Opening Day

I don't quite know what to say to this one. :)

Um, what is May 6th? ;)

Sorry I was hoping on going to Cedar Point in May some time and I always wanted to go to Cedar Point on opening day and I was wondering if Opening day normally pretty crowded or like most of the other park days in May and pretty uncrowded.

Thanks

As everyone will tell you, there is no way of predicting the crowds on any given day.

That being said, the crowds opening day really depend on the weather for the most part. All the Cedar Point fanatics are there no matter what, but for the rest of the general public, if it's rainy or wet, they'll likely stay away. In the last five years that I have been there on opening day, I have seen both a packed park, and an empty one. Whether or not there is a new ride debuting or not, and what it is, also seems to play a role.

I can predict the crowds most of the time.

30,000 +/- 25,000. :)

I'm disappointed to see the reduced hours for weekdays during July and August. Taking away the midnight Saturdays was one thing and really tough to argue with, but this decision sucks pretty hardcore in my opinion. Less late night power riding means less of a reason for me to make the trip. Hope that budget cutting is working well for you, guys.

They're not exactly closing the door with 60,000 people in the park. Why leave the park open late if it's empty?

Right. I heard that the main reason the park stayed open until 11:00pm was because the mid-summer crowds at the Summer Spectacular would cause crowd control problems if the park closed at 10:00pm. The show just doesn't seem to be as popular anymore, people didn't really seem to stay as late last year.

Pete said:
The show just doesn't seem to be as popular anymore

Get rid of the dog.

Get rid of the dog? I say get rid of the show or put a little effort into it.

They play the same lame crap every year. Ohio State, Michigan, Notre Dame, God Bless America, blah, blah, blah, zzzzzzZZZZZZZ.

Last month, the wife, my stepdaughter and I saw TSO in concert in Cleveland and after 1 song my stepdaughter said; "This is way, way, way better than Cedar Point's laser show. I didn't realize how lame it was!"

Out of the mouths of babes.

-Tambo

*** Edited 1/4/2006 4:53:24 PM UTC by tambo***

I am very dissappointed in the new 10 pm closing in the summer. Gets pitch dark at around 9 to 9:30, so we get an hour to admire the beautiful night lights on the rides; awesome change.
And as far as why would they keep the park open? Why won't they?! Thats the best time to go from ride to ride with minimum waiting time. Anyone wonder why they put night time on RCT3, because night time is awesome.
I try to not get upset with decisions cp makes, because obviously I am not in their shoes. But heck, I thought with all the crap last year maybe this one would be different. So far its starting out worse.

Simple economics everyone. Why keep the park open an extra hour if the revenue derived from it is less than the expenses?

Yes, the enthusiast would like to see it open later. Heck, enthusiasts would want it open 24/7 365 days a year! Remember, amusements parks are a business and the bottom line is profitability for its stockholders.

It is pretty obvious that the revenue was not being generated to justify the extra hour.

Life goes on.

ejh, the following quote from you is one of many examples of coaster enthusiasts showing how little they know apart from stats, history, park names, and manufacturers.

Quote ejh1707: "And as far as why would they keep the park open? Why won't they?! Thats the best time to go from ride to ride with minimum waiting time."

Just look at the other explainging posts, because its pointless to post the same thing over and over if no one gets it.

I'm just saying that taking away my favorite hour of my whole day at Cedar Point causes me to have less incentive to go in the first place. They might try to spin this as a step to improve guest service - saying employees will be less tired and more friendly. I believe it will do the opposite. That extra hour is just one extra hour most of them will spend at the bar. Also, I believe this will serve to make weekends even more crowded and miserable than ever with people saying, "oh - let's go when the park is open longer!"

Let's be honest. CP isn't all that great of a place when the park is wall to wall people and it's 90 degrees - especially with the declining efficiency and guest service of the past couple years. That's why a lot of us avoid the park during days we know will be really busy. Suppose they just don't open until July since the park is not really crowded before that. Suppose they just kick everyone out when it rains and there are only 2,000 people in the park? Suppose they get rid of Friday night Halloweekends?

Every year since about 2000, it's just more and more cutting of things that made CP special. First it was the early gate openings, Millennium Mania, the Friday night hours, the midnight Saturdays, now this. That doesn't even get into the other things the park has cut like character signs, spiels, staffing on rides, events for employees, freeway, etc. A few of these things we can't even fault the park for, but when does it end?

