Challenge Park -- Less Appealing?

I've noticed that over the last several years, Challenge Park has been opening later in the day.

When I worked at the park in 2002, we opened with the rest of the park and closed an hour after the park closed.

Any thoughts on this?

I dont know. Kings Island doesnt have a challenge park, but their pay rides (Xtreme Skyflyer, SlingShot) stay open all day. I dont see why CPs CP doesnt do that as well.

Also, I've noticed Rip Cord at CP wasn't as busy as it usually was last year. We always park in the back and at night when we are leaving, there used to be a line waiting for it and doubles flying. But last year, the workers were just standing around and they maybe had 1 flyer (although maybe because it also rained pretty much everyday I went last year?)
While the Rip Cord at Mi Adventure is so packed all the time!! There was constantly a long line last year, which surprised me. I suppose the view at MIA is a little bit better. But still, I agree, I think Challenge Park has lost some of it's appeal in the past years for some reason so that could account for it's shorter hours.

I said it in another post somewhere, but Challenge Park really suffers from being in an area with poor foot traffic. Even on days the park is busy, there's just not that many people making their way back there. I think it's probably more of a draw to people at Soak City than it is to the daily Cedar Point guest.

I'm thinking most once or twice a year guests show up for the rides in the morning at the front gate and leave after luminosity. You are spot-on, Ralph. The mini golf seems slow, along with the go-carts and rides. With that location, maybe the "5 year plan" will include using that space for a new coaster, and bringing the popular, profitable Challenge Park options into the park for more exposure.

That would be awesome if they could open up the entrance to Challenge Park so it could look more accessible, but perimeter road is the main issue here I believe. As for bringing the profitable Challenge Park rides inside the park, I don't see them taking down Skyscraper and Ripcord just to move it a few hundred feet inside CP gates.

I definitely see them doing that. Carowinds did it with their Skycoaster this year.

If they can run Gatekeeper over the main Gate, then maybe they can direct a new coaster around Challenge Park, over or under Magnum's first hill, and back into the park?

TwistedWicker77 said:
That would be awesome if they could open up the entrance to Challenge Park so it could look more accessible, but perimeter road is the main issue here I believe. As for bringing the profitable Challenge Park rides inside the park, I don't see them taking down Skyscraper and Ripcord just to move it a few hundred feet inside CP gates.

I agree for rip cord, I think its days at the point are somewhat numbered but there are other parks where it could be installed. Skyscraper is an easy move by most standards and has a small foot print to fit inside the park. Go-karts and golf are custom designed so could really be made to fit in lots of locations. Maybe Adventure Island replaces challenge park.

I think there's a good chance we will see the go-karts leave, that has been very common across the chain.

If the go-karts were to leave, that would free up a ton of space in challenge park. You might be on to something there. With all that extra space, they could add many smaller attractions.

I think they could easily remove one of the three car rides and put the go carts in there. The shorter go cart track ever gets anybody on them.

It was always a toss up as to whether the tracks would be busy....somedays, I swear I saw tumbleweed flying across the tracks. But if they were ever to get rid of them, I'd definitely want one last ride.

I think they would do better if they were located in the park, which is why I think they should remove one of the car rides, preferably Turnpike or Cadillac Cars, I think that's the one up by Raptor. I think they could put the go karts in there, that would be a better place for them.

If they decided they were going to remove any of the cars there would be an insane amount of people protesting. Taking them out is like taking out the Blue Streak, they are icons to the park and don't even take up that much room. But if you think they must go then it wouldn't be that hard to move it elsewhere and keep the ride just with a new layout in a new location.

There's Turnpike Cars, Cadillac Cars and Antique Cars. They're basically 3 of the same rides. I think they could do without 1 or 2 of them.

I haven't riden in the smaller cars. I think they're the turnpike cars. But I like to ride the Antique Cars. I couldn't imagine the wait time if they took one out. I would think their probably popular enough that taking out one would have a dramatic effect on the other. Each one is different too, so later in the evening you can ride the other.

Personally, if anything were to be relocated, I'd love to see Ripcord on the beach somewhere. I believe there's a map somewhere that shows its original location was supposed to be on/near the beach, close to the lazy river in Soak City.

Look at an aerial map of CP and tell me those car rides don't' take up much space again.

I forgot Carowinds was moving their Ripcord ride. I guess it's not as rare as I thought it was.

It's funny that somebody mentioned the GoKarts should replace Turnpike Cars because I've been thinking the same thing for the past couple days since this topic started. I've always thought the GoKarts should be inside the park, however, in a more high traffic area (Hopefully we see the Blue Streak midway and Celebration midway connected in the future as stated before). I HATE to bring up Geauga Lake, but I remember there always being a line for theirs when Steel Venom, X-Flight, and Head Spin would be in operation. It really only seems the only people who truly care to ride the GoKarts now, are the ones walking to and from Soak City and one of the resorts.

Question: Does Cedar Point own Ripcord? Or is it still owned by the manufacturer, and they, themselves, have to come to the park in order to disassemble/reassemble the ride? That might seem like a silly question, but I thought I read somewhere that amusement parks agree to install them, and a certain percentage of profit made from them goes to the manufacturer, and that's how they make their money. Or, is it purchased by Cedar Point, and Cedar Point is free to do what they want with it (in terms of relocation/disassembling).