No Autospiels -- Has it helped morale?

I got a few ill-timed launches this week. The op spiels are the best! :)

Agreed. The manual spiels are going very well. Ride Ops are having quite a bit of fun, and doing very well with them. For some reason... I like always hearing "Ride On" and "be sure to check out Hot Summer Lights tonight!"

When I was there on the 31st of May the autospiels made a world of difference on the rides. The guy on Wicked Twister launched us on two, which I personally got a kick out of. Also, is there a rivalry between the Raptor and Millennium Force crews? Millennium was still down on that day, so that night on Raptor when our train was coming back into the station, the ride op was like "See, who here thinks Raptor is better than Millennium Force?!" The crowd just sort of looked at him funny and it got a little quiet, but I somehow think he expected that response anyway.

The guy on Mantis was a blast, because he was being fairly sarcastic and pointing out some jerks that kept bouncing up and down (but well within bounds), and then ended up in a joking arguement with the guy in line behind me after the ride op asked people what state they were from to pass the time while the next train came in and unloaded, and the guy behind me yelled "ALASKA!!!". If that ride op reads these forums, I was the guy in the blue shirt you called on to check the guys ID. :-P

I'm guessing that the little thing between Raptor and Millennium may have something to do with Raptor's TL from last year now being over at MF. Just a guess though.

I was suprized, this past week I rode Wicked Twister over 20 times...I heard no great jokes, no funny countdowns, nothing. I was looking foward to that part. :(

No jokes or fake countdowns? And that's a bad thing?

I would think that at least the no jokes part would be a negative. When the ops are telling jokes, interacting with specific guests, it always livens up the crowd and gets them laughing. Not once have I ever been in a station where an op was joking with either the entire station or a few particular people and everyone wasn't having fun and enjoying themselves. The two funny countdowns that I have seen on WT have always made several in line laugh.

Jokes might be nice sometimes... unless they interfear with getting trains out in a timely manner.

*** Edited 6/26/2006 7:09:18 PM UTC by DBCP***

I've ranted on this before. The attempts at humor usually come off as amateurish. I love an enthusiastic spiel and a "how was your ride." But more often than not the joking isn't adding to the atmosphere. It's usually just someone trying to get attention or perform for the crowd.

On Dragster on memorial day, the girl that was doing the speils was into it and said some funny things, but then she started talking about the color green and she talked about it for about ten minutes without letting any trains go because people were saying "no reds better" and etc., and the ride op finally said ok lets go!! I mean its fun when they tell jokes and screw around a bit, but not if its making you have to wait longer to ride...

TThrillD, is it possible that she was just stalling?

Maybe they were trying to play off a breakdown? I doubt the other ops would let her go on like that.

It sounds likely that that was the case.

I've noticed it's sometimes hard to get the crowd to interact, especially if it's hard to hear myself clearly over all the noise on platform. Normally when I'm working MF I try to get a cheer from the crowd with a 'Who's ready to go?!' but half the time I get looked at like I have spiders crawling out of my nose. So if you're riding MF anytime soon, help a guy out and give me a cheer when I'm spieling.

I do prefer the manual spiel. CP does have the best spiels out of any park I visited so far. GL comes 2nd, sorry Gina (Villain, but you were better at MS).
From my times at KP, most of them are just boring and hard to understand from those folded horn speakers. There are a few that do get exciting and actually liven up the lines, but overall, they're just there to read the paper and press the buttons for (ca 2001) 6.00 /hr

I don't work at CP, but as a avid amusement park fan I've got to say that I love the operators talking over the PA systems at the Point. My home park was Kings Island (until I went to Cedar Point, and I haven't been back to KI since) and they used to do cool things like play loud rock and roll on The Beast and things like that, but now you get in the queue and it's terribly boring. A bunch of boring people standing in an incredibly boring line.

Cedar Point has done everything correctly when it comes to the queue lines. They run fast and are kept exciting in the station by the ride ops making a bunch of noise to get the riders excited. I'm the one who screams back at the ops and makes a fool of himself to hopefully encourage others to do the same. I love going on Magnum and hearing the stats of the ride and people getting pumped to ride.

My last trip to CP involved a ride on Gemini where the op was quizzing riders of the stats of the park and it was a lot of fun, a bit dorky but that makes for good times.

All in all, Cedar Point is an amazing park with an amazing park attitude and atmosphere. It's nice to go there and see other park enthusiasts who work there and enjoy their jobs rather than, "I work at the park 'cause it's a job and so I get a free season pass."

Thanks!

Well, it turns out somebody complained about a false launch at WT...so no more goofy countdowns for us...

Where you can't do anything fun without getting someone to complain, heh!
But I see the point there, no one is expecting that and someone can get hurt; that would be bad.

Just keep the manual spiels and limit the jokes to verbal only. That's all! *** Edited 7/12/2006 2:32:27 PM UTC by DJTheC***

Huh? What kind of logic is it that faking a countdown is "fun" for everyone? Either do the countdown for real, or don't do it all. Tricking riders just sets you up for problems when someone isn't braced and expecting the launch.

how exactly do you have to brace yourself for a luanch on wicked twister. in fact how can you brace yourself? there's nothing to hold on to except the grab bars on your harness. your shoes should be off and glasses removed before you even get in the seat. you just sit there locked in your seat. the launch isn't powerful enough to hurt someone looking sideways or anything else. a false countdown is awesome in my book.

but with manual spiels comes operationals. i got one for possibly the stupid reason ever on mantis. so now employees are increasingly afraid to spiel, and soon they will be as boring as if the autospiels were still on.