Apollo's Chariot

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halfabee said:
You know what makes my day special when I’m queuing or boarding a ride? Truly special?

Being efficient. Getting everyone, myself included, through the line and onto your crew’s awesome attraction without unnecessary imposition or delays. Thereby making it better for everyone.

Letting us all enjoy our day at the park without the kid on the mic unilaterally insisting we immediately address the burning social issue of “Are you ready to ride? I SAID, ARE YOU READY TO RIDE?!!”

I’m already in the vehicle, restraints checked, all ops’ thumbs are up and/or platform station buttons pressed and held. The video timer expired thirty seconds ago. It’s 97 degrees in the station. Of course I’m ready to experience the attraction I just spent considerable time waiting for. We are all ready. This isn’t a stand-up set, Caleb. Your “audience” doesn’t owe you anything. Hit the damned dispatch.

I enjoy interacting with employees, and I enjoy it when they have some freedom and like their jobs. But the median mic work in the coaster booth is sad, to the point where I’d rather see it just go away most of the time rather than being mostly annoying and very occasionally entertaining. Parks need auditions for those who want to grab the mic and go ham. If you don’t clear a very high bar, then it’s pre-recorded spiels for you and you’re strictly limited to as-needed mic work. Want the status of being mic-approved? Okay. Study up and practice. More.

As the oversight and effort to make that happen are unlikely to materialize, let’s just have the prerecorded stuff until things get a bit feisty during the hour or two before close.
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And honestly, what I was trying to get at (especially with Apollo and it's life hill music) is that some of the ride attendants do it (I have asked before why it wasn't used ) because "I've been here for 2 hours listening to it over and over." And that's why I used the word 'selfish' to describe not using it. There's some parks/ride oped that turn off certain features for a ride because they don't like listening to it. And it's not about that person liking or not liking listening to it. I'm sorry to sound selfish from a park goers POV, but my 5 minutes in there are more important to the experience than your wanting to listen.

I work at a place where we have a TV (with volume) that plays a loop. Controlled by corporate. The same 6 golf tips and 2 commercials on a non-stop loop. I would love to turn off the volume and just describe to someone what it is. But it's not about me. If someone walks in for the first time, and they are looking around, it's for them to get a full experience of our company.

I feel like without the little joys like lift hill music, the story in the spiel, heck even some queue music; I'm being 'robbed' of that experience.

@b.mac I'm sure you're great at the spiels, but the fact of the matter is most are not. Yes when it's a ride op that gets on the mic, only says the safety bit, and dispatch, because they don't like hearing the spiel, it's selfish IMO. My personal feelings on it are that most that grab the mic are not great at it. Either they ask for a reaction, or just say something in the most boring tone ever. Almost like a "I don't want to be here" and you can tell. My ride on AC one time this summer was "Hands and feet inside, head back, dispatch." (that is the one I asked when we got back why). More often than not I got a spiel like that. I got it a few times on Nessie and InvadR too. And it's not just BGW. I had it at some SF. It's happened at HP.

And I hate to 'generalize' like this, but there's some (like you) that love parks and rides and want to put the energy in. But there are plenty of employees that its just a job and they don't care enough to be good about it, but end up doing it.

Having some options and 'randomization' to the spiel won't bring in legal issues. If its cut into an 'A Block', 'B Block', 'C Block'; where the B Block is fixed with the safety information, and the A and C Blocks are different greetings and dispatches, there's no legal issues.

For AC, options like "You're Chariot of the gods awaits", "Apollo invites you to join him on his next journey", or little bits like that. Dispatch on on AC says "Enjoy your voyage to the sun on the wings of Apollo's Chariot", adding options like "And now it's onto your journey to the sun on Apollo's Chariot", or "Sit back, relax, and enjoy your time on Apollo's Chariot."
 
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Muhaha
 
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Hey all, I just wanted to give my experience about spiels from when I worked at BGW. I worked on Loch Ness and the supervisors made a big deal about manually spieling everything over the automatic spiels. So I spent most of a Summer saying the exact same spiel as the automated spiel. No variation, just "Boarding guests, please step quickly but carefully into the row in front of you and pull the restraint over your head and shoulders, a team member will be there shortly to check your restraint". - "Guests that aren't riding please step back as the gates are now closing" - so on as I spiel the keep your hands inside the train and finally "Enjoy your ride on the Legendary Loch Ness Monster" and I would dispatch the train. The only times I would "Stall" with "are you ready to ride?!?" would be when we got the ride ready super fast and had to wait for the other train to clear the blocks ahead.

So I think the issue that a lot of people are complaining about is there needs to be better consistency with how the spiels are handled, either the park should just do the automatic spiel or do all manual spiel (from a script like I did), it shouldn't change from ride to ride. But this stems to consistency from management, which we all know isn't possible. All in all, in my case of working it wasn't "selfish" that I was doing the manual spiel but that I was told my management to do the spiels manually. That being said when I worked DarKastle, I was one of the few that didn't turn off the music in the stables cause I wanted the full effect for guests.
 
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I feel like I should just throw in that not everyone actually cares about the music on Apollo. I, as a guest, actually find the song super annoying. And I don't find it actually adds anything because Apollo isn't well themed at all.

I'd care a hell of a lot more if the queue wasn't a circus tent, and was more themed to Apollo or Roman gods in general. Like if Alpengeist had lift music (allowing that you could actually hear anything on that lift) I'd care a little more if it was or wasn't playing, just because the area is better themed, and the station looks like a ski lift. The music at Apollo just seems a half assed attempt at theming, and it does not work for me.

