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Published: September 22nd 2011
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The start of my gap year starts with work and so my first post would be related to that I guess. When raising money to go abroad the easiest way (and possibly the least exciting) is to work. Well, since this summer I have already exhausted a job. It was a summer stint working at an amusement park as an attractions front liner. Whilst some would think this is something fun, it isn't all its cracked up to be. There are of course the fun moments spent with guests, riling up kids over announcement systems and generally chatting and having fun with staff as a welcome part of the job, though there are also many unpleasant things that come with the territory.
One thing I have found from this is that guests, in particular -parents, can be very difficult to deal with. A theme park has restrictions for a specific reason doesn't it? These restrictions are for safety purposes, are they not? It never ceased to amuse and baffle me then as to why parents consistently try to barter with us to let on their child who is quite clearly too small. When the restriction is 1 meter to go on, you can believe your 1 year old child of 0.65cm is not going to go on the ride! Despite the common sense involved in restrictions and our reasoning for enforcing them so strictly, I still found myself constantly bombarded with complaints, shouting, being sword at and even on multiple occasions; being accused of being
racist. I frankly couldn't help but laugh (almost at the guest) as I've rarely heard of a black minority person in a white majority environment being racist - it must have been racism; it of course had nothing to do with their child's lack of appropriate height! -_-
To aggravate the situation even more, sometimes I found myself being leered at by the parents, of the children who were too small, scrutinizing me as if by some arbitrary reasoning of my own, I had singled them out and decided to not let them on despite them seeing their child wasn't tall enough! Last month, I had one woman stand next to me and demand her child cry out and scream whilst she bellowed "its the mean man that won't let you on, cry for him so he knows how mean he is" - in all honesty, before she started harassing her
own child he seemed quite devil may care about his inability to ride and the only reason his mood was exacerbated was due to her whining. He would have probably been fine staring watching the rides or even better yet, going to another ride! Now I'm not a parent, but surely the point of taking a child to a theme park is to help them have fun on what is available? Rather than torture them with a ride they can't have and demand they cry and give themselves a head ache over it, wouldn't the more sensible and caring thing to do, be to take their eyes away from what they can't have and rather take them to something they can enjoy? If not, I don't know how good a parent I'd be... 😞
Despite all this, it has been somewhat fun working there. You certainly meet all types of people from staff to guests. At my time this theme park, I saw the likes of: Michael MacIntyre, Katie Price, Angelina Jolie, Rio Ferdinand and a few other corporate big shots who's names I'll never know but were instantly recognised as extremely important by the way they cut the queue with their VIP only bands. There was always something to see and hear about and certainly when 95%!o(MISSING)f staff you're working with are teenagers ranging from fresh out of GCSEs to fresh out of Uni, there was always some banter and laughs to be had! You meet some memorable people and certainly working for large entertainment companies has its perks (as well as downfalls) and so overall I can't say it was a bad experience rather just an experience - which also paid well. 😄
But that is it for now, I have ended my time there and am hoping to move onto fresher pastures. I am currently in the early stages of a new job to help keep me funded, I will keep you posted on how it goes. Look forward to more rants! 😊
Also, some fundraising ideas in the pipe works, I will update when they are being finalised!
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