IamA former amusement park ride operator AMA!

What holds those contraptions together beside hope, chewing gum and duct tape?

Mostly the solidified tears of overworked employees

I was at a fair a couple of years ago "red river ex in Winnipeg canada" and it got real crazy. Some dude lost his hat on the crazy mouse Rollercoaster and jumped the security fence to retrieve it. Of course he got hit by one of the cars and was badly injured, and I was there with my two sons when I heard the screaming.

They shut the ride down with several cars at the top of it and the crowd started to get pretty agitated lots of yelling and confusion. People were saying a car fell off the track and also a guy fell out of a car. The frenzy was growing. I took a step back just to watch the crowd as they put up a tarp so no one could see the guy on the ground.

This is where it got real crazy. In the distance there were dark thunder clouds approaching and it started raining. The people in the cars on the ride that were 50 or so feet up started freaking because, hey they are stuck 50 feet in the air on top of a metal structure and there was no indication that they were going to get them down. So some of them started yelling then they tried to get out of their cars and climb along the structure. There was clearly no one taking charge and the workers that were there hadn't a clue what to do.

So here is my question "what kind of training have you undertaken to prepare you for this type of crisis and have you see the terrible mob mentality that can rear it's ugly head when something like this occurs?"

Edit autocorrect

Holy shit that's crazy.

People are stupid and there are a lot of instances of dumbass guests jumping fences to try and retrieve their hats. When that happens we do stop the ride to get them out when we see them. Mostly the sane people will come and ask us to get their hats or whatever they lost, and there are certain hours where we go to get anything that fell off and tell them to come back then.

If something like that was to happen, and we couldn't start the ride back up after stopping it because someone got hurt, all employees are trained on how to go up the side ramp and evacuate all the guests stuck on the ride immediately. If they were past the point employees could get them, a supervisor would most likely continue the ride to a point at the end where they could go get them, and not allow anyone else to get on. They would never just be left there with no way out.

If I was to sneak in to an amusement park to ride he rides, could I get a ride operating or are there special keys and stuff?

There are special keys. You won't be able too and I don't advise it because there's security who would know if a ride is going past hours

There was a story of a girl who's hair got stuck in a fair ride and it ripped her hair our of her scalp not to long ago. Didn't mean to get so dark but this brings me to my first question, was there any tales about injuries at the amusement park where you work? Did you ever fear for the safety of some park goers?

They're really strict about safety there, but mistakes do happen. One year I remember there was a ride that was dispatched and after it was sent off a kid climbed over the gates onto the tracks. The kid was fine but there's been scares.

Another kid also cut their foot on the tracks because their foot got stuck under the train when they were getting off the ride, luckily a doctor was in line for the ride at he time so they were fine too.

As far as I know, there aren't any records of serious life threatening injuries that happened at the fault of the park or its employees. I'm a pretty nervous person so I was always scared that the one time a ride would fail, it would be when I was there, and something awful would happen.

The rides are designed to not dispatch unless all the safety mechanics are in place though, so even if an employee made a mistake the ride is designed not to fuck up, so it's unlikely for something terrible to happen that isn't basically a guests fault.

I am in my thirties and I have heard this "hair caught in a ride" story from various sources for decades.

Yeah I've been hearing stories like that since I was a kid because I grew up near an amusement park. It's kinda like an urban legend around here.

Ever see any accidental nudity?

Mostly from kids

What's the craziest thing you've seen a ride do?

I've never really seen anything too crazy, however there is a "ride" where kids can jump on a trampoline attached to bungees to help them go higher. One time the bungee controller wasn't working and a kid was stuck hanging in the air until we could get someone to fix it.

Did your park charge unreasonable prices for rides, snacks, etc like most parks? What do you think of parks that do that? Does it just come with the territory?

Also, how many accidents happened that you know of, if you are allowed to say that?

Oh yeah, it was super overpriced to get food, but I think it just comes with the territory, most amusement parks are like that.

Some of the extra charge rides and attractions were wayyyy too overpriced, but there weren't too many of those, and you could get away with visiting the park and not spending any money at all once inside of you just stuck to free rides and didn't buy any of the food

Did u meet anyone famous ?

Adam sandler and his kids. Too bad I hate him lol

Shenanigans, were the games fixed? Did anyone claim shenanigans? Also, did anyone get injured on a ride? How safe are they really?

Of course the games aren't fixed..... ;) the rides are designed to prevent any chance of injury. The only time someone could really get hurt is if they weren't following the rules or listening to the employees and did something stupid that put themselves in danger.

Best way to maximize fun and time spent on rides at the amusement park?

My best advice is to go on a less busy day, to avoid long lines and to get on as many rides as you can in a day.

Gah, I was hoping there were some tricks of the trade. Did your park include single rider lines? I think those are my favorite innovation in the theme park world as it fixes the problems of both ride operators trying to fill in as many seats as possible and riders trying to get on quickly and for free (fuck "fast passes", they're for bourgeoisie scum)

They used to have single rider lines, but those were replaced with the fast pass lines when those came about. However when there's an extra seat or if there's a group too big to fit in the seats left for that cycle, we just yell into line to see if there are people to fill the spots.

