We all have bad days, but when you work at CP you should never take it out on others.....

My husband and I were at the park earlier this week and encountered a very offensive ride op at the Maverick. When they were checking the seat belts, I asked politely that he not push down too hard on my safety harness. Well, I guess he must have had a bad day because he came back with, "OK Mom!!", then proceeded to continue mouthing off even after he walked away to check the other passengers. It was very unfortunate that he acted in such a manner, especially since my husband was boiling about the comments I was receiving from a 19 year old ride op throughout the entire ride.

We had a very kind VIP passenger on board with us that heard the whole discussion between the ride op and myself and asked me to complain about the boy to the front office. As a past lifeguard at Castaway Bay, I didn't actually do so, as we all can have bad days. I just hope that his supervisor (that was also present on the platform that evening) discussed what ignorance he proved upon himself and how that will not be tolerated at Cedar Point.

Are you sure he didn't say OK Ma'am?

I saw some posts on Facebook about the ride ops for Maverick being terrible.

I wish he would have called me Ma'am instead.
Plus, the VIP passenger heard the comments that were made clearly and stopped me after the ride to tell me that I needed to speak to the front office about the situation.

Did you stop at the Park Ops office to tell them what happened? If not, I would call the park and tell them. Reports of bad employee behavior do result in action by the park.

We were going to, but it was 8pm on the dot when we got off the ride (the park closed at 8pm that evening). I sent an email in and hopefully will receive a reply shortly.
Being a former employee of CP, I know that poor behavior will not be tolerated at the park and will lead to disciplinary actions and/or termination.

Wow. Were you at the park yesterday, May 17th? I also had a very bad experience with my group at Maverick, and this is one of the first bad experiences I've ever had at CP.

The employees on the whole actually seemed nicer and friendlier the whole day than I have experienced in the past. Employees kept personally asking our group "How was the ride?" on rides like Cadillac cars, Blue Streak, etc. I was with someone that hadn't been to CP in 5+ years, and it just made me feel proud of the park.

Then, at about 7:50PM, we rode Maverick with no wait. It was awesome, and we got off with time for another ride, with a mostly empty station. My group of 4 asked if we could just change lanes to one that was empty to ride again. The ride op told us, "You can ride again, but you have to walk around."

Though silly, this was fine, and I had no problem. What I had a huge problem with was the Maverick entrance host. I don't know the exact time it was, but what she did was extremely rude and unnecessary, and I think I will be reporting this experience to Cedar Point. My friend and I walked a little faster than our 2 other friends, but we were clearly all together; they were a few seconds behind us.

We entered the line for a re-ride, and the phone began to ring. She yelled to us well into the queue that she got a call that the line was to be closed, and we should come back out, WHILE slamming the closed sign right in front of my 2 other friends! Now my 2 other friends may have been exaggerating, but they claimed she did it so rudely that this entrance host almost threw the closed sign at them and was completely ignoring them, as if they weren't there.

This is wrong on so many levels. First off, my friend and I were half way into the line at the point she said to come back out, and we did not listen to her; that was absurd. When my friend and I got to the station, the train was only like 50% full, so allowing my 2 other friends right behind us to enter would have made absolutely no difference, and they did 2 more Maverick trains after us to clear out the front seat queue, with only 2 or 3 riders on them.

Secondly, if she had some life-or-death urgency to close the line at that particular second between our friends walking, she could have respectfully said, "Sorry, I got the call that the line is closed, and I can't let you enter." Throwing a sign up (that they claimed they almost ran into), turning your back, and ignoring my friends was very rude.

Maybe this employee was very new and lacked common sense, but given those circumstances, there should never be that kind of urgency to close a line at a particular second, ignoring any customers in the path. The park was completely dead back there, and there was not a stream of people running to Maverick. Anyway, it ended the perfect day on a bit of a sour note, and I got to hear about the rude Maverick entrance host on the way home rather than how great the day was.

Definitely make sure you report your problem. That is exactly what that very nice VIP lady told me to do. She said that they do not want those type of people working at CP.
My husband and I were actually there on Wednesday evening and we were at Maverick about the same time you were yesterday. My husband did catch the young boys name and college that he attended, so I made sure to personally have that in my complaint letter so that they can discipline him properly. As you probably read earlier in this post, MichaelB actually has seen people make comments about the Maverick team so, it seems as if we are not alone.

Well, we have Guest Complaints. But please remember this story has TWO sides. Yes, despite you being the guest, thus I'm sure you feel your always right, the ride op's also have a side.

I'm in no way saying your wrong by complaining, it's your right.And I understand both complaints and have seen and heard them both before. But that being said the two issues mentioned in this thread are normally straight forward stuff.

The first was a safety thing. While comfort is important, they have a job to make sure things are tight when it comes to harnesses and safety equipment. And from what I know, this is not an option. I know guests on some rides like the harnesses and safety stuff looser so they can feel better air time. That's how accidents happen. So while the comment 'Mom' wasn't needed and I agree is wrong, You as the guest should know you don't get to decide the safety rules, and get to change them for your liking. Thus also didn't need to make the comment either.

