Opening Day Review: A Big Mess

I understand some of your concerns, but actually CP's price point really is not that bad when you think about the othe parks in the region. To compare:

A daily admission ticket online currently costs 45 dollars for CP while a regular daily admission for Kennywood costs 43.99 online currently. Kennywood has 12 less roller coasters and is about half the size in acreage.

Kings Island costs 42.99 online and Waldameer costs 33.99 online all of which have less rides (significantly in the case of Waldameer) and are in a similar price range.

Also if Cedar Point would lower the price that would only increase the amount of people in the park.

As far as limiting the amount of people, that would be difficult and quite possibly ridiculously unfair when you consider they have on site hotels where everyone staying will be at the park, 2 off site hotels where everyone will be coming to the park and then one of the largest season pass holder bases that come consistently. So if they limit the amount of people either a season pass holder will get screwed (and as you stated before you already feel pass holders are getting less and less) or a family of 4 on a summer road trip will be turned away thus ruining their trip and screwing them out of a chance to come to the park.

This is why Cedar Point has been marketing itself as a multiple day park now more than ever, they encourage you stay at their resorts because they are basically telling you "if you only come one day you wont ride half the rides"

Truth be told, the fact it is so much busier should be encouraging to us fans. Yeah it can be annoying to wait in longer lines, but without that extra business we dont get Valravn, we dont get Gatekeeper, and we dont get whatever is coming in 2017 and beyond. The more people, the more likely we get cool stuff and when you get cool stuff more people want to come us it.

i see your worry, but it comes with having the best amusement park in the world. Everyone wants to come experience the best

Theme Park G, first off thanks for not slamming me and being respectful.

The way you put it, makes sense. I get it. I can agree with all your points. Makes sense. Valid points.

I love you last line the best.

Point taken. Well said.

Had a great trip for the weekend. The park looks great. Took my parents on Saturday with our bring a friend passes. Because of their age we stayed away from the big coasters and road the older nostalgic ones and flats. We did get to ride Valrayvn, but waited way longer than we'd prefer to for any ride. I had expected things to be less than perfect because of the inexperience of pretty much all the staff. That being said the ride operators did a fantastic job from what I'd seen.

The food vendors on the other hand, well I expected it. 2 out of 3 times I got chili and cheese on my free fries.Which I didn't want, but didn't complain. The time our order was right the guy gave us a $2 off for some reason. I'd say it was poor training more than anything. Other than the french fries I can't complain at all.

As for CP KID's comment about pass holders being more important that resort guests, that has more to do with him/her identifying as a child and not an adult. I got to be both this weekend. But if he/she had ever ponied up the money to stay at the resort they'd have a better understanding of how much $180 is and how important that makes them. Not to mention that the season pass is already very reasonably priced without any additional perks. Enough said. Opinions and assholes. Everyone's got one.

Staaber said:

Theme Park G, first off thanks for not slamming me and being respectful.

The way you put it, makes sense. I get it. I can agree with all your points. Makes sense. Valid points.

I love you last line the best.

Point taken. Well said.

No reason to thank me for being respectful. We are all here because we are part of the CP fraternity. Plus how can I be rude to a fellow Gemini lover! :)

Theme Park G said:

Staaber said:

Theme Park G, first off thanks for not slamming me and being respectful.

The way you put it, makes sense. I get it. I can agree with all your points. Makes sense. Valid points.

I love you last line the best.

Point taken. Well said.

No reason to thank me for being respectful. We are all here because we are part of the CP fraternity. Plus how can I be rude to a fellow Gemini lover! :)

Some people are just flat out rude and mean. I voice my opinion, it's just that my opinion.

I really wish they'd bring back all three Gemini trains!!

Best ride in the park still, holds a special place in my heart.

Ride on!

