2008 Watch

Or... you rebuild Pirate ride.

:)

Arrrr....I be missin the Pirate Ride about now me mateys.

Y'arrr.

Kevin, there's a problem with moving it into MS's infield, being that the queue there is actually used on busy days. I know its hard to believe, but it does reach an hour or more on many Saturdays, and especially during Halloweekends.

I saw the queue completely full last fall, during halloweekends.

I know...I was being sarcastic.

It is hard to believe, but if i were a first time guest, I would definitely be in line no matter what anyone said.

So will the Demon Drop be coming down after this year, and will it go to Las Vegas or to another Park?

Las Vegas, hmm. That's a new one.

DT themeing could be easily fixed. But how often does CP get good themeing and hold true to it? Remember TTD its first few years? Those trains looked sweet, and now there just fun. With DT, it would be best to have static items and few lights. IMO its more fun in the dark, and they dont need to be kept as pretty. Ditch the glow-in-the-dark paint. I understand its used during halloweekends, but it looks so goofy when you see all that and then the theming changes to the powerthing and car repair robot.

But like its been said many a time before... CP is not a theme park.

Neglegence said:
Strange idea here. Japan built an entire airport on an artificial island. There is a large group of artificial islands both finished and under construction in Dubai and they even have a large city going up on one. I know it would be a massive investment but what if they enlarged the pennisula near MF? Even alittle land can go a long way.

Way too elaborate. There are other ways to get more land for rides and attractions.

How about a parking garage and monorail? The monorail would go from the Point to Breakers Express and Castaway Bay (and perhaps some other hotels?), eliminating their need to park in the main lots. This combined with a sufficiently sized parking garage can eliminate some of the current parking area and add land for new attractions.

BTW, I also feel that they should renovate Cedar Downs; the horses have numerous chips and scratches that have developed over the years.
*** Edited 10/5/2007 1:05:21 PM UTC by PointofView***

The problem with DT's theming has been discussed every since this forum was created so many years ago. People have been offering up the same suggestion and Cedar Point actually did something to the dusty old ride. Restating previous ideas is just preaching to the choir...

You're talking about a parking garage. If you were to think of garage that would do anything at all......the structure would be huge. And then when the park closes, it would be mayhem getting out...if you've ever been to a ballpark and parked in a garage...imagine that just worse....because everyone is tired and no one lets anyone out. Parking garage is a horrible idea.

The parking garage at Universal Stuidos/IoA is very easy to get in and out of, as is the one at at Disneyland/California Adventure so I'm told.

But, I don't see that happening at Cedar Point anytime soon. Now, I think it is plausible that a garage might be utilized at the back of the park, some day, for Soak City/Resort parking in order to free up some land. But, again, I don't think that will be anytime soon.

A monorail would be the biggest waste ever.

This isn't Disney where it actually works. 8 out of 12 months the monorail is in no use to the public and to offer your customers an easy fast way off point to a near by dining establishment? No way

http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/HowMuch.html

Monorail vs. many other improvements and or rides...

What do you think...

As Chief said, the parking garages at Universal are gigantic, but when my family had to park on the top level, we were out of there far quicker than we have ever gotten out of Cedar Point at closing. If done correctly, a parking garage would be a very good parking option. The garage wouldn't even have to be that large either, because you practically double your parking capacity on the same amount of land.

Parking garages are VERY expensive to build. Also, you don't double your parking just by adding a second level because there's a lot of wasted space for ramps, circulation, elevators, stairs, ventilation, etc... Compared to a surface lot, a parking deck costs 3-5 times more per space to build. They're definitely not the most cost effective solution for CP so I don't think we'd ever see them. They'd have to raise the parking fee to like $20 to pay for the garages or just take a hit on them.

It's way more cost effective for them to buy property on the mainland and transport people to the resort somehow - either via boat, light rail, bus or the beloved parking tram. One of the benefits to this is the car is separated a great deal from the guests. So, they're less likely to leave the park to go elsewhere or eat at the car. But, you need to make the trip from car to park something pleasurable. Make it something people enjoy, not something people HAVE to do.

The downside is they need employees and a very organized method of transporting guests to their cars or it becomes a hindrance and pain to people.

That's why I said "practically double," Tim ;)

For some reason I find it highly unlikely that building a simple two level garage would cost more than buying land, leveling, paving, and painting it, the extra costs of staffing the new transit system, actually putting the transit system into place (remember, a complete circuit monorail, probably the most efficient option in terms of people per cycle, could cost upwards of double the cost of Dragster or MF [based on a rough estimate of $20 mil. per mile, cost of building in the water, bridge structures, etc]), as well as the added utilites (mainly electricity) that would need to be modified for such a system. Now, with all of that said, would you honestly believe that a two level garage would cost upwards of $50 million for a structure that would be about the same size as the current employee parking area, or half the size of the SC lot? I certainly don't find that a very likely price estimate for a two level structure of that size. That would mean that Universal probably spent more on their parking structures than Disney paid for Expedition Everest if it really would be about $50 million for the kind of parking structure in question; and I find it highly unlikely that they would spend that kind of money on a parking structure.

Actually, there is a very, very big difference in cost. Parking garages can cost up to as much as $18,000 per space to build, while surface lots are much less, and are usually in the range of $3,000 or less or per space.

Disneyland and Universal didn't have a choice. There's no massive expanse of land near them readily available for off-site parking. So, since they both wanted to add a second gate to their resorts, they had to build parking structures. The same is true for Downtown Disney at WDW. I did many parking structure studies for them and you don't see any built yet. Why? Because it's VERY expensive and they can't justify the cost just yet. But, they do have a very bad parking problem there - on a regular basis too.

If you're just talking about adding one floor over top of a surface lot, yes that is cheaper than a full-fledged parking structure.

Alton Towers put in a 2-mile monorail in the late 80s and moved their parking lot. They are surrounded by open land.

Also, they could easily install an automated system like AirTrain in NYC. The trains operate themselves there. There's a command center, but no station attendants or train drivers. So, you can limit the amount of staff required to operate the system if necessary.

If the park determined they needed the area where parking exists on-Point for future development, they would find a way to relocate the parking. Honestly, I wish the Soak City lot would go away. It's ugly and taking up PRIME real estate for SC expansion and/or another resort. Another resort would add lots of revenue to the park. Much more than that parking lot.

^ - but then where do people who are just going to SC going to park?

I simply just don't understand how it can cost $3,000 for a single parking space on a simple lot. That seems very over the top. Surely paving your driveway doesn't cost that much, does it? I realize it would be somewhat similar to laying down a decent street, but surely the cost of paving materials isn't THAT outrageous?