Understaffing at Cedar Point hits nightmarish levels...

Facebook posts are not necessarily the "truth". For every negative, one-star, unhappy review that you actually see posted on line, I'm sure there are at least 100 times more happy, completely satisfied visitors with positive things to say.

I agree that CP during Halloweekends is not a well oiled machine. But, neither is it the "horrible mess" that others are trying to make it out to be. You attend a major theme park on a Saturday, during Halloween season, during phenomenal October temperatures, along with 70,000 other people -- then you take your chances. You will sit in traffic. You will stand in lines, both food and ride. Restrooms will be hard to keep up with and exit traffic will be difficult. And, if rides malfunction and close, it will be much more noticeable during this time than other regular season days. Again, I agree they need a some improvement with this, but some people also need to keep their expectations in check.

And, speaking as a Type 1 Diabetic (who visits CP more than 25 times per season) to whomever posted about being in distress because they were in traffic and "what if my sugar drops". What a horribly irresponsible person you must be. What kind of diabetic travels to an amusement park completely unprepared for sugar emergencies, both high and low? Not a very smart one. It seems as though CP is expected to babysit everyone nowadays.

When I got my first after-school retail job, the store manager told me he hated having to hire when unemployment was under 7%, and he much preferred 8%.

Why? For the same reasons Pete quoted from the article. As unemployment dropped to 6 or lower, it became increasingly difficult to find people without a job who really wanted one on the lower end of the scale. We were less than 10 minutes from the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University and had issues staying fully staffed at 40 people.

Tony Stark said:

You should get together with the other creepers and start a new thread devoted to me.

A nice place where you can post all of your conspiracy theories about my top-secret true identity.

Thanks, I'll pass on that suggestion because I don't think an entire thread devoted to it is necessary. It is just a really strange coincidence on the timing and a very convenient back story in your initial post as to why you suddenly showed up out of nowhere, only to fall into a remarkably similar antagonistic pattern. Ultimately it doesn't matter who you are, I just found it curious is all. Feel free to carry on carrying on... My apologies for ruffling any feathers.

Seemed like things were well today,but I was only there from 6pm to 8pm. Was Valravn down towards 8pm and/or did it finish giving the line all the rides ?

Tony Stark said:
Hardly a mess? Are you for real?

If the park being very busy makes it a mess, then yes. The ride operations team stepped up even more than normal this weekend to give the best experience possible, at least as far as ride availability goes. I can't talk for other departments. All of the talk among my friends was that it was just like a summer Saturday, rides open and large crowds. I think ones definition of a mess is different from another's

Finally! Normal October weather this coming weekend. 49 degrees forecast for Sunday. Maybe staffing will be appropriate for the typical number of guests the park usually has on Halloweekend Sundays.

Good riddance 75 degree days in October. LOL

On a side note, the company I worked for for 8 years was publicly traded. During that time, just about everything we asked for to make our jobs easier or better was scrutinized. Even if it were only a $3 tool. Two years ago, we were taken over by a privately owned company. What a difference..."You need this? No problem"... "You need that? Get multiples." I will NEVER work for a publicly traded company, again, if I can help it.

CP Maverick said:
I'm probably not the most common customer, but losing the Halloweekends perk on my season pass would devalue it significantly for me. The majority of my park visits are in September and October.

Remove halloweekends from the platinum pass and they lose my business. Plain and simple, I spend far more time and money at Cedar Point during September and October than I do the entire spring and summer seasons.

Platinum Pass to me always seemed to have the intention of unlimited access, anytime, at any Cedar Fair park (and frankly I think the price is still too low, especially if they can build in other perks like discounts to local businesses, other attractions, etc.) When I think about individual park passes, that is where I think limitations could potentially come into play, such as no Saturdays during the season or during Haunt, etc. How many people used their Cedar Point-only or Platinum Pass during the past 2 weekends really is an unknown to us, maybe they don't have the impact we think they do? Hard to say.

So do what Universal and Disney do and have different levels of passes with block out dates. You want unlimited access the whole season? You’re gonna pay more for it.

^This is what I think they ultimately need to go to. Having a pass for the summer season, fall season, and one for the entire season long. Halloween Horror Nights has the pass situation figured out pretty well and is close to what I think Cedar Point should be doing during fall.

I would be okay with CP offering a more tiered pass level system. Most parks offer a Silver pass which is basically admission. No perks such as free parking etc. Then their Gold pass which offers some additional perks such as free parking. Then Platinum which offers the additional perks like valid at all parks in the chain, Haunt admission, etc.

