teacherkim

They still honor the 2 meals and a snack at all parks on our memberships, which I just keep quietly paying $24 a month for until they realize it still exists and take it away.

Nope!!! I'm calling BS on your grocery bill doubled..................I live in the same area as you. Our bill has gone up some, yes, but no where near double and I haven't changed my shopping habits a bit or the number of people I'm shopping for and we tend to buy the more expensive, healthier options in the store. If you want to engage in hyberpole you have to be more selective, if you do it all the time everyone thinks you are being serious. As far as going out to eat for under a $100 that depends on what you consider decent which is HIGHLY subjective. Besides the point here was not the amount of the surcharge it was why are they being dicks and pointing it out as a separate charge instead of just quietly raising the price of everything by maybe 50 cents, but you know that so why the need to interject a complaint about something outside of the parks. Now back to the real discussion.

I agree about the peak being with Dave R. He was always out and about in the park. My son never even met the last couple President's and he was an employee. On the other hand, while you and I have always disagreed about the carousel, I've always been willing to let them have all the time they need if doing proper restoration work and I certainly do not want them to burn it all to the ground (I'll assume that is hyperbole) Which is ok, we're allowed to differ on this. I DO think they need to let us know what the progress is on it. If it is delayed let us know if it's due to lack of artists/lack of materials/lack of money or all three or none of the above and something no one has thought of. They should have published that they delay with RR was due to a supply chain issue and explain what they were waiting on, instead of do it back channel rumor by telling the ACE crowd at the annual event. I just don't get the secrecy. THIS! I have NEVER understood the point of being all secretive about it. Why didn't they post stuff about the train while it was down due to RR construction? A lot of people didn't realize why. As Dan said show what maintenance has to do over the winter. Why not just explain that HITP was not making money? When you are open about things there is a lot less rumors and conspiracy theories that are spread.

I wasn't trying to disrespect any other Presidents or overlook that he may have access to more, just using him as a clear example of 'what could be' and one that I have first hand knowledge of since I have actually spoken to him face to face. He's pretty awesome though! And so transparent with what is going on and what the timeline is and why they are doing what they are doing. I think a lot of parks could avoid some grief and complaining if they just publicized what is going on behind the scenes and why. No reason for a shroud of secrecy all the time

It really is all about leadership. I don't even think there is intent to treat employees like second class citizens, there just isn't anyone at our park to hold supervisors accountable and properly direct them. I'm guessing at SFFT where they have a President that borders on legendary the culture is totally different. I do hope this gets addressed with the merger.

Hmmmmm, interesting and good to know. CoasterStock certainly was his personal baby. I remember the first one we went to he was hanging around the entrance to the Beast toward the end of the night, around midnight, and casually asking us all how we liked it, what could be better, any suggestions, etc., etc. Too bad because it really was an awesome event.

Not only SeaWorld and Herschend but Disney, Universal, Palace, and the many many individually owned parks, whether it be a family owned park or one owned by a corporation like Hershey. The FTC is going to see that Disney still has more attendance and revenue than all the CF and SF parks together so I don't think they will consider it a monopoly. I mean if Ticketmaster is allowed to continue to exist then this isn't even close to a monopoly and look at how many airline mergers the government has allowed.

They aren't getting $20, pay is $14 - $15 for most positions, and that is on par with most part time jobs at fast food joints and retail establishments. For a couple years during the Pandemic it was raised to $18 but as I stated that was taken away. As a parent and retired teacher I think "kids nowadays are too lazy" is a vast oversimplification of the issue. Just like we have inflation because wages went up is too simple an explanation, inflation is due to a number of factors and isn't even close to what it was in the early 70's when the park opened. Since our park is in a generally more affluent area it isn't that kids are lazy it's more that they are being pushed by parents and schools to spend their summers and weekends devoting massive amounts of time to extra curriculars (sports and clubs) and/or classes and camps. This is under the mistaken belief that it pads a college resume. I cannot tell you how much I disagree with this thinking. If you talk to college recruiters it isn't as important as most people think, a job is just as meaningful to them and they are missing out on real world skills that cannot be learned in the shelter of school and subsequent school sponsored activities. Meanwhile, the district I taught in was just plain poor. Those kids would have loved more opportunities to work, especially over the summer, but they didn't have a lot of choices close enough to home that made it easy to get to. I mean it would have been an hour+ round trip without traffic issues to get to SFSTL. And as a postscript I really believe most of the employees are doing their best with what they have have to work with. I mean look at all the employees that stayed despite their pay going down.

