Alton Towers Staff Ride Areas

General discussion regarding the UK's No.1 Theme Park. Talk about anything and everything Alton Towers here.
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elmerfudd
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Hey guys,
I work at my local themepark Wicksteed Park, and its split up into 3 areas -

*Lakeside (Which is where I work)
*The arena
*The fairground

We are then there for the whole season but obviously share the rides, so one day I do waterchute for example, next day Im on bumper boats.
But I was just wondering, is this the same principle for Alton workers?
Say you worked in X-Sector, would you stay in that area for the whole season, or do you have one week in X-Sector then another in say, Dark Forest or Forbidden Valley?

I say this because I was at Thorpe Park and saw some guy working on the Saw ride, and then later on in the day saw him operating Stealth.
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meames
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At Alton they have teams of people who rotate around rides - I am sure people will know the ride groups - to stop them from getting board. I am sure Thorpe and Chessy will be the same.
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alwarun
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The rides team is split into 2 main groups and within that they are subdivided into park areas. The areas have a few rides each to look after but its common for you to stay in one area for the duration of the season as you get to know the rides inside out.
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Scott
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Different teams for different areas of the park, those teams are filled with staff who rotate between each ride in there 'area'.

Simple as that really. :)
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AstroDan

Current Ride Teams (correct me if I am wrong) to my knowledge:

Team Waterbabies
Battle Galleons
Marauders Mayhem
Heave Ho!
The Flume
Runaway Mine Train
Congo River Rapids
Duel

Team Air
Air
Nemesis
Blade
Ripsaw

Team Wraith
Th13teen
Rita
+ Litter

Team Legend
Hex
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Twirling Toadstool
Gallopers Carousel
Frog Hopper
Driving School

Team Oblivion
Oblivion
Submission
Enterprise
Sonic Spinball

Team Rabbit
Squirrel Nutty Ride
The Beastie
Old Macdonalds Tractor Ride
Doodle Doo Derby
Riverbank Eye Spy
Skyride ( ? )

Welcome
Monorail
+ Car Parks
+ Park Entrance

I think that's pretty much right. I am not sure whether Golf or Sharkbait Reef fit into separate teams nor if Welcome also look after the ticket booths.

Ride Teams have gone through many changes over the years. Team Nemesis for example once included Duel and Congo River Rapids and Team Wraith was formerly Team Rita to included Rita, Corkscrew and Ug Swinger. Team Legend was previously called Team Frog whilst there used to be a Team Mayhem who used to look after only Mutiny Bay (i think all this is right, don't quote me!).

:)
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elmerfudd
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^Ahhhhhhhh okayy, I see!
I wonder what happend down at Thorpe then, when he was on Saw then again on Stealth...
Maybe he was covering for someone who was on break.
AstroDan

Thorpe is tiny and I wouldn't be suprised if they just mix random rides together.
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henry96
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Ah that's cleared it up for me too :) Yeah Thorpe is almost unbelievably small, especially if you look on google maps, it almost looks like Thorpe could fit into Forbidden Valley!
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Scott
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Dan, you were right about Team Mayhem and Team Frog.

Not sure about the others.

I am sure I remeber an old colleague saying that the Flume was once included on the same team as Corkscrew for some reason lol.
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Mattia
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Thorpe's were Thrills West and Thrills East. But this could have changed this season like Chessington.

Chessington used to have Area 1, Area 2 and Area 3. But this has now changed to random funky names i.e. Team Perseus (Which was Area 1 originally).

Alton's Team Legend, Team Waterbabies or Team Air would be my favourite team to work on. :)
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cfleck
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I'm in Team Wraith, but obviously when your 18 you maybe advised to try operating or change departments so they can hire more under 18s for the attractions in the under 18s areas. Who has info on how old you need to be to host on Enterprise & Submission? Cheers!
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Voke
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To be a ride host you need to be 18 years of age (to operate the ride).
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siralgenon
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[quote="AstroDan"]Current Ride Teams (correct me if I am wrong) to my knowledge:

Team Waterbabies
Battle Galleons
Marauders Mayhem
Heave Ho!
The Flume
Runaway Mine Train
Congo River Rapids
Duel

