Exceptional Great Adventure Employees

[peterpjr]

In conjunction with the "End of Summer Report Card" posting, I thought it would be nice to recognize those hard working employees that brought everyone such a great season.  Please share your stories of those employees who went above and beyond to make is such a great season.  I know many employees read this board and I am sure they would love to hear what a great job they are doing.

[Bubba Z]

 Mark Kane, PR ladies , Tour Guide, The Supe in Central, and the guy who used to work at RT.  Mad props to you all.  I want to include the landscapers and security guards in that list as well.

I also want to find out the nice women's name working Kingda ka's queue.    She's my personal favorite!

[Millennium Force 44]

I was most pleased with the Kingda Ka crew. They are all (or most of them at least) really friendly and quick. They did such a great job running Kingda Ka. So congrats to the Ka Crew.

[coastermom]

KK crews have been good as well as ET. My son likes to talk to most crew members on the rides he rides and a girl from KK was working on RT I believe her name was Danielle . Made my sons day she talked to him forever  . Also Mike was working on the KK crew then was moved to ET he is really great as well as I believe his name is Connor at Nitro . He even knows us as the parent pass people. Now that is pretty funny LOL .  Great job to everyone there this season what a differance from seasons past. We have seen so many nice people working in all areas of the park . Keep up the good work

[peterpjr]

I agree with you Coastemom, Connor from Nitro is the Best!

[coastersue]

Dan from Rolling Thunder  :-)

If it was to be an employee still working there, I'd say Matt at El Toro.  There's also a very good one at Nitro, but I don't know his name.  It's probably Connor that other's have mentioned.

[Ogolo]

I hear there is a great employee doing the VIP tours this year.
He even knows how many acers of land Hurricane Harbour takes up!
 

[peterpjr]

LOL>>>I also hear he is very handsome and charming..........

[WadeJ]

/\  nice lol

I've been wanting to comment on this thread but my time has been insanely limited.  I'll add more later but I wanted to take a moment and point out this awesome op running the Tea Cups.  She seems probably around 20ish and of course, I forget her name but the energy she puts into her job is simply amazing.  You can't help but be in a good mood after your ride.  She was entertaining, interactive, professional and funny.  She had the entire ride shouting so loud you could probably hear us in the Golden Kingdom lol  Honestly, it was like they stole her from Disney World and transported her to NJ. 

While I've seen countless crews hussle like mad this season and pull outstanding capacity on the coasters, she by far made the biggest lasting impression on any of our visits as a family.

[darkridedan]

Operations management deserves some credit for the turn around this season. They started the season by explaining how the experience was all about the employee. We went through exercises that would remind us about positive qualities of a ride employee and the perils of miscommunication. We had classes that stressed proper training techniques to make new employees feel like members of our family- not a slave to Gary Story?s ego. We were given a reward system and were given tools to help answer a guest?s question properly and in a positive way.
 
When I worked in Rides full time from 2000 to 2003, training was rushed--faster was better. Unfortunately, faster had nothing to do with the throughput of guests. I only saw a supervisor when they signed off the daily paperwork and I only heard from them when I didn?t do something the way they would or when an employee who had correction coming to them for quite some time, did something wrong. I got written up for cleaning my ride, for coming up to the office the same time as the rest of my employees, and for getting spit at and cursed out when a break down went bad- at the fault of the supervisor and the supervisor did nothing to intervene the guests. I was told ?you?re getting this Superstar Award because somebody else did something wrong this month,? ?you?re calling out hurt us more than your doubles help us,? ?you take too long to train? (forming crews amongst the best are no accident,) and ?you don?t have your priorities aligned with the park? since I cared about Rolling Thunder more than a B&M. Creative spiels, clean rides and fast crews were not rewarded, but calling in late when being detoured a half hour out of your way was punished. It was pretty obvious that the department would fall as it did, but it was sad that so many of these supervisors were coaster enthusiasts.

This season, the supervisors encouraged you to be your best. They rewarded you for doing a spiel that you might have done a hundred times before. They were present at the rides a good amount of the time. They helped us increase throughput by working the ride. They backed us up when a guest was out of line. They removed problem employees, eventually.

There is room for improvement. One day I hope the crews of two roller coasters located directly next to one another will look similar and will be equally efficient. I hope supervisors and management listen to people who know how to increase throughput. Once they learn that love directed down the food chain can come back up and spawn new ideas, more people "will be there."

[Thrill-Pics]

Ok, here is my list:

Matt, El Toro
ALL The Kingda Ka Operators (Including main ops)
The Kingda Ka maintenance crew
Dainel Martinez
Angel Aristone and all the other PR peeps
Mark Kane
Matt, Batman
All the Fright Fest prep peeps-(you could of made it better this year)
The Fright Fest Ghoulmaster
The rest of the Fright Fest ghouls
The entire Maintenance Dept.
Jay, Security
Sgt. Marty, Security
Jonn, Musik Express
The Kingda Ka queue girl
Dan, Rolling Thunder
The security guard at the service entrance-(Thanks for the later exits)
The Chiller demolition crew-(Again, Thanks)
The old guy at the Season Pass ticket booth
Josh, Chiller
Mark, Chiller
The cool guy who works Tango
The entire crew that answer the phones when you call the park
All the Nirto ops
The security guy in the booth between Nirto and Batman
The guy who cuts the grass below Nitro-(Thanks for taking the photos)
Mike C.-(Thanks for all you did)
Daniel R
John K
And many more!!!!

Also, Id like to thank all those who made this year one of the best!!!...except Fright Fest

[peterpjr]

That is a great list full of amazing people.  Is the security guard inbetween Nitro and Batman the one that has the animal puppet and does the magic tricks?  He is great.

[darkridedan]

Ok, here is my list:

ALL The Kingda Ka Operators (Including main ops)...
Dan, Rolling Thunder...
The cool guy who works Tango...

Thank you Thrill-Pics. I appreciate it allot. It makes me want to come back next year.

I think you are talking about Chris B. at Tango. Does he have blonde hair and short buzzed blond hair?

Permit me a minute to list some of the names from Kingda Ka: April, Dave, Danielle, Phil, Rob D. and many others. Great people to work with!