Opening Day Live

We'll be live until noon or so at http://live.pointbuzz.com

Walt, that Gatekeeper line is unbelievable. Hoping that distracts people from Millenium!

So that line is with a full queue as well? Brutal. Hopefully this Thursday and Friday are a little lighter on people.

With that Gatekeeper line MF still had a 45 minute wait for early entry. Looks like we will e having some pretty long lines today

Looks like Halloweekends-like lines today!!

Can't believe that Iron Dragon cue.

Are Windseeker and Blue Streak up and running today?

Yes

Blue streak was running very smooth and fast. Wind seeker was up and down all day, mechanically and literally.

Truly a disgusting amount of individuals at the park today. It's like even if a new ride gets put in in any given year, more people come to account for this new ride so lines at all of the other previously existing rides stay the exact same. Absurd.

This season could be the perfect storm for very large crowds at the park. Coming off a recession with people spending more freely combined with a high profile dramatic coaster that is a new type not seen before by many CP guests reminds me a lot of Raptor's debut year. I believe that year has the all time attendance record. If we have good weather this summer expect huge crowds.

A lot of people on FB are complaining that the park was "disorganized" today. Can someone elaborate? I'm guessing this was a combo of the park being understaffed and the crowds being huge.

And I agree, Pete. With the park being so crowded today despite the crummy weather, I feel this bodes well for the park's season. What is the attendance record? Isn't it like 3.6 million?

Its opening day. Its ALWAYS going to seem disorganized. Thats exactly why i didnt go on opening day. Many of the employees are new and have never dealt with a crowd of that size. The rides are having early season mechanical problems, and the biggest factor of all obviously being Gatekeepers debut to the general public. Give the Cedar Point staff about 1-2 weeks and everything will run as smooth as glass!

Windseeker was not ready to be opened. I'm not sure what happened but when I went on it my lap bar and seatbelt were locked and somehow when they checked my seatbelt came indone and my lap bar flew up. This terrified me for the ride.

Top Thrill 182 said:
A lot of people on FB are complaining that the park was "disorganized" today. Can someone elaborate? I'm guessing this was a combo of the park being understaffed and the crowds being huge.

And I agree, Pete. With the park being so crowded today despite the crummy weather, I feel this bodes well for the park's season. What is the attendance record? Isn't it like 3.6 million?

I was there the entire day and will note my observations:

Pros:

Crews seemed really friendly in general, especially Millennium IMO. Not sure if this is the new CEO bringing a new culture to the employees or it just being the first day of the season but almost everyone seemed happy to help/assist with questions and appeared to be having fun- just a good vibe in general.

The recently moved FastLane's seemed to work better, especially on MF and Maverick. MF seems to restore more 'fairness' to the general line while Maverick seems to improve the hellish FL from last year to its new location while also improving the FL experience. Also thought the FL entrance for Gatekeeper was well placed, however didn't seem like it will be enough queue on busy days.

The general upkeep/maintenance seemed to pay off. I could definitely notice the repainted MF station, the touched up Gemini station (I think?!), some of the TTD seats seem to have been touched up. Stuff like that.

Crowding of the station. Most of the day MF was doing a great job of keeping the station orderly, same goes for GK (the best today, and it should be), Maverick, and Magnum. Dragster and Raptor really need to implement the controlled crowd in the station strategy instead of a mad rush.

Entire GK plaza looked amazing.

Cons:

While I would agree with the above post that the park was understaffed, the entire 8:30 entry was a cluster. First line up here. No, over there. No, wait, over here again. Really?! Also witnessed VIP's showing up and some of the admissions workers having no idea what to do with them. Just seemed like poor communication in general. The security team did not have the proper plan in place to accommodate the rush to get in line. The pushing and shoving was unbelievable. And the attempt to form a line down the midway was hampered when people continued walking towards GK and forming a mob for the speech.

The man staffing the main toll booth when I arrived told us the parking lot didn't open until 8 and that we could park to the left and sit there until 8 and then move our car. No way that was going to happen. Sure enough, parking lot was open.