I am not sure why everyone thinks its more crowded now than it used to be. As far as I know, the attendance records were set in the early 90's (94 maybe?) at somewhere around 3.6 million. They don't break it out park by park anymore in earnings releases, but I don't think it's any higher than that at least based on any industry analysis that I have seen which have generally been as low as 3.1 million and as high as 3.45 million. Are there some REALLY busy days like Columbus day weekend Saturday when they get like 53,000 people in the park? Yes, and those are difficult. But this past Saturday was not busy by comparison. I'd say there was at most 35,000 people in the park on opening day and significantly less on Sunday. Friday night was the busiest I'd say, but it still wasn't approaching the top 10 busiest days I've seen.

What might be creating this perception of it being more crowded is the more recent new rides (Gatekeeper being the exception) have much lower capacity than the new rides of the 90's. They've also cut down capacity on some of the older rides like Gemini going from three trains per side to two and also Iron Dragon. Magnum was running two trains on Saturday when the crowd probably justified three. Valravn is going to have some brutal waits just as Maverick did and still does and Dragster did - that's just the way it is. It's a popular genre of ride and it's just going to be a big draw, but it doesn't have great capacity. If you don't want to waste a big chunk of the day riding it, get there for early entry or ride it last thing at night. Even if they can figure out how to extract most of that 1100 riders per hour (and from what I saw opening weekend, there is work left to be done), that is still a lot less than what Magnum, Raptor, Rougarou, or Gatekeeper can handle. Although the capacity of of some of the newer rides isn't as good, there are more of them so I think the crowds are more spread out than they've ever been. What other park has such a big collection of monster rides? I don't see how we can be complaining about Saturday when Dragster was at 45 minutes and Millennium Force was at an hour. That was a slow day 5 or 10 years ago.

Also, food stands being more crowded might be because everyone has a cup that they're constantly refilling for either free or $1 rather than $5 bucks a pop and many people have meal plans which means they're definitely going to eat when they're in the park - even if they aren't starving.

Lastly, there isn't much for Live E going on in May so that's another thing that makes it FEEL more crowded than it is as most people there are actually riding rides and there's not as many ways to get off your feet and take a break for 30 minutes.

I remember the 90's a bit differently, I waited 2 hours in the sweltering shade-less sun that was the Mean Streak Que, Raptor, and Mantis lines were also hours long on a regular basis. To me, the perception is that the park actually seems less crowded than it did back then and I have chalked it up to the fact that there are simply more rides and much more to do today than there was in the mid/late 90's.

Right. I agree with you. No one is waiting two hours for Raptor or Magnum or Mean Streak anymore. The new ride of three years ago (Gatekeeper) rarely has a huge line. Rougarou's line moves better than Mantis did. Dragster's queue isn't always full like it used to be. Same with Millennium Force. I think a lot of people went to the park to ride Valravn and found a long wait and translate it to an overcrowded park. But the rest of the place told a different story.

My weekend went very well, considering last years preview weekend. I prefer to call last year "We'll tell you a few things will be open, but not surprisingly enough they won't be because we're making you ride our converted roller coaster instead or nothing at all" preview night....LOL. I was skeptical about this year, but took the risk and booked 2 nights @ Hotel Breakers, and glad I did! We got in area early, so headed to QS&L for lunch which was very good with no wait/ crowd. We checked in early and went right to our room. The property was in tip top shape IMO. We visited Surf Lounge, pool & hot tub before getting ready to enter @ 7pm. My biggest (personal) issue was OSU Alumni Day. For a few months it was promoted as Pass holder preview night only, then lo and behold 3 weeks away it turns into-"BTW, other people will be in park sharing your supposedly special experience for new ride".

All that being said, this year was 200% better for rides being open & running. No issues other than Coasters not honoring my all season dining (as confirmed should've been allowed per a call to park), but was redeemed later for a fried cheese on a stick plan up front! Sunday we went to Johnny Rockets for the first time-really enjoyed it, but was told all season dining had to sit inside? Is that a new policy?

We didn't have any major ride issues. When something went down, we moved on and kept having fun! Everything went really well(for us) this time around. We relaxed ,laughed & ate junk food! Sundays wait times were almost non-existent....TTD was 30 min, if that. MF 20 min.

