The Rude Crew Award goes to... Ripcord!

Congratulations Ripcord crew, you have won my award for making the worst first impression on me that any crew at any park on any ride has ever made. Before I go on, I have to say that there was one young lady on the crew that did an outstanding job and was very friendly and made it her job to make sure that we were treated like a park guest should be- with respect, and courtesy. Her name is Danielle (or some variation thereof) and she deserves props.

Yesterday (Sunday) at 3:40 two of my friends and I went over to Challenge Park for our first ever rides on Ripcord. The gentleman at the ticket booth made absolutely no effort to smile, greet, or be polite. We asked for 3 tickets and all he said was "45 dollars." Didn't say "thank you" or "enjoy your ride" or even "here's your change."

We got to the preparation area to be fitted for our flight suits and we were happily greeted by yet another member of the crew who decided not to be pleasant at all. This is when it started to really go down hill. Rather than giving instructions of how to suit up, she was barking orders. Things like "stand here, turn around, look up" were all she said. She didn't make an effort to tell us what was going on, she just did what she needed to do and that was that.

Well, off to the ready line we went. We were greeted by the one smiling face on the entire crew. Danielle made it a point to see that we were smiling before we got up on the "blue platform of death." She struck up a conversation, explained what she was doing, said politely "I need you to turn around to check your straps." I commend her and her good work.

Up to the platform we went. Another ride "hostess" who wasn't too good at hostessing. She began barking orders at us (keep in mind we had no clue what she was doing since we had never ridden before) to "stand here" and then becoming highly frustrated when the three of us (all of us have broad shoulders) weren't able to stand close enough together to easily attach to the cables. We were all clearly slightly nervous and had no clue what was going on, even though we were familiar with the ride and have watched it operate countless times.

Then the floor moved. We weren't expecting it to move. Nobody said "we're dropping the floor," or "the floor's going to move, don't hold on to the wall" it just moved. We fell onto our stomachs hard and unexpectedly. Of course when you're falling and you don't expect it, you're going to grab something. My friend Jess grabbed for the wall and I heard "Let go of the wall! Let go of the wall!" Obviously she needed to let go of the wall, but that shouting could have been avoided just by telling us "you're going to drop, don't grab" before dropping the floor.

We went up, came down, etc and when we were to grab the ring we all grabbed it like we were supposed to. I'm glad that we knew we were supposed to grab it because they never told us to until the swing before we did. Then frustrated shouts to drop the ring ensued. Again, had they told us what was going on earlier they would not have had to shout.

Recap- the Ripcord crew is by the far the worst crew over all that I have encountered. Just simple communication with riders would have saved them and us so much more frustration.

I loved Ripcord, and I would love to ride a Skycoaster again, but it probably won't be Ripcord because the crew left such a bad taste in my mouth. I will be writing to the Park Ops. office this week for the first time ever with a complaint.

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- The Darling one
The closest I'll ever get to riding a B&M Flyer is looking down while on Raptor... :(
*** This post was edited by Michael Darling 9/16/2002 11:59:59 PM ***

I second this motion. Having been with my friends when they rode,I'm not sure it was the same crew, but the crew there is noticeably more rude and antisocial than any other area of the park. It almost seems that the people who hire most CP workers didn't hire these ones.

I hate to say it but the '99 Mantis crew is the worst crew ever!

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Dan Haverlock
"who didn't see anything"
10 more laps until the count is officially retired

Even the '99 Mantis crew has it's exceptions too Dan. Jessica worked on '99 Mantis occasionally and she in turn was my blue tag for Raptor in '00. I loved her as a ride op on Mantis and I am sure any guest that met with her will back me up on that! JMHO :)

Jo 2000 Raptor Crew
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It's all about getting around the barrels, or over the fences, right leads, no faults, fastest time and looking pretty when done. What's so hard about that? :)

hey Jo I will agree with you on that. I remember one day that season I was walking through the park taking pictures. I was standing at the entrance of the ride, and she escorted me through the entire queue and let me take pictures, i didn't ride the ride of course but it was great that she took the time and let me do that.

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Dan Haverlock
"who didn't see anything"
10 more laps until the count is officially retired

Situations like that one on Ripcord piss me off, because for the most part, I'm sure I'm not alone in trying to defend and justify the park as a fan. But when crap like that happens, there's nothing you can do but write park op and hope someone at least gets a good scolding.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP
Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, when it's all in your mind. You gotta let go." - Ghetto, Supreme Beings of Leisure

I am sorry to hear that your experiance with that crew was a mediocre at best one. It makes me mad to hear of crews like that at the park where I am employeed by. Rest assured Guest Complaints are NOT taken lightly with the management of Park Operations.

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Pugsly,The Coaster Jester Of Cedar Point.

Moderator For Coasterfreeks

It is also the end of a long season, but that is still no excuse. I know on the last day of regular operation at KW, we got a memo telling us to treat the last guest as the first guest. But its up to the individual crew member themsef to carry out that message.

