Big new attraction for Mt. Olympus in 2012

[CoasterBGW]

Just got back from the park and no markings or stakes of note. I'll post a full trip report tomorrow, but a pretty successful night.

3 rides on Hades
4 rides on Zeus
12 rides on Cyclops

[Muck Finnesota]

Any rumblings of an announcement? It would be pretty cool and unexpected if this turned out to be a coaster of some sort.

[Coaster Justin]

I've heard the park is having a Bad Year.


GOOD!!!1
All they added this year was a Beach. No Joke.

[Cole]

^A very bad year. Attendance is at record low.

[boilermaker4life]

It's at a record low? I hear it was at a record high.

[tp41190]

Either way...I think the park should finally realize that you can't make money off of a park where you don't add anything but upcharge attractions to replace what once where free rides. Also, I hope people start realizing that they shouldn't have to wait in unnecessary, 1 train, coaster lines.

Personally I think the only reason why that park has been so successful is because of the economy. Instead of people going on far away, week long vacations, they have been going to places like the Dells and SFGAm for the weekend or for a few days because it's close and it's a lot cheaper.

[Coastermonkey61]

It was successful to start because it was the first legitimate amusement park in the Dells. Riverview Park is a glorified carnival, Mt. Olympus was the first destination park in the city that had more than waterslides. In fact, it took over one of the big waterparks (Family Land) to make it moreso. It was a great idea at the time for a city that truly needed something like this. Problem is they've mismanaged it to death.

[FParker185]

I think the best start for Mt. O would be to stop importing Eastern Europeans with piss poor customer relation skills and hire some American workers. Last I heard there are more than enough American Citizens looking for work and would gladly take any job and probably do a whole lot better than the utter human garbage Mt O consistently dredges up and calls employees. Though I guess that starts at the top with management.

On the plus side, saves me gas in never having to go up there

[monsterfan99]

^Agreed 100%. The rides may sucked but the employees made it a hell hole. When the first aid person has no clue what to do with a bleeding toe and then touches said toe without gloves of any type that says something.

I'm very glad to hear they are having problems and not surprised at all. The fact last year they had to give away tickets to every hotel guest at around 20 hotels said a lot. We got 2 days of tickets for 2 for free with our one night, $37.99 hotel. No matter how people spin that, that is 100% desperation that no successful park would do. Hopefully they sell or close down and move on from there.

[UWW-10]

And that's the kicker with the tourism industry. People that actually call Wisconsin Dells and Lake Delton their home are glad that the tourist money comes in to support the area, but I'd like to think that the majority of them want little or nothing to do with having to be in that environment any longer than they have to....especially for employment purposes. It would probably be similar to Orlando; not everyone that lives in the vicinity wants anything to do with Disney, Universal, or Sea World but still know it brings in money to support the area locals. These people know the times of the year/season to visit and stay away when the crowds venture in.

That being said, the jobs are plenty but I'm not sure how willing the local people are to work in that environment no matter how desperate they are for employment.

[Falcon]

They just need to modify all of there coasters to run more than 1 train. If they also retracked a few of them in the process and made some of the upcharge rides free that would make the park a hell of a lot more enjoyable.

[Coaster Justin]

I Don't think Mt. Olympus has heard of the word "Enjoyment" to be honest.

[BLADE]

Noah's Ark uses these same Eastern European imports, but they do a heck of a lot better in providing a pleasant day to the guests. It left me with a desire to return someday. I don't get that same feeling at Mt.O. I think most of their problems come from the very top of management. Hopefully the owners of Noahs can take over Mt. O someday.

[monsterfan99]

t would probably be similar to Orlando; not everyone that lives in the vicinity wants anything to do with Disney, Universal, or Sea World but still know it brings in money to support the area locals. These people know the times of the year/season to visit and stay away when the crowds venture in.

That being said, the jobs are plenty but I'm not sure how willing the local people are to work in that environment no matter how desperate they are for employment.

Minus the last part, it's dead on for Orlando. The people we have meet since we move down last year never go or never have gone to the theme parks. The airport to WDW is hell and makes me hate living down here when you need to go to the store. After a year here, we also call the entire summer and holidays the "off-season" as a local for all the theme parks. I as I told my friend today at EPCOT, we finally got our parks back from the tourist.

Locals down here are mostly stuck to tourism industry for the most part. It seems like at some point, everyone we know worked at a park as their summer job or post high school. I'd have to imagine the Dells is much the same. You either leave or do the best you can as a local.

[w00dland]

I think the best start for Mt. O would be to stop importing Eastern Europeans with piss poor customer relation skills and hire some American workers. Last I heard there are more than enough American Citizens looking for work and would gladly take any job and probably do a whole lot better than the utter human garbage Mt O consistently dredges up and calls employees. Though I guess that starts at the top with management.

