A kinder, gentler, Cedar Point?

I'm not sure if anyone else has had these types of experiences, but here's a couple highlights from my day at Cedar Point yesterday:

-Multiple times, I was "welcomed" to a roller coaster by the ride op at the entrance to the line. Comments like "Welcome to (insert coaster name here). I hope you have a great ride" were not uncommon.

-Ride ops either have been given more freedom with spieling, or they haven't been busted for spieling violations yet. Many of the spielers were being very funny and making comments that reminded me of Cedar Point in the late 90s and early 2000s, which for me is the "golden years" at Cedar Point. There was only one ride where I felt like the spieler didn't care for her job, and that was on Iron Dragon.

-Guest interaction has improved throughout the park, with the exception of food services. Food services still sucks, but something has changed everywhere else. The ride op working the back of the train on Raptor was jokingly telling the people riding in the front of the next train that they were lame, and that Raptor is like a mullet - business in the front; party in the back. :)

-More higher ups walking around. On a typical day, I maybe see one of the upper echelon walking around. Yesterday, I saw many of the "important" people on the midways, talking to employees and guests alike, an even saw some of them twice.

These are just a couple examples of what I saw yesterday. By the end of the day, I really truly felt like I was at the Cedar Point of old. I remember caring so much for the park then, and I even would pick up trash on the midway as I walked around the park. I haven't cared as much in a few years, but yesterday, I found myself picking up trash again - my way of keeping my "home park" clean.

Now, what causes these sort of changes? Obviously, these are "top-down" type changes, and I can't help but wonder if Bill Spehn came back to Cedar Point with a vengeance and is shaking up park operations in an effort to improve everything. He's the one "difference" that I can think of this year.

Any other thoughts?

*Edit - fixed spelling error*

That is a very plausible reason for the improved guest relations employees are showing this year. Before he left for Geauga Lake, I would have called you crazy if you told me that one guy could make that big of a difference with his presence around the operations of the park, but now I think that may be exactly what we're seeing. Looking back on it, as soon as he left, it seemed like something was never quite right from an employee's perspective, and that no one ever quite filled the gap of his absense. Here's hoping for a return to the golden years of the mid-late 90's.

To this I say, welcome back Bill Spehn!

Yeah, I definitely noticed the incredibly positive attitudes from ride ops. My first, and probably overly-cynical thought was that it was early in the season. Though to be fair, I didn't notice similar behavior early in other seasons.

The friendly ops at ride entrances were probably what stuck with me the most throughout my days there, and really made for a great overall experience.

I was just talking to a co-worker who went to Cedar Point a few weeks ago (May 16-17 I think). They were staying at Breakers Express, along with all the bands (which they didn't know about). Well, when they got back to their room at 10:30, the toilet didn't work. He called down, no one came up, and when he went down to ask someone to fix the toilet, they just moved him to another room.....at Castaway.

They definitely left a good impression on them, and while he said they go down once a year, I have a feeling they'll stick with the CP resorts.

Oh yeah, and they got free admission to the waterpark as well. So Cedar Point definitely boned up on their Customer Relations training.

Completely agree, while I too was skeptical after my opening day trip that it might just be early in the season, my Memorial Day Sunday trip was as good in that department so Im more inclined to believe this is a change from above.

If my trip to Coastermania yields the same or nearly the same (these poor people are putting in long hours that day) I will be fully convinced.

That is an interesting story because it has to do with the park comp-ing a guest something. I haven't see that, or heard of that happening in quite some time. Did he ask to speak with a manager or did he just talk to non-manager at the desk?

See, back in the day (I/E mid-late 90's) seasonals were allowed to make these types of decisions when dealing with guests face to face without consulting a manager. Rather than giving a response of, "hold on, let me get my manager," which often added more waiting on behalf of the guest and upset them even more, seasonals were often given the ability to make the best decision as they saw fit for the situation. This is the type of thing we see all the time down at the Orlando parks, and it has made the Cedar Point resorts look bad in contrast. I doubt this decision was just made on a whim, but if seasonals throughout the park have been given the ability to exercise similar discretion, that alone will make for a huge improvement with guest relations.

