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Interesting Things Ride-Ops Do


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At Slaughter House last night, Momma "Say I love cows, meow meow meow! When ever you hear pig". Now that was hilarious.

 

I know a certain butcher in Slaughter House that works with pigs, and this drives him nuts.  Why must Mama torture Sam so?  I always thought Sam was her favorite, at least that's what she's told him, but now I think she says that to all the boys.

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I was next in line for Flight of Fear back on July 2 when I heard this:

 

Op: Say "Ahhhh..."

Riders: Ahhhhh-*train launches*

 

When I was doing a mini-marathon on The Bat on the same evening, the crew there were having a lot of fun with the riders. One of the the attendants on the platform convinced the train in front of me that it was the operator's birthday and started singing Happy Birthday to the person in the drive box (I forgot his name! :(). It also carried over to my train, because some riders, myself included, had overheard all that he said and we too were saying "Happy Birthday" as we left the station. I wasn't sure if it was really his birthday, but he was laughing and shaking his head and had a "What have you done?" look on his face as we were going by.

 

The other attendant started talking about Christmas. He sang part of the Campfire Song Song twice before singing part of White Christmas (this was between trains). It literally went like this:

 

Op: "Let's gather 'round the campfire and sing our campfire song..."

Other Op: "Hey, we already sang that!" It's Christmas now!"

Op: "I'm...dreamin'...of a white...Christmas.."

 

And as others were getting off he would say something like "Enjoy your Christmas, 5 months early!"

 

That was one of the most fun evenings on The Bat. I'll be remembering that for a long time.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I remember going to Kings Island for the first time ever and riding Flying ACE Aerial Chase. There was a nice lady (I forgot her name) who was asking all of the kids the biggest ride they had ridden that day. She got to me and I responded, "The Beast". Silence. Then she says, "WOW! That's a pretty scary ride! Let's give her a round of applause!" And some of the kids and Ops clapped for me. It was awesome.

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I've noticed ops have started telling jokes while restraints are being checked and/or waiting for dispatch. An op on The Beast a few days ago said "What do you call it when you have your grandma on speed dial?"

"Instagram." Groans from the train ensued.

I also had an op on The Beast do a big spiel when getting off the ride saying a bunch of stuff about the ride and then said "And enjoy the rest of your day here at Cedar Fair Entertainment's Kings Island!" I did not expect him to be so elaborate.

Also, I never get tired of this on Flight of Fear: "Countdown with me! 5, (pushes button) 4, 3" LAUNCH. Makes me laugh every time.

Oh yeah, and The Bat op was very loud and enthusiastic on Wednesday. "Enjoy your ride on The Bat! The ride that goes upside down not once, not twice, but ZERO TIMES!"

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Spiels should be all safety related. Especially given dumb park guests like the one at CP regarding Raptor awhile ago. A little bit of fun here and there can maybe help improve the moods for some, and if anything the ride ops. It's a monotonous job for sure, so let them have a bit of a smile cracking a joke here or there. If you had to bend over and grab sweaty restraints all day I'm sure you'd get a tad underwhelmed too.

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Or they could be like Fury 325...

 

"In five seconds, you should be seated with your seat belt buckled."

 

*Exiting guests still haven't all stood up let alone left the train*

 

"Five"

"Buckle your seat belts!!!"

"Four"

"Buckle your seat belts!!!"

"Three"

"Buckle your seat belts!!!"

"Two"

"Buckle your seat belts!!!"

<...>

 

Really?  How is that doing any good?  You're not helping anyone.  You're not encouraging anyone.  Honestly, I don't think you're even looking at the train while you say this.

 

And closing the gates as guests wait on the platform between gates and train for the train to clear?  SMH.  They're definitely not even scanning the station floor before closing the gates.

 

It's not like actually paying attention to what the delay is (every single cycle) and encouraging guests to get off so the next guests can board would delay the train more.  It might actually make me less frustrated with you after a day of marathoning Fury 325.

 

</rant>

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And guests with gates slammed on them, who are then yelled at for pushing back in a dramatic fashion so hopefully the yelling ops would instead realize that they're being impatient?

 

If you don't let guests board the train, you have no reason to dispatch it.

 

If you have no reason to dispatch trains, you have no reason to be paid.

 

We're the guests, the ones with the money.  Don't forget that.

 

Ironically, an op over at Intimidator wearing a Fury 325 crew shirt did an exponentially better job of encouraging boarding/de-boarding guests to move quickly (but carefully) so everyone was ready to send the train.

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Guests distracted by silly spiels take longer to load and do so less safely.

Disney knows this.

Cedar Fair and Six Flags...

