My Experience as a Ride Host | Lifestyle

 Hello, everyone!

Today I'm going to be writing something a little different, and hopefully interesting.

As many of you may know, I had the pleasure of working at the UK's most famous theme park, Alton Towers, as a ride host.

Honestly, this is strangely the best and most enjoyable job and working experience I have ever had. It taught me many valuable skills, as well as letting me meet some amazing people. 

I wanted to do this post because there is so much negative speculation about the resort because of the media, as well as the fact I've seen loads of YouTubers speak about their past employers. Many of the employers bloggers speak about are all retail stores, so I thought I would try and be original and explain the process and experiences I faced as a ride host. 

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The Interview

I was the second one to arrive at my interview and was so, so nervous. What made matters 10x worse was the fact I had the most hideous coldsore on my face which looked like a miniature Mount Vesuvius. 

Also, I thought I was the only girl at my interview as, minutes after I arrived, about fifteen blokes piled into the room. But they were all extremely friendly and took the time to explain how the availability sheet worked to me (I think it became pretty clear to them I'd never been employed before). 

We then all sat down in this massive circle and were introduced to a load of members of staff. I didn't realise half of these staff members were actually really official area-manager people and supervisors.

The first task we had to do was draw the person sitting down next to us and write down three facts about them. I sat next to this dude called Liam who seemed pretty cool and to be honest, my drawing wasn't too shabby. Luckily, he was very nice and didn't include my hideous coldsore. 

Next? I had to read out these facts I'd got. My voice did that really weird thing where it slips from sounding really manly to sounding like I'd been dosed up on helium for about an hour and a half. Everyone was 10x more confident than me, so I thought I was pretty screwed.

Then we did this team building thing where we were given a family and had to plan a personal VIP experience for them. To be honest I had some pretty good ideas, but I just didn't want to share them and my group was so loud so I couldn't get a word in edgeways. Then I decided to show off my team building skills, as we were obviously being observed. I played the leader and made sure everyone listened and had a chance to share their ideas, as well as thinking to myself 'God Liv, you sound ridiculous'. 

Guess what happened before my actual individual interview? I chundered. Wow, I'm so impressive I know. Employ me now. 

What I didn't realise was the man who was interviewing me was actually going to be my area manager within the next month. He was pretty scary, so I knew I had to make myself look really impressive if I had any hope in getting a job. I was wearing the most fake grin ever and he probably thought I looked really psychotic and should be auditioning for one of the scare mazes, but luckily he didn't grill me. 

Training

After calling up HR about five million times because I was just so worried they weren't going to contact me about whether I got the job or not, I got that call from my new supervisor saying they were 'impressed' at the interview and I would be working for Team South (Oblivion, Hex, Enterprise and The Smiler) as a ride host. Because I'd put on my CV I had a lot of experience in working with children, I was dreading the fact that if I were to get the job, I'd be working in Cbeebies land. Yes, I want to work with kids. No, I don't want to listen to the Charlie and Lola soundtrack all day. 

As soon as I found out I had the job I was sent this massive to-do list on the staff website, such as signing insurance forms in case I died, uniform sizes and health forms. That was pretty tedious and stressful.

Then I had my training days which was basically learning about the 'Merlin way' and providing good customer service. Also got to be a test dummy for the Air hosts which was really fun, and one of my mates was 'crying' all the way through about her nose running which was hilarious for me because I'm easily amused.

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Then it came to the actual work. I remember starting and bricking myself because everyone else seemed to know each other so well and there were about five newbies.
My first day involved being trained on Oblivion and working at heights training. Because believe it or not, we have to climb up that track to get your phones, and it's incredibly annoying and the easiest way to annoy a ride host. There was one day where I literally went up three times within the space of an hour to get phones.

My biggest mistake was telling the person who was interviewing me that I wasn't scared of heights. Because I didn't think I'd be climbing a roller coaster track, I thought that was for the technicians. Oops.
I felt so accomplished though, once I was trained to do my evacuations and had been assessed and deemed as competent to work on the roller coaster.
HEX days were also amazing for hangovers, because you could literally just sit and chill while the ride was going on. It's also amazing to sneak up on guests on!

Bad days

I didn't really have many bad days to be honest. There were a few down moments. Oh wait, I actually had this really shit day on Oblivion because I just wasn't switched on and kept making loads of mistakes.
I was also really scared of being late, too. After my second month working there I think I was literally bang on time to every brief.
Other than that, I had so many good days. Sometimes I was way too tired to come into work, but once I was there and had a guest say something funny or ask a silly question, it gave me a bit of motivation. I also learnt how bad clock watching can be, and how much quicker your day goes if you don't wear a watch.

The team

When I started I had the mentality to not get involved in office politics because it just lands you in so much trouble. I was so proud of myself when I left the job without getting involved in any drama.
The team I was on seemed really scary when I first started, because they all had this confidence I wish I had. Luckily, I caught on to this and was so sharp and witty by the end of my time there.
I was on the team that faced all the crap during the big accident, too. I'm sure you all know what I'm going on about.
The park faced a lot of bad press about having staff that were too 'young' and 'inexperienced' to work on such complex mechanics like roller coasters. When in fact we went through hours of training and knew better than anyone it was quite easy to work on a roller coaster once you knew what you were doing. And we all did.
Our team stuck together so well and sort of turned into a little family after it all happened. We did face a lot of abuse but I wouldn't have wanted to go through all that with any other team. Everyone was so strong and resilient through it. I really did work with some amazing people.

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I hope this post was interesting for you guys. Keep your eyes peeled for more posts involving diary entries, Halloween, horror films and my one year anniversary xo