Theme Park Worker Problems

Whether you have experience as ticket takers, ride ops, janitorial service, life guard, food service, or whatever, you can come here to vent. (Or share that occasional awesome guest.)

[theme-park-probz]

Fuck dining passes

So at my park we have these passes that offer certain lunches and snacks that can be claimed at the particular restaurant I work at. However certain meals can only be claimed at certain times (lunch until 3:30 dinner until 8:30) I can still give them their meal half an hour after the particular time period is over to account for those still waiting in lines. There are always people trying to claim their meal even more than an hour after the meal expires and after tell them their card won't scan because of that and they always ask to see a manager. Also a ton of people buy the dining pass online but don't have it on their card since they haven't redeemed it and when I tell them I can't give them their food they alway blow up like WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR LIKE AN HOUR like chill this register has only been open for like 20 min

[theme-park-probz]

Drunk driving?

I didn't witness this story, but heard of it when I first started in food service at my park. A guy rented am otorized wheelchair from guest relations and used it to go from bar to bar and get himself drinks. (We supposed to follow a recommendation of 2 drinks per person in a 4 hour period to help avoid drunk guests.) We have the right to deny alcohol to a guest for any reason, including if they're drunk. So this guy decided that using a motorized wheelchair would keep people from realizing he was drunk so he could get even more alcohol. Evidently, it worked pretty well until he started running into people with it.

It just makes me wonder who would pay that much money to get drunk at a theme park? First you have to pay to park, then pay to get in, then pay for the wheelchair, then pay for multiple overpriced drinks. Pretty sure it'd be cheaper to get your alcohol at the big box store down the street and either smuggle it in or run to your car when you need to get drunk. (Although getting back in if you're actually drunk might be problematic.)

[theme-park-probz]

No bag policy #2

We had a fairly busy Sunday during our Halloween stuff. I was at the mine ride panel when we had to tell a lady about our bag policy. I didn't hear the conversation, but it ended with her standing at the exit, waiting for her group. Her bag was a fairly small purse, but not small enough to fit into a pocket. While she was still waiting, she accused us of letting other bags on. There was apparently one bag, and on the train we were loading, a girl had, according to this lady, put a "large camera" under her shirt. She was talking about someone in the 2nd car. I looked at the girl I though she was telling my coworker about. I couldn't see a bulge that would have given away that she had a huge camera under her shirt.

During this, my one coworker, J, seemed to only be able to say "Rules are rules, ma'am." It wasn't even in that great of a tone. Okay lady, I understand that you feel wronged, but we're only human, we may let bags on by accident. (When that girl got back that had a huge camera, I did see her take something out from her shirt. I was one of those see through pouches for your phone, which we actually do let on.

The lady said that she was there for a large company picnic that they do every year, but we're going to lose a lot of business because they won't be coming back. Unless she's a higher up in that company, I doubt if they'd discontinue the practice just because one person had a bad experience.

[theme-park-probz]

No bag policy

My home ride has a strict no bag policy. Pretty much if you have anything other than a fanny pack or a medical bag, you either have to leave it with a non-rider or in a locker at the front of the line. We have 2 signs at the front of the line explaining this as well as a locker attendant to catch any bags as they walk into the entrance.

Despite this, we still have people who try to ride with a bag or leave it to the side. When we catch this, we tell them they'll either have to leave it with a non-rider or in a locker. I really wish I had a dollar for every time someone who is trying to ride with a bag then asks if they can leave it to the side or vice versa. Like, did I tell you that was an option?

[theme-park-probz]

Why? Just...why?

I was at the drop tower ride one day during the summer. I and my mine ride lead, S, were at the 2 enable panels, and K as at panel. We just started a cycle when the phone rang. K picked it up, and when he hung up, he said, "S, I have a funny story for you."