Looks fun!! I love sweets but cannot stand licorice, blecchh.

Just curious. Has there been any rumor or hint as to why Don left KI? It may be totally unrelated of course but I couldn't help but wonder if the prospect of the merger factored into the decision. The higher ups at the park must have known it was probably happening months ago. Wondering if this makes the existence of future Coaster Stocks even more unlikely.

While none of know how this is going to turn out and what changes will occur over the next few years, I do think we all make a mistake of looking at it only from an enthusiast perspective. The fact of the matter is very few of the GP are even aware that Cedar Fair exists and that it owns a chain of parks. I talk to people all the time that have no idea CedarPoint (everyone seems to know about CP) and Worlds of Fun are owned by the same company. They are aware of Six Flags of course because it uses the company name on all parks. While many of us might consider that tacky it has turned out to be very smart from a brand awareness viewpoint. I mean I have a friend who is as far away from being a theme park person as can be but she grew up in Cleveland going to CP as a kid and had no idea that the "real" owner was Cedar Fair, just saying. Also, while the enthusiast community sees lots of operational differences between not only SF and CF parks, but differences between parks within each chain; to the GP they offer a similar product. IF they eventually offer one season pass or membership for all the parks a lot of GP will see it as more for the money, even if the price increases a bit. Take my home state of Missouri for an example. If you live in a small town in the middle of the state and are roughly equal distance from SDC, WOF and SFSTL and you can get one pass that lets you go to both WOF and STL you might think it a good idea. Particularly if you are unlikely to travel much farther for theme parks.

I don't see it being a sell off either. Closest competition is 3 hours a way and most of the GP are not going to travel that more than once a year. I do see them trying to use WOF and SFSTL to gang up on SDC. Don't know if that is possible but I do think they will try to steal some business. I mean if you live anywhere in the middle of the state and have a pass that gets you into both parks. This is all total speculation of course, but waiting on pins and needles to see how it pans out.

Sorry that was brutal, but it felt good to get it off my chest because the whole thing has been bothering me for months AND I thought the story was pertinent to much of what is happening at the park right now!

