This story has been unfolding in the Lansing State Journal for the past month. The installments are Part 1 , Part 2 , and Part 3 .
In a nutshell, this woman (and there must be hundreds like her), had the misfortune of visiting Cedar Point on the day of the big blackout. They happened to rent a hotel room also owned by the park, so when the park went down, they went to the hotel. Not being able to enter their rooms, they hung out in the lobby to wait for either the power to come back or be told to leave. The hotel manager tells them to go ahead and leave and that they will get a full refund. So they leave and as you might guess, the corporate bean-counters decide that the customer’s money is much better off left in the Cedar Point bank.
Come on, Cedar Point. Do the right thing. Maybe your lawyers have you convinced that you can keep the customers’ money for rooms that you could not deliver. But the negative word of mouth and publicity that you’re getting is probably costing you more in future sales than what you would lose by doing the right thing.
I thought this was going to be about the new roller coaster they have that goes 120 mph. If that was the case, I was going to leave work immediately and drive my ass to Sandusky.
A ride that goes so fast you blackout?!? Where’s the line?!
I was there this summer for 5 days. For 4 of those days the Top Fuel Dragster was broken. On the 5th day it opened around noon and the line was 4+ hours.
If you’ve seen pictures, you know it goes straight up 400 feet, then curves straight down. Problem was the cars weren’t getting over the “hump,” and were coming back down the “up” side. When they finally got it going, they didn’t put anyone in the last car so all of the weight was in front.
My daughter and I spent the time we would have waited for this riding in the front car of the Millennium Force. The 300’ vertical drop was worth it.
I went on Top thrill dragster two weeks ago, and literally lost my voice. Before you have time to scream “get me off this nightmare”, the ride is over. It made every single other ride (including Millenium Force) in that park seem like a broken tilt-a-whirl. I reccomend it to everyone.
I’m not a lawyer, but . . . it seems to me that whether he “exceeded his authority” or not, the hotel manager was acting on behalf of Cedar Point, and it is unlikely their denial of a refund would ever hold up if it came up in a court of law. Most people are not in the habit of quizzing everyone they deal with whether that person has the “authority” for every decision they make. Particularly when the decision is made to charge for a service the company was unable to deliver.
I often black out a little from riding coasters at Cedar Point. Especially later in the day, and on rides with higher g-forces like the Raptor. Not unconscious black-out, just temporary loss of vision. Makes it more exciting, I say.
I’ve been on Millenium Force but not the Dragster yet. Gotta get there next year.
I know that Cedar Point makes a point of saying you don’t get your money back if rides are down or because of bad weather, but I agree they should refund in this case for the hotel rooms. Especially since they told the people they could leave and get their money back.
I was there last weekend, but didn’t make it on the Dragster because of long lines, a few mechanical problems, having 2 kids with me, and extreme cowardice…Actually it was the lines.
Man, that thing is something to watch. 120 mph in like 2 seconds. We saw about 5 rollbacks where it didn’t quite make it over and the people had to be shot up again (one car was fired 3 times before making it). One teetered on the top for a few seconds before sending the riders 400 ft backwards! It’s neat because the whole park can see it and lets out a little cheer.
Hey 5-HT, check out some of their hallo-weekend packages. They have some pretty good deals for a Friday/Saturday night excursion (hotel for both nights, tickets, parking & early entrance for like $200).
This is the part that gets me. It’s like a resturant charging you for a steak that’s locked in the freezer. Ahhh, you see mon ame, zee steak, it is yours, you jus cannot haave it.
As a former employee of Cedar Point (Games Hostess – I was the chick that heckled you as you passed by my game), I am not surprised in the least that they did this. Let me tell you about how they treat their employees…
95% of the CP employees are college students (will work for beer). When hired, we signed a contract that stated the dates we were available to work. In my case, let’s say that was June 10 through September 4. We were paid just about minimum wage – about $3.50/hour at the time (this was at least 10 years ago, I am sorry to admit). You also received a bonus of $0.40 per hour for every hour worked – at the end of the summer IF you completed your contract. If you got sick, injured, fired or quit before the end date on your contract – no bonus, too bad, so sad. I saw a lot of people have to give up their jobs for whatever reasons… and after working 10-14 hour days all summer, lost several hundred dollars. I’m not saying that wasn’t fair, I just thought that if you quit before your contract term was up, the bonus should be pro-rated or something. Many people got fired the day before the contract was up – CP is about cheap, my friends. I also thought that if you had to leave due to reasons beyond your control, then you should get the bonus at least for the hours you worked. But it wasn’t regular pay, so it’s totally legal and you sign something agreeing to it before you even start.
Which is not to say I wouldn’t jump on a plane this afternoon to check out that fabulous new coaster… Wouldn’t slow me down one iota. But then again, I worked out my full contract and got my bonus. And I would do it again. That was a really fun job…