Cedar Fair in AP Story

The Associated Press is carrying the story about Cedar Fair dropping the senior rate for passes. I am not altogether sure this was the smartest thing for CFLP to do.

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Tank
Magnum: 6

I don't know how many times I have just gone through the park and seen senior citizens sitting along the midway benches reading or doing other things. Most the time, they are waiting for their grandchildren/family members to return from doing something else. I do not agree with what they did as well.

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MANTIS ROCKS 2002 & 2003

I read an editorial in the Sandusky Register about this when I was there for the weekend two weeks ago. Although an editorial and just an opinion, the guy brought up a good point: the senior rates imply that the seniors do less, therefore confirming the park as just a thrill park. This is completely untrue! There's as much for a senior, even someone who's mobility is impaired, to do that they should pay full rate. Especially on a Saturday, taking in 4-5 of the shows, riding the CP&LE, watching the grandkids ride TTD, and maybe strolling through the stores of Frontier Town and the Main Midway seems to me to be as much as some who go just for thrill riding get done (maybe MF, TTD, Raptor and 2-3 other rides on a crowded Saturday). So it seems to me that everyone gets the same bang for their buck, so from a financial standpoint, there isn't much sense in allowing seniors to get in for cheaper, especially since no one's just going to "leave grandma behind"!

And as the editorial stated, if you think CP is just a thrill park, note that the ride with the most people per year is still the CP&LE ...

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Resident Launch Whore
--Brett

There's plenty for seniors to eat at Burger King, but they still get a drink for 25¢. It's just like when they dropped the free child age from 3 to 2. The reason may sound good, but it comes down to a calculated risk of upsetting a small portion of your guests to make a few extra dollars.

I don't agree with Cedar Fair on this one.

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Walt Schmidt
Virtual Midway
*** This post was edited by Gemini 10/3/2003 12:25:24 PM ***

Anyone have an AP site link that is carrying the story?

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June 11th, 2001 - Gemini 100
VertiGo Rides - 82

And if you think about it, they are probably only alienating seniors from the surrounding area. Do you really think a majority of the seniors who visit the park come from outside that area? I don't. As Walt said, this is another calculated risk taken by CF. We may not like it, but in the long run it probably will not hurt their bottom line and more than likely will improve it.

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tambo

Right here, Rob.

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Walt Schmidt
Virtual Midway
*** This post was edited by Gemini 10/3/2003 9:04:15 AM ***

That's exactly what I was just saying elsewhere, tambo. I think this really only has an effect on locals.

Now, that either makes it worse (upsetting locals, many of who already have a perception that Cedar Point does not care about the local community) or it will mean nothing (targeting very small portion of total guests from a small portion of the target region).

In the long run, I doubt it will matter. But, they could raise parking to $10 and I doubt it would make a difference in the long run. I hear the official reason, but I have to think part of the motivating factor is that they're doing this simply because they can.

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Walt Schmidt
Virtual Midway
*** This post was edited by Gemini 10/3/2003 9:25:12 AM ***

Thanks Walt...

I won't sneak up on you anymore in the Fright Zone and say .. "Hi Walt.." ;)

Although.. I think this is a little extreme...

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"That would be the same as taking away your bread at our age,"

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.. and since when did the company change to Cedar Faire ???? :)

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June 11th, 2001 - Gemini 100
VertiGo Rides - 82
*** This post was edited by Red Garter Rob 10/3/2003 9:17:03 AM ***

I figured that was probably you :)

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Walt Schmidt
Virtual Midway

If anyone would like to read the editorial that I saw, go to www.sanduskyregister.com and search for "cedar point seniors" in the search past articles box. The one that comes up on the first page dated 9/19/03 is the one I'm talking about. I can't link directly as the paper requires a subscription to view the page, but if anyone has a subscription and would like to see it, that's where its located.
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Resident Launch Whore
--Brett

Well, I have thought about this some and I think this is going to go down as a "Disaster Transport" type decision. This will do little to affect the bottom line at Cedar Fair but it is getting a great deal of mileage as "bad press".

I have said in earlier threads that I very much wanted to get my grandfather into the park before he passed away but he was adamant that neither he nor I was going to pay that much only for him to sit on a park bench.

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"You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world...but it requires people to make the dreams a reality."

I think that is a very bad decision by CF. Seniors account for 4-5% of attendees, that is a small amount of people. It just seems that Cedar Fair is trying to suck every last dollar out of people. Let the seniors have their discounts!!

