For all you PKI employees, which area and ride at PKI have you

found the best working at.

What is your favorite ride to operate?

Edited January 1, 197056 yr by PKI Punk

I like working the roller coasters, but I think that's obvious from my name. It's actually a little easier than you might think - you're mostly there in case something goes wrong.

Most of the people here are from the Action Zone area of the park (with SOB, Delirium, Face/Off, just to name a few). We all like it there because we have a close-knit community if you will, we all get along well and do stuff together.

1. Drop Zone

2. Congo Falls

3. Delirium

4. Xtreme Skyflyer

5. Top Gun

I gotta say the best to operate is Beast. The guests get excited about the ride, and especially the night rides. I've never gotten more excitment out of guests at any other ride!

Yeah Beast is fun to work at. Back when I worked there ( I don't know about now) we would have power hour eevry night where we would get the guest very excited and it was GREAT times. I do miss it alot. But I will say I like operating Delirium better. Its not so much the ride that makes things fun, its the crew and the area you are in thats makes whatever ride you call the best to operate, the best to operate! Coasters do get slightly boring to operate after a few hours.

I gotta say the best to operate is Beast. The guests get excited about the ride, and especially the night rides. I've never gotten more excitment out of guests at any other ride!

Oh, come on! You worked the FoF crew! There can't be anything more thrilling than launching people 0-60 with the touch of a button!

Id rather say 3, 2, 1, Fly then do that.

Or work Congo on a busy day and I'm talking double dispatch busy day. Driving Congo on a busy dayequals no sitting down for you. Working the floor isn't pretty either. Congo be stressful? It's possible folks.

Edited January 1, 197056 yr by AZ Kinda Guy

I gotta say the best to operate is Beast. The guests get excited about the ride, and especially the night rides. I've never gotten more excitment out of guests at any other ride!

Oh, come on! You worked the FoF crew! There can't be anything more thrilling than launching people 0-60 with the touch of a button!

Yeah, it was fun and all, but the guests would never get into it nearly as much as they do at Beast. When Beast comes back and the ride op goes "Welcome back Beast riders, how was your ride!" People would clap at the least. I've tried doing that at FoF, and it was silent. I think people are so disoriented to figure out what just happened.

My favorite ride to work has to be TRTR. There is never a dull moment, from the guests to your crew to the ride, never a dull moment.

Runners up:

2)Train

3)Beast

Congo be stressful? It's possible folks.

I think Congo is one of the most stressful to work.

I'll have to go with TRTR on my favorite.

My favorite ride to work has to be TRTR. There is never a dull moment, from the guests to your crew to the ride, never a dull moment.

Runners up:

2)Train

3)Beast

Tom, you always look like you're haveing a good time when I see you up at PKI .

Slightly off topic as it deals with Coney instead of PKI, but the best ride to operate at Coney would probably be the Ferris Wheel, which is also one of the harder ride to run. The ride is hard to run simply because it is extremely sensitive to weight, and careful attention must be paid to keep it balanced, or it will start to go backwards, smoke or blow a fuse. However, once the ride is in motion you are able to sit down for a couple minutes. Another plus about the Ferris wheel is that there are always two operators at that ride, and the time really flies there because the show are next door, and on busy days when we are straight loading, it can take up to ten minutes to get a new set of riders on.

I would imagine any of the rides at PKI that are inside in the AC are good rides to operate, especially when the summer sun heats up the heat index to near 100 or above,

Edited January 1, 197056 yr by CoasterRZ

I think people are so disoriented and still trying to figure out what just happened.

That should tell you right there what the best ride is! Hope to see ya sometime at the park this year!

-Bignathan

No matter how many times I ride FoF, I still walk off of it a little dizzy. Especially since the lapbars were added and they turned off the midcourse brake. The second half of the ride the train is flying!

Tom, you always look like you're haveing a good time when I see you up at PKI .

Hey, every ride has its downpoints. But if you concentrate on what is good about the ride, then you will really have fun. I have mastered this concept.

If I didnt have fun, I wouldnt come back. Easy as that. Or I switch crews.

Oh, and then you havent seen me working Biplanes or Handcars in HB.

Best flat ride: Train

Best Coaster: Beast

Best Huss Ride: TRTR

Go Rivertown

derbeast, you got me thinking. Is the train considered a flat ride? Or is it a transportation ride? I guess it is kind of both, depending if you get off at BB or stay on for the round trip. I would imagine that operating the train would be relatively easy, since you don`t have any buttons to push (other than for the loud speaker systems),

Well, when I worked at PKI I was trained/worked on...

