Fewer International Workers This Year

Face it, the housing there is a joke and will never change as long as Dick is in command of the Park. We had 3 people on our crew last year leave after 1 night in housing. They said the conditions are better in the elephant cage in the Cleveland Zoo.

By the way, how is the nice 3 story office building that Dick is building for his direct staff including himself. I guess there was enough money to build that though.

whos the man to blame chief wahoo?

Kinzel

Some of the dorms and apartments in 2001 should really be condemned... Units without air conditioning, apartments with what seemed like 15 people and 2 toilets, moldy living areas, very old furniture, etc.

I understand that CP can't make enormous investments in employee housing. It isn't practical for housing units which aren't occupied year round... I don't know what the current "rent" is at CP but in 2001-2002 it was very reasonable.

If they could even build a tower of dorms similar to the newer dorms they have off-point, and then offer a block of housing with just TWO occupants, TWO beds, and TWO sets of lockers instead of 3 that would be a huge improvement. Those rooms were WAY too smal to have 3 people in them. While many people may not mind the cramped living conditions considering the great price, I think a lot of employees would find it worth the money (maybe 2 times what they're paying now?) to have 2 person dorms and possible a private bathroom.

I really think one of the ways CP could attract college students would be by cutting back hours a bit, and offering a educational program similar to what Disney does. Workers at Disney can take leadership and business courses/seminars while they work and they can earn transferrable credits toward their university... Allowing college students to say they "graduated" from the Cedar Point Leadership Training or Internship Program could really be a desireable perk for students and give CP an edge over other minimum wage employers.

It's kinda good. More English-speaking workers..

Really? I'll still get the same crappy, slow, un-enthused person serving me a pretzel at a snail's pace wether they speak Arabic or English.

Dick would disagree but the living conditions at the typical college have FAR surpassed those of Cedar Point.

This comment sticks out the most to me. Dick honestly thinks the living conditions at CP are good? That makes me want to puke.

What the *&% happened to CP's management? (rhetorical question)

Infrastructure has never been a strong suit for Dick. There are countless examples of that which I need not go into. Just below infrastructure on Dick's "list of things I like" is employee resources.

I'm not going to say that Dick thinks housing is good. But, I don't think he finds it as deplorable as many rational thinking people do. If he did then there would not be standing still the gold and white dorms.

I think there is plenty of room between "enormous investments" for housing that is only occupied part of the year and 0 which is about what is invested. There is a happy middle ground.

Is it possible that he hasn't been in these buildings for a very long time? Also, if employees continually trash their rooms ( im not sure if this is done or not) then why would he want to invest money into fixing them and making them nice.

Its like a college dorm, you pay to go to the school and you have no choice but to live in the conditions that you are given. Most schools don't invest money into their upper class man dorms because they continually trash them.

You go to a crappy college.

Agreed. I'm a Freshman, and I live in one of the 3 nicest buildings on campus... and we have 39 residence halls.

No, I do not go to a crappy college.

something else that i forgot to mention is maybe the fact that Cedar Point pays so little to their employees. $7.35 an hour??? Thats not even minimum wage in the state I love in. Of course kids aren't going to want to work there when they are getting paid a low salary. I think that 7.35 is absolutely ridiculous. Im sure you can find higher paying jobs in Sandusky than that if your a teenager and/or college student.

DBCP...exactly my point, your a freshman wait till next year.

My mistake for misreading your post. But still, we have nice residence halls all the way through. Sure, some are nicer than others, but nothing I would consider deplorable by any means.

...and even if they weren't quite as nice, I won't have to experience it. I'm living in an off campus apartment that's only 16 months old, fully furnished with a kitchen, and private bedrooms and bathrooms for each person, at a price of only $100 more per semester than living on campus would cost me.

yes you wont, but most people will have to. your paying the price to live in that apartment your living in.

Its as easy as this, with new dormitories for workers to stay in, rent will increase for them to stay there because they are new. so how are employees suppose to afford a higher rent when they are getting paid $7.35 an hour?

Like they said in South Park....

"Foreigners taking our jobs"

It is unfortunate but I think more college students would enlist if more students knew about the options to work at CP.

I would if I could continue to take a math class over the summer.

