CP HalloWeekends Hand Stamps?

I can't recall from previous years, perhaps someone can refresh my memory. Do they give out handstamps at Cedar Point on HalloWeekends? And if so, do they do it immediately at park opening for the 11am stamps, and the 2pm stamps at the normal time? Or do they have them all at 2pm?

I could swear I got a TTD handstamp at HalloWeekends last year, but I can't remember at what time.

You won't be able to get any stamps at all.

http://www.pointbuzz.com/news.htm?id=683

Oh. My. God. Excuse me for sounding like a Valley Girl but that is the most upsetting news I've heard in a long time. That seems to imply, if I am reading correctly, that they have discontinued it for this and all future seasons... if true, that is just plain miserable.

You read it right... It is kind of a bummer, but I guess the park was losing money or it wasn't working well. Idk.. But for $1000 you and a bunch of friends can jump all of the lines! lol

I cannot comprehend how the park would lose money on it. If anything, it's an incentive to go - "it's going to be a crowded day? so what? hand stamps!" - and it frees up people from lines so they can go buy increasingly overpriced food and drinks!

I just hope they replace it with a different system.

Uh-Oh, we have a revolution on our hands. More parks are following the Over Priced resevation service now. LET US UNITE AND STOP THIS RIP OFF!

Disney will be next, we must stop it before it becomes an international epidemic.

Man I hope Disney doesn't charge for FastPass, their system is the best out of all of them. That being said, maybe I better hurry up and go back there soon just incase...

Hand stamps are/were(?) FREE and you only got the FreeWay hand stamps for two different rides in one day...Why the loss in money?...What! for two rides! ??? But I can understand why they would discontinue it during the HallowWeekends, Less employees to make sure it works throughout the day. Ever get a handstamp for Millennium Force for 9-10pm? and they don't have someone posted at the merge point? You have to force your way into the merge line because those that have waited an hour+ already will not let you get ahead of them.

I believe it was either a cost or staffing issue for this season only. I would expect it to be back next year, but who knows?

As far as Cedar Point I wouldn't worry about it. Halloweekends are not crowded, at least from what I have seen in recent years.

It's the BEST time to visit the park. :-) Gotta love the autumn weather. :-P

-Tina

Sadly, this is no longer true. HalloWeekends USED to be the best time to visit the park, but that's not always the case. This past Saturday (admittedly good weather - upper 70s) was the most crowded I have ever seen Cedar Point, counting Saturdays in mid-summer. It was actually quite miserable and made me miss the handstamps even more. But last year I went on a cooler and rainy day in October and it was still more crowded than it has been in HalloWeekends past.

Puablo...Halloweekends are a good time to visit. Just go on Sundays when the park is dead. I went on 9/25/05 and managed to hit all the coasters with mulitple rides within 5 hours.

Oddly though...about the handstamps....the park still had a person sitting at the merge point so people would not cut into line. WTF...if you are going to have that person...why not continue the hand stamps?

#1 - yeah I saw that too, the employee at the merge point. And I had the same reaction. Glad I wasn't just seeing things!

#2 - I know Sunday would have been better, and I should have gone then, but my point was that I have gone on a Saturday every year for the past five years and it used to be a small crowd back then, and this past weekend (I am currently blaming the nice weather) was shockingly more crowded than I have seen even on Saturdays in July. I am disgruntled by this, but oh well. I've decided to stick with Sundays from now on.

Maybe that staffing was a fluke? If you only have the staffing for a person at the merge point some of the days, it makes more business sense to get rid of the hand stamps. However, if you have the "extra" person, it would also make sense to put them at the merge point to deter/catch line jumpers. It would be more angering to have the handstamps some days and not others, depending on staffing than to get rid of it altogether.

Another thought - was the person at the merge point there the entire day (I mean a person.. not necessarily the same employee) or only at certain times? There are certain "break zones" in an amusement park shift.. from what I've seen, generally 12-2, 3-4, and 6-8. People have to do something between those times when no one is out on break, so why not throw the extra to the merge point to deter/catch linejumpers?

3rd thought, kinda a restatement of the first but from a different angle - perhaps that just happened to be a weekend where a lot of college students decided to come back and work the weekend, and thus they had extra staffing.. they're not going to tell them "thanks for driving back from college, but we're not going to let you work."... so, extra staffing goes to the merge point to deter/catch linejumpers...

...hey, it's better than having them sit around and do nothing, right?

The Freeway position (and it is still called that) is a full time position at the rides (always staffed) and is used to "manage" the queues.

Furthermore... the park wouldn't let people work when they were not "on the clock" and they know EXACTLY how many people are going to be working the weekends. Just enough actually... hardly extra.

