Drink Wristband???

Did anyone get turned down from the drink wristband. My group was told they canceled the program on Friday the 22nd. I think they were losing to much money off it. IT is confusing because they still advertise it pretty much everywhere.

Oh, i hope they didn't get rid of it!!!

To be honest the drink wristband at Cedar Point was not worth my money. The one at Kings Island when you get a wristband you get a 20 or 24oz cup each time which is really nice because you can sip on it while you wait in line.

However at Cedar Point when I got one they would/could only give me 12oz cups, so I would have to go back over and over again and there was no way I could nurse it throughout a wait in line. In the end the hassle made it not worth it for me.

But that is just my experience I am sure there are others who would say otherwise.

Ryan

I heard people were abusing it. Many were getting free drinks that weren't supposed too.

I was excited for this program, since I spend plenty of money on pop (soda) while I'm at the park. to me, a 12 oz cup shouldn't be an issue. But I'm sure teens, and adults are smart enough to just stand at the window, get a glass, and say please refill this. Plus then they get the drink and share it with a non paying friend. This would cause all the food buying guests to wait longer, and even walk away just because of lines.The only way I see it working is if they had self service area's that only wristband people can access.

If they did cancel the program that's sad, but people shouldn't be mad at the park about it. It's a great idea that works for smaller parks, but the size of CP alone, causes issues. I'm glad they if anything gave it a try. It's like the 25 cent cotton candy. Great idea, just really hard to make work. But you have to appreciate the effort some are giving. At least that's my take on it.

If they cancelled it, perhaps they overlooked an obvious solution to abuse: Give out bigger cups.

I think what the problem with the program is that one person in a group buys a wrist band and goes to food stands to get soda for other people in the group who did not buy a wrist band. Even if you only get one cup per food stand, it would not be hard to go to two or three food stands to get everyone a soda.

Jeff said:
If they cancelled it, perhaps they overlooked an obvious solution to abuse: Give out bigger cups.

Are you saying they should give out bigger cups so that they cut down lines? But at the same time saying that the wristbands would then be easier to abuse by letting others sip out of your cup? I think I read that right (but probably not).

Overall, I think you and Pete are right. Either way the big problem is people abusing the system.

Ryan

Really, its only a problem if its inconveniencing other guests. I can't imagine that CP will suddenly be operating in the red as a result of guests "gaming" the wristbands.

And the wristbands were what? 8 bucks?

Even a 32 oz drink costs WITH CUP, 10 cents (9 cents cup, 1 cent product). So people "scamming" off it isn't really costing CP much. Sure, they aren't getting that extra 8 bucks from each person drinking off it, but it's making guests happy.

Exactly. And I would imagine that at least a few people that purchase the wristbands wouldn't have purchased $8 worth of soda, if any, otherwise.

And that's just it. $8 of pop (that's syrup and soda) is a LOT of pop. Even factoring in cup cost, I don't think its possible for a person to do it without A) severe dehydration or B) falling into an insulin coma.

And if 4 friends decide to split a wristband, so what. Make it 32oz drinks and then they stand in line less because they can just split 1 beverage instead of waiting in line for 4 of them.

At Universal, you can get a similar arrangement that entitles you to actual food, as much as you can eat, all day, but it does not include the drink. I would imagine the potential for abuse there is even greater, especially considering the margin on food is much, much smaller than soda. Yet, they've been doing it for years.

My guess, and I have no formal knowledge one way or another, is that they saw their per cap on soda go down (duh, what would you expect to happen?), and this is their reaction. I would theorize that the per cap is down because they crossed the line from overpriced to complete rip off a long time ago, and this is how the market reacts.

Again, I wonder what would happen if they pulled a Holiday World. Per cap spending in general went significantly up when they boosted the gate a couple of bucks and did "unlimited soft drinks."

What's scary is I can see them making this decision based solely on the drink or even foodservice per-cap being down while the overall percap is actually up. They'll read it not as a good thing, but that they could be getting more per cap if people have to pay for drinks too.

I think it is noteworthy that this is an example of CP trying something that has worked at another company park. It seems like it is almost always the other way around.

Hopefully this isn't an example of CP trying something for approximately 4.5 minutes before calling it an absolute failure. Twenty five cent cotton candy, anyone?