Turbulent SEAS

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I’m unsure as to where this post fits best, but it looks like SeaWorld has hired a Six Flags veteran as their new COO.

SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. Appoints Tom Iven as Chief Operating Officer

a leading theme park and entertainment company, today announced the appointment of Tom Iven to the position of Chief Operating Officer ("COO") effective June 28, 2021. SeaWorld's Board of Directors unanimously approved the appointment. "We are excited to have Tom join the SeaWorld team as we...
www.seaworldinvestors.com www.seaworldinvestors.com
 
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mtorange said:
I’m unsure as to where this post fits best, but it looks like SeaWorld has hired a Six Flags veteran as their new COO.

SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. Appoints Tom Iven as Chief Operating Officer

a leading theme park and entertainment company, today announced the appointment of Tom Iven to the position of Chief Operating Officer ("COO") effective June 28, 2021. SeaWorld's Board of Directors unanimously approved the appointment. "We are excited to have Tom join the SeaWorld team as we...
www.seaworldinvestors.com www.seaworldinvestors.com
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I am not sure about this. Especially if Seas seems to be cheapening up experiences compared to how things used to be when they solidily held the middle ground between SixFlags and Disney.
 
Tom Iven is a good guy, hopefully having him on board means the 2020 attractions will be opening up sooner rather than later. Also would be nice to see operators finally checking restraints properly instead of permitting things like the Skyrush Method video to happen constantly.
 
b.mac said:
Tom Iven is a good guy, hopefully having him on board means the 2020 attractions will be opening up sooner rather than later. Also would be nice to see operators finally checking restraints properly instead of permitting things like the Skyrush Method video to happen constantly.
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An executive chance at that level probably won't influence how operators check restraints. That comes from much lower on the ladder, starting at the location supervisor level with training and going up though park ops enforcing it.
 
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ControlsEE said:
An executive chance at that level probably won't influence how operators check restraints. That comes from much lower on the ladder, starting at the location supervisor level with training and going up though park ops enforcing it.
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I can certainly assure you a COO will have effects down the chain in how operators do their jobs. It just depends on how hard they ensure the changes are enforced. Iven will be the kind of executive that ensures all the parks are operated the way he wants them to.
 
So, what you're saying is Scott Ross is scrooge and Tom Ivan is the Ghost of Pantheon future... And most importantly, does that make @Zachary Tiny Tim?
 
Jahrules said:
So, what you're saying is Scott Ross is scrooge and Tom Ivan is the Ghost of Pantheon future... And most importantly, does that make @Zachary Tiny Tim?
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If Iven has any interest in running his leg of SEAS the way he did with Six Flags, there's no excuse for those rides to be closed any longer than they have been.
 
b.mac said:
I can certainly assure you a COO will have effects down the chain in how operators do their jobs. It just depends on how hard they ensure the changes are enforced. Iven will be the kind of executive that ensures all the parks are operated the way he wants them to.
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I should have been more clear. I am not saying they can't, but rather the probably won't take care of that kind of complaint for 3 reasons. Either they won't care, they don't know there is an issue in the first place, or they will deligate the issue to lower staff to ensure compliance. This is why the show Undercover Boss is an interesting concept. The people at the top get to live out the lives of those working at the bottom. This usually leads them to discover hardships in the workplace, or places where their quality standards are lacking. In order for this new guy to even know there is an issue would require either regular park visits, paying attention to details like that, or getting a massive amount of pressure from the public to make a change. Otherwise, complaints won't make it that far up the ladder and the problems won't be noticed. Even if a problem is noticed and makes its way all the way up to the COO, chances are, they will delegate the issue to lower staff to make sure the problem is fixed. At best, a letter will be written to all of the VP's of park ops to make the change. Other than that, it ends up being the responsibility of the location supervisors to train and enforce the policy and the COO doesn't give it a second thought until another park visit and notices the problem occurring again. All that to say, I mostly didn't have a problem with how operators at Busch checked harnesses, though I am biased as I once was one of them. This coming from the person with a reputation for taking notes of poor service by employees while visiting as a guest, even getting a few people fired for the crap they pulled while I was a guest. If by the "Skyrush treatment" you mean stapling guests in, that is already in the park ops policy to not do, so if that does happen to you, complain to a Park Ops supervisor. They still have the authority to make the change that affects you and there is a much higher likelihood that a change does happen, since it is their job to be in the park and looking for those things. If going up to an operator of the problematic ride is too intimidating, go to another ride in the vicinity and ask for their area supervisor, telling them that it is a problem with a different ride. That way they are more likely to help since they know they aren't in trouble.
 
ControlsEE said:
I should have been more clear. I am not saying they can't, but rather the probably won't take care of that kind of complaint for 3 reasons. Either they won't care, they don't know there is an issue in the first place, or they will deligate the issue to lower staff to ensure compliance.
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Iven is responsible for Six Flags adopting a chain wide in-house auditing process to ensure that the ops are doing their jobs properly. The issue may not be addressed immediately, but if he isn't sucked through the revolving door of SEAS corporate something will be done before the end of the year.

