Everyone has been to a theme park at least once in their life whether it's Disney or Six Flags and here are some of ridiculous stories that happen behind the gates.
Make A Wish
“Had a mom audibly wish her kids had cancer when I let a Make a Wish kid go in front of her. Never did I want to punch someone in the face more than that day.”
How Did This Guy Not Get Fired
“The head ride operator and guy that taught us all how to operate each ride was a madman. I saw him ride the swinging ship by standing in the center and holding onto the mast decoration. He apparently hung from the Paratrooper ride while it was spinning around along with a litany of other stuff like that. The guy smoked up while on the job; I remember seeing the train ride travel through his pot cloud once. How he managed to stay employed at the park for so long, I’ll never know.”
What A Turn Of Events
“I remember seeing a 10 or 11 year old kid crying to his mom about wanting to go on one ride. She didn’t seem to want to go on and I’m guessing it was probably because it’s the biggest roller coaster at the park with tons of the loops. He convinced his mom to take him on it. I saw them walking out out of the exit of the ride about 30 minutes later and the mom was smiling while it looked like the kid was crying.”
Karma Always Comes Back
“I worked on a cruise ship as a lifeguard for one summer and was often stationed at the surf machine. One jerk kid, maybe 12 or 13, would always cut line despite me yelling at him and even trying to get his parents attention but he was just ‘that’ kid. One time he’s surfing and slips off the board enough for a WHOOSH to sweep his suit off. The naked kid comes tumbling back up desperately looking for his suit. The line has erupted in laughter. I see his suit. It’s obscured by where the waves collect in a bubbling torrent. I say nothing. He was crying and eventually found them and tried putting them back on with tremendous difficulty while trying to shield his shortcomings from the public. The beauty part is I keep a towel near by just in case this happens. The mom said something to me, but I just smiled and let her know that its okay…it happens all the time. He didn’t come back that day. Glorious line cutter karma.”
Keep Your Hands Inside The Vehicle At All Times
“Worked at an amusement park, with a roller coaster that was enclosed, in a ‘future’ part of the land and the ride was shaped like a hill or some other type of large natural structure. There is a reason you can be ‘too tall’ for a ride. I think it’s 6″4 or 6″2 and to keep your arms and legs at all time. The person was on the ride and had his hands straight up, typical roller coaster form. His finger hit one of the metal rafters and a bolt in the rafter caught his wedding ring. This flayed his skin right off his finger.”
Watch Out For Birds
“It happened on the Millennium Force. Its a very high speed coaster that goes over 100mph. Also during the summer, there are tons of birds at Cedar Point. Pelicans, geese, you name it. After I got off the coaster, I hear screaming and crying. It turns out that a girl was hit in the face by a bird flying by the tracks. Her face was extremely bloody and mangled. Paramedics were rushed there and took her away. It was crazy.”
What A Punch
“Not a worker but at Wet and Wild on the goldcoast, in line for one of the water rides and there was this chick wearing the tiniest of bottoms with a Kimmie K calibre booty… Some drunk(can only presume) idiot was trying to grab her butt and said ‘I wanna slap it’. She turned around and punched him straight in the face causing him to fall over the railing – dropping about 2m to the ground.”
You Never Know What People Have In Backpacks
“A family of Irish travelers tried to get on a ride with a big backpack so the on loaders asked them to remove it. The ride guys noticed it was strangely heavy and felt like something was moving when they went to store it for them they looked inside. Chickens. They’d been sneaking chickens onto the rides.”
This Poor Girl Is Traumatized
“I worked at a local theme park in my late teens, and we had a Sky Coaster type thing, which is basically a large 180 foot tall arch type structure with two cables hanging from the sides at the top, and from 1-3 people in a sleeping bag type thing. You get raised up to the top pull the release cord, free fall for like 80 feet, then swing back and forth for a bit. It was a blast and a huge attraction. One day this couple went up and left their 5 year old daughter on the ground to watch. They got to the top and released, after the free fall they started to swing back up, and a seagull decided to fly towards the cable. The cable won and sliced off the wing to the seagull. Blood rained down on the poor little girl waiting on the ground and the seagull spiraled and landed in the bushes a few feet from her. For some reason she started screaming and the people nearby started to panic. It was an interesting 20 minutes.”
