Panda express and Chick-Fil-A?

i love chick-fil-a and panda express i ate at each of these places at least three times a week when i lived in louisiana, but they don't belong in CP

I'm going to take a stab and say that it probably saves CP a lot of money to have a chain in the park. They don't have to buy the food, the chain does that, on top of renting the "store" out to the chain, and probably a percentage of sales going to CP. They likely make out very nicely.

I admit, I'd hate to see the whole place done in by chains, but aside from a few sit down places, the whole place serves the exact same food, booth to booth. I'd rather have a hot dog from an A&W, for instance, than the ones Red Garter serves. Just never did like those things.

In the end, Cedar Fair is a business, and the absolute bottom line in any business is profit, correct? And the more profit a park shows, the more they'll invest into it. So, profit equals new rides, new attractions, etc.

There's a down side to having new coasters and rides go in every year. Many parks go several years between big upgrades in rides, let alone multi-million dollar roller coasters.

This is ridiculous.

Nothing says "Frontier Trail" like Panda Express. Ah yes, I remember my great-grandfather in his rocking chair, whittling his piece of pine and telling us kids stories of the old days. Working at the mill......using an outhouse......and stopping by the Ol' Panda Express to pick up some take-out to bring back to the log cabin.

Get real, Cedar Point, this is cheap, and it blows. Putting Panda Express on the Frontier Trail? Way to cheapen the park!

If the Point is going to go back to outsourcing quick service restaurants the least they could do is bring back Mama Berardi's!

Local family, great fries, perfect match!

BlueStreak64 said:
The only chain that I really want in the park is Starbucks. :)

Why? Its already obvious that you don't like coffee. And adding a Star*ucks to an amusement park means that you will be overpaying for the overpriced "coffee".

I stopped at one...ONCE. The service was crap, the "coffee" wasn't much better than that and I had to auction off the rights to my first born to the other customers so that I could buy it.

I hope to God that we don't see a Star*ucks at CP.

Gilly2878,

I agree, the hot dogs at cedarpoint are horrid. I think they are dry and salty.

Jugga, it seems that you had a very bad experience at that particular Starbucks. There are 5 or 6 in Ft. Wayne, and there is one that I never go to because the coffee always seems to be sub-par, but the rest are all really good (the one on Jefferson or the one over in Coventry are the two best ones IMO) in my experience. I know Donut Time serves the basic Starbucks blend, but I would love to get a white chocolate mocha, or gingerbread latte rather than a plain cup of coffee most all of the time.

They have the additives with the Starbuck's brand also as well as some of the specialty flavors they sell at the normal retail locations.

I love coffee and actually was surprised the one time I bought a coffee there that it wasn't horrid. There's no need for an actual Starbuck's location in the park.

As for the chain restaurants, I'm not opposed to it since CF doesn't seem to put much effort into their personally owned and operated restaurants that they have now. Maybe the introduction of chains will bring the CF owned locations at least up to par.

Wow, was that me being optimistic? Someone slipped me something, I swear. Maybe it's just because we'll finally be riding coasters again in two days...YAY!

*** Edited 3/29/2007 12:51:00 PM UTC by Loopy***

"Theme park food" was always part of the tradition of going to Cedar Point for me. I think its sad to see the parks start putting in chain after chain that people can get around the corner from their house. Pretty soon the only difference at the Cedar Fair parks is going to be the coasters and some other rides. Even those are starting to look similar in the short time Cedar Fair has operated all of these parks. Six Flags already took this route, and it looks like Cedar Fair is following suit even though they've seen what happened to Six Flags.

Saving money is one thing, but making your overall product suffer to save a few bucks does nothing for your company in the long run. I would argue people pay for the "experience" of a park just as much they do the rides themselves. So, if your "experience" is cr@p, your attendance will continue to drop.

PKD opens already? Wow.

I would gladly take a starbucks in the front of the park instead of a panda exress on the Frontier Trail.

Things like this with CP just make me so disappointed in the park. They excel so well at the "big things" (rides), but I would give the park about a C- in terms of beautification. Who is in charge of decisions like this? Doesnt anyone walk around and say...."hey....why did we put a up a chinese restaraunt in the Ol' West"?

Good Grief Charlie Brown.

^^

No, but KD does. ;)

Kevinj said:
Nothing says "Frontier Trail" like Panda Express. Ah yes, I remember my great-grandfather in his rocking chair, whittling his piece of pine and telling us kids stories of the old days. Working at the mill......using an outhouse......and stopping by the Ol' Panda Express to pick up some take-out to bring back to the log cabin.

And Tacos fit in just right.
http://pointbuzz.com/Gallery.aspx?i=862

I think you guys have to "get real". Ask yourself this, will people go to Panda Express and Chick-fil-a to eat? The answer is yes. Cedar Point isn't a theme park. They want to make an unpopular quick service location into a recognizable chain people are sure to go to. I can think of a lot worse chain's that CP could have put in. :cough: McDonalds, Burger King :cough:

To go on with the whole Starbucks discussion. I personally like them, but I also think they look better than an empty spot in that strip mall. It's your choice if you want to over pay for coffee, but the fact is, American's love it.

Kevinj said:
This is ridiculous.

Nothing says "Frontier Trail" like Panda Express.

Well Bonanza did have Hop Sing!

^^ You're right. People will eat at these places. I'd be willing to bet they'll be more popular than CP's own food outlets now too. Why, because people will go with what is most recognizable to them. So, if you offer them a chain, they'll pick that first. Its the sad reality of today.

Does that make it right though? I don't think so. But, I think I have a different perspective than most people about chain restaurants. Its unfortunate that the overall feeling in America is "that's good enough" or "it'll make money, so who cares". The only thing I can do at Cedar Point is not give money to these places though. And, no matter how much I like the occasional Chick-Fil-A at the mall, I won't frequent the one at Cedar Point. To each their own I guess. *** Edited 3/29/2007 1:32:33 PM UTC by halltd***

Holy crap! Are you saying that you dislike chains, Tim?

It could bring more revenue in the long run. There are people out there that will more likely eat somewhere that the recognise than some random walk up window. I personally don't eat the park food all that much, usually just the cheesy fries :) and some sandwiches that are prepared the night before. I personally am not a fan of chain restaurants in parks, but I don't plan on eating at either of them anyway.

*** Edited 3/29/2007 1:19:30 PM UTC by BGRooDoG***

i have eaten at a panda express in six flags over georga and it was worse that the one in my local mall.

Gilly2878 said:
I'm going to take a stab and say that it probably saves CP a lot of money to have a chain in the park. They don't have to buy the food, the chain does that, on top of renting the "store" out to the chain, and probably a percentage of sales going to CP. They likely make out very nicely.

I think you have it wrong Gilly. I don't think these will be locations owned by Chick-Fil-A or Panda Express, I think these are franchised locations owned by Cedar Point and run by Cedar Point, not rented to another company. Just like Famous Daves, Johnny Rockets and TGIF.

Panda Express doesn't do franchises.