Mystery Construction

Ok, I'm going to throw my two cents in here...I am a huge fan of both CP and Disney. How is that possible you may ask? Its possible, because when I go to CP (or any other ammusment park) I am expecting to be thrilled, and that is delivered. But when I went to Disney for the first time last year, I was not expecting to be thrilled, I was expecting the experience. And that was delivered ten fold. In fact now that I think about it, I only went on a few rides there because my girlfriend at the time didnt want to ride most of them, but I saw some very good shows, and I still had tons of fun for an entire week.

To everyone out there saying that they won't go to Disney because its not thrilling. You shouldn't be looking at it from that angle, you should be looking at it for the experience. That experience is why DL and DW were created in the first place.

Oh, and when I went I was 18 years old.

Which is exactly why comparing CP to Disney is illogical.

Especially, in my opinion, in a thread about mystery construction. I wish we could up/down vote ala digg comments that go off topic.

You can do that. If you don't like a topic, don't post to it.

I went to Disney World when I was in 4th grade, probably the prime Disney age, and I didn't really like it. I had been to Cedar Point multiple times and loved every trip. Even then, I knew the rides at Disney weren't much to talk about, and all I thought about was gettin back to CP and riding some good coasters again.

This could be because I love/d roller coasters more than other aspects of parks, but even at that age riding was the most important thing. And in my opinion, Cedar Point has all around better rides.

I'm pretty sure there are plenty of thrill seekers out there that grew up with the same opinion as me too.

Comparing Disney World/Land to Cedar Point is logical, however we are looking at two different markets. Disney caters to family and kids, look at their movies (granted I do like some of them myself being 26). Cedar Point, however, as long as I've been going, caters to a different market. Recent years it seems as they are trying to appeal to a more family type market, but that is not how I visualize CP being.

I grew up with CP and when I went to Disney when I was 13, I was absolutely bored! Granted Tower of Terror was awesome, but you strip away all the theme additions and you just have a drop ride in the dark. I'll pick CP over any other park in the world any day.

I recently took a trip to Knotts, Six Flags, and Universal. Knotts was ok, Six Flags has the number of rides, but not nothing to exciting, but Universal I found boring. Too much theme to the rides in my opinion.
What happened to good ole fashion thrills and G-forces? In my opinion, that is the Cedar Point way no matter how many family/kid attractions they adopt.

All I have to say about comparing CP to Disney is that every morning I wake up an flip on the Cedar Fair Channel for my Kids... With classic shows as Berenstain Bears, and Peanuts. Then your afternoon, Rockin Dragster Mike show with his co Host, Xcellerator Dawn. Live everyday from the Knotts theater in San Diego. Right now there is a Mean streak in the popular Evening series "Demon Dropout"

You all really have to call your cable operators and ask for the Cedar Fair channel.

There the best CP to Disney comparison. Cedar Fair claims to be an all around entertainment company but remains an amusement company. Disney IS an all around entertainment company with Television networks, (Disney, ABC, ABC Family) Cruises, Theme Parks, Stores, Production Studios. If it is not in the park, there is still fun for the whole family. The CP Disney comparison is non sense compared to the whole scope of reality.

My 2 cents.

Also, just because Disney is not CP and visa versa does not mean they cant be compared. They are both parks, and both have to operate them and on that level they arent that different (other then Disney being open 365 days a year) one operates their park to near perfection, the other does a good job but has some problems in some areas. Comparing them on an operations level is valid. Also comparing the fact that at CP there is only a dozen or so rides that the entire family can ride together with the fact that there is proably only a dozen or so rides at Disney that the family cant is also a valid comparisson. None of us on this thread thinks CP will ever close that gap completly, but we feel they could do a better job of having some more of those type of rides.

I think touchdown hit it on the head. No one here is expecting Cedar Point to put 50 million (or more) into ride theme alone, just as no one expects Disney to invest in just a thrill ride. Each has their own place in the world of amusements.

But where Cedar Point used to be the epitome of operations, and they no longer are. Disney's ride crews kick serious ass, and are given the freedom to make a guests day. Disney also sets the food service standard. Cedar Point, if anything, is bringing up the rear of food service in the entire amusement industry.

Some people don't like Disney, that's fine its not for everyone. But to think that there aren't things that Cedar Point could learn from Disney is asinine. First off, they could do with removing a CEO/President who has long passed his usefulness.

ride crews are probably better because they are open year round. actually, every time i hear the topic of ride crews it makes me laugh. whenever i go to CP its fine, they do their job, i get on the ride, they check it out, and off i go. is there something else that needs to be analyzed here?

^CP's ride crews are actually pretty great. After visiting Canadas Wonderland, Dorney Park, Kings Island and a couple other places you see just how much faster they are at cedar point.

The ride crews were on a slow decline ever since I had started going (1999) until this past year when they took a huge leap back to where they once were. There is a whole lot more to operations then just the rides though, maintenance, food, service, etc. Some areas (cough food cough) couldn't be much worse at CP, and others still could use a little improvement.

