A theme park is obviously a fun environment with an upbeat atmosphere where you get to be part of a team and so some of the attractions of the job are obvious. There are other perks to be considered if you are considering applying for a job on the rides but several downsides too which should not be overlooked.

The Rides

The most frequent question you get asked if you work on theme park rides is do you get to go on them yourself? The answer is yes and not only in order to have fun!  It is tough work (not) but you often have to ride as part of your job. Many roller coasters have tracks which run through landscaped areas. If there are any trees or bushes close to the ride someone has to take a spin each morning before the park opens to make sure there is no foliage which could strike guests. I have seen staff almost come to blows arguing over who gets to do the foliage check!

Some rides have special effects like water jets, strobe lighting and air guns and these rides must also be checked each morning to see if the effects are working correctly. Exterior pyrotechnics can be seen from the operating console but effects inside or in tunnels can only assessed by taking a ride. What a shame! This practice has resulted in rather embarrassing episodes on occasions. One morning when I was working at the park a check on the effects had to be performed on a coaster and in order to conduct the procedure no more than two staff members were allowed to ride. As usual everyone wanted to go resulting in seven people jumping on. Sadly the ride malfunctioned and emergency stopped itself with the staff being stranded at the bottom of the first drop. They were still there an hour later as impatient guests waited for the ride to open!

Sometimes a ride is filmed for the website or for an advertisement and it is usually the staff who are filmed as it can take all day to capture the right footage. A friend of mine did the filming for a well-known coaster in the UK and had to ride it 17 times without a break. He felt quite sick by the end of it!

Some of the rides you will get are purely for fun. If a ride is ready to open in the morning with time to spare the staff often take a quick spin and there are often special treats for staff at the end of the day. One particularly hot afternoon I was sent for a go on a water ride to cool down and then left the park like a drowned rat but much cooler!

Lost Property

At the end of the day a ride’s staff often have to enter the restricted part of the ride area to retrieve property which guests have reported losing on the circuit. The reported items may or may not be recovered but a trip into the ride area usually results in plenty of finds. At the park where I worked lost property was collected and logged and if nobody claimed it you could opt to keep it yourself. This resulted in me gaining a new pair of sunglasses, a great pair of spectacles, several cosmetics, a bracelet and quite a lot of cash!

Other Perks

Additional perks vary from park to park but normally include free entrance to the attraction on your days off, discounts for friends and family and free entrance to other attractions under the same ownership. There are usually some good social events to attend too but the biggest benefit are the friends you make and the fun to be had working on the rides.

Downsides

There are some serious downsides to working on theme park rides. For a start the money is generally terrible and the hours can be very long. On extended days when parks are open late into the evening you can work as much as 13 hours with just three short breaks. The work can also be repetitive and boring depending on what you are doing on a given day.

With lots of people visiting the parks unfortunate incidents are inevitable and you often have to deal with unpleasant situations. Breaking up fights, clearing up vomit, emptying smelly bins and dealing with medical emergencies are all part of the job. Your work also often involves having to deny people access to a ride or ejecting queue jumpers which can result in being on the wrong end of personal abuse or even physical violence. You may also have to deal with an extreme emergency or even a fatality which really isn’t funny. In my time at the park there were two heart attacks and a stroke (chance occurrences unrelated to the actual rides), a broken back when a guest rode with a pre-existing condition and hundreds of vomiting incidents. I was once thrown against a wall, a colleague was threatened with a knife and on one roller coaster a group of guests threatened to kill a married couple in the queue line.

I should also mention safety. The fact is that most serious injuries and deaths at theme parks are incidents involving the staff. It is all too easy to start ignoring safety procedures or to have a lapse in concentration with disastrous consequences.

Conclusions

Working on the rides can be great fun and is the perfect way to make friends. You get to ride for free too but the money is poor, the hours long and you have a lot of responsibility on your shoulders. The truth is that working on the rides is a fantastic job but only for a limited period of time.

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Article by Sally Stacey