Goodbye FreeWay, how we will miss you so...

The worst part about Freeway being gone now? There's nobody at the bottom of the stairs on Magnum to tell people taking the shortcut that they're not allowed to. I saw two dozen people literally sprinting through there at about 9:58 tonight.

And the freeway merge host(ess) wasn't moved back up to the top of the stairs to do crowd on the station. They just don't seem to be working...

As previously stated, it seems like a VERY odd choice to discontinue Freeway NOW. Waiting till Holloweekends would have been what I deem the "smart" thing to do.

Is it possible something happened such as the burglary of the stamps for one or more rides, which has forced the system to be discontinued?

Personally I think they just don't have enough employees to run the freeway because they fired so many throughout the season. There are definatly some f*ck-offs in park operations this season, the majority of the seasonal sups are first year supervisors, and it starting to show.

I think the parks policies, saftey or whatever the reason are really starting to piss guests off, that is why attendence is down. They always make cuts at the employees expense, and now its reaching the guests.

They save a minimal amount of money, while the park goes down the tubes. Employee checks are being written on money saved from the 80s. I don't think they are tight on cash.

-John

I love Cedar Point but this year, WOW, what are they doing? First we get seatbelts on Corkscrew which is causing horrible stacking(I waited 45 minutes for Corkscrew a few weeks ago and the only reason was because I was with a friend who had never been on it. I mean that is awful when you have to wait that long and they have three trains running but none are moving!)

Then they wanna get rid of one of the best Cedar Point classics The Demon Drop.

And now this one of the major conviences in my opinion. I know I always used it and it saved me from waiting in a 2 hour Mantis line a few weeks ago!

The Point has not been worried enough about the guests lately like they should be. When I go to the park I hate to say this but I feel like I am at a Six Flags park, But in my opinion the park has been going down hill for a few years now.....but hey whatever. Thats just my two cents.

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Cory Marshall
*** Edited 8/16/2005 8:34:01 AM UTC by TTD420atCp***

Nash - TADA - You get the gold star for the day. ALl of your points are straight on. My best friend was fired (ok, either resign or do night trash) for some very BS reasons and that was the straw that broke my already cracked back. There hasn't been a pay raise since 1999 (hmm, I can think of a few major events that have happened since then: Millennium junk, WTC disaster, a tiny little war). Also, when you have people working O-C's and then opening the next day, you can't expect them to work safely and efficiently. I worked till midnight on raptor, got some fast food to eat, showered, then went to bed, only to have to be to work at 8:20 or 9:20, depending on Joe Cool. One day I opened for Joe Cool and didn't get my first break (45 minutes) till ~5:20!!! That's 9 straight hours of work without having any food in your stomach because you don't have time to eat in the morning! Lots of little things like that happen around there and they just ask you to overlook it and go with the flow. Sorry, not in my book. This makes for some unhappy campers that don't always have Cedarfantastic days (which of course transfers to the guests). Things need to change around there, fast. Good riddance to a hellish job (don't work in park ops).

Anyway, that was a poorly written piece that was written last, now onto the topic and the good stuff.

I blame it all on the Millennium crew! Lol, we heard about that all summer about how we have to conserve ink because Millennium used too much and now they have like a half of a bottle for the rest of the year (this was back in early June). Ugh, i HATED those pads. They were so messy, the guests complained, they dried up after 10 mins on a hot day, you couldn't keep the ink down by you (too hot).

For those of you talking about how removing this system doesn't save money, you are soooo wrong. This means cutting one position from every ride that has freeway (the position is filled the entire day, regardless that it starts at 1:00 pm). 14 hours per day x 6 rides x 6.25 per hour = $525 per day minimum. This isn't even taking into consideration the admissions people that hand out the stamps, you can bet they were cut way down too. The entire time I was at Cedar Point they were always talking about cutting hours, gettings breaks done as fast as possible, etc. What was funny was that they wanted all the breaks to get done ASAP so the cutback can go home ASAP. This meant sending all the "splits" (who come back at 6pm) on their 15s right away so the cutback gets out of there at like 7-8. Well, on the big Ghetto Double D, there's MINIMAL staffing. Rotation doesn't happen. After you send that cutback home, you have to call for rotation from another ride and hope that supervision remembers to send someone over. The result is that someone got stuck at carrousel for 2 hours (sux0r!).

