originally posted by Harpo

Just curious... does Six Flags provide housing at the park for the employees? It's truly amazing what one can learn when one lives 24x7 for 4 summers surrounded by other park employees from all parts of the park.

I think that may be true, but park employees tend to segregate (I know they did at SFGrAm). When I was an employee, unless I had a friend working in another dept., I had no reason to talk to someone from the other dept. With housing, HR would try to put people from the same department in the apartment.

I think if I were still a rides lead (the legal profession decided to finally call me), you would definitely not want to go to Great America. I felt that my first priority was the safe operation and management of the ride. I often conflicted with guests who thought my first priority was to please them. I wanted the ride to be completely safe from an operator standpoint (and mechanical to the best of my training, but ultimately that was up to maintenance), so I didn't care if people liked me or not. I'm sure there were times I was more rude than I intended, but if someone yelled at me I dished it right back. Those are extremes, but generally how it went.


As for Deja Vu's slow timing, that is bad/design and slow people (and combuine that with the possibility of slow ops...) When I worked at Whizzer, which only has seatbelts, it was hard to get the train out in a timely fashion (guests wouldn't think it was slow, but we have an hour;y goal which we never met). First you have the person who can't figure out the restraint; next you have the person who takes his/her time putting items in the storage bin, slowing up the locking of the restraints; next you have the last minute person who decides not to ride; etc. Take this to to a ride with two types of restraints, on obstructive loading process, and only one train, and it's not surprising how slow the load time is.

[Harpo]

Actually, I place safety and attentiveness as the highest priority. I tend to be very disturbed by operators who are not paying attention. However, it also bugs me to see operators moving like their feet are stuck in mud.

As for communicating with the guests, I'm sorry, but I feel there's absolutely no reason for rudeness. I was a weight guesser for 4 summers. We received more abuse from the guests than any other position in the park. (That was confirmed by security, as they would periodically have undercover audits of all positions. The reports showed we took the worst abuse.) It doesn't matter what's wrong. Ride down in the area? Blame the Guesser. Got some food you don't like? Blame the Guesser. Got blisters on your feet? Blame the Guesser. Temperature is too hot or too cold? Got to be the Guesser's fault. While working at the game, I was hit, slapped, sworn at, punched, shoved, kicked, had things thrown at me, and even bitten. And yet, we still managed to stay friendly. It wasn't always easy, but we did it. (I'd often take out my frustration by punching a wall in the back room when I was out of sight of the guests. Coming up with the list of Reasons Why Stupid People Shouldn't Breathe was also a good tension-releaser.) Of course, that doesn't mean we were pushovers. I had some folks arrested, and others escorted out of the park. But, it was always done with a polite attitude. ("Yes sir. I'm sorry you're displeased, but I can't allow you to take a prize without playing the game. I'm sorry ma'am, but you cannot stand within the yellow area -- that's my loading zone. You never know when my whole building may get up and move away.")

As for housing at Cedar Point, there was lots of mixing between groups. It was difficult to choose a roommate, and housing did not take departments into account when making room assignments. As a result, I had friends in every department, including office cleaners, warehousing, foods, rides, parking, merchandise, resorts, live shows, sweeps, and, of course, games. One summer, my girlfriend was a ride hostess. Another summer, I had a merchandise hostess as a girlfriend. Yet another, a foods hostess. (I have to admit, I miss the ease of getting a date at Cedar Point. It was true then and is still true today that the girls outnumber the guys nearly 3 to 1. Making it even easier for me, straight guys are less common than gay guys. So, a straight guy had many choices for dates! Meanwhile, my engineering classes had a grand total of 4 girls during the entire 7 years of my two degrees! That makes dating a bit tougher, especially when one of those 4 hates all men, another is already married, and the other two are the Lee sisters, Ug and Home. They were from Tasmania. Unfortunately, in addition to a somewhat rough exterior, they were thoroughly obnoxious! Oh well.)

[IronWolf98]

Originally posted by Harpo
Actually, I place safety and attentiveness as the highest priority. I tend to be very disturbed by operators who are not paying attention. However, it also bugs me to see operators moving like their feet are stuck in mud.

As for communicating with the guests, I'm sorry, but I feel there's absolutely no reason for rudeness.

I agree, with the exception of the rudeness. Unfortunately, that is often the only way to get someone to pay attention to you. As a weight guesser, you had the luxury of time. As a rides lead, I had no such luxury. I was constantly monitoring my employees and disciplining them for not doing what was required of them. And although I always attempted to be nice to guests at first (and I am talking about those who don't follow rules), as soon as they start defying my authority all bets are off. The problem is Security at Six Flags is lackluster when it comes to dealing with guests, and being rude to them is often the only way to exert some type of authority. I probably would not have ever been rude to a guest if it weren't for the attitude of security to not enforce ride policies. They never did. Because of me, ride operators were allowed to make on-site determinations to prevent line-jumpers from riding (My manager allowed me to overrule security decisions to that effect). It was my job to oversee the safety of guests, and if thwey weren't cooperating then they aren't entitled to my niceness. I'm sorry, but once you start getting nasty with people, they should be allowed to get nasty right back. But also, I should say that in general at Six Flags I was the only ride op allowed to get away with that. My supervisors and managers knew that I was trying to enforce policies without having to get higher power. I'm sure I hold the record for guest complaints, but if you read each and every one you'll find that it was part of an enforcement for a policy. The sad fact is that today, people are all about themselves and have no courtesy, and they think rules apply only to others and not themselves (they must be overwhelmingly republican!).