Opening time-Joe Cool vs general public

Please forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I've searched for the info and only gotten more confused. Was at CP on opening day, our first trip with Joe Cool Club. Advertised park hours were 10 am to 10pm, so JCC gets in at 9:30 am, right? Got there at 9:20 am, seemed like they were hardly looking at season passes for JCC . . . Waited just inside park til 9:30 am rope drop. Just figured there were a lot of JCC/hotel guests.

Checking out virtualmidway.com just now, says that "the gates opened at 9 am for everyone. Those without Joe Cool were stopped at the Sky Ride Station."

Did we miss out on something? Does the park always open earlier than announced or was this just an opening day thing? Sorry this is so long.

I've never entered the main gate using a JCC pass(only the Marina Gate and the Magnum gate) so I'm not sure how they do it up there but even at those two gates there seems to be confusion as to what line to get in, or where to go. This is one of my personal beefs I have with the park. There's no clear-cut line (signage might work here) for season pass holders either regular or JCC or for regular ticket holders. I know it seems trivial but it's just kinda lacking IMO.

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This ain't no book you you can close, when the big light hits your eyes. Cropduster-Riot Act-Pearl Jam

OK, I don't know why they stopped the people by the sky ride, but here is how it usually works. If the park has an opening time of 10am, Joe Cool and hotel guests are allowed in at 9am and select rides are open. The rest of the guests get in at 9:30 and the other rides (and their queues)then open at 10:00. Confusing, huh?

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What IS the air-speed velocity of an African swallow?

The gate opening depends on the day. Most days it's 9am for Joe Cool and resort guests. Cedar Point's web site has the times for each day of the season.

Park information for Saturday, May 8, 2004
Park Hours : 10 AM - 10 PM
Gates open to the public at 9:30 a.m. Gates open to Resort Guests and Joe Cool Club Members at 9:00 a.m.

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Walt Schmidt
Virtual Midway
*** This post was edited by Gemini 5/9/2004 7:07:02 AM ***

This is how it worked yesterday, front gates opened at 9am for everyone. Guests were stopped at the rope at the sky ride station. On the left side of the sky ride station was a JCC enter point. That's were they were checking season passes and letting only JCC members to continue on down the midway to whatever ride.

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http://www.zerognetwork.com

Thanks everyone. That is confusing, but now I know better for my next trip (hopefully next weekend!).

Someone correct me if I am wrong, everyone was let into the park at 9am because of donut time. Only JCC members and resort guests are permited past the ropes by the sky ride. At 9:30am the park opens to the general public.

From what I have heard the front gate is the only entrance you are allowed to go into at 9am if you are not a JCC member or Resort guest.

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First time season pass holder (2004)

Right wingnut, they only let you in at 9am so you can go to Donut Time at the main gate.

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.04.

The early entry time for Joe Cool Club members and Resort guests is 9:00 AM every day of the season up until Halloweekends. The gates open up to the general public at 9:30 AM.

At the Soak City entrance, they were not checking. As far as I could tell,everyone was being let in. I do not have JC,and thought I would have to wait. They glanced at pass, scanned it and let me through.

I have no problem with having to wait. I just think there needs to be more consistency from gate to gate and day to day. I know last year it varied. Some days I got in,some I didn't.

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http://www.magnummania.com
jerry@magnummania.com

TTD was supposed to have Exclusive Ride Time for resort guests and JCC yesterday (Sunday) morning, I got to it about 9:30 once I got out of bed and dressed and into the park, and they were just letting anyone in....now maybe I'm wrong, but I didn't think regular guests were allowed to start riding until 10, when the park officially opens.

John

I can verify that on Saturday at the Soak City entrance they were letting everyone in at 9. It actually kinda irritated me because I think the biggest perk of the JCC is getting into the park early for a couple of little-to-no wait rides. I actually asked the young lady at the gate if only JCC members were supposed to be getting in as she took my season pass, she said something to the effect of "everyone is getting in now, Joe Cool got in at 9." At that point it was 9:10! There just needs to be better training and communication to the gate employees on what exactly the early entrance policy is.

I meant to stop at park ops during the day to ask exactly why I paid $15 extra for a perk that was blatantly disregarded.

And for the record, I ran into similar circumstances last year in approximately half of my early arrivals at the park.

Right. JCC and Resort Guests all get let in at 9:00am and the regular gates open at 9:30. What bothered me - or rather really p.o.ed me royally - is that we made it a point to get there early enough so we were not far back in line at all and the line got rather long. Then right before they opened the gates they took resort-tickets guests into a new line and seemingly a couple of hundred people that were way behind me got in way before I did because of this. I mean I know they have different lines and all, but something about that just wasn't right. First come-first serve - yeah right. I felt like I was stuck in traffic in a highway construction backup and I had gotten in the correct lane and all those resort guests were the people who wait until the last second and cut over into traffic and cut everyone off. They should upgrade all the turnstiles to accept any form of admission be it ticket, pass, resort or otherwise. Only then will it truely be first come-first serve.

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cyberdman

You pay all that money to stay at the resorts and you should be able to get in the park early before the non-staying guests. We got in the park at about 9:10 Sunday morning and the place was already crowded and tons of people were already in line for Dragster....I thought the non-staying resort guests were not allowed to get in the park till 9:30???? I can tell you we had a resort identification card and they didn't even ask us if we had one. So I think they need to do something about this....Resort guests pay all that money to stay at the resorts and they should be able to get in the park early to ride the rides.

I completely agree Randinator, I was also not pleased with the line-jumping in TTD....people who had to check stuff in the lockers would just skip ahead when they passed their friends in line. I think it would help to have some employees stationed around the line (kinda like lifeguards) to keep an eye on this sort of thing.....and then I don't know if anyone noticed on Saturday, but there was this one kid in line for MF (I can't remember what time off hand, maybe between 2:30 and 4) who was standing on the rail and hanging from the awnings, he'd walk along the rail hanging on and I don't think once did the FW employee notice and say anything, I was tempted to "accidentally" nudge him when I passed but decided not to....

John

randinator said:
Resort guests pay all that money to stay at the resorts and they should be able to get in the park early to ride the rides.

Relax - JCCers pay to get in early too. Season pass price + the extra for JCC.

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cyberdman
*** This post was edited by cyberdman 5/10/2004 1:11:39 PM ***

And that's fine, I don't have a problem with the JCC since I knew they would be in early as well....the complaints come from them letting everyone, (resort guests, JCC AND everyone else) into the park early, it defeated the purpose of being a JCC or resort guest. I was rather disappointed with this as I hoped to get 2 rides in on TTD before the park "opened"

Yeah, that would suck. Seems they need to be doing a better job of checking. Send them an email complaint.

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cyberdman

Juggalotus, I noticed some line jumping in line for TTD as well. Last year wasn't there a lot of cops in line? I didn't see any this year. It seemed a lot of the ride ops that worked entrance and Freeway were "Ride Pride" people, and that may have had an effect on the way they handled the situation.

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2004 Stats: Trips: 2
Top Thrill Dragster: 3
Magnum XL 200: 12

I sure thought it was funny when we got to the sky ride and all these peole who thought they could get in couldnt. it was good for me i woulda been first on ttd if it wasnt for those other two gates.

I to saw that kid hanging form the awnings on MF it ticked me off he just kept slidding up.

*** This post was edited by Derek Seeburger 5/10/2004 7:03:03 PM ***