Opening Day Review: A Big Mess

If they tacked on parking to the admission price and charged $80 for admission, there would probably be a ****storm. While you would be paying the same price as you would be if they were separate, I think it would create some backlash.

It wouldn't be $80, it would be $71 instead of $65. Parking per-cap is about $6. Possibly less if you include the junior tickets. Even better,
"FREE PARKING" is something that can be promoted. In fact I suspect that's the reason Kings Island still charges for parking: they can use it to promote their Gold Pass program.

Go back and find one of the many articles where Will Koch explained in great detail how he "gave away" soft drinks and *increased* his drink per-cap by a nickel.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

There have been various studies done over the years where one store would have a display of widgets with a sign advertising a $5.99 price and another store would have the same widgets on display with a sign advertising a price of $6 -- and the $5.99 widgets always substantially outsell the $6 widgets.

People like to think they're getting a deal; buying something that costs "less" than $6 reassures them that they are a savvy consumer.

I think something similar is in play here. I might hesitate at spending $71 on a ticket that includes free parking, but feel like I'm getting a deal spending $53 for my ticket; the $18 I spend on parking is just $18 I spend on parking. I'm still a savvy consumer for getting a ticket for $53.

I think the free parking, soda pop, sunscreen etc can work at a smaller park like Holiday World, but a park on the scale of Cedar Point that has to wring every last dollar it can out of its guests -- different story.

It would also reduce the perceived value of the pass. (not sure if regular season pass has free parking?)

Yes, the biggest perk of the pass is unlimited admission, but I have a feeling that the "parking included" is right up there in terms of where someone sees the value. If word got around that on busy days it was free anyway, people would start to second-guess this decision and see it as not really worth it.

I just don't see a problem that needs solved. Packed, busy days mean congestion and longer lines for everything. Cedar Point also has the problem of entry points (from Sandusky) with minimal lanes (casueway, CP road, etc.)

Now maybe what they COULD have is a season-pass only parking booth that would streamline entry for those people.

sdavies: Stop deleting the thread. You don't get to make that choice after it has gone on for 8 pages.

I will say that having OSU day and pass-holder preview on the same day was not very well thought out, but I've certainly seen worse opening days. Remember this was Valravn preview weekend and not the official opening weekend (that would be this weekend) and the park didn't have to be open yet. The park also didn't have to keep Valravn open until 1am Friday to let riders who got in line at 11 to ride. So for all the complaining please remember you didn't have to go and you have 6 more months to enjoy the park.

99er said:

I will say that the idea of letting cars in for free when traffic backs up really bad isn't that crazy of an idea.

I think that is a horrible idea. What do you tell people who have to pay parking, or who already paid parking, when a significant number of cars were let in for free? Nothing like upsetting guests first thing in the morning before they even enter the park.

I still don't see any reason to complain. Just about every Saturday of the season has a parking backup, it just happened to be on Friday last week. Either wait in traffic or go another day, very simple. It is not really that painful. As far as preview evening, they had the entire park open which was much nicer than the limited attractions they had open last year. In spite of OSU day, I found the lines shorter overall and the evening was very nice.

Great conversation going on here. See, my issue with this causeway congestion is fear. The CP causeway is not very different than the road to key west or the Chesapeake bay bridge (excluding the tunnel). Narrow, tight, and heavily traveled. When things come to a grinding halt, certain folks are going to panic simply because they hate the water. I'm not in this category, but certain folks are. That said, being stuck for an hour+ On the causeway and even I'd be getting antsy. perhaps early in the day, the CW could be 3-in lanes, and later in the evening 3-out lanes. And somehow speed up the tool booth as well. Pay-to-park isn't going away.

Pete said:

I think that is a horrible idea.