ControlsEE said:
This is why the show Undercover Boss is an interesting concept. The people at the top get to live out the lives of those working at the bottom. This usually leads them to discover hardships in the workplace, or places where their quality standards are lacking. In order for this new guy to even know there is an issue would require either regular park visits, paying attention to details like that, or getting a massive amount of pressure from the public to make a change.
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Beyond Undercover Boss being blatantly open about trying to improve the reputation of corporate executives in response to how they handled the financial recession of 2008. A new COO will have to go around to the parks and experience things to know what will be addressed, which Ivens has done fairly regularly during his time as an exec with Six Flags (I'm speaking from experience here). The issue with SEAS lately has been that the executives haven't been involved in the company long enough to actually do much change to the minute operations of the parks, which is why you're seeing all these issues they have today.

ControlsEE said:
Otherwise, complaints won't make it that far up the ladder and the problems won't be noticed. Even if a problem is noticed and makes its way all the way up to the COO, chances are, they will delegate the issue to lower staff to make sure the problem is fixed. At best, a letter will be written to all of the VP's of park ops to make the change. Other than that, it ends up being the responsibility of the location supervisors to train and enforce the policy and the COO doesn't give it a second thought until another park visit and notices the problem occurring again. All that to say, I mostly didn't have a problem with how operators at Busch checked harnesses, though I am biased as I once was one of them. This coming from the person with a reputation for taking notes of poor service by employees while visiting as a guest, even getting a few people fired for the crap they pulled while I was a guest. If by the "Skyrush treatment" you mean stapling guests in, that is already in the park ops policy to not do, so if that does happen to you, complain to a Park Ops supervisor. They still have the authority to make the change that affects you and there is a much higher likelihood that a change does happen, since it is their job to be in the park and looking for those things. If going up to an operator of the problematic ride is too intimidating, go to another ride in the vicinity and ask for their area supervisor, telling them that it is a problem with a different ride. That way they are more likely to help since they know they aren't in trouble.
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I have complained for *years* about how SEAS operators have a tendency not to check restraints properly, it isn't even about stapling. I've seen multiple videos and experienced myself multiple times operators failing to even pull up on a restraint properly, let alone ensuring a rider is sitting in their seat properly. I've seen videos of riders filming their buddies basically standing while on Verbolten or operators literally tapping a restraint with two fingers as a "safety check" and experienced these things first hand, of course I would complain to someone about it. Yet *nothing* has gotten done. You say the lower end of the management structure will ensure this gets fixed, but SEAS operations have steadily gotten worse since AB was bought out and SEAS went public. The way that you describe how things are handled is not the case, and won't be the case unless someone makes the effort to change it. That's why I'm saying Iven will fix these issues, because he has done so in the past as well.
 
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b.mac said:
Iven is responsible for Six Flags adopting a chain wide in-house auditing process to ensure that the ops are doing their jobs properly. The issue may not be addressed immediately, but if he isn't sucked through the revolving door of SEAS corporate something will be done before the end of the year.
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I have complained for *years* about how SEAS operators have a tendency not to check restraints properly, it isn't even about stapling. I've seen multiple videos and experienced myself multiple times operators failing to even pull up on a restraint properly, let alone ensuring a rider is sitting in their seat properly. I've seen videos of riders filming their buddies basically standing while on Verbolten or operators literally tapping a restraint with two fingers as a "safety check" and experienced these things first hand, of course I would complain to someone about it. Yet *nothing* has gotten done. You say the lower end of the management structure will ensure this gets fixed, but SEAS operations have steadily gotten worse since AB was bought out and SEAS went public. The way that you describe how things are handled is not the case, and won't be the case unless someone makes the effort to change it. That's why I'm saying Iven will fix these issues, because he has done so in the past as well.
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Well we are all entitled to our own opinion and I'm glad it sounds like SEAS picked someone who has a history of being a bit more hands on. However, in my personal experience, upper management rarely shows their face around the park and when they do, the park staff do extra work to make sure everything is what they expect, regardless of what actually goes on day to day. I only ever saw one corporate exec at BGW while I worked there, Joel Manby, when he first became CEO. Other than him, one person from that level of the company may show up for one, maybe two, days a year, often not spending much time in the park, or at least paying attention to the ride operators. The only true way to know what goes on is to visit randomly, unannounced, and incognito as a guest.

I am sorry about your experience with lackluster harness checking and I will gladly reach out to one of my former colleagues who is still in park ops as a manager if you would like. I still stand by the work I did 8-10 years ago as a ride op and held the various teams under my purview to my standards (as much as some of them didn't like it) after moving up to leadership positions. Unfortunately, as staff turnover, it is not guaranteed that everyone holds the same standard for guest comfort and experience, though in my experience, the higher up the ladder (to an extent), the less likely you would be to find someone with low standards and more likely you are to find someone who is receptive to your feedback. Talking to a team lead about a poor team member, you may see less results as compared to talking to an area supervisor or park ops manager about the issue. If the lead was someone like me, you would definitely see a change, since I took pride in my job and my team should be the best in guest experience.
 
