Every show is different -- When I was with Miller Amusements, we toredown everything in one night - anything from 10-15 rides on one unit to 30+ rides when the show came together. Things started with all the iron hitting the truck -- 2 crews for kiddie land, and each major had it's own crew -- some majors, like the Wipeout and Zipper shared a crew. Zipper first (bout 1.5 hours) then go back and slam the Wipeout in like 2.5 hours... Rides like the Sea Dragon or Sky Diver had their own crew and they would sometimes race eachother to the trailer. Morale was good back then -- a little competition never hurt. After all the iron was gone, the ride crews then dropped all power and EVERYONE jumped on cable and generators. On that show, the jointies were jointies -- ride crews were for rides -- there was a <s>definate</s> definite (I'll get this word right someday) dividing line there, and very few ever crossed it. But even when we were knocking down 30+ rides, we were ALWAYS done by the time the sun came up. That included hooking up the doubles loads because the drivers only came and hooked up to the trailer and went -- they were almost always no-touch loads. On setups, the power was usually on before most of the rides were even spotted. Electricians had power spread out and ready for hookups right away.
When I was with GAS, we had a lot more relaxed approach to things (but the crew was ALOT smaller, too). We would setup Tuesday and Wednesday, cleanup and operational testing/inspections on Thursdays, then open Thursday or Friday night (depends on the contract)... All rides ran once they were in the air, incase something had to be repaired/dealt with, but other than that, the big day was Thursday -- everyone cleaned rides and did whatever possible to make it all look good. On setups, we usually didn't run power till the second day (mid afternoon at that) because not many rides needed anything more than 110 power to setup except the ones with towers that needed the hydraulics. Here, when the power shutdown on teardown, it was like the motivation died and everyone wanted to sleep, so if we tried taking power down before the last piece was on the truck, whatever was left got knocked out the next day (Monday)... I was one for getting it all down and having the next day to move and get situated/rested but we all know how burned out a Sunday can get after opening and operation, then tearing down. Here, the approach with the help was alot more family related though. Everyone tried to look out for eachother, while at Miller it was every-man-for-himself when it came to things... Unless you were part of the goon-squad over there, you were a pee-on and you were treated accordingly...
I don't really have anything bad to say about the way either show moved. No matter what happened, the iron always got open and it always moved -- no exceptions. As far as the help went, with GAS you actually meant something to the company, and they let you know it, while at Miller you didn't mean squat, whether you had all the experience and brains in the world or you were the biggest idiot that walked the face of the earth.
Two totally different ways to reach the same means to an end...