This Is Gross
“My friend used to work at an amusement park with a HUGE drop tower. Like several stories. Anyway this kid was apparently super nervous to ride and when he got to the top and started to drop back down he projectile vomited. You can imagine how that went.”
Mallards Have Emotions Too
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“I worked at Busch Gardens Colonial Williamsburg as a teen. I worked near the train tracks and every day I was amazed how close the ducks would come to getting hit by that thing. Well one day one got too close and got ran over. The heart breaking part was that it was a mallard and his mate spent the next half hour or so quacking forlornly at his corpse until the maintenance guys finally showed up to clean it up.”
The Terrible Part Of Social Media
“Some theme parks have banned registered sex offenders or customers who have acted inappropriately towards other visitors or staff. A worker said the theme park they worked at banned a man who had been a regular visitor for more than 10 years. It turned out the man was scouring social media websites for girls who worked at the park and sending them inappropriate photos of himself.”
There’s A Height Minimum For A Reason
“I’m a supervisor at a small amusement park, and one day I was operating the roller coaster when this Russian family gets on. The mother along with her young daughter sat in the front and the dad in the car behind them. Now, there is one bar that comes down over both people in a car, so since the bar only came down to the mothers lap, there was a lot space between the kid and the lap bar. Now, halfway around the loop, the kid gets up on her knees and turns around to smile for her dad. The parents don’t seem to care, and keep taking photos. So when the train comes back into the station, I tell them that the girl needs to sit down. So I send them up again, and this time, halfway up the chain the girl stands up on her feet! Right as she does so, the coaster jolted forward, and the girl fell backwards out of the car. My heart stopped. I slammed the emergency brake, but it was too late, the coaster was on its own. Somehow, the mom managed to grab the girls ankle, and pull her in right before her head smacked the coupler. The worst part is, they kept laughing and taking pictures as if nothing had happened! When the train arrived, I told them to get off and not come back.
Watch Out For Security Guards First
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“At Disney when they have a parade it’s hard to get to certain parts of the park without having to walk around the whole park. Well, this guy decided he needed to get to another side to get to his family because they were separated so he ran across the parade line to get to the other side to his family. He was tackled by workers, but later they understood why he did and told him not to do it again. That guy….was my dad.”
Cotton Candy Gets Everywhere
“A fair number of customers were yelling at me for things I didn’t remotely have anything to do with. Really, though, cotton candy was the worst. Making it might sound like fun. And it is maybe twice, but some of the sugar shoots back at you, impossible to avoid. And it’s hot so it really sticks to your scalp. You go home with sugar sired to you. One shampooing is not going to do it.”
Be Wary Of Chemical Levels In The Pool
“I worked at a water park. Anytime the wave pool or a slide got shut down to ‘adjust chemical levels’ or whatever, it was most likely because a kid took a dump in it. Happens all the time.”
Dolphins Are Strong
“I retired from Orlando’s Seaworld as an artist. I was chatting one morning with a trainer and he told me that during mating season it’s very dangerous to get in the pools with the dolphins. The males have been known to push trainers up against the pool walls and try to mate with them. Dolphins are nothing but massive muscle and are extremely strong. They are aggressive during mating season too.”
Big Bird Is The Best
“I used to work at an amusement park where they had Sesame Street characters. One day Big Bird showed up drunk and puked inside the costume. He got fired. They needed someone to be Big Bird later that day. They chose me. It’s awkward wearing an 8’2”, 65lb costume. You look through some mesh in the neck area of the costume. It’s hard to see. There’s a contraption that comes down from the head which controls the head and mouth. It looks like a bicycle brake on a swivel at the end of a thin rod inside the costume.
Squeezing it opens the mouth, turning or twisting it moves big bird’s head. Big Bird’s feet are wide. You’re supposed to walk with your toes pointed outwards so you don’t trip. It’s a lot to think about when you’ve never been Big Bird before. I got caught up in how crazy it was to suddenly become Big Bird. I especially liked opening and closing the mouth and moving the head around. It probably looked like Big Bird wanted to eat someone. Maybe I should have focused more on doing basic Big Bird things. Within ten minutes of getting the costume on I accidentally kicked a toddler in the chest. I just didn’t see him.”