When the cycle was over, S made it to panel a little before me. I was close enough, though, to think I heard the story. Just to be sure, I asked, "Someone pooped on the mine ride?" Yes, and the lead over there called to let S know. She called to let our supervisor, M, know too (or at least to find out for sure how to clean it up, or whatever). M happened to be in the office at the time. When M first heard it, she asked, "Wait, someone pulled down their pants and pooped on the mine ride?" Everyone else in the office stopped what they were doing, turned around in their swivel chairs, and asked, "They did WHAT on the mine ride?"

[theme-park-probz]

Really? You want me to believe THAT?

I was doing enable at the mine ride, helping to load one of the trains. I ask a parent to height check their girl. She was 39 inches. Our height requirement is 42 inches. The parents said a couple times that she rode 2 years ago. I told them that she shouldn't have been allowed to then and I wouldn't be able to let her ride now. They leave, but the whole time I'm thinking, "If she's 39 inches now, I really hope she didn't ride back then."

[theme-park-probz]

Mother's Day

I was working Mother's Day this year, which is always busy, at least partly due to it being a bring a friend free day for pass holders. I was at enable at the mine ride and had to height check this kid. (Now mind you, the mine ride is tied as having the shortest height requirement of our coasters.) The mom gets out with him. I tell her that he's too short. She ended up picking him up as she said, very snottily, "Thanks a lot." She left with the rest of her group. On their way out, she once again very snottily said, "Thanks a lot."

That lady needed so much sass. I was tempted to tell her in my best polite and cheerful voice, "You're very welcome. Anything to keep your kid safe." That lady just made it sound like I had just ruined their entire day by not letting the kid ride.

[theme-park-probz]

Liars

I was out doing lockers one day. I had this family come up with three girls of different ages who were all wearing the same type of t-shirt. I asked to height check the youngest, who was too short. One of the parents said, "But we just rode 15 minutes ago." Oh really? Because I've been here for the last hour and I would have noticed 3 girls all in the same shirt.

[theme-park-probz]

Grabbed

I had just gotten to work on a Saturday night during our Halloween stuff less than an hour before this incident happened. I was front loader at the mine ride with J at panel and K at enable (both J and K are guys). The panel is right next to our exit gate. We had just unloaded the one train and were letting the next people board. The three of us were standing by the panel, talking. All of a sudden a hand firmly grasps my shoulder from behind. It's a guy who's exiting and he tells me that after work he's going to get me. He lets go and I look back at K and J scared and like what the f***.  The guy's apparently still there by the exit and says, "I'm just kidding." Like, no, man, if one person fears for their safety, it's not a joke. Not to mention that grabbing my shoulder like that was a huge invasion of personal space. It's just a good thing I'm not like many unfortunate ladies who that would have triggered. Maybe I should have called security on his @$$ right then and there.

[theme-park-probz]

Adult talk

One recent Sunday night during our Halloween stuff, we closed at 9, which is same time that our kiddie rides close on Friday and Saturday nights when the rest of the park stays open until 11 and midnight, respectively. I had to go to each of our 3 kiddie rides to make sure they were clean before sending everybody home. I was checking the last one as one of my team members, an older guy, goes to pick up a half eaten pickle in a pouch from behind a fence. Two of our 16/17 year old workers were waiting to be cleared by the control booth, one of whom asks him if he wants someone to tickle his pickle. He said, "No, thanks. My wife will take care of that when I get home."

The girl that started it rightly said, "That's what happens when you work the kiddie area all night."

[theme-park-probz]

Oh, the shortness

In 2016, I was at the locker attendant position for the mine ride for the last hour or so before the park closed. I had this family come up. I asked if the youngest, a girl, was planning on riding. The dad said yes. I asked to height check her. She ended up being 4 inches too short, despite the parents saying she'd been riding all summer. (Those liars.) They ask if she could at least walk up with them. I said yes, but I still had a feeling that they were still going to try to have her ride.

