Opening Day

On Saturday September 3rd, 2005 my cousin and I took a trip to CP for one last summer visit to the park. We got there around 9:00am and through an employee's mistake we were allowed in even though we weren't season pass holders or resort stayers. We rode everything we wanted to, except Dragster which was closed, and some things even 2 or 3 times and we were content with leaving at 5:00pm. It was a beautiful sunny Saturday but the park wasn't very busy so we really lucked out. Night riding is really fun, but I've only ever done it twice. This change won't effect me because I rarely go in the summer. I leave the night riding to Halloweekends because the mood is already set.

I think some of the kids on this site need to calm down. I also think that Walt severely owned you all.

That said, I personally don't mind the change. I usually seemed to lose track of time and didn't realize how late it was, mainly because to me it appeared like there was still an equal amount of people in the park. Maybe I'm just unobservant because no one here seems to agree with me on this one..

Cedar Point can do whatever they want, we can complain all we want, but what they do is not going to change and I personally am just gonna live with it and adapt.

Amen.

MrScott

BlueStreak64 said:
The point is, that you can still get your night rides, which is what everyone seems so worried about, which is something I don't understand whining about. Sure, a night ride on MF is amazing, but I don't think your CP experience will be ruined just because you don't get a night ride on that or another ride. Really folks, just be glad the park is even open and accept that the best decision for CP right now is to only stay open until 10 on weekdays. If you can't accept that, then I really don't know what to say.

You may not have taken DST into acount. Indeed the park can always announce an extra hour if need be.

I think people are forgetting about one aspect of the park that is probably the most important: the employees. Like myself, many workers have been there all day, busting their asses to provide a memorable day for the guests, only to have those guests bitch and moan about one hour gone? It's ridiculous. Let's assume for a moment that the closing hours are still 12am instead of what they were this past summer, which was 11pm. If you work at places like Sweets N Treats, the Corral, Hot Potato, and the Ice Cream Parlor, you have been extremely busy the entire day.

Let's assume that there are 60,000 people still in the park at closing. About 90% (give or take) will be exiting out the front gates. These guests have a pretty good chance to stop at one of the formentioned foods locations to get a treat before they go home. This past summer, there were times that Sweets N Treats didn't close there windows until after 12am. You can't shut the window until everyone has been helped. So what do you do? You stay open. After closing the windows, there is counting of money and excessive amounts of cleaning to do. Depending on the employees, they may not leave until after 1am, only to have to be in the next morning to reopen. Take that same scenario and apply it to Hot Potato. They didn't leave until 2am only to have to be back in around 8 am. That doesn't leave much time to really relax and get sleep. Also, sometimes Ride Ops on the major rides wouldn't be finished with their clean-up until about roughly 15-30 minutes after the last guest rode, which could be 1am.

I do realize that guests are the number one reason for Cedar Point, but just remember in the future: If no one is able to work, the park can't function properly.

Sorry about the rant, but it irkes me reading about people who don't fully understand whatit takes to run the park.

I fully understand what it is like. You aren't being forced to work there. I've worked my share of crap shifts. Lets be honest, its not like you're working O-C every day.

Personally, I think the hours sucked. Maybe they need to actually pay more and treat their employees better, but that's a whole different thread.