News: Cedar Fair preparing for another pandemic-focused season in 2021

RideMan said:

Hey, I hear there's an original Bartlett Flying Coaster with a recently upgraded all-electric drive that might soon become available, you think we can talk Cedar Point into installing it?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Please! I love this ride. I know it's not a capacity monster or would even make headlines but I would love to see this ride saved and installed.

Fingers crossed Knoebels is interested

Being that I didn't go for 2020, does anyone have an album of pictures of the various aspects of the season ?

RideMan said:

Hey, I hear there's an original Bartlett Flying Coaster with a recently upgraded all-electric drive that might soon become available, you think we can talk Cedar Point into installing it?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

As long as you're good with an extra seatbelt and a 35 second cycle time at 2/3 speed.

I hope the park is at least able to go back to regular operating hours next year with Early Entry and later closings, I missed doing night rides this year.

Agreed, though again it just comes down to staffing. But it would be nice if they just shifted the hours to allow for night rides, even if they opened later in the day.

Yep, I'm not a morning person as great as early entry is I don't use it that much because it involves "early".

I really think hours will come down to staffing. If the park still can not bring in the international work force then it'll be very very hard to hit staffing goals.

Also, the chain may take a deep dive into operations. If the later half of summer and early fall determined they can pull in good crowds with less hours (meaning less payroll to pay hourly staff) you may see reduced hours just as a business decision.

It'll be very interesting to see what happens. Also interested to see what kind of ticket deals may pop up for Black Friday and beyond. I'm thinking of getting some single day passes this year for family who do not have passes as a holiday gift.

I don't see any sort of operating calendar being released until probably late February or March, and a lot of it will depend on where we are as a nation and world after the holidays pass, the vaccine starts distribution, and we get 6 or 8 weeks into the Biden administration. I could see a shorter season on the spring side of things, clipping a few weeks off of May or just doing weekends until after Memorial Day since they likely won't be hosting the school trip science days like usual for the May weekdays. We could also see daily operations end in mid August like most other seasonal parks rather than hold out until Labor Day. I would imagine the main goal is bringing back later hours and Friday nights to fall season since that's clearly becoming the bread and butter. A soft spring and early summer doesn't seem to be a big deal anymore, as long as they have their usual October insanity.

I think that, unfortunately given the current state of the world the park will have to plan as if the pandemic is still fully with us and you’ll likely see many of the restrictions return that were in place this season. Better to plan for that option than without and lose half the season again.

Now the good news is that they’ll at least be able to start the season earlier but as someone else pointed out, many of the travel restrictions are still at play and if I’m Cedar Point I’m currently trying to figure out how I can operate without my international workers. I can’t see those bans lifting magically just because we might get better: many countries are getting worse just as we are now.

It seems obvious that CF has obviously planned for a restricted season again, given the lack of significant investments into their parks next season. The smart play there would be to invest some money into infrastructure to make things run more smoothly next season, IMO.

If international workers cannot enter the country, recruit workers from Puerto Rico. They are US citizens and cannot be denied entry. Puerto Rico has a very high unemployment rate.

Calendar-wise I hope they will at least decide that there's some benefit to *staying open later*. What was their typical day this year? 10-7? How about making 1-10 the standard operating day instead?

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

^ Please NO Dave Ride-Man! Then I'll be stuck doing actual work/chores around the house all morning......

RideMan said:

How about making 1-10 the standard operating day instead?

That seems downright hostile toward families with kids in the 3-8 range.

Reason #4,492 why enthusiasts shouldn't be running amusement parks. ;-)

From a pure logistics standpoint I wouldn't mind a 1-10 operation schedule. Solid daylight hours, later start to the day, and night riding hours. Maybe if families do want a bit more daylight they could have alternative days with 11-8 schedules to keep everyone satisfied?

Or maybe we leave it to the park to determine what schedule works best for them and their guests. It's not likely that they chose their opening and closing times by picking numbers out of a hat. I would imagine they try to cater to their most lucrative customers - families - instead of a niche group among their least lucrative customers - enthusiasts who like night rides.

Night rides aside there's something magical about the whole point at night. Especially on my overnight trip this year I would have loved to be able to walk around the park after the stars came out. Even if the rides weren't running. Sure I can't tell them what I can do but I can dream.

^^^ Yep, was always 'magical' at dark. 2017 and 2018 11pm summer weekday closing time was great. Come dark, most of the people clearing out after a long day, by 9/10pm coaster lines were short or non-existent and then riding until 11pm doing Valravn, Rougarou, MF, TTD, and Maverick. WAS GREAT !

A friend made frequent visits to Kings Island this season. His observation was that on all the days he visited, the first one with a big crowd was also the first one with the after-dark closing time.

I don’t understand why parks seem obsessed with the morning, and why when they cut hours it’s always off the end of the day rather than the start. Wyandot Lake always annoyed me when they cut their hours in July so that I could no longer stop in after work and have dinner there. I just can’t believe the whole industry is run by morning people...

—Dave Althoff, Jr.

^Because "Black Shirt Higher-ups" subscribe to that old adage; Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and able to go home before the rowdy behavior at the park kicks in to gear.

RideMan said:
I don’t understand why parks... when they cut hours it’s always off the end of the day rather than the start.

Probably because...

Dennis Urban said:

Come dark, most of the people clearing out after a long day, by 9/10pm coaster lines were short or non-existent...

Then again, what do the people running the parks know?