Cell phone - in lines and on coasters? C'mon!!

ThunderheadChick, there is no way, no how that I'm turning my cell phone over to anyone. I paid about a hundred dollars for it, plus my monthly fees. The caller list and phone numbers are priceless to me (and yes, I realize I should write them down also). Besides, I can tell you from personal experience that ride ops aren't allowed to hold onto personal property, because it makes the park liable, and they don't want that. I have cargo shorts with velcro-secured pockets, and my cell phone has never fallen out.

It just takes some common sense. If you don't have an outside pocket that can be secured, then don't get on a ride like Batwing (which had a nightly search for cell phones, keys, etc. when I worked there).

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2Hostyl said:
So *I* should change my habits because *your* brain cant figure things out?!? Nah, I dont think so.

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No, you might consider changing your habits because they annoy other people. Then again, in my experience, cell phone users tend to talk louder than they need too.

Thanks for the insult! ;)

Yes, it isn't very uncommon. Already on Screaming Eagle, I have had people come up to me asking if they have seen a cellphone around. That they had lost it when on the ride. We typically do a quick check of the car if they remebred where they sat. But the chances of it being there are very slim.....

As for Cell Phones in the parks, I don't see a problem at all. Why not ban walkie-talkies as well? Most people use cell phones because they have it and its a lot clearer than a walkie-talkie. Sure there are a few people who abuse cell phone use. But thats just a few people in a couple thousand..... Deal with it.....

While at Cedar Point last night, there was a clown talking on his phone while riding ocean motion. He was in his 30s or 40s, so I am sure he knew better. Neither ride op said a thing to him. On the same note, there were skinny kids standing on the ride. The girl checking heights told the ride-op at the controls to say something to them. He ignored her.

1ej

While I understand people may find cell phones, and anything else other people do annoying, but that's a risk you're going to have to take. I don't like people that don't wear deodorant and have bad B.O. but you run into those people every day. Should we ban them from parks/malls/grocery stores? You fail to understand that you're dealing with a large group of people, and everyone has their own life to live. You are not the only one(s) in the park, and different people find different things acceptable. The person on the cell phone has as much of a right to use their phone as you to have an opinion on them using their phone.

In short, if you can't deal with people's actions, and expect everyone to act like a "model park goer/citizen" then stay home, away from crowds of people.

-Josh
(please, those of you who are perfect, and have never done anything that might be even remotely "annoying" to others - cast the first stone at any time.)

But, Josh, wouldn't someone flinging stones be considered annoying? ;) ;)

No, that's called Assault. :) (only if they're being thrown on or at coasters/moving vehicles. Seagulls are acceptable targets.)

*** Edited 5/21/2004 3:42:11 PM UTC by Raven-Phile***

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Raven-Phile said:In short, if you can't deal with people's actions, and expect everyone to act like a "model park goer/citizen" then stay home, away from crowds of people.

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Almost sounds like telling someone who has a complaint about this country to "love it or leave it!" ;)

Haven't you ever had a noisy neighbor? Did you NOT ask them to keep it down because "we all have problems?" We have to share the world, we can at least try to be courteous. Just because we aren't always successful doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

Anyway, this reminds me of Office Space when he asks his neighbor to turn down his radio and was met with, "But Lumberg said that I could play my music at a-a-a-a reasonable level."

Well, it should be to no one's surprise that MOST guests leave their common sense at home when they come to amusement parks. They want to have fun- they don't want to be subjected to rules.

dollywoodrideop

No, it's not the same because I absolutely HATE that "love it or leave it" attitude. You really don't want to get me started on that ;) An amusement park is so different from a country, that it basically has no comparison.

Sure, I've had a noisy neighbor, and of course I'm *ASKED* him to turn it down. Did I come to an INTERNET forum and ***** about it and say we should ban CD Players/Stereo Systems?

I'm saying we should be curteous, but it goes both ways. Everyone has a right to be happy when they're at a park, and sometimes calling up their friends to harass them about the fact that they're missing out on a good time is a way people do that. It's not harming you, so leave them be.

You'll probably hate me for this comment, too but the same goes for people smoking in lines. I don't smoke, and I don't enjoy when people are smoking in a line, but it's not my place to tell them to put it out. All that does is piss them off more and half the time they wind up intentionally blowing smoke in your general direction after you've pissed them off.

So, I'm basically trying to say what you're saying - only looking at it from everyone's point of view. I hate to beat a dead horse, but, Enthusiasts really *do* only make up a very minute amount of park business, and I'm pretty sure these cell phone complaints generally seem to be coming from enthusiasts.

Once again, it's not your park - you don't own it. You have to co-exsist with the other customers.

If you see something that's generally unsafe and could really hurt someone, such as knife play/guns, people trying to climb in and retrieve a lost article from a restricted area, someone attempting to chage seats mid-ride, etc... then you should probably alert someone. If someone has their shirt/shoes off, is smoking or gitting on the rails, let the ride ops do their job. It's one of the things they're paid to do.

Hold on a minute! The cell phone thing is annoying no matter where it happens so tying the argument with the enthusiasts thinking they own the park thing is a bit far-fetched.

Also, I never said anything about banning cell phones in public places. Sure people have a right to use them in public, but as you said yourself, "you have to co-exist with the other customers." My only point is that a loud cellphone conversation next to you in public is annoying. I am certainly within my rights to suggest they keep it down just as they could tell me where to stick it.

