Any word or thought on a ride for 2006???

You won’t want to miss it. We have some seriously exciting news to tell you – and it’s coming soon!

-Tony&Tyler Onpoint

NOW THIS IS SOMETHING

TO GET EXCITED ABOUT!!
*** Edited 8/16/2005 4:43:16 AM UTC by Fat Man Tarkey***

http://www.pointbuzz.com/cpplace.aspx?mode=thread&TopicID=17145

But thats ok. Because this good very well be the revieal we've all been waiting for.

Everyone has to know!!!!:)

P.S.- you made the 900th post on here Fat Man Tarkey!!!!

YAY

For a few reasons now, I'm beginning to wonder if we will be getting a world-class coaster next year. To build a good coaster, it's going to require what, $12-18M to build? What have we seen all year from this company at the park? Cuts cuts cuts. First, last year, raising parking by a dollar half-way into the season, HW Friday nights closing an hour earlier, then now no more free-way; Demon Drop has a for sale sign (they'd rather make a "measley" $250,000 than sending it to a sister park?), customer service around the park has gone to hell, and numerous other things that others have brought up that signal cost cutting/gouging ($3 sodas, food stand trickery).

Gas prices aren't coming back down. People aren't traveling as much. Hell, I know there are others on here who can barely afford enough gas to get back and forth to work anymore on a paycheck. CP has seen attendance drop slightly over the past 10 years. Even in the opening seasons of MF and TTD the park still didn't see attendance figures it saw in the early-mid 90's. As prices go up for everything throughout the park, and families are making less at home, and are budgeting money around gas, you will see even lower attendance figures next season.

And yet, we're expecting CP to spend $ for a coaster? Hell, it's probably costing twice as much just to ship all the parts. Sure this whole DD thing may be for expansion, but I don't think it's for next season. It may just be for them to break even with the additions to their other parks, including GL.

Its going to take a lot more than beautiful weather all summer and a brand new coaster to bring people back into the park. And if people aren't in the park, then why invest in a major ride if you're not going to get a return. The days of a coaster every couple of years could be over.

Or my observations may be wrong...
*** Edited 8/16/2005 6:29:35 AM UTC by BirdOfPrey00***

Why not take some of those so called "cuts" and give the CP employees pay raises? I would take a bunch of happy CP employees over a roller coaster at this time. Customer service is the key here, CP, I would think, knows this and hopefully Dick will be making some major off-season adjustments to improve this. I say CP needs to go back to the drawing board and come up with some new fresh ideas and not rehash the old ones (or at least leave the ones that have been working for the park.) If you cutting things, Why not take out that eye-sore by ID? :)

How has Customer service gone to hell? Everytime I've gone there, the people working are friendly and very helpful. Are you saying this as in Cedar Point is laying people off in the food service dept? I like your idea of giving the employees raises. I'm not sure how much they start you out at, but maybe a little more for them. I also thought instead of building a coaster, why not lower admission? It's like $43 dollars now. Why Not change to $32 dollars. It would really draw attendence up higherThis to me is one reason attendance was higher, because guests had more money to spend. If you empty someones pocket on a single weekend trip, they won't be back for like a month or something like that.

CP_Bound, I respectfully disagree with you. Do you think when CP installed Raptor, that CP said, well, let's have a never been used Cobra Roll in there, and after the loop, let's have a flat spin or whatever it's called? On Mantis, you think CP was the one who said, well, we need a large loop, a diving loop, an inclined loop and all the other elements? I doubt it. They may say how many inversions they want and budget to work with, but what kind and where to place them is something I would think the designers would do, not CP's development.

Why do I keep on hearing about how Cedar Point has low attendance? Are you kidding me?!?!? Everytime I come here it's packed! Cedar Point can afford to build a 800 foot coaster that goes 250 miles an hour with rockets on the trains if they wanted to. They get about 100 bucks from each person at least! They're making a fortune off just bottled water!

Yeah that's what I'm saying. I mean your not going to see Cedar Point have 2 hour lines anymore this season because School Starts up soon and they will only be open until 8 oclock. Heck this is the last week they are open until 10 the whole week. Next week it's back to 8 oclock. I don't see how attendance is down though, except for Gas prices being as high as they are. I went during the month of July and waited 2 hours for Millennium Force and another Hour and fourty-five minutes to wait for Dragster. There was even a queue wait for Magnum? You usually can walk right into the station during any month. So Please come on. Attendance is not falling. Now Rollernut I have to admit that's really funny what you said. We'd be jumping the gun though....lol.

Attendance isn't "low" per se, but CP hasn't seen attendance figures as high as they were back in 1994. Since '94, we've seen four major roller coasters, including the worlds first 300' AND 400' rollercoasters. On top of those, we've gotten one of the tallest drop towers in the world, a cool swinging pendulum. I would say, from a company perspective, that is very disappointing. Obviously, they want attendance to be higher and higher each year they add a new ride. This isn't the case. They aren't making a return on their investments like they did back in the 90's. So, you raise gate prices, parking tolls, soda prices, only advertise "meals" and not individual items to get the revenue you need. The reason for the lack of attendance? A $19 increase in a funday ticket over the past 10 years could be a reason. Yeah, its only $19, but that $19 plus another $6, got your son, daughter, wife, or whoever into the park. Family of Four- '94: $104; '04: $180.

