Best Ride Crews 2013

[thedevariouseffect]

There is one guy on beast that was there for KIC's Birthday Bash for our final ERT ride that was EXCELLENT on the mic...One of the best spiels ever in the park and of the season...however one spiel over the whole season didn't save the ride in my listing...

I only rode Invertigo once this season, so I couldn't really include them with my poll tehe

[Captain Nemo]

What's with all the hate towards Diamondback's crew? Sure they had their off moments, but I wouldn't put them anywhere near worst.

If its just because of the stacking, well...a majority of coasters have stacking issues at some point.

As for WindSeeker's crew, I know most of them and a lot of them hate the ride, basing it off of a lot of the GP's dislike of the ride plus the incidents the others have gone through, overseeing the fact that ours has been one of the more reliable ones.

I understand what it is like to work at a park in 100* weather, occasional rude guests, and guest relating; Honestly, it is not that difficult. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I know how DB should be run and it was hard for me to not pick up the mic and say, "OK, this is how you do it"!

As for WindSeekers crew, the general public does not give a hoot if the crew hates the ride, they just want to be in and out and enjoy their time in the park.

basing it off of a lot of the GP's dislike of the ride plus the incidents the others have gone through

People hated Son of Beast, and it had the best darn crew you could ask for.

"It's red, it's mean, it will make you scream. It's the Diamondback"

-Nemo

[thedevariouseffect]

^This +1

Now I will say, WindSeeker has problems again as mentioned above, why their operations are made to be this way unlike other ones in the chain (see CP's crew, they do a great job, it may not be an awesome ride, but they do get the job done quite well)...One in controls, one at entrance, one at turnstyle to assign seats, platform is three or two I believe, it works. I still don't understand why controls is checking restraints when it should be his job to watch the ride area and the ride itself to make sure it's in order. This going back and forth nonsense to release restraints and lock, ect. is bull.

[XjoshhyX]

The best 3 ride crews that I experienced this summer were as follows:

1. Gemini (CP) - We went on the birthday of the ride opening and the crew was active and fun the entire time!

2. Gatekeeper (CP) - Always fun people working this ride. We saw about 3 different combinations of people for the day and they were all nice and pleasant.

3. Diamondback (KI) - Went during a power hour, and the pace that the employees were going was awesome while still being super enthusiastic and interactive.

[thedevariouseffect]

Gemini is always one of the best...G$...wonder if anyone here is from CP & gets that reference

Again for DB...there shouldn't be a "power hour" that should be consistent...also I hate power hours just for the sake of safety...the ride should move at interval ALWAYS

[YoungStud]

So the crew can move fast for a power hour. They always speed up at closing time as well. I hope its not laziness that affects their speed the rest of the time.

[KI-ORIG-EMP]

I have a saying that "Hurried work, is worried work." Do we expect ride operators to rush from rider to rider as fast as they can to do their safety checks just so they can dispatch that car two minutes quicker? Do we want these workers to pretend they are pit crew workers at NASCAR and Indy car races and get the race car out on the track as fast as they can? I prefer they do their job in a very safe manner and not rush like their lives depend on it or in this case, dispatch that car two minutes quicker. Do we also look at other workers at the park and expect them to work at a very fast pace? Do we expect that sweeper to walk very fast and hurry and sweep up that piece of paper lying on the ground and rush to that next piece of trash? These workers will get themselves burned out very fast if they are expected to have someone crack the whip and have them work at neck break pace, just to have that ride dispatch a couple of minutes faster while the average rider do not care if it is dispatched a couple of minutes faster. If you expected workers to work at this fast pace on jobs outside of the park, these employers will have a large turnover of employees and morale would dropped significantly. This fast pace that we expect ride operators to work reminds me of the turtle and the hare. The hare raced off at a fast, neck breaking speed while the turtle took to a constant, slower pace. The hare burned himself out and the turtle's constant pace allowed him to win the race.

