Worst Guest Experiences '04

Working as hotel operator at Express had it's moments.

When the whole Ecoli thing at Put In Bay was the big news this summer, a parnoid lady was staying at the hotel... for a WEEK! The first night, she dialed down to me and asked, "Is my water contaminated?!" I was so confused. She then explained to me that she saw that Put In Bay's water was contaminated. I reassured her that our water system was different than Put In Bay's. "Well, what system is this hotel on?" "Ma'am, I assume it would be the city's." "WHAT CITY?! PUT IN BAY CITY? WHERE AM I?" "You're in Sandusky, ma'am." "How do YOU know?" "Well, that IS where Cedar Point and it's resorts are located...." It took everything I had to not scream and/or laugh! She called back at least three times each day for the week she was there. That became a running joke in the office! ;)

With a huge yellow "EXIT" sign behind every intersection:

"Where's the exit?"

I would consider the response:

"I don't know, you tell me."

Oh Gary.... good times out in the parking lot and in the toll booths! :)

"Is the Wicked Twister open?" as the guest stares at the sign saying, "Wicked Twister is CLOSED today!"

"How do I get back home (in Michigan)?" Ummm.. how'd you GET HERE?!

"Are we at Six Flags?" or "Is this Kings Island?"

More Hotel Operator memories...

One guy called asking me if I had local internet access numbers for AT&T or for AOL. He got mad when I got him an AOL number instead of an AT&T number. "How dumb are you?" I should've said, "Not half as dumb as the guy asking the question."

The worst thing I did as a guest this year was not at all obnoxious. I did get a few groans from the gate keeper at TTD.

I won some type of little stuffed animal playing Skeeball in FT. I put it inside my shirt so it could ride the TTD with me. The gate keep said I could not ride with the cute little pink stuffed animal. So with much resignation I put the little guy in the ashtray smack dab in the middle of a mountain of cigarette butts. I distinctly remember hearing "now that is just wrong". I also remember my best freind Ron shaking his head saying "jesus Kendall".

Memories......

I have a few from '80 that are abit grim. Some other time perhaps.

Hey Gary,

It's Michael. Yeah great times in the parking lot. Pointing at a big yellow sign behind you had to be the biggest thing having to do out there. Oh yeah, and the michigan drivers that don't know how to stay in line or listen was a common occurance. (Too common if you ask me). *** Edited 11/10/2004 8:36:35 PM UTC by CedarPointForce***

RiptideRentals said:
[quote]Lindsey said:

Ultimate

Ohhh one fine day this overweight lady decides to rent one of our scooters. Our scooters could not handle a person of her capacity, so I insisted the scooter would be slow. She didn't care. So she paid and I put the scooter right next to the wheelchair she was sitting in. Now comes the tricky part. She needs to get out of her wheelchair and into our scooter in one quick swoop since the two are parallel to each other. BUT...she puts too much of her weight on the side of the wheelchair, and it flips outward, and she just went down. Another crew member and I ask if she's alright and try to assist her to get up. But she is out of it and is just sobbing on the ground. The problem was she was blocking the chutes that allow our strollers to get out of the backroom and past the counter. So after trying to help her up for 10mins, we realize we have to start ringing up more customers because the line was seriously extending to the entrance of the park. I suggest that we "poke", since we had several brooms. But my double blue said that was not ethical. So we did the next best thing. We rolled. A crew member, some impatient guests, and I rolled this lady off to the side. So the strollers could pass to the customers. The lady eventually gathered herself and the double blue comforted her until she was ok. But it was just like...wow.

Sorry to make this so long, but that's how hectic Front Rentals was.

I love it!!! I don't miss all those fat ars corn fed cows!!
MOOOOO

Um, I have way too many...

One of the best ones though is when I was working TTD entrance and I told some lady to put her, as she would call it "fanny pack" in a locker, when really it was the size of a bookbag tied to the front of her. They got pissed, cussing, etc. When they got back in line... they flashed the entrance people. Nothing I EVER want to see again. Nevertheless, funny.

