News: Cedar Fair staffing decisions expected to take time

http://www.pointbuzz.com/news.htm?id=923

If I were on the executive level at the parks formerly called Paramount I would probably be spending the next half a year sending out my resume.

I don't think they will all be summarily replaced but I do think the Cedar Fair philosophy will be spread to those parks and the quickest way to do that is to install your own folks.

And personally I hope that's the last thing that happens. I don't think Cedar Fair has the people to spread around like that. Geauga Lake alone cannibalized Cedar Point management, so multiply that buy five. Bad idea.

There are good things going on in the Paramount Parks, so forcing culture change for the sake of change is a bad idea.

Well, wouldn't the people who are currently in high positions at Paramount be first in line to interview for their own jobs back? And, assuming they can live up to Cedar Fair standards (which couldn't be that hard, it's Paramount, not Six Flags), then shouldn't they pretty much be a shoe-in for getting their own jobs back? It would seem to me that the only way that they wouldn't get them back is if they are die-hard Paramount followers, which of course is also a possibility.

I'm not suggesting that all the General Managers will be forced out. I think some will go on their own. I also think Cedar Fair bred folks will start to infilitrate the ranks over time.

I understand Jeff's point of view that you don't want the resources to be stretched too thin but no matter the similarities in amusement park companies there is going to be the way WE do it and the way it has been done. That will change under new management and that change will be identified as needed by folks who get in there and start looking around.

Someone said something about someone (get that?) saying in the conference call that they would not take an "assimilate or die" approach. I certainly hope that's the case. I've dealt with both companies for group outtings (CoasterBuzz Club events), and honestly the Paramount Parks do thing in a far more convenient and quality way.

You are absolutely right. I think these have been two well-run park systems that will be able to look at the other guys who have now joined the team. They will see the good and the bad in each other's operations and they will steal the good ideas.

I do hope this does one thing which has been lost over the years. Back in the day, before my time at the Point, Cedar Fair used to send its managers to other parks outside the chain to do some casual observation to see how the other guys do things. I don't know why that was stopped, but it likely had to do with money and a lengthing season.

I firmly believe you have to see how things work outside your own little fence and I would love to be the fly on the wall when they brought together the Operations, Merchandise, Foods, etc folks from these two companies to do some brainstorming and idea-sharing.

I agree with Jeff on this one. Both companies have a lot of good things going on and they can take the best of both and combine them. I don't think kicking all the Paramount people to the curb and installing all Cedar Fair bred people would be the right thing to do. FIrst of all I don't think there are enough qualified people to do all those jobs. And secondly, after seeing what happened when a bunch of good people left CP for Geauga Lake, I don't want to see a repeat performance. Sometimes some stability is a good thing.

I didn't realize that they stopped that program Chief. If that's the case, I totally agree with you that it should come back.

How about the seasonals at PKI? I'm guessing they are going to keep their jobs, as it would make no sense at all to do away with them.

Fire all the seasonals and then try to find new ones? Gosh, it's hard enough to staff these parks with decent people anymore. Now try firing them all and trying to restaff the park.

Yes, I know, I was just making sure, as I may be one of them....;)

Chief Wahoo said:
I firmly believe you have to see how things work outside your own little fence...

And start with season pass processing. Go here. Go there. Fill this out. Pay here. Wait in that line. Take your picture. Now wait outside. Are you kidding me? Every pass I've had at PKI was done in five minutes tops.

I think food should be one of the first departments we look at in relations to Paramount Parks to CP. Or maybe just bring Skyline Chili into all Cedar Point parks.

Jeff: AMEN! The season pass procedure at Cedar Point is positively Soviet in its bureaucracy and complexity! Fill out this form, we record the certificate number, you pay for it, we enter this data into the computer. Come back eight months later. Fill out another form with the same information as the form you filled out last fall. We record the certificate number on another ledger. You hand us the form you just filled out and the certificate. We record the certificate numbers on the form. We file the certificates, we stamp the form and hand it back to you. You stand in a third line for a half-hour. We ask you questions whose answers are printed on the form you hand us. We take your photo, and now that you have no materials whatsoever that prove that you ever bought a pass, you go wait outside. In about ten minutes we scream your first name and if you're lucky you get your own pass.

