Best Ride Ops?

Whih park has the best ride ops?

Out of the parks I've been to I'd have to say

Valleyfair

The guy running the High Roller has got to have the world record for fastest proper saftey check inspection. The guy running the Power tower had one hell of a sense of humor And on the Wild Thing, Excalibur, and Corkscrew all the ride ops were very personable and just fun loving.

Honorable mention has to go to the guy that runs the Outlaw @ Adventureland. He's been at the park for twenty years and if guests don't keep their hands in the air hit stops the train on the brake run for a minute or so. Great guy, with an extremely likable personality.


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Randy Hutchinson
You build it, I'll ride it *** This post was edited by RandyHutchinson on 8/27/2000. ***

Cedar Point, and I bet the sister parks managed by CP alumni, have set the standard. Every once in a while you get some kind of variance [cough-Mantis'99-cough], but for the most part they can move people like no one else can. I'd invite anyone to find a park that has higher people-per-hour on any similar coasters. You won't find it!

BGW is also on top of things, as is portions of SFGAm. The thing that they all have in common is a lot of bodies on the platform. Even if they're not that speedy, a sheer volume of people can make a ride's capacity soar.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Definetly Cedar Point!

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Bryan, AKA CPbanshee
cpbanshee@excite.com

When I rode Power Tower for the first time in '98, I really liked the ride op. One funny guy. I don't know if it was the same one as Randy mentioned, but all he could do is just make people scared when they got on....lol. Got me a little nervous, but all we done was joke. One second he's standing there talking to us, the next he's 260 below.
Some guy at Magnum was REALLY a pain. I asked him a question and he jumped on me like I was stupid or something.

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Shawn Bailes
Webmaster of Coasters R Us
http://coastersrus.home-page.org

I also need to give Adventureland credit again, with their ride operators on the Dragon. The guy had talked my younger brother 8 years old ot of his hysterics, I felt horrible for making him go after he was actually begging me to not make him go on the ride. The guy operating the dragon talked him down and told him a funny story to let him relax some. Kevin (my lil brother) relaxed and ended up going on the Dragon four more times that day.

However, I need to point out that while the Outlaw and Dragon ride ops were great everyone else was terrible.
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Randy Hutchinson
You build it, I'll ride it

Nobody can touch Knoebels Ride Ops! On Twister they can dispatch a train in under 30 seconds. They rarely push the lapbars down on you, they always pull up to check them. They usually have 2 or more people checking restraints on the coasters too.
__IMO coming in second would be the people at Holiday World. They are so nice its almost sickning. :) Where else will the ride ops ask if they can put somthing aside for you while your on the coaster? Sure the capicity is low with only one train on each coaster but they get the award for being nice.
__For WORST ride ops the winner is SFA. I timed 5 minutes between dispatches with two trains on ROAR. That's just too long for the other train to be sitting on the brakes loaded with people. Every park has a bad day but SFA's bad day is all season.

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Parks hit for 2000!
PKD,BGW,DP,HP,PKI,HW,SFKK,SFA,SFNE,LC,GE,QP,Camden,Lakemont,Knoebels, SFO,CP,

Cedar Point all the way. Not only are CP's ride ops quick and efficient, but also energetic. CP is the only park I've ever been to where the ride ops actually talk. Often, what they say is pretty entertaining. Once while waiting on the loading platform for the Magnum, the ride op who was doing the talking was saying things like.."you'll be dropped 250 feet reaching speeds over 100 mph.. oh yeah, watch out for that 3rd loop.. it's a doosy". That was too funny.

Jeff, you have to forgive the Mantis ride ops for being so slow. Yes I know trains stack on that ride all the time, but if people wouldn't screw around moving their seats up and down so much, dispatches would be so much more efficient. You really can't blame ride operators for that. They just have to make sure everyone is in a standing position and fixing that takes time.

I'd have to agree with Cedar Point! I'm amazed at the quality service year after year.

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The new KING of coasters:
SFNE Superman
Unforgettable!!!

My experience with Worlds of Fun is that the ops there are NOT Cedar Point quality. From what I hear (and what I saw at Knotts last winter) each park seems to have their own standards for ride ops.

I know the ride ops at Dorney Park are extremely efficient in dispatching their coasters. I think Cedar Fair has the Park Operations division under control. I also know that when the ride operators are trained and tested each season that the Management of the Ops Dept. uses a stopwatch to insure speed with safety.

I'm fairly certain that Dorney and Valleyfair have CP alumni, but not sure. Knott's of course has Jack.

I'm aware of the difficulties loading Mantis, but the '99 crew had a bad attitude. They don't deserve and slack or even the time of day. It's much better this year, and I suspect we'll see great numbers from the ride.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Cedar Point has the sheer numbers of ops on the platform, that is what gives them the edge in load/unload and dispatch times. I did not find them any more or less friendly than average. Some were pleasant (the guy on the microphone at CCMR), others were downright rude (Iron Dragon, parking lot).

Friendly, Holiday World. Hands down. Everyone there was friendly, attentive, and efficent. Even with a single train operation, the dispatches were speedy.

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Gotta ride 'em all!

It seems to me they're all the same no matter where you go.
Some slow,some fast,and some act like they'd rather be somewhere other than work.

Cedar Point all the way. I was there two days ago and when I was inline for Magnum this car came into the station and everyone on it was cheering and the guy on the mic. was like "OH, thankyou thankyou, this is what I come to work for, I think I'm gonna cry." It was really funny. Then when it started to rain and I was just about to get on the MF the lady on the micraphone said, "We are sorry to inform you that due to the rain ... YOU WILL GET SOAKED!" That was kinda scary at first and pretty funny at the end.

Erik at the MF station is just my buddy. Where else will a ride op stop you at the top of the lift hill, just because the riders want a good view? Also Knott's Berry Farm employees all seem to have that warm, fuzzy feeling.. :)

I guess it's just a Cedar Fair tradition!!

Having done my CP stint [Mine Ride Girls -- best ride in (or out of) the park], I think CP does an exceptional job of training. As far as "some actually talk"ing, note that CP discourages it. However, people being people, and the CP "coaster personality" (yes, they have told me they have a special personality they look for in people to run coasters, although I'm not sure exactly what it is) being what it is, they're having too much fun NOT to talk!

There was a reason why we road Gemini seven times in a row. That Brit (I think) ride-op who does the "speech" was beyond funny. "I hope you all enjoy your ride, just as much as I enjoy working here" "Don't drop anything off the coaster, Cedar Point won't be responsible, Cedar Point isn't responsible for anything" Oh there was a whole bunch of them that we're cracking us up. By far the worst ride ops I've seen this year and any year for example was also at CP. The ride crew on "Snake River Falls" was by far the most rude ops of them all. I seen one on a trip going off on a guy for having his toe on the yellow line. I can understand if she went up to the guy and asked him nicely to move back like most ride ops, but she got in this mans face in yelled at him in front of his kids which I found rude. Then on another trip another British ride op was yelling at the riders because they were having problems with the ride bars and had trouble communcating to them to pull up on the bar. To me this was worse then the Mantis 99 crew.

Kennywood! The Thunderbolt guys are always willing to go out on a limb to make you laugh. The park has such a relaxed atmosphere that there's no hurry to get you on or off.

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Phantom's Revenge:
The Legend Lives On