Relating to Number 5 of the Front rentals stories.

One thing I have learned from being a General Manager in a food service establishment is that some people think that by yelling at someone, they will get whatever they want. The Theory is that employees do not like confrontation, and will be willing to settle the dispute by conceeding. Unfortunately, this works all to often, But not to me. It is funny how mad people can get when you refuse to service them because they made one of your employees cry, degraded an employee, yelled so loud the whole restuarant could hear, etc. I also do not tolerate being degraded by having a "customer" curse at me or any employee of mine.

Funny thing is, If you act nice when there is a problem, I am more then willing to rectify the situation, plus some.

Anyway, Back to the topic at hand....

*** Edited 11/18/2004 4:46:57 PM UTC by James K.***

That story was incredible *********. I remember the Chrissy story! Hilarious.

I think my worst guest experience happened one morning while working Disaster Transport Entrance.

A guy came up to enter the line and he had a soda in his hand. I polietely explained to him that food and drink are not allowed in this ride line and then explained how it could not be left on the midway either. I explained that he could finish the drink and take the empty bottle with him.

(BTW, in case you didn't know, the reason we don't allow food and drink in Disaster's ride line like we do others is because its dark so if someone were to spill something, another guest could easily slip and fall.)

Anyway, he proceeds to start yelling and swearing at me, basically making a big deal out of nothing, and i politely sat there and just kept explaining to him that if he left it on the midway, a sweep would throw it away.

He leaves it anyway, and as he's walking past me, i hear "you n*****". Yes, he called me the "n" word.

I turned around and yelled "what did you call me" and he kept walking and i think i subconsciously (sp?) thew the hight stick because I suddely realized it was quite a few feet away from me. So I called security and explained what happened, then called my platform and luckily my supervisor was up there. I gave the description of him and security got him and kicked him out of the park. This was at 10:30 in the morning too AND he had family with him. Served him right!

I had never been so upset in my life. I can deal with the yelling, the cussing, and the occasional offensive phrases, but this was just too far. I actually handled it better than i thought i would if this situation had ever come up in life.

Then my silver tag came over later in the day and said "yeah, they should have towed that guy's car and made him swin back to sandusky!" Man, word travels fast at CP and I just love how much they care for their employees!

Man did I have a great one.

One day when I was at the entrance of the Mantis, a couple guys came up to the entrance with basketballs, and stoped them and said "I am sorry, but you cannot take those in-line with you. You must either leave them with a non-rider or in a locker." The first thing one of the guys did was to try and place them behind the wait-time sign. I told him that he could not leave it there and that he must either leave it with a non-rider or in a locker. Then he left the balls with this poor little kid who did not wanna ride. Then he and his buddies went on through and like a coward said as he was heading off "Thanks a lot motherf*cker!" What made it great though was about three minutes later we went down because of the weather.

Riptide Rental: I also worked at Front Rentals when I was at the Point (in 2000) and I have to agree on people getting b*tchy when you run out of things.

An example: One Saturday, about noon, a woman came up and wanted to rent a wheelchair. I told her we were out, but that I would call Joe Cool's and see if they had anything. Well, they didn't, so I told the guest. She immediately got angry and exclaimed "Well, my father can't walk. What am I supposed to do then?!" I just apologized and said that since it was our busiest day of the week, we usually rent all of them out pretty early. I also told her that she would have to wait until someone returned one, which of course was usually around 5pm. She wasn't happy, but there was nothing we could do.

When she said "What am I supposed to do?", I really wanted to say "Well m'am, if you're father can't walk, then why don't you have your OWN wheelchair for him"....

Come to think of it, I currently work in a movie theater and someone told us we should have wheel chairs for people who can't walk very well, and I thought of the Rentals incident....It's ridiculous what some people want employees to do for them....

I have A great story. it didn't happen to me but i did witness it as it unfolded and if you worked on wt you know casey tells this story great.

