My summer at Cedar Point with a bunch of imbeciles (long)

***Chip*** · #1 10-03-2005, 03:49 AM

Over the summer, I work at Cedar Point, one of the most famous amusement parks in the world. For the uninformed, Cedar Point is located in northern Ohio on a peninsula on Lake Erie. It is known for building record-breaking roller coasters year after year, and they claim to have the most coasters on the planet.

I worked as a sweep – one of the people you see walking around with a broom and dustpan. I cleaned up trash. It’s probably one of the easiest jobs in the park, aside from the insane amount of walking. We’re pretty much given the most freedom of any job there. We roam around the park without being under direct supervision like, say, a ride host would be. Actually, it’s a little more organized than that. The park is split up into four “zones.” There is a crew in each one of these zones. My crew was zone 2, and it was the largest zone in the park. We are supposed to stay within the confines of the zone, though we can go into other zones to retrieve trash if we see it. They’re nonrestrictive zones. Within the zones are “sections.” These are five areas within the larger zone that we are supposed to be in during 30-minute intervals in our shifts. Every 30 minutes, we move to a different section within our zone. We carry a booklet with us that has information on nearly anything a guest will ask us: ride statistics, food stands, how many trash cans there are in the park, where to get a hotel reservation, etc. Aside from cleaning up trash, we were supposed to assist guests in any way we can. We pointed them to restrooms, cleaned up their puke, told them where to file complaints and took photos of them for their albums.

In order to know where they should be every half hour, crew members are given “rove sheets.” A rove sheet is a little piece of paper with the time of day broken down in half-hour increments from 10 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Each half hour has a section written down. Their breaks are also written on the rove sheet. This is how the crew doesn’t just run around scatterbrained. This also gives the crew leaders a general idea of where their people are in case they need to find them.

I was actually the leader of this crew. My title was “Team Leader.” I was supposed to give them a tour of the zone, train them how to sweep up trash and clean up spills, and provide overall supervision. Of course, because the zone was large and these people were basically on their own, if someone had no work ethic, they could get away with not working … for a while.

Essentially, the only times I saw people on my crew were in the mornings when I assigned them morning projects (we worked before the park opened to make sure things like water fountains, benches, signs and fences were clean). I’d also see them if I was on break with them or when I was signing them in and out of their shifts. I’d round them up at the end of the night when I was told we were done, and I’d occasionally run into them as I walked around doing my job.

Some people took advantage of this nearly complete lack of supervision. This lack of supervision also provided complete and utter morons a job. And they could keep it knowing that supervision wasn’t anywhere near them.

The job is fairly easy. We walk about 20 miles a day, and your body gets conditioned to it. Your feet will hurt the first week, but they get conditioned. But despite the easiness of the job, there were people who couldn’t do it. Not so much in the sense of not being able to walk the distances; no, they quit within a week, but some people just liked to hide from me and do nothing.

Don’t get me wrong, there were some people who were excellent workers. I had a really good crew. I just had some bad eggs. This thread will detail the bad eggs and the stories I have about them, as well as other stories I have about working at The Amazement Park.

***Chip*** · #2 10-03-2005, 03:51 AM

Chip – Me. I said it above. I was the team leader of these buffoons. I tried to keep them in order. I wrote their schedules, I told them where they needed to be, I assigned projects and so on.

The ATL – My assistant (that’s what the “A” stands for). This guy was hired under our old manager (we got a new one this season). She was incredibly biased toward people from Europe, and we suspect this was the reason this moron got hired. He’s from the Czech Republic, his head is enormous, and he doesn’t know how to work at all. He would spend hours working on the rove sheet, and, in comparison, it would take me 45 minutes tops. I think he mostly did it so he could sit down and not walk around and work. I’ve got some stories about this fool.

Spelling Bee – He got this nickname from a friend of mine on my crew, Chris. He got the nickname after I got in an argument with him and he misspelled “respect.” From that moment, we really couldn’t take him seriously. He didn’t work, he broke rules constantly and he hid from me. Spelling Bee moved from crew to crew before they placed him under my watch, figuring he’d quit or get fired or I’d straighten him out. Seven weeks after being placed on my crew and seven weeks of stress for myself, he got himself fired. That’s a good story. This idiot also made up names for all of our equipment, which made it hard to understand what he was talking about.