Cedar Point seems to be thinking in black and white mode lately

- italics

They sure are, this extends all the way down from management. As a result a lot of good employees, some of whom were 'lifers' were fired. Others, such as myself, have been couseled for tiny little things that were common place last year (or so I have been told by returning employees). I could go into the gory details about all of this but I'd probably fill up Jeff's entire RAID array ;)

Hey Dick, wan't me to send in my resume?

Ugh. First of all, it's great that "you think fast on your feet" and they shouldn't get rid of the freeway system. I'm sure they haven't studied all it's possible effects, what it was like before freeway and everything else. Lastly, "wan't" isn't even a word. I don't think he'd be too impressed with it.

MF has some of the worst capacity of all the premier coasters to begin with, but the crews decreased efficiency this year makes it that much worse.

I agree. I worked this ride on opening weekend for 2 operating days and we hit interval about 10 times (dispatching right after it leaves the last tunnel). Starting out, two checked from the ends on both of the train, till we met, slapped shoulders, and were done. Now checking those seats is like you're preparing them for a skydiving journey. Check 4 or 5 seats, check again. Release lap bars X times to let "the fatties" out (this is being nice, you should hear the crew song!). Then check and recheck AGAIN!! I liked working that ride in the beginning in the year, but when I worked on it in early July it really sucked.

There were also people who almost didn't get in line because they thought that you needed a hand stamp to ride.

- Top Thrill Dragster

LOL, that happened to me at Millie's entrance too. Then at the Ghetto Double D two kids asked me if they needed tickets to get in. When I told them to just go in they were so happy and said yippee!

and their stamp was not void. Ink was a very big hassle.

Been there, done that. Once those pads run out (at least every 15 min) you have to call and wait until someone comes down. You're not gonna make those people at freeway wait for you to get your crap together, you're just gonna let them in. One thing that confused me is that we were told we couldn't use sharpies to void. This seems like a simple and effective solution to the utterly flawed inkpads.

Max Air had all of two people working on it, which I thought was not enough at all.

- Jeff da Beat

Umm, maXair is designed to have 2 people double check the harnesses, one person in controls, and one at entrance. There's never been more than two people on the platform. Although, I do agree that there should be more people, think about it. The person at load has to start at one and circle all the way back around anyway. They could just have that one person checking all the restraints while the person at exit stands there all day, but they double check them.

This brings me to my final topics which were mentioned earlier: safety vs. profit vs. efficiency. OK, I admit, that sounds kinda stupid. Anyway, earlier in the year, we had a "no loose article policy". This helped everyone. It made loading times faster (interval on Raptor all the time, yeah!!), people didn't loose their stuff on the rides, ride ops didn't have to worry about tripping over some person's gigantic hitch hiking backpack that they left on the station (IN THEIR PATH!!!, argh, I hated this one). All was fine and dandy, the guests complained some, but it was sensible. The only thing that didn't work out were sales. Towards the end of the policy people weren't even supposed to sit on or stuff their souvenir photos down their shirts. Bubye $9 or $14 pieces of paper and plastic. People couldn't take their Stewie Griffin dolls on the rides so they simply didn't play the games anymore, and that hurt profits.

Money talks. Especially at CP. *** Edited 8/16/2005 9:06:51 AM UTC by Rideop Jared***

Oh wonder why, the games area always like a ghost town. I mean you have to beg people to play the water gun game just to win a decent prize..

Rideop Jared said:

I blame it all on the Millennium crew! Lol, we heard about that all summer about how we have to conserve ink because Millennium used too much and now they have like a half of a bottle for the rest of the year (this was back in early June).

Wow, are things really that bad that they can't buy 2 or 3 more bottles of ink? Unbelievable. If they wanted to keep Freeway, I'd go down to Office Max and buy them a few bottles as a gift!

