Working at CP

I just finished my second season working at CP. I have to tell you, the friends that you make there are great! But I will never go back to working there ever again with how poorly Cedar point treats their employees. I dont get how people go back there year after year. Yes it is a cool summer job, but is it really worth it to go and move your whole life up to sandusky just to be treated like dirt from the upper management. I dont understand how some of the people there can put up with it. I think that CP management should really take a hard look at how they treat their employees. Shoving 4 people in one tiny dorm room is insane, then not letting them live with the people they want to live with is even worse. Then you get to work and have to work a long shift with people who are pissed off because of the drama from living with alot of people so it creates a bad working and living enviornment. Then you have these hot head managers and supervisors who love to take advantage of the fact that they can do whatever they want while they are there so they screw over all the hard working employees so they can be happy. oh, i almost forgot, having your employees live in a prison that is supervised by police 24/7 is just stupid. If you want your employees to come into work every day in a good mood, give them some freedom. If they want to have a party at their apt or dorm room let them. Louies should not be the only place where people can go and have a little freedom. You should not have to worry about walking into your housing area with a little buzz and have to walk through 10 cops just to scan your damn ID which now they see your face on the computer screen just to make sure you are really that person. I mean seriously, treat the employees how you would want to be treatred. Maybe you wont have as many employee problems every year, maybe you wont get some of the employees with criminal records and have to be watched by cops 24/7. Maybe you will get some smart employees that will come there because you get treated great and it will be a summer of fun making money and meeting friends you will never forget. Not a summer of hell. Cuz if you keep going on the track you are going that is what a summer at CP will be.

I heard a lot of people having problems with management, but to be honest, I encountered none. I never had any problems at all whatsoever, and I plan on returning next year.

Your summer is what you make of it. If you complain and whine about little stuff like having cops around to make sure everything is straight, then you're forcing yourself into a bad summer and will probably bring other people down with you.

Why do I get this feeling that the people who would complain about too much security would be the first to complain if there was not enough. I lived in those dorms, and I liked knowing I was safe. You cant blame Cedar Point for their security policy. Try blaming the bad apples who start the fires in the bathrooms of a 100 year old wooden hotel, the people who bring weapons and drugs on property, the druknen idiots high on X, the dummies that bust into peoples rooms and steal your stuff, I can go on and on.

As far as the quality of the employee goes (criminal records and what not). When you have 2000+ college age people living together your going to have problems no matter what. No matter how many backround checks you run, mix in the booze and the dope and there are bound to be problems. Thats just something those of us more "well behaved" people have to deal with. I say if you want to have a party..take it off Point so the rest of those who actualy want to get some sleep and wake up feeling "good" can get some rest.

-cm

Yea definatly, they have to treat all employees like crap because lets face it alot of the employees are crap. Actually, its not crap they treat their employees like, its more of like I dunno really know how to put it.

Because they check to make sure your who you say you are and not someone else is good, they have thousands upon thousands of people there they cant remember everyones faces and names...the ID checks are also done to make sure your supposed to be there, if you get fired your taken out of the system and when the ID tag is scanned the red light goes on. Thats so if you infact did get fired or something you could have kept a uniform and had a 2nd id tag made up before hand and thei rjust checking your not trying to get into the park with it.

I do think though that more security should be added because, while it didnt happen to me, a few people have told me their rooms were broken into. its so easy to get into these rooms too, the windows are one way, but also if you have a roomate who forgets to lock the door it could "f" you up, and we all know that not everyone who works at CP are the brightest people around...

That was a good post, Mr John. I only wish more people would "get it".

MrScott

Yea but how sad is it that what I said is true?

Everyone there should be there for the same reason, you should be able to feel safe, but you cant. It really is sad that people do rob from each other. Thats a place where you should be able to leave your door unlocked without any worry..

I agree with some of that. Rooms do get broke into WAY to much. So wouldnt you think Cedar point would do something about that and put dead bolts on there. Its not right that I worry about leaving my valuables in my room and wonder if it will still be there when I get back. I know that I am the one taking the risk and its my fault for leaving it there, but CP should give us better security. Im telling you, if they WOULD treat us better, you would see alot of the better employees come back every year and there would be alot less problems.