After I closed the line for the night, I go up and ask the panel operator about the girl, describing her. He said he saw her and told the person responsible for her and her dad's car to height check her. The loader goes up and asks the dad to height check her. He says in a nasty tone, "She's not tall enough." Then he proceeds to pick her up and PLOP her on the dock. They then stand inside of the exit gate, which doesn't lock closed for sending out/bringing in trains, so we actually have to make sure it's closed with no one inside it while the train's in motion. The panel operator asks them to stand behind the gate. The dad then asks, again in a nasty tone, "We just can't do anything right, can we?" Well, it'd help if you didn't blatantly ignore the rule I told you as you went up.

[theme-park-probz]

Sass

I was at the mine ride's panel at closing one Monday night. We had just switched over from closing at 9 to closing at 8. Our line was closed at 8, and I told our last group as we were dispatching them to enjoy the last ride of the night. We bring in the other train, unload it with no problems, send it too. We bring in the filled train. As part of my welcome back spiel, I tell them the park is now closed, but it's not too late to get ice cream, a funnel cake, or a souvenir. (I know the food service/retail people probably hate an upsell like that, but it's part of our thing.) Everyone gets off except this lady and her daughter. They're just sitting there. The three of us who had been on dock and our locker person who had crossed over on the empty train were all looking at each other like, "What the heck? Why aren't they leaving?" One of us asked, "Who's gonna tell them?" I didn't want to because hadn't I already made it obvious? So, my now co-lead takes the mic and says, "You know we close at 8, right?" "I thought you closed at 9." "No, we just switched to closing at 8." All this he was being polite and informative with, but the lady gets up and says as she's leaving with her daughter, "Well, you don't have to be sassy about it. You're the sassiest person I know." And ironically, she said it in a really sassy tone.

[theme-park-probz]

Refill Guy

Our food service has refillable bottles. (My 1st year, we had just the one that was free refills on the day of purchase, then you could buy unlimited free refills on return visits or pay $1 per refill. Since then, we've had that same type of bottle, plus one that get free refills all season.)

If you had free refills for that one-day, you'd get a wristband. It was 1 bottle per wristband, although there were ways to get around that. This one guy, however, wasn't too smart about it. He wanted to get 2 bottles refilled with 1 wristband. I refill one, but explain I wouldn't be able to refill the other for free. He was like, "Okay, let's hide this filled one. Can you get me a cola in this empty one?" No, dude, it doesn't work like that. Finally he gave up on me and started going around the line divider that we had at the bar I was at during this. (It was also a slower day, he was our only customer at this point.) He starts coming up to my coworker's side. I tell her not to refill his bottle. He's like, "Seriously?" Yes, dude, you can't think we're going to be idiots because you're too cheap and/or lazy to do things properly.

[theme-park-probz]

Understaffed

Things have been bad this year because we've been really understaffed. And that's the whole park, not just rides. Although, at one point later in the summer, somebody happened to ask my supervisor while she was near me at one of the kiddie rides how many people the park employs. She gives a few numbers of the park in general, then mentions that our department should have 500 workers at that point (I think this was around mid-late July), but only had about 300. I could tell we were struggling. For example, the mine ride is supposed to have 3 people on dock with 2 trains, which is what we usually operate with. The higher ups decided that with full-time supervisor approval, we could drop front loader, who is responsible for loading/unloading the cars 1 & 2 (of 5). Now, this ride has completely manual restraints. We have to step on a pedal to raise and lower the restraints on all 3 rows of each car. When we drop front loader, the enable/back loader person has to unload all 5 cars, wait for people to board, and then lock and check all 5 cars again, all in (hopefully) about 2.5 minutes. Try doing that in 90+ degree/high humidity weather. I'm surprised nobody got sick from overheating.

We're still understaffed, especially with a lot of our high school & college students back in school. Many of them either quit for the season to focus on school or are at reduced hours.

