Columbus Day Weekend

Anyone else crazy enough to visit this weekend? We arrived at Camp Sandusky at dusk Friday (3-4hrs later than I planned), set up camp, then the boy and I went to the park tonight for a couple hours. Surprised how NOT busy it was, gorgeous weather. Tomorrow (Saturday) should be another story! If anyone is around, let me know, we will say hello!

What, no posts from anyone mad as hell because they were stuck in a parking lot somewhere until 3 am?

Waiting....

I saw the main part of the lot was nearly full around 2:30 in the afternoon and the bay side parking area was bout half full. Looked again at the webcam at 11PM and there were still plenty of people in the park. Probably a very busy day, but if I were to guess, maybe not quite as bad as some past Columbus Saturdays.

As I teacher I can attest that many districts have done away with giving students Columbus day off. We have a teacher work day next Monday (10/17), and some have it this Friday (10/14). Maybe this coming weekend will be the busy one.

Yeah Saturday was insanely busy. I knew that going in. We left around 10pm to not get stuck in the outgoing traffic. We figured Friday night & Sunday would be for rides, Saturday would be spent seeing shows and Halloween activities for the boy. But what really made the day difficult was food service, or lack thereof. Every quick food location had a huge line, which is expected, but the lines didn't move. 45 minutes for a slice of pizza. 30 minutes for a funnel cake. 30 minutes for chicken fingers. The part that really made me mad was watching people stand around, leaning on the back counter, with their arms crossed, doing nothing. Including managers. People were furious.

Food service seemed to be excruciatingly slow all summer long. I'm not sure if it's a training issue or a logistical issue. Either way there is no sense of urgency at any food stand.

It's a Cedar Fair issue. Food service is pathetic at their parks.

It's been a sore spot for a long time. I realize it's a seasonal staff and you're always dealing with new people, etc, but they really need to do better. I know they've hired outside consultants for ride training and we haven't been happy with the results, but maybe they should do that for foods. I don't think it could really get any worse. I'm sure they have lots of training that focuses on cleanliness and safety, but the majority of their food stands are just not efficient at all. The sad part is, most of them only have a couple of items so if you have a picky eater, you end up waiting in multiple lines.

They're starting to mess around with self-order kiosks, but the last time I was at the park, they really messed it up badly at Hot Potato. They put a queue rail so there is no way to line up at each window and they had the kiosks behind the rail right next to the windows. It really just made no sense and I'd be shocked if it stayed that way for long. Also, the kiosk I tried (three times) did not work so I just ordered with a person. The kiosks make sense if they can reduce the number of people taking orders and increase the number of people preparing/running food, but at that spot in particular, it was implemented very poorly and I don't know what they were thinking.

This was definitely a training issue. I worked in food service for a long time (everything from fast food to full service), and it was clear the staff had no direction how to deal with the crowds efficiently. When I was next in line for pizza, the people in front of me ordered 3 slices and 3 drinks. The guy went and got one slice, brought it to the window, went and got the next slice, brought it to the window, and so on. Same for their drinks. There were a plethora of slices of pizza already on plates waiting to be served. And one of the 3 workers socializing and doing nothing could've gotten drinks for all 3 windows. It was awful. I know CP's weak spot is food service. It I've never seen it this bad.

In Europe I visited Efteling, Phantasialand, and Europa Park and all three had delicious food everywhere, beautifully presented, in lovely restaurants, efficiently served, and at fair prices. It made me ashamed of our US parks and what we're forced to put up with just trying to get some lunch.

Perhaps they should staff the food stands with international workers from Europe, instead of the usual 'I hate my job' Americans.