Looking ahead 10 years

I already explained its nothing like Maverick, and is your other comparison Millenium Force? I put a pretty good description above in another post. Griffon at Busch Gardens is about 210' tall. If Cedar Point made one about 270' + with a different layout I think it would be a hit. It's also unlike anything Cedar Point has, with three rows of 10 seats on each train. It's a different experience, especially the hang from the top.

Does anyone think it is possible that B&M could build a flyer with 3 rows of 10 seats and make the first drop vertical with a hold. I think that might be a unique idea. Remember that the first Dive coaster was made in 1999 so it's not exactly new by any means. Cedar Point usually builds rides which are unique. For example, the wing coaster concept has only been out for a few years. All other coasters before have also been unique at the time or broke some kind of record. I don't know if tallest and fastest dive coaster in the world is enough of a marketing gig when you have a coaster with a 400ft twisting vertical drop in the same park.

While I agree, they are currently marketing a tallest, fastest and longest wing rider which is 170' or so, so that argument doesn't work.

Yes but the Wing rider idea is a much newer concept than a dive coaster. That and a flying coaster is a much more unique sensation especially if the seating arrangement with the vertical drop and hold were involved.

Ive rode griffon its my 2nd favorite roller coaster behind millennium. if cedar point can make a dive coaster around 250 feet tall with more inversions and an airtime hill or 2, with a big splashdown, it could be one of the best coasters around. a good location for it would be were the cedar dorms, good time theater and turnpike cars are at.

I will say yes I'm biased...but I don't want corkscrew going anywhere nor any changes. Reprofiling a ride like Kennywood did w/ Phantom..it's not the same anymore. Yes people can say it's better or smoother, ect, but to me it changes the ride from what it is. I'm a bit nostalgic knowing it's hype the opening year, it was hand built on site by people, not welded by computers and people to such precision. It has...flaws..but that to me makes it nostalgic. Lastly it's one of the few good rides we have from Ron Toomer's mind, and to me thats enough to keep it for as long as we can

Just an educated guess, as Matt Ouimet made his name at Disneyland....I suspect within 5 years, you will see Cedar Point break ground either near Castaway Bay or on one of the vacant, CP owned lots near commons dorms and the dairy queen. This will allow CP to challenge or possibly break Disneylands record for the largest freestanding parking deck in the world. The entire front parking lot will then be redeveloped as part of the park. The park entrance will be just past the current location of the tollbooths. Guest cars would not be allowed across the causeway and CP would just charge 18.00 for use of the parking deck and the "free" shuttle or trams to the park. This is in keeping with Disney's lead as it builds anticipation for guests while damn near doubling the park size in a limited geographical area. Soak City would be acessed via a new stop on the CP and LE RR, for non resort guests, ala Kings Island and the current soak city lot would be repurposed for senior staff and resort guests staying at the renovated breakers. I would expect the City would go along with this plan as it would effectively shield the causeway and resort area from one of the city's most blighted and problematic neighborhoods behind the breakers express.
Ok my crystal balls gotten cloudy....

cptedsdisciple2 said:
Just an educated guess, as Matt Ouimet made his name at Disneyland....I suspect within 5 years .... The park entrance will be just past the current location of the tollbooths.

Do you really think if this was in the current 5-year plan that they would have spent all that money this year building a new entrance gate?

Gravity said:

cptedsdisciple2 said:
Just an educated guess, as Matt Ouimet made his name at Disneyland....I suspect within 5 years .... The park entrance will be just past the current location of the tollbooths.

Do you really think if this was in the current 5-year plan that they would have spent all that money this year building a new entrance gate?

Exactly. The parking lot isn't going anywhere anytime soon. However, I could see some offsite parking at a cheaper rate with a bus going back and forth between the lot, but it would not be used to increase available space for new rides. The park is huge already, I don't think I want it any bigger for now. Sure, more rides is a good thing, but it would too much of a good thing at this time. I think CP is very good at managing available space. I never would've thought Gatekeeper would've fit in the park. And we are getting 2 new rides next year, which I never would've thought would fit.

It's already a pretty big stretch to try to enjoy everything in the park in one day. You really can't do it now if you double the size of the park how would you even make a dent? And then how much would you have to charge for admission to make it plausible?

cptedsdisciple2 said:
Just an educated guess, as Matt Ouimet made his name at Disneyland....

That guess could not possibly be farther from educated.

I think you're severely underestimating how many buses would be needed to transport guests back and forth; not to mention doing so on a causeway that wasn't designed to support dedicated mass transit, and would still have to handle resort and Soak City traffic.

I suppose a parking ramp replacing part of the existing parking lot could be possible.

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/10/26/the-best-roller-coaster-ride-in-the-market.aspx

It's a pretty good evaluation of where CF currently stands, and where they are headed in respect to any major investments in the years ahead.

I could only imagine how much of a nightmare it would be to leave a parking deck at Cedar Point on a Halloweekends Saturday.

Back in the mid-90's, when I was in high school, a representative from CP came and spoke to us. I cannot recall the nature of his visit, or what his position was, but he was rather young so I'm assuming he was not upper level management.

He predicted that by 2010 CP would have expanded into the current parking lot, that parking would be done on the mainland, and that guests would be shuttled in by bus or monorail, or both. Obviously this has not come to pass, but it wouldn't shock me to see SOMETHING like this implemented someday.

Obviously there are numerous financial considerations involved here, but seeing as how CP has purchased a fair amount of ventures/property on the mainland already, it wouldn't exactly shock me to see some sort of transport system running to Castaway Bay, with a stop at Breakers Express, and other places. Am I the only one a little surprised that CP doesn't already offer a shuttle for guests of Breakers Express and Castaway Bay?

Agreed. I believe that this would have happened already had the board been guided by leadership with one iota of vision and ability to think outside of the box. In 20 years it will be remarkable to reflect on exactly how detrimental to progress Kinzel was.

^ sometimes things look better in theory than in actual practice.
The money that would be spent on monorail/mass transit systems would build/improve hotel properties on point. (As is currently under way)

The resorts on point are massive revenue generation points for CP. They routinely sellout throughout the season and command premium rates.

Investing in a mass transit system from off point to encourage customers to stay off point would be detrimental to this vital revenue stream.

And don't bring up charging for the monorail/train/bus idea. Even if they could get people to pay, which is a whole other discussion, it would not makeup for the loss of room revenues in the $300 and up a night they get now.

I don't see a monorail in Cedar Point's future. It would be a massive investment, one that I can't imagine could be justified to serve a seasonal resort.

They would need to build a full circuit track, mostly over water as there's not room on the causeway (if there's only one track, then only one train could be on the track at a time); they would need multiple trains; a maintenance facility large enough to house them; a dedicated full time staff; and so on.

I suspect some people are thinking of Walt Disney World's monorail system. Disney World was designed, literally from the ground up, with a public transit component.

There are transport systems that are similar to monorails but are economical to build compared to the Disneyworld system. Dopplemayer, the ski lift company, also produces cable driven transport systems that run on elevated rails.

One word that pretty screws this idea over in addition to what has already been stated.

Gatekeeper.

The only reason this ride works with the name is because of the front gate.

The only way to keep the name and get this idea to go through would be to have the monorail/mass transit system work and expand into te parking lot would be to keep the entrance where it is and build around it. Essentially having the main entrance in the center of the park.
Or they could just change the name of Gatekeeper, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.