The new app...not loving it yet. Ride times are still delayed quit a bit. A posted time to wait for new coaster was 60 min. We ended up in line for 2 1/2 hours. Good ride, but not worth that time.

We'd done so much in 21/2 days, we left early Sunday evening!

Keep in mind... that record year of '94 of 3.6 million guests predates Halloweeekends. The park only operated May 7th - Oct 2nd. The park is not as crowded as it used to be.

I think what we saw was an extremely good social media marketing campaign. There was enough awareness for ValRavn that people wanted to ride it and were willing to wait a few hours to do to. I'm waiting for the hype to die down before I stand in line to wait. I just don't wait in long lines anymore.

Sunday morning was a great example. ValRavn already had a 2 hour wait at 9:30a. Meanwhile, Gatekeeper (the last 'new' coaster) was a walk on. I managed to make myself sick from 3 rides in 15 minutes while people on the other side of the peninsula moved a few steps. To each their own...

Now for my little speech about this so called special treatment you think you deserve.

I think Platinum Pass holders need to lower their expectations. Carrying around a Platinum Pass card doesn't make you 'Anchorman' ("Do you know who I am?") And gone are the days of the Joe Cool Club super exclusive perks that some of us old timers used to enjoy. There are enough people out there who are aware of the perks that you're no longer special. Now, are they ever going to filter Platinum Pass holders from non-pass holders for early ride entry? Probably not. The overall trend for the last few years has been to let everyone in. Sure, they put up barriers in the morning but I think its for the illusion that you are still getting special treatment. Back in the JCC days, I remember the bitter angry people waiting in the MF queue while we gleefully flashed our pass to ride for the third time in a matter of 30 minutes. From the park's perspective I don't think they want bitter angry people first thing in the morning. I think the loudest people complaining about this lack of special treatment fail to see this from the park employee perspective.

~Rob

I do miss the name "Joe Cool Club", though. That was pretty awesome.

As far as early entry and things, I never really take advantage as it is. I prefer to relax and enjoy my time - I don't like to rush myself out of the hotel at 8:30 AM when I'd rather roll out of bed sometime after that - and I certainly don't want to leave home at 7:00 AM to get there for early entry - I'm much more of an afternoon/evening type of person.

I'm a morning person. I love Early Entry.

We spent the entire weekend at CP and had an enjoyable time -except for Friday. I can be a fan of Cedar Point and applaud the effort they made but it was a tad bit of a mess. Sitting on the chaussee for an hour and a half waiting to park for a 4 hour event that I arrived early to was unexpected and ridiculous. Once we got to the booth, there was ample parking and nothing that seemed like it would hold traffic up except all the inexperienced parking attendants. Some may say, "Well that's your problem you should've arrived maybe 2 hours early or taken the causeway," though I heard that was a headache too. The parking staff had no clue what to do with the traffic situation and that is an honest critique. I get the, "well they are just learning, give them a break, everyone is a winner as long as they tried," mentality but the truth is they were not prepared. I think it is ok to say hey you could've done better CP- just an honest observation.

Cedar Point is a tourist destination at all times regardless if it's just pass holder night. They need to have their stuff together from the first day their gate is open. I think rides going down is something that cannot be helped unless it's a staffing issue and I find no fault in CP for that. Food stand workers, parking, and general park operations has no excuse. If you don't have the staff then don't open up. On Friday night you would've thought it was a record breaking Columbus day crowd with the amount of time spent waiting to park, refill a drink mug or just ordering food.

People were upset because they thought pass holder preview night was just for pass holders. CP takes to social media and advertises it in such a way that of course you would think it is only for pass holders. I knew it was OSU day so I wasn't surprised (except for the crazy traffic coming in), but I do understand those that were taken off guard. If you want to do something nice for pass holders then you clear the park and have that event begin at 7:00 p.m. like lots of other parks do for special events.

