New Competitive Wages

Early-mid April is normal for the rides people who start early in the season.

When RCMAC and I worked there, early to mid May is when the bulk of the employees that would open the park arrived. I can't imagine anyone staying in the Cedars or the Breakers being there in April, as it was bloody cold in early May. We got paid $1.85/hr with a 25 cent an hour bonus if you completed your contract. The latter amount was what they charged us for the room. You got it back at the end of the season. You could buy a meal ticket, which was honored at the cafeteria being run by Interstate United at the time. Usually had my mid day meal there. Ate dinner at the Circus usually.

There's a circus in the area?

Yes. We were all required to take aerial arts and animal taming. And clowning.
Interstate United provided room and board, but in exchange for an hourly wage lower than the CP kids. So it was a wash.
I drank my dinners at the Circus.

The Circus was the employee bar at the time. It was not in the park proper,seems to me that it was behind the fence where the Scrambler was at that time. It was open for lunch and dinner. Hot dogs, hamburgers, fries and as I recall pizza by the slice. No beer was poured before 10:01 PM. Ohio had 3.2 beer and you could drink at 18 in those days, just not during operating hours.

The Circus was actually part of Hotel Breakers and at one time was a guest lounge. There was a patio and employee steak night was out there. It was cute with a circus theme- the ceiling looked like a tent top. By the time it was dedicated to employees it was a little run down.
Beer was a dollar and was sold in little plastic pitchers. We didn’t need no stinkin glass, either, drank right out of the pitchers. A lot complained about the 3.2 beer but I went to Miami U and that’s all that Oxford, a dry town, could serve so I was used to it. Alcohol for guests in the park was 3.2 beer but they had to be 21 to have it. Employees at stands that served beer had to be 21 also. I managed a refreshment stand that had beer and it was nice to have employees that were a little older.

Now I'm really curious behind the history of that lounge. I've never read about it before. Awesome to hear all of the stories.

I stayed for one weekend when GL employees were helping at CP in 2005. It wasn't awful but it was definitely worse than the dorms I stayed at in Toledo. My room had 3 sets of bunks, 2 desks and 3 wardrobes. That was it. I don't know if I would've been thrilled to spend more than 2 evenings there.

As a comparison, the rooms at the Cedars when I worked there had two beds and a sink. Toilets were in closets in the hallway, they had built new high school style showers by then. Imagine that for four months......

My first year working at CP was 1974 working for Interstate United in their last year. I made $1.60/hour plus a quarter bonus and included room & board, as I recall. Over 4 years I lived in Cedars, Breakers, and the first apartment building. While the apartment was cool because it was different, living on Point was hugely convenient. Living off Point and taking a bus feels like it would suck in comparison.

The Circus was big fun back then! EVERYBODY went there at night and they sold LOTS of that 3.2!

I remember the place being packed, especially on the nights when there wasn't a movie or a dance. The standard protocol was the countdown to 10:00 PM. Raucous doesn't even begin to describe it

Just a note on many posts about the dorms. Cedar Fair has spent 10's of millions of dollars building new dorms the last 2 years at CP, Dorney, KI, Carowind. CP is also renovating an older dorm this year. These places aren't necessarily the horror shows people remember.

Primarily for two reasons they have started to build new housing facilities. #1 They had become a detriment in the hiring process. #2 They no longer had a CEO who's attitude was "it was good enough when I worked there (forty-five years ago).

Dvo said:

People are making the dorms sound like Guantanamo Bay. I've never worked at CP nor been in the dorms, so maybe I'm way off base here. But I remember what college dorms were like. Tiny spaces for the number of residents. You dealt with it and made the most of it. And my understanding is that people are working the majority of the time anyway. I'm sure they're not the finest places to stay, by a long shot.

I lived in Commons in 2016. The rooms are not great, but they aren't horrible. They are just overcrowded.. I don't know the exact dimension, but I am not exaggerating when I say it's around 8x14. Throw in 2 bunk beds, 2 dressers and these weird lockers and you're looking at about 6x10 of space to move in. Now that wouldn't be too bad for one or even two people.

They had me and then 3 other guys in my dorm. It was WAY too overcrowded. But we made the most of it and stocked a mini fridge full of beer.

We were all working 6 days a week and about 10 hours a day. When we were in the dorm, it was to sleep and that's about it. We wouldn't hang out in the dorm. We would go down the dining area/rec center (I forget what it was called). Or be out in the park/beach/go back home on the one day off we got a week.

It wasn't all that terrible. It was actually pretty fun now that I think back to it. However... I would never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever do it again.