ControlsEE said:
I am sorry about your experience with lackluster harness checking and I will gladly reach out to one of my former colleagues who is still in park ops as a manager if you would like. I still stand by the work I did 8-10 years ago as a ride op and held the various teams under my purview to my standards (as much as some of them didn't like it) after moving up to leadership positions. Unfortunately, as staff turnover, it is not guaranteed that everyone holds the same standard for guest comfort and experience, though in my experience, the higher up the ladder (to an extent), the less likely you would be to find someone with low standards and more likely you are to find someone who is receptive to your feedback. Talking to a team lead about a poor team member, you may see less results as compared to talking to an area supervisor or park ops manager about the issue. If the lead was someone like me, you would definitely see a change, since I took pride in my job and my team should be the best in guest experience.
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Yeah, this wasn't an issue while you were likely an employee at the park. It largely became an issue towards the mid-2010s and into more recent years as I have visited as a guest. I have not talked with a lead or any of the operations supervisors who roam around in the park specifically, it's always been with guest relations who sometimes had called over operations managers for me to explain my problem to them. That's where my frustration comes from, because I know these managers didn't get into these positions just by existing. They did their jobs properly, and they knew my complaints were valid and it just felt deflating over the years that the operations kept getting worse.

Like from my own experience as an operator as well, if I had a family with kids who were of the age to come and ride rides like Apollo's Chariot or Alpengeist I would be apprehensive to bring them to Busch Gardens Williamsburg or any of the other Sea World parks at this time just from my experience of their degrading quality of operations over the year. I would not feel my kids are safe when an operator just taps a restraint with the palm of their hand and calls that a safety check.
 
b.mac said:
Yeah, this wasn't an issue while you were likely an employee at the park. It largely became an issue towards the mid-2010s and into more recent years as I have visited as a guest. I have not talked with a lead or any of the operations supervisors who roam around in the park specifically, it's always been with guest relations who sometimes had called over operations managers for me to explain my problem to them. That's where my frustration comes from, because I know these managers didn't get into these positions just by existing. They did their jobs properly, and they knew my complaints were valid and it just felt deflating over the years that the operations kept getting worse.

Like from my own experience as an operator as well, if I had a family with kids who were of the age to come and ride rides like Apollo's Chariot or Alpengeist I would be apprehensive to bring them to Busch Gardens Williamsburg or any of the other Sea World parks at this time just from my experience of their degrading quality of operations over the year. I would not feel my kids are safe when an operator just taps a restraint with the palm of their hand and calls that a safety check.
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I certainly understand that. I was on my was out in the mid-late 2010's, and yes, I noticed a major difference in operator quality, particularly in Festa, around that time. There was a major difference between the Apollo team I started on and the team that was on when I left 6 seasons later, unfortunately, that was not my area, so I really didn't have much effect on what went on, besides visiting and meeting with my fellow area supervisors about things I witnessed during my visits. Also, not to make light of this serious situation, but taking specific issues like this to GR is a joke. I learned early on that GR isn't really good for anything, beyond documenting that a problem happened. Often, I would have a worse problem with GR than any other TM in the park! GR is fine if you have an overall bad day and need to vent about it and maybe get some free stuff, but at the end of the day, all that happens is an email is sent to the affected parties and then its on the supervisors to do something about it. Hence, every time I have an issue, I would get the closest supervisor to the issue directly. If it's ops related, I ask for an Ops supervisor, food, I ask for culinary, etc. It's no inside secret either, I've sure posted about it enough lol!

In the end, the main reason for the "harness check" is to make riders, such as yourself, feel at ease. If the park's idea of a "check" is not satisfying to you, definitely take it up with park ops, to which I say if anyone here is unsatisfied with a harness check, they should bring it up as well. There may be some nice free stuff in it for you too, provided you keep your cool with the people you are talking to.
 
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Isn't it relatively common for C-Suite positions to shuffle occasionally, SEAS being no different except the CEO vs Chairman role conflicts?
 
Jonesta6 said:
Isn't it relatively common for C-Suite positions to shuffle occasionally, SEAS being no different except the CEO vs Chairman role conflicts?
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Shuffling is a bit different than outright termination. Even a resignation in lieu of a termination would come across more positively. This is basically saying the CEO and/or board aren't happy about that executive's performance.
 
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panopticon31 said:
So not even 2 months? Yikes.
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Live shot of the SEAS offices

This Is Fine GIF by 100% Soft
 
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b.mac said:
I can certainly assure you a COO will have effects down the chain in how operators do their jobs. It just depends on how hard they ensure the changes are enforced. Iven will be the kind of executive that ensures all the parks are operated the way he wants them to.
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So @b.mac how did this turn out???
 
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