Overall I think the park looked great and we found Sat. and Sun. quite enjoyable. I know from our experiences at both CP and Disney that different people can go to the same park and have much different experiences. I am usually on the side of rolling my eyes at the entitled complainers and saying be positive you are blessed to be in a happy place. Friday night was the first time I actually sympathized with some of the negative nellies because they were right. CP wasn't prepared training wise/staff wise for the large numbers that came and the night was advertised as something it was not. Yes it was a preview night for pass holders but it was not exclusive as some thought. Maybe this is a lesson to have an exclusive pass holder night or not have one at all. Regardless, if the gate is open be on top of your game at all times. A better training program or a program that attracts and retains more locals to come and work may fix a lot of the problems they seem to always have the first couple weeks of opening.

Staaber said:

Cartwright said:

While I don't have attendance figures, to me the crowds are pretty much spot on year after year. If you know when to go you can have a great experience. If you go on a summer weekend, an October Saturday, or Opening Day with great weather it is going to be busy. Those trends haven't changed in decades.

Yes they have. Back in the 90's the crowds weren't half as bad. Sorry you are wrong.

Not really sure what I am "wrong" about here. All I mentioned were basic trends that have been the norm for quite some time now in regards to crowd predictions.

Dodgem Diva said:

People were upset because they thought pass holder preview night was just for pass holders. CP takes to social media and advertises it in such a way that of course you would think it is only for pass holders. I knew it was OSU day so I wasn't surprised (except for the crazy traffic coming in), but I do understand those that were taken off guard. If you want to do something nice for pass holders then you clear the park and have that event begin at 7:00 p.m. like lots of other parks do for special events.

This is understandable. If I step outside of my enthusiast bubble and imagine myself as a dad taking his family to something I am assuming is a special preview night for pass-holders only and find the park mobbed, I would be pretty miffed.

What is not understandable to me are individuals who 1) knew the place would be mobbed Friday, and 2) are also aware that this is essentially a dress-rehearsal for the park, and 3) still get upset.

I rarely use the early entry perk. I usually don't get to the park until around 11AM. Most of the time, I've used it that hour was wasted anyway because either some rides were down, long line already in that hour or both. And sometimes they are just letting anybody into it. They could take away the early entry perk and I wouldn't bat an eye, but I know many others would.

And as for the preview event, last year it was exclusive and very limited, but still drew a massive crowd. And there were many glitches. For that reason, I chose not to take advantage of it this year. I only did it last year because I was staying in the area all of opening weekend. But it's not something I'm going to drive up 2 hours to attend, then 2 hours back home. I'd spend more time driving and parking than I would in the park. But Sunday, aside from my Funpix issue, it was an excellent day.

I was surprised when I learned that Platinum Pass preview night was also OSU day. Preview night was busy last year, as was OSU day, throw in the opening of a record breaking coaster and you've got a packed park for sure. There's no way the crowd levels should have been a surprise to CP.

There have been several times I have been disappointed with CP traffic control, not just on opening weekend either. I understand certain employees are new every year but the parking lot and roads leading into CP don't change, they could definitely be more efficient during busy times in that area.

Did I hear there was also a "Bring-A-Friend Free" promo this weekend for passholders? That inflates crowds as well...

I've been to CP for Columbus Day weekend the past 4 years when the crowds were just insane. And I had a blast. It is what you make of it. If you're gonna go during typical higher attendance periods, you can't really complain that it's busy.

It wasn't bring a friend free, it was $18.

I think those that complain about the crowds probably didn't expect it. I think researching can go a long way with that. You can probably just type in something like Cedar Point Opening Day crowds into Google and a thread from this site will probably be in the top results. All you need to do is adjust your expectations accordingly, and you won't be disappointed. If I don't get to ride a particular coaster because of long lines or downtime, there's always next time since I'm a passholder.

I don't know how much of Friday night's crowd was attributable to OSU day anyway. I wasn't there during the day, but I've heard it was fairly quiet. Plus the insane traffic coming into the park Friday evening seems to indicate that there was a massive influx of guests late in the day.

I suspect that even without the OSU event, Friday night would have been just as crazy busy. And I'm sure there would have been passholders complaining that there are too many passholders.