On the plus side, saves me gas in never having to go up there

Good luck finding your American employees. The Dells may be crowded from Memorial Day - Labor Day, but after that it shuts down. Infact, the city only has a population just over 2,000. Couple that with the fact that its in the middle of nowhere and its no wonder these parks have to look elsewhere for employment, they could never come remotely close to hiring that many people.

The people that actually live in the Dells and work go for the year round, steady attractions/restaurants (think Kalahari) where they will actually have a job 365 days a year, not just 90.

But also, just because they are from another country doesn't mean they have to suck at customer service. Every country knows how to smile, that problem comes from management.

[tp41190]

I think Mt Olympus could have potential for getting summer employees if they were to have employee housing available to everyone, much like Cedar Point. I know Cedar Point has about half internationals but the reason people work there is because they have a place to work and live for the summer in between there school semesters. It's very popular for MSU and OSU students. I think if it were to build up a reputation of a fun work place they could pull tons of surrounding college students to work and live there for the summer.

That actually sounds like a lot of fun.

[dellsguy]

OK, I have been watching this forum for a while now and I must say some of you people on here are a real joke. Where do you guys even get your information at?

I've heard the park is having a Bad Year.


GOOD!!!1
All they added this year was a Beach. No Joke.

Mt. O is having a great year this year, and the beach was added last year. The reason that they didn't add anything this year was because the owners of the park opened a nightclub thats called WETT. So before you guys go and throw out facts you should probably double check your sources.

[Chitown]

^It doesn't change the fact the park is run like crap!!!!!!

[dellsguy]

^if you read my post I never said that the park wasn't crap. anyone in their right mind could tell that this park is being run into the ground. but for people to say that the park has had record low attendance, and is doing really bad is complete BS! The owners of that park are pulling in lots and lots of money, whether or not they are putting that money back into the park is a whole other story. so in that matter I still stand by my earlier statement that people should double check their sources before they go and run their mouth on this forum.

[FParker185]

Madison is a big enough college town where they should be able to draw a sufficient number of employees. I'm not saying internationals are bad, but it seems like they make it a point to find the absolute worst ones.

[monsterfan99]

^It seems more like they hire on the attractiveness of the females more than anything. The fact they suck at customer service is secondary.

[dellsguy]

When companys like Mt.O hire people from other countries they rarely ever even talk to the people that they hire for the season until they get here from their country. So really it's not 100% the parks fault. and honestly without the international students the dells would not be able to run, just because Madison is a huge college town does not mean that all of the kids that go to that school even live close enough to the dells to work there.

[sfga2008]

When companys like Mt.O hire people from other countries they rarely ever even talk to the people that they hire for the season until they get here from their country. So really it's not 100% the parks fault. and honestly without the international students the dells would not be able to run, just because Madison is a huge college town does not mean that all of the kids that go to that school even live close enough to the dells to work there.

Um, Mount Olympus either hires them directly or uses a third party to do the hiring for them. If they hire directly its their own responsibility to choose good employees. If they are using a third party service, they're are plenty out there they can switch if the company is providing poor quality employees. Regardless, The most important factor is that the management team needs to train properly and follow up on that training. The tourism industry brings in thousands of employees from overseas and have good results, its 100% Mt. Olympus' fault that their staff sucks.

[dellsguy]

Um, Mount Olympus either hires them directly or uses a third party to do the hiring for them. If they hire directly its their own responsibility to choose good employees. If they are using a third party service, they're are plenty out there they can switch if the company is providing poor quality employees. Regardless, The most important factor is that the management team needs to train properly and follow up on that training. The tourism industry brings in thousands of employees from overseas and have good results, its 100% Mt. Olympus' fault that their staff sucks.

So what your trying to tell me is you hire J-1 students on a Quarterly basis and know exactly how it works right? Because by you post I can see that you have never dealt with hiring J-1 students or the third party that you hire them from in your life. You can only train someone so much, and you can't fire everyone or you have no one to work for you. belive me when I say that the students that those are the good J-1 employees. the other ones are usually doing behind the scenes work such as housekeeping. oh yeah and by the way this also goes for americans too. I go to that park on a weekly basis and I can tell you that the americans are meaner than the students.

[BP317]

When companys like Mt.O hire people from other countries they rarely ever even talk to the people that they hire for the season until they get here from their country. So really it's not 100% the parks fault.

The management of the park should be making sure their employees are not terrible, and they are, so the parks management is obviously not very good. Do they not do interviews and clearly spell out the expectations of their job? That's what all other theme parks do when they hire overseas I don't see why it would be any different for Mt Olympus.

Bottom line is Mt Olympus doesn't care about their customers at all and probably doesn't care about their employees either. Never have, probably never will unless there's an ownership change, so no point in arguing over it.