Good Year For Cedar Fair?

Every time I have been to Cedar Point or Kings Island this year it has been packed. I have been on both weekends and weekdays and they both seemed more crowded than years past. Has anybody else noticed or thought this? Do you think it will hold out and end up being a great year for CF? How are the other parks doing?

Been to MA 3 times this year including today and all three times have been quite dead. A few times last year main paking lots were packed and had to park cars across street. Then again, new this year to draw in the crowds is used bumper boats.

Its still too early in the season to tell if it's going to be a good year. Too Many factors come into play.

Overall, both KI and CP have been markedly busier than last year thru this point IMO (though slow days have still existed), but attendance alone doesn't guaranteed what the per cap is like.

I was at a six flags last week, and they were slammed one day, and not too buisy the next.

Cedar Point has felt about normal to us, although we did notice that the hotels felt quieter. Hotel Breakers in particular doesn't seem to have as many lights on at night and Camper Village doesn't quite fill up like it has in the past. Admittedly it is still early in the season and most of the guests are day-trippers, but it will be interesting to see how the season goes for the resort side of things.

Why doesn't Cedar Point have advertisements in line queues? Wouldnt other companies give CP gobs of money to show ads to thousands of people a day?

in the long run this might actually cost CP money in the form of repeat business. Some people might find this enough of an irritant that they won't come back.

I think this year will definitely be better than last year. The resorts seem more crowded this year and so does the park in general. I'm not sure about other CF parks but for sure CP.

What I find odd is how packed the park is, yet how empty some rides are.

For example, last Friday. That place was jamming with barely any room to walk but, Millennium Force was 20 minutes. Dragster was barely 30, 10 minutes for Raptor. Maverick however had a very long wait at almost 1.5 hours.

That theme has been pretty consistent on Friday afternoon/nights.

Same at KI. It seems more packed, but Diamondback's line is rarely over 20 or 30 minutes.

Good ride operations.:)

That and rides that actually have good design in terms of capacity. Magnum and Raptor probably can pump through at least 50% more people than Maverick, Dragster, or MF.

Diamondback is wonderful in terms of capacity. That's the big advantage with only having the "lap bar" and not having to worry about seatbelts too. Pull down and they fly by "check"ing everyone.

We should get a good indicator on how the year is going thus far now that the second qtr is wrapped up.

That raises another great question: what rides have queues that move rather briskly because of how efficient the loading stations and trains are? I guess top three on the list would probably be Millennium, Magnum, and Raptor... and number 999999 would be the WildCat.

California's Great America seems busier this year than the past couple years.

Raptor and Magnum are far more efficient than Millennium.

In fact, Wildcat is likely more efficient than Millennium.

Yea.

The parks that I have been to this year seem to be buisier. I have been to 2 differant six flags parks, lake winnie, martins fantasy land, waldamear(sp),michigans adventure, kings island, cedar point, and dollywood. They were all a little buisier then what they have been the last time I was there.

I think it may be that people are staying closer to home, rather than going on a cruise or larger vacations.

Really?

Millennium Force has always seemed to have excellent capacity and pretty much not stopping for too long on the brakes. It always seems to be hitting intervals.

I don't think capacity has anything to do with the lines being off. Last year for example, if the parking lot was filled beyond the traffic tower in the main lot, that guaranteed at least a 45 minute wait on the really popular rides. I know that when working properly, those rides have good capacity, but do you really think its that good.

I think out of the 6 times I have been to the park this year, I have only seen a 20 min wait on millennium force once. It's been at least a 45 min wait each time.

I usually hit it up durring ert in the morning, or late at night when the lines are shorter. I refuse to wait more than an hour anymore for any ride.