- July 20th, 2005, 10:05 pm
#13120
Hello to everyone.....
First of all, let me apologize in advance for the lengthy post, but after 3 years i have a lot to say. You see, I worked in the screening dept. at carowinds for the past 3 years. I started when it was first introduced, and eventually moved up to be one of the dept. supervisors. I caught on to this web sit a year or two ago, and used it to my advantage to see what the guests had to say about how the screener dept. was running. I've finally gotten to the point where I am tired of everyone complainig about how things are/were being handled as far as policies, etc..... To those on this forum who actually appriciate the job that the screeners do, I thank you. Nice comments from park guest are few and far between. To call the metal detectors a waste of money and pratical is wrong. Since 2003, we have stopped everything from small, everyday pocket knives to illegal items. To say that the people at the gate are not doing their job is not entirely true either. While I will admit that there were a few select individuals who did not want to be there and did not care, MOST of the front gate screeners DO care and constantly try to ensure that all guest have a safe and enjoyable experience. I will say that it is much more difficult to accomplish this in the morning(between 10-11:30am)because of the rush of people coming in, but that comes with the territory, especially on Saturdays. You have to look at things from two perspectives. First, if metal detection wasn't in place at all, and there was an "incident", everyone would complain about not having screening or any form of metal detection/bag checks. second, with 10-20,000+ on any given weekend coming through, that equals alot of bags that come through the lines. If we didn't move fast, you would all complain about waiting in line for 30 mins. just to get in the park. The idea of X-ray machines has been thought of before, but it is simply not economical, nor is it cost effective. Think about it, if we ran bags through an X-ray machine, and there happened to be something inside of the bag, the bag would still have to be opened and hand searched in order to pull the item out. dukefanswimmer89, you make reference to the 2004 food policy, and how we "abandoned" it. We "abandoned" it b/c a: we are not food police and b: it made are jobs ten times harder because of angry/unrully guests who choose not to obey the rules that are clearly posted before the even reach the detectors. To review, are the screeners 100% acurate, not always. But with the time and budget that we were given, I feel that we ALWAYS did the best job possible.
p.s- Please don't flame me for this, I am just one guy who has experinced things from the other side of the fence. If you were in my shoes, you might feel the same way. :ph34r:
- now that's the real danger to their rip off monopoly pricing.... 
