I love ride-ops

[IceDragon]

I'm not sure if this is in the right place, so i shall kneel to the powers of the mods.

I went to Thorpe Park a few days ago and decided to go on The Samurai, my favourite flat ride there. They were having technical problems all day, so I got my seat on the end of the arm right next to the ride-ops booth. They closed all the restraints except for ours and completely ignored it for some reason.

All the ops returned to the booth and gave the 'all-clear'. The op pressed the button and the ride shuddered into life, our restraints still open. The whole row was bricking it, screaming at the ops.

What actually happened was their radio was giving feedback and they were getting pissed off by it, so they basically turned them off. The ops operating the restraints were called back for their opinion. The shudder was just a gust of wind that hit the weighted arm at the top. The ride had never started.


It was really really scary, but fairly fitting for some reason... anything like this happened to anyone else?

[AlpineDL]

I see similar stuff (but in a stupid way) all the time.

Wait for us! We don't have our seatbelts!

Welcome! Go ahead and start buckling please, there are two more stops. *shthunk* (Car starts slowly rolling forward from load)

WAIT WE AREN'T BUCKLED UP!

Jimbo there will help you if you aren't ready at the next stop.

WE DONT HAVE OUR SEATBELTS ON!!!1

Just go ahead and buckle up please.

MY KID! HIS SEATBELT ISN'T ON! STOP THE RIDE!!!

By that point the child (with the seat belt on), horribly embarrassed for his screaming freaking out parent, is all ready to go, and the SG yelling is still turned around flipping out and flailing the seatbelts around wildly in a panic and will then cause dispatch to be delayed and yell at the belt checker how that maniac "sent them on the ride" without them being buckled up.


Now if something actually was potentially wrong and guests yelled about it, good for them (and good for you). So far I've had two major emergency stops or call-maintenance-to-check evaluations in my ride operator career, and both were confused SG's freaking out over nothing and responding cluelessly to basic questions that would've made things clear if they weren't idiots. Like "You saw someone IN the ride, or FROM the ride?" three times, and "IN" coming back to me three times... then the "yes, from the ride!" right after I hit the e-stop stranding 50 people on the ride and effectively kicking out 100 more in line. :twitch: You did right though, but most likely the ride can't be started without the restraints being fairly proper.

[DLRFantasmic!Dan]

Oh, I can't count how many times at Astro Orbitor when the freaked out parents yell, "Don't start yet, I am not buckled in!" Gees!!

[Morticia]

When I was a kid, we went on a roller coaster called the Loch Ness Monster. I remember it vividly because, as it was pulling out of the station, everyone gave a tug on their shoulder harnesses to check them, as one does. Every harness flew up.

Fortunately, that, they noticed and stopped the ride (looping coaster).

[Freak]

Bleh, it got to the point at some attractions (Xcelerator) when the ride op in dispatch would announce that the lapbars would be coming up, nobody would care or notice. We tried saying it more than once, making it louder, etc....but nothing worked. So we went back to announcing the lapbars would be coming up one time, and then unlocking them.

And then of course when we unlocked the lapbars Id be standing around near the train going "OH NO WHAT HAPPENED!?!?!" And watching the looks on everyones faces.

Freaked everyone out. :p:

(Yeah no I dont really feel bad for it either, it usually made everyone laugh.)

And yes, we did re-lock the restraints. Number one reason why we had to unlock them? PEOPLE FORGETTING TO PUT THEIR SEATBELTS ON. FAIL.