And look what all of this has gotten them - a decrease of nearly 400,000 visits per season. Keep going on and on saying it's a business, etc. I know it is. But their cutting is taking its toll on the experience and it will hurt their business in time.

I can understand personal disappointment at the decision. I wasn't thrilled when the Cedar Point Cinema was removed. But I tried to make sense of it and it's turned out to be a great move.

I don't think it will be spun as improving guest service. I think it's simply a common sense issue. The park was open late, but the crowds did not justify it. It's nothing more complicated than that. Same reason why they close at 8 p.m. in May.

When HalloWeekends first started, it was a midnight close on Friday nights. Then, after a few years, they decided that an 11 p.m. close made more sense. Now, for 2006, it's back to midnight. The park has the operating schedule done to a science. The schedule is scrutinized each season. They know how many people are in the park, when they're there, how long they're there, etc. Who knows? Perhaps they'll revisit longer hours down the road.

*** Edited 1/5/2006 12:19:26 AM UTC by Walt***

Yeah, what Walt said. In words that you have heard before:

IT'S A BUSINESS. God knows CP knows how to make money and that is really what it is all about. If they lose money from 10pm-11pm, they need to plug that hole.

I think they just did.

MrScott

Bluestreak64, the following quote from me (which someone failed to read) is one of many examples of coaster enthusiasts showing how they sometimes don't know how to read the Whole post....
ejh-"I try to not get upset with decisions cp makes, because obviously I am not in their shoes."

Anyways, I have to agree with about everything MDOmnis said in his post. Wonder why cp couldn't have just cut the late hours in August, yet still being open till 11 in July.

As MrScott said, cp is a business and its all about money. Personally, I love cp, but lately have realized they are just like every other company; the bottom line is what matters.

Interesting they cut the price of food and admission, which everyone was very happy about; but yet now on those July and August days they close an hour early. What’s up with that? Therefore, I hate to get all scientific, but I just had to do the math (no life)-

-Note: This affects those Mondays thru Thursdays in July and August that lost an hour of operating time. This doesn’t take into account coupons but are merely the gate prices. This also doesn’t mention the new Senior and Junior prices for this year which cp did substantially reduce (and I applause them for that)-

Take last years gate admission of $43.95, divide that by last years 10 am to 11 pm hours (13 hours); last year a person paid exactly $3.38 per hour at cp. Hey, pretty impressive considering you spend better then $50 for a 3 hour Red Wing game ($16 an hour), above $80 for a five hour Nascar race (also $16 an hour).

This years price of $39.95 divided by the expected hours 10 to 11 (13 hours) and a person would expect to pay $3.07 per hour at cp. About $.25 per hour less then last year, pretty respectable; especially when considering putting that money into the gas tank, which is one of the main reasons they lowered admission prices…wasn’t it???

However, take the new admission price, $39.95, divided by the newly announced hours 10am to 10pm (12 hours) and now a person will be paying exactly $3.33 per hour at cp. Hmm, looks strangely familiar to last years price per hour…

So, what was a great announcement back on October 31 about the reduced ticket pricing has now been nullified with the cut on the hours. With the new price and the new hour cut back, the average ticket buyer will be saving exactly $.08 an hour compared with last year, around $.96 a day. Therefore, Cedar Point didn’t actually lower the general admission price $4, they lowered it by $.96.

This is exactly the kind of stuff that Six Flags: World's of Adventure pulled while their attendence was declining during the early part of this decade. More and more cuts to try to save a little money (all while hurting the guest's experience) followed by further and further attendence decreases and more cuts.

At least CF didn't cut their hours midseason. They only cut freeway, staffing, etc all while allowing their star attraction to sit there for 2 months not running - probably because it was too expensive to fix for only weekend operations. How nice of them.

I just looked at the Cedar Fair attendence press release. Geauga Lake's attendence for 2005 was 700,000 guests. IDENTICAL to last year, but following the expensive multimillion dollar waterpark addition that was supposed to win people back.

If that aquisition should teach Cedar Fair upper management one thing, it is this: It is a lot more expensive to win back a customer than it is to just keep them in the first place!

Yeah, what in the world, cut back on admission but yet then cut back on the hours as well. What are they trying to pull?! Why was I noticified about this before I purchased my season pass for 2006? Nice of them to tell me.

I don't post on here often, mostly because I don't want to get shot up, but night time is my favorite time at the park. I try to make it accouple times each summer with my pass, but now I am losing an hour each time plus high gas costs predicted this summer, plus all there getting is Skyhawk...do they offer refunds?