I dont know if anyone notices but something BIG is clearly happening at Cedar Point and will bet my life it has SOMETHING to do with a new attraction and or expansion.

CP's highest recorded attendance came in 1993 at over 3.5 million WITHOUT HalloWeekends. I wonder how much Snake River Falls actually had to do with that figure. I would assume it had more to do with word of mouth about Magnum and Mean Streak (which was still an awesome ride back then).

Coasterfury, I partially agree and disagree. Back when Raptor was built there were only two other inverted coasters. Since the ride type was in its infancy they could do pretty much anything and have it be unique, but I would think that B&M sat down with the CP exec's & P&D and showed them all the possible elements they could put into the ride. Kumba, built the previous year had a cobra roll, and I think it's very likely that it caught the eye of the design teams as something cool to integrate into the layout. They may have had less say in what went into the layouts back then since the coaster wars had just started, but now it's essential for big amusement parks to have something to market as well as give a unique experience.

From a design standpoint it would be economically and creatively irresponsible for the planning and development people not to work closely with the coaster firms in a new ride's layout. This is especially true for Cedar Point since they have so many coasters--each one built has to have some new elements in it that are not present at the park.

If they ever build a floorless, I'm sure it would have the obligatory loop, inline twist, and cobra roll, but I would also put money on it having an immelman and perhaps interlocking corkscrews somewhere since these elements aren't present on any coaster currently in the park. If they would build a flyer, I bet we would see the pretzel loop, but probably something we have yet to see on this coaster type as well. **cough**dueling**cough** ;)

I don't think you're giving P&D enough credit on what all they do in regards to new installations.

Lower attendance:

Lower ticket prices!!! If CP wants people back in the park, then it NEEDS to lower ticket prices. I would go several times a year if I could afford it, since I'm from the Detroit area and its not a long drive... However, with the admission for two costing nearly $100 and $9 parking, what do they expect? There are always gonna be people from SE MI that go to CP every summer, but there are A LOT of us that would go several times if ticket prices were closer to $30-$35 and parking were $5. The break-even point for the lower ticket prices can't be too unattainable, though I'm too lazy to actually do the calculations right now...

As for the customer service, I don't think most people care at all. I know that I'd still go to CP regardless (to an extent, of course) of the customer service. Sure, its nice to be treated well but if the person that serves me nachos looks sad/angry/irritated, I'll still eat the nachos and still ride the rides and have a great time doing it. Very few people would let poor customer service get in their way of enjoying the day.

Also, it would seem to me that any plans CP has for a new attraction, be it a mega-coaster or the world's largest trampoline, have probably been in the works for quite some time, and wouldn't be adversely affected by their financial woes. And, CP probably ;) has a budget department somewhere... and I'll bet that their financial plan (both near and long-term) take into account future expenditures. Meaning, even though they're hurting now, they've still got some $$ set aside for new rides and attractions, whatever they might be.

Of course, this is all just my thoughts (see also: opinion)...

So, basically, we agree.:)

You're probably right that now, more than ever, parks are becoming involved with the design of a coaster.

I'm with ya on the dueling concept. I would like to see something with inversions. There's not enough of that in the park.

When I went to Disneyworld last summer, I saw this ride where you could design and ride your own coaster. That was awsome and I think CP should put one in.

I dont think there is going to be a new ride in 06' but we can only hope. I think they are more concidtrated on getting ready for halloweekends then a new ride for 06', but who knows maybe soon! Selling the Demon Drop is a nice start,( now they need to sell the Disaster Transport...lol. Silly Rumor) I would like to see a ride in the back of the park to make it nicer back there, but only time will tell.

I doubt CP will take out DT and put a new ride in there. They just put in maXair. If they put in a new ride it will go where people don't usually go like FT or back by Mean Streak. A new ride back there will make people go on MS more hopefully.

I don't remember if I stated it in this thread or not, but they could still easily install a new coaster in the front of the park there even with DD still there. And I think thats what the ride needs...more attention in that area. It's kinda hidden back behind the shops on the right of the midway, and there isn't anything else around the ride that people walk to, except for a bathroom.

I HATE Six Flags said:
A new ride back there will make people go on MS more hopefully.

More like, a new ride back there will make people FORGET to go on MS. ;)

But it could make them go on CCMR and any thing else back that way.

I believe the back area of the park, mainly by MS, is something CP should be working on. It is always empty back there, every time I visit that area it's deserted. A new ride, or some neat attraction back in that area would help spread out the park's populations. Plus, I always feel sad on an empty walkway.

-S. Eagle