Spieling is hit or miss for me. Most of the time I'm not paying attention to the employees and I'm focused on the people I'm with. I havent heard anything awful, but that's not to say it hasn't happened.
 
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By far the worse automatic spiel I've experienced is on Joker's Jinx at SFA. It's super irritating. That high pitched laugh and everything. I would absolutely love it if the ops turned that off and wasted 5 seconds of my time to ask me to cheer to "Are you ready???" The line's always short anyway....
 
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You could apply that same logic to every element in the park. "Are we seriously gonna complain at the lack of theming now? As long as it is a roller coaster what does it matter?"

@Zachary put it well a bit ago. We are picky like this because we expect more than the minimum from BGW. Something like beatboxing is tacky, trashy, and annoying. It has no place in a higher end establishment such as BGW (or such was BGW).
 
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lce said:
You could apply that same logic to every element in the park. "Are we seriously gonna complain at the lack of theming now? As long as it is a roller coaster what does it matter?"

@Zachary put it well a bit ago. We are picky like this because we expect more than the minimum from BGW. Something like beatboxing is tacky, trashy, and annoying. It has no place in a higher end establishment such as BGW (or such was BGW).
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I wish I could like this multiple times. But this is the type of stuff that annoys me. My friends come to visit me, especially when it’s my cousins with their kids (who are old enough and tall enough), I want them to experience what I tell them BGW is. Which would be themed coasters with cool stories, a clean park with a helpful staff, and good food.

So it’s a little annoying to tell someone all this great stuff about BGW, then have ride ops do stuff like skip the themed story spiel, not play lift hill music, say stuff like “I’m tired of the lift hill music so I’m not playing it” (yes I was told that when riding with my cousins kids), and now apparently beatboxing.

Typically I roll my eyes at Complaints like dust on fans, burnt out lights, broken fences. Why? Because those take labor hours to fix when customers aren’t in the park. But how ride ops act is part of customer service side of operations. That means putting on a happy face, being friendly, being professional, and doing stuff like turning on lift hill music when someone requests.
 
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Please let this conversation end already.

God forbid some ride ops try to do something fun to make their days go by faster, and it's otherwise well received by guests.

If its not offensive, as in not racist, sexist, etc, then just leave it be. We don't need to complain about every minor thing the ride ops do that day just to bring it up to continue to stir the pot of misery.

If you have a problem where it just ruins your day then go to Guest relations. Don't complain on here, then ask to record a video, record said video and share it. You're being just as trashy as you claim them to be.
 
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Applesauce said:
Please let this conversation end already.

God forbid some ride ops try to do something fun to make their days go by faster, and it's otherwise well received by guests.

If its not offensive, as in not racist, sexist, etc, then just leave it be. We don't need to complain about every minor thing the ride ops do that day just to bring it up to continue to stir the pot of misery.

If you have a problem where it just ruins your day then go to Guest relations. Don't complain on here, then ask to record a video, record said video and share it. You're being just as trashy as you claim them to be.
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Posts like this bug the shit out of me.

People are allowed to complain about whatever they want. That is like 80% of this forum. Just because you don't agree with the complaints doesn't mean you dictate when a conversation ends, and what people complain about on here. If you don't like the conversation, nobody is forcing you to participate.
 
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I personally don't like the idea of people posting videos of employees doing what I would consider to be misbehaving. That feels like some petty, name-and-shame, Facebook shit to me. If something rises to that level, I do think it's far more appropriate to just go up to guest services and write a complaint.

That said, I see no problem with the larger conversation here about the professionalism and general behavior of Apollo's ops lately. Taking that conversation from a broad overview of the issues down to a focus on an individual is where I'd draw the line.
 
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lce said:
Posts like this bug the shit out of me.

People are allowed to complain about whatever they want. That is like 80% of this forum. Just because you don't agree with the complaints doesn't mean you dictate when a conversation ends, and what people complain about on here. If you don't like the conversation, nobody is forcing you to participate.
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The issue is, is this conversation has spread outside of this thread to at least two threads I've seen.

If this was contained to one thread then fine sure whatever. I'm mildly annoyed, but it's easily ignorable. But this has expanded beyond just people complaining about AC ride ops. And has begun beating the dead horse.

So again I repeat, instead of complaining and asking for a video of it happening and sharing said video. Go to guest relations and complain if it's really ruining your day that much. I'll question your judgement on what just is so bad that you felt the need to complain about it. But whatever floats your boat. It's none of my business.

And finally, if you have a problem with my posts, then block me. It'll make both of our forum experiences much better. And this goes to anyone, just block me.
 
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lce said:
Posts like this bug the shit out of me.

People are allowed to complain about whatever they want. That is like 80% of this forum. Just because you don't agree with the complaints doesn't mean you dictate when a conversation ends, and what people complain about on here. If you don't like the conversation, nobody is forcing you to participate.
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I want to add, it doesn’t mean something hasn’t been said to BGW. Maybe we say something and don’t get a response we like. Maybe we write an email expressing our displeasure and get a response that says “thanks for your concern” and get no other response.

Again I’ve asked very politely a few times for music or the pre-recoded spiel, and got met with annoyance, eye rolls, and excuses of they don’t like it. And I’ve commented to the park it’s not that it’s not playing that bothers me, rather it’s the way the request is reacted too. And Apollo for some reason is the spot it’s the worst.
 
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