Understaffing at Cedar Point hits nightmarish levels...

Hello,

I have been reading this site for years. I had an account that I used only twice before, but I forgot the password, so I had to create this new one.

To give more background of me, I've owned a Platinum Pass for the last 6 years. I've been to the park countless times. For me to criticize CP, much less post here, should tell you something about the sad state of affairs at CP.

For the last two years, I noticed how the park has been cutting corners with staffing, especially at Soak City/Cedar Shores, with this year being worse than last year.

The lack of staffing has now hit the main park. I visited on Friday, September 29th, and on Sunday, October 8th.

Multiple rides were closed, and it was not because of high winds. Food stalls and Coke stations were also closed all over the park. The rides and shops that were open had long lines, since there was nowhere else to go.

I left early both days, and these experiences convinced me to stay home this weekend. Looks like I made the right call. Here's some reviews from Facebook (names omitted by me)...

1. "Understaffed. Rides closed. Many aren't running or have trains down. Super crowded. Lines for food are longer than the 60 minute lines for rides. Don't they know how to do this by now??!?!?!"
2. Fix the rides. Too many broken.
   Don’t waste the $$ unless you can find other things to enjoy besides rides.
3. I'm here today. Many of the rides not running, vending machines sold out, lines for food extremely long! We've just wanted a water for like two hours!!! Dying of thirst here! Went to Chick n Petes??? Anyway waited at bar 36 min no service finally left!
4. Sold Fast pass tickets for rides that are closed. Sold drink vochers even they closed half of their booths. Waited 30 minutes in line for drinks at the first place we could find offer drinks and they couldn't even figure out how to get payments to work. End of the season and they don't care about their customers.
5. Long lines for rides and food. 40% of the rides are down or closed. Not the old Cedar Point. Been coming here for years and I don't know if we will return. 30 minute wait for a hot dog is asking a little too much. Stayed a Hotel Breakers and woke up to ants in our bed. Told management and they sent the maid:-/ Paid almost a grand for this trip. Way under staffed. Not a happy camper.
6. Rocking Roller Coast?
   More like rocking roller CLOSED.
   IM HERE RIGHT NOW ON A BEAUTIFUL SUNNY DAY.
   MY FIRST TIME HERE AND I SWEAR TO GOD. HALF OF THE RIDES ARE CLOSED.
7. My friend and I were completely ripped off. A couple weekends ago we took a journey up to Cedar point with our season pass in hand. We normally don't get a fast pass because it doesn't have the extra 4 rides that we love. Only because of our season pass with our discount we decided to get the fast pass plus with the extra 4 rides. Little did we know that two of the four were shut down the whole day and the one other was on and off.
8. So I have been a season pass holder for 5 years now. They always offer existing passholders a free fastlane pass for the current year when we renew for the following year. Beware renewing on that basis. I got the voucher that can only be used on Fridays or Sundays and can only go on a Saturday and the voucher cannot be used on Saturdays. Way to treat faithful customers. I even offered to pay an upcharge to be able to use today and....guess what? NOPE. Guess I will be second guessing renewing my passes. #GREEDERPOINT
9. Been going to halloweekend for some time now, Always enjoyed ourselves but not this year. This year was awful. Only 4 rides open on a perfect weather night. No one seemed to be working. Even the parts where you walk thru seemed empty. Spending $54 to ride 4 rides is not worth the drive. Not sure if we will return for another Halloweekend. Even your workers seemed extremely rude.
10. Very disappointed short staffed most of the rides closed Kings Island was so much better. Some of the staff made our experience better but you could tell the staff was frustrated as well . Won’t do the haunt at Cedar Point again. Put in bay saved our weekend.
11. My bad experience is way too long to write. But, to keep it short staff was extremely rude to me and I wasted $300 on fast passes we couldn't use.
    I had such a bad experience, and had so much money wasted, I won't be going back.
12. Went on Saturday the 7th. Worst CP trip ever!! Many rides closed due to wind, I get that, but made other lines much longer. Took ten year old granddaughters and they only got to ride four rides. Tower Power only had one of four towers going. Concession stand we're ridiculous, half of those closed also. Who wants to wait thirty minutes, or more, for a beverage and a pretzel, pretzels sucked as did the help. It is just a shame.
13. 3 of the most popular roller coasters (Gate Keeper, Raptor, Top Thrill Dragster) were closed all day. All. Day. I believe Millenium Force was closed temporarily. The shortest wait for a coaster was 45 minutes (bluestreak). Even though when we got in line the app said it was only a 15 minute wait-- it was not. Couldn't get into the haunted houses unless you paid an additional $80. I've been there several times in August and it was really fun. This was my first time at halloweekends and I will not be returning.

