The Most Ridiculous Thing a Ride Operator has told you.

[shark6495]

Please don't take this the wrong way, but it seems like you get mad way too easily. It's important to have standards but it's just as important to know when to chill.

Thanks your inspirational message on these boards hanged my life and were not totally calling me out or anything. I really appreciate it. I'm glad you did it this way versus doing it in private. . I will chill. I won't expect top notch service or Disney level interactions. Namaste....


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[Voicetek]

Been reading through the back and forth "debate" and I'm going to throw my two cents in just for the heck of it.

My opinion? There's nothing wrong with joking around of having fun, however, you can still maintain some level of professionalism while doing so.  I don't think the problem is the joking around, but the deliberate spewing of "fake" or incorrect facts/stats.  I'd like to think that the average park-goer would know better, but my faith in the general public isn't that strong.  For those visiting who are not enthusiast (which I would think would be a pretty big number), they might actually believe the fake facts being given.  I know we all find it funny when we hear someone in the park make a claim about a ride or attraction that isn't true - just read through the "Guests say the darndest things" thread and you'll see any examples of it.  However, I'd hate to think some of that incorrect knowledge stemmed from the park employees themselves.

Let me tell you a little story.  Back in 2004 I was visiting Disney World with some friends.  One day, while visiting Hollywood Studios, we decided to take the tour of the animation facility.  For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge animation fan and have been studying animation and its history since I was 5 or 6 years old - a good 30 years now!  I also wanted to be an animator for Disney, so I pretty much knew everything there was to know about Disney animation.  Well, while on the tour, the tour guide began to spew one incorrect fact after another.  He was also answering guests questions with incorrect information.  As an animation enthusiast, this irritated me to no end!  I just kept saying to myself, "What is he saying?"  The thing that bugged me the most is that the other guests didn't know any better - they accepted what he was saying as the gospel truth.  I don't know if this guide just didn't know any better, or if he was just doing it to be funny.  Either way, it appeared he was uneducated and unqualified to be acting as "Animation Tour Guide."  I was so irritated, that I literally wanted to stand up and correct him.  However, I was just another guest and who would take my word over the official employee with the badge? See the problem here?

So yeah, I can totally see where Shark is coming from.  For enthusiasts who are passionate about a topic, hearing wrong information given in any form - whether jokingly or not - when it's coming from a so-called "professional," can be irritating.  Not because we don't want to have any fun, but because we know just how ignorant the general public is and we know that they'll walk away with these incorrect facts and keep spreading them around.  Why would they want to do this?  You can still have fun and joke around without spreading false info.  I know Disney's Jungle Cruise was mentioned in this thread, but I don't know of anytime the captain of the Jungle Cruise gives false info.  It's not like they're floating around saying things like "Because of  the success of the movie, Splash Mountain will now be referred to as 'Zootopia Flume' " or some other ridiculous piece of info.  It just doesn't make sense.  Yes, have a spiel, joke around, have fun, but leave the fake facts out of it - they're unnecessary.  Come up with something else original and unique and your spiel will benefit greatly from it, and so will the guests listening.

And that's all I have to say about that.

[shark6495]

Thanks VT. You said it better than I could. However Zootopia Flume.... that's an idea...


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[Joshua]

I understand where you are coming from. There are threads where I put my opinion out there and there is always someone who comes in with an "Oh stop complaining! KI is perfect!" attitude. It's not worth leaving over nor taking personally. 

[SonofBaconator]

