CP ADMINISTRATIVE PHILOSOPHY

Hello all,

As a former CPer, who just visited Disneyland for the first time in a while, (ie. since I worked at CP a few years back) I noticed a marked difference in philosophies of guest contacts between the two parks.

In Anaheim, I visited the Tiki Room" attraction and the "ride-op" type guy was hilarious. He ad-libbed his introduction, (we saw him twice and the intro was different each time) walked like a "tiki god", generally clowned for the crowd and played to the outfits worn by individual audience members. The crowd thought his act was hilarious and gave the guy his own unprompted ovation before the show even started. He made the whole show better!

As I continued to tour Disneyland, I noticed that the various "Cast members" as they're called there, were given a lot of freedom to improvise based on their area's "theming", talk about themselves or their home regions, to have fun with guests and generally to act like they're honestly having fun with what they're doing.

I couldn't help thinking that at CP the "Tiki-guy" would have been fired or at least written up in about 5 minutes. Given the fact that CP is admittedly tightly wound ("no deviation from standard spiels, no "personalities" and for the love of God, point with your WHOLE HAND!") can anyone who's been around for a while explain this difference in philosophies?

Don't misunderstand, I've visited cedar point often in the last few years as a guest, and everybody seems very "friendly" in a sort of robotic way, and I've always had a good time. However, does anybody think CP could provide a better guest experience if the reins were taken off and guest interactions were less....forced?
*** Edited 2/25/2006 4:25:59 PM UTC by cptedsdisciple2***

I think that we should revisit the fact that the Disney parks are THEME parks, which is something CP doesn't even TRY to do (their last one was a Disaster, pun intended). CP is an amusement park, not a theme park, so it's obvious to see why Disney's cast members can improvise based on the theming of an area, and CP's do not.

I see your point, but CP does have a "frontiertown" a "centennial theatre" and a frontier trail. I understand the difference in park goals, but I'm just saying that in general, allowing seasonal workers to be individuals would enhance the guest experience, eh?

IWantBansheeBack said:
I think that we should revisit the fact that the Disney parks are THEME parks, which is something CP doesn't even TRY to do (their last one was a Disaster, pun intended). CP is an amusement park, not a theme park, so it's obvious to see why Disney's cast members can improvise based on the theming of an area, and CP's do not.

I couldn't have said it better myself!

On a side note, I find it a little weird how all the employees at Disney parks act as thought they have been brain-washed...

*** Edited 2/25/2006 5:04:00 PM UTC by DBCP***

Most, if not all, of Disney's talking employee's are educated college kids. Most could be trusted not to hurt the company image. CP employees are, I'm sorry to say, sometimes not too educated. The pickins are getting slim.

Before anyone gets crazy on me, yes many of CP staff go to college. But there are less of them each year. And believe me, you don't want to give freedom of speech to the bottom half. Between being politically correct and not using slang, there would be problems.

Just look at the problems just because the ride host at entrance asks people to try the test seat. I'm guessing thats why it takes 2 entrance workers on TTD and MF. Just from what I've heard from others, park op hears complaints daily about this.

The stuff that comes out of a CP employee's mouth is usually a safety message. Leaving too much freedom when it comes to the safety of stupid people is a dangerous path.

You can't even compare both parks.

901liveson said:CP employees are, I'm sorry to say, sometimes not too educated. The pickins are getting slim.

Sad but true. I wish they had a better selection process. But then again, low pay is usually going to equal a lower quality employee. That’s another topic altogether.

There is a difference between a creative spiel adding to the overall theme and "open mic" night.

Touching on themed areas...While there is Frontier Trail and Frontier Town (CP's version of Frontierland of course), I consider Camp Snoopy to be a themed area of CP to a certain extent (sort of a Mickey's Toon Town). I also used to think the same way about the long gone Jungle Larry section (Adventureland).

I have not been to disney in recent years. But when i was there i do not remember much of any saftey junk. I remember they just basically checked to make sure you did it right then sent the train off or the car or what ever. Basically it was a welcome to disney and such and such a ride please hold on and stay seated and that was about it. they seemed to expect you to read the signs. The only thing i deffintly remember is on the monirail they said throught out the entire ride not to lean on the doors or certian other things.

Was it just me or am i not remembering right or am i right?

Like i said havent been there in recent years like since 1996 or 1997

RE: "There is a difference between a creative spiel adding to the overall theme and "open mic" night."

Well spoken. It's too bad, however, that the fun and playfulness of the Disney employees can't be translated to CP where it could really help with employee retention/morale as well as public relations.

Seeing as we're all employees/former employees, however, and we all are interested enough to be discussing such things, it's too bad that management has to screen out such a low-cost and effective way of making memorable experiences because of an occasional doofus.

99er said:

901liveson said:CP employees are, I'm sorry to say, sometimes not too educated. The pickins are getting slim.

