Best Guest Experience-Any Year

Our media is so focused on the negitive things that has actually influenced message board posting. Hence, "The Worst" topic in this forum.

How about a breath of fresh air? I would like to read about your BEST Guest Experience. And I would hope there would be more good times than bad.

MrScott

No one wants to hear about good things Mr. Scott? (lots of sarcasm) I'm not an employee but I'll tell you a story about a nice one. Well anyways it was late night about 4 or 5 years ago. I was trying to ride Gemini 75 times during so I ate so that was an accomplishment. I was at 74 on the very last ride of the night at 11:00 on an empty night. I was argueing (sp.) with my brother about what number this was. Well, one of the ride ops (for obvious reasons I will not reveal their name) heard me and my brother ran it twice for me so I could get number 75! *** Edited 12/17/2004 11:16:18 PM UTC by Fastball84***

It really is true that there are a lot more positive guest experiences than there are negative, it's just that there are so many good that you only remember the bad because they stand out so much against the rest. That being said, there are two moments that come to mind as the "best" guest experiences I've had.

First there was the time I was working Mantis for a weekend and we were down for weather. We were cleaning and there were still people waiting in the station. There was one group waiting for probably the 5th or 6th row, and they started talking to me just to talk to me. They were really nice, and wanted to know a lot about the park. They even asked me what the history of the park was and as I started to tell them we went back up. It was very refreshing to talk to interesting guests who had a genuine curiosity about the park.

My second experience is from closing weekend. I was working White Water closing day and a group of people who post here came to ride. One of them had on an Arrow jacket and they were all impressed that I knew which Arrow it was, even though White Water Landing was made by them. We talked for a few minutes about the park and this board, just random enthusiast things. The reason that was one of my favorite moments all season is that so many times enthusiasts can be down right rude to us, and it was nice to see the good ones for a change. That particular group was very down to earth and just nice to me and the other person on platform. It's nice to know that there are enthusiasts out there who love the whole park and all of the rides, not just the sweet sixteen, Power Tower, and now maXair.

I know I'm going to come across as a jerk most likely, but when I was working Sky Ride I had a guest come over wearing an Ohio State Alumni shirt.. and as a joke I asked him if he parked in Handicapped parking... You know, all he had to do was put his diploma in the windshield... he laughed, and said something along the lines of me being a funny guy..

So the guy asked me 'How do get a Michigan graduate off your porch?' and the normal punchline would be 'Pay for your pizza' but I said 'pay for your medical bills'. The guy thought it was pretty funny, and laughed down the exit... All in all, it was pretty funny, and the guy and his family thought so too.

I have a two that really stand out in my mind. THe first one happened my first season. I was working O-C in kiddy kingdom (imagine that) and had put this one particular boy in rides all day his dad would stand next to me and sign my instructions to him. Well at the end of the day i saw they were leaving so i signed (in my very limited knowledge of American Sign Language) "good night". the little boy beamed and signed the same back. His dad looked like he was about to cry. He told me i was the first employee that had communicated to him in that way. I was pretty close to crying myself.

The second also happened in Kiddy Kingdom. I had been working at the Krazy Kars all day.. (i really enjoyed them and made people rotate around me) well this one family with like two or three kids had been riding all day and in my spiels i told the children not to run becuase the floor is slippery and that if they fell they would get dirty and thier parents didn't want to take dirty kids home with them and that all i had to feed them was oatmeal and ramen noodles. (it worked real well at keeping small children form running) Well at the end of the day this little girl came up to me and handed me some money and said taht her mom wanted me to have soemthign better to eat than oatmeal and ramen noodles. I gave the money back to the mom and told her i did in fact have other food and that i couldnt' accept it.. The mom told me taht i had made her childrens day and she wanted to show me some appreciation i told her the best way to do that was to go to park op and leave a compliment. i was really close to tears then.. Those two moments i wouldn't trade for anything. they make your day. I also had some guests come up with there own nickname for me when i worked dodgem #1 now known as TTD footers. they were relieved when they found me working swings after my transfer they had thought i had quit and were upset.

I really didn't have a favorite moment, but one of the things that really made my day was when someone actually read my nametag and saw where i was from. Comming from the distant land of Oregon, yes the state not the city (never got tired of that question), it was nice to see people seem interested. Considering I saw all of about 2 groups of guests and one other empolyee from my homestate it was nice for someone to talk with me about home.

The other thing that really made my day was working the plunge slide, I was a soak city guard. I dont know why but I loved this slide. Being a guard I was kinda missing doing the whole spiel thing, aside from "feet first, handles first, wait for the green light" which I can now say as one word. So every once in a while I would make up ones for other rides in the park. One time i got through about 60 rides without a repeat, kids were comming up multiple times just to see which ride i would do. That always made my day.

Any time a guest came up to me while I was working and just said something like "You're doing a great job" or "We really appreciate your work" it just made my day, and made me feel proud to be doing what I was doing.

I was sweeping around this bench one year, and an older woman was sitting on it. It was a busy day, and she asked me if I could "save" her seat for her while she went to the bathroom. I felt like it was my own personal mission, guarding over the bench for this woman. When she came back she was very thankful and really nice. It made me feel good to do something so small yet helpful for someone.

Another time there I helped out this woman, and in the process she dropped a stuffed animal she had won and I couldn't get to it. She was SO unbelievably crushed (this woman was a little bit slow) and nearly crying because she was attached to the thing already. I tried my hardest to get to the animal, and couldn't. So she left, heartbroken. Then later I asked for the help of a co-worker of mine, and he retrieved it. I spent my entire break walking around the park, hoping against hope that I would find the woman and be able to reunite her with the toy...but I couldn't. I knew she would have been thrilled, and I wanted to see that joy. But I ended up just taking it to lost and found.

The crew of Disaster Transport always made my 8 year old son feel special when he rode, which was very often. By the end of summer they knew him by name and would say "look who's here" when he came up the stairs through the turnstile. On the next to last weekend they asked if we were coming for the closing weekend and we told them we were. On the final day of the year they presented Gregory with a crew shirt and took pictures with him. That shirt is one of his prized possessions, he is actually wearing it right now. Thank you so much Rich and crew, you are A #1 in my book, and I am sure you are on Santa's Nice List.

The MF crew, 2004, comes to mind for me. Those folks had to deal with alot with the seatbelt thing. I rode around ten times this year and always enjoyed interacting & joking with the crew.

MrScott

In 1999, I was cleaning up a gum wall at Raptor (the one support by the steps going up to the Raptor platform), and I was somehow straddled on the step edge and the pillar bottom. I had guests offering me money because they felt I wasn't making enough money to clean up that support. I think they were also assuming I got to keep the nasty money that was stuck to the gum on the pillar (UGH). But it made me smile.

When Raptor was down mechanical some frequent guests were waiting outside the entrance (I was working entrance) and some guest came up and asked if Raptor would reopen and when. The frequent guest stepped in and said "when they fix it". It made me laugh. So when I see an employee getting hassled by a guest, I usually step in.. I understand how the employee feels...