Theme Park Workers Share The Secret Privileges That Rich People Have

Sergio Souza

Ah, theme parks: a wonder-filled place chock-full of potential for fantastical memories for years to come. While visitors may find themselves daydreaming of memories involving great companionship, grab-and-go-food and lots of laughs, the workers probably have less than joyous memories.

While I was never employed by a theme park, I imagine the most eye-rolling moments occurred with entitled rich folk who let their wallets speak for them. But living the high life gets you more than just first-class perks like line-cutting in line and free snacks. With deep wallets, anything from having a private escort to easy access to the most sought-after rides is but a few (hundred to thousand) dollars away.

Here are some of the most jaw-dropping instances of the rich and famous flaunting their wealth to get exactly what they want.

30. Celebrities, Like This One, Can Get Whatever They Want – For A Price!

Brodie Vissers

“My gran’s friend, Jill, had booked out a big theme park in the UK, Alton Towers for a wedding. A few weeks before Jill was to get married, she was contacted by the park and asked if she could move her wedding to a different day.

Of course, Jill and her fiancé couldn’t move the date, that’s ridiculous! All the preparations had been organized, invitations sent out, food ordered, flowers ready, etc.
The exchange between Jill and a contact at the park went on for a few days, the contact still insistent that she change the date. Eventually, it came to light that the people who wanted to rent the park on that very same day Jill was to have her wedding, offered to pay off the remainder of Jill’s mortgage in exchange for the park!

So obviously, when they changed the date for the wedding, the check came through the post and it was signed by Victoria Beckham. So Victoria Beckham had rented out the whole park and paid off somebody’s mortgage in the process!” aliensrkwl

29. This Prolific Person Had Body Guards As Well As A Hovering Helicopter In Case Things Went South

PXHere

“I work on a roller coaster in WDW.

Our ride has a separate wheelchair entrance that’s near one of our exits and sometimes they will come up through there with a personal tour guide and we’ll put them on there. For bigger celebrities, we bring them in through the back door. Basically an area of the ride guests don’t normally access and will put them on the ride. We did this for Snoop Dog one day.

And if they want to go back out the same way they ride twice because the ride has two separate stations and only one of them has the back door entrance and the trains flip from one station to another.
The most insane version of this I saw was when Joe Biden came to our ride. We cycled out the ride (closed the queue and ran trains until the entire building was empty except for the cast members) and then put Joe on the ride.

There were secret service agents everywhere and we had to tell them exactly how to evacuation the ride incase it shut down and where we would take them and everything. They also had a security helicopter hovering about 250 feet.” njt159

28. Money Talks, So These Celebrities Have A Lot Of Perks, Including Sleeping Like Cinderella!

stinne24

“Worked at WDW, SeaWorld, and Universal Orlando. With all of them, you can hire a private VIP tour guide to take you around the park. At this level, you don’t use the normal entrance, there are VIP ones so you don’t have to deal with security and lines. Speaking of lines, that isn’t a thing anymore. You can be taken directly to the loading area of rides.

Universal had some secret waiting rooms that VIPs could wait in so they could jump right into the pre-show (some rides have that) then directly on the ride. They also don’t just walk from place to place like you do.

They will walk off one place and appear in another area of the park. It’s kind of hard to visualize, but a lot of rides are closer to each other than you realize. For example, in Hollywood Studios the Disney Jr show is practically next to Rockin Roller Coaster through backstage areas.

Meanwhile, the Animal Kingdom and Epcot have an outer street backstreet that circles the whole park, which means VIPs can get driven around backstage instead of walking half a mile. At SeaWorld, there are a bunch of semi-off limit backstage areas that only certain tours will see, but you can bet the VIPs get to go to the top of the shark exhibit and look down (for normal people, you are in a tube with the sharks swimming above and around you.

There is also VIP seating for shows at all parks, so they don’t need to show up 30 minutes before the show to save a seat, they can stroll in 5 minutes before the show starts.

