CF policies implemented at KI?

[Steveo3631]

Forgive an oldtime ride opeator but, can we start a thread to keep up with the changes in operations policies. I've heard that policies are already changing at KI. I've worked at Universal IOA and that park was run by many old time CF ride operations staff. I imagine things are run there much like CP. How is the no bags policy working at KI? Do they provide lockers at the rides? (It's been five years since I've been to the park) Are bags allowed in the lines or are they being stopped at the Greeters? These policies can only be good. Bags and loose articles have always been a safety issue, and the "no loose article" polices at IOA caused a lot of headaches for the staff, but reduced injuries significantly!

[The Interpreter]

I'd be interested in this as well.

Especially since CP procedures are not universal (if you will) across Cedar Fair. On some CF coasters, you must take all loose articles with you! If you can imagine that. Dorney Park comes to mind, but not on Steel Force, which now has storage areas on the platform...

[Steveo3631]

At IOA, any visable loose article had to be taken to a locker. Bags, even hidden, could not be taken on, or left on the platform. Glasses and cell phones had to be placed in a pocket (which may have changed since a pocket is less secure than a hand in my experience). We had very few lost items, all from pockets and very few instances where a guest was hit by a flying article. I can't imagine that loose articles should even be allowed on any coaster. The gentleman allegedly hit by a snow globe on space Mountain can verify that!

[jzarley]

Does CP still do "single gender" ride ops? (i.e., Magnum was a "girl ride", Raptor was a "guy ride")? If so, do all the CF parks do that?

...and, if so--I wonder if that will be implemented at the Paramount Parks?

[Steveo3631]

Not speaking from knowledge, but perhaps the gender specific crews at CP have to do with the dorm situation. Having people date on the same crew is a difficult situation even when you are not housing them on property. I would imagine that at KI, the staffing is so tight in the Spring and Fall that such a system would be impossible to maintain. You have to put the staff on the rides no matter what the gender to get everythihg operating for the guests.

[TheKlockster]

A friend of mine - who is a guy - works on Magnum with other guys and girls...

[WooferBearATL]

One of the craziesst things I've experienced is at Busch Gardens Africa that they stopped Kumba for about 15 minutes while they looked for some sun glasses this guy dropped.

I could not believe that!

[jzarley]

One of the craziesst things I've experienced is at Busch Gardens Africa that they stopped Kumba for about 15 minutes while they looked for some sun glasses this guy dropped.

I could not believe that!

Wow! Was that several years ago (late 90s, maybe)? Because the same thing happened to me! I was in line for Kumba and they shut down the ride to look for the sunglasses that a rider had dropped.

[Steveo3631]

One of the craziesst things I've experienced is at Busch Gardens Africa that they stopped Kumba for about 15 minutes while they looked for some sun glasses this guy dropped.

I could not believe that!

We had to do that at KI one time on King Cobra. The guest had lost a cigarette pack with a substantial amount of money claimed in it. We were significanly concerned at that time that a guest may be so insistant as to climb a fence into a lockout area that we did close the ride for about five minutes. (The article was not money, but money in the form of an illegal substance and security was called from under the loop. We were locked out with the appropriate permission from full time operations and security staff) We didn't do that often, but after the guest got hurt at PGA by climbing a lockout fence to retreive a hat, with some guests we'd rather err on the side of caution.

At Universal we had to shut down Dragons to retreive a fanny pack with insulin that the guest needed. Sunglasses, maybe not worth a ride shutdown, if it was sunglasses at all?

[jzarley]

Not speaking from knowledge, but perhaps the gender specific crews at CP have to do with the dorm situation. Having people date on the same crew is a difficult situation even when you are not housing them on property. I would imagine that at KI, the staffing is so tight in the Spring and Fall that such a system would be impossible to maintain. You have to put the staff on the rides no matter what the gender to get everythihg operating for the guests.

Yeah, I had always heard that it was done due to that whole boy/girl dating dynamic, and it was to keep the operators from getting distracted with personal issues. (Although, the funny part is that the guys I knew in college who worked at Cedar Point wouldn't have been distracted at all by the girls )

I haven't been to CP for a few seasons (have reservations at the end of August, though), but I seem to recall seeing some mixed-gender crews.

I agree with you about the KI staffing situation...I don't see how they could ever maintain single-gender ride crews there.

[Steveo3631]

Racer North for the girls, Racer South for the guys. No matter the gender, they better know how to check a lap restraint.

Doesn't CP have a policy to push everyone down the exit after the ride? That would benefit KI alot with guests waiting at the exits for friends and family, if anything for the safety factor.

[WooferBearATL]

One of the craziesst things I've experienced is at Busch Gardens Africa that they stopped Kumba for about 15 minutes while they looked for some sun glasses this guy dropped.

