Jew

This thread has got me even more excited for the TPR China trip! Great updates!

Considering that the Hotel MiraCosta is $300-500 a night (and also insanely nice), I hate to think how expensive this one is going to be. But it sure does look great!

Ok, I'll rephrase it to better fit the situation: Your company has to switch suppliers at the last moment due to "unforeseen" issues. The company claims to have all the approvals/inspections and everything is good on your visit to the plant, so you just go ahead and assume everything is OK. No follow up. No communication between your company and the plant. Then 30% of a small sample gets sick. And it was caused by the vendor. Good luck convincing people it was all the vendors fault and you assume no liability.

^To put it in perspective: lets say your company was responsible for a mssive outbreak of food poisining thanks to a vendors fault. Is your company completely free of blame for not having the proper checks in place and just assuming everything is good? browntggrr: I think it is important to remember that these kids are from a completely different culture. I suspect a whistleblower gave the story to the I-team and the kids just don't know any better than to avoid being quoted by the media. Either that, or a co-worker encouraged them. I also suspect that the cultural differences was the reason they had no idea what to do besides contact the one person at the park they had already known. However, I do agree that they were probably expecting too much. That comes with being "brain washed" by only seeing America through media outlets. But even when I think of the "basics," I think of college dorm style accomodations. Crappy furniture, but furniture none-the-less. And certainly none of the other issues the article speaks about. But it's still hard for me to blame anyone but Kings Island. WISE was working on behalf of Kings Island. All theme parks have 3rd party companies working inside them selling crap (like on-ride photos, where I believe only Disney does it themselves), but you wouldn't go asking for their boss is something went wrong. You'd go to Kings Islands guest relations and Kings Island would be the ones who have to fix it. This is no different to me. Furthermore, If we run with your assumption that Kings Island signed the leases for the kids, that makes it even more disturbing they ignored the horrible conditions. Sure it's not Kings Islands fault things got that way, but it *IS* Kings Island's responsibility as the company on the lease to make sure things are in good condition and to notify management of any problems. Sure, the students probably could have gone to the apartment managers themselves, but again...the cultural difference makes that a lot easier said than done.

While I am not saying that those stats are not true, I just find it odd the guy randomly volunteered that information? He is probably bound by some sort of non disclosure agreement. Perhaps he was just messing around? Or perhaps he was giving out all the information he can without getting fired or sued? Guess we will know for sure soon enough...

^All we're trying to say is that the park does not deserve a free pass simply because it's all better now and an "unforeseen" problem arose. It's great that the students will get a few weeks to enjoy what they thought would be a whole summer of exploring Cincy, but that doesn't change the fact they got screwed over for 6 weeks in the first place. I would understand needing 6 weeks of approval if making the situation right required a huge influx of capital. But seriously, how expensive is booking a few sightseeing tours and renting a few extra vans?!? That could be put on a corporate credit card and be ready in a few days...which is essentially what sounds like happened after being called out by the media. The capital argument doesn't even address why the students couldn't get a meeting with their HR rep... Going back to the capital thing, seeing how quickly the park acted once hit with negative PR naturally begs the question of why wasn't that done right away in the first place? If Kings Island was aware of the problem all along, why is their no mention anywhere (from either Kings Island or the students) that they were working to fix the problem prior to the news story? The obvious answer is the corporate culture at Cedar Fair is screwed up. Whether it be a lack of care towards employees, or too much bureaucracy, or a combination of both...taking 6 weeks to fix this is unacceptable.

^Well, if you can assume that this was just buried in a sea of bureaucratic red tape, why can't I make an assumption about what I think the article is implying? I just want to get this straight...you're saying it's OK to breach your contractual obligation because of an unforeseen problem? And that one shuttle bus that didn't even run on their days off was the short-term best solution they could come up with until it was magically corrected overnight after making the news? Even going with your assumption that they did know, why didn't the PR guy say as much? He could have just as easily said "we have been aware of this problem and were already working to secure more charter vans/tours/etc. when this story broke. We have also filed a lawsuit against the apartment complex for misleading us..."

^^Spend 10 minutes upside down in the already uncomfortable Top Spin restraints and see how your back/neck feel...

^Taking the suggestion you gave Wes, I went ahead a re-read the article... The context of the article makes it clear the only reason the kids themselves say it wouldn't be so bad if they could get out is because they want to be away from their crappy living conditions as much as possible. That's a little more than the small problem of simply not having a ride. Speaking of the housing... You're telling me that this "unforeseen" problem was handled promptly and correctly? According to the article, the park knew from the very beginning that the students would have to live farther away than their employment agreement specified (who needs to honor the terms of a contract anyways, right?). And yet, they still only offered the one shuttle van that didn't run on their days off...Until it made the news. Then everything was magically fixed "promptly and correctly." Guess the HR representative they kept trying to contact unsuccessfully was magically able to clear up all the bureaucratic red tape you just assume it was buried under? Please. WOW - HELLO - Enron?? They probably had the same attitude as well. To borrow a quote from you..."Get off your high horse and smell the coffee."