Also, if you are a super VIP at Disney (aka Tom Cruise or Neil Patrick Harris) you might get to sleep in the Cinderella Castle Suite. Everyone else gets picked up by a private van from their hotel so they don’t have to wait for buses or trek through endless parking lots.” [deleted]

27. Powerful People Do Terrifying Things When They Get Told “No”

Pixabay

“Not me but one of my old bosses now works at an indoor theme park in Dubai as head of the rides or something like that.
(I don’t know what it’s called, sorry!). I heard from his fiancée, who is my current boss, that one day the royal family of Dubai came to the theme park.

They chose a ride to go on and got free access to go on it. They went around the one time and they wanted to go around again but the employee managing the ride didn’t let them because there was a line of people already waiting to go on.

Now, for some context, if the ROYAL family of DUBAI wants to do something. YOU LET THEM. The family said to the owners of the park and the guy I know that the employee managing the ride was not allowed to work there anymore and that he had to go home to the UK and never come back. That man is now never allowed to go to Dubai again.” ItsMorpeth

26. Some People Merely Visit Theme Parks, But The Wealthy Rent Out The Entire Park!

Pexels

“Worked at WDW. Kids between 1 to 16-years-old with wealthy parents would sometimes rent out entire theme parks. One time, Hollywood Studios was rented out to a kid who was (I believe) turning 8. Most of the rides stayed open with multiple bars serving adult beverages that were set up for the grown-ups.
Full-service bars scattered throughout the park. We’d keep the park open a few hours after closing for them to ride the rides privately and get wasted.

No idea how much it’d cost to do something like that but it happened quite often.

Sometimes the families were the coolest and would have fun, other times they’d be snobs and act younger than the kid having the birthday. For the families who were fun, the employees were usually a lot more relaxed (due to no crowds) and would have fun with them too.

In some cases, the group would be on one side of the park and we’d be sending empty ride vehicles around just waiting for them to show up. We knew they’d be about an hour before they’d reach us so we’d trade rides! So while we operate our ride, operators of another attraction would come ride. Maybe the lights get turned on for things like Rockin’ Roller Coaster, maybe all the lights get turned off and we’d ride it in the pitch black. Was a lot of fun to do that!” holysctosman

25. These Celebrities Get The VIP Treatment, Whatever That May Entail

Pexels

“I worked in WDW, first in resorts and then in the parks.

The only major difference I witnessed at the resort was when we set up a late check-in (11 pm) and cleared the lobby for it; it wasn’t even that big of a deal because there were only a couple of people hanging around that late and the store/QSR was closing down for the night anyway.

In the parks, it differs by who the VIP is and what they decide. Some just go to the park like anyone else, cause a little bit of a stir when recognized but otherwise just spend their day like anyone else. Some do the keys to the kingdom tour like someone else already mentioned, but it’s pretty standard and pretty much anyone can do it if they want to pay for it. And then there are the guided tours, where you have someone from guest services with you all day and you line jump and get priority seating, etc, but again, pretty much anyone can do it if they can pay for it.

Disney will typically bend over backward to support any reasonable requests. I know they’ve cleared restaurants at celebrity requests before but all in all, during my time there, it was all pretty low key.” justanothersong 

24. Celebrities Are Either Really Kind Or Really Rude: There Is Rarely Ever Any In Between

PX Here

“Celebrities would often come by and it was always interesting.
Some were the greatest people ever, some were the absolute worst. To name a few that I felt were the worst was Taylor Swift and Amanda Bynes mainly because they were very stuck up and rude to employees and guests alike. Taylor Swift had asked that no guests be in the queue area at the loading dock for a ride as she did not want to be seen by guests. Then her group would ride multiple times all while we have to hold the line (which was already a 120 min wait) for guests until they were done.

