We recently came across this r/AskReddit thread started by u/Cox_simps asking amusement park workers to share all the foolish nonsense they’ve seen guests pull while on park grounds. Unsurprisingly, because people are wild, the stories were quite entertaining. Here’s what they revealed:
1.“I worked at Dorney Park in Allentown, PA. I did not see the event but saw the aftermath. We had a line-jumping policy where you’re escorted from the park if you line-jump. So some guests line-jumped and were tossed. It was a group of maybe 10 people who were yelling and screaming at security. More and more members of their bus trip started with security too — supposedly 50 to 100 more. It got so bad they started fighting and pretty much caused a riot outside the park. Multiple cops showed up, and they shut down the park. No one could enter or leave. Injuries were reported, but nothing major. After that, the park had armed security.”
2.“This dad left his too-short-to-ride kid by themselves when he went on the ride. A few minutes after he got off, he returned and said he gave the unattended kid his wallet to hold while he was on the ride, but the kid lost it, and it had over $5k in it. He was shocked that we wouldn’t just hand over $5k because apparently, as the ride operator, I should have kept an eye on his unattended kid instead of paying attention to the running ride.”
Person opening an empty black wallet
3.“I worked at Magic Kingdom some years ago. I have a lot of stories of entitled guests and some wonderful people that I have met over my time there, but one stands out. I worked with the ice cream carts — every single cart in the park. One day, I was working the popcorn and churro cart in front of the storybook circus, and our carts could see the Dumbo ride. It was not too busy in the parks that day, and most of the rides were walk-on. Well, as Dumbo was loading up its next group of people, a woman screamed in horror. We turned around and watched as this woman picked up her toddler and ran away from the ride. We thought that someone might have pooped on the ride or maybe left something nasty on it and just didn’t tell anyone. The cast member went to look, then told everyone to leave and contacted their leadership team.”
“Well, two minutes after the leadership team showed up, we were all nosy; even some of the guests that wanted snacks were watching along with us as an entire group of security showed up and surrounded the elephant car on the ride, then two Orange County officers showed up, gloves on and a paper bag. All of us were so curious about what the hell they saw in the car. What was going on? They all talked for about 10 minutes when my leadership showed up. We told them about the woman screaming and said we didn’t know what was happening on the ride.
Then, we heard a man shouting, ‘It’s mine! It’s mine!’ This man ran to the ride. Then, we all saw it as the cop lifted it up from the car. It was a handgun. This man had it concealed, and this was before Disney installed the metal detectors. All they did was check your bags and strollers. He had it in a holster underneath his shirt, and it fell out when he was on the ride with his kid. We watched as the family was escorted out of the park with Orange County officers right behind the dad and Disney security behind the family.”
4.“I worked at Knott’s Berry Farm in 1999. I worked in a souvenir shop next to The GhostRider, a popular roller coaster. At peak times, the wait could be four to five hours. I was working, and two crying children walked in. Their parents had gone on GhostRider hours before, telling them to wait for them. They were terrified they’d been abandoned, and all they could think to do was have someone call their grandma in Mexico to come get them. Security took them, and I heard they went and found the parents in the line and pulled them out to care for their damn kids. I don’t know if they got kicked out of the park or anything, though.”
Wooden roller coaster with intricate structure under bright sunlight. Sunlight peeks through, casting shadows on the pathway below
5.“I worked entertainment at various parks as an independent contractor. Once, a dad pushed a baby stroller with a baby in it straight under my stilts. He looked at me like he was the funniest dude ever. I am a professional but I was also freestyle dancing, and if I had been looking the wrong way…”
6.“I used to sell novelty toys at a popular theme park in SoCal. It was around 9 or 10 a.m., and the park was empty, but I was blowing bubbles with a toy we sell as we are expected to do. A guest approached me and asked if I could blow the bubbles in another direction because they were getting in her face. I told her I couldn’t control the wind, but she could move. She reported me to the main office, and my boss basically LOL’d at the situation.”
Floating bubbles with sunlight reflections against a dark background
7.“This woman came to my Pizza Pizza stall, and instead of ordering an overpriced pizza slice, she pulled out a full frozen salmon and asked me if she could keep it in my refrigerator while she was doing rides. When I said no, she insisted on speaking to my manager because it was apparently unfair, and we had a lot of space in our walk-in!”
8.“We had closed off a path for a serious medical emergency. It was hot, and the guests were cranky about walking around via a different route, so I was sent to the barricade to back up the one staff member holding down the fort. I was nicely explaining that it was an emergency, and most people understood. This one woman was losing it. She needed to go that way right NOW. It was the fastest way to some show she wanted to see, etc. She even said, ‘What the big deal? I could just step over the person who had the emergency,’ and asked, ‘Why could paramedics go through?'”
“While we were there, several sheriff’s deputies came rushing up, escorting EMS. This woman saw the open barricade, dove past it, and ran full-tilt into the deputy who’d paused on the other side. And she didn’t even have the sense to apologize. She said something like, ‘Let me through!’ He was not amused. The last time I saw her, the sheriff was escorting her away from the barricade toward the park security office while her screaming kids trailed behind. We reopened the path in 10 minutes. She got tossed out of a theme park over a 10-minute wait.”
