CP Weekend of Fail

I've been going to the point for 40 years but I might be done after Oct 8th 2011 weekend.

It was packed 2 extra hours than normal to get to park. But that was not the big issue.

With the water park down and many rides broken they did not have a buffer for people to go to. I got to ride 4 rides from start to midnight.
In line for For Magnum we waited 2.5 hours and it was broken way before that. The lines kept moving giving the illusion that the ride was working. In reality the people about to get on were just pouring out the exit. All they have to do would be to give the people in line a heads up. ie. We are having technical problems with magnum our engineer estimates 2 to 4 hours to get it running again. This way the people in line can leave and use that time to get in line for new ride.

Then it happened again M. Force. In line 1.5 hours and wife called me on cell phone to say it was broken. She could see the stuck car on other side from Red Garters. The people at cedar point knew but were instructed not to tell the people in line. If she did not call there would be now way they would have told us.

Then the worst of it. The parking lot by soak city, they totally forgot it. We sat in cars from Midnight to 3am and did not move 1 inch. People were so angry that they started honking horns for like an hour. They gave up when nothing changed. No employees there, no communication.

When we did move there was no traffic up front at all. Found out it cleared out earlier. So someone dropped the ball big. We got home 6am with red bull eyes :)

I talked to one employee and he thought it was strange them having this secrecy policy of not informing public about broken rides.

For me it would have bought me 3.5 hours which i could have used to ride working rides.

This no tell policy also extends to hazards. On you tube and news there was a tornado spotted and filmed. The cedar point people did not issue a warning anyone in fact they left people stranded on rides and ran for their lives.

So unless CP changes some things and because a bit more upfront I'm done with my 40 year stint with the point.

I totally believe everything you said.

I also totally sympathize with you for being mad about long waits for rides and in your car on the busy night of the year.

A little bit of pre-trip research goes a long way. :)

RAJOD said:
This no tell policy also extends to hazards. On you tube and news there was a tornado spotted and filmed. The cedar point people did not issue a warning anyone in fact they left people stranded on rides and ran for their lives.

This alone, makes me call BS on your story.

Were you trippin' on something? It was a sunny day all day...

Also, you have to understand that with crowds like that, rides WILL break down. Rides even break down on Friday nights when the lines are less that a 10 minute Wait. Its not Cedar Points fault for rides breaking down. I actually look up to their maintenance crew because IMO, they do a fantastic job trying to keep the rides up and running, and they try to fix the rides very quickly.

Also, every parking lot there was completely full so it will take a long time to get out.

DJDameon is write. Do some research.

RAJOD, I was there this weekend and some of your information is either exaggerated or untrue. Traffic was flowing from the Soak City lot at 1:15 AM. Cedar Point didn't hide the fact that Magnum was broken down. They did make announcements on the ride saying it was down due to mechanical issues. It was your choice to stay in the queue.

I talked to one employee and he thought it was strange them having this secrecy policy of not informing public about broken rides.

What employee did you talk to? A ride pride? fundraiser?

We do our best to communicate with our lines whenever our ride has a mechanical shutdown of any kind. We will spiel, "Attention riders on the platform, x is currently down due to mechanical reasons and we are unsure of the length of this delay. If you choose to wait in line, you may do so... but if you choose to exit the line, you must exit the way that you came." Sorry. Also for the fact that you didn't notice it not running for 2 1/2 hours? Wouldn't you notice that there were no trains going up the lift, when usually Magnum dispatches trains quite frequently?

As for the parking lot... I didn't get off of work until about 2:00am and when we left the parking lot was still pretty full. There was a wall of cars the whole way back to spiral gate (past the park entrance). I'm pretty sure you weren't stranded back there because Traffic completely forgot about you. Traffic sucked. Period.

This no tell policy also extends to hazards. On you tube and news there was a tornado spotted and filmed. The cedar point people did not issue a warning anyone in fact they left people stranded on rides and ran for their lives.

I was at the park from 9:30am-2am, and I'm pretty sure there wasn't even rain. So, maybe you should stop trusting YouTube? lol

The title of this thread should read, "First post fail."

Here's an idea: Instead of ending your decades of patronage, just don't go on a warm, sunny weekend in October.

You're welcome.

Now come on guys, lets give this nice gentleman the benefit of the doubt here. If you saw a tornado drop out of a beautiful, clear blue sky on a day with no wind, high pressure and no precipitation within hundreds of miles you would 'run for your life' too. Why, there could be one hovering just above any of our homes as we speak, perhaps hiding behind the abundant sunshine. Waiting... just waiting for the right moment to descend and get on YouTube.

