Park at capacity - 10/19/19

Disney World isn’t the greatest comparison in the world. When one park closes for capacity (I’ve only ever heard of this happening at Magic Kingdom) there are three other parks for the guests to go to. If Cedar Point hits capacity, that isn’t an option.

Most people would probably agree that the quality of the visit to Cedar Point is (mostly) inversely proportional to the crowd level. Cedar Point is a business, but the crowd levels this fall have been largely enough to negatively affect the guest experience. Hopefully this is just temporary, and Cedar Point will do something to address this in a season or two.

They could always go to Thirsty Pony. That's where I would've gone if I was up there today and saw the madness trying to get into the park. I would be pretty happy if I drove all the way up to Sandusky and only went to TP.

Instead of sports parks CP should be investing in infrastructure and paying the city for putting up with them. They really are lousy neighbors

LMAO! Lousy neighbors that generate a large chunk of tax revenue for a city that has seen most of it's industry erode away over the last 50 years. If CP wasn't there Sandusky would basically be Huron with 0 of the charm.

I think the gold pass was just a bit too sweet of a deal and offered for a bit too long. I think there is a lot more than that going on today though. The weather up here has been freakishly gorgeous on the weekends, most of our rain has been during the week. It's the perfect storm. HalloWeekends, a bunch of people excited about their cheap, new passes and using them as much as humanly possible for the rest of the season AND it's sunny and dry in almost the end of October. It's all three things together that make things like today happen, not just any one of them. I wanted to go today but when my kid wanted to go later in the day for haunts I told him we'll see, probably not going to happen though. By 1pm between the webcam and his ipad traffic app the "no" decision was made. I'm so glad I made that call. I doubt we're even going to get to use our free bring a friend tickets at this point which sucks but part of that has been our schedule too. As frustrating as the crowds have been I'm choosing to remind myself of what my dad used to tell me when I was a teen..."we are spoiled to have such nice parks so close to us. Lots of people live in places where they have to drive hours to get to parks that are nowhere near as nice". All these people wouldn't be showing up if the park sucked. There are entire states that have no amusement parks in them and boy am I gad I don't live in one of them.

Glad we went last night. Was crowded but manageable. Temps were colder but that was fine as well. I have never been to the park on a Halloweekends Saturday. Based on crowd levels, no interest in going.

In other news that has to do with freakishly gorgeous weather and things being busy I'm starting to see posts with people complaining on my local community page that the local metro park Halloween walk is "at capacity" and they are turning people away and wait times of 1-2 hours and the shuttle taking an hour and this is just for a decorated walking trail with small "haunted house" like cabins along the trail. Everyone is just in the mood to be outside tonight for sure. Again though this is known locally to be very popular every year. I live just 5-10 minutes down the road from it and have never gone because of how crowded it gets. I wonder how many other outdoor seasonal events are swamped beyond expectations today.

It’s crazy to think that in the 1990’s there was Geauga Lake and a Sea World as alternatives. The economy is so strong now and it hasn’t been this good since the 90’s.

Relatively excellent weather has added to the perfect storm with the gold passes and general good economy. I'll be very interested to see what the park looks like in May/early June next year. That's the time when many food stands and the like are regularly closed due to staffing. It could be a very tough start to the season if they see significantly larger crowds with likely no change in staffing realities. Our first trip is run/ride weekend in mid june next year.

^^If Geauga Lake had survived it would probably be packed today too. I would be in a financial position at this point that I would be able to afford passes to more than one park for my family so even if they weren't owned by the same company they wouldn't really need to compete I would just go to both.

Except you're not going to head out because you're stuck in traffic... ;)

More accurately, it should say when the line to get into the park stretches several miles away.

This definitely isn’t the right solution, but maybe CP should consider opening other days outside of the weekend? Maybe open Wed/Thu/Fri at 11a/12p? Also, keep all Sunday’s open until 10p.

Halloweeks, lol

I know Saturday’s will be still be insane, but it could help alleviate some crowds, like myself who can only attend Saturday’s out of the current three days available.

If they could staff it, I bet they'd do solid crowds if they added 6pm to midnight or similar hours on select weeknights beyond Fridays during Haunt. There is a huge appetite out there for it.

"LMAO! Lousy neighbors that generate a large chunk of tax revenue for a city that has seen most of it's industry erode away over the last 50 years. If CP wasn't there Sandusky would basically be Huron with 0 of the charm."

Just for fun, go to Zillow and search for a three bedroom house in Huron and then one in Sandusky... Not Perkins, not Venice Twp or Bayview. Sandusky. I'll wait. There are much, much worse things to be than a bedroom community.

With the recent purchase of Saw Mill Creek, and other acquired property by CF in the last few years, this will evolve into a massive entertainment complex. It may be in the best interest for CF to work with local municipalities (Sandusky, Perkins Twp., Huron, etc.) in developing a new public transit system to benefit everyone in the area. Electric buses, perhaps a light rail system?

I haven't visited the Sandusky Mall in years, but could that property be put to better use for such a project? Considering the many shopping malls being demolished all over the country, can SM be repurposed into a transportation hub? Cedar Point's main parking lot should remain a parking lot. However, during peak season, those visitors driving to the park (or any other place in the area) later in the day would use an efficiently run transportation system.

The water taxi is a cool idea, but don't think it's feasible for the park, hence they did away with it years ago. It's back now with Jet Express, and become popular again, but its easier for the park to contract out the service. Could the water taxi concept become part of the new centralized transportation system?

I visited Dollywood for the first time last year, and took advantage of the all day trolley bus wristband for $3.00. Thought is was a bargain, which has many convenient stops throughout Pigeon Forge. It was so nice just parking my car the day of arrival, and not have to use it until checking out of the hotel the day of leaving.

Just my two cents.

Staaber said:
Cedar Point should be ashamed of themselves. What a joke. They’ve lost it all they care about is $$$$ they could care less if you get in or even have a good time. My daughter has been in line to get in the park since 2 and still isn’t in.

Those of you playing the greed narrative, I don't think you understand how things work. There is no incentive to over-sell the park this way. There's a finite amount of things and rooms they can sell, especially when understaffed, and more people visiting with more passes dilutes the per capita spending of every guest. That, and folks won't want to come back.

Is it possible that they underpriced the gold pass? It sure sounds that way, but that tactical error is likely financially negative in the long run, not positive.

Quick question, if you are staying at the resorts and had to leave the peninsula (say, for example, to pick up a Chet & Matt's pizza) and the causeway was closed as was yesterday upon your return, is there a way for guests of resorts to get back? or are they stuck? Raises a question about emergency services access too.

Unpopular opinion: In years past we have discussed a separate gate admission for Halloweekends. Obviously not the direction CP is going with the gold pass.

Also Pete was a fan of a sky tram system down the causeway like Disney recently opened. But still likely too expensive given the relatively few days needed.