Well, if your e-mails were typed in the same manner as this post...I wouldn't expect a reply. Please make sure to not use internet shorthand (like "yah"), and also be sure to capitalize the letter "I."

There's nothing wrong with being worried about riding an ride that previously had an accident. Because, hey, you never know...the ride could be fine, or it could be a real problem and happen again the next day.

I'm very disappointed that noone nearly died on the triangle of death. And that the evil X thing on the rope course is gone. Looks like you guys had a great time!

^I don't think anyone here who "knows how to run a business" would make a decision without knowing as many of the details as possible. Or perhaps they just don't know how to run a business. You as a business and economics student should understand just how important the right pricing strategy is. Or if you haven't taken a marketing class yet, I should say that you will learn how important pricing is and how demographics factor into pricing. Knowing where your guests are from, how long they are in the park, how often the visit, how much the spend, what coupons are they use, and so on all play a huge role in ticket prices.

^The exchange student company was working on Kings Island's behalf. It very much is Kings Island's responsibility to ensure the company is providing whatever their contract specificed. Call me crazy, but I doubt their contract specified the conditions described in the news article...Plus, just going off what the article said, Kings Island HR allegedly was not available to help the international's out. I've been in management at a theme park. I'll second the comments that it really is pathetic to let this go un-noticed for so long. "Only" 30% of such a small sample size is still too many. How you respond is very important. But that doesn't excuse it happening in the first place.

On the topic of unions...Sometime between 2001-2003 (I don't remember the year...I just remember working there when it happened), the mechanics at SFMM were finally able to unionize. But the company did everything possible to prevent it. Some of my friends who were mechanics were afraid to even talk about it over fear of being fired. Better yet, I was told that Tim Burkhart did donuts in his truck at the entrance of feedmill road to chase away the union representative trying to hand out flyers to mechanics coming to work. As far as employees go...the moral of the story is "you get what you pay for." The park has never really invested in their employees. Breakrooms, perks, incentive programs, etc. All that stuff has never mattered to SFMM. That only compounds the pay situation.

^ It's not even close. Universal and Disney are union employers. So their tenured employees get annual raises, paid sick and vacation days, dental/health benefits, a contract that makes sure people are getting breaks and lunches on time, ensures they have nice breakrooms, etc. SFMM? A quarter raise after a year and another quarter raise for making lead. I don't know if there is anything else after that. With nothing mentioned above. Ride operators at USH/Disney make more than leads and supervisors at SFMM.

Without warning? It's been well publicized that they did not have a new agreement prior to this announcement. It first popped up on Screamscape in March.

^^Thanks for your well wishes. As Chris pointed out, we already have a 4th of July topic. Please use the search feature before posting.

You mean to tell me that a Cedar Fair park doesn't care about its employees? I'm shocked. Really. I am. The slippery slope towards becoming the next Six Flags continues...

So from you're limited experience working in a ticket booth at SFMM, you are now an expert on the economy and the local theme park market? Since we are speculating...perhaps SFMM can market the $200 as a value? People can just as easily buy into the "I get SO much for $200...this would cost me $500 if I bought it all separately!" Remember, in a family of four, only one person needs to buy the most expensive pass for the whole family to get free parking and flashpass on one ride. I can tell you from my experience (if that is the criteria...) working a theme park ticket booth that is not all that uncommon either. But that doesn't make it a trend. That's for the people in the sales/marketing departments to figure out. The reality is that it is impossible for anyone on these boards to say what will or will not work at the park. We don't have the benefit of sales data, market research, admission trends, etc. I remember people complaining about disney bumping up AP prices, people complaining about the VIP tour at SF parks, and so on...

FYI - We got that credit in 2002! I didn't realize you could remember back that far with alzheimers...

^^This fair had a much better ride selection than any ghetto fair TPR hit... I wish the ghetto fairs we went to had 2 credits!

^^Give credit where credit is due...the sales/events department at Kings Dominion did a great job in landing an event that big. There's no theme park in the country that wouldn't want a special event with 30,000 people to come to their park! However, the bigger issue is that they obviously aren't going to have events attract 30,000 people every week. If only 10-15k regular guests showed up on a weekend....

Wonderful. Just what the park needs...a low capacity ride.

So that means they only pulled in 10,000-15,000 guests and had a giant special event. Good for the park...I guess.