2012 Improvements, Additions, and Changes. Leaks and Announcements

Skippy said:
They need to do something with the park entrance plaza / midway. If you look at all the best entrances, they have a unified theme (Main Street at Disneyland, Port of Entry at Islands of Adventure, Hollywood Blvd. at Disney-MGM Studios, even International Street at Kings Island). The only consistency in Cedar Point's entrance is the total lack of consistency (the theme of the buildings is all over the place and the pathway goes back of forth between sections of brick and concrete). It looks like a park that has just patched things up over the years.

They also need some kind of Photo Op. I don't expect them to build Cinderella's Castle, Spaceship Earth, the Eiffel Tower or any other kind of "weenie". Something as simply as a fountain and some nice surrounding landscaping would do. My old home park Geauga Lake had a nicer entrance then Cedar Point (albeit a little cramped) and even Kennywood re-did their entrance not too long ago.

It's the first thing people see when they enter, so you don't want it looking tacky and dated. A complete remodel with some fancy looking classic architecture would be money well spent.

I couldn't agree with you more, you hit the nail on the head.

Mr. Cedar Point said:
I think they should Park $5.00 or Free, because of the PRICE of GAS is to high.

That makes perfect business sense.

Actually, de-siloing departments and integrating admissions and parking at least on the balance sheet would make a whole lot of sense. Increase the ticket price by $4* and make the parking "free". On the income see it would be revenue-neutral, on the expenditure side there might actually be cost *savings*, and they could promote the heck out of it...not to mention inoculating themselves against any parking tax scheme launched by the City of Sandusky. It would also virtually eliminate morning traffic jams on the Causeway.

From the customer's perspective, it would be eliminating a nuisance charge for which the customer sees NO added value.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

*Based on an unscientific study I conducted on a long walk from my car to the Kings Island gate, I concluded that the average group size entering the park was 3 people. Presumably Cedar Point knows their current parking per-cap. Notice I advocate making parking "free," not releasing customers from paying for it.

--DCAjr

I, completely, agree with Skippy's idea for renovating the park entrance. I used to work at a really old fast food restaurant. They did ok business. Finally, they rebuilt the restaurant. Same food. Most of the same employees. But business went up by more than 4 times. $500,000 in sales per year to over $2 million in sales. All based on it being prettier.

As far as parking goes, it is not as though you are parking at Cedar Point to go anywhere other than Cedar Point...I would much prefer if they just added a few bucks to my ticket and allowed me to avoid sitting in one more line. I believe they already do this at DTE Music Theater. Was so much more convenient.

The parking fee makes my Platinum Pass feel extra worth it every time we visit. Just saying.

Just out of curiosity, is there a parking tax that the park pays? I'm pretty sure there's one for lots in Cleveland. If that's the case, would CP be able to increase the cost of admission to eliminate the parking fee for the customer and tax to the city? Or, is the tax not based on the cost of the parking? Although, (if I'm not mistaken) there is also an admission tax. So, maybe it would be a wash anyway.

Hopefully that didn't come out as nonsensical rambling. I tend to do that sometimes. :)

Kevinj said:
The parking fee makes my Platinum Pass feel extra worth it every time we visit. Just saying.

If they waived the parking fee, would any Platinum holders here feel like they aren't getting the same value? Getting in early is a neat perk but honestly the parking is the real value in the pass. (also getting into other parks)

It would certainly make it feel less worth it. The 'getting in early' perk has not really existed, since nearly every time we have tried to take advantage of it, the rides we would be interested were not ready to go. But that's another topic. :)

Yes, in my opinion, they would need to counterbalance the loss of that perk with something else.

They could keep the platinum passholder's price where they are while increasing the pricing of the regular passes and admission tickets.

Justifiable, given that the platinum pass now includes parking and other tickets do not...

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
...who hasn't paid parking at a Cedar Fair park in years, but hates waiting in that long line for the people who do...

Kevinj said:
The parking fee makes my Platinum Pass feel extra worth it every time we visit. Just saying.

Couldn't agree more. I went 17 times in the 2011 season. If I didn't have platinum, I would have spent over $200 in parking alone.

Zoug68 said:
I believe they already do this at DTE Music Theater. Was so much more convenient.

You spelled "Pine Knob" wrong. ;)

--Dave Althoff, Jr.
...who hasn't paid parking at a Cedar Fair park in years, but hates waiting in that long line for the people who do...

+1

They have dedicated lanes for EZ Pass on the turnpike. Maybe they could do that at CP for Platinum Pass holders.

djDaemon said:

Zoug68 said:
I believe they already do this at DTE Music Theater. Was so much more convenient.

You spelled "Pine Knob" wrong. ;)

+1

Jason Hammond said:
Just out of curiosity, is there a parking tax that the park pays?

I recall that Sandusky tried to implement one a couple of years ago, but ultimately ended up backing down once the park's lawyers got involved. The park does pay a city tax on admissions though.

They have dedicated lanes for EZ Pass on the turnpike. Maybe they could do that at CP for Platinum Pass holders.

Given the absurd amount of people who can't figure out how that works on the turnpike, I can't see it working at an amusement park, where people routinely leave their brains at home.

MF getting some new paint on the island.

Wow does that look good. The contrast between the new and the old really shows how bad it had gotten.

This may have been answered elsewhere, but are the supports also receiving new paint as they go along the track?

The supports around the station were definitely painted last year. I'm curious if they finished the big hill yet or are they waiting to do that last. I do remember they went up the lift a ways last off season.

Everytime I see a pic of them painting those long track runs on steel coasters by man/spray gun, it makes me think that it would be a fun engineering project to design a train (say three cars - one for motive power, one as the paint spray tent car and one as the paint resevoir car) that would be directed along the track by remote control as it paints the run. Could make this job go so much faster, although there would be some interesting design issues to work thru.