I could not believe that!

Wow! Was that several years ago (late 90s, maybe)? Because the same thing happened to me! I was in line for Kumba and they shut down the ride to look for the sunglasses that a rider had dropped.

No way JZ. It was a few years ago. I'll never forget it.

Now would that not be bizzare if it was the same incident?

[jzarley]

It makes sense that there are a lot of former ops people from CF at IOA...I was really impressed by IOA's ride ops. I spent a few days there again in May, and continue to be impressed by the quality at both IOA & USF.

It was my first time staying onsite at Universal (Royal Pacific), and found the whole experience to be wonderful. I will never stay anywhere else in Orlando now. I enjoyed staying at Universal more than onsite at WDW, mostly because everything is so much more compact and managable. (I found staying onsite at Universal Orlando similar to staying onsite at the Disneyland Resort...but enjoy IOA a lot more than DCA <g>) And may I say that "Universal Express" is the greatest thing ever invented!

[Steveo3631]

It makes sense that there are a lot of former ops people from CF at IOA...I was really impressed by IOA's ride ops.  I spent a few days there again in May, and continue to be impressed by the quality at both IOA & USF.

It was my first time staying onsite at Universal (Royal Pacific), and found the whole experience to be wonderful.  I will never stay anywhere else in Orlando now.  I enjoyed staying at Universal more than onsite at WDW, mostly because everything is so much more compact and managable.  (I found staying onsite at Universal Orlando similar to staying onsite at the Disneyland Resort...but enjoy IOA a lot more than DCA <g>)  And may I say that "Universal Express" is the greatest thing ever invented!

IOA and Universal do try very hard, but are losing, still shaking off the stigma of the cursed opening of the Studios and the bad press that followed. They've been talked of as a knock off park sponging up the excess of Disney. This the furthest from the truth. Their training and orientation (three days worth of orientation alone) is some of the best. As with KI, and unlike Disney, they do not train operations staff to controls within five days. At KI and IOA you must know the ride to run controls.

Universal Express no longer has tickets from machines, but the purchase of one Express ticket can greatly improve a visit, especially so for those with hotel cards!

[jzarley]

It's really weird to me when I tell people about how great Universal Orlando is and they have never heard of IOA! I actually had one person at work ask me if that was the "nightclub area at Disney World"!!

I had been to both parks several times before, but after staying on property Universal will always be the focus of my Orlando vacations. (I can always drive to a WDW park if I want <g>).

With Universal Express I rode both the Mummy (now my favorite coaster) and Spiderman in upwards of 10x each over the four days. In fact, in the morning on the way out to the airport I stopped in at IOA and rode Spiderman one last time for the road. My longest wait with Univeral Express was about 20 min, and that was for the first car on the Ice Dragon on a Saturday (and this was during the time Dueling Dragons was only open on Fri/Sat during its rehab...) Everything else was always nearly a walk-on!

[harvesterofyoursorrow]

Heck, at Mt. Olympus they didnt shut down the spinning coaster "Opa!" to get a pair of sunglasses, they just walked in WHILE it was operating...

[CoastersNSich]

Doesn't CP have a policy to push everyone down the exit after the ride?  That would benefit KI alot with guests waiting at the exits for friends and family, if anything for the safety factor.

Probably, but at least you hardly see anyone waiting in the exit ramps at CP. THAT is something that needs to change at KI! Can you say "safety hazard?" I knew you could.

Responding to an earlier question, most CP rides/coasters now have storage bins for loose articles in the stations, excluding Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster, which have separate load/unload platforms. Geauga Lake, similarly, has shelves.

[Flying Eagles 1972-2004]

Why don't they have a setup like Flight of Fear for MF and TTD, where the crew takes articles to a shelf located by the exit?

[Steveo3631]

Why don't they have a setup like Flight of Fear for MF and TTD, where the crew takes articles to a shelf located by the exit?

FOF has this system because of the separate load/unload area. It's a nice system unless you're checking the back load side with arms full of items, placing them in the bins, AND getting back in time to signal controls to launch.

[The Interpreter]

Does CP still do "single gender" ride ops? (i.e., Magnum was a "girl ride", Raptor was a "guy ride")? If so, do all the CF parks do that?

...and, if so--I wonder if that will be implemented at the Paramount Parks?

Due to the Equal Employment Opportunity laws and some actions associated therewith, Cedar Fair finally abandoned the single gender crews a few years back.

[WooferBearATL]

Does CP still do "single gender" ride ops? (i.e., Magnum was a "girl ride", Raptor was a "guy ride")?  If so, do all the CF parks do that?

...and, if so--I wonder if that will be implemented at the Paramount Parks?