Jen – This chick was a good worker, though she was lazy at times. She didn’t question me, and she got the job done. Her car didn’t have working windshield wipers, so driving home in the pouring rain was terrifying. She showed up late at least once every week. It was only by one to five minutes, but she was still late every week.

L – The gay guy with a temper. He would get mad at the slightest things, and I was told he broke a large push broom once. I had the day off, but apparently he couldn’t find his broom and dustpan (which were lying next to him), so he grabbed our push broom and threw it against the wall, breaking it. He hid it behind our dock box where we store our brooms and pans. He was extremely late a few times, and Cedar Point fires you after you accumulate “points” from being late. They have a system of points, and the more you’re late, the more points you get. For example, 1-15 minutes late is 1 point, 16-30 is 2 points, 31 minutes-2 hours is 3 points, more than 2 hours is 4 points, and there are points for calling off or not coming in to work and not notifying anyone. L was extremely late a few times, and he slept through an opportunity to subtract some points. Eventually, he’d get fired, but not after lying to me about it.

Chris – One of my best workers. The ATL thought Chris followed him around and hunted him down, trying desperately to catch him doing something wrong.

The Old Kid – This guy was great. He was a 41-year-old kid! He hung out with us after work, though his wife looked down on it. She didn’t like that he was hanging out with college kids who wandered around the park looking for short lines. He rode numerous rides with us, explored the peninsula and walked on the beach with me. What’s really funny is that he was so afraid of being hit on by women or being thought of as gay, he’d hilariously avoid women but proudly say something about “MY WIFE!”

The Minor – The only minor on my crew. She was 16 most of the season — her 17th birthday was in August. She was a great worker, though she went through her periods of hating her friends. Darn teenagers. She oftentimes hung out with Chris, the old kid and myself. She also had this weird obsession with wanting to clean up blood. See, if someone had a bloody nose and bled on the midway, it was our job to clean it up. The Minor eventually got her chance to clean up blood, and it is the craziest story I’ve got.

Mumbly Jo — Also an outstanding worker, and she got promoted to ATL just a few days ago after The ATL’s contract expired and he went back to the Czech Republic. The only thing is she can’t speak. Nope. She just doesn’t know how to. OK, she forms words and sentence structure with her mouth and voice, but it’s inaudible. She mumbled everything and turned her head from you as she spoke.

Liz – Aside from being a great worker, she hated the ATL because he was stupid. Her contract was over the earliest of anyone on my crew who did not get fired. She had a black belt, so she could go ninja on anyone she wanted to. Liz was hard core. She also hated Spelling Bee, which made for some hilarious times.

M – She was a dirty alcoholic. Only three years older than I, M lived in the town of Sandusky her entire life. She’d had two (ex) finances, and she was an alcoholic. She had a real job, but she worked at Cedar Point to “pay the bills.” By “pay the bills,” she actually meant “buy alcohol.” She complained about Spelling Bee a lot, but that was common with the crew. What she really hated was that he didn’t even know she existed.

Basketball Player No. 1 – This guy was on my crew for about three days. He never wanted to be a sweep, but he took the job hoping he’d move to games. He didn’t want to work, and he knew that games people mostly sat around watching people waste money. After learning that we walked a lot and that he wouldn’t get transferred to games, he quit. Chris said he mentioned having a basketball scholarship, which brings me to:

Basketball player No. 2 – This kid made it quite clear that he had a basketball scholarship. Well, he verbalized it. You wouldn’t know by seeing his work ethic. One would think a basketball player would be able to run, let alone walk. Not this guy, though. He had the absolute slowest pace I had ever seen. Think of a sloth. He didn’t pay attention, so he just wandered all around the place, and he tried to just go home one day he didn’t feel well (you’ve at least got to go to First Aid to get checked out).

***Chip*** · #3 10-03-2005, 03:51 AM

Powerbreakin’ Andy – Oh boy, this dude thought he was sneaky. And I’m sure he thought getting transferred from rides to sweeps was the best thing that ever happened to him. He was transferred to sweeps because he took extended and unauthorized breaks in rides (“powerbreaking” was the term given to those types of breaks). That’s not allowed anywhere, but in rides, you understaff the ride and keep other people from taking breaks. Like I mentioned earlier, the sweeps are largely unsupervised and run on the honor system. Andy took advantage of that, which would eventually lead to him getting fired.