That may be true, but I've heard that the housing facilities get absolutely no respect from the people that stay there, so I can see why they aren't spending any more money than they have too. Spending money where there won't be any visible profit for a while isn't justified in a business like CP.

"Spending money where there won't be any visible profit for a while isn't justified in a business like CP."

Unfortunately for Cedar Point, it has a responsibilty to its employees to provide somewhat decent housing to live in. The housing is NOT somewhat decent; it's down-right awful. The conditions in which I lived this summer were very poor, and Cedar Point has got to pay some attention very soon to some of its dorms (specifically Cedars and Gold.)

This is a belabored subject, I am well aware. I would like to simply raise awareness of the raunchy conditions in which Cedar Point employees must live. One could go on and on.

Anonymous said:

This is a belabored subject, I am well aware. I would like to simply raise awareness of the raunchy conditions in which Cedar Point employees must live. One could go on and on.

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It's my opinion that most (if not all) housing will eventualy be moved off point. I agree that Cedars and Gold's are in need of attention. I also agree that employee moral would improve with better conditions. What I disagree with is the "party" mentality of the original post in this thread. Letting people party in their rooms will not make your experience any better. The rooms are provided at a fairly low cost, as a place for you to crash...basicly that's all it is. Tell me then if CP were to let you party away on thier property, why would they even consider pouring more money in to fixing these places that are just going to be abused and vandlized? You get what you pay for. Including security.

-cm

As far as CP housing goes, you get what you pay for. Cedar Point charges $17-33/wk to live in their housing. At Disney I'm paying $69-89/wk. The difference is Cedar Point's housing is basically small overcrowded college dorms, whereas Disney is investing a significant amount of money to build apartment complexes like Chatham Place, which has almost brand new furnished apartments, a central fitness facility, sports facilities, a pool, hot tubs, and more. But at the same time, they are pulling down $1400 a month for a 2-bedroom apartment to $2400 for a 4-bedroom apartment in that complex. With rates like that, those are some of the most expensive apartments in the greater Orlando area, but you get what you pay for.

Would you rather pay your $33 a week to live at Commons Dorms or your $89 a week to live in something like Chatham Place? Most people come to Cedar Point to make money and save it. They don't want to give up half of their check every week just for a bed that they will not really get to enjoy because they are working so much.

I like Mean Streak John's signature. :)

When I came to CP my first summer I came there hoping to have a fun summer. The thought of saving money didnt even enter my mind. I just fig. meeting all these new people and getting to live in such a great area like CP. Thats also the reason I came back the 2nd year. Now I know that most people come there to save money. But when you get paid 6.25 and hour you are not going to be able to save money doing that. the ONLY money you will save is your bonus. CP needs to focus on getting some of the better college students to come work there and they will not have as nearly as many problems as they have had these last few years. They need to start paying the employees more and they need to do something with the living conditions. Now I kno that if they improve the living area that the cost will go up. But I know that they will be able to get employees who are willing to pay that money. I think they should limit the rooms to 2-3 people like the women have. for men it is 3-4...mostly 4. and that is a Very TINY dorm room.
I could go on for hours. But the fact of the matter is that Cedar Point is a 1st rate park with 3rd rate employees. And if they dont do something about this, then there will be ALOT of problems the next few years. And im not even gonna start talking about the problems in Management and Supervision.

At first I hated the living, but then I thought about it, were not paying for electric, were not paying for gas (if in the apartments) all were paying is a small fee every week that barely adds up to 100 bucks a month, you tell me where i can live for 100 bucks a month utilities included besides your parents basement?

The housing im sure at one point was great but all these punks who go there to rob from people and to party and to tear the place down rooned it (yes i said rooned) for everyone else, do what I did, put up some iron maiden posters and everything looks that much more gooder!!

to the person who likes my signature, o&a party rock bro!

Ok lets take the Dorm rooms as an example. $31 a week per person. Thats $124 a month. Now when u put 4 people in that little tiny room. Thats $496 a month that they charge for one doprm room. Thats a litttle too much for those little 10X10 rooms. And you dont even get your own bathroom. All you get is Cable and AC. Which the AC is very nice. and What Gas are you talking about? Maybe in the Stove tops you get in the APTs. and you dont even get AC there. All you get is ONE Cable outlet for a 5 Beddroom apt. that you have to get a 50 ft long cable just to be able to connect to it. And in the APTs you end up living with some of the dirtiest people you will ever live with.