Eiffel Tower

King Cobra

Adventure Express

Viking Fury

Racer

Vortex

Flight of Fear

Action Theatre

Beast

Kenton's Cove Keelboat Canal

Train

King's Mill Log Flume

Beastie

Scooby's Ghoster Coaster

Phantom Theatre

White Water Canyon

Hand Carts

Boo Boo's Baggage Claim

etc, etc, etc.

I was a permanent crew member of FOF in 98 and Beast in 99. But I was fortunate enough to get transferred around as needed. The best times I had were while working Kings Mill Log Flume and White Water Canyon.

IMO the best job at PKI, is tower 3 on WWC. It allows you to vent your frustrations ;-) But the downside to WWC is walking the turntable in the sun.

Shaggy

Train is considered to be, IMHO, a transportation ride. the majority of people who take the train are people who are getting off at BB.

Yes, train is a good ride to work on if you want a relaxing atmosphere. The only time it really gets stressful is during the peak BB operating season. But overall, the ride is fun to work, especially if you are back conductor or front conductor. It is the only ride in the entire park that you get to ride while working.

O and Shaggy, thanks for reminding me about Tower 3. I was sent there a couple times, and its a blast:)

Are PKI employees still allowed/encouraged to take an occasional test ride when an empty seat is available on the coaster? I remember reading that at one time. True, riding the train would be a plus of being a conductor. Much like working the slide at Coney enables you to ride it to go down. At Coney we were not allowed ride the rides in uniform (except when going down the slide, because that is the only way to get down when there is a line, and when a bumper boat stalled in the middle of the boxed off area of lake.)

Its required that someone test ride most of the rides at some point throughout the day. We can still "test ride" as much as we want as long as theres enough people there. Some rides cant even open unless someone test rides in the morning (DOT, Skyflyer, Slingshot etc)

Train is a RIDE, not a transportation ride. You'd be surprised how many people ride round trip and don't get off at the waterpark. Some people ride it to relax after riding Beast and TRTR, or parents who can't handle the more intense rides at the park. So yes train is a ride

Edited January 1, 197056 yr by derbeast

Actually, most of the times I ride the train it is a round trip to relax. I haven`t been to Water Works in a couple seasons so I have had no need to utilizes the train to get back to WW. Especially since they built the entrance for pass holders from the parking lot. That has been one of the smartest things they did to the water park before this current renovation and transformation into BB. It was a major pain to walk all the way through HB and Nick and past the picnic groves with all the towels, sunscreen and change of clothes that are necessary with a trip to WW/BB. I will be returning to the water park this season for sure with the additions they are making. BB will be awesome, and I as many other probably are, will be getting a sneak peak on Friday.

This past season, during Fear Fest, they had themed the train the best it had been since they removed the old animatronic figurines. All the halloween stuff they added made for a very entertaining ride and unique photo ops of the engine. Most people got off at the picnic groves to continue with the Halloween festivities under one of the shelters. I wouldn`t necessarily call the train a flat ride though. To me a flat ride is more like a spinning whirl-n-hurl type ride, although I do consider Drop Zone a ride. I guess I consider it more of a transportation ride since it has two stations.

My most memorable train ride is when I rode it when a severe thunderstorm was passing overhead. Boy was there a lot of really close lightning. Everyone on the train was scrunched as close to the center of the car as they could get because the rain was raining sideways. By the time we returned to the Riv ertown station it looked like we had just riden White Water Canyon two times in a row. Boy, did I get way off topic. Sorry. Out of the two kiddie areas, what is the best ride to operate?

Edited January 1, 197056 yr by CoasterRZ

From operator perspective, rides are usually only divided into coasters and flatrides, even though a flat ride might not even be flat (i.e. Drop Zone).

HB land isn't my home area, by I like working Taxi Jam and Quickdraw's Railway.

Edited January 1, 197056 yr by HelixSpiral

I see. Very interesting. Why do you like working those two?

Who and what two?

HelixSpiral, and the rides were Taxi Jam and Quickdraw`s Railway.

Technically the Train, just like a monorail, or the elevators on the Eifel Tower... are transportation rides. They all move people mostly along a flat path or verticle line. Train has two places to get on and off at, as with the elevators. Which by definition is made to transport people from one destination to another. Just because you don't get off and instead come back to the begining doesn't make a difference.

If Train is a transportation ride, then why is it open when the waterpark is closed, ie pre/post season, before 11:00 AM and after 8:00PM on days that the waterpark is open? At these times the train doesn't make any stops.

Edited January 1, 197056 yr by derbeast