Good Ride Operators!!!!!!

That, and you have to wait on the towers to reset and to cool down a minute. It's mainly b/c SF wants us to check the seat belts before we check any harnesses, so essentially you got to check two trains worth between runs. That, and it takes forever for everyone to find their seat b/c of the weird train layout.

I don't know why some people are saying being a ride op @ CP is any easier. We have more people so our rides run more efficiently and safer. Heard of any deaths on rides @ CP? I don't think so. Just because there are more of us, doesn't mean we don't work as hard, pitting a SF ride op against a CP ride op is ridiculous. We have to hit quick intervals, a minute or less, SF is about a minute per seat. CP ride ops aren't snotty, stuck up, or any of that stuff, you may have just encountered a prick. I went to SFWoA, and the ride ops there were terrible, the kid waved his hand by my lapbar to check it, very safe. CP also has much stricter standards for their operations of rides, so we have to be that much more aware of everything that is going on. From what I've seen, being a ride op @ SF would be a breeze, and being one @ CP is a welcome challenge.

Wicked Matt, you went to the wrong Six Flags to compare ride operators. From the six flags parks that I have been to, SFGAM has the best ride ops and operations. Look at how they run their rides and compare yourself to them.

I think most Six Flags have quick intervals. At SFGAM look at Vertical Velocity, Batman, Raging Bull. You have to be quick at those rides. If I would go back to working at parks I would go there.

I wouldnt brag about CP operations cause you cant even run three trains on Mantis. Dont say it isnt possible to do it well because BM wouldnt design it for three trains if they didnt think it was possible. You have plenty of time to load those people.

I think that the main point of this thread has been reached:

There are some good, and some bad ride ops. You're never going to have ALL good ride ops at a park, so we might as well stop arguing about which park has the best.

There are some good and some bad at EVERY park.

Matt - Although I see your opinion as very biased and "fanboy", you might be shocked to hear that Six Flags Great Adventure has a more thorough training process, and stricter safety guidelines than CP. I know because I've worked at both parks.

I'd also like to point out that I'm in no way a "fanboy" or biased in any way to these parks.

Op'ing at CP is much easier simply because there are so many employees! You've got one person at entrance checking hieghts and telling people to put stuff in lockers. You've got another person sitting at the turnstyles doing the exact same thing, then you've got 5 employees to check a 6 car train. (Magnum). To add to that, you've got a totally seperate person checking Freeway stamps and allowing them to enter the line.

Now Compare that to say Batman at GAdv. No-one at entrance or turnstyles, and 2-3 employees to check a 8 car train. They've also got to check hieghts, deal with Lo-Q, and move stuff out of the way that the guests have left on the platform.

IMO it's obvious that CP op's have a much easier job.

Just to make it clear, I'm not saying that these are bad things. Infact I like how CP operates their rides! I am simply saying that if you were to work at a SF park where you didn't have all those "extra" employees, it'd be much more difficult.

Oh and if your wondering, I know of plenty of accidents at CP. None of which I'm willing to discuss (especially on a website!), but you'd definitely be suprised if you knew.

Oh, and yes SFWoA's employees do suck. Next time go to a good SF park like Great Adventure or Great America ;)

*** Edited 1/4/2004 6:04:11 AM UTC by rOLLocOASt***

Excellent points Corey....but even with *quotes*, I still don't think of them as "extra" employees, just the ones necessary to run a park the RIGHT way...;)

Excuse me, Matt. You think that it is a breeze working at SF. Let me tell you something. Not only is it difficult and truly demanding, it is one of the best places to work. Not only do you learn how to operate rides and be professional, you learn how to make something out of nothing. What I mean is, there have been times when I worked at Six Flags and we nearly didn't have enough people to operate rides, but we somehow got the manpower to get through the day. Not only did the people that we pulled from other sides of the park work, they worked their @$$e$ off because they knew that a Six Flags priority is SAFETY. Not because of ancient accidents that are mentioned to make Cedar Point flawless, but because Six Flags knows that SAFETY=FAMILY FUN&MEMORIES (HINT HINT).

And for all of the Cedar Point fanatics, you need to get off of Worlds of Adventure and pick on a park that is your size-Great America and Great Adventure. It's enough that CP and WoA share the same market, but step out of the immediate market-and go to SFGAM OR SFGADV-we'll show you how to operate rides at maximum capacity with minimal staffing. And we mean run all trains and not a few like with Dragster.

If you all want to know, I took great pride in my work at Great America. Not only did I whip crews into shape and operate rides safely,but I continuously did something that Cedar Point employees don't do-BE NICE AND TALK TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. I don't know what is, but I never felt welcomed at Cedar Point. I love the park in all but I thought that the employees NEEDED to get off of their high horses and talk to the general public.

And rOLLocOASt-thanks for sticking up for all of the Six Flags employees out there. That meant a lot.

Since we are talking about CP having extra employees to man the rides, what about the other CF parks?

Does Knotts, Dorney, Valleyfair, etc., hire alot of rideops for each coaster as opposed to SF parks?

Not from what I've seen Chi....CP is run *a little different* from the other CF parks....in MY experience at least.

WoF had great employees, very polite and helpful...but like Knotts, MiA, and Dorney, rides were run with "less than optimal" staffing. The rides were operating, but were staffed lightly...I think the capacity mentality is not a CF thing, but more a CP thing...