Team Air
Air
Nemesis
Blade
Ripsaw

Team Wraith
Th13teen
Rita
+ Litter

Team Legend
Hex
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Twirling Toadstool
Gallopers Carousel
Frog Hopper
Driving School

Team Oblivion
Oblivion
Submission
Enterprise
Sonic Spinball

Team Rabbit
Squirrel Nutty Ride
The Beastie
Old Macdonalds Tractor Ride
Doodle Doo Derby
Riverbank Eye Spy
Skyride ( ? )

Welcome
Monorail
+ Car Parks
+ Park Entrance

The Welcome Team includes ATR DVD and Team Waterbabbies includes Berry Bish Bash
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Anonymous

Team Mayhem is still active and they look after the Sky Ride... some other things too. But I'm not 100% sure on the family front.

In terms of Thrill, Dan has nailed it. It gives a good competitive edge... it was always the case of Team Air vs Team Wraith (this 2010 season anyway) purely because it's B&M vs Intamin.

There is always throughput challenges too, this is normally Team Air vs Team Oblivion. Whoever gets the best throughput during the 1hour period, Wins.. :)

Also, cross training is provided if available. For example, an air op got trained as an RMT op this year and an RMT op got trained as a blade and ripsaw op.


In regards to Thorpe, It's still Thorpe/CWoA. When I was at chessie last year with a colleague from towers, he used to work at chessington and spoke to the pirate ship op (black something?) and he varies his week opping the pirate ship at chessie or opping saw the ride at thorpe.

Hope this added info will give you a deeper insight!

EDIT:
[quote=""siralgenon""]The Welcome Team includes ATR DVD and Team Waterbabbies includes Berry Bish Bash[/quote]
2010 season, ATR DVD (your day) was still handled by their own dedicated team.

Berry bish bash is handled by Team Rabbit(? Farm team anyway :P).
Last edited by Anonymous on Sun Jan 16, 2011 7:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Blaze

[quote=""AstroDan""]
Team Legend
Hex
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Twirling Toadstool
Gallopers Carousel
Frog Hopper
Driving School
[/quote]
Lol, the irony :P
Crofty

I think Team Waterbabies would probably be my team of choice. I'd probably hate to be stuck indoors on a coaster platform all day. Waterbabies seems to offer a good mix of jobs and they are some of the best themed areas of the park.

:) :)
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thefatone
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[quote=""BrettS""]
In regards to Thorpe, It's still Thorpe/CWoA. When I was at chessie last year with a colleague from towers, he used to work at chessington and spoke to the pirate ship op (black something?) and he varies his week opping the pirate ship at chessie or opping saw the ride at thorpe.
[/quote]
Mr Welsh, works at both thorpe and cwoa! They are different companies, and technically they shouldn't be able to do that.

Thorpe is Thrills and Experience. Two big old teams.

Chessie is 4 teams. Team Perseus, Team Dora, Team Diagio and Team Indiana or sommet **** like that - nothing related to their areas.

Team Rabbit and Team Mayhem are the same team (currently known as mayhem).
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cfleck
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Thank you!
Anonymous

[quote=""thefatone""][quote=""BrettS""]
In regards to Thorpe, It's still Thorpe/CWoA. When I was at chessie last year with a colleague from towers, he used to work at chessington and spoke to the pirate ship op (black something?) and he varies his week opping the pirate ship at chessie or opping saw the ride at thorpe.
[/quote]
Mr Welsh, works at both thorpe and cwoa! They are different companies, and technically they shouldn't be able to do that.

Thorpe is Thrills and Experience. Two big old teams.

Chessie is 4 teams. Team Perseus, Team Dora, Team Diagio and Team Indiana or sommet excrement like that - nothing related to their areas.

Team Rabbit and Team Mayhem are the same team (currently known as mayhem).[/quote]

Ah yes indeed! Knew Mayhem was active, only knew they did the sky ride though. Didn't take interest in the family side of things!

I agree, they're two separate companies.
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Cory146
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Do you get to choose what area you work in?

And, Wickstead! I go there a lot I know most of the ops talk to them loads. Don't know about you though. Have you ever worked on the Nautic Jets, my 2nd home ?
Last edited by Cory146 on Thu Jan 20, 2011 1:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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