What Is Up With CF Food Service?

As I think I mentioned to Jeff yesterday, I mentioned to Mr. Kinzel how prices are lower at Disney. I also mentioned it to the park's GM (I don't know how to spell his name, so I won't try to type it this time).

-Sam

This is my first and may well be my last post on coasterbuzz. So here we go. I am going to stand up and say BS. I work at KI and I work in Food at KI. So we don't have any straw in the park they might at a few remount stands, but for the most part there they are not to be found. I really don't care about the d@#n straw.
That is not why I'm coming on here, I'm coming on here to stand up for me and my fellow workers. HOW DARE U LOOP US ALL IN TOGETHER, that is mean and uncalled for.
Ya so there are some lazy kids out there we are not all that way. I feel that even if I don't like all that CF has done they are way the @#$% better than Paramount EVER WAS. I mean CF makes us were safety shoes, and Paramount never made us do that.
We are short staffed for the most part, so we do have to work twice as hard and even harder when were understaffed and in a Labor hours freeze like we are right now so CF can save a few cents. Now that f'in BS right there, that is one of the only things I find wrong with CF, is they know we don't have workers but they cut are hours, I don't like that one bit.
I'm sorry that you didn't have a good time, but you have to understand that it's the stands fault we all get the same base training what happens after that is up to the stand.
I'm sorry this seems so mean and hateful I'm not like that most of the time but I have to stand up and say something because this is my home away from home, away from home. I'm in college right now,so I'm away from home, so get it. Well I'm home on Weekends to work at KI.
This is my 2nd season back, when I was in high school I worked there too and it is so much better now than it ever was back then. peace! *** Edited 5/12/2008 9:40:28 PM UTC by chewylovestorideithard***

^Was this an attempt at English?

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chewylovestorideithard said:
This is my first any may well be my last post on coasterbuzz.

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Not sure that's a bad thing.

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So here we go. I am going to stand up and say BS. I work at KI and I work in Food at KI. So we don't have any straw in the park they might at a few remount stands, bit for the most part there ain't to be found.

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You're right. I'm lying. I have nothing better to do but lie time and time again about crappy food service at CF parks. I've continued the charade for almost a year now and you finally figured me out. Congrats.

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HOW DARE U LOOP US ALL IN TOGETHER...etc

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Because, in general, as a whole the food service at CF parks sucks. Sorry that you're part of that team. Don't get mad at me, get mad at your co-workers for dragging you down.

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I'm sorry this seems so mean and hateful...

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...and unreadable?

Me too.

I think it's understood that there are individuals in the system doing a good job. If you're one of them, then kudos to you and thanks for trying. Now if we could just make your kind the majority, we'd be on to something. Until then CF food service needs help.

Although I highly doubt that the food service at CF is anything to write home about, I don't find the practices seen on this visit very uncommon in the food industry. Any restaurant that you go to will be doing the same bare handed tricks to your straws and cherries. Try it out, go to your local restaurant that has a bar. Order a drink with a cherry, perhaps even a shake like at your KI visit. Watch the bartender make the drink. I'm willing to bet they pick your cherry out bare handed, and throw a straw in bare handed.

Although it may seem to the naked eye that this is a sanitary issue, it isn't seen as such in the restaurant business. This is normal practice really. The idea is that the employees will be washing their hands for 20 seconds (the time it takes to sing happy birthday twice) every 20 minutes. Hand washing may be more frequent if there is handling of items such as dirty dishes. So you may have seen what seemed unsanitary, but the hand washing could have been in full force without your knowing.

Like I said this is a very common practices within the food industry, but again I doubt that CFs food service is great.

I wonder what college you attend.

My apologies for sounding mean, but if you get accepted to a college, you should be able to understand basic grammar and know how to use a spell checker. Hopefully you just lack online etiquette and in reality have a better grasp of the English language than you have shown.

I use the built in spell-check when posting (Safari and Firefox have them), and try to make sense with my posts. My English isn't perfect, but I try to write things that people will understand. It doesn't take long to re-read your post before submitting it, to check for errors.

Again, my apologies for sounding mean.

Back on topic,

I think a former Geauga Lake foods manager now at the Point commented to me about being short staffed when I talked to him on opening day.

At Cedar Point, food is a major problem, and I doubt it will be resolved any time soon. The prices are pathetic and the quality at many stands is sub-par. Unfortunately, I think there are enough people that are willing to overpay for crap for Cedar Fair to ignore our concerns.

-Sam

And that's the part I just don't get.

Why do people persist in paying horrible prices for CRAP? There are exceptions to the high price/low quality rule even at the Cedar Fair parks, and even if you're stuck in the park all day, most of the food items are optional. Starting with the $3.59 fountain drinks. I know I didn't buy any of those on opening day, or for that matter on any day last season.

It's bad enough that the park doesn't seem to understand that if they could move more people through the food stand in an hour, they would make more sales, and more sales would equate to more money. But I begin to think they aren't going to take any steps at all to evaluate either the service or the value so long as people are willing to spend their money for the crap that is being served. So let's hit the park where it counts: if the service and product is lousy, DON'T BUY IT.

One other point: The food at Cedar Fair parks isn't all bad. But on the whole, it isn't spectacular, either. A good $2 hamburger is a good $2 hamburger. Part of the problem is that a good $2 hamburger is also a LOUSY $8 hamburger. And when the park tries to sell that $2 hamburger for $10, it is going to seem even worse. And yet, if you were to pay $2 for it, you'd think it pretty darned good. That's what value is all about, folks!

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

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IntaminHater said:
Like I said this is a very common practices within the food industry, but again I doubt that CFs food service is great.

