Park at capacity - 10/19/19

Nothing was checked at the resort gate

Great. Another reason for non resort guests to flock to that gate.

They are going to need to figure this out for next year. They have 4 gates and it will get around that they don’t check at Gate X.

Is anyone there today? Is it a typical bad weather crowd size? Or worse? Also - with the steady rain, how’s the rain policy today?

Cargo Shorts said:

They are going to need to figure this out for next year. They have 4 gates and it will get around that they don’t check at Gate X.

What's going to likely happen is they are going to make it so Gold & Platinum get in at the same time as they will just determine it's too much of a pain & staffing issue to segregate 1 hr and 30 min early entry at all 4 gates. They are just going to devalue platinum more. They already are giving gold pass pass holder ride nights which was just for platinum before. That's going to turn that into crap where in the 1hr you will get 1 ride making it not worth staying for.

Even pre-Gold Pass SV ride nights were long lines. Sometimes even longer than during normal park hours.

Cartwright said:
Is anyone there today? Is it a typical bad weather crowd size? Or worse? Also - with the steady rain, how is the rain policy today?

I’d say a mild to moderate crowd is here, not busy by any means but still a good amount of people. It might be a bit busier than expected based on the all day rain forecasted (even a Saturday) but with gold/ closing weekend it’s not out of line or unexpected.

Rain policy for rides is normal, but they are at running most rides to their credit. Ride wait times are probably inflated relative to the crowd size due to less trains running.

Funny thing is there are many without any sort of rain gear buying ponchos, like they never even looked at forecast.

Remember a couple seasons ago when some people were concerned about low attendance at the park? (imagine chuckle and head shake here)

Paisley said:

Remember a couple seasons ago when some people were concerned about low attendance at the park? (imagine chuckle and head shake here)

Attendance increases based on letting all gold pass people in free and giving bring a friend free tickets. CP could get 4M every year if they ran bring a friend free promos all summer like Six Flags, However, attracting a bunch of cheap people only coming b/c it's free or cheap makes the park packed and miserable. Also, it doesn't guarantee revenue...look at Six Flags attendance up 400K in Q3 but revenue up just 1M Attracting low or no spending bargain hunters is not a good business model.

Joe E said:
Funny thing is there are many without any sort of rain gear buying ponchos, like they never even looked at forecast.

We were just talking about this an hour ago. Seeing all these young folks wearing jeans and sneakers and water absorbent shirts/coats, I’m like huh?

On a positive note, the flow of people out of the park has been steady all day since the rain started. Looking forward to some short lines at the houses tonight.

Like I said, increased attendance does not automatically equal increased revenue or profits.

The C P letters today mean Considerable Precipitation.

Queue-times.com shows that the CP rain policy looks to be doing its usual bang up job.

What’s going on at the park now is completely unacceptable.

"Now" as in the new normal for crowds, poor operations, etc? Or something specific to right now?

Kings Island had been offering the Gold Pass for years and I was envious. I remember discussion on it here a few years ago in comparison to Cedar Point only offering regular season or Platinum. One of the answers of why KI did was because Kings Island had a large local following. Unless you're intending on park hopping, the Gold Pass is the new season pass for Cedar Point and its water park. I saw King Island's Gold is $104, so the price will go up next year I'm sure to match Kings Island. We never did make it anywhere else except KI once a season with the Platinum so the Platinum was a poor value to us when basically we were at Cedar Point the majority.

One bright spot to this is the hour early entry for those of us retaining our Platinum Passes. And that’s provided ride availability is good and the gate attendants mind their business.
Those who downgraded to the lower price may see a long(er) wait for the big boys by the time they get back there. And that seems like quite a few from what I gather- the Platinum Pass people may find themselves in the minority.

For what it’s worth, they were checking passes at the resort entrance this morning.

And nothing was open anyway!