Your Favorite Crew(s) of 2012

Dont give them any ideas......they DO read these forums. :)

As long as they give me free, lifelong usage of the perk for coming up with the idea, I'm cool with that. ;)

The only ride I had an issue with so far was Mine Ride, and that problem has been addressed. I don't recall any being especially outstanding, but most were still trying to get the hang of it on opening weekend.

I had good experiences all around, my favorite was a black girl at TTD though, she was awesome, nice, and fun!

I had one bad experience with the Iron dragon the Ride Op running the mic was yelling at crew members AND guests about loading the train and sending it within 30 seconds.

This was about exactly what she said:

"Attention riders we have to get the train rolling in 30 seconds hurry up to your designated seat everything rides with you okay lets go hurry hurry."

Then she was over the mic making comments to crew members about checking the restraints to slowly.

Could have been an random even not sure but it really turned me off to the ride.

In their defense when I went back later when it wasn't so busy they were a lot more relaxed and pleasant.

What is so wrong about what she said? Are we really that easily offended that someone telling you to hurry in a nice way is somehow bad? Going by your description, I don't see a single thing wrong with what she said or did.

She wasn't saying it nicely in a "hey lets do this are you ready riders???" way. It was more like GET MOVING AND LISTEN TO WHAT I'M SAYING

It was obvious to me she was very stressed and trying to get things moving but no one was listening and that gets old really fast. Keep in mind this was last Saturday May 19th very busy day.

I will say for the first time our train hit the block breaks at the bottom of the second lift hill. I've never had that before but I know their working really hard on running 3 trains to keep the line moving.

It wasn't that what she said was horrible it just really ruined the atmosphere of the park and the excitement to ride.

Considering the ride only has 30 seconds to unload and load before a train get's stuck on the second lift hill I don't see what was so wrong with that either. If they don't get that train out of the station then they have to run out and manually re start the second lift to get the ride going again and typically have to send an empty train or two to get back on interval.

Really, moving quickly is just another form of customer service in my opinion.

Well I'm not sure that's the case we hit the block breaks waiting for the other train to clear the second lift hill and after it did we slowly moved forward and spent a goo 45seconds slowly inching up the hill not reset required.

I understand they only have 30 seconds but you don't yell/ boarder line scream at guests to hurry up in a naggy mother tone of voice.

I wasn't trying to turn this into a bid deal it was just something I noticed. Not everyone is perfect 100% of the time we're all human.

Yeah, I think they changed the controls awhile back. It used to be that the train slowed down on lift 1 until the train ahead of it was at a certain point on lift 2, then lift 1 accelerated to full speed. Now the train no longer slows on lift 1, so they obviously changed things around to work like you mentioned.

It sounds to me like there was a set up actually. Someone forgot to bring the train in from the ready brakes outside of the station causing the train in front of you to stop on lift 2 and you to stop in the blocks behind it.

You would never know if a reset was required because the place where they turn the lift back on is directly under where the trains are so you'd never see them run out there with the key.

This is how it was last year.

You're right about moving the next train off the ready breaks. We were not stopped long enough on the block breaks at the bottom of the second hill for someone to run out and reset it.

Last year they were only running two trains i'm assuming when they went back to three they tweaked the controls to allow for things like this to happen without requiring a hard reset

You'd be surprised Tim. It doesn't take long to run someone out there, especially if they realized it was going to happen before you got stopped. They had to wait for you to stop in the breaks before they could reset and go.

You may be right, I'll have to ask my friends who still work there, but I'd be surprised if they changed it considering it's been that way for 25 years.

Keep us posted I'd really like to know. I mean to my knowledge it felt about 30ish seconds TOP.

After a double confirmation they still do have to send someone to the base of lift 2 to restart the lift. It wouldn't take more than 30 seconds to have someone run from the station to the base of the lift to restart it. They train and practice running to lift and restarting it specifically to keep the downtime low.

I believe Magnum's lift is the same way and possibly Corkscrew. Arrow likes to make it so that you have to have two people turn on a lift for safety.

Well I give props to Iron Dragon crew for starting er up that quickly.

That kind of puts into prospective why the Op running the mic was acting the way she is. Kind of a pain to make someone run out to the 2nd lift hill at any point in the day

Fave Crews: Maverick, they were friendly and funny and fast.

Cadillac Cars, there was one employee, Michael, who was so nice and made my day! Normally the ride-ops are so awkward on that ride standing right next to you and not saying a word.

Blue Streak, they obviously enjoyed their job.

Magnum, Magnum always has a great crew, excited and efficient.

Bad Crews: Mean Streak, they were bored and slow, monotonous with the sign off(You are clear and out of here!)

Comments on Iron Dragon: Yes, she was trying to hurry everyone on there, but she was in no way rude about it. They had to run a blank train at one point to keep the timing right. She was chipper and upbeat but at the same time asking everyone to hurry. I noticed this on several rides, they were always telling you to hurry, hurry, hurry if you had to put a bag in the bin. But they were never mean about it.

I was just there on July 7th (a Saturday) and was really impressed with the MaxAir crew. They were fast, efficient and nice. It was REALLY hot that day, so speed and efficiency were greatly appreciated. There was one Op with a headpiece doing the talking as he assisted with checking the belts and restraints, etc. and boy, was he a jokester! I know it can be monotonous as a ride op, but he didn't show any signs of being bored. He elicited quite a few chuckles from the guests as the ride was being prepped to start. I work with the public and I know how far an impression can go when people are laughing and made to feel comfortable. I commend the MaxAir crew for a job well done.

Gemini and Raptor have great crews.

I was there a few days ago and the millennium crew was great, even through a rain delay.