As far as smoking in line, you have every right to tell them to put it out. It's your health. But, whether you choose to do so or not is another matter.

Everybody has rights to do things...but there are times when our "rights" start to trample on each other. In those cases, common courtesy comes into play. It is especially important in public situations.

See jan, you just exposed yourself (in public no less ;))!

You're simply anti-cell phone to begin with. It is completely understandable that you would be against them being used in queues. However, I first off disagree with your allegation that brains arent wired to tune out one way conversations. I, and millions of commuters like me, tune out dozens of one way conversations during commutes to/from work. I, personally, can read, sleep, daydream, or even carry on my own conversation (in person or on a cell) when others are around me talking on their cells. I really think that you are shortchanging the brain's ability to focus. It's *possible* that I (and others like me) have developed this ability from years of living in big city areas, but I do not believe that it is uncommon.

Now, I can agree that in some instances loud phone conversations are gauche and dis-courteous. When at the movies, the *last* thing I want to hear is some butt-nugget doing play-by-play for his buddy on the phone. Similarly, when I'm in church, I dont need to hear the woman in the row behind me giving her personal "confession" to her girl about what happened in the club the night before. THOSE, I believe, would cross the bounds of "common courtesy".

But talking loud at an amusement park?!?

Give me a frickin' break. Loud talk is just about all you *can* do at an amusement park. Even if your friend is right next to you, you might not be heard over the din of the nearby heavy machinery. Do some (indeed many) people talk extra loud on cell phones? Yes, indeed they do. But in the context of *screaming* riders, *barking* game operators, and the general *rumbling* of the rides themselves, I dont think that even those people are outside the "common courtesy" envelope.

You dont like it, and that's fine. You are entitled to your own standards. But if you really put an emphasis on the *COMMON* in "common courtesy", I think you'll fine that those ideals of yours are *not* common....in the amusement park context.

lata, jeremy

--the use of asterisks in this post have *not* been approved by the RollerGatorWoodie association: read in voice infections at your own risk...

Thank you, Jeremy.

And Jan, most of my comments are more directed at the original poster, and the few that followed saying "we should ban them at parks OMG!!11!1!"

That's just plain dumb.
It's one of those cases that it seems like the original poster was posting one of those things that it seems *every* enthusiast loves to ***** about.

I guess you see it as a bad attitude, but I tend to concentrate on having fun, and not worry about what the other people around me are doing. I paid to get into the park, and I'm not being paid to play park police.

I obey the rules, and still have fun, even acting like a jackass every once in a while. My seatbelt and restraint are always on correctly when they're supposed to be.

Sometimes I just think some enthusiasts don't think for themselves. Instead it's an attitude like there's a certain set of thinking required I.E. "Oh, we're supposed to be against cell phones in line. I see someone will a cell phone - God, that annoys me." or whatever.

You can think I'm a bad person or whatever but seriously, half this stuff isn't as bad as you think. It's just people being themselves (something we advocate in this day and age.)

-Josh

*** Edited 5/21/2004 7:33:16 PM UTC by Raven-Phile***

Lack of common sense!

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2Hostyl said:
See jan, you just exposed yourself (in public no less )!

You're simply anti-cell phone to begin with. It is completely understandable that you would be against them being used in queues. However, I first off disagree with your allegation that brains arent wired to tune out one way conversations. I, and millions of commuters like me, tune out dozens of one way conversations during commutes to/from work.

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Well, If I really cared about not exposing myself (in public), I probably wouldn't have piped in. ;)

Okay, you have a point. I myself live next to an airport, train station, light-rail station, and freeway. The only time I notice is when there is a sudden gap in traffic while planes are not taking off or landing and there are no trains about.

Granted, it took a few days to get used to it. And even though you may be used to noisy converstaional situations, not everyone can tune out extra noisy one-sided conversations.

But as you say, people have to talk loud in parks anyway so touche. I probably am irrationally anti-cell phone. I suppose it is primarily due to those "common coutesy" situations you mentioned, not to mention almost getting killed on a daily basis by inattentive cell-phone-gabbing drivers (or is it unattentive?)

Yeah I was waiting in line for Villain the other day standing and talking with the ATL and a guy in the front seat got onto the ride while talking on a cell phone, they checked his lap bar and dispatched the train. I was like, "You can ride coasters and talk on cell phones and you guys don't even stop them?!" And to think something like that would happen after the horrible accident a few years back. Oh my.

At that same park (Geauga Lake), I was scolded by a ride op for answering the phone on the ferris weheel.

What most people dont know is if you are caught driving and talking on a cell phone in Ohio you can be fined up to 300 dollars and or spend 24/48 hours in jail.It seem harsh but their has been too many problems with cell phones beside your eyes should be on the road.

Now park wise I have no clue what the park rules are but I never take my cell into a park there is no need.

In CP I see people talking on cells all the time same with PKI.

Talking in the park and talking 'on the ride as the train leaves the station' are two different things. I never heard that Ohio law, when did that go into effect?

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coasterzak said:
Talking in the park and talking 'on the ride as the train leaves the station' are two different things. I never heard that Ohio law, when did that go into effect?

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January 1 2003

Ohio is cracking down cell phones/while Driving yes it is two different things but I really like that law I think more states need to enforce it.