CP Operations

How were the overall Park and Ride Operations this year at CP for the 2022 season? I ask because before my mini hiatus from the park the overall Park and Ride Operations really were going downhill!

Pretty poor on my visit in May. Lots of closures, slow loading. Fairly disappointing.

Operations continue to go downhill. Current management thinks IROC adds extra safety to the operators and guests, but it just holds up the line and puts on a show. The importance of efficiency is no longer stressed.

I don't think the park truly believes IROC adds extra, necessary safety. I think the park is convinced that the insurance savings IROC presumably brings is worth a certain amount of guest dissatisfaction. Plus having an upcharge option to avoid those longer lines doesn't hurt either.

The slow dispatches and IROC ridiculousness still comes in second place to the awful and unnecessary rain policy that has been in place since the day two Magnum trains bumped in 2007. The light rain that brings coaster operations to a halt and/or to reduced trains is so unnecessary and terrible guest service. Not to mention it's specific to Cedar Point, as I have ridden rides at other Cedar Fair parks in rain that would absolutely close everything at CP.

Operations have been awful this week. Almost everything is down. No one even at the customer service desk.

Jeff:

Pretty poor on my visit in May.

I didn't say I had a bad time. I spent liberally on the much improved food and beverages. At least, that's what my credit card statement indicated later.

4 visits this season totaling 7 park days.

Pros:

Steel Vengeance team. Fastest in the park for our trips, finally got over 1 million riders.

Raptor: Also very quick, especially during a busy summer trip when Valravn was down. Regularly getting the station train out before the train on the course got to the 6th inversion.

Magnum: fast and high energy, especially during our two Haunt trips

Cons:

Maverick: It's always slow and has, in my opinion, the worst management of the FLP/standby line issue.

Downtime: Valravn being down during our entire summer trip combined with no Dragster and long stretches where Maverick and Millennium were down that week made it really tough.

Valravn: During both Haunt trips they just kept stacking. It was particularly noticeable as we had done a late August trip to Wonderland and Yukon's team was FLYING, they couldn't even fill row 2 a few times it was so fast.

No matter what IROC ridiculousness is thrown at the ride operations team, Magnum in three train operation will always be a great crew with fast dispatches.

Maybe that's the key? Disable all of the midcourse blocks and program all the coasters to setup if they stack.

djDaemon:

I don't think the park truly believes IROC adds extra, necessary safety. I think the park is convinced that the insurance savings IROC presumably brings is worth a certain amount of guest dissatisfaction. Plus having an upcharge option to avoid those longer lines doesn't hurt either.

As someone who was IROC trained after not having to be for years prior, I can assure you that the current operations division really thinks certifying ride operators with IRT really adds extra and necessary security. Unless they lied to us 😧

The current ops management team is going to sing the praises of IROC with the staff and ride crews of course. But internally they have to realize what a hit there has been on hourly capacity in the last decade. I just can't imagine the Bill Spehn ops team going for the IROC stuff at all.

Go to Disney or Universal and you can see how things can be done safely without doing it the IROC way.

I completely hate and can’t stand the iROC procedure. Yes I completely understand and agree that safety is 150% important. But why can’t they operate the rides like they did before iROC and get rid the the stupid completely idiotic rain policy? Like another person who posted above. I’ve been at Kings Island in the rain, and they still run their coasters during the rain without reducing ride units.

Plus the loading & dispatch’s of rides this year was completely horrible. I don’t complain much but in the 31 years I’ve been going to Cedar Point, I have never seen such piss poor operations.

Cartwright:

I just can't imagine the Bill Spehn ops team going for the IROC stuff at all.

Bill Sphen’s last year at CP was either 2011 or 2012 if I remember correctly. IROC started to slowly roll out in 2014 and 2015.

The rain policy started in 2007, so Bill did participate in that from his return in 2008 until he went back to Geauga Lake in 2012 or 2013.

I understand if you want to take the Arrows to one train in the rain. Yeah, they didn't do it back in the day, but we have learned quite a bit about safety in the last few decades and I can completely understand not wanting to trust the old school Arrow brakes in the rain.

But to take Valravn or Millennium Force down to single train ops for rain? Or when they take Maverick from six to four, but then won't dispatch the two in the station until the other two are stacked? If a rain collision is your concern, shouldn't the goal be to get the trains out before they stack?

It's just puzzling and not at all rooted in legitimate safety precautions. But after 15 years I have no hope for it to ever become more sensible.

TwistedWicker77:

As someone who was IROC trained after not having to be for years prior, I can assure you that the current operations division really thinks certifying ride operators with IRT really adds extra and necessary security. Unless they lied to us

I mean, if reducing underwriting costs were the primary goal it's not like they would admit that outside the C-suite, and certainly not to seasonal staff.

You mean employees of corporate America are lied to by their bosses? Blasphemy! :)

Honestly it makes sense to make seasonal staff believe its for improved safety. If you told employee A, "We have to do it this way just to save a bundle on insurance", but told Employee B, "We have to do it this way for the safety and security of the guests", which one do you think will be most likely to follow the procedures more closely? I know I'd do a more thorough job if I believe I'm keeping a guest from being injured, rather than just padding the pockets of my bosses.