Do they ever clean the coaster seats?

I was wondering if any of you have ever worked at the Point or new some kind of cleaning procedure? I mean we know they take apart almost every single piece of a coaster car during the winter right? I absolutley hate seing ride seats and pads totaly covered in grime. What good are Top Thrill Dragsters seats being bright red if they are actually almost brown from so many peoples body oils and crud being rubbed all over them? I am not a clean freak or germaphobe by any means, but isnt it dissapointing to see this sometimes? How hard would it be to get some Goo Gone and hot water once a week or so? I would do it if they let me! One of the worst ride's that I have ever seen was Texas Twister at Geauga Lake. Man that ride looked like the couch scene in the movie "Coming

To America"! Are they able to powerwash or merely soak and scrub the seats every once in a while?

Sometimes cleaning like that gets done during downtime, although that largely depends on whether the crew feels like actually cleaning, or just pretending to clean. We often cleaned the seats on Skyscraper if we were bored while waiting for riders, so they typically got cleaned a few times a week or more. Generally the only time seats really get cleaned is when someone has a "protein spill" which is why the seat that just got thrown up on is always the cleanest seat on the train.

During downtime, we often clean the front, back, and sides of the trains...get all the bugs off and make them shiny. As far as seats, at least at my 2008 ride location, we rarely did much with the actual seats unless someone threw up. That and we just knock off the spider webs that were created in the middle of the night.

I know the last season at Geauga Lake, we were waiting to ridre the Dominator and someone threw up on the seats. I watche them clean them and then then ran it throught several cycles to dry them out. I know when I am at the parks, I make sure I wash or santitize my hands well and when I get home, I take a shower just to be safe! I work with kids so over the years I have gained a strong immune system, but I also try to be safe!

Taking a shower after comming home from any park is mandatory for me!

Well I was at Mantis this summer and we cleaned our trains daily to get bugs off the train itself. As far as the seats we usually just hosed them down with no scrubbing. The seats did get cleaned pretty good though throughout the week when people lost their lunch (which was at least once a day at Mantis). Good old disinfectant and rags to clean them before running them around empty to dry them off. You can bet that most trains got a hose down before opening, but only depending on the mood of crew members and if leadership was assigning daily cleaning duties.

No wonder I get sick after every trip!

If someone throws up, or pee's or other stuff, or bleeds on the seats they are dis-infected. You have to remember these seats are sat in by thousands of people a day, and no matter how much Goo Gone you put on them they'll never be back to their original color. During downtime you clean, or pretend to clean, I would not eat off the seats, but I would not call them dirty. But then so are Airplane seats, and subway and train seats, I've never had a problem with sitting on a public bench, or a padded bus seat.

What exactly makes a coaster seat any different from a seat in a theater or stadium? They dont get cleaned either, neither to park benches, seats at hotel pools, etc. Hosed down or dusted? Sure if youre lucky that happens once a day, but otherwise nope.

There is a reason that I have park shirts and shorts, and its not all about comfort, its also because I dont really care if they get dirty. Also, no matter what I always shower once I get home from a park.

I always like to take a shower before I leave the park if possible - Have used the ones in camper village many times when Soak City was not an option. Nothing like driving 2.5 hrs home with scummy clothes and shoes - not fun.

^^ Stadium seats get sat in by 1 person a day. Theaters maybe 10. Rollercoaster seats are sat in by 100s of dirty, smelly, hot, sweaty, sunscreen covered people. Also on a rollercoaster you're entire body is usually touching some part of the seat and you're holding onto something as well.

Here's guessing George Carlin loved roller coasters.

lladnar said:
Also on a rollercoaster you're entire body is usually touching some part of the seat and you're holding onto something as well.

Holding on?
Im sorry my arms are UP not holding on to something. Unless im trying to hold on to my lunch!
Just saying....

so you think that every person that rides the ride goes hands up? Cause almost nobody does the entire time.

Even if my hands arent up on every ride, I only use the handles getting in or out.

Here's one that will make you think about eating that giant pretzel or ordering Fries without a fork...

I witnessed a guy take his Toddler into the bathroom - he changed the kid's diaper (and shall we say it wasn't entirely a liquid).

Then he proceeded to leave the bathroom and go right into the queue for Raptor....

Please note the normal "customary hand sanitization step" was clearly missing from the above steps.

So next time you kick the sky, you may actually be holding on to feces.

Have a happy Thursday now everyone!

^Stuff like that just gets you paranoid. Remember folks about what is constantly the surface in the bathroom with the most amount of fecal flora per inch, its the door knob to get out. The faucet handle, soap dispenser and paper towel dispenser/button for hot air is not far behind it either.

Thankfully, your stomach is full of hydrochloric acid and your body has an immune system. Unless you want to carry around some Purell all day odds are you will have fecal flora on your hands when you eat every time no matter where you are that day.

It may make you paranoid, but it does make you think about washing your hands BEFORE you touch food that goes into your mouth, or at least ensure the use of utensils.

No one will ever live in a bubble or septic environment, but at least you can do your part to eliminate the more nasty things that can happen because some people on the planet have no sense of hygiene.

Hep C, and many other nasty things live in that Fecal Flora, so they aren't all benign as you think.

You cannot get Hep C from a contact such as we are talking about, nice try. Next your going to tell us you can get HIV too.

And who said I thought they were benign? They arent. Your body is just really good at killing them before they cause a problem. Some of the most deadly things in the world people live with all the time, for instance its estimated that at least 10% of the US population is colonized with MRSA in their nose and most of us have C. difficile in our digestive tracts. By all means wash your hands, it helps prevent disease spreading, but the way this thread acts like an amusement park is some petri dish of germs when the rest of the world isnt is just wrong.

I'm sure coasters are germ infested, but what other object isn't? You can even get sick in the supposid "cleanest" environments, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.