Closing times

Why does Cedar Point close at 8:00 p.m. and Kings Island close at 10:00 p.m. tonight and other nights?

I have been wondering the same thing all season so far. Although if it has anything to do with the local school schedule; which I’m not sure if it does or not, it might be because the public schools in Sandusky itself are still in school. I know this because when I went to Berardi’s for breakfast Friday morning there were school buses outside of the high school, and students going inside. Must be their make up days from the terrible winter we had, 😂

You don't have to go home, but you can't stay there.

My opinion is CP currently does not have the people to support being open later because of location. Most schools are done this week and that will give them more people to work up there. KI is closer to a major city and has easier access so getting employees is easier.

It seems odd that there is so much variance in terms of when schools get out. We live in Ohio, less than 2 hours away from Sandusky; our last day was May 25. I would not have guessed that there are still schools in session this week.

I teach high school in Erie. We are still in school until June 9th, this week. Pretty typical actually and NO snow days to make up.

Wow. When did you start the year?

Students started September 1st. We get Christmas break and another week off for Spring break aside from a few single days off here and there. Pretty much all public high schools in the Erie area get out in June and as late as June 10-12th. Do Ohio high schools normally get out in May?

The starting date is what makes the difference. We start in the middle of August. I didn't realize that there were schools that started as late as Erie.

In some states, schools cannot start until after Labor Day.

The operations staffing must be really thin, back in the day early in the season open to close was normal for us well into June That was 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM. Of course maybe they now have figured out finally that they loose money on those last couple of hours......

^I was thinking the other day about Wild Frontier Nights, and what it would mean if the park went to this model on a longer-term basis. But perhaps not just Frontier town, but rather the entire park. For instance, maybe the core park hours (say noon - 8 pm) were included in a season pass. But if you wanted to arrive for the early hours or stay until the park closed, it would be either a more expensive season pass or an upcharge ticket.

Alternatively, they could section off the park, and each weekend a different section is blocked off for an adults-only upcharge event. That way if someone really wanted to get a lot of rides on Millennium Force or Steel Vengeance, they could plan a weekend around that ride's event. And they could maybe just do it in May/June to avoid upsetting the larger mid-summer crowds. I don't see this happening soon, but it sounds like WFN was an enthusiast's dream this past weekend. Probably not what the park was hoping for in terms of sales, but in my opinion the pricing just didn't make sense. I think they could tweak some things and make it a big success and possibly a nice revenue generator in the less-crowded time of the year.

If only their business model was based on what enthusiasts would like.

RCMAC, I found Dvo's proposal interesting but had the same thought as you regarding who would attend to make it worthwhile for a profit. I would imagine the events would be fairly sparsely attended which indeed would make coaster enthusiasts happy but not management or other park visitors restricted from the area. In these present difficult times of inflation the number of people willing to pay an up-charge to attend would lag. Many visitors to CP struggle as it is to afford a day there and wouldn't have the means to fork over more cash, errrrrr income.

^^I don't know where you deduced that this would just be catered just to enthusiasts. They're already trying out the concept as we speak. It's an after-hours adult-only event with food, drinks, and entertainment, with the bonus of truly exclusive ride time on a specific set of rides.

Anyone remember Millennium Mania?

Man, those were the days. I remember quite a few of them in quite steady rain - making them even more empty.

I was being wry.
I guessed I missed.

Millennium Mania was great! Talk about an event I wish kept coming back each year.

I believe Millennium Mania was held in 2000 and 2001. I attended one night in both years. I even bought a tee shirt they had just for this event. I got 25 rides on Millennium in one evening in 2000. And we know what MF's lines were like during the regular season when it opened in 2000. That was unbelievable. Also, if I remember correctly, Millennium's cable snapped right around Labor Day in 2001. So for Millennium Mania--at least the night I attended--we were able to ride Vertigo--an upcharge attraction in Challenge Park--as many times as we wanted for free. At least I think it was called Challenge Park. Does anyone else remember any of this, or am I remembering wrong?