Yknow, being a ride operator has given me an appreciation for theme parks and how much of a logistical mess it is to keep it open.
Each ride needs its own power source(and I don’t just mean a few outlets, I’m talking warehouse-sized buildings whose sole purpose is to generate power) needs to be certified every few years by a state-sponsored group that isn’t the park, needs to be inspected by at least 2 individual groups each and every morning and night from top to bottom(Maintenance clears the ride for operation in the morning, and then I and/or any other operators with me goes around and check everything again to make sure it’s good to go. Sometimes my management does this for me, but that’s pretty rare.) and that’s just for
1 single, individual ride. Multiply that by 20-30 and it turns from a somewhat tedious task, into a huge logistical nightmare.
Hell, even getting to this point was a huge mess. Every ride operator needs to pass the iROC,(although it’s less of a test and more of a slideshow presentation that just straight up tells you what you’re supposed to and not supposed to do) you need to spend a few days doing the general training, and then, and only then, do you start training on the rides.
Now, of course, training every single operator on every single ride is a bit too difficult of a task(although higher ups like Crew Leaders and Supervisors are trained on everything because otherwise they wouldn’t be able to take our place to give us our breaks), so what my theme park does is group all the rides into sections and train you on them. This is still a very tedious process, though.
First, you’re given the “Big Talk,” which is basically where they just read from this big binder that has all the relevant information for each ride in it.
Then, you have to take a written exam, which is almost always 30+ questions written in the most legalistic way you can possibly imagine.
After that, you have to find a different trainer, and have them give you an oral exam. It’s basically just the written exam, but without pen and paper.
Finally, you have to do a certain number of cycles per ride, where you(under the wing of your trainer, of course) go through and operate the ride with actual guests. Mind you, this is the standard procedure for getting certified on every ride, so the actual time will vary depending on the ride, how many positions the ride has(roller coasters for example, always have multiple operators in the station and you have to be individually trained on each) but it’s usually somewhere between 2-3 hours for a single operator ride, 5-8 for a multi-operator ride.
Oh yeah, did I forget to mention your training “expires” at the end of the season, and you have to start over each year?
That’s not even beginning to talk about stuff like swing sheets(basically our legal document that tells the state I work in when we got our legally required breaks) sign in/out sheets, it’s such a huge mess of so many different legal documents on top of having to interact and communicate with guests.