Do you even like Cedar Point?

I posted a status yesterday on Facebook of how dissapointed I was with the downtime this past weekend. Will that stop me from going to Cedar Point in the future? Heck No! Yes It pissed me off a lot, but I'm not going to hold that against Cedar Point. Adam In case you read this, I meant to add in there, that I feel the urge to want to go to Cedar Point on that Sunday of Opening weekend as well as go on Monday or something. The reason, just to change it up a little since I've gone to almost every Opening day since 2005.

Heck yeah! What he ^ said.

I love CP, it's a huge part of my life. But many people on here compare it to Disney a lot. It's nothing like Disney.

I don't agree that it's nothing like Disney, and fair comparisons can be made on many aspects. Is there something wrong with that?

Cedar Point is something like Disney, sure. But comparing a regional, limited-season amusement park to a four theme park, year-round resort with half a gazbillion hotel rooms... I think the opportunities for fair comparison to be somewhat limited.

Let's see. They got rides. They sell food. They charge to get in... and....
Yup. That's it.

Disney also has a gazbillion dollars behind them.

I think I see where I'm wandering off the path. I'm looking at Cedar Point and Walt Disney World and seeing two operations vastly different in size, and I'm having trouble seeing where the two could be evenly compared. I'm getting lost, as is my wont, in the details.

Disney's rides are like two feet tall. They are nothing like Cedar Point. Cedar Fair and Six Flags are where its at.

Disney is more like a travel-from-3000-miles-away-for-a-magical-vacation-with-princesses-and-themes-and-magic kind of place.

Unless you live next door, in which case it's where you go for Dolewhip because you can.

I don't know why people think you can't compare the two. At the end of the day, every person has a finite amount of disposable income to spend, and they will make choices about what offers the most value and experience that they want. I didn't really get to spend much time at CP last year (it was the weekend of the water main break), but I did see Kings Island twice, and I was completely amazed at how much friendlier employees were compared to previous years. It felt more like a Disney park in terms of service than most any regional park that I can think of, and it surprised me. My hope is that CP can be like that this year.

Jeff said:

I didn't really get to spend much time at CP last year (it was the weekend of the water main break), but I did see Kings Island twice, and I was completely amazed at how much friendlier employees were compared to previous years. It felt more like a Disney park in terms of service than most any regional park that I can think of, and it surprised me. My hope is that CP can be like that this year.

Jeff, this is my third year of having a platinum pass, and I've gone to KI twice with said pass, and I agree with you 100%. The staff down there are SO PERSONABLE!! The 1st year I was at KI, a games operator in Coney Mall saw me wandering around with a KI map and asked if she could help me find something, and I thought that was so nice of her! That never happens to me at CP. KI staff really go out of their way to help out and make your visit at KI that much more memorable. Of course, I think the further you get away from northern ohio, the nicer people get anyways. Just my personal opinion.

That is one of my pet peeves about CP. Some of the staff just clearly do not care about the guests or their jobs, and especially in food services where it seems like they are the laziest and they are going as slow as possible on purpose. I realize they make little money and a lot of the days it's hot and miserable, and they probably actually don't care. But really, it's still your job, you signed up for it. However, I do love when I see a ride crew with awesome staff like GK and Maverick usually have.
I'm excited to go to KI this year for the first time, as I've heard really great things about the park as a whole.

Went to KI Sunday and Monday this week before spending the rest of the week at CP.

As far as laziest-on-purpose food services employees goes- KI's win hands down (with the exception of full service restaurant where food and service were fantastic) any walk up or even 'festhaus' was sickeningly bad. We were appalled.

It's called work ethic and these days it's hard to find anywhere you go.

Sad but true.

Anecdotally: it sure seems like places like Trader Joe's, Costco and Container Store that invest in employees and offer compensation higher than usual offer a more positive customer service experience.

That's because those places have a particular type of employee that they look for, and they don't settle for less. They hold them to a higher standard. There was a time when Cedar Point did that. Along with all the physical improvements that they are doing at the park management needs to re examine how they deal with the employee situation.

Good question... I would venture a guess that many of is who are pointing out bad customer experiences at Cedar Point ("bad show" for any Disney zealots) are doing so not because we hate the place but we are some of the points' biggest fans and want to sound off when the park and its leaders or employees are half-assing it. I grew up across the bay from the roller coast and have had a pass since my 16th bithday. I am 38 now... Like many other posters I cannot imagine what I would do without CP and first time visitors may not notice aome of the bad things as much as more devoted folks do. I praise the park when they do something great and will gladly sound off if and when they do something stupid. For example:

The Good-- Maintaining a clean, safe park, at least paying lip service to theming and a potential dark ride. Shoot the Rapids, Better food choices and decent live E, Soak city.

The Bad- somewhere in the last decade management went nuts and decided that steel roller coasters were the keybto success. Now the theming sucks. CP steadfastly refuses to add seats for larger riders. Disney does this, Universal does this, why piss off 1/5 of your audience? Slow quaint family rides...growing up the whole family could ride the Mill Race, the train, space spiral, see an imax movie go to the aquarium, white water landing, dolphin shows, and experience two fun dark rides. Now, all but the train and cedar downs are gone. Its time ownership tosses us old timers a bone! Clueless employees...And don't get me started on Parking!

I don't think you're paying attention. The "management" has dramatically changed, starting in 2012.

Quite true, Dutchman. It seems to me that many large businesses have priced themselves out of the "employees willing to be held to a higher standard" market, so to speak.

cptedsdisciple2: Park management doesn't operate in a vacuum. Attractions are added and removed in response to a changing marketplace.

Roller coasters hitting speeds of ten or twenty miles an hour were once considered daring: tastes change. Mill Race and WWL were the right rides.... at their times. Cedar Point's Sky Wheel and Giant Slide were the right rides... at their times.

When Cedar Point Cinema opened, there were a handful of place nationally one could go and see an IMAX movie, and the movies were short features specially created for IMAX theaters. Today, I have multiple IMAX theaters showing current feature films within 30 minutes of my house.