Paramedics in action are rushing a patient on a stretcher towards an ambulance, conveying urgency and medical response
9.“The park I worked at back in the day had a ride that was new-ish at the time and fairly popular. It had to close when it rained as the brakes wouldn’t work properly when they got wet, and dead guests would be bad for business. One day, it started raining, and I got the word to shut it down. As per standard procedure, I put a chain across the entrance, then placed a barrel-shaped garbage can in front of the chain, and lastly, a big A-frame sign that read, in giant red letters, ‘THIS RIDE IS CLOSED’ in front of the garbage can. I then went to the loading area to wait out the rain with the rest of the crew. We watched a guy notice that there was no line for this ride and run to the entrance. We saw him read the sign (or look at it, anyway), look at the garbage can, and look at the chain.”
“He then moved the sign to one side, moved the garbage can to the other side, unclipped the chain, removed it, and ran through the line to the loading area. He was utterly shocked when he was told the ride was closed and he couldn’t get on.”
10.“I worked for a small amusement park in the suburbs of Chicago 20 years ago. I once broke up a fight between two women who were fighting because one cut in front of the other in the funnel cake line. When I say fighting one, I mean one woman had grabbed the other’s hair, twisted her down, and was pummeling her in the face. I grabbed that woman and threw her up against a wall next to us. Security then arrived, and both were kicked out. I have stories from that place.”
Security guard in uniform, cap, and sunglasses uses a walkie-talkie on a city street
11.“On a super windy fall day, an old man marched up to me and said, ‘Walt would be spinning in his grave to see all these leaves on the ground! Where do folks complain?’ I two-finger pointed to City Hall, and off he went.”
12.“I worked at a food pavilion in a small amusement park as a teen making fresh-cut fries. We had a condiment cart towards the middle of the pavilion. There was the usual fare: ketchup, ranch, honey mustard, salt, and malt vinegar. A guy came up and complained that the vinegar tasted really bad and bitter. A coworker asked him to bring the bottle he used. The dumbass sprayed his fries with a bottle of cleaner that got left on the stand by accident.”
Person at a food stall hands over fries in a paper tray to a customer, depicting a casual transaction at an outdoor event
13.“On the train, right after I said for passengers to keep their hands inside (before going into the tunnel), a frat boy who wanted to scare the girls he was with tried to do so by hitting the side of the tunnel. He didn’t scare them, but he did break his arm.”
14.“I worked concessions. A guest asked if our water was diet. I said, ‘It’s water.’ We went back and forth a bit until he walked away with nothing.”
Person uses an ice dispenser machine, pushing the ice button with one hand and holding a cup with the other
15.“Someone decided to break into the park by climbing over a fence, climbed into the alligator enclosure, then evaded security by climbing back over the fence to escape the park. Then, he posted the whole thing on his YouTube channel, leading to his arrest.”
16.“My partner works at Disneyland. A customer complained that it was raining because she thought the park had an invisible dome that prevented rain.”
Rain falling on a watery surface, creating ripples and droplets, with soft lighting illuminating the scene
17.“I worked at a kiddie amusement park when I was in college, and there are so many stories — from parents screaming at me when their kid was too short to be safe to teens dangling from the carrousel mechanisms like monkey bars. The most ridiculous question I ever got from someone was while I was operating a little train that went around the property. ‘Why doesn’t the train have a steering wheel?’ I struggled for a moment, trying to come up with an answer that wouldn’t sound rude or sarcastic. I finally said, ‘Uh, it’s got tracks.'”
18.“When I worked at 18, I had a guest try to ride the ferris wheel while holding a giant inflatable unicorn. He thought it was a ‘great idea’ to bring it on with him.”
Ferris wheel with colorful passenger cabins against a pastel sky
19.“My daughter worked at Hershey Park, and someone once tried to bring their baby on Skyrush. When they were told no, they tried to leave the baby in the bag drop area.”
20.“I was sitting in my tour guide seat on a tram at a certain theme park in SoCal. The tour hadn’t started yet. I was playing a media clip as the tram finished loading. An older lady in the front row reached forward and tapped me on my knee. ‘Excuse me, miss?’ she asked. ‘Yes?’ I replied. She pointed over to the San Gabriels to our right. ‘Are those mountains?’ she asked. ‘I’m sorry, what?’ I replied. ‘Are. Those. Mountains?’ she doubled down. ‘Yes. Yes, they are,’ I told her. She sat back and nodded and didn’t bother me for the rest of the tour.”
Skyline of Los Angeles with snow-capped mountains in the background under a clear sky
21.“In my servitude for the mouse, I had a woman yell at me in February because the hotel pool was closed. It was 35 degrees with 15 mph winds. When I explained that the pool was closed because you’d get hypothermia, she insisted, ‘Florida doesn’t get cold.’ That’s when I called my manager over for her and had him handle it. He enjoyed asking irate guests questions until they realized how foolish they were being. Didn’t always work.”
22.And: “I worked a short stint at a kid’s car ride in the summer of 2016. The policy was that the kid needed to be 48 inches tall to drive but could ride at any height alongside the driver. When I saw parents in line with toddlers about a foot tall, I’d guess whether they would try to put them in the driver’s seat. More often than not, they did, and we had to stop the whole ride flow until they knocked it off.”
Have you ever seen a guest do something absolutely ridiculous, reckless, or entitled at an amusement park? What happened? Tell us in the comments or share anonymously using this form.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
