please, please, please..

Sep 17, 2006 20:07

a brief rundown of the roller coaster that i'm working:
dueling dragons.


alright, so this is my coaster. er.. i mean.. these are my coasters. fantastic roller coasters. they've won 'best themed attraction' numerous times. it's a great ride. it also has one of the best queue areas you'll ever see. i'm incredibly proud to be working this ride. so for thsoe of you who are actually interested, here's a brief story of the ride, then i will continue with my thoughts on working there so far. the story unfolds.. (p.s. i'm copying some of this from my instruction manual)

"In the gothic area known as Merlin Wood, and deep in the Dark Forest, guests come upon a crumbling castle where two dragons continue their timeless battle. Although Merlin's spells keep the dragons confined to the castle, even Merlin cannot protect a guest who dares to ride into the battle with one of the dragons. The dragons have defended the treasure held within Merlin's castle for centuries. Numerous knights and brave warriors have attempted to duel with these dragons in the past with no success. Will today be any different?"

So, basically, there are these two dragons who are guarding this treasure that's hidden deep within the castle, and they're constantly dueling and hovering around the castle. Therer is the Ice Dragon (the blue coaster) and the Fire Dragon (the red coaster). The Ice Dragon is known as Blizrock, while the Fire Dragon is known as Pyrock. There are other names used for the other trains of the ride, but that's all I feel like explaining right now. So they are two different roller coasters that 'duel' eachother. There are three 'near miss' sections of the ride where the two coasters get incredibly close to eachother. That makes for an incredibly thrilling experience, because you feel like you're going to kick the people in the other train. It's pretty awesome. Pretty much the entire line goes through this castle, and it's freaking awesome. The line is incredibly long to walk through, but it's a great crowd control method. So yeah, that's that.. it's a great line, a great ride, I'm very proud to say that I work on it.

ok, so with that being said.. I'm very much freaking out about working this ride..

when i first got hired, i was more than excited. working a roller coaster? how much better could it get? i love theme parks, i love everything about them. working a roller coaster should be incredibly fun, and i'm assuming i'm going to love the job. great. let's do it. train me, let's go.

three days of orientation. done. loved 'em. all about the guest experience, making sure our guests go home happy. love that aspect of theme parks. after orientation, i'm scheduled to do a recovery shift on 'dragons'. basically, that means, i'm covering for someone else's shift. at first, i was a little confused, because i haven't been trained on anything yet, and already i'm covering for someone else's shift? is that right? they tell me that it's no big deal, i'll be doing something really easy. ok, so i get to work on friday. i show up, get in the dragons trailer, they tell me i'm going to be doing 'ice unload 2'. that means i'm working the unload control panel/station thingie of the 'ice' side of the two coasters. at first, i was very worried, because, hello? i haven't been trained on anything whatsoever, and already they're putting me in a position where i have to push a button? um, is that legal?

so my trainer shows me what to do about three times, and then leaves me to do it by myself for the rest of my shift. literally, he leaves me. i'm at the unload station by myself. i'm frozen in that spot, and cannot move until someone comes and takes me off for a break. so i was responsible for making sure the station was clear to bring the trains in, then enabling the trains to come into the station, then unlocking harnesses, checking the train, and clearing/enabling the train to go into the loading platform for the next set of riders. at first, incredibly overwhelming. but after a few tries, i found it to be really fun. i was having a good time with it, saying things like "Welcome back, brave ones. How was thy battle?" and things like that. that was pretty fun. The look on the guest's faces was fantastic, nothing better.


So I loved my shift on Friday. I was very excited for the rest of my training, because if it was as fun as that, then this should be a blast!

But then..

Training begins. Today. First training session. I was ready to go, and excited. This is not like what I did on Friday. This is way more intense. There are a million radio codes you have to memorize, there are a million things you have to think about at once. You have to be checking for people's height, bags, shoes, prosthetic limbs, do your best to fill rows, check for sunglasses, hats.. all of this has to happen at the same time that you're making sure your loading platform is clear so that you can bring in the next train. You have to give the all clear, while talking to the guests. On top of all this, you have to make sure that you're not showing that you're under stress. Keep smiling, show the guests that you're happy to be there. Have fun with it. I'd love to have fun with it, but i've got a million things I have to be thinking about right now. Once the guests get on the train, you have to double check their restraints, seat belts, and make sure you're DOUBLE checking for height, bags, shoes, prosthetic limbs, etc. Even if you think someone's height is possibly questionable: check the height. If they're alraedy in their seat and fastened, you have to unlock the restraints, get them out, and check their height. If you let someone ride who is too short, you WILL get in trouble for it.

There is so much pressure to do everything perfectly, that it's way too overwhelming. And on top of making sure you do everything perfectly, you have to go as FAST as you possibly can, because A) there's a huge line. B) there's another train pulling into the station, and you have to get this train out of there for maximum efficiency. and C) everyone else is already done, and giving their 'all clear' signals, and they're just waiting on you. So much pressure, I can hardly handle it. You have to know so many rules, regulations, ways to handle different situations. It's incredibly difficult. There were far too many times today when I was thinking to myself "I think I'd be better off working a smaller attraction or maybe a show." I know it's just the first day, technically. I'm going to give it a few weeks and make sure that it's just the rookie jitters. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but I'm very worried that I wont. It's so much pressure. As soon as I got off work, I could feel how tense I was. I was incredibly stressed and tense, and I know what stress does to my body. It's not good. I don't want to have to go through that with every shift that I have. It will probably kill me. Please let this get better. Please, please, please. If not, then I may want to switch to a more 'entertainment' style attraction, which I'm perfectly ok with. But I'm going to tough it out for now, and see how the next few weeks go. Please let this get better. Please, please, please.
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