Good Buy Day 2016

We wondered if any coasters were running during the rain. We used to put on the rain gear and endure the conditions. After the Magnum incident they shut them all down so we avoided washout days. I'm glad that they go into rain mode now when it is not thundering or a heavy downpour.

That was me. We got to Valravn right on time for an early ride. As we rolled out of the station it started pouring. Ugh. We got off of there cold and drenched to say the least.

The good news is I was FINALLY able to get a front row ride on Valravn. Plus, the microdermabrasion left my skin soft and smooth.

Wow MaverickLaunch, wow.

First, I'm sorry, but not sorry you had a crummy evening at the park. A day at Cedar Point should always be better than any day outside of it. However, I'm bound to believe this lack of fun was not a result of the park's delivery, but is a result of your attitude and own expectations.

Let me first start this off in a few parts. The amount of money you pay to stay on point when it comes to your in park experience means nothing. You are not entitled to anything here. The only thing it gets you is the ability to go into the park with Platinum Passholders if you do not maintain this type of pass. The park did deliver on that for sure.

In regards to weather, you need to never assume anything here. You know what they say about people and assuming ;). Post rain, rides will enter into one/two train op per the rides SOP. Take mine for example, we will only go up with one train and stay that way for some time. Think on the rides, everything is soaked, including the brakes. These don't magically dry the second after a drop has stopped. We will cycle in one train for some time while conditions get better if they do. From there, management will make the determination about adding further units to the ride. They clearly felt it wasn't in the best interest to do this. Let me be clear, if a ride can be up at Cedar Point, even for a cycle, they will do it. I'm not kidding you, many of us ride ops have been in these shoes when we've been told to go up, and then immediately go straight back down.

Also with weather, it was quite windy this weekend with the weather the lake had. You even stated this yourself, it's crazy this time of year. The other thing to note is the direction. Wind coming in from the East across the point causes plenty of issues. This can actually cause rides to valley or have very, very slow, risky times (see Magnum). Operations will be hesitant to send trains, especially when it could risk a valley. Plus think this way, even if they test a ride in wind, what if it does valley with noone on it? That ride isn't going up the rest of the day now because they took a risk. Then think if people ARE on the ride. The last thing the parks want to do is evac riders. That would be an unpleasant experience and a day ruiner for some, and that's expected.

Lastly, I see that you're a unitholder. I'd ask that you please liquidate these LP Units. Your negativity, lack of understanding, and entitlement is the last thing this partnership needs. The last thing we need is a group of negative individuals such as yourself with voting power on issues that do determine future decisions the company can make.

Marcie916 said:

If you don't want to renew your pass, then don't. That is completely your decision and your right to do so, but you really don't need to point out repeatedly that you didn't renew and all the reasons why. No one cares.

Cedar Fair very much cares.

Whether or not they find it cost effective to make changes is another matter, but you can bet they will spend $$$ on market research to find out why people do/do not renew passes. As Marcie points out, people have every right to simply cancel. To remain in business, CF must figure out how to attract & keep customers at a cost lower than the revenue from said customers. Far more people don't go to CP (or any CF park) on closing weekend than do. CF wants to attract more of those people, while keeping thos who do go.

I would guess past complaints caused them to bring the food trucks.

Of course it works both ways: Perhaps CF will determine that they should charge more for Halloweekends. At least in Sep & early Oct.

As long as the overall trend is up, I doubt they spend a lot of time worrying about the people who do not renew from one year to the next.

When we decided not to renew Kings Island passes back in the day, maybe 2001 or so, KI sent us a survey asking why we chose not to renew.

In the 15 years since, there have been several times I had a CP pass then didn't renew the next year or two. Has CP ever once asked my why? Nope.