Downtime. Yes, I get it that it's opening day but I thought there were way too many mechanical breakdowns today. Yes, I know it's unpredictable but did they test everything rigorous like GK to work out any pre-season kinks? Just seemed to add more tension to an already jammed park.
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Curious to see if anyone had similar or contrasting observations to mine?

Also regarding one thing I mentioned above: does anyone know why exactly they don't limit the crowd in the TTD or Raptor station? I'm convinced (and could be wrong) that implementing a 1 or 2 train length line in the station would create the false sense of the line moving more consistently which could improve guest perception. Not to mention the station wouldn't be a total cluster. Any ideas why they don't do this?

Truly a disgusting amount of individuals at the park today. It's like even if a new ride gets put in in any given year, more people come to account for this new ride so lines at all of the other previously existing rides stay the exact same. Absurd.

I'm confused. This sounds like wonderful news for the park.

Didn't like the crowds yesterday. Well if you don't love your mother I have an idea for you. It looks as if only the first few rows of the parking lot are full which would make today a great, cold day at the park with few people.

Kca32's observations were pretty close to mine. I couldn't believe the GK line snaking down to the Sky Ride Station up front. (wait, yes I could).
Staff were very friendly. Park was awesomely clean. Those A frames up front (above the main gate bathroom/Hurricane Hannah's) look so much better (gray paint) and smaller.
The Ohio State marching band was wonderful as always.
Weather was a little chilly. Yes the crowds were very large, 30-45 min wait for Corkscrew and Mine Ride for most of the day!! (yes,mine ride).
Some downtime for Maverick (unusual) and LOTS for Windseeker (never could get on it, very frustrating).

Dinner at Famous Dave's was wonderful, crowded, but very well staffed and very friendly. The park's Main Entrance and GK plaza were spectacular!!! Also the renovation/look of the old Disaster Transport Refreshements was alot better than I expected. Nice touch CP!!

Parking attendant (from the Chausee entrance) had a hard time scanning our Platinum Pass for parking. (It wouldn't go through).

Some of the food stand workers didn't know about the Platinum Pass Perk benefits for free drinks/etc. (which we luckily brought our printout to show them).

It a was a chilly, crowded day overall and I agree we're going to see some
unbelievable crowds in June/July once school lets out/ summer vacationers come in. Luckily I live close by.....

Top Thrill 182 said:
A lot of people on FB are complaining that the park was "disorganized" today. Can someone elaborate? I'm guessing this was a combo of the park being understaffed and the crowds being huge.

I was only at the park for 3 1/2 hours yesterday, and I know Opening Day is bound to have problems, but I witnissed many. Unfortunately, they were mostly caused by bad weather.

I got to the park at 6:30 pm. Most of the big rides weren't running and by an hour later even more weren't. I heard many people complaining about the rides being down, but this was due to high winds and eventually rain. While waiting out the rain under the locker tent near GK I witnseed a lot of issues. I heard employees mention that earlier in the day the locker system shut down. Not sure the details, this is just what I heard. Also these new lockers seemed to have many issues as employees were having trouble helping guests open lockers, open expired lockers, and several other things. Also somebody claimed their bag with an iPhone in it was stolen. So even though I was barely at the park, overall I got the impression that it was a very bad day between the weather, ride operations, and guest experiences. Sometimes the park's best feature, it's location, is also its worst.

At least most of the staff was very friendly and helpful. The employees with the locker situations were very nice. But when we were getting our Season Passes processed we stepped over the next available kiosk to process in, and the employee at the next kiosk over told the worker at our kiosk to turn around, since she had more guests (us). She still didn't turn around, and the other worker kept telling her to do so. Then the worker at our kiosk said she didn't feel like it, and asked the worker next to her to process us in instead. So we went to the kiosk next to ours. I understand she was probably tired and bored, but I found her attitude and willingness to say "I don't feel like it" not good at all.

Interesting... Sound like the miscommunication at the front gate prior to opening may have been the source of some guests' frustrations.

And kca32, what's this about FL being moved on MF and Maverick? Moved to where?

Ride On_17 said:Then the worker at our kiosk said she didn't feel like it, and asked the worker next to her to process us in instead.

I would hope that was reported by someone on staff to management. That should be that employee's last day at the park. She is lucky you were so understanding. I would not have been.