Understaffing at Cedar Point hits nightmarish levels...

^^ Malort! eww... that's just evil. :P

I'd be interested in a PB charity work weekend at the park for a good cause. I'm from Wisconsin, but could visit friends in Cleveland and Sandusky before or after and hit the park for some work time on the weekend. Looking forward to further information on this idea.

Joe E said:
Great Idea Walt, especially since they already have a volunteer group system. Not sure exactly how it works anymore, but believe the groups are assigned one specific areas, and duties are limited in some capacity depending on the job.

If we’re limited to one job, I would suggest sweeping. Not glamorous but you basically walk and get soak up the atmosphere all while doing something that makes a pretty visible difference at the park. No real stress, and guest interaction is answering directions and questions about Cedar Point. Perfect for the average pointbuzzer as we’d probably have more park knowledge than most volunteers.

Rides would be great, but the group would likely only get to do entrance or fast lane positions. Food and Merch might feel removed a bit from the atmosphere. Games could be fun though.

Parking is probably the worst job at the park IMO (Did that a few times, not fun) .but I'm sure we can get our parking expert Siouxsie on that…

Sweeps is a great job, but it is combined with restrooms on a regular basis so don't expect to avoid the dirty work.

And to reference the poster calculating residual pay after expenses, Cedar Point has provided no cost weekend housing for halloweekend workers for a couple of years now.

It looks like Cedar Point saw some issues with how they were paying employees... Link

This is definitely a positive first step. Now, they need to really look into the dorm situation and improve those as well. But I applaud the park for taking this first step for sure.

The need to increase pay seems to be an industry wide problem. Six Flags Great Adventure also announced pay increases for this season.

Its definitely a step in the right direction. I have also noticed Cedar Point is promoting their job fairs more than I have noticed in the past.

Very similar piece on an Indy TV website. Says updated on-site housing for those that qualify. Anyone know what determines if you qualify for updated housing?

https://www.wthr.com/article/cedar-point-to-fill-5000-open-positions

To qualify for CP housing you have to live 30 miles from the park. (It might be 35 miles.) And updated housing means you get a clean mattress. :)

A mattress previously used at Sandcastle Suites.

Maybe there won't be bedbugs in housing this year, that would certainly be an upgrade

Bedbugs? I didn’t know they used Maui Sands for overflow.

They need to update the food stands' payment system they use with their cash/card registers. EVERY SINGLE TIME my friend and I buy food at one of those counters, at least when my friend buys food and she either uses her meal plan or pays with her debit card, there is a problem with it. we stand there for 20 mins while the employee always has to go to the back of the kitchen to ask other cooks or ask cashiers how they need help with the registers and how my friend's cards aren't processing. This also happens with people in front of us every single time we get in line for food. Add this to the fact that they're always understaffed does not help the situation. I'm sick of waiting 30 mins for food. We get faster service at Friday's and famous daves. And don't get me started on Johnny rockets.......

I have literally never had an issue using debit/credit cards at the park.

I can’t recall debit/credit card issues but maybe 10% of the time there are issues with one or more of our meal plans. Actually a better record than SIX parks where it approached 50% of the time there were issues. Fortunately if it is just drink cup issues they give up and just wave you through.

Cargo Shorts said:

Fortunately if it is just drink cup issues they give up and just wave you through.

Have you had issues where the Freestyle terminal tells the worker that you have a souvenir cup instead of a paper cup on the drink plan? That happened to us several times last year at absolute random times and Freestyle sites. (Although I was not waved through - I had to leave and try at one of the other drink stations if I could FIND one that was open...)

To those who are all in favor of having self-serve kiosks replace workers wanting higher wages, have you stood behind people at Cedar Point trying to use those kiosks for the first time? While employees stand at the counter waiting for customers to TRY to finish placing their orders? Nothing more intelligent than killing your sales by increasing times spent by inexperienced customers in line and driving potential customers away.

Fortunately, the kids behind me were smarter than me and asked if we could go up to the counter at Coasters and order from an employee rather than waiting for people who had no business TRYING to use a self-serve kiosk.

Zoug68, not unless they can fix their kiosks. Can’t tell you how many times I have tried to use the ones at Frontier Inn or Coasters and have to cancel it out becuase it accepts the meal plan but wants to charge full price for a drink even though we have the drink plan.

Rusty, I think I have had that one before, plus “You need to wait 15 minutes before using it again” when I just arrived at the park for the day. Or, they scan my card and tell me I have 3 drink plans on it, instead of my two boys having their own drink plans. I don’t know if it is becuase I am polite and friendly but insistent or because I am big but I have never been turned away and probably wouldn’t accept that option anyway. Either call your manager and get it fixed or waive me through but I am hot and thirsty right now and am not going to walk 1/2 mile to hunt down an open drink stand.

While I know that kiosks are probably the future of ordering food at anything other than a decent restaurant, I hate them and feel bad for the people behind me who know how to use them. I'd feel the same way if I got stuck behind someone like myself.

I don’t go to McDonald’s often so to my surprise I encountered their kiosk ordering system. It took maybe 3 or 4 times as long to order and another 2 or 3 times as long waiting for food than it used to. The kiosks at the fry shop at cp last year weren’t working but the employees just kept letting people try over and over while just standing there. So I’m not a fan of these systems as they stand right now.

I don't know how any of you stomach it going to CP (or any other big park, for that matter) in peak season or on a Saturday.

I limit my roller coaster trips to either May, before school gets out, or September, after school starts, and even then we try to go during the week. I was at CP last September, before all of this nightmare staffing, rides were 15 minutes or less pretty much everywhere, the exceptions being Valravn (new) and Maverick (but only then up to 30 min).

It seems to me that the best way to solve staffing issues is to try and spread out the summer's ridership further into May and September when less people are there, though that is difficult, and by limiting Halloweekends hours a bit so you have fewer shifts to cover. There's not really an easy fix.

CP isn’t generally that bad on a summer weekday and the weather on the lake is very hit or miss in May or September. Also depending on your work schedule it actually may be more economical to go on a weekend and fork over for FL+. Sales Reps for example don’t make money if they aren’t working and generally can’t work on the weekends.