Question for rides employees

This question is directed at all rides employees, especially ones in who work rides at geauga lake.

So right now im working in games, and this will be my second year. Last year I worked in games, only because I was 15, and that was the only thing I wanted to do that I could do. This year, I ended up working in games again. Now, I find myself quite bored most of the times, and I also cant stand some of my supervisors either. I actually got written up for saying hi to two co workers and asking them if they were going to the ride night that night (i came to the park an hour before it closed,to go to ride night). They said that I was loitering at the games, and I was also loitering at food stands, because my friend who works in foods, went to the place he worked, harassed the employees he worked with, and I just stood and watched. So now im thinking about switching departments to rides, and I have a few questions for rides employees, before I decide what to do, if some ride ops from geauga lake could answer that would be even better.

1) Is working a ride fun, or does it get boring most of the time?
2) How flexible is scheduling with the rides department, if there is a certain day you would need off, would it be easy to get off, or would it be hard?
3) Say you had to go to the bathroom while at your ride, are you allowed to leave your ride to go there if enought people are there and its slow, or would you have to wait until your actual break?
4) How do breaks work?
5) How many hours will you usually work per week?
6) Is it always possible to switch departments, or does it only happen on certain occasions.
7) When I was getting hired, I told the head of games that in august I would need two weeks off for our vacation to europe, and he said it was fine, even though its not on my application but I told the person who hired me, would I still get those dates off in rides?
8) Do you get to pick what ride you wanna work, or do you just randomly get put at a ride.

Any other input or suggestions would be great. I would really appreciate someone who is a ride op at Geauga Lake to answer these questions, since thats were I work. Thanks for your help making my decistion.

Based on my two summers as a CP ride host...

1) I had a lot of fun. The times that weren't fun were not what I would call boring, but stressful. Overall it's very worth it.

2) It really depends on the staffing. I've never had too much trouble with a day off, but it's safer to put it in your contract. Then they can't touch you.

3) It depends on the staffing of your ride, really. If you tell your TL that you need to go to the bathroom, you'll probably be able to sneak away for a few minutes during rotation (props to Michael Ott for being easy with potty breaks!). If you can hold it until your break though, that would probably be ideal.

4) They don't. Just kidding :). In rides at Cedar Point, if I can remember correctly, the general break schedule was something like this: If you work an O-C (all day), you get a 45, a 30, and a 15. If you work O-8, you get a 45 and a 30. If you work an O-6, you get a 45 and a 15. If you work a split (0-1:30, 6-C), you get two 15s during each half of your shift. If you work 11:30-C, you get a 45 and a 30. If you work 11:30-8, you get a 45 and a 15. Finally, if you work 1:30-C, you get a 45 and a 15. Blue tags do their best to make sure the breaks are spaced out evenly so you don't take a 45 early in the day, and then a 15 right after and have to work the rest of the day without breaks! The breaks generally run from 11:30-8. If the breaks finish before 8 then a lot of times the people working to 8 may get sent home early. Hope that was clear!

5) Don't be surprised if it's around 60-70.

6) I'm sure it couldn't be that hard, you would just need to talk to your department head.

7) Like stated earlier, it's always best to have it in your contract because then you won't need to worry.

8) You can request it, but they can't guarantee it. Even when you get contracted to a ride, that doesn't even necessarily mean you'll ever work it. In 2005 I was contracted to Dragster but I never worked a day on that ride all season. They moved me to Sky Ride and I was able to switch to Millennium because they were understaffed over there. It's really all about staffing. When you return though, you have a much better chance of getting what you what because you get first dibs.

Hope this helps!

I believe any ride host has to be at least 18 years old to operate rides. You may have to wait a couple years before you can run rides at GL or CP.

At GL you only have to be 16, i know plenty of people who are 16 who work in rides. If they didn't hire minors to work in rides, than I dont think they would be staffed very well at GL.

In terms of being a ride host, how do the different positions actually work? Like being at the entrance w/ measuring stick, checking seat belts/restraints, operating booth? I think I've seen them switch, but could somebody clarify this?

Also, does time usually go by pretty quickly? It seems like you keep pretty busy, and it seems fun too.

There's a rotation. Most rides rotate positions every 30 minutes, but I believe they range up to 2 hours.