I would've expected something like this from Six Flags before Cedar Fair. I can hear the WOA commercial now "Seniors, why go to the park down the road and pay full price, when you can get 3 parks in one for half the price"

Or older person "We drove past Cedar Point because we would've had to pay full price, while we get 3 parks in one at SFWoA for half the price"

LOL

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It just seems that Cedar Fair is trying to suck every last dollar out of people.

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Well, sure. That's the point of being a business.

This move looks pretty shrewd to me, actually. Assuming they eliminate the senior day tickets too, this is going to provide a boost in per-captia revenue (and probably total revenue) while allowing them to market the "same price as last year." After all, since senior day tickets used to be about half price, as long as they lose less than half of their senior guests, they come out okay in the end.

Walt mentioned the free admission age dropping from 3 to 2. As the father of a two year old, obviously I'd rather they hadn't done that. However, my 2 year old gets a ton of enjoyment out of the rides in the park and the kid pools at Soak City already, and we aren't paying anything for him yet. Furthermore, it seems that most other parks start charging at 3. So it doesn't seem "out of line". In fact, most parks don't give breaks on season passes to the young or the short, so I still feel pretty good about the relative value I get there.

This is one way the elimination of the senior discount may generate more than average bad press---most other parks do have some sort of senior discount. The one exception that I can think of is the Disney parks---once you're 10, you pay full price. The other difference is that I only "lose" one year of free admission for my son. Folks who used to pay the Senior Rate lose it for the rest of their lives, seeing as how none of us is getting any younger!

As for Six Flags---they're already well-known for low admission costs. While CP is discounting Halloweekends admission by 20-25%, most six flags parks are selling tickets at half price. They'd rather lose a bit and get you in the door, and then count on in-park spending to make up the difference.
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It's not war, famine, or pestilence; it's only downtime.

It's all those seniors riding Dragster!

Seriously though, this was an extremely bad decision. It just makes Cedar Fair look like a very greedy company, and I'm sure they will get lots of bad press on this.

Senior discounts exist not because seniors do less, but because they make less money than they did when they were working. I bet lower attendance by seniors will offset whatever extra income they get from the higher price. In any case, this is just bad PR, and is one of the most bone headed moves that Cedar Fair has made.

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I'd rather be in my boat with a drink on the rocks,
than in the drink with a boat on the rocks.

Why not raise parking to $10? How about $12? Are people going to drive to the toll booth and turn around? That would probably raise tens of thousands of dollars.

It's just like when Pepsi went to $3 last season. I don't remember finding many around here who supported Cedar Point's right to earn more money in that case.

I was thinking the same thing, Pete. This is because of those newspaper articles about older guests riding Dragster. Funny, but maybe a hint of truth there.

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Walt Schmidt
Virtual Midway
*** This post was edited by Gemini 10/3/2003 10:35:46 AM ***

Impulse-ive mentioned the editorial from the Register, which I first read when it came out a couple of Sundays ago. Nothing earth shattering, but I'll highlight a couple of points:

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"Cedar Point is not a public park. It's a private business, and as such it can charge what the traffic will bear. Customers will vote with their wallets when the tickets cost too much, but we'd advise against holding your breath waiting for that."

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This is true. So what's stopping the $12 parking fee?

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"Second, the day is long gone (if it ever existed) when Cedar Point was Sandusky's park. It's the big dog as far as entertainment goes in a region which stretches well beyond Ohio; Cedar Fair CEO and general nice-guy Dick Kinzel may feel neighborly toward Sandusky but the fact is, the Point doesn't need the city and everyone knows it."

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Walt Schmidt
Virtual Midway
*** This post was edited by Gemini 10/3/2003 10:43:47 AM ***

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This is true. So what's stopping the $12 parking fee?

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Why are you sure it's stopped? I think it is clear that parking will go up next year, based on the increase for discounted parking passes. I'll bet on $10, but it could well be more.

The $3 pepsi bottles are a good example. Most people voted with their wallets--not worth it--and the price came back down. Perhaps the same will be true with senior discounts. In both cases, some number cruncher decided the park would make more money with the higher prices than they'd lose with reduced sales. With the $3 bottles, they were wrong. We'll see about the senior passes.

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It's not war, famine, or pestilence; it's only downtime.

Why do you want to raise the parking fee, Walt? It seems there has been enough press about that already.

I don't disagree with anyone that in the eyes of the press this isn't a good idea, but will it be good for the bottom line? Only time will tell.

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