Whore No. 1 – This girl was fresh out of high school. Only 18 years old, she was still used to high school drama and relationships. She ended up dating the ATL, which I had a big problem with. It was a conflict of interests, and the two of them would go off to hidden corners in our zone and talk/probably make out/not work. How do I know this? I saw them standing around doing nothing while I was on a ride.

Whore No. 2 – She started a day or two after Whore No. 1. They both talked about the number of guys they’d slept with while The Minor was in the break area. That’s against company policy, but The Minor didn’t want to file a complaint. Whore No. 2 had a boyfriend who worked in games (there was a huge row of games in our zone), and she’d stop to talk to him constantly. She wasn’t that great a worker, and she lied to me a lot, but she played a key role in getting Spelling Bee terminated.

Michal No 1. – Another guy from the Czech Republic, he was a pretty good worker. He didn’t question me, and he did what he was told. But he became friends with the ATL, who slowly brought him down to his level of worthlessness. He tried to play it off, but I caught him not working a lot, and the ATL was there to cover for him.

Michal No. 2 – He joined our crew late in the season, after another zone merged with ours. He was from the Czech Republic, and he was one of the worst workers on the crew. He did nothing but hang out with the ATL or try to hide from me. He spoke in Czech around me so I didn’t know what he was saying. He also had a big ego, and he used gum freeze – a chemical we use to freeze and scrape gum from the midways – on his feet when it was hot outside. I would catch the ATL and him talking on the midways constantly, and that was before our zones merged.

I worked from May 14 to Aug. 20, 2005, at what many call the greatest amusement park in the world. This thread will detail these people and tell my stories from this summer (and my previous two summers, if you want to hear them). Feel free to ask questions. I'll post some stories if this thread takes off.

Sir Willow · #4 10-03-2005, 10:32 AM

Should be fun to read, and looking forward to hearing more.

Do you get to keep the info booklets they give you? I know I'm keeping just about everything they give me at Rhino Rally, just for my future enjoyment in looking back. Just wondering if you did the same thing with the booklet, as that would be a neat keepsake from work.

Nice thing with grounds- you don't have to tell people they're to short to ride.

**Wes** · #5 10-03-2005, 02:06 PM

This is going to be like my neverending story thread of my day of Carowinds! lol

The first post alone was very interesting reading and gave me whole new perspective on "sweeps".

One question.. Who is expendable lad? I couldn't figure out which person you were talking about.

They should do a reality show at CP next year! That would be hillarious!

IT2 · #6 10-03-2005, 06:49 PM

Hey Bgwfreak weren't you on TPR?

10th post. yay double digits.

**Wes** · #7 10-03-2005, 10:35 PM

Yeah that's me. I have bgwfreak as my name on TPR and CarowindsConnection.com just to keep things simple and for people to know who it is.

I'm Phantom Flyer on coasterfanatics.com

Sandy W · #8 10-03-2005, 10:49 PM

That is sooo funny. What the heck with all the Czechs up there does Cedar Pt get them at a group rate or something. Those folks probably thought America a great summer vacation. As for the alcoholic I think there is one or two of those distributed evenly throughout all American amusement parks. As for the ho #1 and # 2 I think thats written into some park contract. I was once sitting there on my lunch break at PKI. Two girls were listing there conquests yes girls do that too. I was just ignoreing most of it til one said to the other we had sex in the clothes dryer. That was when I shook my head and said oh brother! I come from back in the day. We had hump back Oriental. he brought two coaster cars together and ended his rides career. Five girls from Lous who barely spoke English. We had a girl named Jenny who banged everyone at her college. Our drunk was a dude who was at least 50. 75 year old Jerry he was cool though. We had another old fellow who ran the wave swinger and always said over the loud speaker I see Peter Pan! We had Gay Boss. I will say most of the folks were friendly. For the most part we got along. Your post brought back memories. Chip keep writing its funny.

***Chip*** · #9 10-04-2005, 04:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bgwfreak

One question.. Who is expendable lad? I couldn't figure out which person you were talking about.

Ah, darn. I wrote this for a forum Chris is a member on. His name on that forum is Expendable Lad. I just didn't change every reference to it.

My first story should come tomorrow. It's a gross one!