There's much, MUCH more where that came from.

I really hope Cedar Point spends more money to recruit workers. The situation is quite frankly ugly, and the park has the feel of a penny-pinching, rip-off joint.

So every coaster and theme park enthusiast out there knows the parks are ALL struggling with staffing, especially in the Fall. Instead of going online and ranting about it, DO SOMETHING. Get a group together and become Ride Prides or work in another department, giving the money you earn back to a charity or other cause while helping to be apart of the solution of understaffing. Even better, contact your local non-profits and ask them if they know there is a program at Cedar Point to earn money for their organization simply by signing up to work at the park during Halloweekends. Most organizations have no clue that this opportunity exists. It's actually fun work...where else can you learn to run a world class coaster and get paid to do it for a quick paycheck? The staff at Cedar Point are great people and they welcome the help!

Unfortunately for Cedar Point, the biggest issue is location. Being an hour away from Cleveland, and a little bit farther from Detroit, where the majority of their population market comes from, hurts. I won't even get into the discussion of high school and college age kids not working these days, or wanting a six-figure salary. The local population simply isn't enough to staff the park and all the local businesses that exist off of Cedar Point tourism. It truly is going to take thinking outside the box to solve this issue.

I think what much of the problem is that before Halloweekends the peak attendance days for the park were in July and August when the park had full staff, now it seems October Saturdays have the highest attendance. It is hard to figure out a solution when the workforce is geared to college students being on break and not enough locals willing to work weekends.

I’d expect that eventually Halloweekends won’t be included with Season passes or platinum passes.

Are Facebook comments really the best source of information on which to base an argument with regards to park operations?

Maybe not, but I am willing to bet today was not the best day ever for most that attended. Just search for cedar point on Twitter. Barely anything positive for today. :( Hate seeing this, but it wasn't great the last time I was there either. They definitely have a problem and need to get a bit more creative about solving it. Why did they get rid of that bonus program again?

It is time Cedar Point and other operators think even more outside the box in finding additional staffing. Currently CP busses students from some local college campuses as well as having fundraising groups work to help fill their needs, but it is not enough at this point. Perhaps expanding the number of colleges they bus from as well as possibly even high schools (for students 18 or older due to labor laws) may help. They may also revisit internationals for this time of year, while J1 visas are used most commonly in the summer in the US, they are available year round. Kalahari for example uses different groups of J1 students year round in housekeeping as well as in lifeguard if positions.

MDOmnis said:

They definitely have a problem and need to get a bit more creative about solving it.

Do they though? The problems that occur around this time of the year have been happening for years yet the park still reaches peak attendance records in October. Attendance really isn't dropping for Halloweekends despite low staffing levels and poor operations. The problems that happen at the end of the season aren't new so until attendance during this time drops I don't see the park doing anything to solve it. Negative comments on Twitter and Facebook aren't really hurting business either for them.

Hello Tony Stark, welcome to Pointbuzz. My suggestion is a simple one, compare the 2 days you went (both during Halloweekends) to any 2 days during the month of June next year. I think you will be fairly amazed at the difference.

