MisterBL

What’s the most shocking/disturbing thing you found out about theme parks while you were there?

That people don't know how to behave... Like I questioned so many things people did. Even co-workers. Getting behind the scenes views wasn't really that disturbing/shocking to me, since I assumed it was there already. I knew some people who quit because their magic disappeared and it wasn't as great as they wished. But those where those die hard fanboys/girls... If you can keep the division between a visit to go to your job and when you're there just for fun, it really is not that bothering knowing that most building are just facades.

Any tips on how to get extra perks?

What do you mean? The only extra perks I know we did, is a vip ticket to jump a queue for certain occasions (birthdays, honeymoons, first ride etc.)

Also, what’s your/your former colleagues’ least favourite kind of customer (aka what’s a big no no to do to employees)?

Oh boy, there is so much I experienced in those few years. Obviously a big no-no is condescending words. I mean you can criticise slow operations, which I tend to do personally when in (other) parks, but some people literally say things like: why should we listen to you, you didn't even finish high school; Can't you hurry up we have been waiting 1 minute (for fresh French fries who where just get put in the frier because it was calm).

Also when you have a kid with you in a queue, who needs to go to the toilet: GO! Just tell the employee standing in front of the queue, and you'll get allowed in via faster route. Don't act suprised when we kick you out of the ride/park for letting your kid take a shit in the middle of the queue...

The theme park culture seems to be really different to me. In Europe, its mostly about the complete park: does everything fit in well? Is the ride and decors of high quality? Do I walk through the story or do I see it from a different perspective? In the USA you got Six Flags or Cedar Fair where they'll just plot down a coaster and make sure it breaks records.

So in that sense I don't think there is as much coaster enthusiasts as America, however, the rides became more spectacular in the last few years, while keeping true to the theming and thus more people tend to be "fans" of coasters.

So tl;dr: European parks are mostly story/family based, American parks are rollercoaster/young-adult/teen based. Are there coaster enthusiasts in Europe? Yes. But the coasters themselves are not really on par with United States of America.

Edit: these are my personal observations. Obviously if you look something up like that on google, you may get coaster clubs doing every park just for the one coaster.

No, but there was a guy getting lucky in back row of the 4D-cinema: Pandadroom.

Too many. But were talking about a park were the popular rides can have a queue time of up to 2,5 hours, and people don't want to get out of the queue because they'd rather go on the ride than help their kids I suppose.

Also sometimes people have no control over it (like epilepsy), and well yeah, accidents happen. Its the fact that people are hiding it or don't care for their kids when its really disturbing, because we have camera's....

we had the hardest time trying to get directions there. We would ask people how to get to efteling (like at central station), saying the name multiple times, saying it correctly (we think), and after 3 or 4 times they would say, ah...de efteling.

Ah yes, the advantages being an ancient park in the middle of nowhere, with no public transport other than busses...

how many injuries happen there with the rides?

Rarely anything to be honest. Most people tend to stay in their cart and listen to the staff. I heard of one boy losing a foot/breaking a leg in the omnimover ride, because it got caught in-between, after he got out of the car, when he shouldn't have. There are camera's and sensors everywhere to be honest so if anything looks wrong, the ride will shut down.

What things were you expecting but were missing? Maybe it wasn't noticeable.

Also one anecdote: when I stood on the perron of Baron 1898, the dive coaster, the train wouldn't be moving out of nowhere. The operator noticed a sensor, and it appeared to be a dust particle blocking the sensor. That's why we had to stall the ride for a couple of minutes: for a dust particle....