I recall an AC in the "living room" section of the APT's and yes there is a stove...but lets say its 31 a week and theres only 2 people in the room (i only had 1 roomate when i was there then i moved to cedars because it was more convenient)

the biggest complaint i have about it is i have seen rooms with 4 people shoved into it that is insane, but like it has been stated before why should CP care for the employees if half the employees dont care about CP?

People expect to live in luxary when they go there to work, theres a few thousand people working there and for CP to go out of their way to fix the rooms up real nice and to make them an awesome place to sleep in (because thats all you really do, how often did you watch TV while you were there? maybe at night when your going to sleep or on your day off) if thats all the employees do is destroy them anyways?

My 2nd complaint on the rooms though were the mattresses, i had torn up mattresses and when sleeping at night i was trying to figure out how much man juice i thought was soaked up into it, that was kind of disgusting.

Hey John, dont forget about Ron and Fezzy too, you dont want them to feel left out.

RidePhoto101 said:
Hey John, dont forget about Ron and Fezzy too, you dont want them to feel left out.

hehe hows that?

i lived in both commons for a bit and then moved to gold for the bulk of the summer, and, honestly, the dorms didn't bug me. first off i was working 80% of the time, so when i wasn't at work i wasn't just hanging out in my room, i was either in the park or passed out from exhaustion on my bed.

actually, i hated commons, but not the rooms themselves, just the atmosphere. I actually liked gold. it's really hot in the summer and yeah it's falling apart a bit, but it has that old summer cottage, open, airy feel to it and it's kinda nice for a summer job.

i'd rather have cedar point put money into raising base pay rates than fixing up the dorms :)

I think what makes or breaks living in the dorms is how well you get along with your roommates. In 2002 I really liked my roomies, we got on well, respected each other, had a blast, and I looked forward to coming back to the room every night and catching up. The space didn't seem like much of a problem.

But 2003 was a different story...I couldn't connect with my roommates, they annoyed me, and had all their friends over at night while I was trying to sleep. I made the best of it, but it still was no fun.

Paying around $120 a month, with all of your expenses covered, is not a bad deal at all, that's true. And it wouldn't be so bad if you had the room to yourself. But then you have two or three other people stuffed in there. For the total amount that all four people are paying a month, you could rent a 1BR/1BA apartment (at least where I live). CP has to be making some serious money off of housing, are they not? But it was not the space that was my problem. Everything I needed to do in the room, I could do on my bed (sleep, eat, read, write, listen to music). What I hated was being disturbed by people coming and going at night, and not being able to (or at least feeling like it would be the right thing not to) turn on a light or the TV because other roommates were asleep.

But hey, if you want to work at CP then you put up with it. Bayside was a lot of fun :-)

The only problem I really had working there was that if they were understaffed, instead of lessening the workload they just expected what employees were there to take on the extra work. My first season, there were 3 people on my crew when there should have been at least 9 or 10. So not only did we have to work double shifts, we were also doing the work of 2 or 3 people.

As for the quality of the employees. I've seen it as well at the park I worked at this summer. You can start work with the greatest of attitudes, prepared to work hard and take pride in your job. But then what do you see? Your TL does nothing but sit in the break area all day long talking to friends. Everyone else on your crew slacks off and leaves the work for whoever comes next. You realize it would actually be stupid for you to work hard, because then you're just taking up everyone else's slack. You see people on your crew who are notorious for not doing any work become best buddies with your manager, and the manager and supervisors making jokes about how they never do any work, yet they get invited back year after year and are never reprimanded. Of course I'm only talking about my experiences and what I've seen, not generalizing about the whole park.

When it's 90 degrees and you're working 12 hours and everyone else on your crew is lounging in a break area, it does make it hard to care so much about your job. I've seen it happen to so many!

I read upthread that now when they scan your ID your picture also comes up on the screen. That's interesting. CP is really serious about this. I was kind of shocked at the difference working at my home park over the summer. They don't scan your ID (they are barcoded anyway) as long as you have a uniform on you can walk right in.