Sad but true. I wish they had a better selection process. But then again, low pay is usually going to equal a lower quality employee. That’s another topic altogether.

I honestly believe too that the quality of exmployees has taken a big dive over the past few years. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the turnover has always been high and there have always been bad employees, but it seems like we're dealing with many people these days who might never do any better for themselves than Cedar Point.

I felt in the past that good employees would come back for two or three years while they were in college because they loved their jobs and generally had fun working there. I can say with 100% certainty that CP is less fun to work today than it was 5 years ago and most of it has to do with a shift in culture from "working as a team, taking pride in your work, and doing a great job together" to "don't screw up otherwise we'll write you up and if something goes wrong, make sure you know who to blame otherwise we'll blame both people and if we can't figure out who to blame, we will blame the leadership." There's way to much "motivation by threats and intimidation" going on these days and not enough "motivation by incentive" or just flat out making people feel important.

Telling someone not to screw up or they'll get fired and someone else will replace them is not really a good way to make people bust their ass for you. The sooner current CP management realizes this, the sooner the park can get back to being the place it used to be.

MDOmnis said:

...it seems like we're dealing with many people these days who might never do any better for themselves than Cedar Point.

It doesn't seem that way, but IS that way these days due to the decay of the middle class.

MDOmnis said:

99er said:

901liveson said:CP employees are, I'm sorry to say, sometimes not too educated. The pickins are getting slim.

Sad but true. I wish they had a better selection process. But then again, low pay is usually going to equal a lower quality employee. That’s another topic altogether.

I honestly believe too that the quality of exmployees has taken a big dive over the past few years. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the turnover has always been high and there have always been bad employees, but it seems like we're dealing with many people these days who might never do any better for themselves than Cedar Point.

I felt in the past that good employees would come back for two or three years while they were in college because they loved their jobs and generally had fun working there. I can say with 100% certainty that CP is less fun to work today than it was 5 years ago and most of it has to do with a shift in culture from "working as a team, taking pride in your work, and doing a great job together" to "don't screw up otherwise we'll write you up and if something goes wrong, make sure you know who to blame otherwise we'll blame both people and if we can't figure out who to blame, we will blame the leadership." There's way to much "motivation by threats and intimidation" going on these days and not enough "motivation by incentive" or just flat out making people feel important.

Telling someone not to screw up or they'll get fired and someone else will replace them is not really a good way to make people bust their ass for you. The sooner current CP management realizes this, the sooner the park can get back to being the place it used to be.

It seems the pressures, rules, and regulations get even worse later in the season from Park Op when a lot of employees have their big bonus on the line. *** Edited 2/26/2006 4:51:36 PM UTC by Frank Sinatra***

I go with the "You cannot even compare Disney to Cedar Point; 2 totally different places." I mean thats like saying hey lets all be alike!!! Thats boring. Cedar Point does not follow societys standards. They are always pushing the envelope but enforcing the safety along with it.

Ivy, which CP have you been to? While we don't need super theming, allowing the employees to be creative without getting in trouble goes a long way towards making a day go by quicker.
And what's to say you can't have an open spiel on the platform and the pre-recorded being broadcast throughout the rest of the queue. That allows the employees to go over "final details" while getting all the lawyer-speak out of the way while people are waiting in line.

Secondly, I don't get the pun Banshee, or was CP's last failed theme originally Top Thrill Disaster?

Hey, I don't know what happened to my post, just disappeared into cyberspace. Anyhow, I wanted to say that CP employees put up with a lot of stuff from the GP (I'm a fan not employee). You have a tough job that is under appreciated. As a CP fan, some of my best experiences as far as employees goes, has been when they worked as a team and were obviously being themselves and having fun with it. Sounds like a win-win to me, as long as safety is not compromised. Kudos to you hard working CP employees!

MDOmnis said:
Telling someone not to screw up or they'll get fired and someone else will replace them is not really a good way to make people bust their ass for you. The sooner current CP management realizes this, the sooner the park can get back to being the place it used to be.

That is the best way to get employees to work just hard enough not to get fired. I'm not trying to sound like Office Space but it is what they are setting themselves up for. Of course management won't admit that fact and continue to blame others such as employees and leadarship. When it comes down to pay, relativistically speaking in terms of pay adjusted for inflation, base and leadership positions are being paid less and less each summer since before 2000. Base employees in my opinion are treated as disposable tools of the company. There is no incentive for coming back to work another summer.

Despite any of that, there are some employees that come back. Reasons vary from enjoying their job, missing their friends, being offered a leadarship position as well as a brood of other reasons.

I'm certainly not the best employee that has worked at the park, not by far. I have tried to make the experience a safe and enjoyable one for the guests. Too many employees don't even try to do that anymore.

What I meant by Cedar Point doesn't follow society standards is they are always raising the bar. How many times have they been in the world records? a lot. And they know they dont need to waste their time on theming.