The point about the traffic is equally eloquent. I would have thought that the main parking lot being empty by the time you passed it on your way from the back parking lot would be simple matter of the parking nearest the exit emptying first, but you have corrected such foolish thoughts. It is far, FAR more logical that the main parking lot was empty the whole time and since the employees 'forgot about' the soak city lot, nobody parked there had any ability to leave. I can relate; I forget about the parking lot at my office all the time, and until somebody reminds me of its existence I can't seem to drive out of it.

I want to be the first to stand up and applaud this fantastic first post; certainly this site has never seen such a coherent, grammatically perfect and thoroughly fact checked piece of journalism as we have been treated to today. Huzzah!

Well done sir. Well done.

We-o-we-oooo said:
Now come on guys, lets give this nice gentleman the benefit of the doubt here. If you saw a tornado drop out of a beautiful, clear blue sky on a day with no wind, high pressure and no precipitation within hundreds of miles you would 'run for your life' too. Why, there could be one hovering just above any of our homes as we speak, perhaps hiding behind the abundant sunshine. Waiting... just waiting for the right moment to descend and get on YouTube.

The point about the traffic is equally eloquent. I would have thought that the main parking lot being empty by the time you passed it on your way from the back parking lot would be simple matter of the parking nearest the exit emptying first, but you have corrected such foolish thoughts. It is far, FAR more logical that the main parking lot was empty the whole time and since the employees 'forgot about' the soak city lot, nobody parked there had any ability to leave. I can relate; I forget about the parking lot at my office all the time, and until somebody reminds me of its existence I can't seem to drive out of it.

I want to be the first to stand up and applaud this fantastic first post; certainly this site has never seen such a coherent, grammatically perfect and thoroughly fact checked piece of journalism as we have been treated to today. Huzzah!

This post kind of made my day.

In regards to the tornado, I know what he was talking about. It didn't happen this weekend, but a few years ago and was simply an example of how occasionally CP is not the most organized. Announcements were not made throughout the park about the dangerous weather, so I think he is referencing this as an example of the "don't tell" policy they were allegedly practicing this weekend.

I am a longtime reader of the forums, rarely do I make a post. It takes a stroke of genius, such as this very topic, for me to comment. Seriously, with the resources we have these days, it still stumps me how people visit the park on the most crowded days, practically expecting near walk-ons, above average customer service, and in this case, the ability to cruise right on out of the parking lot furthest from the causeway. If you're a member of these forums, you should be more aware than the general public of days like this past weekend.

The mention of the tornado did make me think of a YouTube video from June 30, 1998 in which a waterspout was spotted and the operators of Power Tower apparently left the scene with the riders still locked in. Perhaps this is what the OP was referring to? Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI27jlwNk2E&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I'd guess, after 13 years, such an issue would never occur again.

lukeito122 said:
Announcements were not made throughout the park about the dangerous weather,

Which makes me laugh when people expect an announcement when all they need to do is look up. I don't need a recorded message to tell me to get to cover, because I have common sense to do that.

^ Yes but I could see how an announcement of where to take cover could be helpful to those not familiar with the park, also they are able to detect if weather is coming before it gets there; so an announcement could be made warning people of potentially dangerous weather before it arrives.

OP is false on so many things...and quite misinformed

1. This was the busiest weekend of the year...One, with research as someone posted above, and with a little thought you should have realized this. It's one of the last few weekends one. Two it's a three day weekend for most people aka mini vacation. Three, if you couldn't judge by the traffic coming into the park it was going to be packed.

2. Water park has been closed for quite awhile, sorry if you expected it to open for it being warm. Looking at the Soak city calender would have been helpful

3. Rides break down, things happen, or are closed, that's out of our control. Stuff happens, just get over it...Remind yourself of TTD's opening year...Getting to ride it the year it came out was a bloody miracle.

4. The tornado thing could have been the waterspout thing ages ago...that's done and over with, can we move on

5. We let riders know if somethings broke or we're down. Also the line's entrance is closed if we're closed or whatever. For Magnum...did you not hear the spiel. Did other people remain as dumbfounded as yourself. Did you not realize, hey trains aren't rolling into the station, hey I can't hear the train going up the lift, ect.) As for not telling you a time, we DO NOT tell you when, because to be honest we never know. I'm not maintenance, and I'm not working on it. Plus if we said a time, you could come back & complain because it wasn't up in X amount of time.