From the platform we watched a group of gothic kids line jump. well Casey was rotating to freeway and he was instrucked to send them to the entrance. So as he got down to the kids he used his favorite line "Please follow me and let me show you the proper way to use the entrance." Well of course they didn't instead they curssed and started to make a scene. It was so bad other guest began to back up. Well then Casey went to call controls to have security called unfortunaly there was an idiot in control so security was never called but why he was on the phone the kids first through a cup of pop at him and then they through a cup of vomite at him (I mean who does that) So of course then casey left cause he was grossed out and wentback to platform where he then called securtiy but the gothic kids had left line and taken off by the time they got there. If you know casey this would be his story of how he was almosted stabed (he likes to streach story alot)

-Amanda

Reading over this thread, yeah there are some funny stories here. I've had a few guests ask me stupid questions before too, but one thing i dont tolerate is people poking fun at the overweight folks. My mother is very over weight due to a medical condition, and God bet your soul if she would have told me you treated her like that at the rentals when she came to get a scooter, I would have planted a big foot somewhere. Some people are over weight due to medical conditions, its not their fault, and they should be treated with RESPECT AND DIGNTIY. I work in the medical field and i see overweight folks all the time. Yes sometimes it is by choice that they are overweight, but in 90% of the overweight cases, it is a medical condition. You should not be calling them cows, or poking them with sticks. Call me old fashioned, but some of you folks need to learn respect. Comments like this: "

I love it!!! I don't miss all those fat ars corn fed cows!!
MOOOOO "

would get you fired from the place i work, and if you said something like that around my family, you can sure bet you would find ur teeth a few blocks away somewhere.

Show some respect for the overweight, you NEVER know when that could be you, the overweight person, getting laughed at, teased, etc.

*Puts his soap box away*

90%? Give me a break.

When did laziness become a medical condition, because that is the cause of 90% of obese cases.

Whats wrong with being a little overweight? I like to eat, is that such a crime?

But maybe back on topic before this gets closed.

JuggaLotus, that is not true, most not all, but most overweight folks have a medical condition that causes it. Yes in some cases someone wants to be lazy and eat all day, yes that happens. I didnt deny that. But how are u going to tell the lazy ones, from the ones with a medical issue?.

anyways, guest stories: While i was working there, i had a lady ask me where the laser light show happened each night, and i explained to her, then she asked, well wheres the laser screen. I had a major look of bewilderment on my face, and i simply replied, your looking at it dear, and left. Some of the dumb questions people ask. Sheesh.

J

I know that it isnt true that most over weight people are caused by a medical condition. If it was it can be fixed. my friend does have a thyroid problem, but with proper help she can control it and is not longer overweight. However, no matter what the cause of a person being big there is NO reason to make fun of them, or to treat them differntly. the fact is they are still guests of cedar point and are entitled to being treated nicly.

One bad expirence i had with a guest this past season was with a man reguarding the 8:00 closings. he was mad because according to the internet cp was suppose to be open until 10. he told me to look it up, so i did on the computer. well the cp site showed the 8:00 closing, but he started yelling at me because he claimed he had a differnt internet and that in his city it showed a different closing time.

I had this one large guest at TC and she had her little girl or whatever this 36'' child is to her. she had the 46'' inch wrist band on which i could tell she took it off from someone in her kin, but me and my sups did nothing to her cause we could had her kicked out of the park and taken to jail for endangering her child. While she was talking to my sups, she was saying i told her that this ride is for 36" people which TC is 46'' inches. My sups know i am smart enough that i know what the height is for TC. My sups told her I am one of the best workers on TC and he is smart and not stuipd like you think he is, then the lady asked for a refund that she paid full price for her to get in the park. My sups told her to go away from this ride and never come back. This lady was on crack or something.

If i get TL of the Train and guest is yelling at one of my employee's i will go off on them i do not care or tolerate stuiped guest. *** Edited 12/16/2004 2:44:34 AM UTC by Train Crew 030405***