Or we've lost people to other jobs. (As a side note, I got promoted to lead, which has a different story.) Just around the time that promotions had been decided, one of my leads at the mine ride put in her 2 weeks because of getting a new job. The supervisors had to decide on a 4th person from our area to promote. Then, not too long after the lead training class, our other lead at the mine ride put in his 2 weeks. (Then stopped showing up.) Our 3rd lead's been away at school for the most part. One of the others that got promoted was also from the mine ride. Originally, I was going to move to the swings to be a lead there, and he was going to be lead at the boomerang ride, and others would get moved around. But because the one lead put in her 2 weeks, I got moved back to the mine ride. Then, the other lead put in his 2 weeks, so now it's the 2 of us new leads as the mine ride leads. I like having him as a co-lead, though; I think we have a really good working relationship.

[theme-park-probz]

I'm back

Sorry I've been gone so much. Things were really crazy this summer. I'll get to more stories soon.

[theme-park-probz]

Labor Day Weekend 2014, Part 2

Sunday was busier, but (fortunately), we had 1-2 leads/supes at almost any time helping me and J. (For a while, one of them was even our department manager.) In the morning before it got too busy and before we had anyone else helping, I was against the back counter, working on the nachos. Our department manager liked to have the nachos made a certain way to help with portion control, namely to make 2 neat rows of chips in the tray. The trays that were already in the warmer looked like somebody just dumped a handful or two in the tray. J was helping a customer.  There was maybe one more person/couple behind them. A woman comes up to my register and asks if I'm open. (Well, technically, yes, but do you not see that I'm a little busy over here?) I said something about having her go to J's line. J says something . I tell him I'm busy fixing the nachos. He tried to fight with me over it. I tell him finally to quit arguing and serve the customers. He told the lady something along the lines of Sorry, but she's refusing to serve you. Yeah, sure, badmouth me some more, because that turned out well yesterday.

[theme-park-probz]

Labor Day Weekend 2014, Part 1

When I was in food service, I spent most of both summers as the only American regular in the waterpark. Many of our food service workers from April through mid to late August were work and travel people, or "internationals". The park would work it out with an organization from their home countries for a certain number of workers to come to the park to work at least so many hours a week. (The worker had to pay their own air fare and room and board, although the park always organized a block of rooms set aside for them at the motel down the road.) In 2014, there were 4 internationals that were regulars at the bar until they had to leave. The last one's last weekend was the one before Labor Day weekend.

Labor Day weekend comes around. I get to the bar with my till a little after 9 (park opens at 10:30). A guy, J, comes by and asks me if I needed him to get a till. Uh, yeah? We have 2 registers and I'm the only other one here, so what do you think? It seemed to take him a while to get it. After he set up his drawer, I knew I had to show him how to do stuff (mainly show him how to make smoothies and the frozen cocktails). A lead, D, came over with a clipboard for whatever reason. At first, I was going to wait until after he left to show stuff to J so we wouldn't get in each other's ways, but then I decided heck with it, I'm just gonna start.

Because of some rain, it was a slower day. D came over to take my till out so I could lock it up in my lock box and go on break. After I had eaten, I had to stop by the office about my schedule. As I was walking back towards one of the entrances to the break area (since I still had a few minutes), one of the regulars from one of the main park's bars. saw me and said they really needed me in the water park.  told him I still had a few minutes left of my break before I had to start walking back. He said that the full time supe, L, was looking for me. I did sit in the break area for a little bit, but not as long as I could have because I was wondering what was going on that was so urgent for me to be back. As I was heading back towards the pathway to the water park, I saw L coming out. It looked like she saw me and wanted to come see me. She said J was "telling everyone: that I left without saying anything or showing him how to do anything. Sure, I hadn't said anything as I was leaving, but it shouldn't take a genius to figure out I was going on break or somewhere where I didn't need a till, but not showing him anything was a straight up lie. I told L that I did show him everything, D was even there when I started. She said D told the area supe, S, who in turn told her. The part that bugs me even now, 2 1/2 years later is that it sounded like everyone was believing him. Like, have I been that poor of an employee for you guys to believe his word over my performance this year?