Just stating facts but a lot of park employees who say these things are seasonal workers paid slightly above minimum wage. They aren't specifically trained to be professional. There is a line where employees know that they shouldn't say certain things like obscenities, slang, and basically words any respectable employee would refrain to say around people. However, that doesn't mean they have to maintain a highly censored tone either. If people want to get upset, don't get upset with the employees, get upset with the people who trained them. I understand where @Voicetek is coming from and it does get really annoying, but that tour guide should have had better training or not have been allowed to give tours. I worked at a job where an innocent employee jot fired on the spot because of a common error that could have been avoided if he was just trained better. Anyone could have made the same mistake he did but he was the first, got the boot, and we all were retrained so we wouldn't suffer the same fate. A lot of the ride ops and associates are teens and young adults who love the park and share the same excitement that the GP does. It's not their job to know the ins and outs of professionalism- its their managers'. If it was really that big of an issue with the park, the managers would tell the ops and associates to refrain from talking about certain subjects they don't want discussed. PR managers display a great amount of professionalism because that's their job. As a communication major in college I read about professionalism a lot and have to do research and data analysis on the ins and outs of all types of communication. I believe there can be a balance but I think people need to calm down a bit and let the managers train their employees as they see fit. 

[shark6495]

But isn't that the problem? Management isn't training for the professionalism? In years past everything from employees standing around to making up facts.... the blame falls completely on who lets it happen....

Also once you learn the ins and outs of differing communication intents and theories you'll see the world in a whole new light. This place for example is just an echo chamber reaffirming beliefs without challenging them (to a point)


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[King Ding Dong]

Oh stop complaining! KI is perfect!

On on a more serious note anyone that has a teenager knows they are trainable, but frequently it takes a long time span for it to really sink in.  1 day or even a whole week of training isn't enough and despite all this they are still going to mess up every now and then.  Sure some mature a lot faster than most but they are really the exception.   KI can't really function without them so there we are.

 

[KatieF]

This was very interesting to read... personally, I think the Son of Beast line is completely professional. It's a reference to a former ride, and it's not something that the park doesn't talk about. If another guest doesn't get the joke, that's not that employees fault. I absolutely want to see ride ops' personalities some when I ride. When I've  been standing in line and hearing them say the same script over and over again, I begin to feel sorry for them because I know it's got to be very monotonous. I know it's incredibly monotonous to hear "did you enjoy your ride? Have a good rest of the day at Kings Island". 

Wanna know what I did think was unprofessional? Hearing several ride ops complain that they've been working for five hours. I hate to say that I don't care, but I don't. Or the ones who look so miserable and tired of checking restraints. So yes, please joke, whistle, sing, dance. Please.

[IndyGuy4KI]

I can see being upset about a tour guide giving wrong info. That is their job, to inform you of factual info. 

As far as KI ride ops saying the wrong things. This past Saturday I heard a ride op say,  "Thanks for visiting Canada's Wonderland."  I laughed out loud and others did too. Now a few had puzzled looks on their faces and others were just plain not paying attention. When I scanned the people in the station, I did not see anyone visibly upset that they did not say Kings Island. I personally don't think it is unprofessional for ride ops to obviously be joking about another ride (or past rides) or other CF parks. Like Katie stated, I am sure they are tired of saying the same thing over again. 

[Joshua]

I think it depends on the context. Some jokes have different audiences and it sounds to me like the KI examples are jokes for enthusiasts, not ignorance. However, the tour guide example would bother me since film is my number one hobbit/life goal/are of expertise. I wouldn't expect the tour to be dry and over-serious like Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (ooooh yea!), but a studio tour is definitely supposed to be an educational experience 

[Creed Bratton]

Everyone has a different definition of professional. 

If we're saying the park needs to be more professional, they should not allow associates to wear shorts, polos, tennis shoes, etc. They should look their part right? 

[KatieF]

1 hour ago, chugh43 said:

Everyone has a different definition of professional. 

If we're saying the park needs to be more professional, they should not allow associates to wear shorts, polos, tennis shoes, etc. They should look their part right? 

If we're going to go by Disney standards, themed uniforms could be pretty cool actually. I think they'd definitely hate it but could probably add to the themes of the lands. (But I'm seriously completely okay with their clothing!)

[Magenta Lizard]

^it very much used to be a thing at KI and the employees don't appear unhappy about it in the yearbooks I have. I think it could make a big difference to bring back different costuming in different themed areas, but it would make it more difficult to shuffle employees to different areas. 

[SonofBaconator]

Yes if you recall, train conductors actually wore conductor attire, King Cobra associates wore Safari type clothes and so on.

