Goodbye Cedars Hotel

Cedars could hold more then 750 and may have held more this past year the park was short housing in June and had staff stay in castaway bay as well as rented rooms in the econo lodge on Cleveland rd. They also had staff stay in the executive rooms (exterior rooms at cedars) in addition to opening rooms in building a in cedars that had been used as storage as well as adding bunks in the "geriatrics's wing" and changing them from one bed to three.

https://www.cleveland.com/travel/2019/01/cedar-point-tearing-down-c...-next.html

I stayed in one of the "executive suites" once, for the GKTW/Disaster Transport fundraiser, which as I recall at the time, John Hildebrandt explained that those were improved rooms that couldn't easily be brought up to ADA standards, so they kept them mostly for their own outside sales, people from other parks coming to corporate, etc. They were serviced by the resort staff in terms of towels and cleaning. The stuff in them was as older than the junk in Breakers at the time and one of the most uncomfortable beds I've ever experienced, but it was free so I was unwilling to complain.

The more interesting aspect of that visit for me was that it involved one of the last examples I'd ever see of Kinzel's extraordinary micromanagement. There was a form used to comp resort space, which they sent me a copy of so I could get a key from the guard booth and park there. The bottom of the form I believe had a line for requester, accommodations manager, general manager, and a dedicated line simply marked "RDK," where Dick had to have his initials. The CEO of a billion-dollar company overseeing a comp room that wasn't even for sale... that should tell you something about the micromanaging problem at the time.

Interesting... I just finished reading Kinzel’s book and he doesn’t mention anywhere that he was a micromanager.
😜🤪

Anonymous said:

Lived in Cedars back in 2005. It was a total dump. Absolutely inexcusable and shameful living conditions, and we had to PAY to live there. I certainly hope that Cedar Point takes better care of its employees these days. Good riddance to Cedars.

It was a dump in 1980 (my summer). I lived in the "Commons" but had a buddy that lived in the "B Wing" of the Cedars. I stayed there several times and it was @ best "rustic". I have fond memories of that place but it's past it's prime. I had no issue with the "conditions" as no one forced employees to live there (or for that matter work @ the park for a minimum wage). If CF wants to attract quality employees they will provide better housing options.

That it may be turned into a parking lot makes sense. Cedar Fair has to cater to their best customers.

Article and picture of the land clearing in Saturday's Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper. Page A6. Stuff we already know though.

I’m guessing the park plans to build a new and improved parking area for the marina, which is long overdue.

I say they use the land to add more to Valravn after the Immelmann and remove the mcbr to make it a good coaster.

*Biggest eyeroll ever*

Yeah, and while they're at it, why don't they spend even more millions of dollars to make me whole again because [insert ride here] doesn't live up to my ridiculous standards.

That land should absolutely be used for the marina, but if it isn't and we're coming up with dream scenarios, I'm all in favor of shifting Perimeter Road to allow for more space along the Celebration Plaza.

The parking situation definitely needs to be better for the northern most docks. It would also be logical at this point to reduce the bend in the road, from the crosswalk to the back of the train shop. This will add a little space inside the fence for whatever. A different viewing strategy for the night time show isn't a bad idea, though they're a little locked in by the reused laser show towers.

Sparty42 said:
*Biggest eyeroll ever*

Yeah, and while they're at it, why don't they spend even more millions of dollars to make me whole again because [insert ride here] doesn't live up to my ridiculous standards.

Like taking MS and turning it into arugubly one of the best rides ever?

XS NightClub said:
Like taking MS and turning it into arugubly one of the best rides ever?

A key difference is that in the case of MS, the investment was justified - low ridership, huge maintenance costs, etc. Comparing that to Valravn - which averages nearly 1.5 million riders per year - is kind of ridiculous.

It was also a light hearted comment, as I’d guess so was Zougs. The only thing ridiculous is pulling out stats to bolster an argument against an obvious tongue in cheek post.

I get that more parking is needed but I do think a small amount of the reclaimed real estate should go towards enlarging Celebration Plaza slightly. It just gets really congested at times particularly during HW when Skeleton Crew is going on.

The fact that the tower is where it is does not sound like much of an obstacle to replace or even just move a bit. It's just dropping some new supports in and moving the box. Not a big deal at all in the grand scheme of things that CP does from a construction standpoint. They've moved entire rides multiple times when necessary.

^ Not making the effort to ease congestion in the worst offending section of the park when the opportunity (finally) presents itself would be the worst decision the powers that be could make.

I always thought a new multi purpose arena could be placed on half of that spot, with an entrance where wildcat was that went over the road, or move the road. The other half would be for marina parking. Im not sure if that would cause a noise or firework issue for the marina.

I would agree with Jeff that the best solution would be eliminating that big bend. I was just looking at satellite image and, in my mind, would start a slight left curve right after you pass the cross-walk and connect to the section that currently curves right (after the CPLE RR maint. shop. That would give you plenty of added space in the park and plenty of space for more marina parking.

As much that I agree that it needed to come down, I will miss it as well. I worked there in 1989 and stayed in Cedars entire summer. I loved the convenience of getting off work, walking to Cedars, shower & change, and walk back out into park to ride rest of day. Sure, it sucked...but only paid a few bucks per week, so couldn't complain. I, of course, loved my room. From my window, I could look across the park and see the top of Magnum's lifthill. :)

As far as the Celebration Plaza congestion is concerned, wouldn’t an easy fix be to put bleachers on either side of the control tower facing the stage, and have a bypass path behind the bleachers? Seems simple enough...

^ Thank you! I’ve been thinking that since 2012 when that horrible midway was redone. But I’ve also always thought that was just an odd place altogether for a stage to begin with. And quite frankly, Iron Dragon could really use those switchback queues they took out because of the VR.

A more reasonable solution would be to move the Celebration Plaza Stage over by Wicked Twister where the beach front stage was constructed last year. I went to one of the beach party proformances for about 5 min last year, compared to about 3 or 4 of the Celebration Plaza shows. They should add something to the Plaza location, just not a show, even the old Millennium Lazer show was a bottle neck at night. The Plaza would be a great place for special festivals, like the food trucks, or Brew and Barbecue. Of to the side and not right in the middle of the midway. Of course they could always go the popular direction and bring back Wildcat.