But the nicest of celebrities made it worthwhile. The Harlem Globetrotters visited us during the ESPN weekend and arrived at the ride I was working at just as it had broken down. Guests were bummed that one of the most popular attractions had broken down, so the globe trotters started playing with the guests by doing basketball tricks and played on the Hula Hoop with the kids (which is pretty funny watching extremely tall guys doing a hula hoop with little humans). Celine Dion and her husband visited our attraction but didn’t want to ride. René did the ride while Celine hung out with us in the break room.
She was fascinated by the vending machine that had a glass/plastic pane showing a moving motor to grab the drink and dispense it on the right. Just so she could watch this vending machine, she’d ask each of us our order then buy us a drink and watch in awe as it would grab the soda and dispense it.

Some of the celebrities were downright rude whereas others are just great to talk to when you’re not asking for photographs or autographs. Almost like they were normal people or something…”  holyscotsman

23. Some Celebrities Are Just Happy Not Being Bothered For The Entire Day Thanks To Their Special Treatment

PX Here

“I work at Universal Orlando and have been for a few years now. We have two different types of V.I.P. tours, ones that are non-private (you share the tour with another group or 2) that start at around $300 minus park admission, and then private tours (just your party) that start at around $2,500.

The latter group is usually celebrities or families that don’t want to deal with crowds or waiting in line. They get taken through VIP staircases, if they’re celebrities they’ll travel backstage to avoid crowds, they won’t use public restrooms, but rather our employee restrooms.
They get special meals, free photos, and a ton of other stuff.

They’re generally some of the most pleasant people I deal with throughout the day (can’t say anything for the celebrities because I don’t talk to them.) Most are excited to be on the tour and love skipping the lines and the private tour they get all day.

If a company wants to rent out the park, they can, with a fee. We’ve had some major companies rent it out for a night (Microsoft last month) and they get all the rides, merchandise, catering, open bars, all to themselves.

Money talks my friends.” firebreathingraptor

22. This Kid Was Mad The Empty Ride Left – But His Mom Was Just Awe-Struck

burst.shopify.com

“WDW here too. Magic Kingdom, Big Thunder Mountain at the time. You could always figure out the level of celebrity by their entrance to the ride, like if they just used unlimited fast passes, came through the wheelchair-accessible line, or very rarely if they closed down one side.

When Jimmy Carter came through with his family we shut down one half so they could ride on the train alone. A kid in line saw that the train was basically empty and was clearly upset as his mom said: ‘That’s Jimmy Carter!’ The kid yells ‘Who the HELL is Jimmy Carter?!’

Jimmy Carter salutes the kid, and we dispatched the train so darn fast.” roux_smalls

Another User Comments:

“Most celebrities would get all butthurt hearing that.
I think Jimmy Carter would just use it as a reminder to stay humble.” urois

21. Some Celebs Demand First-Class Treatment, While Others Just Want To Have Old-Fashioned Fun By Themselves

Pexels

“I worked at Busch Gardens back in the 90s. During that time we had celebrities like Garth Brooks, WWE wrestlers and their families, and Hanson (it was the 90s) visit while I worked there. I found the treatment depended on the celebrity in question.

Garth Brooks and his band (along with families) were all pretty low key.

Though they were escorted through the park by an employee (and allowed to travel from point to point using employee walkways) they didn’t really ask for much. They rode rides and they were all very friendly.

The WWE guys were the most low key and the most fun. They didn’t ask for escorts. They roamed around on their own and just had a blast. They were fun to interact with. I wasn’t a wrestling fan so I didn’t know any of them by name, but they were huge guys and all stood out in the crowd. They were hard to miss.

As for Hanson, well, most of us never even saw them. From what I understand if they wanted to ride something, the ride was cleared of other guests while they rode.
They were taken around behind the scenes everywhere they went and we were told not to try to interact with them unless they started a conversation.

I should point out that I only bring up celebrities because nonfamous rich people don’t stand out. All the regular wealthy just blend in.” teknrd

20. Money Was No Object For This Family, But They Also Refused To Talk To Anyone, Making Their Visit A Difficult One

Pixabay

“Big UK theme park based on bricks… Most celebs get the usual best line skipping products, free stuff, backstage tours. However, we also had someone visit who was royalty from a very oil-rich country, so money no object type deal. The team I worked in had to run around with radios ahead of his family plus 20 strong entourage, trying not to be seen, to predict his movements. When they arrived at a ride, we’d clear out the exit line of plebeians, and let them all waltz in and go straight on. Rumour was, for this service, was a five-figure sum. They didn’t want to speak to, or even be near staff so everything went through their minders.