Out of curiosity, and laziness to look myself, is there a CPS only pass? I'm sure there is a market for people only interested in the waterpark amongst the locals.

They could also offer a substantial discount to Halloweekends for pass holders. Do the other CF parks that have a separate admission for Halloween offer a passholder discount?

As a platinum pass holder who hasn't been able to travel to other parks taking away HalloWeekends access would seriously devalue the pass for me. That being said if it's 75 and beautiful on an October Saturday I will usually stay home voluntarily. I've only been to the park for one Saturday this fall, it was over 90 out and we timed our arrival for just as the sun was going down because of the heat. The park was not busy. CF doesn't need to black out dates for me, I already base my visits on when I expect the crowds to be lower.

I'm not saying take it away but more so make it a perk of being a Platinum pass holder. Like Disney or Universal tier the passes. Which most CF parks already offer more options then Point.

An example of the tiers could be:

Silver: Limited admission Mon-Fri Memorial Day through Labor Day. Discounted admission weekends and Halloweekends.

Gold: Unlimited Admission through Labor Day with discounted admission after Labor Day and Halloweekends

Platinum: Unlimited admission all season long including admission to Halloweekends and Winterfest events.

See other things like the Pre-K pass and maybe a Cedar Point Shores only pass.

Having a tiered system may only encourage people to buy Platinum passes (which is what they want) it may also encourage an increase of passes purchased that are only valid at Point. Either way I don't see this being a bad thing.

Want unlimited access for the year? Buy Platinum! Have no interest in dealing with post labor day craziness and reduced staffing? Buy gold! Disney and other chains have shown options can be a good thing.

Now will any of this help a 70 degree, sunny, gorgeous October Saturday? Who knows, I'm just throwing darts at the board of what we could see in the future.

Paisley said:
CF doesn't need to black out dates for me, I already base my visits on when I expect the crowds to be lower.

So wouldn’t a cheaper pass that has all the busy days blocked out be beneficial to you?

No because a Saturday in October may be busy or it may not depending on the weather. Too cold or too hot at the other extreme means less crowds but if the date was already blacked out just for being a Saturday in October I wouldn't be able to take advantage of that. Some weekends Saturday may be the only day I have available to go and if that happens to be a day with a 70% rain forecast I wouldn't want that day blacked out because I'm willing to get a bit damp running between buildings occasionally if that means Millennium is a ramp only wait and I can get into a haunt in less than 10 minutes. I choose my days based on variables they can't build into a calendar.

Pete said:
The real story is CP does not charge for water cups, there was plenty of free water available last night. I had about 6 diet drinks from various places, diet soda was plentiful in the park. Even received a free ibuprofen and free water from first aid to treat a sore shoulder muscle. They have two first aid stations, in front and in back of the park. Traffic exiting is slow, when you have that many cars exiting at once, how can it not be?

I tell it like it is, I don't praise something that doesn't deserve praise based on my personal experience. I was satisfied with the park last night after actually being there, not by copying and pasting dubious Facebook comments. As far as your background Stark, anyone could claim to be anything on the internet, you don't have credibility in my book.

Maybe diabetic girls was only willing to buy sodas from the employees break area vending machines. For some reason they are not stocked with any diet sodas that I have seen.

Paisley said:

CF doesn't need to black out dates for me, I already base my visits on when I expect the crowds to be lower.

Then the Platinum Pass (or highest tiered pass) is perfect for you. That's the best thing about a tiered pass system is that there is something for everyone. It's what I love about Universal and their system for admission to the parks and how they do special event admission. This is really the route I believe Cedar Point needs to go and really I am surprised they haven't already. It's still a damn good deal for a season pass to the park which already includes Halloweekends.

If they want to add tiers in between the regular park pass and platinum or even a bare bones version of the park pass with blackout dates I'm sure there may be a market for it. Heck if they were to roll out a pass that had the same perks as platinum but only good at CP/CP Shores I might even consider that since like I said I haven't been able to travel to other parks. I've just had a hard enough time this year scheduling park visits around life happening I'm not willing to throw black out dates into the mix too.

Silver- Cedar Point, summer season only (no haunt/winterfest)

Gold- Cedar Point, Shores, & Parking, summer season only (no haunt/winterfest)

Platinum- Cedar Fair, Parking, valid all year (no black-out)