Cedar Point Shores parking expansion?

Is there any possible way for this? I was there Sunday and cars were making there own spots to park and blocking lanes. It's always a big traffic mess on busy weekends & I think parking is no longer allowed in the former Sandcastle Suites area?

Around the time that they re-branded the water park, they limited the number of cars that they let park in the back. When the back lot filled, they wouldn't let more cars go back there. At one point, there was a shuttle from the main lot back, but I think they discontinued the shuttle once they finished the boardwalk. (Edit: I think it was only the water park shuttle that was discontinued. The resort shuttle is still there.) I will agree, that it is chaotic in that lot, and difficult to navigate with all the cars looking for spots and cars parked where there aren't sports.

The other real problem here is that, in years past, cars used to average a smidgen more than 5 people per vehicle.

In the last three years or so that has plummeted to a smidgen over 2...

About twice as many vehicles with the same park population means that the park can be very busy and the parking lot is actually jammed full.

Off-point parking garages and CP owned transport (boats, buses, monorail, railroad, trebuchets...) getting the guests to and from the park is great but it is an infrastructure money nightmare.

WDW was designed with the idea that once you parked your vehicle you had to take D-owned transportation to get to and from the MK. Each form of lodging has its own parking and transportation with separate roads from the Main lot. WD wanted to eliminate the notion of somebody saying "...well, the car is right over there. Lets go." In the long run it makes the park the limiting factor in capacity, not the parking...

CP wasn't originally built this way and to go to that kind of process now is astonishingly expensive.

Although... imagine the kinds of goodies if the Shores and Main parking lots could be re-purposed into midways and coasters...

The hassle of dealing with parking and taking Disney transportation to Magic Kingdom outweighs anything CP would do with an external parking area and turning the main lot into more park.

I can’t wait until my boys finally pick up the driving book and get their licenses. That way we can take 3 cars to CP and do our patriotic duty in jamming up the lot so ride lines are shorter. 😜

Got out a bit late this morning and there was a 20 minute jam on 1st St. and then the Causeway was full at 11:30, took about 20 minutes to get to the booths. 6 were closed. 🤨

Edit: left CPS about 3 and the lot was “full” but with plenty of empty spaces, must have at least neared capacity at some point because cars were parked perpendicular on the single row isles.

I forgot to mention last night that in previous years, the Waterpark parking lot was closed during early entry.

As far as # of guests per car, I suspect that the Gold Pass is a significant contribution to less people in each car. When it costs $20 to park each car, people are encouraged to take fewer cars, as that quickly adds up. Now that everyone and their cousin has a cheap $99 gold pass, the financial incentive to bring fewer cars is gone.

Now instead of closing the waterpark lot during early entry, they're simply not opening the back gate to the park, which kind of serves the same purpose.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Dave- So where do resort guests enter?

I would imagine that guests with reservations would need to show credentials before being let through, like they do at the resort gate in back, while the gate is closed for everyone else.

RideMan said:

Now instead of closing the waterpark lot during early entry, they're simply not opening the back gate to the park, which kind of serves the same purpose.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

What time does the back gate open for non-resort guests?

We're hitting the park again this week and are legitimately planning on going to CPS for a big chunk of the day, so we want the car with all of our stuff back there so we can grab it easily and go to CPS.

I don't mind parking back there and then walking down the boardwalk to enter in the main gate in the morning for early entry, as long as later in the day we'll be able to exit the back gate to stop at the car, go to CPS then enter the park again through the back gate.

The resort gate opens for the GP at regular park opening 10AM.

Pick your poison, but even if the CPS lot fills in the morning by 2-3 people will have left so there will be parking spaces by then. So you could park in the main lot for early entry and then just drive to the CPS lot in the afternoon.

Keeping the resort gate exclusive to resort guests only during early entry is a good move. It enforces the special perk of giving their own entrance without overcrowding from the non-resort pass holders.

Are the Beach and/or Marina gates open bright and ugly in the morning?

The Beach Gate is open to resort guests only, while the Marina Gate is only for boaters docked at the marina during early entry.