A Career At Cedar Point

It's hard to judge the entire union universe, representing dozens of crafts and trades, based on the experience with one small part of it.

What kind of pay do you think they offer for full time managers?

Not enough. It depends on how long you have been there, your level, title, department. Its nothing to get excited about.

Well what about the dpeartment heads. Like the head of food or merchandise or games???

the v.p. of the different divisions are paid reasonably well although discusssion of exact wages is not allowed. they get a lot of perks too

Fair enough

When I went to work at CP (more than a dozen years ago) my starting salary was in the mid-20's...and I was THRILLED! Someone mentioned naive earlier? Ding, ding, ding!

Actually, I was thrilled. First job out of college, not married, cheap rent in Sandusky. I was living high on the hog.

I suspect a rooking FT employee now would start around 30 or so for entry level management. At least, for their sake, I HOPE that is the case.

Department Directors? That is a bit tougher. I'm going to GUESS they would be in the 60s-70s but I could be way off. But, you might have some Directors eligible for performance-based bonuses. In fact, as an entry level manager I was eligible for bonuses depending on how the park performed each year. It probably wasn't what many would consider a LOT of money but I thought it was nice.

60's or 70's sounds about right. I am sure jobs like Food, Rides, Games, and Retail make a bit more since they are the ones bringing in the cash. At least you would hope. Take the games. I think there are something like 40 of them. I read somewhere they have 3.7 million games played per year. The average price per game has to be around $2. Some are as low as $.50 but a high as $5. That is if they are just counting the games in that and not the arcardes. Skeeball would throw that figure way out of wack. But I would guess it is just the 40 games. So a little over 7 mil. gross. Not bad. I am sure they don't give out a huge % of stock. The main guy has to make 100K, you would think. Who knows?

the people that know aren't allowed to say anything....when my boyfriend got hired full time he was told that he was not to discuss their salary. they have an estimation of what the people above him make but do not know for sure......what chief wahoo said about 60's-70's is about right.....it doesn't neccasarily matter what division you work in it does depend on senority

Going back to the Engineering side of things, I'm a licensed Structural Engineer in Ontario, Canada, with almost seven years' experience in the commercial, industrial and institutional industries. I am very interested in getting into roller coasters and theme parks from an engineering point of view (even had a telephone interview with Jeff Pike at GCI a few years back - lost interest when he said something along the lines of, "the amusement industry is very fickle and I can't guarantee that there'll still be a job for you in six months"). I believe I could make an impact within Cedar Point, but the trick would be to, well, get in.

As I'm in my mid-30s I obviously can't start as a ride op and work my way up. I can't imagine that Cedar Point wouldn't need an engineer on site to monitor conditions on behalf of the park to keep their best interests at heart. Not only are they building rides but there are other structures all over the park that would need engineering expertise, understanding of the local building codes, etc.

My biggest issues would be the adjustments working in the US. What would the US salary need to be to be comparable to what I'm earning here? RRSP's vs 401k's? Public health care vs US health care? Property taxes? Property values? I really dont know what I'd need to make to live comfortably.

Lots to digest here - can anyone help me out?

Ok since we're talking about a career at the Point, I have a few questions myself. I want to move close to the park, maybe neat the Causeway in Sandusky. Would it be really expensive to get a home in that area? What qualifications do you need to be a ride operator? I don't care about operating the ride, heck I'd do the seatbelts and still be happy lol. My dream is to one day work on the TTD crew and get to control the mic. When I was there I said I'd shake this crowd up some day!

Real Estate is cheap in Sandusky.

The causeway isn't cheap though.

You're thinking the Chaussee, Tim. The houses off the causeway entrance look pretty low rent to me.

JackLovesTTD said:
Ok since we're talking about a career at the Point, I have a few questions myself. I want to move close to the park, maybe neat the Causeway in Sandusky. Would it be really expensive to get a home in that area?

I live in a trailer about 3 miles from the Causeway, I pay a lot rent of $300 a month, that includes water, and trash. I paid about $250 for my trailer but it was trashed and I am working to fix it up (and I know the owner of the lot, that helped) But I do know that apartments run around $400 a month for a one bedroom (http://www.w-trealty.com/)

What qualifications do you need to be a ride operator?

To be a ride op is not really much, just be over 18 and get hired, which is not hard. And if you get on to a ride, you will rotate all the posistins, including mic (if your ride has one). You can ask for a particular ride when you are interviewed, but I feel it is better to let them place you where they need you, then later, when you have been there a bit, express an interest in going to Dragster.

Also if you are only interested in a season position (ride op) then Cedar Point offers housing that you can move into as long as your perminate address is more than 25 miles away. But I personally (and it has been debated MANY times over on these forums) would rather have my own place off point.

Also since I came up from WV (Cross Lanes, outside of Charleston) let me give you a hint. Its so great to be able to go out and not look at a Hill every 20 feet :D

If you do come down please look me up, always willing to chat with someone from home, and about CP

*Edit* Quote Screwups. . . *** Edited 9/13/2006 3:19:52 AM UTC by Morté615*** *** Edited 9/13/2006 3:21:06 AM UTC by Morté615***

Well, I call the "chausee" the causeway. Technically I call it the old causeway, but since the only time I've ever driven on the "real" causeway was this past summer because I had to go to Breakers Express to pick up a friend, I'll just keep calling it the causeway. LOL!!

WTF is a "chaussee" anyways? I googled it and wikipedia'd it and came up with nothing. Why can't it just be called the "old causeway?" Obviously it was just called the causeway before the new causeway was built? Right?

Nope, it’s always been called the Chaussee since it was constructed early last century. Chaussee is French for road or something of that nature (I remember reading it in CPtQoAWP.)

How in the world does a discussion about careers at Cedar Poitn digress into a debate about "Causeway" or "Chausee"? What about those of us who are actually interested in careers?

I know this is a little late in coming, but I've been trying to think about how to word my response correctly.

I can see how the three weeks of post preparation paid off. Threads sometimes go off in different directions. It happens.

Well, that's all well and good Walt, but how do you get a response when you post a question? I've been looking here off and on for almost a month to no avail.

What can you tell me about careers at Cedar Point - you seem to have special connections there that the rest of us don't. I'm a Professional Engineer in Ontario Canada looking to get into a construction or engineering role in the amusement industry.

I'm in my mid-30s so I can't really consider starting out at the bottom of the ladder as a ride-op or cleaning out garbage cans.