Believe it or not, I am not exaggerating.

That said, Paramount could learn a few things from Cedar Fair in this regard, too. At least Cedar Point passes have the passholder's name and the year of issue on them...two pieces of information that are missing from the Kings Island passes.

As for food, Skyline works well at Kings Island because it is local. Much as Cedar Point has Toft's, and Kings Island has Graeter's. I wouldn't expect that to change much except to the extent that Cedar Fair doesn't like to use franchisees as much as Paramount does.

Oh, I don't remember which of the 300 Cedar Fair threads it was, but someone asked about Montgomery Inn at Cedar Point. Apparently that person is not aware that the Boathouse, which was replaced by Famous Dave's, featured Montgomery Inn product. Again, each park is its own market, and any franchises or local brands are going to be just that: local.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Wow guys that whole season pass processing thing must have sucked.

I sure am glad i spent the extra 30 bucks and got GL on there too 'cause we were in and out of there in 5 minutes at the Lake. Maybe go to GL next year to get it processed?

I got my season pass at CP this year and it only took 5 minutes (5/19/06--9:00am).

MrScott

I renewed my CP pass this year and it took 5 minutes. Online purchase, print, stuff envelope and mail. 3 Months later, pass came in the mail.

Of course I do remember getting my first pass and what a pain that was - which is exactly how RideMan described it. That is why the picture on my pass is seriously dated. I have been using the same picture for years because going there and having to go through all that for a new one sucks.

Yeah, the renew by mail thing is great. I've been doing that for three or four years now. I was very thankful the year they started doing that.

On the flip side, there are a lot of operational things that Paramount Parks could learn, just in terms of efficiency with numbers of people on the platform in particular. Sometimes you'll have a crew at PKI that hustles, but there just aren't enough people there to get it done quickly. The Beast has long trains!

We've had to go in person every year so far, because we've always had at least one Junior pass to buy.

This year we were *this* close---my son is 48" in shoes, but not in bare feet, and we buy combo passes. Next year we may still have to go in person, because I'm not sure they'll re-use a Junior picture on a Regular pass. The year after that, though, and it's mail-in time for me.

On a broader level, this is just one more symptom of the fact that Cedar Point is stuck in the early 20th century from an information point of view.

As Dave mentions, a single season pass generates about 6 separate, completely redundant pieces of paper, and occupies 10 minutes of total staff time. Multiply that by the number of season passes, and you can see some obvious ways to cut costs and improve efficiency.

Last time I charged something to my room (which admittedly was a year or two ago), charges in the resort were *still* handled by a completely manual paper-forms-in-triplicate system. I've had things not appear on my bill more than once because someone lost a piece of paper somewhere. I'm sure not everyone points out missing charges, so I'm sure CP is losing money every day in the resorts.

I tried to buy tickets yesterday to bring along my Dad and his family on a trip next weekend. The woman at the ticket booth told me that I couldn't buy tickets in advance, only for that day. Why? I have no freaking idea, but probably because they still use dated register receipt slips as "tickets". It's not like it's impossible to use real tickets with bar codes tied to a back-end database---I can get them from AAA, and even print them at home. Why can't I get them at the ticket booth, whose purpose is presumably to *sell tickets*?

*** Edited 5/25/2006 1:43:28 PM UTC by Brian Noble***

There's something I'd love to see at CP... a centralized POS system like the one used at Universal Orlando. Your room key doubles as a charge card of sorts on the entire property, including both parks, City Walk, gift shops, everything. You can buy a churro on that card if you want to. I know for a fact that I spend more money at Universal because of that. (And yes, you can put limits on the cards.)

I know the park is hesitant to spend money on big infrastructure changes, but with 1,400 rooms, how awesome would it be that the kids can go do their thing and get food when they want, without having to give them a wad of cash?