CP Reopening- Gov DeWine comments

The issue I see is people like myself that are pass holders and typically go up just for an evening. How are they going to account for those of us that do this?

Going to be interesting for sure...can’t wait to finally hear some good news!

^Just going up for the evening, spur of the moment may not be a thing in 2020.

It could very well be as simple as we have X amount of capacity for each day, first come first serve with reservations.

Hope you’re right. We rarely go up for the entire day...most of the time it’s spur of the moment “hey let’s go up to CP tonight after work”

It sounds like they expect you to adhere to an arrival time, so maybe there will be availability for short stays in the evening and you can specify.
However, if I don’t miss my guess the park will operate with short hours. Maybe with closing times at 6 or 7. Watch for it.
I’m actually not all that worried about it as I’m not planning to go anyway, lol.

And that could be why they are asking for arrival times. The park knows the percentage of guests who leave by 12p, 2p, 4p, etc. No sense in allowing the total capacity for the park to be at 12,000 by 1pm if the total for the day is 25,000 for example. This would allow for guests who like to arrive later still have their day at the park and keep the capacity as high as possible.

Interesting scenario. I never thought about a shortened operating day. That would definitely curtail people from making long distance trips, that's for sure. That would seem to benefit passholders and locals. I would find it hard to justify an almost 4 hour drive for a shortened day. Or an expensive stay at Breakers for limited park time.

I’ve actually seen the possibility for longer hours with the hope to make up from some of their loses over the past month now. Think it was in a survey they sent out maybe?

who knows. we’ll soon find out though.....

I honestly can't imagine an operating day shorter than 10 hours with weekends till being close to 12 hour days.

Universal is reopening with 9-6 hours and Disney parks staggered 10 hour operating days. I could absolutely see a 10-6 or 10-7 (or 12-9) operating day at CP. With limited staff it may be the only logical thing.

The survey also alluded to "split days". Like a 9-3 and then 5-11 window each day.

Universal often operates with a 9-6 schedule, albeit not in the summer but that's not shocking to see. Staffing might be a reason to have shorter operating hours at Cedar Point so I could see that otherwise they are going to want to get as many hours as they can for their guests and to make it worth it to be open. The Orlando parks get to continue to operate after October so any seasonal parks that can staff appropriately I would imagine would want to get the best bang for their buck if they open.

There are a lot of parks that rarely see the dark of night. Dollywood, SDC, and Holiday World come to mind. If memory serves, even Carowinds and KD have a stretch where the days are short.
This just might be a golden opportunity for certain parks to re-invent themselves in terms of attendance and staffing. And strictly on a trial by fire basis- I’m sure adjustments for policies can be made on the fly as necessitated by circumstances. And with proper notification.
We can all name an enthusiast or two who will definitely be back the minute they open. But will John Q and the kids? That remains to be seen. All of this is untried, anything can happen, and nobody has a clue just how many will actually show up.

I’ve often thought that if I ran a park I would sell tickets like I would for a concert or a ballgame. Set a maximum number, which could vary depending on season and available staff. First come, first served. If it’s not a sellout, go ahead and sell tickets for that day on line or at the gate. Of course, I can see some disadvantages for a system like this, but not unlike what parks will face with these temporary measures. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see at least a few of these policies carry forward on a permanent basis.

mgou58 said:

As I’ve said in my own workplace, this pandemic has allowed companies to innovate and implement tech solutions that otherwise would have taken years to do. This puts Cedar Point more in line with bigger theme parks now.

This is something I've been discussing with my brothers a lot. We've been talking about what changes we think will be permanent vs long-term vs short-term, and I'm glad to see more modern technology being put to use. And it can only get better from here

It can get worse. After several years you still can’t use your drink plan and meal plan at a food order kiosk.

Honestly I'm just glad that they've seemingly resolved the issues of the past where my platinum pass wouldn't scan at other parks, and it was a tedious process just getting through the parking toll and admission gates. But yes, I certainly agree that there are plenty of things upon which to improve.

Cargo Shorts said:

It can get worse. After several years you still can’t use your drink plan and meal plan at a food order kiosk.

I'm surprised to hear that, since at Dorney Park you are required to use the kiosk if you have the dining pass or using a credit card. The register is for cash transactions only and thought it would be the same at all the Cedar Fair parks.

You can use the meal plan but if you try and get your drink the system charges you, same at KI. So you still have wait at the register to get your drink plan. So instead of one line you now have to wait in two. CF can always make it worse.

Each year that I've had a drink plan on my pass, I've had to go to guest services at the front of the park to re-add it to my pass. For some reason, halfway through the season, it will disappear from my pass. One particular time it occurred, I was back in frontiertown, went to the town hall, where I met Ken Miller for the first time, he couldn't fix it from there, but he did give me a wristband so I didn't have to go all the way to the front of the park for a beverage. Really awesome guy he is!

I've also had frequent issues trying to use the self scan food kiosks when I purchase an all day dining plan, usually gives me the "no meals available" message after waiting well over the required hour and a half time frame. Then an associate scans it, and boom! It works. 🤷‍♂️

So, yes, they definitely have glitches in their IT department, as we all have seen before. So I'm a little skeptical about the mobile app and how reliable it will be.

I believe that if the ONLY way to ride, eat or drink inside the park will require you to use the app, it will be a horrible mess. I've had several issues with the Platinum Dining and all season drink plan over the last 3 seasons. Again, of its the only way to get on a ride, eat or drink, I think it will be very frustrating.

If everything is app based attempting to visit will be pointless for some at this point. My phone is the only one in my house right now that supports the app properly and I can't imaging making reservations for anything but large coasters should have to be a thing. Can you imagine having to make a reservation to ride the tilt-A-whirl.

I can imagine that. If the coaster queques are mostly empty except for a half a dozen cycles all those people will be out in the midways looking for something to do. Let’s ride a flat! Those flat queues are small. It all depends on how much they have open and restrict attendance. If the park is operating at 100% (not likely) but the queques are mostly empty even a 50% reduction in attendance will result crowded midways.

If the app uses GPS constantly people are going to be in a world of hurt and will need to carry 10000 mAh powerbank or greater to make it through the day.