I didn't say it was a great idea, or even that the park should do it. I was just commenting on the opposite of everyone saying it wouldn't work, or was a dumb idea. I only wanted to say that other parks do it and that its not so outlandish. But as for what other guests might think... Well I have never questioned anyone in front of me going through a toll booth without being stopped. I guess those kind of people are out there but I would assume those people were suppose to pass through without paying. I see situations like that all the time and never bother to think anything of it.

^I have always thought they should treat the Causeway the same as the Golden Gate Bridge where they change the amount of lanes going in each direction depending on traffic flow. I don't know if they still do this at Cedar Point but they use to add a 3rd lane on the left just after the island leading all the way up to the Toll Booths. They should just extend that across the bridge to the traffic light.

New post about Early Entry from Tony: https://goo.gl/G2yGzK

I believe last year they would generally set up cones to have three inbound lanes.

It's over, it's done, time to move on. Enjoy the rest of this season because it'll be here and gone before you know it! Enjoy it while you can.

Ride on!

You're saying that to the wrong group of people. :)

99er said:
You're saying that to the wrong group of people. :)

Not meaning it that way, it's just these summers fly by and we're all complaining about stupid crap like this (myself included) when we should be soaking in every minute, second, millisecond we can at the best park in the universe!!

I still don't understand what people found disastrous about opening weekend. Especially considering the staffing levels are very low.

I took a picture for a lady and her family after the park had closed on Friday night after I witnessed them struggling to take a selfie. Afterwards I asked how their time was at the park. She then went on to say how dumb it was for the park to schedule Ohio State Day and Passholder Preview night on the exact same day. They were pissed because they waited 3 hours for Valravn and only got to ride that and 1 other ride. I just wanted to be like "hi, nobody made you wait in that 3 hour line".

Statistically speaking, those who rode Valravn on Friday's preview night should be thankful. The theoretical capacity of the ride is 1,200 pph. The event was 4 hours and I'm sure Valravn was open an additional 2 hours because of the line being so long. So I'm guessing around 6,000 people got to ride.. out of what people were guessing at around 20,000 people in the park.

Based on those odds, I sat out. I'm a pass holder after all. I can ride it when the line isn't so long.

When did I become such a priss about waiting in line?

I did ride Valravn a few times over the weekend, my shortest wait was when I entered the line Sunday evening at 7:55pm. About a 25 min wait. It pays to pick and choose.

Again, we were there Sunday only, and other than our fiasco at the front gate, I wouldn't describe it as a mess at all. As has been said multiple times, a "bad" day at CP is still better than most other good days. I think most of the people that have been described as being upset/pissed off/generally grumpy are probably that way through most of their lives. Still, it doesn't mean that the park can't improve efficiency and other aspects of operation, and it doesn't mean that any of us are bad people for throwing out suggestions. Honestly, aside from a couple people on here, there is no one the management is going to listen to anyway. LOL

On a tangent note, there is one thing about the marketing and build up to last weekend that has continued to confuse me, and that is the idea that CP was opening a "week early". Granted, this is our 5th season as passholders, but every year of those 5 we have gone to the park on Mothers Day. I realize this year Mothers Day was as early as it can possibly be in May, but they didn't really open "early" according to the past year's calendars. It's more that they decided just to not be open for the first week after.

Staaber said:

Guess it's better than this:

▶ 0:50

Who's the Moosiest Moose we know....

So let's ponder what we have learned from one another;

1) Season-pass holder day is really popular, especially with a fancy new roller coaster to ride.

2) On busy days, lines in the park get longer. In fact, it can even take longer to get in the park to start having fun.

3) Sdavies thinks it's fun to keep deleting this thread. Jeff does not find this funny.

4) Dress rehearsals for extremely large, seasonal amusement parks with lots of new staff reveal kinks in the operations, and newly implemented processes at the park (like Funpix) do not always work perfectly the very first time it's ever used.

5) Patience is a virtue.

6) The post-office will not let you cancel the mail, even if you want to (see above)

7) HeyIsntThatRob is now officially a "priss" about waiting in line.