Ride Op Rotation Systems

I'm kinda fuzzy on this subject but I do know that procedure is different from park to park. At Cedar Point the ride ops are pretty much fixed onto one ride, right? And then you just rotate jobs for that one ride. I can see the advatages of this because it creates a competitive spirit among the ride crews and ride ops tend to really know the ins and outs of their ride by the end of the season. Of course, CP can do this because they don't have major staffing problems like some parks do. I'd imagine that the Disney parks work the same way but I don't really know.

Which I suppose is why at some Six Flags you have a zone that you work in, and then you have a set of rides that you are certified for, and then you rotate from ride to ride as needed. Or is that how it works at all Six Flags? Is there a company wide policy on this? Is there a company standard at the Paramount parks, too?

I totally see advantages to either system, but I was just wondering what other people's thoughts were, and how the systems work at other parks.

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If the shoe fits, find another one.

Having worked at SFOT for 5 seasons I can tell you this. In 95 you were assigned to an area of the park, and were trained on all of those rides and rotated each day. From then on You were assigned to 1 ride that you worked all season, but could be sent to another ride if needed. SFOT rides and grounds crew now all where the same uniform so that when you are sent to another ride you do not look out of place from the rest of the crew. This was done to give the guests added comfort, because they never know when an employee has been moved from their orginial location.

The way my park does rotations is that the park is divided into small ride groups with around 4 positions and then the operators move around the group while one operator takes their break. But I have never witnessed the joy of rotating, most of the time the operator is at one position for the entire shift.

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At SFEG, TFC is coming! ;)

It does depend on the park but it also depends on the ride or rides you work on. At CP, the major attractions like coasters have opps that work mainly on one ride. They rotate from position to position as to advoid boredom and to learn all they can. They group less major attractions together and sometimes call it a triangle. For an example, some of CP's ride opps work at the Chaos/Monster/Matterhorn triangle. It is also the same with kids areas like Camp Snoopy (where I worked), Kids Kingdom, and Junior Jemini Childrens Area. The opps at these areas will rotate from ride to ride as it dosn't take a whole bunch of people to opperate flat rides, Especially kids rides.

I only remember IOA putting DD and Flying Unicorn together and all of Suess Landing together (Cat in the Hat, If I ran the Zoo, and One Fish Two Fish) but I could be wrong.

At both of these parks it wasn't uncommen for an opp to "rescue" or otherwise help out somewhere that they may not work at regularly when an attraction is understaffed.

I have noticed that people who work at IOA usually get to stay at thier island when they "rescue" at other attractions. If they don't then they have to go to wardrobe first and get a new uniform that corrisponds to the island they are going to.

I hope this helps; sometimes I ramble

Valleyfair is split up into different areas where you've got most of the ride ops trained on every ride in their area, and then you rotate every couple of days from ride to ride to break up the monotony.

However, Team Leads stay at their ride the whole time

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Excalibur Crew for 2002!

Adventuredome:

Ops are hired into Horizon (smaller attractions). You learn those attractions and rotate between them. Once management thinks you are ready (and there are open spots), you get hired into Central (larger attractions). You then rotate between these rides. The system has its faults as sometimes you are stuck in a position for hours ( 6 hours at the Rim Runner lift is soooooo not fun). Then came the rotation freezes.............eeeewwww.

MGM Grand:

Before we all went to on call for private parties, everyone worked a single 8 hour shift. Each day you were assigned to a ride and rotated positions within that ride every hour. This system was very smooth.

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"ok everyone go ahead and pull down on your shoulder restraint so you feel nice and stuck!"