6. Traffic sucked period. You might not have moved because they had to get people off of the causeway where they were parked, and then clear out the main lot, and then clear out everyone else. My girlfriend came up this weekend to spend time with me this week, and parked in the Marina lot Saturday..It took an hour to move out of the park...Think it sucked for you, it sucked for everyone. Yet again if you didn't realize it was going to suck during your drive in, your ignorance scares me.

7. Sorry you have spent 40 years in the park and do not understand or know how anything functions. Also sorry that if you come to this weekend every year and it changed apparently just this year. I mean the park didn't just become popular worldwide or anything in the past 40 years and add attractions like no other in the past 40 years and gain a devoted cultural following.

8. Yet again this secrecy policy is a funny joke. I actually am keeping this post copied on my computer now. For hazards & stuff they pretty much call stuff down ahead of time. If a storm rolls in we usually get a call before it even hits us, ect..The whole waterspout thing I believe was a slight fluke ages ago...but yet again, it's done and over with, and it's not a big deal. How many times do you see a waterspout go on land other than in the movie twister. This whole secrecy policy makes me think Cedar Point is like this twisted guy with a handlebar mustache and a troll.jpg face that takes your money, lets you get into lines for rides that are closed, and not tell you that they are closed. After not riding anything he keeps you in the park eating away your gas tank while you sit honking your horn until your tank is empty...Stranded and forever alone in Cedar Point...Take shelter after though, there was a tornado coming in & Cedar Point didn't tell anyone because a tornado is like a level 5 (aggressive thrill) ride, that you can only get once in a blue moon, or cloudless sky as in October 8th.....trololololololo

Yeah, the biggest mistake I've ever made was parking in the Soak City lot on the 4th of July a few years ago. We were able to watch 'Toy Story' and 'Toy Story 2' on the DVD player before we even budged. I learned from it and I know never to do that again. From now on if I see the lot pretty full, I park far away from the park entrance and near the parking lot exit. And sure enough it worked out well for me Sunday evening when we left the park at closing.

I can understand being frustrated at the park. It seems like its madness to be stuck in a lot for 4 hours (my experience) and drive around perimeter road to find the front lot empty. But I realized that full lot had to empty before traffic on Perimeter Rd. could even move. It sucks, but its a mistake I won't ever make again. I would suggest doing the same planning in the future.

My Sunday experience at the packed park was very different because I had two of my sons; a 7 month old and a 3 year old. We rode a handful of rides, walked through Boo Hill, and I watched the 3 year old ride some of the kiddie kingdom stuff. I had a blast doing that and getting oggled by women who thought the three of us were cute together.

~Rob

Leaving the park at night with the rest of the heard you get what you get when they all packed wall to wall with people. Someone above mention a 4th of July experience.

As I had my own awhile back when my group wanted to leave after the fireworks but I couldn't say anything as I wasn't driving. But the experience with leaving with everyone else was WOW. I was blown away there was no politeness in the parking lot once a vehicle got in one of the main flow lines there were like who cares about anyone else.

As this happened the year before Dragster went in. But I have always used the idea of getting into a main coaster line usually one of the longest lines. So when I am getting of the coaster traffic was basically gone and the bonus you get extra extended bonus time at the park.

One example of this was Dragster opening day. We got in line at 7:50 as the park closed at 8, and we left the park at around 1:30 or so.

So yes parking sucks always when they are this busy. Soak City has been closed since Labor Day.

My advice to the person that started this thread. Get some common sense or let me know if you want me to call the whaaaambulance.

One thing to consider is the viability of charging for a separate event ala Knott's, Universal and Disney. I guess the downside at Cedar Point is the parking issue. Clearing out the park (and the parking lot) at 6:00, 7:00 or whatever time while also getting guests in for a ticketed event would be a logisitical hurdle, to be sure.

Two hours, if indeed it took that long, to get out of the Soak City lot is pretty extreme. But, when there is only, basically, one way on and off the peninsula (yes, the Chaussee makes it 2 but that doesn't help much in the back lots) then it will always be a problem.

As to staffing, the fact that the economy is bad doesn't necessarily mean it should be easy to staff for Halloweekends. College kids are facing tests, high school kids have other activities and so forth. It has to be quite a challenge to staff in the fall. Heck, it was a challenge before the increased crowds associated with Halloweekends.

JuggaLotus said:

This alone, makes me call BS on your story.

Probably talking about my news story from June 30, 1998.