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Over-enthusiastic ride ops - Like, Dislike or Meh?

Ian

Ian

From CoasterForce
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I'm sure we've all been on a ride where the ride op tries to encourage the riders to cheers, shout, clap and whoop. Does this add to the ride (or the whole park) experience or do you find it annoying?

This ride op at Adventure Island was really enthusiastic when I visited a few weeks ago. In fact they all were.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHMz_VUt1f8[/youtube]

It is actively encouraged by the park management using financial and award incentives. The idea is they create the cheesy funfair atmosphere for all guests throughout the day.

I can't stand robotic, personality-void ride ops. I like pleasant and cheerful. False, OTT enthusiasm is borderline annoying.

Do you care? Does it make any difference to your day? Do any examples you can share?
 
It makes me cringe.

Be efficient. Be polite. Smile. Don't stand around on your phone or chatting with other staff at the expense of the guests.

That's all that's needed for me to rate the staff highly.
 
What I really dislike are at many US parks those horrible squeaky and very cheap speaker systems and microphones they have. They are just an insult to visitors ears. If you need to make all kind of - IMO totally superfluous - announcements, give them a nice Bose sound system.

Generally I do not know why at many parks there are so many vocal announcements. Most of them could be easily replaced with hand signs or optical lights like green/red. Also like the idea of acoustic horns when a ride starts like at German fairs.
 
Can't stand it.... how about instead of saying over the PA "make some noise!"..... You just dispatched the train.
 
For me, it's simple. Act like you're interested in what you're doing, be polite, and try to have a degree of fun with it. The ride ops at CoasterMania were great about this and made the night so much more fun than it already was. I also find the whole **** talking contest that goes on in the Beast and Diamondback stations at night amusing (essentially, at night the two ride crews talk smack about the other ride and it's amusing and funny). Occasionally, if they're really getting into it I'll find it pretty funny, four years ago we got a guy for Rip Roarin' Rapids at Carowinds that was really loud and having a ton of fun and it was hilarious.

I draw the line at the whole "get the whole train to make some noise" thing. I find it annoying and nobody ever does it. However, it's miles ahead of those horrible cretins that are just trying to get through their shift and literally do not care. Stricker's is a prime example of this, from what I saw their training manual is literally, "load train, yank restraints, dispatch train, **** around on your phone until it comes back, repeat." I'll take too much enthusiasm over no enthusiasm any day.
 
I think the staff are fantastic as Adventure Island! It's fantastic for children as it gets them excited and it's good to see people enjoying their job. I feel like this would only work a certain parks, like Adventure Islands Ops wouldn't work at a park like Towers or Pleasure Beach but would be excellent at a park like Fantasy Island.

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SimonSays99 said:
What I really dislike are at many US parks those horrible squeaky and very cheap speaker systems and microphones they have.
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A thousand times yes! This was something I didn't notice until a few parks starting switching to better quality speakers - night and day difference.

Efficiency and throughput is always the top priority. It's a priority for the park management. It's a priority for the ride staff. So if we were to build a Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, let us consider efficiency the most basic need.

Once we have that established, then we can consider politeness and enthusiasm of ride ops. I believe a happy balance can be struck - working quick jabs into the rider speech while checking lap bars for instance.

So as many, I appreciate enthusiasm of ride ops, as long as it isn't at the expense of ride operation.
 
^ Multitasking? There's a reason they work for minimum wage in a dead-end job.
 
However, many parks have a lap bar checker with the microphone, with a separate ride op covering the heavy lifting of dispatch duties.
 
Oh god the people giving commentaries at Cedar Fair parks </3 so enthusiastic.

As a good British boy I hate all that crap, check my bar, avoid eye contact with me and dispatch ASAP.
 
>>>>I H A T E I T<<<<

I realize most of the ride ops in question have probably been told it's their job to be enthusiastic and get people excited, but that's such a serious misstep. An operator's job is to keep guests safe and make the rides go, end of job description. What happens instead is they make a lot of very annoying noises and either rush through all the safety info or say it in such a horrible affected way that you can't take it seriously. I've had ops refuse to dispatch trains until everyone screams, I've had ops who make fun of guests in the station, I've had ops who make sexual comments about women over the mic. It's my #1 pet peeve at every park I visit, even above line jumping.
 
As long as it isn't affecting the dispatches of the ride, and doesn't ruin the theme of the ride, I don't mind it.

If staff are trying all the ridiculous 'Make some noise' calls that you hear more at your local fairground, it normally affects ride dispatches, is cringeworthy and very few people are actually willing to get into it in my opinion.

What really annoys me though is when you get ride ops who clearly like the sound of their own voice too much and spoil a ride's atmosphere. I've heard ops speak over the PA in Vampire at Chessington's loads of time, and no matter how much they try and theme it, it just rips out any atmosphere there was in station. Similar thing on Swarm happened earlier this season, when the ride op was telling jokes over the PA system which could be heard across the WHOLE Swarm island; that was just awful.

I don't mind it if staff have a bit of fun between dispatches, especially if there's nothing else they can do. And I guess the over-enthusiasm has its place in places like funfairs too. But basically, I just want to see the staff get the job done with a smile on their face, and have a bit of fun inbetween when they can. Basically like any job with anyone who works with the public.
 
In general, I hate the faux enthusiasm. They don't want it, I don't want it, some suit in head office decided it should happen and it makes both of us uncomfortable.

Though I do remember AI's staff being brilliant for just being genuine.
 
I think cultural differences are a factor here, I remember in Florida when I was 10, at the end of The Spiderman ride people were high fiving each other shouting "That was awesome dude!" etc but theres more likelihood of a B&M giga for Alton Towers than that happening in the UK. It wouldn't matter if it was an intense world class coaster like Skyrush, in the UK if you don't find a ride 'meh' or 'ok' and start cheering and clapping, people will look at you like your a **** lunatic. Recently in Spain aswell, people would often clap at the end of Shambhala and me and James felt awkward when trying to join in because we're true Brits. Its the same with ride ops, in Britain we just want to be strapped in and dispatched, no **** drama.
 
I'm not a fan of overly enthusiastic ride ops as it makes me cringe. I just want to enjoy the ride in peace without the silly attempts at creating some form of noise.
 
As a good British boy I hate all that crap, check my bar, avoid eye contact with me and dispatch ASAP.
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And if they're hot, cop a cheeky feel obviously ;)

If someone sincerely enjoys their job and just is genuinely fabulous, than I enjoy it. I don't want it to screw with efficiency because I hate waiting. It's nice for someone to show a bit of personality in any job really, but I don't expect to go to a restaurant for example, and have the waitress make me shout about how excited I am for my food to come. If she's not a robot and is actually talking to me on a human level though, that's always nicer than the people who come in and just do their job and collect their cash. Same with ride ops. And I will never be the one to sit there, chant, and hoot and holler. That's such an American thing and I genuinely can't stand it.

One of my favourite ride ops ever is still Tarsha at Martin's Fantasy Island. She was a ghetto fabulous, hungover black lady who hated her job and made it known. <3
 
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