That’s all the antics I was involved in but I’m sure there was more as they all stayed in the hotel on site.” benhina

19. One Out Of Three Celebrities Is A Total Jerk, And Katie Price Proves It!

Pixabay

“Worked at Legoland Windsor for 4 years, multiple celebs came through during that period all received different treatment and three people, in particular, stand out.
Katie Price, a truly awful woman, would regularly come to the park demand all the diva treatments, passes, VIP parking routes in and out of the park to avoid regular people, pays for nothing gets everything and thanks to no one.

Michael McIntyre, also received most of the above, as to whether or not any payments were received for those services I do not know but in general he was reportedly much more pleasant and fun to deal with and less demanding.

Finally, Boris Becker showed up one day at the front entrance at about 2 pm well after the morning rush and as most other people in the park were eating lunch, produced 3 annual passes for him and the kids handed them to me so I could check they were his, had a pleasant if brief conversation as I scanned them through and he went on about his day like a normal person.

Guess who my favorite celeb guest was whilst I worked there!” OfficerJohnMaldonday

18. One Direction Wanted To Ride In Peace – Universal Orlando Made It Happen

Pexels

“I work at Universal Orlando, One Direction once bought out the park at night after one of the concerts they had. They stayed really late and spent most of their time in the newly opened (at the time) Diagon Alley.
They didn’t even come to my section of the park but I got paid so there’s that. A lot of celebrities that come around will either just walk through normally and we’re required to act like we don’t know who they are and some buy the super VIP that lets them basically do and go wherever they like. That last option also gives you a personal tour guide. It’s like $3,000 a person or some ridiculous number like that.” LoneCourierSurvivor

17. This Operator Has A Few Stories, Including Missing Out A Chance To Meet Canada’s Prime Minister

Pixabay

“I worked at Canada’s Wonderland for a few years (but it seemed like every time a celebrity came I happened to just miss them).

Wonderland does offer some VIP thing though, which I know most celebrities use (I only saw Adam Sandler using this myself). Basically you just get escorted to the rides by someone and get instant access to ride.

Justin Bieber though is another story. Unfortunately, I hardly remember details about this nor do I know how true they are, but I remember some of my friends telling me he spent a good like 5-10k for him and a bunch of friends to only go on two rides…(I’m assuming they rented it out for a small amount of time).
One of which (go-karting) he demanded to wear gloves for…someone said because he didn’t want to touch the steering wheel because he was too good to touch it with his hands. Anyways, I doubt that part is true but at the same time its Bieber so who knows.

Asides from that I don’t remember much else. Justin Trudeau is apparently always nice and calls people by their name on their name tag.

I still regret calling in the day he came to Wonderland..” PeppermintAero

16. All This Celebrity Wanted To Do Was Ride Sans Line – And He Got Exactly What He Wanted

Pexels

“I worked security at a theme park that hosted Cody Simpson for a concert. Apparently he’s the ‘Australian Justin Bieber’, a title I’m sure he loves. Anyway, somewhat famous I suppose. After the concert, he and his entourage got escorted around the park by several of the security staff and me, while surrounded by several of his own private, large security guys. When he saw a ride he wanted to ride, we walked him up the exit stairs and he got the ride. Not a huge perk, I realize, it was probably pretty nice to bypass every line while being paid a handsome fee for being there.
Most theme parks are also available to buy out for the day. Usually, that was just companies having an annual event, but when they only bought a partial day, the park closed early and all the regular guests (anyone without an armband usually) were booted out.

I wish I knew what that cost, but it’s probably pretty expensive considering the hundreds of employees and utilities it must take to run a theme park.

Money talks at theme parks. If you have lots, you can pretty much do what you want, ride what you want whenever you want. No different than real life, I imagine.” b*itches_love_brie

15. Walt Disney World Has Underground Tunnels That Only A Select Few Use

PXHere

“Worked in WDW.