From the Office Max catalog:

Bottled Stamp Pad Ink - Black
Item # 20210825, Style # 2764 EA $1.89

*** Edited 8/16/2005 2:07:05 PM UTC by Pete***

Vanessa said:
Is it possible something happened such as the burglary of the stamps for one or more rides, which has forced the system to be discontinued?

Thats what caused Subway to discontinue their subclub stamps (or at least thats what the girl at subway told me). Someone had stolen a roll and was selling it on ebay or something.

They don't use regular ink. . .

Yeah, it special ink mixed with pixie-dust and arsenic.

I think you meant Lead in place of pixie-dust ;)

Using bottles of ink as a cheap cop out is lame.

Keep in mind that the ink wouldn't even show if your hand was sweating. On a hot July day, most people's hands were sweating.
Sweaty hands = double rides
Double rides = line jumping
Line jumping = angry guests
Angry guests = lower attendance
Lower attendance = park has less money for ink for sweaty hands
Park has less money for ink for sweaty hands = Budget cuts
Budget cuts = FreeWay system gone, Demon Drop for sale, and desparate attempts to make money with extreme discounts

Wow, how crazy was that?

I think I used Freeway once or twice. No great loss to me.

MrScott

I think you're being extreme, Josh.

You have to remember that you saw it all while working there. That'd be like saying telling parents their kids were too short to ride = angry guests and lower attendance. Sure I'm sure it happens, but it's not really a big percentage.

But you do get to see some interesting things as a ride op. :)

I'm not dissapointed to see freeway go, it was too low tech and not of value. The only time a system like this would be need is on extremly busy days, when waits are over 2 hrs anyway. However the ride ops were the slowest I've seen in my 10+ yrs of going to CP. And the new policies on safety and staff regs are IMO a power trip by the people in park ops.
I can remember not too many years ago when every coaster except CCMR was running all trains (CCMR ran 3 of 5), ride ops never missing a beat, as soon as a train was dispatched another rolled into the station, harly ever any stacking. The lines would be almost twice as long as my last visit but the wait was shorter.
I think it's getting to the point that ride ops are dreading their job because management is nit picking everything. Oh how I would love to see the day when CP is returned to is former glory as "The Queen of American Watering Places", as for now it looks like we're headed the same route as: Six Flags, American Amusement park, and nameless others where costs were cut, attendance dipped and management overreacts by eliminating services, lowering some prices(admission) while overcharging on others ($9 parking $3 soda, $2&$3 games).
Everytime I look at the stock it's trading lower. I think it's time for some new blood at Cedar Fair from the top down, with people that value guest services and accomadations, because the current team we have has been slowly chipping away at what used to be the best park in the world and turing it into an over priced carnival.
Sorry to be so harsh guys but I hurts me to see whats happening to our beloved park. If management can pull their collective heads out of their behinds and return operations to what everyone remembers and expects from the best amusement park then I'm afraid it needs to be said.

I'm not all that disappointed. Unless you got there like a 45 minutes early (in which case you have to wait the 45 minutes), the line for the FreeWay stamps was as long as the line for the ride itself. I've used it twice, once for MF and once for Dragster, and both times this was the case. So, eh, go ahead and take it away. A lot of GP didn't even know what it was.

Oh and John, that comment about Magnum is very true. I haven't been to the Point since this was put into place, but I can see how that'd be a huge problem.

*** Edited 8/17/2005 2:05:15 AM UTC by GeeForce***

There are a few that post here who agree whole-heartedly with you, Jeremy1999. Unfortunately, as the years pass by and those that visit the park for the first time have no idea of just how awesome the park was once run.

Who would have thought that the park's atmosphere and operations could have digressed this much in just 4 years after they first took the character signs away. :(

I think a higher focus on employees and employee housing would have a huge inprovement. Nothing huge, just small renovations throughout the buildings. I think that having a max of 2 people in each room would greatly help. The well-being of the crew members should be of greater value, in my opinion.

Whats the news with the freeways?

Kris, the news is that FreeWay has ended for the season.

Kris is ME!

Hey Jared. How we miss you.

ANYWAY... at least on Raptor, the Freeway position hasn't been cut and couldn't be because the special access (who don't need the elevator) still comes up Freeway and a person is needed to open the queues.