Has cedar point become less nice and wholesome

Walt was right, though. Saturday Night Live was funnier back in the mid-nineties. Never a bad sketch. Cast always nailed it. Back when there was never a fight at Cedar Point and the management at the park would sometimes go home without a paycheck if it meant doing something for the guests that made their day more magical.

There is nothing wrong with having a particular era or aspect of the park that one holds personally endearing. You do you. But I'm pretty certain that if George A Boeckling could take a tour of the park today, he would literally be in tears knowing his vision still lived on in ways he couldn't possibly imagine.

Maybe it's the psychology-of-humor nerd in me, but Walt's analogy is just on-point. Pun intended. Saturday Night Live has always been awesome and sucked at the same time. It has had moments when the whole world is watching followed by moments when the whole world is yawning. It has been groundbreaking and monotonous. It has had wonderful memorable cast members that changed the face of comedy enjoy their run, only to be replaced my someone new and inventive; a change that may or may not always work out. Sound familiar?

The only thing intertwined into the DNA of Cedar Point more than roller coasters is change. And I love it. I love telling my girls stories of things that once were and pointing out artifacts of those things around the park (i.e., the Pirate Ride), and it makes it even more meaningful to know that they will be saying these exact same things to their kids someday. It's even more fun when RCMAC is with us and is teaching both my girls and me a history lesson at the same time.

Cedar Point is not less "nice or wholesome" (whatever that even means); it's just different, and will continue to evolve until all of us have gone the way of the Space Needle.

Which sucked, by the way.

If allowing an elbow to rest is such a substandard, egregious offense, I wonder what TomT thinks about employees with long hair, facial hair, piercings, and tattoos? Simply shocking!

You’re setting up a straw man argument. I said, “…as all I really noticed was such a minor infraction.” So, I never said that the offense was egregious. And, resting on your elbows on a podium isn’t quite the same as allowing an elbow to rest. The former is generally something you do to shift your weight because you’re getting tired of standing upright; the latter is something you do after a tough game of pickleball. But I’ll bite nevertheless. The things you mention are physical attributes, not behavioral. I believe CP has adapted to those physical/cultural changes. Setting behavioral standards is nothing new. I believe Disney is known for enforcing such standards.

Along with the rose colored glasses argument, I think there's a bit of a burnout issue too. People who visit often are more forgiving in their criticisms early in the season due to being away for months, and getting to try the new things.

By this time of year, we've seen and done everything multiple times. There aren't many new things added during the season, so each little negative just accumulates and they stand out more. Then you throw in halloweekend crowds, and new employees still being trained, and threads like these pop up to give people opportunity to point out the problems.

I'll add my two cents. Granted, I didn't visit CP this year.

But I grew up going to the park since I was a little kid. We would usually visit twice a summer until I left for college, and I've been a handful of times since. I always loved visiting.

Nowadays...
Things that have taken a turn for the worse:
-Ride Operations.

Things that have taken a turn for the better:
-Everything else

Is everything perfect? No, of course not. But outside of ride operations, it's better than I remember.

It may be dumb luck, but I have even had good luck with operations in the later portion of this season. Lots of hustling crews hitting interval, including Maverick crews last night often spieling "waiting on Maverick" and hitting interval, something I haven't seen on that ride in ages. The silly rain policy still seems to be a thing, but there really seems to have been a renewed focus on dispatch times (excluding Gemini and Blue Streak, because of course) since mid-late August.

That Crazy Dan:

I'd be willing to bet you could go digging all the way back to the rec.roller-coaster and GTTP days and find folks making this same argument about the CP of the late 90s.

Heck, you can find that stuff on here and CB from 20 years ago! But for fun, I searched for "Cedar Point sucks" on RRC, and found this gem from when I started the club. Unbelievably, look at the first post's racist rant at the start. Holy crap. I remember bouncing that guy, because while there were always trolls, that dude appeared sociopathic online.

Can I circle back to what I think is a main pain point?

The park closing super early compared to the past.

The midnight closing times is when I would always schedule my visit, in August.

Now it seems the latest is 10.

In the heat of the summer its just finally dark by then.

I would wager that both the number of people in the park at the end of the day, combined with the rate of spend at the end of the day, makes it financially untenable, especially compared to earlier in the day. Add in staffing issues and the business case worsens further.

If it's a choice of catering to families with young kids in the AM versus a few coaster dorks marathoning rides at the end of the day, it makes more sense to lean toward the families.

Usually, I’d agree with you, but Disney caters to families, and one of my favorite things about Main St. USA is that everything, shop-wise, stays open while everyone is making their exit. It’s nice to kind of stroll out and get the t-shirt you’ve been eyeballing all day or grab some treats from the confectionery rather than sauntering out to a closed up park.

I know it’s really a completely different setup, but it’s similar enough to make a comparison.

Ah, yes... the midnight closings. Those were the best. And perhaps my memory is fuzzy but it wasn't a bunch of coaster dorks in the park. Lots of people lining up for night rides, and always a long line at the ice cream shop on the way out. Good times.

Disney has volume though. If they're not open late, people might not get to ride that thing they must ride. (This despite the insistence that everyone must plan all the things.)

I remember closing the park at midnight frequently in my 20's, and it was typically a ghost town. And even in the Kinzel days, food, merch and games would often be closed well before midnight. There weren't a lot of people around that late, especially after the laser show. I'm surprised in retrospect that they were open that late.

There are a lot of people who aren't in the group of parents with young kids or coaster dorks. Not like catering to one or the other is the only option.

Disney has a ton more merchandising opportunities than Cedar Point does.

I am sure the park has data on spend totals during midnight close days and 10pm closes. Many of the spending likely happens no matter what. If you know the park closes at 10pm and there is something you want to buy/eat before you leave, you do that before the park closes (and would do the same it if closed at midnight).

May be like pharmacies who determined that if they shorten their hours, they don't miss out filling many scripts because people adjust to the reduced hours (so they are filling the same number of scripts but in fewer hours and thus with lower costs). They miss out on the script written at an urgent care late night but on balance, its not worth it.

What is the total spend in the park on a day when they close at midnight versus 10pm? May not be much different at all but employee costs are higher.

" Employees gotta sleep".

Isn’t being open 50% of the day enough anyway. Most stores are only open that much, and restaurants even less. I know I wouldn’t want to have to work until 12am after spending the last 8 hours in the summer heat. Let them rest.

I mean, it was always a goal to ride every single rollercoaster in the park at least once within a day, while still being able to sit and eat lunch and dinner.

Plus, coasters in the dark are the best. I remember it made Mean Streak a whole lot better 🤣

On that same note, Im not sure if they still do this, but the park made extra money from night passes. It was half off or something like that from 6pm to midnight, and teens/adults flooded the park at that time.

Like others, I enjoy the nighttime atmosphere, and I wouldn’t mind if they stayed open until midnight. But I came across park schedules from 1992 and 2019. Those years, the park closed at 10:00 on weekdays and at midnight on weekends (Friday and Saturday) during the summer. This past year, the park closed at 10:00 on weekdays and at 11:00 on weekends. So, it closed an hour earlier on weekends, but I wouldn’t call that “super early”. Assuming it gets dark around 9:00, that allows for a couple hours of nighttime atmosphere on weekends. Am I missing something? Was the park ever open past 10:00 on weekdays?

In the early 2000's they would be open until 11pm on weekdays between July 4 weekend and mid-August, and midnight on weekends during the period as well. Later than now but as you put it, not much later.

Plus we get midnight Halloweekend closings three days a week for two months. I'd take these new Thursday nights over midnight closes in the summer anyday

Agreed!