Celebrities get guided access to and through the utility (tunnel system) beneath the Magic Kingdom if they want it to get to different parts of the parks the fastest. They mainly only go to the nicer parts though, like the clean and pristine sections under fantasyland and Main Street. Not the gross ones where most of us worked lol. Though Johnny Depp ends up in the nasty parts of Adventureland to gain access to the elevators that get you up to Pirates.

Fun-ish story. Sort-of is relevant.
Mariah Carey was a person we were all told to avoid at all costs. For our own sake. At least in my land. We were told that if we saw an entourage coming that even kinda looked like she’d be in it to just turn or duck away because she was such a misery. I never ran into her while she visited with her husband and kids, but found it interesting that her behavior was so egregious that our leaders went out of their way to warn us about her.” HighwaySlothh

14. These VIPs Spared No Expense To Have The Best Day Ever

Pixabay

 

“I worked at Six Flags. As most people know, theme parks have different tiers of tickets you can buy which entitle the customers (or guests as we called them) to certain privileges (i.e. a base ticket for entry is $45, early admission/base season pass around $60).

What a lot of people don’t know is that we had a tier of ticket that started at about $500 that gives you 1) a corporate escort that will allow you to cut in at ANY line at the park 2) unlimited food and drink 3) unlimited re-rides without needing to exit for another guest first 4) a private air-conditioned lounge area where you can rest.” DANGEROUS-jim

13. Unfortunately For This Employee, The Rich-And-Famous Were Mostly Jerks

Pixabay

“They get the privilege of being jerk without repercussion.
I’m not sure if that’s really unknown, though.

A family rented out the park—something anyone with enough money can do, as far as I know—for their daughter’s 16th birthday. She and her friends were a nightmare to deal with, and the adults weren’t any better. Although I heard horror stories about them from my fellow cast members, I didn’t see too much of the teens since they were hitting the rides, but that left me stuck with the adults.

In that evening alone, I braved two intoxicated men trying to get me to go to their hotel, one middle-aged woman muttering about how I was part of the Disney corruption or something, teenagers badgering me for my identity, and a handful of adults who wanted me to go on the rides with them to the point of harassment. What a joyful crew.” simplybenny

12. If You Act Entitled Enough, You Might Get What you Want: Just Like This Celebrity

Pexels

“I worked for a theme park about 5 years ago.

These parks have strict rules when it comes to security or cleanliness. If Bob comes in and says that he’s almost tall enough and whatnot, we have to tell him that it’s company policy and there was nothing we could do.
If they’d ask for a manager, the manager would have our back, so that was pretty nice.

One particular day, I was working on a water ride.

Water rides come with a whole new set of rules. Since it’s not a water park, we ask of clients to have some clothes on over their bathing suit. I’m guessing that it would probably be too complicated to decide what bathing suit is allowed and what isn’t, so they just made it a simple rule to wear clothes over it.

Comes in this smug-looking guy with his daughter of about 3. I tell him that for hygienic reasons since there are seats on this ride, we ask for the kids to wear pants over their bathing suits. He gets mad thinking that he’s waited for the line for nothing. It’s understandable, so I tell him that I’ll remember his face, he can go grab his daughter’s clothes and come back through the exit and I’ll let him in without waiting an hour again.

He starts berating me about what a dumb rule this is, about how he didn’t bring any change of clothes for his daughter (I don’t get how you can leave the house for a theme park with only a bathing suit but ok) and how every other employee he saw didn’t mention anything to him (which again surprised me, but whatever).

He demands that I call my supervisor, which I gladly do so I can wash my hands off him. It was the time for my break so I sadly leave without seeing how this situation gets solved.

A few hours pass and my supervisor comes up to my ride. He says, ‘(my name), do you know who that was earlier?” I start to wonder if I’ll still have a job tomorrow. ‘It was [some C-list celebrity]’.