OK, my 2 cents and a story about the boy that used to work at the park as a cautionary tale about lack of management, sorry this is long so read at your own discretion: First I have said before and say again that staffing is one of the biggest improvements needed; across the board, to improve a lot of what you all are complaining about. Now I 100% know that this is easier said than done and agree with whomever stated up thread that the park's location is a great hindrance to this. In addition our park is VERY seasonal and has very few full time jobs so they rely almost entirely on students, retirees, and teachers looking for brief summer work. However, they also shoot themselves in the foot. For example when they reopened after the initial Pandemic shutdown ride op pay was increased, which was nice since after all they were all being required to wear masks outside in the summer heat AND were taking a lot of extra crap from guests over all the policies. Fast forward to the 2023 season and all the ride op pay was reduced back to pre-Pandemic levels. Seriously. Essentially demote those that stuck with you through a couple years of crap? I mean I could maybe see new hires starting out at the old pay. But reduce employees that had been faithful to the park? Second they have to get a proper park President. This whole "sharing" one with the Chicago park is bull. I also think the slashing of middle management that happened a couple years ago is taking a toll. I'll give you a real world example of the effects of this. My son started working at the park as a ride op just before his 16th birthday. He was thrilled. Stayed working there through the Pandemic and all it entailed. Stuck out the summer he was mostly on kid's rides which he did not like. Kept it up through a couple years of Community College (his choice, he just wasn't into a big 4 year school), planned on staying this season even after the pay cut. Even stuck it out when he was inexplicably moved from AT/Log Flume which he really liked to Batman which he was not happy about because he knew the ride crew was not great. No one asked for this move and the leads and supers had no idea why it happened. He was a good ride op. Knew more about how the rides operated than a lot of the supervisors. Worked a majority of the rides in the park. Cleaned up his share of barf without complaining. Never called in and worked every shift he was scheduled, did day off requests way ahead of time and as prescribed by policy. Had more than one incident where he noticed restraints had not been checked by someone else or there was a problem and kept an unsafe train from going out. Etc, etc, you get the picture. Well the policy had always been 3 safeties and then a ride op lost their ride badge, essentially a 3 strikes and you are out rule. Safeties are issued anytime a ride op basically does something unsafe, like cross in front of a train without permission for example. He had never received a safety after 4 full seasons. Early this summer he gets a safety for not looking long enough at the boats on the log flume at the bottom of the first lift hill before launching a new boat. For those that are unaware if they are allowed to stack at the first hill they fill up with water and sink. Yeah. He wasn't written up for not checking, the super just didn't think he looked long enough. Ok. You do get to write out your side of the story, which he did but basically laughed it off as the super having a bad day instead of fighting it. Fine. Then after he is moved to Batman they are loading a train, he is at the panel, ALL ride ops give their thumbs up that restraints are checked and they are in the safe zone and the way is clear. He launches the train, then one of the ops moves out of the safety box and he has to e-stop the train for the ops safety. Safety issued to each member of the crew. Reports written out. Super tells him standard procedure, don't worry it won't stand, only the op that moved where they shouldn't have will get the safety. Nope. Entire crew gets safety and oh yeah we reduced it from 3 to 2 so they pull his ride badge. Now it is what it is. Shit happens and we all get screwed sometimes and have to pay our dues. Hard lesson learned, he probably could have and should have gotten the first safety reversed. And to be totally fair he knew it was his last season. At this point there are 3 weeks of daily operations left. He cannot go on rides again until next season, which he knows he won't be coming back because he will need to move on and get a real full time adult job since he is finishing up school. But they tell him they need people to do fastpass and he can do that. He says fine, he had planned on the income for those weeks and will just stick it out. Ok, fast pass will call you. Several days go by and no call. After 3 weeks, several phone calls on his part and a physical visit to human resources...............they apologize with a so sorry Person A thought Person B had called and Person B thought Person A had called and no one seemed to notice you weren't being scheduled............! Why the long tale? This caused him to lose 3 weeks of expected pay, the park to be short in two departments while an employee was available and wanting to work, an unnecessary blow to a young man's self esteem, and an abrupt end to what had been a proud employee. IF there had been better management in place all of this could have been avoided. Without a dedicated park president and a team that is beholden to him or her on a daily basis things and people are falling through the cracks. I believe better management could have provided training to get him his ride badge back (I am NOT advocating that they skimp on safety issues but clearly there should be some nuance here by a higher up that can evaluate the situation, the whole ride crew did not deserve a safety) or at least get him moved over within a day to the other department, not just "oh didn't you get called, we had no idea" Clearly no one was checking their voicemail or email or getting messages from HR. Meanwhile, he was still getting emails asking him to take shifts on Batman despite his badge being pulled and they were advertising for employees needed at fastpass. And why is fastpass a whole separate crew? Ride ops can do it instead of paying someone to just stand at the fastpass entrance and do nothing else but scan people in. He wasn't fired, he wasn't scheduled, he was in a void for 3 weeks. I could go on but you get the idea. Management seems to be a total mess right now and that has got to get fixed in order to improve all the things that make a park a great park. I have no idea if they couldn't find a qualified park pres or if they just decided to do it on the cheap; but it is not working to share. We can go back and forth with whether or not the landscaping is up to par. Something I tend to notice. If the ride lineup is good. If the special events are done well. Yada, yada, yada.......but until they properly manage the park and employees none of that will show huge improvement. I agree that RR and the new flat for next year are positive improvements but they have to get the management situation fixed. I am VERY curious to see how this plays out with the new CF merger! As well as what it means for season passes. We have kept our DE VIP memberships not so much just for our park but because we travel to multiple parks every year. Currently this is one of the more active threads, not sure if it's because we are a bitchy bunch, passionate about our park, a little of both? In the end good or bad this park holds a lot of memories for me and I really really do want to see it succeed. So moving forward and fingers crossed. And just in case anyone is wondering. Joel is fine. He did work about a month's worth of weekends dong fastpass, after they realized oh yeah we should schedule you, just because it was convenient money while job hunting during the week. He finished some school, got some IT certifications and is now working, at age 20, his first full time adult job as a field technician for a big and well established tech company.

I'm jealous enough of SFFT versus our home park of SFSTL, I mean 7 haunts......we only got 4 Really looking forward to coming down for the Christmas event in Dec.................y'all better not have a cold snap the one day we're there!!