I posted earlier about my summer experience working at an amusement park and operating a roller coaster which can be found here: What exactly do ride operators at theme parks do? - Factual Questions - Straight Dope Message Board
So come on! If you have a question that wasn’t answered ask away!
How awesome are you to have held that job?
Seriously though, what was the most boss roller coaster you manned? (Didn’t read the other thread, sorry if you’ve already talked about this.)
Also, when working at the theme park, what perks/freebies did you get, if any?
Did you have “groupies”?
What was the park? If you’re not comfortable giving that information out, can you at least tell us what state?
Woohoo – love The Racer!
So, whenever you saw any ACErs board, did you ever “accidentally” overshoot the station, thereby giving a bonus ride?
If so, nice job!
Have you ever seen Final Destination 3, the one with the roller coaster crash?
How often did you have to deal with people trying to get around the safety mechanisms? Ever had drunk people cause trouble?
Were you working with carnies? How did you find that experience?
Find any good ground score?
What were you most often asked for?
I love S.D. !
I have no question for the o.p. but its brilliant that we have so much diversity of experience in our intelligent (always ) posters.
How hard was it to tell someone that they couldn’t ride the coaster due to their girth? How hard would you try to squeeze them into the harness?
Do you agree that Cedar Point is a million times better than Kings Island?
I used to work at Cedar Point as a Games Hostess. (I am the awesomest midway heckler you ever were heckled by. ;))
I dunno about the OP, but I agree that CP is a million times better than KI. In fact, I live in Florida, about 3.5 hours away from Disney. Just last month, I flew 1,200 miles to Ohio for the sole express purpose of going to Cedar Point. Yes, the park is *that *much better than any of the Disney parks, I’d rather travel 1,000 miles instead of a couple hundred.
And I still think CP is one of the best amusement parks in the country. That said, The Racer is a cool coaster and I always enjoyed that one and The Beast. But the rest of KI could suck it, AFAIC.
I’m gonna let you finish, but Great America is the greatest amusement park of all time - of all time!!!
When I got hired they let me chose what ride I wanted work on and of course, I choose Racer. But you can work at all the other rides if you choose to pick-up shifts at said ride. It just sucks getting re-trained
at all the locations.
My favorite place to be sent was Diamondback, it’s a huge 230 foot tall steel Hyper Coaster that goes over 80mph. The ride was built in 2009 so it’s fairly
new. The best thing about it was how automated everything is, checking seatbelts is as simple as pulling up on the handel.
It’s also great that guests are super into the ride and what you’re saying, you have a ton of fun.
http://www.coasterimage.com/pictures/albums/kings-island-pictures/roller-coaster-pictures/diamondback-pictures/diamondback-34.jpg
The only thing Kings Island offers (and other Cedar Fair parks) is a free “Platnium Pass” where I can visit all of the companies
chain of parks for free, it might not seem like much but it is a great perk. Now we do get discounts at all the parks resturants and stores
which is pretty nice too.
I worked at Kings Island near Cincinnati, Ohio. Great place.
Of course we had gropies, you do mean the guests right? You see a billion type of people every day. Some are there to have fun and enjoy the experiance while others seem to be there to only make a workers life a living hell. Trust me, I have my stories.
Hahaha, It would be halarious seeing the look on their faces! I have never seen it happen but there is protocall to follow if something like that did. You get taughet all of this when they start training you to be a contorl operator.
ACErs are useually the BEST people to work with, it’s so easy and their fun to have a conversation with. We have this group every year called “Coasting For Kids” where a group of people (useually ACErs) raises money for charity and rides the Racer
ALL day from 8am to around 5pm. We reserve one side to them the entire day and it is simply the best day to work byfar, I think the highest person got over 155 plus rides in a row.
Not many people mess with their restraint systems, I’ve only had one person ever try to get out and lets just say he will never see the inside of the park again.
Drinking is allowed inside the park but not in any of the ride areas, it’s almost impossible to enforce. But for those you know who are just smashed, you shouldn’t let them ride.
I’ve only had to kick off one person for that and he was actually kind of polite about it. There have been some fights but nothing to really remember.
Its mostly awkward…I mean The Racer is a very tight fit so most people understand. In order for a person to ride their lap bar needs to go down atleast two audible clicks, and it can be a tight squeeze.
We have tried so hard getting people into those tight seats that you feel dizzy afterwards. We sometimes have to literally almost step on the lap bar, we can do anything possible as long as he or she is comfortable.
I remember once last summer where a guest took his rejection HARD. He refused to get out of the seat and demanded to get a manager. We ended up having to shut the entire ride down for about 30min while people were stranded in the brakes to only get the rejection again.
You would think that would be more embarrassing then just being told no.
The rides are great but the themeing and atmosphere is mediocre at best.
I love answering these!
Huh?
Did you ever work for a ride where you had control over the length of the ride? Obviously a roller coaster has a length of one time around. I’m talking about a spinny ride where you control the speed and length. Did you ever spin it faster/longer than scheduled just to give a little extra to the riders?
Over the last year and a half, my sister has lost about 150 pounds. About a month ago, she’d decided she was ready to give Cedar Point a shot. It had been years since she’d been able to fit into any of the coasters. One of the awesomest things I’d seen in a long time is that now Cedar Point puts a model seat for each particular coaster right on the midway in front of the entrance to the queue. This gives you a chance to try it out and make sure you fit and you’re secure. I found them useful for my tiny self as well; they helped me figure out if I was going to be thrown around or if I’d be secure and stable sitting in the car. This also helped my sister avoid the walk of shame after wasting a couple hours waiting in line for a ride she couldn’t ride. It turned out there were only three rides she couldn’t fit in and all of the other ones, she was able to enjoy with no problems and no humiliating “sorry, you can’t ride.”
At KI, do they make the rides workers do the morning test rides? When I worked at CP, the rides workers for each particular ride had to start their day with a test ride. Because most were hungover (we were all hungover just about every day), this was discussed with much griping and bitterness. I noticed at CP there are sets of people-shaped buckets that are presumably weighted down, all lined up off-track. I guessed that CP is using dummy riders for those morning test rides now, which I’m sure the employees appreciate. Is KI using those now?
Also, when I worked at CP, the women’s uniforms were all really short skorts. I was always a little annoyed we had to be pimped out like that just to do our jobs. On my last trip, I noticed the women were allowed to wear pants, just like the men. How about KI? Are the female employees still in skimpy uniforms or does everyone get to wear something reasonably modest?
Also, I never partied harder in my life than the summer I worked at CP. They hired pretty much only college students. We worked anywhere from 10-15 hour days, and then partied until the wee hours and then got up and did it all again on four hours or less of sleep. 
Is it like that at KI as well? Still sobering up?
I haven’t been to that park, so I’m gonna let you have that one, Kanye. 
Do tell. I’m sure I don’t speak only for myself when I say that’s one of the reasons I love to read these.