So I ask him what ended up happening. He tells me usually they would’ve told him exactly what I did but since they didn’t want any sort of social media backlash from this guy, they actually ended up offering him a whole set of clothes for his kid, no charge, so they could enjoy the rest of their day at the park.

I’ll definitely remember his face now.” Ihatemost

11. This Employee Is Basically A Glorified Locker For The Rich And Famous…And That Just Sucks

PXHere

“I’m enthusiastic about my former job as a Ride Operator for Hershey Park.

The first one you don’t have to be insanely loaded to get, but for $75 extra you get a FastPass that lets you basically skip the lines of every coaster.

If you stay at the Hotel Hershey and get a Sweet Access Pass (not entirely sure how it works), one of Hotel Hershey’s concierges will follow you around the park for 6h, getting you to the front seat of every ride and holding on to your belongings for you while you ride.
Basically a mobile locker and a FastPass in one. I’ve only run into one of them and basically asked him how much he wants to die every day doing his job. He told me that it’s not fun at all. Poor guy has to wait in the heat for these people, hold onto their stuff, and don’t even get to ride anything. He just stands there and watches them have fun.” 7832597840

10. These Employees Even Dress Differently To Cater To Their Guests

Pixabay

“I worked at a small amusement park with roller coasters and water slides for a few years.

Every year, a religious group from about 6 hours away rented out our park for a few hours before we opened. It didn’t disrupt our normal business with the public, it just meant we did safety checks and staffed it earlier. I got the impression that they did this because they have some pretty conservative views on modesty and wanted to enjoy a stress-free summer outing. I and the other female employees wore pants and long-sleeves.” jellogoodbye

9. Guests Like These Can Have Anything They Wanted – Even Have Staff Change Their Roles at Midday

Pixabay

“I worked at a small water park in the mountains of NJ.
Yes, that one. Every summer we’d have groups from NYC rent out the park for a day. The worst was the religious groups. They’d have the boys on one side of the park, girls on the other. At lunch, everyone got dressed, met at the wave pool, had lunch, and then switched sides.

It was a logistical nightmare making sure we had enough staff to safely staff all the rides and remain respectful of their gender segregation. I got threatened so much because certain rides would have to close if we didn’t have enough people of both genders to staff them.” atomictomato_x

8. These High-Profile Guests Actually Made The Employees’ Jobs A Bit Easier

Pexels

“I worked at Chessington World of Adventures and every year the prince of an Arab country would rent out the whole park for the day for himself, his family and his staff. Then they’d bring in their own chefs and all we would have to do is supervise.” crocsndsocks

7. Being This Employee Was Like Being Stuck Between A Rock And A Hard Place

Pixabay

“Mostly just skipping the lines and being escorted around the park. When I worked at a theme park several years ago, the king of Saudi Arabia was visiting DC and some of his grandchildren came to the park for the day since it was only an hour or two away.

I was told the kids could ride as much as they wanted, so they took up the first four rows of the ride and kept riding it over and over. It came back into the station and if they didn’t get up and exit, they got re-checked to ride again. The people waiting in line for those rows were getting visibly annoyed and start yelling out that it isn’t fair but I literally couldn’t tell them anything. I think they rode about six times before they got bored and moved on.” Heyheyhollis

6. This Theme Park Treated Their High-Profile Guests Like They Were At A 5-Star Resort

Pixabay

“Worked at Legoland, FL. Celebrities or anyone willing to pay for the VIP tickets got a guided tour of the park, never had to wait in line for rides, any food they ate was included, someone held their items and anything that bought that day, someone to ride the ride with their kids if they didn’t want to.

They’d also get front row seats at any of the shows. The parents would get a tote bag to take home and the kids would get some small Lego sets. If they went to the water park portion they got a cabana and a host/hostess with food and drinks included.
Being around $500 per ticket, it always seemed like a bit of a rip off to me as it isn’t a very large theme park and it’s hardly ever very busy. I guess if you’ve got the money and your kids are really into it though, why not.” tanketanke

5. For A Few Thousand, This Person Got To Ride Alone…But They Didn’t Know That When They Booked!

Pixabay

“I work at a pretty small attraction in S. Florida that does airboat rides. Some Saudi prince asked us to take him and his group of friends (6) out to let them drive the airboats for an hour.

