Bubbles area 21 and over at Soak City

Wrote my comments on CP's Contact Us. Received an email from a Matt La Riccia/Director of Guest Services with a phone number to discuss my Soak City visit. Will let you know how it goes.

Well, at least somebody got an email in return..

We were just at Soak City today(17th ?) and the only cleanliness issue I ran into was evrything was full of bugs but I sort of expect that this time of year. I only went on one slide, Renegade River and then spent the rest of my time in the wave pool so there are lots of areas I didn't see.

Last weekend I did see workers with large squeegees scrubbing the bottom of one of the kiddie pools while I was going up the lift on Magnum. Haven't been to Bubbles in a couple of weeks, but hopefully they have gotten the message and all the pool bottms are being cleaned.

I got a phone call the other day. I was informed that they have stripped the lifeguards of the cleaning responsibilities, to let them focus on doing what they do, and brought in a dedicated team of park services people, who would be focused on round-the-clock cleaning, pressure washing, etc.

He told me they had a really, really rough open this year, and that winter was not kind of them. I get that, but at that point, an announcement delaying the opening by a few weeks might have been a good idea.

He listed all the areas that they were unhappy with, and assured me that on my next visit, everything would be up to my standards.

I haven't been back yet to check...

Good news! And glad they have cleaning people vs lifeguards doing double duty, I would have expected they should really, for a park of that size.

Excellent news, Bubbles is really a nice place to spend the afternoon if it is up to it's normally clean standards.

Spent a few hours at Soak City today and it appears the park got the message. Everything was up and running and things were clean. Of course there were bugs but that is unavoidable this time of year. If there was anything to complain about cleanliness wise it would be the stairs on Eerie Falls need to be pressure washed.

I think a lot of the criticism about the park this year has been totally warranted, but I think (well, I know) the park is more self-aware than some people give it credit for. There are some excellent people running the park.

Based on the problems that have occurred so far this year (many rides not prepared, ride operation confusion, Soak City dirty as sin, blaring music, food service/dining plan issues, Rougarou touted as themed then opened with nearly no theme, theming elements left to rot on Maverick, etc.), park management has a long way to go before they earn an "excellent" tag.

You're entitled to your opinion, but despite a rough start, they're mostly getting it right now.

As the old saying goes, "Rome wasn't built in a day".

Well, they probably weren't charging admission to Rome on the first day, so there's that. ;-)

e x i t english said:

I was informed that they have stripped the lifeguards of the cleaning responsibilities, to let them focus on doing what they do, and brought in a dedicated team of park services people, who would be focused on round-the-clock cleaning, pressure washing, etc.

So the dedicated team of people who clean for a living couldn't get the water park clean for opening? Sounds like they should have kept the Lifeguards in charge of keeping the park clean. But I still say it comes down to management. At what point does the Soak City manager realize the park isn't getting clean and just take care of it himself with his crew like in the past?

When the lifeguards took care of the cleaning they did it well and enjoyed it because they took pride in cleaning the park they worked in every day. Especially when it came to cleaning the pools. When I worked there they tried out having Park Services come in and clean but it would always depend on staffing inside Cedar Point. If they needed bodies in there, that is where they would put them and in turn neglect Soak City.

That's an interesting take, 99er. I had thought the opposite, it would be harder for lifeguards to find the time vs a dedicated cleaning crew but perhaps that's not the case. We'll see how it pans out if they're not keeping up this summer.

Maybe John Pratt finally got that call after all.

And by the way, I paid 48.5 denarii on opening day of Rome. It was ok, not much to do. I remember a large show venue of some sort. Oh, and it rained.

You left out the most important detail though, was the yellow chariot in service?

No, there were all kinds of troubles and they obviously weren't ready. One chariot operation all day.
I heard a lot of complaints from entitled asshats, Romans and Christians alike. But I didn't care. It was just nice to be there and soak up the atmosphere. I figured it would all be built by the next day.

At least they weren't stacking chariots, then.

3snoH un=l said:

I had thought the opposite, it would be harder for lifeguards to find the time vs a dedicated cleaning crew

Soak City never had lifeguards just leave a pool for cleaning rather more lifeguards were scheduled throughout the day for things like breaks, cleaning, rotation, etc. The pools always had the lifeguards required to be safe and the water park always had extra lifeguards roaming around making sure the park was clean. When I worked at the park it seemed as though Park Services at times would have the mentality to not clean while moving through the park, rather wait until something is called in for cleaning. As where lifeguards who were on a specific 'cleaning rotation' did nothing but clean while they walked around. Wasn't always the case but most of the time it happened that way.

The preseason cleaning of the pools was headed up but the 'Pumps Crew'. They were the technicians that kept all the filter pumps working and the water quality at the correct standards all summer long. They along with lifeguards who could start work early would scrub each pool from top to bottom, clean every lounge chair, wash every trash can, spray down every tube, etc until it was spotless. In the past, Park Services never had anything to do with the clean of Soak City with the exception of removing dumpsters that were full.