Raptor · #10 10-05-2005, 03:33 AM

Oooh it's the blood one, isn't it!!

If it is, I witnessed part of it, it was disgusting and I didn't nearly see the worst of it.

Sandy W · #11 10-05-2005, 08:53 AM

Chip I am waiting to hear the gross story. When will you tell it. I love stories.

***Chip*** · #12 10-05-2005, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raptor

Oooh it's the blood one, isn't it!!

If it is, I witnessed part of it, it was disgusting and I didn't nearly see the worst of it.

Nope. That's my last story. That was easily the worst thing I'd ever had to clean up in my entire life.

Story:

One of our duties was to clean up vomit. We cleaned up vomit if it was on the midways, in flower planters or in restrooms if a restroom attendant wasn't there. If it's on the ride platform, rides takes care of it.

Because I was the team leader, I had a radio all the time I worked. We had radios in case there was a mess somewhere in the zone that needed attention. If someone threw up after getting off maXair, the rides people would call our department and tell them where someone threw up. My department would call me and tell me the signal for a liquid spill and the location. Most of the time you could guess what kind of spill it was by the location. If it's by maXair, it's puke. If it's by Ice Cream Parlor, it's ice cream. If it's by the midway fountain, it's an Icee. Or puke. Or poop.

My first day back on the job (this being my third season) was not really different than the other two seasons, except I was the all-out leader. The previous season I was the ATL.

I was walking around near one of the roller coasters when I heard some traffic over the radio. It was that a restroom attendant was needed at the restroom I happened to be walking by. Because it was in the men's room and the restrooms team leader is a woman, I told her over the radio that I'd take care of it. She thanked me.

I didn't think it would be bad. Someone peed on the floor. Someone pooped a little on the seat. Maybe someone threw up on the toilet. It's not too bad after you get used to it.

No. This was bad.

Someone threw up in the sink. You can't just put oil dry on it and sweep it up. You've got to go in manually. Manually, as in put gloves on, get paper towels and scoop it into a trash can. Oh gosh, the smell. I can still smell it.

I scooped it out of the sink and into the trash can. It was still warm, and the smell was starting to overpower me. I didn't want to fill a sink of my own, so I started spraying chemicals around the place. Disinfectant deodorant, sink cleaner, nuetralizer. Anything to replace the smell of stomach contents.

Eventually I cleaned it up. It's hard to keep a straight face while you're moving vomit out of a sink with your hands.

Sandy W · #13 10-05-2005, 11:35 PM

I only managed in rides to have to clean it up once or twice. I had to do it for a young girl who was freaking out at her ride. those were easy just the speedy dry and the old broom. people can be animals. Once a few of us were talking to our superviser. he said he had just come from doing a poopy job. We said what did you do. he did not want to say at first. This was at then Riverside. A guest had taken a poop half way up the stairs of the Black widow shuttle loops platform. That was the grossest thing I had heard of.

Sandy W · #14 10-05-2005, 11:47 PM

I always thought sweeps was a laid back job. I don't think I could take it having to clean up barf a few times a day. Once every couple of months was enough for me. The funniest one though was this dude is waiting in line for the sky ride. Along it comes. The operator opens the door. the waiting guest leans in and barfs into the cage. The operator just slams it shut and sends it along. Special delivery anyone? I'd like to have seen their face on the other end.

Marc · #15 10-06-2005, 09:47 AM

One day in 2004 I was using the bathroom by Wildcat. Chip seen me as I was leaving and said "look at this." He showed me what he had to clean up. A toilet with crap all over.

I actually worked with Andy for a week at Power Tower. One of the last things he asked me then was "You've worked here for 2 years and your not a blue tag." The next time I seen him, he was a sweep. I had been promoted before that point.

My favorite prank at Sky Ride is to put water on the roof. (it's concaved a bit at spots) The person who catches it wil get splashed with some water.

On MF, I was playing a prank on My TL who was in controls. I would let go of the dispatch button as she pressed it and repress immediatly after. She called me up to complain. At the time everyone at the ride but me were either girls, gay, or me. So I answered by saying INTAMIN. She said "what?" Then I went on "I'm the only one at the ride who isn't "In-ta-Men"

Some other pranks involve guests. Such as writing a note to another ride ask a guest who is going to ride it anyways to deliver it. Another is to ask the guests to say happy birthday to the person at unload.