Changes

my change would be the smoking policy. i hate to walk by a group of smokers and breath in 2nd hand smoke. i would like to see no smoking ( not just in lines) or even smoking only zones. or atleast be more strict for in-line smokers. i always see two or three people smoking right by employees and they say nothing.

I'll 2nd that. I'm hoping that the smoking policy will be one of the things CF takes from Paramount and puts in place in it's original parks, as Mr. Kinzel mentioned.

How about people just commenting on the topic and not talking about how stupid of a thread this is? (Which I don't believe it's stupid)

Bring sanity to the window service food places.

Here's what happens now: there are N cashiers. There are N/2 people in the back actually cooking food. This means that, inevitably, orders are taken faster than they can be filled.

That wouldn't totally suck, except that the way the order gets from the cashier to the prep/cook staff is that the cashier shouts: "I still need a burger basket" to the back. Of course, there are N people shouting (and some of them shouting about 2 or 3 still-incomplete orders), but only N/2 people listening.

The (again inevitable) result is that some orders get forgotten, made incorrectly, served out of order, etc. etc. Today I ordered three things at the Soak City counter: a hot dog basket, a chicken strips (no fries), and a burger (no fries). I got the hot dog basket. Five minutes later the burger. Five minutes after that, the chicken strips. And, when I placed my order, I was literally the only one there. But, I wasn't quite fast enough---the crowd was on my heels, and chaos ensued.

And, at no point was I actually mad at the cashier, or for that matter the prep/cook staff. They were all working hard and hustling. The cashier was checking on me every few minutes to double check that she had the right set of things I was still missing. The kids are working hard, but they are working in a broken system.

The solution is pretty simple: adopt the order fulfillment mechanism at Coasters. When a Coasters cashier rings an order, it prints in two places: at the register, AND in the kitchen. Thus, the kitchen has a paper record of what it needs to make, and the order in which to make it. Nothing could be simpler. It's no accident that Costers line moves faster, and they rarely screw up an order. They do it the right way. It doesn't hurt that they have two cashiers and a small army of prep/cook staff, instead of the other way around.

Why this model hasn't been put in place universally yet is anyone's guess. I can only assume that no one anywhere in upper foods management has ever once actually WORKED in a fast food establishment somewhere other than CP. I mean, this is just obvious. I worked in a pizza place twenty years ago for one summer, and even I could immediately see how completely broken the typical CP fulfillment system is.
*** Edited 7/10/2006 1:04:27 AM UTC by Brian Noble***

One thing that would be cool is if they had a 'For Resort guests Only' Freeway... You take a Card like the ones for the door, and you swipe it and it lets you in the freeway line...

Of course, this system would be free to Resort Guests, and Resort Guests only! Makes it a bit more worth the money then early entry.(which isn't early enough)

Brian Noble said:
Why this model hasn't been put in place universally yet is anyone's guess. I can only assume that no one anywhere in upper foods management has ever once actually WORKED in a fast food establishment somewhere other than CP. I mean, this is just obvious. I worked in a pizza place twenty years ago for one summer, and even I could immediately see how completely broken the typical CP fulfillment system is.
*** Edited 7/10/2006 1:04:27 AM UTC by Brian Noble***

I totally agree with you there. Back in June when I was at the park I noticed a few places that were similar to what you described at the Soak City food stand. And that is almost always the case at Stockade. It never fails with me; there can be maybe two people ahead of me, and I'm usually waiting 6-8 minutes for my food. It gets even worse when I get there at the wrong time. I can see faults in some of the food places as well, and I've only worked at my local Pizza Hut for about 7 months (delivery and carryout only, dine in coming soon). The Coasters System is very efficient as you said, and should indeed be implimented throughout the park. At Pizza Hut, for deliveries our delivery tickets have three carbon copy layers, and the bottom one goes on a rack so that we can keep track of when deliveries are on the road, and also keep track of the deliverers. Kind of the same principle.

i know they lowered the price on their pop machines but 2.50 for a pepsi or a bottled water is still ridiculous. I'm sure you can agree with that. I already said that the 25 cent cotten candy is a major plus.

DrunkinMonkey said:
I know it would never happen but have the FrightZone by MF open year round

I love your idea, but 6 weekends a year is enough to completely wipe us out. That's why we all crawl back into the dungeon and hibernate for the next ten and a half months. :)

I'm with Brian on the counter service. Even to get an ice water is a chore.

When the Johnsonville truck was there, and they did it assembly-line style, THAT'S how it should work.

Screamomatic said:
One thing that would be cool is if they had a 'For Resort guests Only' Freeway... You take a Card like the ones for the door, and you swipe it and it lets you in the freeway line...

They do, it's at 9:00 everyday... ;)

But really, this is never going to happen. Freeway was removed because of the number of complaints they had about it, and that was when it was open to everyone.

If they do anything to change that, I'd like to see ERT for Joe Cool club members at 8:30, then let Resort Guests in at 9, then the general public at 9:30... of course, that will never happen.

Oh, and Stockade is the slowest food establishment, by far.

*** Edited 7/10/2006 6:32:48 AM UTC by DBCP***

Single rider line!

DBCP said:

If they do anything to change that, I'd like to see ERT for Joe Cool club members at 8:30, then let Resort Guests in at 9, then the general public at 9:30... of course, that will never happen.

You're right - its not gonna happen, because CP doesn't make any money on the SP holders. But, if you swapped it so that resort guests got in at 8:30, and JC at 9:00, it would be much more plausible.

Hang on dj, I'm a SP holder, and generally spend over a thousand bucks a year there. My brother has a family of 4 (2 of which are kids and require Dippin' Dots every day), and he probably spends several thousands of dollars over the course of the season.

If CP didn't make money from Season Pass holders, they wouldn't sell them for less a hundred bucks.

MrScott

Okay, okay. CP doesn't make much money on most season pass holders. Better? :)

You and your brother are probably the exception, rather than the rule. Of course, I have absolutely no proof to back this claim, so its purely speculation/educated opinion.

MrScott - you also aren't the typical season pass holder. You happen to get one because it saves you money during your couple trips to the park during the season. And yes, you do spend money at the park with those several visits (as do I).

However, its the kids (and adults) who go to the park after school/work just to catch a few rides. They rarely get anything to eat or drink and rarely buy souvenirs. These SP holders though also aren't the typical, although they are more numerous than the MrScotts.

The typical is somewhere in between (and probably closer to the latter than the former). They don't spend a ton of money, but they do buy that occasional souvenir or drink.

I agree with Mr. Scott I also am a SP holder and I still spend $100-$200 dollars per visit on food, souvineirs, and games. I feel that if the normal family of four goes once a year they would spend maybe $500 dollars at the park for the day total. I go 7-8 times a year. So for our SP we spend $400 dollars total plus $700 in spending money minimum. I have spent alot more than the regular public.

Also the single rider line idea is great!

And do not forget the cost of parking, for those w/o the parking pass option.

MrScott

ramboozle said:
the 25 cent cotten candy was a start.

Well it kinda is if you are eating it right now. But what we used to do and what a lot of people did was buy a bag and take it home or eat it on the way home. We went to do that and there is no way to get a bag to take home. They really need to bring that back. The cone of cotton candy melted by the time I got to the car this year. :(

On another note the show needs to be fixed much. It is like they found maya, 3ds max and photoshop on the internet and said duuuuhhh what does this do? The firewater can stay but the show needs some work.

I believe bags are still available (or it was my understanding they were). They just weren't going to be available for $.25.

We had asked and they said no. But Of course as we have proved on these boards before the employee is not always right.