[thedevariouseffect]

Hate to say, but that nascar analogy is a poor example..they're trained to be perfect at those speeds for the sake of minimizing downtime to stay on the track safely...wow sounds familiar

Operating a ride near theoretical capacity especially on this ride isn't that hard...but the fact they have trouble doing even this is the problem

[YoungStud]

I don't feel the nascar example either. The db crew moves slow with no excitement. What brings db crew's deficiency out is the fact of the constant stacking. Riding the other b&m hypers it is evident its a crew thing.

Ki orig, you must have never been to cp.

[thedevariouseffect]

Seriously...I'd love to take me and a couple CP crew friends and work the ride for a day...show the kids how it's done

Also early in the season I learned from the lady at entrance that they have a crew of about 40 people...makes no sense IMO...the crew needs 7 people at minimum to operate (entrance, turnstile, two loads, two unloads, one controls), ideal 9 (one more at load/unload), factor in breaks with full ideal (say three for breaks), that's 12, factor in shifts, (maybe 3 more), thats still 15...double it to allow for shifts, days off, swings, ect...still makes no sense

[The Interpreter]

Kings Island, not being a destination/resort park like Cedar Point, experiences far greater turnover. Also, many of the ride ops do not work for the entire season.

[Diamondbacker27]

Mantis Crew didn't even check my Step-Moms and Sister restraint. My sisters was fine. But the only thing keeping my step mom from flying is the seat belt.

[fanofFirehawk]

I doubt that, your Step-Mom probably just didn't notice, and I even more so doubt that then the restraints failed resulting in a near death experience.

[thedevariouseffect]

Especially considering all restraints are locked by the same mechanism, and each restraint has a redundant hydraulic, ratchet mechanism, with the seatbelt as a last form of protection and to make sure riders are within size limits of the restraint.

So if her restraint failed, so did everyone else in that row, which again, highly doubtful...

[kblanken]

Quickest ride crews I've ever seen are running Phoenix at Knoebels.

No seatbelts, no loading gates, and the pay-per-ride incentive of making more money based on how quick you can move the trains. (They were still maintaining safety and a friendly attitude, too.)

My vote goes to Zephyr for most fun interaction.

[YoungStud]

Seriously...I'd love to take me and a couple CP crew friends and work the ride for a day...show the kids how it's done

Also early in the season I learned from the lady at entrance that they have a crew of about 40 people...makes no sense IMO...the crew needs 7 people at minimum to operate (entrance, turnstile, two loads, two unloads, one controls), ideal 9 (one more at load/unload), factor in breaks with full ideal (say three for breaks), that's 12, factor in shifts, (maybe 3 more), thats still 15...double it to allow for shifts, days off, swings, ect...still makes no sense

I will work the turnstile and make sure there is enough people in the station to guarantee full trains. Instead of rows going out empty.

[fanofFirehawk]

^That is the number one most annoying thing, that doesn't happen at Cedar Point or Orlando parks.

[Ride On_17]

^I've actually seen it happen at CP this past year (Gatekeeper). Not always, but occasionally the crew would barely let anyone into the station, and some rows would be empty. Due to wanting to reach capacity, by the time the crew realized there was an empty row there wouldn't be enough time to let people in and check them, so the train was dispatched without full capacity.

[thedevariouseffect]

They also don't want the station spammed because if they have a no go for the restraint, they try to get them in the red belt seats next ride cycle. Also, that ride with that high of a capacity, it doesn't matter crowded or not, it destroys the line. When it opened after a rain and had a 10 min wait lined up right at open, they destroyed it in 5 and were dispatching empty rows Sunday

[Ride On_17]

Went to CP Saturday, and I've got to say kudos to the Dragster crew. They were by far the best crew and were just awesome. They were nice, funny, and had energy and were telling jokes even right at midnight.

It was funny, since on our last ride of the night the girl at the unload station said that all the riders had to manually unlock their lapbars. She said to look at the side of the train and press the flashing orange/yellow button. What made it even more funny was that lots of people actually started to look over the side of the train to find the button. Then she said she was just messing with us and the ride ops and people on the ride alike were cracking up.