TTD 120mph said:
^I too have heard Monty talk about the prefabs with dislike.

Where is everyone hearing Monty Jasper spout opinions about a ride Cedar Fair does not own and that he does not have to maintain?

You know why Disney is relevant? Because people like me choose to spend more money there, at Cedar Point's expense. I went twice last year, while dropping my traditional closing weekend on-Point stay after a six-year run. Two nights in Lighthouse Point would've cost as much as half the week at Disney, where meals were included.

I think the problem with much of the PointBuzz audience is that it has great many non-parents or people who aren't old enough yet to get a lot of travel experience under their belt. The more you get out, I think the more you see Cedar Point as a summer distraction, but not a vacation spot.

This isn't meant to be a knock on CP's ride crews, they do a great job with what they are able to. But Disney has the entire thing optimized.

Heck, Disney would probably find a way to run Mantis at 3 train capacity with no stacking.

Jeff said:
Where is everyone hearing Monty Jasper spout opinions about a ride Cedar Fair does not own and that he does not have to maintain?

I've heard it more than a few times while sitting right across from the man in the employee cafeteria talking about rides at other parks. I personally took part in one of the conversations. He wasn't quite as adamant about it as you may think some of us are saying, but he was rather strong in his opinion, that much was clear. I also learned a bit about boats from Mr. Hildebrandt, but that's another story completely. ;)

As for the Disney comparison, operationally it is very relevant. While I have not personally been to the parks, anecdotal evidence would suggest to me that even on the busiest of days their lines don't even approach the ridiculousness of a 2+ hour wait for multiple rides, despite having less rides in one park than Cedar Point with a comparable or greater crowd level. I also have a friend who works on Ripsaw Falls at Universal, and some of the numbers that ride gets astound me, even after seeing the numbers that Raptor, Maverick, and Magnum hit. Operationally Disney, and even Universal, are ahead of Cedar Point right now.

I'd definitely agree with Jeff that it's not a vacation like Disney, I don't think I've ever spent more than 2 days at CP, even as a kid. But how many amusement parks can boast that they're vacation destinations? I've been to amusement parks across the states and in Europe and never walked out wishing I had another day. This sounds to me like a solid arguement for continuing to invest in thrill rides. Sandusky is not a tourist area the way Orlando, L.A., Paris, etc. are. Not bashing it, it's a great little town, but you can't walk out the gates of CP and find a dozen other things to do without doing some research. The investment it would require to make it a vacation destination would be substantial, so why not pile on the thrill rides and draw in even more of the one or two day trippers?

Big up to the ride crews for sure. I'd always taken them for granted, but after going to Kings Dominion the 2nd or 3rd week they were open and watching their crews struggle to get trains out of the station in anything less than a few minutes I have a much greater appreciation for how hard you guys work, thank you.

JuggaLotus said:
This isn't meant to be a knock on CP's ride crews, they do a great job with what they are able to. But Disney has the entire thing optimized.

Heck, Disney would probably find a way to run Mantis at 3 train capacity with no stacking.

I think you need to actually work on Mantis before making a comment like this. I know that there have been numerous occasions where we could have sent a train by the time the one before it got to the MCBR, but we can't because thats not how we are trained to run the ride with two trains and maintaing a consistant timing routine. Due to added safety checks it does take quite a long time to load those seats, more than people realize. The reason for taking the third train off was for better customer satisfaction, because some times the trains would stack for a little to long due to those extra safety checks. Also another reason is to make it easier on the crew working cause wewould be the ones that would have to deal with angry guest which wouldcause more problems with loading times. Cedar Point wants guest to be in those seats as little as possible to improve the customers comfort on the ride, it's not because the crew is slow. Our crew last year was accually complimented by someone that works at SFMM on Iron Wolf (A supervisor of some sort) for having very fast and organized loading and unloading procedures.

Schuyler - I guess my point was missed. I'm not complaining about the ride crews, and I fully realize you guys are doing the best with what you are given. What I'm saying is that Disney could make the operations more efficient (not sure how, I'm just saying) to allow you guys to be quicker.

JuggaLotus said:
Schuyler - I guess my point was missed. I'm not complaining about the ride crews, and I fully realize you guys are doing the best with what you are given. What I'm saying is that Disney could make the operations more efficient (not sure how, I'm just saying) to allow you guys to be quicker.

Yes Yes, I know. Also People need to look at what each ride can to capacity wise. Disney coasters have multiple blocks and can run many more trains at one time on the track than most coasters at CP can. I do agree though that Cedar Point could have done a better job choosing higher capacity rides. But, what they lack in capacity they make up for in overall thrill and fun factor (not saying Disney coasters aren't fun or anything). I will find out more when I go to Disney this weekend :D

I just got back from disneyland a few weeks ago, and I have to say that they know what they are doing when it comes to thruput and guest satisfaction.

BgrooDog...

It is true that they may have more trains on there coasters and rides, but the length of the rides(much longer than a cp coaster/ride) are very long.

I think we timed pirates of the carribean at over 14 min long.