The other was a closing time issue. First off, I'm not sure what time it actually was, but I know they would normally hold off closing the line off til 5 minutes after the closing time to avoid people's watch arguments. You wanted again someone to bend a rule. Yes, you could have said your part of a group, but it's obvious your weren't a group when you got to the gate. Thus 2 people were not in the same type of hurry needed to make the final train. My next question would have been as a ride host, how more friends should I wait for? Or maybe I'll stay open so you can do yet another cycle. The ride host is under direction to close, and you fault him for following procedure? As far as having to walk around, I do believe it's for insurance reasons (Guessing), plus it guarantees each guest is treated and checked properly for safety.

So again, I understand your own displeasure with the rules and guidelines set for staff, But please understand these things are in place for reasons, thus not up for changes by staff because a guest doesn't necessarily understand why they are in place.

901liveson, if you believe the employee was in the right with the way she treated us as guests, then CP's employee training needs to be adjusted.

In the summer, there will be times when Maverick will need to stay open an extra hour after close to clear the line. How would it go over with guests if they were told they'd all have to leave the line after the line closed for the night? I know that's not CP's policy, so either she was never informed of this, or she made an error. So with my first issue, I think that's worthy of a submitting a complaint.

Secondly, the issue was not with cutting the lines in general (I've stated that CP has been historically generous here many times), but the style she did it in. My friends that were cut off said they would have had no issue if the employee had stated, "I'm very sorry guys, the ride is closed for the night," as they approached. They claimed that what she did was that the moment they were entering the line, throw the closed sign up, making them nearly run into it. Then, turning her back and not acknowledging them in any way to say any words. If what I heard was accurate, I doubt CP management would agree with that style.

I guess it's best to just submit a complaint of this nature to the park and not post it on forums, but since Sands had an issue with the Maverick crew (that I originally thought was the same day and time), I was curious if others were.

901liveson said:
You as the guest should know you don't get to decide the safety rules, and get to change them for your liking.

She didn't ask for it to not be pushed down at all, just not pushed down to hard. If it were already down all the way, why is it necessary to push it down to the point of being uncomfortable? This is something I don't understand on the OTSR coasters at the park because I have had them push it down hard before (in past seasons). After visiting the Disney parks and seeing that not a single Ride Host even touches your harness let alone push it down, I don't see why it is necessary to push down restraints anymore. If the harness is down and the belt is buckled, nothing more is needed.

You wanted again someone to bend a rule

If a group was about to run into the chain as I am closing it, I would let them in. That is not bending the rules, that is good guest service. Unless there was a crowd of 100 people behind them, it would not have hurt anything. He already stated the area back there was dead. And aside from that, what on earth would make a Ride Host think they could yell into the queue and ask someone to exit the line?

Last time I checked, you go out of your way to treat a customer with the utmost respect and cheer when you work in the service industry. I don't care if you're faking it or not; the employees discussed in this thread would be on urinal cleaning duty for a month; I'm sure there are plenty of employees who would trade a sweep for working Maverick.

Give em the pickle

You should certainly send in your report to the Guest Services:

Notate the date and time, and the Employee name or if you of not have a name, list describing information of the employee (physical features, hair color, etc.)

You can call and ask to speak with a supervisor (419) 627-2350 explain the situation to them.

Also you can and should file a report at http://www.cedarpoint.com/contact-us

Matt Ouimet the head of Cedar Fair, does not want these type of individuals working at this or any of CF parks.

^Matt needs to start with how employees are trained, which I am hoping he does once he sees just what goes on, or the lack of what goes on, in company training.

So does this mean there could be room to work at the park now? XD.

I think what happens in some cases is, you have employees who start off the season being so excited by their job at CP, but VERY quickly they become overwhelmed and burnt out.

It seems like being a ride host is a rather monotonous and stressful position. (I was a Sweep, which is a great job because you get to move around all day - I would never want to be a ride operator, stuck in the same spot for hours). I think some people start off excited but then the reality kicks in and it makes them moody and unpleasant. The girl sitting at the ride queue was probably just aching to be able to shut down the line and go home, and the guy doing harnesses was probably stressed and bored by running around checking harnesses over and over.

I'm NOT excusing anyone's actions. I'm not saying it's okay to treat guests that way. But when you're young like that, and tired, or bored, and your job turns out not to be as fun as you fantasized, it can take it's toll and you forget all about customer service and being nice and you just want to go home and relax.

(Not excusing anything - just saying).

Cassandra L said:
I think what happens in some cases is, you have employees who start off the season being so excited by their job at CP, but VERY quickly they become overwhelmed and burnt out.

It seems like being a ride host is a rather monotonous and stressful position. (I was a Sweep, which is a great job because you get to move around all day - I would never want to be a ride operator, stuck in the same spot for hours). I think some people start off excited but then the reality kicks in and it makes them moody and unpleasant. The girl sitting at the ride queue was probably just aching to be able to shut down the line and go home, and the guy doing harnesses was probably stressed and bored by running around checking harnesses over and over.

I'm NOT excusing anyone's actions. I'm not saying it's okay to treat guests that way. But when you're young like that, and tired, or bored, and your job turns out not to be as fun as you fantasized, it can take it's toll and you forget all about customer service and being nice and you just want to go home and relax.

(Not excusing anything - just saying).

As a person who does the dishes at a restaurant, I wouldn't mind be a ride op at all. XD

If you guys want to complain about a ride host do it at Park Operations, not Guest Services.

Last year they were nice. I was nervous about riding Maverick in the front and he reassured me that it was fun.