[YOULLBEBACK]

I'd rather here something quick and witty than the "HOW WAS YOUR RIDE?  AWESOME." over and over and over and over.  As someone whose primary goal is to ride as many rides as I can, and someone who respects the kids working there, it hurts to hear a kids ask that when you can tell he or she is just so dang tired of saying that. 

[KatieF]

17 hours ago, SonofBaconator said:

Yes if you recall, train conductors actually wore conductor attire, King Cobra associates wore Safari type clothes and so on.

I think I saw someone on the train still in a costume when I was in line for MT. He was wearing overalls?

[Oldiesmann]

The engineers wear typical train engineer outfits - overalls and matching caps.

[KatieF]

14 minutes ago, Oldiesmann said:

The engineers wear typical train engineer outfits - overalls and matching caps.

Sounds silly but I wasn't expecting to see him walking around the track by MT and it spooked me. The theming had me anxious!

[TheRickster]

On 4/28/2017 at 1:13 AM, KatieF said:

Sounds silly but I wasn't expecting to see him walking around the track by MT and it spooked me. The theming had me anxious!

They go back and fourth through there typically when leaving for lunch. The train engineers are actually also the mechanics so while you see the ones operating the train, others are also in the train shed working on things.  Walking along those tracks is the quickest way to get to the break rooms and to the front station if they need to.

 

A lot of people don't realize it, but those guys are almost all retired engineers who just really like trains and work there to stay busy in retirement.

[KatieF]

On 6/6/2017 at 11:05 AM, TheRickster said:

They go back and fourth through there typically when leaving for lunch. The train engineers are actually also the mechanics so while you see the ones operating the train, others are also in the train shed working on things.  Walking along those tracks is the quickest way to get to the break rooms and to the front station if they need to.

 

A lot of people don't realize it, but those guys are almost all retired engineers who just really like trains and work there to stay busy in retirement.

Are the break rooms and things near Rivertown? I think it'd be fun to take a backstage tour of KI because they're really good at hiding some of that stuff. Except for leftover Haunt decorations. They don't hide that well.

[TheRickster]

On 6/9/2017 at 0:42 AM, KatieF said:

Are the break rooms and things near Rivertown? I think it'd be fun to take a backstage tour of KI because they're really good at hiding some of that stuff. Except for leftover Haunt decorations. They don't hide that well. It's labeled as cornerstone cafe.

They are actually the same building as Chick-Fil-A. The front half is chick fil a, then the back half that's hidden is the employee breakroom and cafeteria. You can easily see it on google maps.

[Stoan]

For the longest time the employee cafeteria was the only place you could find hot sauce. It was fun having to sneak all the way back there just to get some sweet spicy pepper sauce.

 

This was like 15 years ago.

[TheRickster]

On 7/6/2017 at 7:33 AM, Stoan said:

For the longest time the employee cafeteria was the only place you could find hot sauce. It was fun having to sneak all the way back there just to get some sweet spicy pepper sauce.

 

This was like 15 years ago.

Couldn't have got some from skyline? I'm also at a loss as to what sweet spicy pepper sauce you're talking about lol

[Creed Bratton]

On Sunday a ride operator at Adventure Express saw @pianoman's shirt and made conversation with our group. Before we boarded, the gal confidentially told us, she couldn't wait for the new Giga to come in next. 

[LondonFreak]

On 6/9/2017 at 2:55 AM, TheRickster said:

They are actually the same building as Chick-Fil-A. The front half is chick fil a, then the back half that's hidden is the employee breakroom and cafeteria. You can easily see it on google maps.

Yes, that is where it is at. Actually, it is directly behind the patio area with the tables between Chik-Fil-A and the International Showplace Theater. The beige gate/fence in the patio area is the entrance to the employee cafeteria. It is super obvious because there are lots of employees that are constantly heading into the gated area or leaving that gated area. I did not know or pay any attention to it until I at the park in 2010 and 2011. Also, a lot of the larger food locations have a small break room/office area in the back as well, but these normally have a desk or a table as a makeshift desk.