Fun TV

^ Luckily those T-shirts will still be there to entertain you. :)

I like this. It will be nice to see weather updates and maybe a radar or something like that during the day. I don't always have my phone and it gets the worst service at CP even when I do.

Agreed. It'll only get better as they develop more content (and hopefully find more relevant music).

I don't like that they left the entire outside of Maverick's queue without displays, though. That stretch is at least a half hour and definitely gets used during peak season. They're only in the former WWL station.

I haven't been to the park yet this year. Could somebody please explain how the queue-line music is affected? Is it similar to previous years, or do the speakers only play audio from the television screens?

Is it going to ruin your day if it's one way or the other? I'm just curious. I didn't really notice anything different, but I was laughing it up and having fun with my buddies and pretty much ignoring/tuning out the surroundings.

All I know is, they played Enter Sandman on Sunday in line for Maverick......so by default, I have to love this addition to the park. :)

Meh. I'd be more impressed if they played Master of Puppets.

I think the TV system seems nice! We'll have to see how it develops (as there isn't a whole heck of a lot of content yet, other than music videos, trivia, weather forecasts, and some very basic park-related ads), but so far, it seems classy. The system is definitely less in your face than that of SF.

! said:
I haven't been to the park yet this year. Could somebody please explain how the queue-line music is affected? Is it similar to previous years, or do the speakers only play audio from the television screens?

The traditional queue music is gone, and the old speakers have been removed, even; the only music now is that coming out of the TV speakers.

The new TV's look very nice. The color and picture quality was very clear and the park advertisements were also fine. The music and news feeds were pretty bad. The sports feed was a bit outdated and the there were only two songs I have ever heard of. The speakers were very difficult to hear at times during the day.

The atmosphere in Magnum and Millennium's queue was kind of dead without the old music. I would rather see advertisements while music was playing versus the music videos. Six Flags at least plays well known songs on their system, even though their system is covered in advertisements. Fun TV probably helps at some of the smaller parks where there wasn't any in queue entertainment, but this was one step back for CP.

I wish they would put them in Maverick's outside queue, I think that would really help.

I still think the park would be better installing park-wide Wi-Fi (and integrating ads into that), but that's just me...

Hershey Park has in-park WiFi. If, Cedar Fair is trying to up its game on customer service, offering free WiFi throughout the park would be a logical place to start.

Does anyone notice cell towers on the island? Perhaps there is an agreement with the tower owner not to offer WiFi???

Sounds nice, but Cedar Fair does not appear to be trying to up its game on Customer service.

That's because you're a hater and not paying attention.

I'm not a CP apologist, but I don't see that making me a hater. Enlighten me to all the wonderful customer service endeavors CP has done lately.

I just saw the TV installations during my visit to CP today, and I am certainly a fan of them. They are unobtrusive and presentations being shown don't feel thrown together at the last minute. The ones that I saw seemed to have a decent enough array of things on them (sports, music, news, weather, trivia). The only things that seemed to repeat were the songs, but that is probably due to not gaining the rights to more songs at the moment. I also do like the little trivia questions that pop up that are specific to the ride you are in line for as well. I think they are off to a great start with this.

I guess there's a position, either at the parks or Cedar Fair, dedicated to this new TV. Which sounds like a job that doesn't suck.

As for the free wifi, there's locations at the park that offer it if you really need it. I can see park-wide access would be a good thing if a park (like Disney, for instance) makes the use of their app practically a necessity, but I don't find much at Cedar Point to keep me tied to my device all day.

Scottyf said:
I'm not a CP apologist, but I don't see that making me a hater. Enlighten me to all the wonderful customer service endeavors CP has done lately.

You said Cedar Fair, but even still, Kings Island is ten times the park it was in terms of service since the Kinzel days. CP has come a long way too, even though food service is a little behind (but still better than it was in 2009).

Parks that often WiFi usually do so because they want you to have it to do stuff and spend money with mobile apps. This is definitely the case for Disney, and we've made some progress covering more of our parks too (SW/BG). Cedar Fair doesn't really do a lot of in-park online selling.

Scottyf said:
I'm not a CP apologist, but I don't see that making me a hater. Enlighten me to all the wonderful customer service endeavors CP has done lately.

Just out of curiosity, how many amusement parks have you visited in this country?

I use the term customer service, but it might have been more accurate to say guest experience. I'm sure that most on this board would agree that Cedar Fair (yes, the parent company, as this applies to other parks in the portfolio) has increased its attention on the guest experience. For example, instead of throwing all of its money on putting up new roller coasters, its playing catch-up on years of deferred maintenance such as painting those coasters, replacing light bulbs, and ensuring a diversified ride lineup. (come on, Hotel Breakers looks great!)

And customer service doesn't have to necessarily involve giving away freebies. Customers are more than willing to fork over for increased service and conveniences. Other examples: preferred parking, fast pass, souvenir refills, all-day/all-season dining, and even the wristband payment system being tested at Dorney.

I had the chance to visit Kings Dominion recently and that's one sweet park. Cedar Fair has embraced the historical nature of the park by bringing back an animatronic display that was from years past, along with other historic features of the park.