I paid $53 a week for housing at Disney on $5.35/hour. And you know what? The accommodations were so great that I could care less about the $53. We had condo-style apartments with a max of 6 in a condo (3 bedrooms w/2 beds each). We had kitchens, cable tv, pools, tennis courts, volleyball, etc. The apartments had all of the necessary kitchen gadgets, plates, etc.

There was a security deposit to discourage damage and so forth and it worked fine.

It isn't that Dick can't do it. It is that he doesn't choose to b/c it isn't a priority. 10 years ago I said the BUNAC program was a short-sighted solution and I suspect that is going to play out to be true...particularly if our economy continues to slide.

And, why couldn't they get more creative with the housing? I have to believe that the indoor water parks in Sandusky have a difficult time finding staff in the winter. Why not sublet some newer, year-round accommodations to those parks in order to bring in winter help? Make some money off your competition. Think outside the box.

Cedars and Gold (White...whatever). Frankly, I cannot believe we are still talking about those "facilities". It is an embarassment.

yes but again, we cannot compare CP to disney. I just dont seem to think that its fair.

^When it comes to operations, you better believe we should. There is no reason that CP cannot run their park as well as Disney, none, period.

The dorm I lived all four years (freshman triple, soph-senior single) was over 100 years old, it creaked, the heating was via a radiator and we had a communal shower (but personal sinks in rooms) and it had no AC. However, it had high speed internet (and since I have left added cable,) 16 foot ceilings, wide hallways (for moving in, and for very fun hallway activities for instance cornhole) and it was well maintained and cleaned. With the exception of the no AC thing (its summer housing, it needs AC) I would have zero problem living in such a place over the summer in college and I suspect todays college students (I graduated in 2005) wouldnt either. This is the bare minimum:
-Well Maintained
-Clean
-Bed, Mattress
-Desk
-Closet/Wardrobe/something
-Have enough space left to fit a small loveseat/couch
-High Speed Internet
-Basic Cable

Its not hard, but apparently CP is not willing to do it.

Thee Top Dog said:

By the way, how is the nice 3 story office building that Dick is building for his direct staff including himself. I guess there was enough money to build that though.

Could it be that they are freeing up on-peninsula space so that they can build a new dorm complex? Have to do one before the other.

I have a better solution for finding new dorm space; tear down Cedars and Gold, and make some much better housing on Point. Though I will say that I've been thinking that they should either build upwards or off-Point for office space, and I'm glad to see that they're doing that as well.

At this point I would be stunned if Dick threw a bone to the housing situation. What is another few years for Gold/Cedars?

And, when it comes to employee resources the biggest problem with Dick is that he has not compared his company to Disney. Well, I take that back. He charges Disney-like prices but the comparisons end there.

With the debt that has been incurred by the Paramount deal and the Geauga Lake debacle there is no way that "back-of-the-house" stuff is going to get attention. We will see some shiny new rides and a "pay no attention to the men (and women) behind the curtain" mentality that he continues to exhibit.

He will continue to make bad decisions with regards to leadership, protecting his own while shunning and chasing away very committed people who have labored for the love of the company for decades.

At this point any success that takes place within the berm of the Cedar Fair family is in spite of him, not attributed to him.

(Sorry, I got done reading the annual report online and it got me all giddy.)

You know, it occurs to me that Dick signs off his annual report each year thanking the staff (generally senior members who are at or past retirement). It is time for his swan song.

1. We need to stop comparing to Disney. Its not fair at all.

2. I never really even had a chance to think how bad housing was until mid September I was so tired.

3. I know that Bayside is getting some work done it seems plus the spreading of WIFI all over Commons and Bayside (Not sure on Cedars and Gold) is a big step in the right direction.

4. If we wanted to go to a pool we have Soak City and for Volleyball the Beach. Basketball in commons.

5. About half of housing does have Expanded Basic Cable.... well until the end of season do to some issue they had last year.

6. Everyone has a choose where to live and each have a few pros and cons.

7. If Cedars or Gold comes down it should be for park expansion

8. You would be surprised at how many come back every year no matter how the pay may be.

9. Speaking of pay. Just because some other job may people more does not mean you may get the hours you do at the Point.