So if a group of 6 was waiting to go on together but there were only 4 seats left, we would call and ask for a group of 4 or two groups of 2.

I agree, fast passes are definitely not worth it and as a guest I hate them. It takes away from the experience for those in the normal lines because their wait gets extended even longer to accommodate people with money. There is a ratio of fast pass riders to normal line riders were allowed to let on per cycle to try and help that, but I still find it stupid

I dunno man, the way Disneyland handles the FastPasses seems fair to me. Every ticket can get one FastPass every two hours, and you get assigned a one hour window in which to return to the ride and redeem the FastPass. The return windows increment by five minutes at a time, and a predetermined number of passes are assigned per window. All of the FastPass machines are networked, and Disney can alter the max passes per window to spread crowds out around the park.

Is the way yours works substantially different?

Its quite different. You have a fast pass, you get into the fast pass lane no matter what

Also, I love your username :)

Are thrill rides more fun to operate than kiddie rides? Or is it all pretty much the same once you're behind the control panel?

They're all pretty similar, but there are different kinds of checks for every ride that need to be done. Kids rides were usually smaller so they were a lot less running around to check all the restraints which I liked, but dealing with bitchy parents was never fun.

I guess thrill rides are a bit better because if someone's breaking a rule and acting dangerously you can just kick them off the ride, but it's harder with kids cause they might not understand why the rules are in place, and their parents will throw a bitch fit.

Any bitchy parent stories?

Lots and lots of stories of being verbally abused when I wouldn't allow people to cut the line after leaving to go to the bathroom. I was helping a kid on a trampoline ride when I was called over there one day and a mother made me take her kid off because it was apparently my fault her kid couldn't jump high enough.

I couldn't do that job simply because I have a fear of witnessing/being around someone vomiting. Is it something you saw all the time everyday?

Oh yeah. People have puked mid ride and gotten it on people sitting behind them. You get used to it

I heard people would sneak ridiculous props onto the ride and pose for the roller-shot (idk what that's called). How do they sneak these props in and what are some of the best pics you've seen?

It's kinda hard to sneak them onto rides because most of the thrill rides don't allow loose articles to be worn or kept on you. I didn't work at the places they sell photos so if that ever happened, I wouldn't have seen it

Why are you guys such dicks about no bumping on go-karts? Do people really die?

Go on the bumper cars if you wanna crash into eachother. I don't know of an instances of injury but I'm sure there are safety reasons. We're very strict about safety because people need to feel safe and secure in order to keep the park running.

Look like you work for a Cedar Fair Park?

One of them, yup

What's the funniest thing you've seen happen there? Whether it was on the ride or not.

I saw a family all walking around in their underwear, I can't really think of anything super funny right now.

what rides did you operate?

That would give the park I work at away ;) but I worked at a couple of them

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Well security has the power to arrest on the property. Other than that I don't know

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They all wear security uniforms here. There could be people in plainclothes but if there are I'm not aware of it. We do have people come by in plain clothes and make sure we're following safety guidelines and such. They aren't security though

Who was the creepiest person you ever encountered, guest or coworker?

I got a co worker fired for assaulting me. I don't want to go into specifics but it was scary. I almost quit.

Can you give out free passes to friends and family?

After working a certain amount of hours you get a few free passes for friends and family. Also I'm pretty sure we get discounts on passes.

Do you work at Cedar Point? I recognize that menu....

It's a cedar fair park. I won't say which one but it's not that one :)

My friend gained some weight and now he's concerned he will turned away from rides because he's too fat... How fat is too fat for a ride?

I can't really say. It depends on the ride, some of the restraints just can't lock unless pressed down to a certain amount, so we try our hardest to make it work but if it can't lock to ensure safety the ride won't go even if we try

This was a long time ago, I went to Six Flags and on my backpack was some carabiners. They had to confiscate them telling me they were not safe. They weren't the climbing ones, they were the keychain ones so my question is... wat?

I don't know the specifics, but a lot of thought goes into the safety of guests so it's most likely a worst case scenario type of deal

Do you have a favorite ride at the park?

EDIT: Or you can just describe it without naming it.

My favourite ride is the biggest one

Did you ever think about quitting that and joining a carnival to see the world?

Can't say that I do

How can I get more time on the ride?

Haha there's no way to get more time on a ride, they have a set amount of time per cycle

Not even if someone tried to bribe them?

How can someone make a roller coaster track longer for you, exactly? For rides that just have time limits a lot of times we loose track of time and let people stay on for longer though. Or maybe that's just me.

How come you mfers don't let me off the ride when I start having a panic attack!!???

Well, once the ride starts to dispatch we can't stop it. If you decide to get off before the ride starts, even if it's after they've checked your seats, you should be allowed off.