Is the attendance slipping?

I wonder if the improving economy has anything to do with it.

When the economy wasn't doing so hot, the amusement park industry didn't suffer. In fact, the industry seemed to thrive, perhaps because a local amusement park trip is relatively inexpensive compared to, say, Disney World.

Perhaps now that the economy is back on the upswing, folks are spending money elsewhere.

Regardless of attendance, revenue and per caps are up, so I doubt the park is terribly concerned with attendance. In fact, they'd probably prefer to do the same or higher revenue with lower attendance.

Less crowded parks is better for me. I hate waiting in long lines. I usually get a drink while I'm in the park, so I spend a little money. And this past Sunday I bought a T-Shirt.

Historically, 4th of July weekend has been more busy than other non-holiday weekends. I thought it was really interesting to read the trip reports of folks who went on Friday (the 4th) and then Saturday and Sunday. Friday sounded much more crowded.

It makes sense that Friday was more crowded since that day was the holiday.

If attendance was slipping, why add the Friday midnight closings unless the attendance was there to support it? Logically it would seem that attendance is higher than expected since they added the extra hours after the season started instead of planning that to begin with.

Or, maybe they're trying to use the extra hours to entice more people to come out to the park.

topthrilldragster4lyf said:
Or, maybe they're trying to use the extra hours to entice more people to come out to the park.

I would agree with Pete, if attendance is "slipping" for some unknown reason, an extra hour on weekends probably will not get the amount of extra people necessary to justify the additional costs.

That being said, Mr. Ouimet has stated that revenues are up and they fully expect to have another record year at CF.

I would suggest that even if attendance is lower, in park spending is up and the extra hour would only bolster those.

It's an extra 2 hours on Friday. Fridays used to close at 10pm but are now moved to 12m.

Matt's comments in the press release were about Cedar Fair as a whole though, not specifically about Cedar Point. They no longer give much in the way of specifics on per park numbers so we really don't know unless we have talked to someone with some real info. The report said that revenues were up one percent on increased per capita spending somewhat offset by less attendance compared to last year. That is company wide. They didn't even say how much less than last year.

At this point, the majority of the busy season is still in front of them so there is time to make it up, but based on a combination of webcams, trip reports, and personal experience actually being there (all on weekends too), I don't think there's any way attendance is not down (and somewhat significantly) at Cedar Point this year. It might be up by that much or more at KI though so as a company, they are doing okay, but it sure seems down at CP.

Having said that, it's possible they are still raking in the same of more money off of CP as last year because the people that do go are spending more. I know I probably have. If the park/company can make the same amount of money with less people in there, the end result is a more enjoyable experience for me.

People got used to the idea that CP gets something big every other year during the 90's and 2000's. While I make the same number of trips and spend about the same regardless of what's new, that's probably not true of the general public. CP is doing the right things to protect positive experience of their best (and most lucrative) customers (families that make one or more trips each year regardless of the new ride) - things like the Breakers upgrades, point of sale systems that take credit cards everywhere in the park, some sort of plan that allows you to refill drinks for a more reasonable price, Pipe Scream, etc. I think they'd be smart to really focus on attractions that families can do and enjoy/remember together because the idea of getting a record breaking thrill ride every other year (and the peaks and valleys that it results in as far as attendance) weren't sustainable forever.

I posted this over at Theme Park Review about attendance:

I think Fastlane is also playing a role. When you have up to 50 percent of your ride capacity going to fastlane users it has to have some effect on how enjoyable the day is for everyone else. I think they got a little to greedy with it. I think a lot of people who had to wait 2 to 3 hours for a single ride simply aren't coming back this year. Had they kept it to a level similar to the first year of fastlane they would have been much better off.

Note: I am not a fastlane hater, I use it a lot

I am not sure what the cap is (perhaps it's too high), but I haven't seen 50% of capacity going to Fastlane users. To be honest though, I don't ride Dragster, MF, or Maverick a lot though because capacity at those rides kind of sucks to begin with and the demand is high. I spend a lot more time riding Gatekeeper, Magnum, and Raptor and the difference at those rides anyway, from Fastlane, is not very noticeable.

I'm not sure what the solution is to the problem of people buying Fastlane and power riding the three Intamins with crappy capacity. That's why I suggested in another thread to put those three on the higher tier. Should they limit each Fastlane user to 2-3 rides on the big three Intamins? I don't know. Just one idea. One thing I was thinking of is they could probably use the wristbands and a scanner like Universal does to know who is riding what and when and analyze things a bit better. They are currently only using a hand clicker to keep track of Fastlane riders and I assume they are keeping hourly numbers. They don't really know if it's 1,000 unique people riding once each throughout the day or 100 people riding 10x each.

This keeps getting brought up in various threads, and from my own trips to the park it does seem like attendance is down this year.
Not that I think it's an immediate reason to hit the panic button, all business is a cyclical thing, you have good times and bad times.
Also my view is slightly skewed since I tend to go on Tuesdays.
But are we all in agreement attendance seems to be down this year?

My guess is because there is no new major addition to the park this year. Kings Island got a new coaster this year, so many people are probably going there instead.

This year is a year off for me and my wife. We usually get Platinum Passes, but decided to take a year off. We're not missing out on anything. We usually spend about 10 days at the park and stay on point for our trips. Nothing against CP, it's just that alot of our summer is spent at CP or KI. This year it's more camping and Reds games. We just got back from a week in Gatlinburg, TN. Didn't go to Dollywood even though I wanted to. Thought we'd be disappointed since it's not CP.

It has been brought up in another thread about CP's direct competition. There are alot of State Parks that I like to visit. Them taking out the campgrounds has made a large impact on our spending when we do go to the park. That makes it a little less desireable. I am actually suprised that there are RV sites left to book, but don't really want to pay $115 a night for a camping site.

My wife has got 2 $10 tickets to CP and 2 for KI. It is about time to look at what our plans are going to be. I keep getting emails offering 2 free tickets with a hotel reservation. I have never gotten an offer like this in previous years. I don't know if that is because they are trying harder this year to get people up there or if they did this in prior years. They could have done it before but just not sent the offer to pass holders.

Definitely getting Platinum Passes next year though. Original plan was to go in October and get the free tickets with the purchase of a pass. But if I can get free tickets for booking a room that'll probably change. Hoping that in October I'm in Great American Ballpark watching the Reds win a World Series.