Messing up the show
Posted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 9:04 pm
So today, I got started on a run, had a group that seemed pretty good at first (and I think most of them were) up until we got to the first animals.
In the front row was a family with a little girl who, every time she saw an animal, she would scream "OH, MY GOD!"
After about the second turn, we never had another animal get within 50 feet of the truck, she would say that in the middle of my spiel and interrupt me, and she was so loud at it that I could hear her in the onboard speakers, which means my microphone was picking her up and projecting her even louder to the rest of the people on the truck.
I figured that if I just shut up and didn't continue the facts and spiel every time she did that, Mommy would get the drift and shut her up. No such luck.
Now, I have this thing that if I am trying to talk or put on a presentation and I can hear the words you are saying, it interrupts my verbal train of thought and stops me dead in my tracks, although I can keep driving. So I got to a point where I would just get the name of the animal out and get started on the facts and how the animal will sometimes "OH, MY GOD!"
I figured the people sitting behind them might say something, and I finally did as we were nearing the white rhinos. There is a history with that, in that I present my spiel in a very reactionary way (Oh, look! There's a bontebok!) and I can speak from experience in saying the white rhinos, the ones who can get very close to the truck (I have a friend who's had the rhinos charging his door), spook easily, as I personally startled one of them when I "reacted" to seeing them. So I did make the comment that many of the animals startle and I didn't want to have to deal with us being charged by a rhino. Mom got her to shut up, and I continued. Next we saw the cheetahs, the fastest land "OH, MY GOD!"
I was done. I wish it had been a much slower day, because I would have given everyone but this girl's family a reride, but I doubt I could have gotten away with that today, when we were working hard to break the records for the number of guests per hour.
I have said it before, and I'll say it again. I don't mind what you do to me... that's what they pay (I use the term loosely) me for. But when you ruin the experience for another guest, especially on a day when the line is a 120+ minute wait, and it may be the only time that other guest gets to experience the attraction, you need to shut up, enjoy the ride and let others do the same.
Thing is, I know that by her actions, little Tammy messed up the attraction and experience for at least the next four truckloads. That's about 160 people, if that few, affected by one girl and her mother and grandmother who thought it was all cute (seeing the way mommy smiled every time little Tammy screamed "OH, MY GOD!" I knew saying something would do nothing) and on a day like today there was nothing I could really do, except get her off the ride path as quickly as possible.
What was really impressive was the fact that she didn't do that in response to me saying anything... if mommy didn't point out the deer (Greater Kudu/Bongo) or the alligators (Nile Crocodile) or the leopards (Cheetahs) or deer (Impala) or pelicans (Greater Flamingo), Tammy didn't even make a peep.
My other problem is that, if you have your kid trained to respond with "OH, MY GOD!" at the top of her lungs at the age of five or something like seeing animals, I can't wait to see her psychological bills when Tammy grows up.
I tried hinting to Mommy, when every time she did that I stuck my finger in my ear (she was screaming right in my ear), shut my mouth and looked at Mommy, who just laughed and smiled at me. To her it was cute.
Let me give the show. It's what you're paying me for, right?
End of the show, I didn't even do the whole thing about not saying good bye, but instead Kwa Herini... I just wanted this girl off my truck.
Come to think of it, the next time around the animals were still staying away from the trucks.
I wish just one guest had spoken up. I tried hinting, I tried being direct and telling her through my spiel (granted, it was halfway through the show) that she needed to stop that behavior, but I don't even know that Mommy spoke English to know what I was saying, except that Tammy didn't "OH, MY GOD!" at the white rhinos, but that might be because they were asleep at the moment we passed and she didn't notice them.
So, if you are one of those people on that truck and find yourself reading this post, I would like to apologize that someone so inconsiderately ruined your trip on KSR. Next time you are coming, let me know. All those people who suffered through that sixteen minutes with Tammy deserve compensation... from Tammy and her family, mind you, but they do deserve it, as do all the people in the trucks behind us.
In the front row was a family with a little girl who, every time she saw an animal, she would scream "OH, MY GOD!"
After about the second turn, we never had another animal get within 50 feet of the truck, she would say that in the middle of my spiel and interrupt me, and she was so loud at it that I could hear her in the onboard speakers, which means my microphone was picking her up and projecting her even louder to the rest of the people on the truck.
I figured that if I just shut up and didn't continue the facts and spiel every time she did that, Mommy would get the drift and shut her up. No such luck.
Now, I have this thing that if I am trying to talk or put on a presentation and I can hear the words you are saying, it interrupts my verbal train of thought and stops me dead in my tracks, although I can keep driving. So I got to a point where I would just get the name of the animal out and get started on the facts and how the animal will sometimes "OH, MY GOD!"
I figured the people sitting behind them might say something, and I finally did as we were nearing the white rhinos. There is a history with that, in that I present my spiel in a very reactionary way (Oh, look! There's a bontebok!) and I can speak from experience in saying the white rhinos, the ones who can get very close to the truck (I have a friend who's had the rhinos charging his door), spook easily, as I personally startled one of them when I "reacted" to seeing them. So I did make the comment that many of the animals startle and I didn't want to have to deal with us being charged by a rhino. Mom got her to shut up, and I continued. Next we saw the cheetahs, the fastest land "OH, MY GOD!"
I was done. I wish it had been a much slower day, because I would have given everyone but this girl's family a reride, but I doubt I could have gotten away with that today, when we were working hard to break the records for the number of guests per hour.
I have said it before, and I'll say it again. I don't mind what you do to me... that's what they pay (I use the term loosely) me for. But when you ruin the experience for another guest, especially on a day when the line is a 120+ minute wait, and it may be the only time that other guest gets to experience the attraction, you need to shut up, enjoy the ride and let others do the same.
Thing is, I know that by her actions, little Tammy messed up the attraction and experience for at least the next four truckloads. That's about 160 people, if that few, affected by one girl and her mother and grandmother who thought it was all cute (seeing the way mommy smiled every time little Tammy screamed "OH, MY GOD!" I knew saying something would do nothing) and on a day like today there was nothing I could really do, except get her off the ride path as quickly as possible.
What was really impressive was the fact that she didn't do that in response to me saying anything... if mommy didn't point out the deer (Greater Kudu/Bongo) or the alligators (Nile Crocodile) or the leopards (Cheetahs) or deer (Impala) or pelicans (Greater Flamingo), Tammy didn't even make a peep.
My other problem is that, if you have your kid trained to respond with "OH, MY GOD!" at the top of her lungs at the age of five or something like seeing animals, I can't wait to see her psychological bills when Tammy grows up.
I tried hinting to Mommy, when every time she did that I stuck my finger in my ear (she was screaming right in my ear), shut my mouth and looked at Mommy, who just laughed and smiled at me. To her it was cute.
Let me give the show. It's what you're paying me for, right?
End of the show, I didn't even do the whole thing about not saying good bye, but instead Kwa Herini... I just wanted this girl off my truck.
Come to think of it, the next time around the animals were still staying away from the trucks.
I wish just one guest had spoken up. I tried hinting, I tried being direct and telling her through my spiel (granted, it was halfway through the show) that she needed to stop that behavior, but I don't even know that Mommy spoke English to know what I was saying, except that Tammy didn't "OH, MY GOD!" at the white rhinos, but that might be because they were asleep at the moment we passed and she didn't notice them.
So, if you are one of those people on that truck and find yourself reading this post, I would like to apologize that someone so inconsiderately ruined your trip on KSR. Next time you are coming, let me know. All those people who suffered through that sixteen minutes with Tammy deserve compensation... from Tammy and her family, mind you, but they do deserve it, as do all the people in the trucks behind us.