Valleyfair, I haven't been to.....yet!

Thanks for the answer 'gator'. That's what I kind of figured. It shows that SF and CF don't extra-man rideops across the board and something that CP employees need to realize.

VerticalFanatic. Your rideop skills at SFGAm don't go unnoticed. Most people here realize that the SF Chicago park has some of the best rideops out there. Being a frequent visitor of SFGAm, I am almost always pleased with the operations of the coasters and all the other aspects of the park. Keep up the good work in the future. *** Edited 1/4/2004 7:58:18 AM UTC by Chitown***

---

Chitown said:
Since we are talking about CP having extra employees to man the rides, what about the other CF parks?

Does Knotts, Dorney, Valleyfair, etc., hire alot of rideops for each coaster as opposed to SF parks?

---

I can only talk about Knott's, but they do pretty well with Xcelerator and GhostRider. Not sure how many people work GR, I think it's 4, and there's always 5 working at Xcelerator from what I can tell. Still takes a while to get a train out, but at least they're staffed enough.

Montezooma, on the other hand, has been woefully understaffed every time I've gone. One op sitting in the booth, and a single employee doing restraint checks, taking people's belongings and putting them to the side of the station, manning the exit to make sure nobody comes in through it, and everything else necessary. One person. I've seen it like that on busy and non-busy days. I seem to remember Boomerang being the same, though I've only ridden that once there (don't feel much need to ride it more than once).

SFMM ain't much better, though. Goliath being particularly bad, with one op at the booth, and then one person for either side of the train. That works pretty well usually, except that the guy who works on the opposite side of the booth also has to handle the fastlane people, which invariably causes delays. X is nightmarish, and could decidedly use a few more employees checking restraints. Hell, dispatch times would drop significantly with just two more employees on the dispatch end of the station. The longest part of the process seems to be the restraint checks, which are done twice (once prior to seat rotation, once after), and take longer than most coasters since the ops have to walk in and out between each row, rather than just down the side of the train.

BTW, is it just me, or is SFMM MUCH, MUCH worse this winter than it was last year? I remember some great off-season trips to SFMM last year, and the only ones I've taken this year have been horrible, with waits longer than I experienced during the summer, despite very small crowds...

The other thing is that most CP ops get air conditioning in a booth without moving. While Six Flags people work out in the hot weather. Advantage-> Cedar Point Ops. I wish Six Flags would let us have 14-20 people on our crews.

X Marks The Spiizot.

Something that I never understood is why parks, at times, staff rides with an even number of ops. This leaves one in the booth and an odd number for the train. The two on the one side get done and have a nice chat while the one by him/herself is running to keep up. They rotate and make someone new struggle to keep up.

Yeh I hait when we have 3 people on the dock of the Cyclone at SFoG. I had to have 2 people check seats on the load side and I checked the unload side because I was the fastest. But I was also the operator so that made it harder.

X Marks The Spiizot

Not to cause any haterration, but did you just say hait?

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by the promptness of the Knotts rideops. Considering that Ghostrider is the only high capacity coaster they get their lines moving well. Cheers to any Knotts ops out there!

The CP staff has it easy. They didn't impress me at all. I actually found them to be slow at checking trains. They barely hit interval if even at all, this with 6-8 people on the platform.

BushGardens was good.

SFGAM is good.

Universal is good.

IOA is good.

<<There is usually more than one person driver-trained (as we call it at SFOT) but usually not everyone is, especially in the early part of the year and summer. There are lots of summer employees that they dont WANT driver trained. It is a lot more responsibility whether it looks like it or feels like it to the Driver for that matter>>

Shouldn't everyone be trained to drive? If they don't think they can handle that responsibility, shouldn't they be working somewhere else?

<<What I mean is, there have been times when I worked at Six Flags and we nearly didn't have enough people to operate rides, but we somehow got the manpower to get through the day. Not only did the people that we pulled from other sides of the park work, they worked their @$$e$ off because they knew that a Six Flags priority is SAFETY.>>

I think that employees at every single park has had to do this. I also think that Cedar Point ( and other Cedar Fair parks) must put that SAFETY priority a little higher than Six Flags, considering that the reason why they have so many employees is not just for efficiency, but also that little SAFETY issue. And it works for them.

SF and CF are equally safety oriented. It's the most important part of running a park!

CP is the only CF park that I've been to that "over-staffs" their rides, and I've been to them all. "Over-staffing" isn't for safety, it's for effiency. You can't tell me that having 6 operators checking individual restraints is any safer than 2 operators doing the same thing. Sure it might take longer with 2 operators which can cause stacking and a lower capacity, but it's just as safe as with 6 operators.

Corey - Who thinks Lizzie worked at CP.

Corey,

I swear to you, I have never worked at Cedar Point!! I was just making assumptions based on past experiences, but I honestly have never worked at Cedar Point.

The best ride op of all time is Jay Mihelich at Michigan's Adventure. He works Shivering Timbers on Sundays and for Timberfest. He is really entertaining and a coaster nut.

Most ride ops are a victim of their environment. If they are stuck at Six flags and asked to check restraints on both sides of a coaster train while the crowd complains about slow and long lines then how do you expect them to have a good and upbeat attitude? If they are at a CF park where the rides are usually fully staffed its easier to do your job.

Usually the more mature(age) the ride op the better they are.