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Jeff mentioned the same thing when we talked about this on the upcoming podcast. So I decided to take a quick look at the Ohio laws and found this:

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(1) Food employees shall wash their hands as specified under paragraph (B) of rule 3717-1-02.2 of the Administrative Code.

(2) Except when washing fruits and vegetables as specified under paragraph (G) of this rule or as specified in paragraph (A)(3) of this rule, food employees may not contact exposed, ready-to-eat food with their bare hands and shall use suitable utensils such as deli tissue, spatulas, tongs, single-use gloves, or dispensing equipment.

(3) Food employees not serving a highly susceptible population, may contact exposed, ready-to-eat food with their bare hands provided the retail food establishment or food service operation has received prior approval from their licensor.

(4) Food employees shall minimize bare hand and arm contact with exposed food that is not in a ready-to-eat form.

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So while I guess it is technically OK to bare-hand the food with permission, the law does state that employees may not contact exposed, ready-to-eat food with bare hands and shall minimize contact with not-ready-to-eat foods.

I dunno. I'm not sure how many people would be cool with food being bare-handed regardless of the law. It is very possible that a person's bare hands are cleaner than the gloves. It just feels less than right to get all touchy-feely with the food.

The bad service makes the high price tag sting even more.

RideMan: People continue pay high prices for crap because that's their only option. The average park patron is not going to have the forethought to do as previously mentioned here. (eat before entering, bring cooler, eat after leaving) It’s not unreasonable to think that a family of 4 would be able to get in line for some food, pay a slightly inflated “park” price for it, wait less than 20 minutes in line and get away for less than $10 per head. Apparently this isn’t the case anymore at CF.

Keep in mind, a family that has already allocated a full day to KI will not even consider packing up like the Joads, exiting the park, eating at decent chain casual restaurant, then returning to the park. That just isn’t on their radar. Sure it can be done, but it’s unlikely. By the time they realize that their in-park experience with lunch is a farce, it’s too late. You’ve already wasted 40 minutes, the kids are screaming and if they served you melted gum on cardboard... you’d eat it, because you have already invested too much time, $$$ and frustration to go back now.

I’m not making excuses for CF, not by a longshot. But that’s why people pay high prices for crap.

And it's also precisely the reason they may not come back.

As stated before, the per cap chickens are coming home to roost.

I only feel like the prices at CF are too high when judged in comparison to the quality of the food (with park-specific locations) or when judged against the equivalent choice outside the park (like Jeff's Subway example).

Admittedly, they're about as high as even I would say to go, but until the percaps actually drop (or maybe attendance significantly drops), there's not going to be a change.

I'd still rather see the revenue made at the gate. Make that $43 gate at CP $50 and then knock a buck off of most food items inside the park. The only catch is that people might just bitch about the price to get in and not come in the first place.

I do think that in general people expect too much for too little. But that's not to say CF food pricing isn't a tad askew.

Soggy does have a point.

But if a family is concerned about cost, they should know that a park will charge considerably higher prices. Either accept it, or take the time to make your own meals, which will be cheaper, and taste MUCH better.

And many theme parks in North America seem to be surrounded by commercial development these days. If you have a parking pass, it might be worth the time to leave the park, eat, and come back. My home park of Wonderland has so many food options within a short walk of the park, that it's not worthwhile to eat in the park.
Yeah, I understand it may be tough with kids, but once again, if prices, and food quality are a concern, then the inconvenience may be worth it.

And I would not pay for $3.59 for sugar water. Hell, I won't even pay 50 cents for sugar water. Drinking pop is such a waste.

Yeah, there are plenty of places nearby, often walking distance form the gate, and I/we have started utalizing places like that when park food is sup-bar.

The thing is, there used to be a time where in-park food was as good or better than out of park food. It was a big part of the in-park experience. I know that when I'd go to the Orange County Fair, (CA) the endless rows of junk food was my biggest reason for going. Also, when I go to a baseball game, I'll gladly pay more for a really good hotdog than it's worth, because its all part of going to the game. If they were simply serving cold, plain-wrap dogs on stale, plain-wrap buns and charging $5 for it, I'd be pretty upset.

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Soggy said:
I know that when I'd go to the Orange County Fair, (CA) the endless rows of junk food was my biggest reason for going.

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My other hobby. I regularly drive 2, 3, 4 hours to towns with an agenda full of restaurants, diners, street vendors, carts, trucks, and anywhere else I can get tasty or unusual food.

Which in turn makes it even more depressing that at most parks I can't even find anything I remotely want to eat. It's not even the prices at this point (well, ok, it is the prices) but there's literally just very few places that serve food that looks appealing to me at all.

I've just begrudgingly agreed to step foot in SFGAdv within the next couple of months and we've already agreed that we're leaving in the middle of the day to find something, ANYTHING to eat other than park food. I just don't get the disparity. So many parks have pretty good food at not-outlandish prices.

The fruit and fresh veggies everywhere at Disneyland was probably the single smartest food offering I've ever seen at a park and probably deserves it's own thread.

It's not really CF who is responsible for that. Its the General Managers that run each parks job to make sure all employees give good customer service. Not only that CF only cares about Cedar Point anyways.

FURST POSTE!!!11!!!

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Soggy said:
The thing is, there used to be a time where in-park food was as good or better than out of park food.

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You are so right about that. The worst thing about this is that the franchised stuff in particular has been an excuse to print money, so I suspect we'll only see more of them. That's sad, but it's a reflection of public taste more than anything.

Fortunately, Orlando and Busch parks are holding out, as are many of the independents.

What makes it even more sad is that, in general, the franchised places in Cedar Point (Famous Dave's, Chik-fil-A, etc.) offer better food, and arguably even a better value, than most of the CP-owned-and-operated venues.

I wouldn't go as far as calling Chik-fil-A "food."