-Raptor Crew 05

There are a lot of variables.

I didn't mean to imply that they work while not on the clock, however they can work outside of their contract.

You should know.. every Cedar Point employee has a contract. During the year, they get money for every hour they work towards a bonus, and they get that money if they work to the end of the contract. College students obviously are not contracted to the end of October due to school requirements, so they become inactive. However, sometimes college students will come back to work over a weekend to help staffing - they are not obligated to, but they do (whether they missed their crewmembers, need the money, whatever the reason). Since they are not obligated to do so, sometimes they show up will little notice (even only a couple hours). When they do show up, they will be activated for that weekend, punch in so they're on the clock, and work.

Further, there are things called 'sicknesses' that people sometimes get. In extreme cases, some people do an action known as "calling off from work". This is not predermined early in the week.

Lastly, the volunteer groups for non-profit organizations vary greatly in how many members show up.

This makes it literally impossible to know "EXACTLY" how many people are working. It's the nature of the business - staffing levels are quite different from day to day, regardless if there are the same number of people scheduled to be in. In extreme cases, "full-time" positions that are in actuality not essential to operation will get cut. And just because it doesn't happen on your ride, doesn't mean it doesn't happen in the park.

No... anyone with a contract has a contract through their last day of work, EVER (this season). College students ARE contracted until the end of October if they plan to work that long.

If they are doing weekends all the way up to Oct. 30 then that is the last day of their contract. They don't get the bonus until that date. THEY ARE OBLIGATED TO COME if their contract says weekends. They even have specific weekends noted in their contract. Some people work them all, and some only a few. If a few, then the specific ones are noted.

Now... if they DIDN'T have weekends (like me) they finished work in August (like me), got their bonus already (like me), but if they really wanted to, they could come back and weekends (under a new contract). So it is possible to get MORE people in that respect.

Yes... call-ins happen. They shuffle people around. Not such a big deal. Especially durring weekends because most call-ins are the rare REAL illnees (working weekends is more fun when it is a break from school just for a couple days).

Finally... they know how many "Ride Prides" are going to show up. There is a list of exactly which organizations are scheduled each weekend and where they will work. This list was made back in August and unless a group just no-call/no-shows they know how many are working.

Edit: And times we have cut positions it always went crowd first and then unload 2. At that point Raptor can't be run with any fewer. I could only guess what they would do if they needed more... maybe shut down Mantis. *** Edited 10/7/2005 6:02:42 AM UTC by viper432@aol.com***

You just proved every one of my points. Especially the one about "full time" positions being dropped due to staffing issues. It's the nature of the business.

If they knew "EXACTLY" how many people would be there, why would they need/plan to drop the positions ahead of time?

As for the Ride Prides, do they have a list of how many people from each organization, or just the organizations that are going to be sending people? And what if less volunteers decide to come? Or more? People have lives and more important obligations come up.

They may know a trend of how staffing levels are going to be, but they don't know exact numbers. And those trends are why they would do things like get rid of fast lane. If you give out handstamps, then it's not an optional position. If you don't, then it's optional and serves as line control when it's staffed. As I said before, you'd anger a LOT more guests by having it some days and not others based on staffing than by getting rid of it totally. Consider the scenario - you're there for a week and due to staffing they don't have it any day you're out there, but the day after you leave a friend of yours is at CP and they have staffing for it, so he's bragging to you how he got the hand stamp. Aren't you going to be a little peeved that they didn't have it while you were out there? Or how about the people who are waiting for the hand stamp, and after waiting for like 15-30 mins they're told that due to staffing they won't be giving them out? Although it will/did anger people of getting rid of it, it would anger more people and to a stronger degree if they did it on a day-by-day basis. The other option would be to, as you suggested, shut down other rides... but isn't that something that Six Flags always gets blasted for - having half their rides closed due to staffing?

Fine... you MUST be the expert on how the park works. I certainly didn't do schedules and manage personal for Raptor.

You have to understand that the only time they need to move people around is for call-ins. And that can happen if only ONE PERSON in the entire park calls-in. Most of the rides run with just enough people. A few (like Raptor) have extra postions they can cut "just in case".

Ride Prides: I'm sure there is a chance that someone might not show up... but odds are they wont (who would pass up the chance to work at CP?) and besides they are part of a larger group who would likely be able to find someone else to sub before they ever showed up at the park.

viper, you're missing my point.

My point wasn't that I know more about it than you - my point was that the fact that a person was sitting there at the FastLane merge point doesn't mean they necessarily have enough staff to have it on a regular basis... all the rest was just examples and explanation to show people why that can be true when you see a person sitting in the chair.

As you just said, the extra positions they can cut "just in case" now most likely include the FastLane merge point position.