GateKeeper plaza and new main entrance

Man I missed a lot of stuff today because I was at work. :( Oh well I'm excited for Opening Day just because of that new rendering that was unleashed today. Question though, are they moving the big Giant dinosaur out front to make way for these landscape changes?

Yeah I love everything but the obelisk, at least in rendering form. It remains to be seen what it'll look like in real life, what it'll be made out of, and all that. Until I see it in real life (or at least an actual picture) I'll reserve judgement.

I love how the entrance will be. I love everything about it. It's gonna be awesome walking up there on my first visit of the year. Or even the off season tour if a decent amount of it has been done.

Unfortunately Shawn, that's something we won't know till opening day (or unless it's stated otherwise).

Perfect. Except I prefer the equanimity of a single file line where you reach a certain point and wait for an open ticket window. That way there aren't people crowding behind you when you're buying the tickets. It's a much more pleasant start for a guest. I'm nitpicking I know.

I love the new entrance plaza. I especially enjoy the new circular arrangement of the various service offices as opposed to the former and more traditional vertical alignment. I feel like this really opens up the actual entrance to the park (as well as the CP sign in the center), whereas before the park was obscured behind the ugly ticket booths.

I agree that the central podium sign seems rather minimal. A fountain, even a small one, might have been a nice touch. But overall, I think the area looks very clean and open.

I agree with everyone about the entrance plaza. It looks 100 times better than I though it would, even though it's just an animation hahaha.

Also, I like that the Gatekeeper plaza is going to have an open area (Point B on Walt's diagram) facing the beach.

That Cedar Point "obelisk" looks to be perfectly sized for composition of group pics with Gatekeeper flying by through the keyholes in the background. You'll get people, the coaster and the CP sign.

It would be cool if a water feature was added, even if it was just water bubbling over the CP logo. Almost looks like there is some provision for water in the rendering.

So are there going to be no outside picnic areas at all then?

I see no point in keeping any of the picnic shelters if you can't access them from outside the park. I mean the food service locations already have their own eating areas, and you can't bring outside food into the park.

I suppose for the logo obelisk the best point of comparison that I can think of would be the Universal Studios globes, which would also be my ideal choice for the sort of water feature I'd want, the ring of fountain jets surrounding it.

And I think most of what the picnic shelters were being used for was lunches and such for school groups and other large groups. I'm sure they'll still be kept with that in mind, but we'll see.

^ Don't they already have a shelter behind Midway Market and an area by WindSeeker for those kinds of events?

I use the picnic shelters all the time. I'd rather bring my own food and not pay $20-$30 on park food. Besides.... Pepsi is gone now, so Ill HAVE to bring my own Mountain Dew :)

I don't really know anything about the picnic areas. I know the one by WindSeeker is out of the park but I have no idea who can use it or when. I always just buy the food in the park.

Do any other amusement/theme parks other than Cedar Point have open-use picnic shelters where guests can enjoy food from outside the park? I don't know of any other parks that make it convenient for customers to NOT buy food in the park by offering tables/chairs, shelter from the sun or rain, and a location close to the parking lots.

I would bet that the shelters won't be coming back since I think CP is the lone park that offered this amenity and it doesn't make much sense from a business standpoint.

Carowinds has picnic shelters outside the park.

See I thought they said they were keeping 2 picnic shelters? I know that 2 were deleted to make way for Gatekeeper. One of the shelters was the one that we used for the Coaster Mania in 2012. I know that one is staying, but I cannot remember what they said about the other one.

Unless plans have changed, one picnic shelter was removed, and another was reduced in size.

In the renderings Walt posted, it looks like there is a sort of path leading behind the Season Pass center to the picnic pavilions in between Blue Streak and Hurricane Hannah's.

New plaza would be great spot to bring back the ball fountain!