And RCMAC, my daughter and I must have been not far behind you. That rain kicked in hard as we were being assigned the back row. We got off the ride just as they announced a delay to take a train off the tracks. Never considered the beauty benefits of the early morning ride. We were too busy laughing at the guy beside me screaming "Oh god this hurts"

I'm surprised that Sparty said that Millennium was down last night. I went in the morning when it was raining pretty hard, and it had no line and were running like normal

Took a breather on processing the ad hominem attacks here to let things calm down (including myself) and take this on a bit more intelligently.

First, although none of you actually "know" me, I'm not a newbie to this forum and do not typically take the approach of slamming CF management as others do. I just saw some obvious mistakes this closing day, and, coupled with some of my own personal issues (which magnified the frustration) I unwisely took it out in type on this site. That's my bad. It does not change the actual facts that I posted though. I'm the furthest thing from a whiny, entitled customer actually and if you were super bored, you could search this forum for threads I started dealing with exactly that.

Looking back at what I wrote with a days rest (and a glass of wine) I see where the criticism comes from. But like too many people, some of you jumped all over me, maybe which made you feel superior somehow, or perhaps there are other motives. I don't care. I'm 40 damned years old, high school is a distant memory and I won't be dragged back there.

Obviously we all love this place. That's why we are dorks on a forum about a single amusement park. Taking that dorkness one step further, I took some amazing drone photos and video of the park early Friday which I am uploading to YouTube and will share here, including a slow 360 fly around of TRFKAMS. I hope you'll enjoy it for the purpose intended and stop with the personal attacks. Everyone has a really bad day once in a while. Mine is over but somebody else is next. My advice is just shut your phone off when you see it starting.

MaverickLaunch said:

...I took some amazing drone photos and video of the park early Friday which I am uploading to YouTube and will share here, including a slow 360 fly around of TRFKAMS.

Looking forward to this.

What was the process like to get approval from CF to capture drone footage?

Don't know, didn't ask. The FAA controls airspace, not private property owners. I complied with all FAA regs.

You just broke a park rule, as stated here drones are prohibited and any unauthorized drones would be reported: https://www.cedarpoint.com/plan-a-visit/frequently-asked-questions

You could've gotten in trouble.

"....may violate FAA guidelines...", but doesn't.

Still, I should probably keep it to myself in that case, as there's nothing to be gained getting in a fight with them, even though all I did was legal.

So you have no respect for private property owners.

Even if it were legal, it's still a douchebag move, to say the least. The park explicitly states that it's against their rules to fly a drone on their private property.

Also, that you seem to think your interpretation of FAA rules trumps CF's stated rules sure sheds an... interesting light on your experiences this weekend, in my opinion.

Let's not get into a debate about the morality of drone use. I comply with all FAA regulations, as required, since I do this professionally. Your statement about my ethics was unnecessary.

Wow, "douchebag move"?? Dj, I learned long ago not to argue with you, not because you have great debate skills, but because you enjoy it too much. I don't have time. This is my last post on this issue. Discuss amongst yourselves and enjoy.

That you're using what amounts to a legal loophole to justify breaking CF's drone policy is rather telling, and yes, says an awful lot about your ethics. CF shouldn't even need to tell people not to fly drones over their property, because reasonable folks would realize that it's their property.

<sigh>
Another fine example.

I have one serious gripe about closing weekend & day... I had to work, I couldn't be at Cedar Point.

Go Intamin said:

I'm surprised that Sparty said that Millennium was down last night. I went in the morning when it was raining pretty hard, and it had no line and were running like normal

Yeah, it's weird, but it was basically a heavy mist (a lot of light rain drops). It was raining like that for a good 10 minutes when they decided to shut it down. We waited for another 5-10 before leaving. It sucked because we wanted a night ride on Millie as our last ride of the season, but again, Maverick isn't a bad option either.

It's totally possible they opened her back up after that, but I obviously wouldn't know for sure.

Note to self: buy a drone and have it hover outside the windows of MaverickLaunch's house; given what he's said here, I'm within FAA regulations to be free to observe what he does on a daily basis.