Operating Hours

Ok, heres a question...just looking around on the CP site and I noticed there arent any midnight closing on saturdays in july. in fact, the only one there is (aside from halloweekends) is on July 4th. whats up with that???

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Please do not bump or ram your go-karts. Bumping, ramming, and reckless driving will get you removed from the ride with NO refund.....Graaaaaaaaand Prix 30...

It's either one of a couple things. 1.) CP realizing that not enough people usually stay in the park until midnight, they don't make any money, so why be open. I really doubt this is the case, otherwise they'd do away with another week or two in May. 2.) They're doing it with night Joe Cool Club ERT in mind. 3.) Probably the most likely scenario is they're trying to balance out their attendance between Saturday and Sunday. Saturdays have notoriously been packed and Sundays for the last few years have been dead. Part of the reason might be that GP says, "they're open an extra hour on Saturday so we'll get more for our money!" But in reality, you get much more riding in on a Sunday even with an hour less.

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew
2003 Magnum Crew

Matt, those reasons make sense. I actually don't mind at all not having the midnight closing---Challenge Park stays open an hour later than the park, so it's better for me! lol...although it is an hour less you can get on your paycheck. But anyway, I do think that the balance idea makes the most sense. Thank you for the answers though! (hey, race park is just under the magnum, stop and say hi sometime lol)

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Please do not bump or ram your go-karts. Bumping, ramming, and reckless driving will get you removed from the ride with NO refund.....Graaaaaaaaand Prix 30...

It is a savings issue more than anything, and apparently they really discussed this to death internally before settling on these times.

While it probably doesn't matter that much the bulk of the season, I really think they're shooting themselves in the foot for the Friday nights during Halloweekends. Regardless of how long people actually stay those nights, I think that the perceived value of going on one of those nights is greatly diminished. I feel that way too, as someone who has gone nearly every Friday night the last three years. As a season passholder, it's less of a big deal because I don't have to pay for it, but will a non-passholder go and pay admission for five hours? Tough call, but I'm guessing they'd be less likely to do so. I guess we'll find out.

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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
"The world rotates to The Ultra-Heavy Beat!" - KMFDM

Yea, I tend to agree with you about the Friday nights, especially when the Saturdays are still noon-midnight. So they're going to have three different closing times (11, 12, and 8) and three different opening times (6, 12, 10) three days in a row during HalloWeekends. I think they'd have been better leaving things alone in terms of the weekends, although I will definitely take advantage of the extra two hours on Sundays! :)

The Friday nights are priced cheaper than the other weekend days too, so maybe they'll knock that price down a bit, or at least not raise it. That'd be my only incentive to go on a Friday night if I wasn't a passholder.

-Matt
2001 Magnum Crew
2003 Magnum Crew

The early Sunday Halloweeekend time works very well for us. With small kids, we need to be headed back to a hotel or to home by not much later than 2PM to have naps fall at a reasonable time. On Saturday, the noon opening isn't that big of a deal, since naps are at Lighthouse Point. On Sunday, we may as well just go home if the park opens at noon. But, with a 10AM opening, it's worth sticking around for a few hours (and spending a few dollars).

The early close Friday however is a bit troublesome. We had originally planned to stay for two nights during Halloweekends, but there doesn't appear to be a package discount on the Lighthouse cabins if you stay two nights, and with an 11PM close followed by a noon opening, it might just be easier to drive out Saturday morning. In other words, a season pass makes entry to the park "free", but it doesn't pay for the hotel room!

Sometimes after “work” Saturday Nights we would head up to CP for the last few hours for the Midnight closing (I probably have a record for most entries to the park at 11pm). Even in that last hour the waits would be longer than most of the time Sundays. Raptor would be around a half hour, Magnum 15 minutes, MF an hour, etc.

I think we will see the rides close at 11 with “ERT” starting at midnight for an hour or two. The crews for the MF and/or Dragster would probably get out around 2 or3 like a normal Saturday. If they were to close at midnight and want to do the night ERT those rides may not even close till 4am. Eventually they have to let the crews go and start nightly maintenance on the rides.

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Wow, a new ride is being built.

Yeah - we went in once at 7 PM on a 8 PM close. The Sky Ride ride op asked us how our day had been and we told him we'd only been there 10 minutes. I don't think he believed us :)

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Virtual Midway
http://www.virtualmidway.com

I thought that the Joe Cool Club ERT was only May 9 and May 30. At least that's what their website says.

Thats ERT at night.

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Speed Freaks - 2003

4 days until I process in.

And there is always the possibility they will add other dates to that as well.

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I'd rather die living than live like I'm dead
http://www.webtechnik.com/ebony/CPLady.htm