We priced out 10k. They paid. One showed up drunk, rest was hungover and didn’t show. Guy left after like 30 minutes and a few selfies.” seepoku

4. WWE Wrestlers Are Generally Good People, So This Park Made A Change To Make Big Show’s Day

Pixabay

“I worked at Worlds of Fun/Oceans of Fun in Kansas City for two years in the late 90s. Standing orders for WWE  (World Wrestling Entertainment) guests were to have two security guys follow around at a moderate distance, one to ward off anyone harassing the guest and one to carry a steady adult beverage/water supply.
Even the ones who didn’t drink hard drinks usually had monster water intake, but the ones who drank hops would floor you. This one guy named Hardcore something drank an entire case of Miller Genuine Draft over about 5 hours and didn’t even sway.

Super nice, chill people, and even the girls were usually large enough to pick out from a crowd so security really could hang back and let them play.

Favorite story: Paul Wight (the Big Show, a really huge guy) got sad that he couldn’t ride one of our coasters, so we swapped out the rear car for a wider maintenance car so he could have fun, and he rode it like twenty times.” SweaterZach

3. If You’re Loaded, This Carnival Comes To You!

Pixabay

“Prior carnival worker here.

All the time we would get wealthy people who would rent us out for the weekend. They would have a lot (location) where they wanted it set up. We would set up the day prior and have everything ready games, rides and food which were all free while they were there. All their friends and family would come and it wasn’t open to the public. After they leave we tear it back down and go on with our normal schedule.” MoarCowb3ll

2. These Employees Could Only Do So Much To Cater Top Their VIP’s Requests

Pexels

“I worked at Legoland UK for 2 seasons.

You’d get some rich people who would pay for a VIP package where they would get escorted round by a member of staff. Food and drink were unlimited and the staff member escorting them would also get free food (not that I think any of them actually did get a ton of food, just lunch). You’d also get famous people who would join the regular queue. James McAvoy visited twice in my 2 seasons and both times, he queued up in the normal queue, and this was in peak season.

By far the worst experience I had whilst working there was when the park was hired out after hours for a kid’s birthday. They came on the ride I was working on once in the 4/5 hours we were open. The mother of the kid threw a fit because she wasn’t allowed on the ride alone and had to ride with her security guard.

The kid didn’t have a birthday badge so we had absolutely no idea who he was. We got in trouble for not wishing him a happy birthday. We were expected to be on par with Disneyland Paris since that’s where he had his birthday the year before but let’s face it, Legoland < Disneyland Paris.
So I guess the really wealthy can hire out Legoland after hours if they want, but that’s the only time I’ve ever really experienced it. John Lewis also hires out Legoland after hours once a year, but at least it’s busy enough for the rides to constantly be in use.” DinosaursLayEggs

1. This Celebrity Paid Up To Have Everything Deep-Scrubbed And Ready When He Showed Up…Except He Never Did

PXHere

“Well, for normal wealthy people you could pay for a VIP tour which I believe was about $450 a person or something like that. There were a lot of restrictions for regular folks with it like it could only last 6 hours with a limited amount of people.

For famous people, that didn’t matter. They would cater to them, hand and foot, have extra tour guides with them, bring as many people as you wanted, have it as long as you wanted, and the tour guides would just switch out.

We never had anybody crazy famous when I worked there, mostly just athletes (primarily Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns and they were normally pretty chill), but Justin Bieber once told us he was coming to the park and we had to like.. deep clean everything for a few extra hours after our shifts were supposed to be over, and convince people to stay after hours for the guy and he never even showed up.” kateefab

As you can see, having a little money to throw around has its perks! If you’re one of those wealthy people, remember to be kind and courteous to those who assist you.
After all, they’re bending over backward to make your day the best one ever!

Do you have a first-hand account of what money can get you at theme parks? Let us know!