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2002
Old Mill/T-Pike crew

I feel the same as Jeff. I defend the CP crews a lot over on Coasterbuzz, but sometimes there just isn't any excuse. Thankfully, rude employees are few and far between at CP, but having worked there and taken great pride in the way we treated guests and the way we moved people through lines, it bothers me to hear of things like this. I don't think it is reasonable to expect that crewmembers can have a conversation with every single guest, but there is no excuse for being rude. Rest assured, something will come out of your note to park op. All of those complaints/compliments make their way to the people involved eventually. I hope that is the last of your bad experiences at the park for a good long time!

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

This is really a shame because I have found most Skycoasters to have very fun and friendly crews. Dare Devil Dive at SFGAm has a great crew, they are very friendly and tell you what's going on, what you have to do, and what's going to happen.

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Turkeys, the only animal smarter than man

Ripcord had a fine crew the one time I rode in 2000 also. But things can vary from year to year, month to month, etc. CP is usually really good about providing a consistently good experience, but this seems to be an exception.

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew

I'm really surprised to have read this... I've 'flown' CP's RipCord 11 times over the course of the past 4 or 5 years. I've never had an unpleasant ride host.

Now, I think you may have taken the "barking of orders" a little personally. You need to understand that they are telling you all the information you need to know, and you need to hear it the first time... and they don't have a lot of time to do it, let alone repeat themselves because you weren't paying attention.

Every time I've flown, I've got the standard "Stand here, clap your hands together, dive thru the suit, hold your footbar and look straight forward, do not look down" while suiting up. Same protocol on the platform, "Switch places, link arms and keep them linked until you cross the platform, etc." But, they've always mentioned the not-grabbing-the-wall bit. That's odd that you didn't get it.

My point is, these orders are barked all day long, to people who just don't listen. I know how it feels... from working any job in retail, you quickly learn how stupid the general population is. People don't listen... and they need you to, the first time.

However, this doesn't excuse someone not saying a simple "Enjoy your flight" when you purchase your ticket...

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gravity: down to earth, without the sugar coating.

www.geocities.com/gravityjmb

I doubt very much that he took anything personally. He's not a park virgin, he understands safety. I think this was just an example of pricketry.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP
Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, when it's all in your mind. You gotta let go." - Ghetto, Supreme Beings of Leisure

There’s a difference between being rude and doing your job. If you’re shouting (they were shouting several times) at a guest who’s more than willing to cooperate to do something, you obviously didn’t explain something well enough to them.

The two things I expected from the Ripcord crew was to get me on and off the ride safely (which they did) and do it in a professional and friendly manner (which they did not). These are the same two expectations I have for every other crew on the Pinnensula. Remember, I’ve pretty much lived at the park this summer and watched Ripcord many times, but I’ve never ridden it. I’ve never heard or seen up close what goes on up on the platform. Of course being nervous about the whole thing didn’t exactly make it easy for me to read minds either. The fact of the matter is I didn’t know what was going on, and they didn’t tell me. That’s what I’m mostly upset about.

I understand the concept of safety. (Although I don't see how extending my legs and getting 5 clicks on Blue Streak is going to make me safer than bent legs and 4. Aren't bent knees going to keep you in the car better than straight?) I understand the concept of ride capacity and meeting intervals. I understand that repeating yourself all day long can become boring. Nobody forced any member of any crew to work at such a repetitive job all summer, yet some crews (Raptor, Magnum) take great pride in being efficient and friendly even when it means repeating yourself all day long. There is no difference whatsoever between what the Raptor and Magnum crews do and what the Ripcord crew should be doing.
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- John
"Look, Sky Ride's running... Nobody fart!"

Whoa, fellas.... down... down!

I was simply playing devil's advocate, there. And, like I said before, in all the times I've been on RipCord, I've never had such an experience. It's unfortunate that you got such sour treatment on your first flight. Maybe it's this years crew? I don't know, haven't been on it this year at all.

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gravity: down to earth, without the sugar coating.

www.geocities.com/gravityjmb

I was on Ripcord two weeks ago and this years crew was rather short. I heard some comments from the crew that I would have rather not, but they were kinda cold, in a professional sort of way, if that is at all possible. Anyhow, if he had the same crew that I did, I could see it coming frome them.

So they did their job by telling you the safety instructions, althought it might not have been sugar coated it did get the message across. If you think that was bad you should have done something stupid on Mantis earlier this year when we had our core group. Then you would have know what a rude crew was, but we got the job done everyday.
*** This post was edited by Blue Streak Adam 9/20/2002 10:20:14 AM ***

Yes Adam, I agree with you on that. Even the later Mantis crew (at least Kippy, me and John) would have let everyone know what you did.

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Mantis Crew '02 - Where's the unload station at?!? ;-)

That's still a piss-poor attitude, Adam. There's no excuse to be an ass to customers, not even for capacity's sake.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP
Jeff - Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com
"There's nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, when it's all in your mind. You gotta let go." - Ghetto, Supreme Beings of Leisure

Yea, but there's a difference here. Michael most likely didn't do anything stupid as I know he's a frequent guest of the park and probably behaves himself. I'll agree that if you're an ass, you deserve to be treated as such, but a guest who is behaving himself does not deserve to be treated rudely nomatter what the op has had to endure earlier in the day, what time of the month it is, or whatever.

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew