Interview with a Six Flags rideop.

Nice little Q&A with a rideop at SFNE.

Click here.

The questions and answers (especially to the first question) sound as if they came right from the park's PR rep. Color me suspicious....

They get pretty decent pay. It does sound like a PR job.

I actually expected rideops to be paid much higher.

You can be to tall to ride Superman ?

That is definitely a PR job. I was a Superman attendant, and working that ride is not all it's cracked up to be. Superiors are constantly breathing down your neck and guests are constantly not fitting into the ride.

The park specifically tells you not to speak to press without a PR person present, so I'm sure this interview is completely fabricated. Rides is the lowest paying job in the park, since MA minimum wage is $8.00 as of this year.

You can be to tall to ride Superman?

Yup. The Vekoma GIBs (aka the Deja Vus, Stuntman's Fall, etc) have rider height restrctions (72" max, IIRC). It's been a while since I've been to Cedar Point but I think Millie might have one too.

As for the Q&A, what made me suspect about it was primarily the answer to the first question. It seems to me that the best part about being a ride op would be seeing how much fun your guests had on the ride you operated...i.e. knowing you were involved with something that brought joy to so many people regardless if it was a 10-foot tall kiddie coaster or a 220-foot tall hyper (or not even a coaster at all!).

The answer with the stats just felt...forced or canned, for lack of a better description.

*** Edited 6/17/2008 5:47:05 PM UTC by Mamoosh***

~~The following post is of a satirical nature.~~

What's so great about the Superman ride?
Well...uhhh. It goes really high and fast and stuff. People like it a lot but then they make me stay late to clean up the trash and stuff, that sucks. Hold on I got a text message.

So you must have ridden it a lot?
Not really, this is the last place I wanna be on my day off.

Kind of makes my stomach turn.
I know, man. Being here 60 hours a week will do that to you.

The lines get pretty long for Superman, don't they?
Yeah but it's better when they let us run more than 1 train and half of the seats aren't filled with Qbot people.

What sort of questions do you get from the guests?
Why are sodas $4.50? Why is Subway $15? If the soda is 3 times as much as it is everywhere else why does it take 3 times longer to buy it?

How much do you make as a ride attendant?
$8.50 even though my friend at Dunkin' Donuts makes $9.50 and gets to work inside and doesn't have to clean up puke. Hold on she's texting me now.

How do they train you to operate the rides?
The training is very rigorous, however the hardest part was memorizing what days of the week we enforced the "no glasses" rule and which days we don't. (Ok, bear with me...she used to work at a Cedar Fair park.)

For safety purposes, every ride has a posted height requirement. Do people try to get around this restriction?
Yes, but it gets more complicated when people get their kids measured at guest services first, then get measured at the entrance to the ride, and then get measured at the station where we tell them they're too short even though they were tall enough everywhere else.

What about overweight guests?
Yeah this is New England, people like their fried dough around here, lots of fatties.

What are your plans for the future?
Hopefully at the end of the season they'll promote me to a Team Lead. It's twice as much work and twice as much stress but I get a different colored name tag and a 25 cent raise!

^^It all reads like it's lifted for SOP manual rather than someone talking about their job.

Like stated before, part of the employment contract and general training states that you're not to talk to the media without approval. This is generally in the context of being asked about a specific incident in the park but would also include a fluff piece. This is is like PR 101 from someone who dropped out half way through the semester.

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Mamoosh said: As for the Q&A, what made me suspect about it was primarily the answer to the first question. It seems to me that the best part about being a ride op would be seeing how much fun your guests had on the ride you operated...i.e. knowing you were involved with something that brought joy to so many people regardless if it was a 10-foot tall kiddie coaster or a 220-foot tall hyper (or not even a coaster at all!).

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Yup...reeks of PR. I would have said something like, "What's really cool is that I actually get paid to work here!"

Man, if I could survive on the wages, I'd still be working at a park...in spite of some of those a-hole guests you aren't allowed to throttle. ;) It's a lot of fun. And the best part was walking through the quiet park at night after a long day. Wonderful memories.

*** Edited 6/17/2008 6:58:08 PM UTC by janfrederick***

"What are your plans for the future?
Hopefully at the end of the season they'll promote me to a Team Lead. It's twice as much work and twice as much stress but I get a different colored name tag and a 25 cent raise!"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I can relate!

Hold on, I got a text message... classic! Just f'ing classic.