Not allowed to take pics of rides at CP!?
I was at Cedar Point last Monday and Tuesday. Monday was devoted to riding, while I used Tuesday mostly as a day to relax and take photos.
Right about noon on Tuesday I was taking some photos of Mantis which was finally up and running after a morning down. I was standing right near the entrance area in that little offset spot by the first drop next to the loop that seems to have been put there as a photographer's dream. Great shots of the drop, loop and dive loop. After snapping the three photos in rapid sucession I had the ride-op working the entry to the queue (the guy with the stick) run up to me and inform me that it was park policy to not allow guests to photograph the rides. After my initial surprise, I asked why and got the standard "It's park policy" answer. I apologized and moved on.
This is one of the oddest things I've ever heard and I was wondering if anyone else ever got this kind of reaction from employees at CP. To make the situation even more weird, not a single other worker in the park gave me a second glace as I took photos and the ops on the Space Spiral were encouraging it and pointing out nice shots for me. They even used my zoom lens to check out a boat in the lake that they'd never seen there before.
So what's the deal? Misinformed employee or some new policy that I wasn't aware of?
Just for the record (and this is my own conspiracy theory) - I think it had something to do with my camera. I have a decent Pentax SLR with a couple of big lenses. I did notice that no one with simple point and shoot or dispoable cameras got stopped from taking photos in the exact spot I did and shortly after I was asked to stop I saw guests with these types of cameras taking almost the exact same photos of the ride that I was.
It just seemed odd.
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www.coasterimage.com
Dorney Park visits in 2002: 12
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"The opposite of war isn't peace, its creation," Rent.
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*** This post was edited by Rockrc480 on 7/1/2002. ***
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-Eric
Indiana Beach Online | LoCoSuMo Count: 1
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www.coasterimage.com
Dorney Park visits in 2002: 12
The only solution I can think of is that because parks tell you that you may only use pictures for personal and non-commercial use, maybe he thought that since you had a nice camera, that you were going to use those pictures for something commercial. That's the only thing I can think of.
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"You can't kill what's stronger than death" - Zakk Wylde
That's very odd... when I went to CP in '98 and 2000, both times, I was able to take pictures freely, as well as every other park (it makes sense). That's very weird, you can't take pictures off of the rides?
However, at SFMM, I was able to take my camera on the rides and take great on-ride pictures on Goliath, RR, Viper, Superman, and Revolution. The cool part was that on Goliath and Riddler's Revenge, the ride ops noticed and didn't care (or just didn't say anything).
Surprisingly, Six Flags parks seem to be more relaxed on park policies than Cedar Fair.
But back to the main point, that makes no sense to me that you can't take photos of the rides, even as a spectator...
(sorry about my little tangents!)
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#1 Steel- Millennium Force
#1 Wood- Villian
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Why do they report power outages on TV?
I took tons of pictures there. They didn't say anything.
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-Sean Newman
84 coasters in Track Record!! Hypersonic XLC # 100 in July. Waiting for the 305 foot drop tower in 2003. Thank you PKD.
I think the ride op was a crack baby. I've got hundreds of photos on GTTP, many taken while standing in close proximity to PR reps. Heck, they've invited small groups of us to do construction tours in the off-season for the express purpose of shooting!
Send a complaint. The dude was out of line.
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"We used to hate people, now we just make fun of them. It's more effective that way." - KMFDM, "Dogma"
Doesn't CP have those little signs proclaiming certain areas to be "Kodak Photo Spots" or whatever?
You should have stopped by the office and inquired about this.
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everything's better with a banjo
Adam McNeil said:
Surprisingly, Six Flags parks seem to be more relaxed on park policies than Cedar Fair.
Well, this might be a good time to pass along the SFWOA film incident story:
The very next day after the CP incident, we stopped at SFWOA, again with the intent of a few rides and a bunch of photos. I got most of the pics I wanted and was looking to get a good angle on the big dipper. My first thought was the monorail. We quickly got in line as the train was approaching the station. We got on and rode and I got a bunch of photos of Big Dipper and also some of Looney Tunes Boomtown. As the ride was coming to an end (just above the big pool in Hurricane Harbor, I ran out of film and put a new roll in the camera and grabbed 3 shots of S:UE from the monorail. Upon entering the station a ride op came up to the train and said, "Sir, I need you to step over here when the ride stops". I immediately knew what he was going to say.
We stood there and waited for a member of security. The ride op told me it was no big deal, but that taking photos on the monorail was not allowed. In our hurry to catch the train coming in we apparently missed a sign at the entry and missed the line in the pre-ride spiel about not taking photos. Fair enough, I guess, but again there were two ladies in the car in front of us with a small disposable camera who snapped several photos along the ride also who didn't get stopped. It seemed to be another case of my camera getting too much attention.
The ride op and security guy were very friendly and I have no complaints as I supposedly broke the rules. Just like at CP I asked for an explanation and found out it was basically PR control. The security guy explained that from that ride I could get photos of "behind the scenes" things and that Six Flags liked to control the media that left the park. He continued by saying the park likes to chaperone people from the media as they took photos in the park. He kept focusing on an area between the back of Hurricane Harbor and S:UE where there was a building and an ambulance parked and using that area as an example of something they wouldn't want photos of leaving the park.
It was hot and they only had my last 3 photos, so I didn't push the issue. For some reason this guy seemed to be under the impression that I represented some kind of media source and I'm guessing the park was a bit jumpy being as it was only the day after the incident with the worker dying. I suppose they were just trying to protect themselves. I was told I could take any photos I liked from the midways. I then asked about pics from Skyscraper (presented by Kodak :) ) and was told that it's also off limits for photo taking.
I know there's been a few coasterbuzz members who've encountered problems at the park with photo taking so maybe this is the insight that was missing. It's all about PR control and what they think you might see that you shouldn't.
It just makes me wonder what they have to hide...
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www.coasterimage.com
Dorney Park visits in 2002: 12
*** This post was edited by Lord Gonchar on 7/1/2002. ***
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If coasters are your life, than maybe you need to re-examine your life.
That makes no sense. People can see into the "restricted areas" in person anyway. If they don't want it to be seen then don't park it below a monorail.
I'll stick to small parks: ("Umm, I don't think there is a picture taking policy. Just don't complain if you drop your camera" - Park office)
:)
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Off with the trims!
My fellow Americans; Let's Roll!
Woodencoaster.com
The problem I have with SFWoA is that this is not a posted policy ANYWHERE that I've seen. They gave me crap about shooting Villain once from the out-of-park picnic area. I tend to agree that it's like they don't want you to leave with something they're trying to hide.
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Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com, Sillynonsense.com
"We used to hate people, now we just make fun of them. It's more effective that way." - KMFDM, "Dogma"
Situations like this are not limited to just parks.
Check out what happened to a good friend of mine at a recent carnival event here in Livonia MI.
Lord Gonchar, I can't believe that. Boy! I can understand parks not wanting people taking pictures from a thrill ride, but a mono-rail? And to have two problems in two days, sounds like bad luck. I wonder what they do with digital camara photos? I almost want to go take a few shots and change the cf card before the end of the ride and see what they do. Maybe it was just because you had such a nice camera.
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The worst day at Cedar Point is better than the best day at work.
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