Another thing I thought of, and that I noticed when I worked at the park in '03 & '04, was that the park was more and more getting away from employing students from universities and had rather supplemented the work force with non-college kids who jumped from job to job with the change of the seasons. This off-season Cedar Point dominated the Facebook banner ad with their summer employment opportunities. I can't help but wonder if this also improved the employee demographic as well.

I don't know if he spoke to a manager or not. I was really surprised that they moved him to Castaway, I figured it was just going to be another room away from the bands, so I was a bit shocked when he said "another hotel".

Disney is excellent at the guest experience. We had so many good experiences on our honeymoon that I can't even list them all. The only negative was when we lost our IDs (DL, resort cards, photopass <- this one really hurt) because my dumb ass had them in a lanyard around my neck. To compound the issue it was on Space Mountain just before MNSSHP was about to start and we were leaving to come home the next day. But still, everyone did a good job taking care of us, and thankfully the bartender at the pool bar already knew us because I really needed a drink at that point.

I suspect that it's Bill Spehn's influence in terms of operations. I walked around with him once while at Geauga Lake, and his attention to detail and immediate action leads me to believe he can make meaningful change very quickly.

If only he could be cloned to run foods.

I am really glad to hear about this improvement. Usually in the beginning of the year when I go to a park, I figure they're still fun to be around because they aren't tired of their jobs in the hot sun yet.

Here we are though, more than a month after Kings Island's opening and I had my best experience yet there yesterday, and if Cedar Point is anything like what I saw at Kings Island I am really looking forward to it. One thing I noticed is that no matter what if you could see an employee from the train they would drop everything and turn around and wave at you.

I know, this isn't a Kings Island forum, but I'm thinking it's either a chain-wide, or at least Ohio-wide change in attitude, and I am really happy with it.

Castaway Bay probably had extra rooms out the wazoo.

I have been greeted as I enter rides this year. If I recall it was Skyhawk....

Hi Welcome to Skyhawk

Sense of pride in working their ride maybe....

Lets see how that pride holds up 88 degree weather. I haven't ever visited the park in May before so I have no clue how it usually is.

^^In my 3 trips this year (all after opening week) I found the atmosphere pretty much same-old, same-old, being ride op's were nice, etc. (ride operations have been a little slow at times IMO)...

As for the spieling, literally a few days ago on Raptor I heard, "When the flo's [floor] no mo' [more], you out the doh'!! [door]"....it doesn't get much more slang than that!! (well, minus most Six Flags parks)

Haha yeah I love the spiels they I've heard this year.

They still have this sense of enthusiasm.

It seemed to me on the cool coasters like Millenium and Magnum the spiels were good and the ride ops were energetic and funny. But on the coasters like DT, Iron Dragon, and Mine ride they were pretty rude. I guess they might've been pissed that they got stuck with the sucky coasters. You think that they would happy to be working on any coaster, rather than in food services.

Is ID not using that annoying pre-recorded spiel this year?

^No I think it's a real person speiling this year, but the person is very very boring and not very fun to listen to so it's almost like that pre-recorded thing.

^^ At the beginning of our day at CP my sis didn't want to ride any of the really big coasters so we ended up riding Iron Dragon like 6 times and no none of them had a pre recorded spiel at all.

Heather from Power Tower on June 1st was a very nice ride-operator. She stuck out the entire day as being very smiley, nice and friendly.

On sunday, the one TTD ride host was very enthusiastic on the platform, and had the whole station crowd hyped up! He was even cheering on the Republica ready to go song.

I can give you one explanation as to why you have noticed Operations being so good this year:

BILL SPEHN!

When he was sent out east to try to run Geauga Lake, I think Cedar Point's level of service went down hill. It is great that Bill is back at the park, even though it has come at the expense of the park I enjoyed when I was younger and where I spent two seasons working.

Other people have also come to CP from Geauga Lake, along with seven "new" rides. If only Dominator joined them instead of going to Virginia...

-Sam

Here's an interesting thought:

Why did Bill Spehn come back with a vengeance? Do you think that he is thinking "Geauga Lake failed under my watch, so I better not screw up again?" Personally, that's what I'd be feeling if I were him. Then again, I tend to be a worrier in general.

Yes, I know Geauga Lake was bleeding and half dead when he got there, but he (and others) weren't able to bring it back to life.

Just a thought.