Due to the Equal Employment Opportunity laws and some actions associated therewith, Cedar Fair finally abandoned the single gender crews a few years back.

That's unfortunate.

It was actually a really neat concept.

[TheKlockster]

Do you know what Vortex used to be? Someone told me it was a girls ride when I got hired for it.

[WooferBearATL]

Do you know what Vortex used to be? Someone told me it was a girls ride when I got hired for it.

KI has never had the single sex rides.

So know, they didn't think that you were a a girl.

[UncleHenry]

Why don't they have a setup like Flight of Fear for MF and TTD, where the crew takes articles to a shelf located by the exit?

FOF has this system because of the separate load/unload area. It's a nice system unless you're checking the back load side with arms full of items, placing them in the bins, AND getting back in time to signal controls to launch.

I see someone knows very well the pain that is FoF backside...

[Gordon Bombay]

Heck, at Mt. Olympus they didnt shut down the spinning coaster "Opa!" to get a pair of sunglasses, they just walked in WHILE it was operating...

different rides have different lock out areas, for example, at The Beast and employee may go to the bottom of the first drop and retreeive something as long as he/she is arm's length away from the track.

[Steveo3631]

Heck, at Mt. Olympus they didnt shut down the spinning coaster "Opa!" to get a pair of sunglasses, they just walked in WHILE it was operating...

different rides have different lock out areas, for example, at The Beast and employee may go to the bottom of the first drop and retreeive something as long as he/she is arm's length away from the track.

The best thing about a Beast track walk was that it took about 45 minutes. You soon learned that you always went against the direction of travel or else you find yourself climbing that huge hill along second lift.

[PKIVortex]

Why don't they have a setup like Flight of Fear for MF and TTD, where the crew takes articles to a shelf located by the exit?

FOF has this system because of the separate load/unload area. It's a nice system unless you're checking the back load side with arms full of items, placing them in the bins, AND getting back in time to signal controls to launch.

I see someone knows very well the pain that is FoF backside...

Oh yeah I do too. Trying to check OTSR (2000) or the Lap Bars with seat belts (2001). Was a pain in the butt with trying to carry stuffed animals, basketballs etc. I remember when FoF first opend they had little tubs the ops put stuff in, then took it to the pickup area.

[harvesterofyoursorrow]

Heck, at Mt. Olympus they didnt shut down the spinning coaster "Opa!" to get a pair of sunglasses, they just walked in WHILE it was operating...

different rides have different lock out areas, for example, at The Beast and employee may go to the bottom of the first drop and retreeive something as long as he/she is arm's length away from the track.

Well, there wasnt much of a lockout area as the ride op was about a few feet from the lowest point in the ride which is a bottom of a hill that the spine of the track touches the bottom of the "grid" of supports on the floor.

[Shaggy]

Wow! I am so glad to hear others had the horrible experience of working the backload of FOF and hated it as much as I.

I was on OLFOF crew part-time in 98, and I have to tell you, it SUCKED.

Having to deal with people's personal items.

Monitoring kids that wandered out of the kiddie corral

Monitoring guests that consistantly tried to "sneak " into the loading platform.

Monitoring guests that were hell bent on watching the train lauch and would not remain behind the yellow line.

Dealing with wheelchair folks that lined up in whords.

Having to leave the backside station unattended to run wheelchairs to the unload side and having to literally swim upstream to get there.

And having to "Up Bar" every train because some idiot would get his arm stuck in the air between the side of the train and the OSTR.

Finally, those working FOF today have no idea how it felt to do all of this in a "military" uniform complete with Beret. I had a red line across my forhead for months because of that thing ;-)

It was awful!

Shaggy

[Steveo3631]

Wow! I am so glad to hear others had the horrible experience of working the backload of FOF and hated it as much as I.

I was on OLFOF crew part-time in 98, and I have to tell you, it SUCKED.

Having to deal with people's personal items.

Monitoring kids that wandered out of the kiddie corral

Monitoring guests that consistantly tried to "sneak " into the loading platform.

Monitoring guests that were hell bent on watching the train lauch and would not remain behind the yellow line.

Dealing with wheelchair folks that lined up in whords.

Having to leave the backside station unattended to run wheelchairs to the unload side and having to literally swim upstream to get there.

And having to "Up Bar" every train because some idiot would get his arm stuck in the air between the side of the train and the OSTR.

Finally, those working FOF today have no idea how it felt to do all of this in a "military" uniform complete with Beret. I had a red line across my forhead for months because of that thing ;-)

It was awful!

Shaggy

WHAT, No Beret!!!!!! Miltary uniform, you mean Boy Scout. I think I only had to wear it once!

By the way, remember the guests who were concerned which of the 52,000 sipper cups was theirs.