2023 Early Entry

Normally not one to really complain about the park's perk offerings as the main selling point of the pass is access to the park when I want to go, but this announcement makes me glad I dropped from Platinum to Gold this season. Aside from maybe one weekend a year to KI or a once every other year trip to either KD or Carowinds, we weren't using the other parks enough to justify $250 vs. $99 x 4 plus higher cost of Platinum meal plans.

In my opinion, the Gold passes are vastly underpriced at $99 (yes I know they are $140 now, but they've offered them at $99 for 3-4 years now). I think $250-280 is a fair price for the Platinum passes, but they aren't doing themselves any favors with getting me to go back to Platinum next year if they keep trimming the benefits.

jimmyburke:

Of course the crazed "coaster only" bunch is upset. Gives them extra time to shower.

They won't

You beat me to it. I was going to say, "if they take a shower!"

I honestly had forgotten that early entry was something that was no longer a Gold Pass perk, and this list makes me totally okay with the fact that it won't be.

While a nice perk, the park was never obligated to offer early entry on any rides. I can remember when the park opened an hour early for years, but the rides didn't open until the scheduled opening time. Back then it was more like get in an hour early to be the first in line for your favorite ride.

I love watching these people lose their minds about this 'sad' lineup. So many people talking bad about Gold Passholders and happy they didnt get early entry anymore. Now this lineup comes out. The Facebooks are blowing up. Hilarious.

Just for the record, I looked up the early entry web page on the wayback machine in 2022 and 2021 and the line up of rides did not change throughout the year.

It's possible that there were some "gaps" when rides were swapped due to downtime, but in general the list was what it was.

The park isn’t obligated to do anything for its guests in terms of offerings, a bland and generic argument that can be made regardless of the situation. The park doesn’t have to offer early entry at all either, sure. If you want to use that argument then technically the park isn’t obligated to have any open food stands or restrooms either.

But that’s not how the real world works. Incentives like early entry (and I’m voiding out anyone who doesn’t use this perk yet still supports this very small and minimal list of rides), are part of the promise to those who invest in passes that their return on investment will be worth it. And yes, for many, early entry is part of what makes that investment worth it.

Now I won’t go so far as to say it’s a slap in the face to passholders as I’ve seen some folks state, but it’s not a great decision either.

Back in the mid 90s -late 90s', the park had an official opening time of 10am. At 9AM, security would bring out the flag and run it up the pole, national anthem then played and ticket booths/admission gates opened. Everybody (that knew about this) got in and rode. the 4 majors of the time, Raptor Mantis MeanStreak Magnum were operating for riders at 9am. My sequence was 6 rides on Raptor, then 6 rides on Mantis, then 6 rides on Mean Streak , and 6 rides on Magnum. All were 'pick your seat' but you had to get off and walk around for the next ride. It was not unusual to be done and out of CP by noon.

kylepark:

While a nice perk, the park was never obligated to offer early entry on any rides.

This is only true if you mean "on any specific rides". 2023 early entry has been advertised as a value-added benefit to prestige/platinum passholders and an incentive for 2023 hotel guests since last August. Moreover, early entry historically has included at least a few of the major coasters. If I'd put up the cash for a prestige pass expecting that to be the case in 2023, I'd be mildly annoyed to see this list come out of left field. How many "Prestige" passholders were seriously planning to take their preferred parking/access so they can hit up Matterhorn for early entry?

To be clear, I'm in the "good thing I went for a gold pass" crowd here. Early entry is not really my thing these days like it used to be.

I have no idea how their summer hiring has been going, but this really just seems like another cost cutting/resource saving measure in the wake of the similar announcements at Winter Chill Out.

kylepark:

While a nice perk, the park was never obligated to offer early entry on any rides.

They were once they started selling it as part of their passes and perks of resort stays. If they never mentioned it of course they wouldn't be obligated, but these "back in my day" ideas don't matter in 2023.

I hope RCMAC is correct and perhaps this is just the early not-so-busy early season lineup. That actually makes financial sense with a workforce that is still growing and crowds that are typically light.