I don't recall a single spiel at Disney this summer. I do recall always being greeted with a smile and an employee telling me what needed to be done.

Also, Disney seems to do their FP and regular line merge before the stations. Which allows guests to fill in on all rides. And they were not afraid to send a few cars worth of guests into the turn stiles...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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And at Disney, there is apparently no need for, as was said here, bored teenagers to entertain themselves with a mike while checking sweaty restraints.

There's world class ride operations...then there's bored teens with mikes entertaining themselves (and perhaps a few of their age cohorts). It gets old. In oh so many ways.

I remember when safety was paramount, not entertaining oneself from boredom. Bored with the job? LEAVE. And let someone who puts safety first take your place. At Cedar Fair AND Six Flags.

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I liked the ride ops jokes at Wild Eagle yesterday like "Lets try something new with you guys on the train (was done after safety checks, 2nd train just hit the break run) If your happy and you know it stomp your feet!" After guest realizing this wasn't possible the station went dead silent then he laughed and dispatched the train.

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The ops at Drop Tower have been saying things slash miscounting down kind of like on Flight of Fear over the PA at the top of the tower recently. (Goodbye, 10,9,8,1, if your happy and you know it clap your hands (ride releases) etc.)

It's a new and more terrifying twist to the ride lol.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 6 months later...

While working at Vortex yesterday, there were a couple times when a train was leaving and the spieler said, "Everybody clap your hands!" (like in the Cha-Cha Slide)

It was very well received; all of the riders clapped and even my fellow crew and I clapped along with them! Definitely a highlight. :)

Also when I rode Flight of Fear on Easter Sunday, the op there used different spiels for each launch. On mine, he started counting down from 10 and we launched on 7. :lol:

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The ride op on MT said

"Don't tell your mama. Don't tell you Nana. This ride is crazy bananas! "

This guy was there when the park opened when I rode it and he was there my last ride of the night. He looked sweaty and tired but he kept it up all day. 

I love the idea of getting people to clap right before Drop Tower drops. It's a great distraction that gives the ride more of a thrill. That ride was designed to scare you and make you scream. 

Oh! Suggestion to any ride ops here. Try and get people to do the wave on a ride!

Edited by Saerenzea
SwiftKey acts like Apple's autocorrect.
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We said some interesting ones at Vortex yesterday. Note that these were done as the train either departed or arrived, so we weren't holding anybody up.

We still did the "Everybody clap your hands!" and I recall one particular time when the riders, the crew AND everyone waiting in the station were clapping! That was fun.

"If you're excited to ride Vortex, high five your neighbor!" Not everyone did that, but for those who did it was fun to watch and fun for them to do (especially since Vortex's restraints limit one's arm movement quite well). :P 

"I like blue and orange, but my favorite color is Clear." It took me a moment to get it, but once I did I couldn't stop thinking about it for the following fifteen minutes. Clever indeed...and memorable too!

One time the speiler hummed part of the Indiana Jones theme. I bet you know which ride that fits better, lol.

"You're rolling out of the station at 3 mph, soon to be 55 mph..." And of course we often said the familiar "six times, three different ways" spiel, as well as "Enjoy your ride on the 30-year-old Vortex," sometimes adding "Yes, 30. This ride is older than [insert fellow crew member name here]" which is true since Vortex is older than pretty much all of us on my crew. :lol: 

"On the count of 2, say Moo. One, two...moo!!!" I had never heard this one before, but I thought that was funny that half the train was mooing on the way out. :D 

"...Enjoy the rest of your day here at Kings Island, where there is only one king and that's Vortex." I wondered what the guests were thinking as I knew some would say another ride is "king." :) 

"Long time no see, Train 3! How was that ride?" Also one time Train #1 was called "Train Uno." Mixing another language in there, I see, made it a bit more interesting especially since most (if not all) understand that Uno is "one" in Spanish.

A full train was often greeted with "Welcome back, cool train!" as a full train is a cool train, after all.

Also, on Friday, one of my crew who spieled said "Welcome back, blue train!" to every arriving train. :P During last hour on Saturday, we spieled to an empty train (albeit inadvertently) at one point. The spieler would say "Those are all my friends" when an empty train would depart, and we would be wishing her "friends" a great ride.

And as always, we would often say "Enjoy your ride on Vortex - inversion heaven since 1987." Props to whoever came up with that; very well done.

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I was riding Drop Tower on Saturday and when we got to the top, one of the guys came on the mic and said "um, do you guys want, like, a countdown or something?" Then we dropped. Once we hit the brakes, that same guy started counting down slowly; it was great! 

Also, that was the first time I realized that the ride ops' mics could be heard from the top of the ride.

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