Cedar Point is a seasonal amusement park...and that season is mostly summer.

99er said:

MDOmnis said:

They definitely have a problem and need to get a bit more creative about solving it.

Do they though? The problems that occur around this time of the year have been happening for years yet the park still reaches peak attendance records in October. Attendance really isn't dropping for Halloweekends despite low staffing levels and poor operations. The problems that happen at the end of the season aren't new so until attendance during this time drops I don't see the park doing anything to solve it. Negative comments on Twitter and Facebook aren't really hurting business either for them.

While attendance has not declined during this time(likely increased instead) the park is leaving potiental revenue on the table by not being able to sell more goods to guests.

It's also rarely in the best interest of a business to wait for numbers such as attendance to drop before they try to improve. It is harder to get an already frustrated or unhappy guest that has decided to not return to change their mind, then it is to work at constantly improving and keep guests satisfied and excited to come back year after year.

As for negative feedback via social media, without having serious access to tons of data we cannot determine the direct impact on CP and even with mountains of data it would likely be incredibly difficult or not possible at all to quantity.

A prime example would be cable providers which in many cases are notorious for bad service and high prices. In recent years how many have decided to spend hundreds of millions to rebrand to try to regain their market shares.

As a multi year local pass holder I’ll chime in too. Yes, the park has a staffing issue. And the fact that the passive response around here is “oh it’s like that every year” will, like it or not, eventually bite a business in the ass.

Secondly, did you know social media is actually the first priority for customer feedback nowadays? Unless you’ve been living under a rock and still subscribe to a print newspaper, then you’d know that there is a lot of legitimacy in looking at social media for first feedback. I happen to know personally that the Sports Force complex did this numerous times this summer.

Now, I don’t visit the park for food or merchandise. Frankly, it’s to amuse my seven year old for a few hours a couple days a week (during the summer). However, for the MASS majority that visit, basic services like food and merchandise are in fact essential, and when these services begin to be limited, it’s noticed. And when you limit those services during the busiest time of year (inverse thinking) it’s noticed..quickly.

I know that I could suggest wage changes, incentive programs, and other means to attract more workers. But this isn’t Google or Zappos or Microsoft. It’s a seasonal park, nothing more. So I don’t foresee this getting better, and only a little more worse each year.

TheRealMaverick said:

It's also rarely in the best interest of a business to wait for numbers such as attendance to drop before they try to improve.

Typically yes but Cedar Point operates in the mindset that if people are still coming, the park is doing it right. They often at times don't see many of the problems that are pointed out here. Considering a large amount of management is still at the park as was there for the 11 years I worked for the company, Im guessing the same mentality is there. An example would be that for 85% of the fall season the park was staffed appropriately for the attendance that showed up. The other 15% was considered "really great days" that were out of the norm, even if those days were predicted (Columbus Day). So the park never looked at the operation as understaffed. The idea from lower level management that certain departments were understaffed was always brought up but typically met with a response of "We are right where we need to be for the attendance forecast".

Instead of always looking for a way to improve, the park has always operated in the "Aint broke, don't fix it" mindset.

I do agree with you 99er that the park does have the ain't broke mentality. The perspective I am suggesting is not in regards to rides and attractions sadly, I would love them all to be operational but it's lower priority for the park when money from food and beverage is missed.

My example would be various times during halloweekends including Friday when the park couldn't staff the kettle corn stand on the ft. The stand requires 2-3 staff to operate and when open holds a reasonable line to suggest demand. The park sells the bags of kettle corn at $9 per which I could guesstimate has a cost of less then a dollar out the door.

If you were running this business wouldn't you want to find a way to get two or three people to make you a stack of cash with little downside?

Just thinking about that lol...Hey CP let me lease the kettle corn stand :) just like the food trucks lease space

I sure as hell would but thats not how they think. During low staffing times the park looks at staffing locations that can offer multiple products with a smallest amount of staff possible. This is why you'll see a stand like that closed but the Stockade open. That location can offer multiple products from one window with minimal staffing and its easier to stock if they begin to run low.

