Stupid Guest Tricks

SRT_GB wrote:The worst part is that these people that are
supposedly "morbidly obese" can be considered as "permanently
disabled" and are covered under the ADA.

Anybody remember "the fat sisters?" A couple of lardo annual
passholders... They wanted to be backdoored on everything because
they said they were too fat to fit through the turnstyles... They wouldn't
even ask sometimes, they would just open gates or drop ropes. I
remember Terry F (little Japanese C.M. - older guy with a funny voice)
telling them "now you stop that nonsense - you know you fit through
the turnstyle!" I remember one hot summer day when one of them
tried whispering in my ear that they needed to go through the backdoor
because they were too fat to fit through the Mansion turnstyle and she
ended up not only spitting, but slobbering all over my shoulder
(eeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Unfortunately, I quit
before Indy was officially open. We couldn't wait to see how they were
going to behave with wheelie-accessable queues.

I think the worst stunt they tried to pull was at Splash. When their log
came back into the station Stacy S, one of our area supervisors
happenned to be in the unload side of the station. Anyway, the really big
one made this big show of asking for a wheelchair before getting out of
the log and in the meantime, everyone on the crew knew them (including
Stacy) and was telling them to shake a leg so we could get the next
group in. I can't remember which cm told her that there was nothing
wrong with her and she needed to exit immediately (of course, the rest
of the guests were mortified that the crew was picking on this poor fat
woman). Fat chick made this big show of getting out of the log and
pretending to be deathly ill, then she faked a faint on the unload dock
(ever hear and feel 300 pounds of blubber slapping on that
dock???) :shock: Anyway, Stacy went walking up to her and said very
calmly "there's nothing wrong with you, get up." Then she announced to
the guests who were all standing and sitting there with their jaws open
that "we know this girl and she's perfectly fine." Fat chick had no choice
but to open her eyes as her face was turning beet red and stomp out the
exit after being completely humiliated infront of all the crew and guests.
Took about a month for them to come back after that one. But
thank goodness for a supervisor like Stacy - need more of those to deal
with some of those idiot ap's.

I was working at the Hatmosphere when it happened, supposedly. A
friend of mine came by laughing that Rosanne couldn't get into the
Skyway bucket. Not sure if he meant at all or if it took her a long time.
Does anybody remember that? It was around 1993? 94? I was
bummed that I missed it. I never found out if it was true.

BB Blueyes wrote:I was working at the Hatmosphere when it happened, supposedly. A friend of mine came by laughing that Rosanne couldn't get into the Skyway bucket.

Oh gosh, I was there in the early 80's and remember seeing what looked
like the parting of the red sea up on the monorail platform for Dolly
Parton. What was really funny was that while she was on, the ride went
101. We were joking for weeks that her *excess* build threw the train
off balance!

mahaihai wrote:At least i can understand why that is considered a disability worthy of an SAP (special assistance pass), but why in the world do things like a broken arm, depression, and an ingrown toenail classify? GRK or Tourbunny care to comment? :?

Here's the deal with the SAP's:

1) We can not require documentation, and we are not allowed to ask for it.
2) We can not ask what their disability is.

3) We CAN offer alternatives to the pass (ie: wheelchairs)
4) We ARE required to issue a pass if they insist on one.
5) We CAN ask "What kind of assistance" do they need (ie: staris, shade, etc...)

I have the worst feeling in the world when healthy 18 year olds come into City Hall, requesting a pass, and I'm required to issue them one, even though they don't know what type of assistance they need.

It makes me feel bad for those who actually NEED the pass.

- GRK

Yeah, it's pretty bad when you have them in your SAP queue, behind a
family whose kid is in a motorized chair (or other obviously permanent
device), and they start whining about how much longer is it going to be,
etc etc. Uh, sorry kids, I don't see any of you having much difficulty
standing there, why is it the family in front of you (who has to wait
longer, due to limited chair parking on the station) isn't pissing and
moaning about the wait? Oh yeah, because they actually have a
disability and understand that it takes time to accommodate everyone
with special needs!

why can't city hall ask for some kind of doumentation when the disability is not obvious?When we went to Knotts they wanted a Dr note and ID. My 6 yr old had no ID so they wrote his description on the back of the card.

SRT_GB wrote:The worst part is that these people that are supposedly "morbidly obese"
can be considered as "permanently disabled" and are covered under the
ADA. Makes me cringe when these fat people come to us on busy days
after we've run out of ECVs and they say something like, "I'm disabled, I
need one." The old ECVs had a weight limit of 350 pounds and these
people who weighed somewhere near 500 always wondered why their
batteries would go out so fast.

I agree that being fat/obese is a health problem and it needs to be fixed.
But I don't think that should be a permanent disability. Too many people
take advantage of the system. Ok i'm moralizing. Time to stop now.

Damn right! A guy i used to work with found out about this. SOO he really let himself go(he was pretty big to begin with). He let himself balloon to over 400lbs. Now he's retired and collecting disabilaty. On our dime.

Weeble wrote:One of the most distressing things to do in attractions was to determine if a guest was pregnant so they could ride. This happened to me most often on BTM and it was usually a lot of hemming and hawing about who was going to ask the guest if they were pregnant. I had my fair share of "NO, I'M NOT PREGNANT, DO I LOOK IT???"

I was always surprised by the number of visibly pregnant guests who would insist on riding the roller coaster even after being informed that they could KILL THEIR BABY IF THERE WAS AN E-STOP! :shock:

Sadly, it had been a long time for me since I worked at the park, but I am surprised that you are supposed to do that. I would have thought they would be afraid of offending people so they would just leave it up to the signs to warn them! I would hate to be the one to have to be asking though!

Luckily, when I worked at Knott's, I never had a guest who got offended over our implying that they were too fat to ride. Actually, they were pretty realistic about their size, and very understanding. About the only time I had a "weight issue" come up, was when I was doing Woodstock's Airmail in Camp Snoopy, and I had this one fat 5 or 6 year old boy who couldn't get on the ride unit by himself. His parents asked if I could help him. I tried, but the kid was too heavy. I explained to the parents that I'm not allowed to lift more than 50 lbs., but I had to tell them that like 3 times before they caught on--that kid must've weighed close to 90 lbs! The weight limit on that ride is less than 600 lbs. for the "flight crew", and it holds 6 people max. I have had a few people think I implied that they weighed 600 lbs., but I was always able to avoid getting torn to pieces by quickly reiterating that the weight limit applied to the total number on board. Then there was this one very heavy lady, who was blessed with a sense of humor and an inventive mind. I was at the Grand Sierra Steamtrain in Camp Snoopy, and she couldn't get her foot high enough to make the 14" step into the car. Failing to get in like everyone else, she gamely tried sitting in the doorway of the car, with a mind to scooting in on her heinie. Didn't work, though--she just didn't have the leverage. But she was cool about it, got back in her wheelchair and let the rest of her party ride while she waited in the depot. I'd also had some large people manage to cram themselves into the cars at Charlie Brown Speedway, then ask what the weight limit is (350 lbs. total, but it was never enforced). I always told them if they can get in and out of the car okay, they can ride. I had a few very tall guys, plus a couple with leg prostheses get in and out, with little or no trouble. And at Calico Railroad, whenever I had to let someone in throught the HC gate, I'd smile and say "Here's the entrance for special people". They always got a kick out of that one.

Yeah, I got lots of large guests when I used to work at Knotts at Supreme Scream. I tried to buckle them in with restraints, but it just wouldn't reach and had them leave. It was sad.