Virus Impact on CP

Thabto said:

May 8th, 2021 will be my 35th birthday!

Will you be opening a 500ft tall RMC for your 35th?

Even better, it'll be a 600FT RMC with 85% ejector airtime!

An internal email has just confirmed Cedar Point extending their closure indefinitely and suspension of hiring for all seasonal positions.

Are they suspending hiring or just not guaranteeing a start date?

It’s been posted online but hiring is suspended.

If hiring has been suspended, even on a conditional basis where they can do things like process paperwork, get people into a payroll system, etc. I feel like anything before Labor Day is out of the question. Even if the park does open, staffing will be a nightmare (more so than usual) to the point it may just be best to call the season a wash and work towards either a ridiculous Haunt event, with very limited rides. Or just call it a season and work to re-opening in 2021. This is all just purely debbie downer speculation on my part.

I hope to look back on this post in June as we prepare for a July 4th opening day and laugh at it. But wow, man. This is all just so surreal.

Stay safe everyone, wash those hands and follow social distancing guidelines as much as possible!

Nothing in the "internal memo" being circulated on social media says hiring is suspended. It just says they can't guarantee seasonal employment to those already hired as the Administration officers are closed indefinitely.

I feel we're still at that point where July 4th or no season at all both have an equal chance of being the reality.

I mean, they aren’t hiring anyone so...

WolfBobs, I don't think you're being a Debbie Downer, I think you're just being realistic. By now, we would have had our annual "testing" thread posted, which usually starts late March. That's a full month and-a-half of testing and checks and maintenance just to get the rides certifiable. And that's when everything is working in rhythm.

To me that's the key word to keep in mind. Rhythm. The off-season is like a very well-orchestrated dance (albeit a chaotic one) that brings the park to life on opening day, for better or for worse. It takes an all-hands-on-deck approach with each part of the larger system doing its part to bring it all together, from hiring to training to maintenance to food-service to communications...all hands on deck, working together to pull it off.

Just stop and think at the colossal scale to which this rhythm has been thrown off. Now combine that with a future that is entirely unpredictable. It's not as if everyone is just waiting behind the scenes ready to hit the "on" switch, although I have no doubt that there have been many sleepless nights and meetings filled with heavy hearts (and, no doubt, tears) trying to even formulate a plan of how the park forges ahead.

I think the next few weeks will tell us a lot. We're about 7-10 days from hitting the peak in Ohio, but even the flattened curve has a slow decent into May, and that's still not the end of it all.

Anyone think the park will allow masks during Halloweekends this year? 🤣

Everything is so sad right now. A friend of mine is sick with Covid and my father works in an essential supplies factory that has had 2 cases. I'm lucky to be able to work from home, my wife is as well. I have friends who live downstate in the epicenter of the cases. Then on the lockdown side we have had multiple trips already cancelled and are staring at a potentially fatal blow to some parks with a total loss of a year. Mergers, hostile takeovers, large scale cutbacks and permanent changes/reductions overall.

I think if Cedar Point opens this year it would have to be resort inclusive. Would need some type of screening for employees and guests. Lots of sanitation. Maybe segregation to what rides are available to each resort in timeframes. That doesn't work for the rest of the parks though. Que line infection would be minimal because there wouldn't really be any lines. Only open sit down diners and put most the labor in keeping the resorts sanitized.

Needless to say I don't think I want to go to KI to ride Orion when it opens. I bought my platinum pass last October when I went with a friend. But, I did not buy my wife's or grandson's, so I'm not to worried about cost.

That's very sad news, terrible for all those employees.

Is there any hope in a 2020 season? If not it's possible to term 2021 as the 150th operating season but I'm still hopeful that they can piece together this season somehow.

mgou58 said:

An internal email has just confirmed Cedar Point extending their closure indefinitely and suspension of hiring for all seasonal positions.

[/quote.

Any proof?

My source at Sandusky Janitorial Supplier, Inc. leaked to me this photo of the hand sanitizer stations they were contracted to install all over the park.

kjettski said:

mgou58 said:

An internal email has just confirmed Cedar Point extending their closure indefinitely and suspension of hiring for all seasonal positions.

[/quote.

Any proof?

Because it was internally posted to an employee only website, I won’t share the image or link because I respect the relationship Walt and Jeff have with the park. You don’t have to look far to find it on social media.

Dig through some of the more well known CP facebook groups you'll see screen shots of the email.

Another email was sent tonight telling the staff that's already there that they can keep using the housing for free but will not be receiving anymore work, and will not be accepting any other residents/check in other workers.

Pretty much everything is now on hold at Cedar Point now. Indefinitely.

WolfBobs said:

Dig through some of the more well known CP facebook groups you'll see screen shots of the email.

That's not evidence so it's not true. I searched Google for it and found zero. Sounds like the Magnum sinking rumour. If it's an internal email it's an internal email. There's zero way that any of their in the know employees would disclose this type of information. I think that they're jobs are beholden to some type of corporate information agreement. Rumours are rumours for a reason.

Aside from that the owners of this site have a good working relationship with Cedar Fair. Jeff/Walt may or may not know about this; I doubt they do. Even if they did they would not disclose it.

I did receive an email from Cedar Point saying that they were suspending payments on the season pass plans. That's public information. So one can speculate that they're getting ready to really delay the opening or simply close for the season. They'll wait until the last minute as it gives them more options. My money is that they will close for the season. They don't want the risk of a reignition of the virus in my opinion.

A couple of things that are telling to me are what Disney did in closing their parks indefinitely and the suspension of student loans until October. That leads me to speculate that this shutdown is going to last longer than we think. We are not truly safe until a vaccine is developed and our population has developed herd immunity. Herd immunity requires 83% to 94% of the population to be immune via a vaccine or developing immunity. A vaccine is a year out as it has to be vetted and tested.

So while I disagree with Jeff's stance on Covid about the shutdown, he's probably right.

We can all choose to believe it or not in our own way.

In other news, our own GoBucks posted this article over at the other buzz. I know that 1) it's about Disney, 2) Cedar Point is certainly not Disney, and 3) the guest base is certainly less demographically diverse at Cedar Point...but it is also the first glimmer of a blueprint for any type of re-opening of any theme park in the United States that I have read so far.

LINK HERE

Like I said, I know CP is not Disney, but it's something.