But if this is all that remains of early-entry for 2023, they just took away a significant perk of staying on property. Early entry when staying at Breakers or Lighthouse Point is like having morning ERT.

jimmyburke:

Many of y'all have clamored for more "Family Friendly" stuff, here you go. Of course the crazed "coaster only" bunch is upset. Gives them extra time to shower.

I can't think of anything more family friendly than getting up with my daughters in our cottage, sharing a breakfast, and then riding Millennium a couple times. After a shower, of course.

If this sticks, I won’t try to beat it up there for early rides anymore. Maybe just the once, hoping to snag a ride on Wild Mouse, but after that it won’t mean much to me. I can’t think of a time that Scrambler or Matterhorn made it to the list, so good for those tired old rides.
Someone mentioned the announcements of take-backs (for lack of a better term) at WCO. And if that didn’t seem like enough, can you imagine if they had announced this too? Wisely, they didn’t, lol.
Anyway, maybe for rides like Steel Vengeance, Maverick, Valravn, MF, and Raptor they can go to the crews and say “Once a week, on a rotating basis, we’ll ask you to open your ride an hour early”. And then post that ride on the signs at the resorts and let it be a pleasant surprise to passholders.
I might also suggest that rides along that midway, like Troika, Windseeker, maXair, and Gatekeeper be included randomly (or frequently) to boost satisfaction. You know, the old under-promise, over-deliver practice. Nothing set in stone, just as staffing, crowds, and weather dictate.
(and yes, it was all I could do to include Windseeker on the list without laughing. I mean, even on it’s best days, right?)

edit to correct: I just remembered that Gatekeeper is already on that sad, sad, sad list. Sorry.

Kevinj:

They were once they started selling it as part of their passes and perks of resort stays. If they never mentioned it of course they wouldn't be obligated, but these "back in my day" ideas don't matter in 2023.

I don't mean to split hairs. But in the last few years, it was just a general statement of "early entry to park" listed as a benefit to the specific pass. Early entry to the park could just mean early entry to the park with no rides open.

I think it would make sense to have this area only available for gold/platinum passholder early entry, but make the back of the park (SV/Maverick/MF/Magnum) available to Resort guests only. Enforcement is a little tricky, but that would help to put a nice premium on staying on-site.

kylepark:

I don't mean to split hairs.

Split away.

I also like how we're both cross-posting on the two Buzzes.

So it doesn't say "early entry to park with rides open", but it has been advertised in conjunction with what that means (the early entry ride listing) year after year on the website. And I think it's well beyond a safe logical assumption that early entry to the park (or any amusement park on planet Earth) means rides, and not "feel free to walk around the park and enjoy the flowers" for an hour.

You can try to split that hair, but I'm not sure how successful you're going to be.

Like I mentioned above, if this is indeed just the start of the offerings and the park is going to expand it in some creative ways, more power to them and in hindsight it probably makes sense. Time will tell.

It’s all good, Kevin. Just friendly observation and discussion.

Could not agree more. And thanks for unintentionally making me remember one of my favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons.

EDIT: Do we need to copy/paste this exchange to Coasterbuzz or can we just pretend that happened...

You must meet a lot of innnnn-teresting people.

Dennis Urban:

Everybody (that knew about this) got in and rode. the 4 majors of the time, Raptor Mantis MeanStreak Magnum were operating for riders at 9am.

I worked at the park slightly after this time, but before early entry (except for Joe Cool days) as we've known it in recent years. It was during the Dan Keller era when they had different gate opening times depending on the day of the week or time of the season. Usually gates opened 30 minutes before official opening time and on expected busy days, it was an hour before. Working at Magnum, we always wanted to be open early before official park opening time as did the other big rides at the time. I can't think of one time we opened late unless there was a rare maintenance issue or something. That included mornings where we had to do liftwalks, training, etc. If you had something like that to get done, you just got there earlier. No excuses. If someone didn't show up, you let supervision know, but you opened on time with all three trains anyway. They have all sorts of weird excuses and rules that often keep things from operating the way they should these days.

Maybe we can just blame the pandemic for this as well. There's no question that Cedar Point--and every other park--took a huge financial hit in 2020 and beyond. They are a for-profit business after all. But no Millennium Force for early entry? It's been an early entry ride for as long as I can remember. I guess I'll enjoy an extra hour of sleep now.