Cedar Point's Winter Chill Out expands to 2 days and switches tickets to lottery

bigboy:

didn't you work at a park (or parks) at some point?

Yes. I didn't even think about that. I've already been in Cedar Point's backstage areas when it was closed to the public. Good observation.

When I went I froze my ass off for what I referred to as the “behind the bushes tour”. If you think about it, there’s not much to see behind the scenes that you can’t see from the midway on a nice summer’s day. We went behind fences, walked under roller coasters, and risked icy stairs to get to the Maverick infield. Stood on the RR tracks and looked at a boarded up Boneville. Mkay… gotta go. But as Kevin says enthusiasts and fans will do anything, anytime to get close to what they love.
And to be fair, the thing has changed a lot since I went with tours of places one can’t always see, like the maintenance shop, and that at least sounds more appealing.
Still, I won’t prevent anyone from attending with my entry into the lottery.

To be fair, it does seem like they attempt to change it up every year so there is something interesting to check out. I’m going to attempt a ticket this year, but will likely skip another two years before going again.

Still, I remember being really satisfied. I think we arrived around 10am and we didn’t finish everything until it was pretty dark outside. Between the activities and the shear size of the park, I never got bored.

I thoroughly enjoyed my Winter Chill Outs. In fact I remember thinking and saying to people that I actually had a better and more enjoyable experience than I often do during a regular operating day at the park.

I think this is a wonderful thing to do, if I lived closer. However the idea of driving 8 hours east down 90 in the winter is just not very appealing to me and a huge gamble on the weather. I much rather fly to open parks down south instead.

I concur. Winters are bad enough in Illinois that if I want to get away I'm going somewhere warm. Cedar Point is the only regional park that I would consider attending an off season event. Plus the proceeds go to charity, so that is a nice bonus.

Having worked at Disney, I had plenty of chances to see and do some cool backstage things. What I appreciate so much about Winter Chill Out is being able to do it at the park I grew up with. It's not something I would have an interest in unless it's a park I have a sentimental history with. I think you have a lot of that and quite a few bored locals that are passholders and just desperately want something to do to fill a Saturday in February, not to mention the fact that it's genuinely a fun experience with a 'free' hot lunch, and you have a winner of an event.

In the meantime, the annual xmas video was released earlier today. Nice shots of the new coaster.

I know it's advertising, but that video makes me wonder what it's like to work at a place where people are friendly and enthusiastic about their jobs.

If you don't have that at your job, there has never been a better time to bail and find it elsewhere.

Trust me, I'm working on it.

Meh, the idea that you have to like your job and/or make it an essential part of your identity is another American myth. Like if you don't have that, you're doing it wrong.

There's no question, it's a luxury to be able to worry about whether one's work is meaningful or rewarding or enjoyable. Many, many people obviously aren't thinking in those terms. And, meaning can come from simply providing for oneself and one's family, or enabling hobbies like cruises and amusement parks. I get it.

But, ceteris paribus, meaningful/rewarding/enjoyable > not. And it's a reasonable choice to sacrifice money or other benefits for those things.

(And, it goes without saying, all of this > RRR.)

A direct flight from Dublin to Cleveland is starting this summer. If it goes year round it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that I'll use it to do next year's Winter Chill Out.

Behind the scenes stuff is cool, though I suspect my all time favourite will be when the train on Rutschebanen was parked on the first turnaround (at height) and all of us got out for a group photo on the maintenance walkaway :)

Jeff:

Meh, the idea that you have to like your job and/or make it an essential part of your identity is another American myth.

I never said you had to actively like/love your job or make it your identity. I just said if your job doesn't even afford you friendly co workers that it's a good time to bail.

If I did not like the other people in my department I would certainly not be teaching where I am. Weirdly, at least half of the departments on our campus are characterized by in-fighting, grudges, etc...and those folks are just miserable to be around.

I don't know about not needing to like your job. All of our jobs are different, but you're going to spend about 90,000 hours of your life doing it. It seems like enjoying it would be kind of important.

Unless you don't care about not enjoying 90,000 hours of your life. Personal choice?

And I would argue that really, really liking the people you work with can be enough to make a job where the actual "work" sucks enjoyable. One of my favorite jobs I ever had was working at the Regal Cinemas in my hometown through high school and partly through college. The pay was just above whatever minimum wage was back then, and the actual duties of the job weren't fun, meaningful, or a part of my identity, but I absolutely loved the people I worked with; so much that I actually looked forward to going to work because we spent 90% of our time laughing.

RIP Regal Cinemas, Defiance Ohio; another victim of Covid.

I think there is probably some room between: "I work with people who generally like to be there, and that makes going to work more pleasant" and "My work is my life's calling and defines me."

The former sounds like a reasonable thing to shoot for. The latter was my modus operandi for a good long while, but I've since decided I don't need to (or want to) live like that.

Yea, and I think Academia breeds that to a pretty weird (gross) degree.

I spend as little time working (and at work) as humanly possible, even though I do love the job.

I got "questioned by colleagues" (not in my department, ha!) last Spring for not showing up at graduation (which is technically required) because my daughter was running the middle school state track meet 3 hours away.

I don't get not getting that.

Brian captures where I'm at. There is a spectrum between "I work because I have to" and "OMG work is life." The latter becomes problematic when you get laid off, fired, have a terrible economy, etc.

I will remember various people, but I'll never remember the work I did in most cases.

OhioStater:

Yea, and I think Academia breeds that to a pretty weird (gross) degree.

I wonder if this is a cart/horse thing in that it doesn't breed it so much as it attracts people who use work as a/the preferred means of external validation, and are successful at piling up that validation. There are a number of things I'd classify as personal liabilities that academia is all too happy to reward. If you happen to have those liabilities (I did and do) then taking an academic job makes them features, not bugs.

For example, many of us are our own worst critics, to the point of being unable to celebrate victories and can focus only on the not-yet-done. We understand we are evaluated by reputation, so we are excellent at projecting an air of confidence and competence when we do not feel that way. Finally, due to a mix of stubborn tenacity and fragile egos, we are not particularly good at asking for help.

That stuff turns out to be pretty good Professor Fuel--at least, as long as it works. It's a pretty dangerous mix if you happen to hit a roadblock in your career. It doesn't even have to be a roadblock, it could just be running out the string. My life took a hard left turn right around my promotion to Full. At that point, there's nothing really much left to shoot for, and I was only in my mid-40s. That's a long time to stare down "there's nothing left to accomplish," when "accomplishing stuff" is the way you (think you) have value.

It took me a couple of trips through the Twelve Steps plus a metric ton of analysis for me to get to the point where I decided maybe this was a bad idea.