Cashless System

Please forgive my unfamiliarity with the cashless system, but what happens to unused money on the prepaid cash cards that are purchased from the kiosk?

I believe it said they will be able to be used anywhere debit is accepted, inside or outside of the park.

Correct. If memory serves me correctly they are just Visa debit cards. So what happens to it is up to your imagination.

Wherever Visa is accepted.

Pro tip: The easiest way to spend the remaining balance on these cards is to put them on your Amazon gift card balance. You can add any arbitrary amount.

Does anybody think Cedar Point is going to regret going completely cashless?

Nope. Too many benefits for them to regret it.

I can't think of even one down-side.

It’s funny how on account of Covid, unexpected changes have occurred that will remain permanent and normal. This is one of them- due to sanitary considerations (and labor shortages, I suppose), cash money transactions have fallen out of favor. Whether it was justified or not, it remains anyway, and parks and fairs everywhere have implemented alternate payment methods. It’s a win for the parks.
It’s like restaurant menus- it’s so much more cost efficient to load it all onto a QR code that anyone can access. And changes can be implemented on a minute to minute basis if necessary. (Well, don’t bring this up to my mother in law who is permanently provoked…) So it looks like it’s here to stay too.

btw, I love when people project human feelings and emotions onto inanimate objects. An amusement park is incapable of having regrets. The people that own and run them, maybe…

Kevinj said:

I can't think of even one down-side.

Butthurt guests at the guest services window screaming "bUt iT's LeGaL tEnDeR"

If a customer is in line and doesn't know about the cashless system, and all they have is cash, can the cashier put the cash on a card for them, or will the customer have to go find a kiosk, put the money on the card, and come back?

If Cedar Point does signage like Kings island has you would have to be completely blind to not see one of the signs as you enter the park.

To answer your question though, The cashiers have no way to take cash. They would have to find a kisok (they shouldn't be hard to find) and get a card.

diggerg56 said:

If Cedar Point does signage like Kings island has you would have to be completely blind to not see one of the signs as you enter the park.

People see signs but, they don't read them!

^True, "Left lane closed ahead, merge right" or "cameras and filming is prohibited on all rides at CP".

Worked SV for a summer and oh. my. goodness. People just autopilot and entirely ignore signs

I know that even back when I started in the business, they ignored signs and audio announcements, plus you could be standing right in front of them telling them something, and it went in one ear and out the other. We used to say that the general public locked their brains in the car.

The downside is less income for tipped employees. Not a big deal at Kings Island which has pretty much 0 tipped employees, but Cedar Point has a few sit-down restaurants and the servers there will suffer. Although they seem to be moving away from that model anyway.

Otherwise it's all about cash control and not having to have same.

A friend was reporting that on opening day at Kings Island they were having issues with the cards coming out of the machines not yet ready for use, but that's a problem that fixes itself after an hour or two. That can probably be solved by limiting the locations of the card kiosks. Also last year at Kings Island they still had the old play cards for the midway games, having not realized that going cashless for the midway games basically stopped all casual play. If you had cash and wanted to play a game, you had to buy a Visa card, then use it to buy a midway game card. I wonder if they have fixed that problem yet.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Why do you need cash to tip servers?

And I don't mean that in a snarky way. I can't remember the last time I tipped a server anywhere (including Cedar Point) in cash.

If anything, I've always thought that e-tipping (I think I just made up a new term) benefits the servers, because it's just so easy to write in whatever, rather then hoping someone has the right combo of cash you're thinking about.

Plus (****ty) people steal. You can't steal my e-tip.

Kevin that's actually a pretty good question, this might be staying off topic but I intentionally tip servers and cash whenever possible and I carry cash just for that purpose when I know I'm going to eat out.

I've had too many family members and friends in the food service industry get ripped off by restaurants taking a portion of their etip that they're not allowed to as opposed to their cash tip. It's harder to isolate it with the e tip than it is with the cash tip from what I understand. So I air on the side of the caution out of respect for my server and prefer to give them cash that they can take home with them at the end of the day.

^ Yeah I can add to that because for a couple of years now even the "pop-up" beer carts have a tip line on the receipt when paying with a card.