10/29/2011 - Where Was Security?

I have to ask this as security was non existent this weekend - Line Jumping kids galore - folks getting into scuffles - unruly kids... Perhaps this has been the norm of late on Halloweekends, but was a major issue Saturday (But not so much on Sunday the 30th).

I know what you mean. During the season, there is always a security officer watching the queues to make sure no one is line jumping. I must have noticed at least 5 line jumpers during the day yesterday.

I could be wrong but I think when it comes to Saturdays they have security more focused on the halloweekend attractions over rides. When I was there a couple weeks ago the only time I saw an officer was while walking through a haunted attraction.

Just trust me on this-some of the things I dealt with on Saturday night were WAY worse than line jumping...Saturday was just a bad night for everyone at the park

I'd be curious to know what it was you entcountered. You must have reasons not to say anything further. I understand.

Other than the normal rude people that bumped into me numerous times because they were way on the wrong side of the midway I didn't see anything negative. I had no complaints. I had a good time.

I don't know if this has anything to do with anything, but there was a huge amount of buses Saturday. They were many parked in the overflow lot in addition to the normal bus lot.

I will say that there did seem to be something strange going on in Screamworks. Nothing in particular, but it seemed some of the crowd was behaving rather strange and reacting strange to being scared. Can't really put my finger on it, but I noticed a bit of agitiation. There were plenty of police there when I walked through. I see you work in Screamworks, maybe you know about what I'm getting at.

I do, and I do know what you are talking about! I apologize for not being able to say more, but I'm careful with what I tell others just because I love my job...

All I will say is that there were a few points in your post that you were quite accurate with...

I also want to say that I'm glad to hear that, amongst the craziness that was CP on Saturday night in most places, that you still had a good time!

I respect that you have to be desceet.

It appeared to me that there where a few places where the crowd in Screamworks was obstructed by people. It was not as crowded in there as some other times. It was just groups of people being difficult for lack of a better term.

I noticed early Saturday that the make up of the crowd was different. To me it was plain to see. I won't eleborate on the but it was quite noticable to me as someone that likes to people watch. I don't know if that played into any troubles or not.

I'm glad to hear the 29th stood out to others, as I go only 1-2 times per year and the 29th was rough. Didn't get "cut" in line on only one ride (Maverick--awesome ride.) Got cut by a group of 6-8 in the Gemini (!) line. One woman was seriously considering climbing the fence to get up to the stairs going into the station. Saw a 50 year old 5'2" woman confront two older teens with light up bunny ears in Raptor line. She stood them down and they got out of line. By that time, they'd jumped in front of at least 75 people. My sister (in her 30s) got plowed into by someone running away from security after a group fight on the midway around 8:45.

One other complaint--what are they allowing people to carry on rides nowadays? On Gemini, a woman rode with a large handbag on her lap. On Maverick, a set of keys went flying past my sister's head--don't know where the guy in front of us had them when he was checked. I'm pretty sure it would've hurt if they'd hit someone. On Millenium Force, a guy was holding his cell phone in front of his face as the train waited, and then left, the station. The person giving the instructions advised people (2Xs) to put cell phones away, but the guy didn't budge. I know riders can be sneaky, but ops could at least stop the non-sneaky ones.

Oh--and did I say CP has the best rides around? We still had a great day.

There was a great amount of school buses - lots of underage kids - some from Detroit - not sure about all though. It seems it was a perfect storm of additional security needed and large quantities of unruly folks...

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that noticed this as well. I had chalked it up to myself just being more cantankerous than usual, but apparently it wasn't all in my head. While waiting for Happy Jack's we were cut in front of no less than four times; two sets of teenagers, a group of teens that was 'trying to catch up to their parents' and then two adults. In the past calling them out or perhaps blocking their way has sufficed, but not this time for reasons unknown.

The unfortunate thing is that line jumping is probably my biggest pet peeve and my natural reaction is to call people out (usually with less than mature language), which solves absolutely nothing if there isn't an employee around-and apart from pestering the Troika op, there isn't anybody near Happy Jack's que area to call for assistance.Interestingly, I too noticed a larger than usual number of one demographic in particular, but only one of the four sets of people jumping in front of me happened to fit it. Point being that I'm not entirely sure if that was the reason for the additional problems Saturday, but then again I heard or saw nothing about a fight on the midway either.

The only solution that I have thus far been able to come up with is the ability to call or text security as one can do in many sports stadiums.

I'm not sure it was so much the increase in a specific demographic as it was the age group for me.

scubaboyz said:I'm not sure it was so much the increase in a specific demographic as it was the age group for me.

I really didn't notice that; there are always hoards of little punk teenagers running around during Halloweekends, so perhaps they didn't catch my attention.

I think I noticed the same demographic. Just saying.

Yeah, there was a group of black people that kept cutting under the fence by the pretzel stand by Magnum. Ride ops didn't care to do anything about it though, as usual.

I'm glad others noticed similar problems as I did on Saturday. I have never had such a negative experience at the point in my life. All day, people cutting in line, smoking in line and just generally being rude. When I asked a smoker in line to please put it out as there is no smoking in line he informed me that it is a free country and he doesn't care if it bothers my asthma, he hopes i die! Really? When we told the ride op at the top of the ramp at dragster about the people who'd cut us in line she said she'd take care of it but of course she just let them ride anyways. She actually gave my boyfriend an attitude when he told her saying "Do you want me to let them ride?" and "Where should I have them exit?" I can yell at the people who cut but without the support of the staff it means nothing.

After being aggravated by the general rude and obnoxious culture in the park I decided to just see a bunch of shows with my boyfriend until the haunts opened and avoid dealing with the lines. Around 7 I told my boyfriend I wanted to walk back to the car to grab my gloves and we're walking back by gemini and this jerk intentionally elbowed me twice and then shoved me as I walked by. I think it was because I may have bumped into his friend in front of him but the park was a little crowded and **** happens. To elbow and shove a woman just walking by is completely uncalled for.

We kept walking to the car and within a five minute period we walked past two separate groups of people smoking pot in the middle of the midway. And I thought that was illegal. Of course security was nowhere to be found. I told my boyfriend I'd had enough and we decided to leave and come back Sunday hoping it'd be a better day. I really have to consider if I want to spend as much money on a hotel room for the weekend if going to the park is going to be such a nightmare. I realize that to a certain extent there is only so much that they can do but there was just a general sense of apathy all around when it came to the parks employees, like it's the end of the season so too bad.

Shawn Meyer said:
I know what you mean. During the season, there is always a security officer watching the queues to make sure no one is line jumping. I must have noticed at least 5 line jumpers during the day yesterday.

Umm, not to start an argument, but security never watched over our queues at Wicked Twister at any point throughout the season. We had to call for them to come confront the line jumpers, then would leave right after.

Wow, I think just about every racially-coded dog whistle with the exception of "states' rights" made it into this thread...

The demographic I noticed in particular is not necessarily the one many people might think it is. Once again just saying. That's enough from me on that.

in reference to what CPforever couldn't say, Security was busy stopping a couple of huge 20 person brawls that happened over the course of the night in a couple of areas. they were bad enough that the police were in the middle of them taking hits. so security was pretty busy actually doing their job, which in the case of something like this rightfully takes precedence over line jumping.