It's definitely as bad as everyone on Facebook has been making it out to be. Last Sunday (basically acting as a Saturday, with Monday being Columbus Day) and the Saturday before were definitely understaffed. One brief text from my brother confirms the same story was true for this Saturday, I'll have to catch up with him tomorrow to get the full scoop.

One bit of anecdotal evidence from me: 2.5 and 2 hours before close on a Saturday, I can count the total number of screamsters on both hands that were in both Cut Throat Cove and Blood on the Bayou. Even Zombie High School had what seemed like half the screamsters as last year, and that was an hour after it opened.

It's all the bad publicity that they get on Facebook and other social media that will catch up with them. I don't remember seeing even a fraction of the amount of negative feedback last year on social media. Oh yes, cause I can't recall the understaffing being as bad as it has been this year.

If they ponied up an extra couple bucks an hour, they may be able to have semi-competitive wages. Not only would it attract more workers in general, but maybe they'd pull in some competent and experienced workers for their respective department (food services, I'm especially looking at you).

It's not just Cedar Point struggling with staffing. While it's a reoccurring issue at the park, and Halloweekends attendance is only going up, they aren't the only business struggling to find bodies. We are at the lowest staffing levels we've ever been at and our attendance is the highest it's ever been. The applicants are people that are not available at the times we need them. I can't imagine trying to find enough to staff a park that size with such a limited population.

Population within 30 miles of Sandusky, OH = 350k

Population within 30 miles of Mentor, OH = 1,550k

Population within 30 miles of Mason, OH = 2,250k

[ source: https://www.freemaptools.com/find-population.htm ]

There is little doubt that Saturday was a rough day for the park. It’s the most people I’ve seen at CP in a long time, if ever. Lines were ridiculous but as Pete said, perfect Saturday fall weather means huge crowds. Just walking around, I heard and saw a lot of frustrated guests and I get it. At noon, there were absolutely zero restaurants or food stands open in the back of the park. We went back there to grab some lunch before a Ride Warriors Club event and nothing open. Frontier Inn did open around 12:50. The lines just to get a soft drink were so long, the wait times should have been put on the CP app.

I totally get the staffing issues the park has this this time of year. I’m experiencing the same thing where I work. We are just having trouble recruiting a quality workforce. I’m not sure what the answer is but I know there are trying to address it. The question is what can they do to recruit fall staff that they are not already doing? I don’t have that answer. What I do know the park isn’t maintaining low staffing levels to be cheap or save money.

DSShives said:
We are just having trouble recruiting a quality workforce. I’m not sure what the answer is but I know there are trying to address it. The question is what can they do to recruit fall staff that they are not already doing? I don’t have that answer. What I do know the park isn’t maintaining low staffing levels to be cheap or save money.

Quality workforce? We are talking about Sweeps and People that pour soda into cups.

The answer is and always has been $$$.

How do you “know” the park isn’t cutting payroll to make up for poor attendance mid summer?

The park has 500+ full time employees, the union employees can work in-park in other positions IF they are paid their regular union wages. Many of these employees would love the “extra income” before holidays, but they will not offer the wage.

I’d rather work at cp doing almost anything than at my career right now but the pay isn’t there for me. If i had no real Bills I’d work there, I’m sure it’s the same reason some others don’t work there. I do not blame cp fully for the lack of staffing, they can only deploy the force they have on hand. I do not know the ins and outs of staffing a major theme park but I’m sure they are working hard to do so because not doing so is a possible loss, and it’s about the money.

XS NightClub said:

The answer is and always has been $$$.

How do you “know” the park isn’t cutting payroll to make up for poor attendance mid summer?

Yes, because clearly it’s a great business decision to not open a refreshment stand by saving paying someone $9 per hour and selling drinks at $4+ a pop.