Park Predictions
Trying to find a link someone else posted, I'm sure someone else will have it somewhere. It was a website that listed the days & what attendance was predicted to be like (example: May July 1st-July 6th=Heavy, July 7th-July 9th=Moderate, ect.
I really want to keep that link handy this year so I know what to sort-of expect based on the predictions, even though they aren't exactly accurate lol...Thanks everyone
Hey man. Don't really worry about predictions. Even though most of the time they could be right there are a lot of variations. You'll pick up pretty quickly based on weather forecasts and if it's the weekend or not whether the park will be crowded or not.
Question for Walt:
This has me a little confused:
"3. Basically, all things being equal (i.e. dry weather), here is a breakdown of the busiest days, in order: Saturday, Wednesday/Monday/Friday/Thursday/Tuesday/Sunday"
Are you saying that Saturday is the busiest day, separated by a comma, and all the other days are virtually tied, but still in order of their virtual tie?
I'm finding it a little hard to understand why Wednesday would be considered the 2nd busiest day of the week. It'd seem to me that Friday or Monday would be busier from all the schools and working families that take off these days to extend their weekend into a 3-day.
I always assumed it'd go more like:
Saturday!!!/Friday/Sunday/Monday/Thursday/Tuesday/Wednesday, where Tues, Wed, and Thurs were very similar...
Most of all remember: ANY DAY AT CEDAR POINT IS BETTER THAN BEING AT WORK.
Ditto!
I'll be Coasting for Kids on June 9th
http://www.firstgiving.com/process/teamarea/default.asp?did=1785&teamid=224695
Ffej: If the park's attendance patterns followed an intuitively logical pattern, nobody would be trying to figure this out! In fact, some of the odd distribution is because of people trying to game the system: "Who goes to the park mid week? We'll go on Wednesday and have the place to ourselves!" Enough people think that way and next thing you know, Wednesday is the second busiest day of the week.
Remember that Cedar Point draws from two different crowds: local day-trippers, and destination travelers. This dual source nature of Cedar Point's crowd is largely responsible for the unusual distribution of people and results in Sunday being the least crowded day of the week unless there is a big company picnic in the park.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
/X\ *** Respect rides. They do not respect you. ***
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Dave, I agree with everything you just said. Still, I'm curious if the comma after Saturday was a typo, or intended...almost like a joke. Saturday obviously is far and away the busiest day of the week, and Walt was saying every other day is the same (hence separated by slashes)? But, why were they put in a a particular order if that was the case... Since I usually only go on Sundays and early weekdays, I thought maybe he fine-tuned the system a little more than I had...
Anyway, while you and I both know the attendance of any day isn't a science, there are very strong trends based on history. I've very rarely been surprised by the attendance on a day I've chosen...mainly because I only go on Sundays and early weekdays in May, early June, & September, paying close attention to weather, and seeking out those grey days.
In other words, if someone asks me if Cedar Point is going to be crowded on Saturday, July 4th...I'm not going to answer them with, "Park attendance is unpredictable!" I'm going to scream, "YES...it will be. Try a Sunday or week day in May if you want lower attendance."
As mentioned before, noting the park hours on a given day is about as close as the science will get for predicting attendance.
The point is that the park is DRAMATICALLY more busy on Saturday. I mean, NOBODY goes to Cedar Point on Saturday anymore, it's too damn crowded! But yes, the rest of the week does fall into that general pattern that Walt gave, where indeed, Wednesday tends to be the most busy and Sunday the least. But also as I noted, be aware that they throw curve balls in there: major company picnics are usually held on Sunday, and that can make a huge difference in the attendance.
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
/X\ *** Respect rides. They do not respect you. ***
/XXX\ /X\ /X\_ _ /X\__ _ _____
/XXXXX\ /XXX\ /XXXX\_ /X\ /XXXXX\ /X\ /XXXXX
_/XXXXXXX\_/XXXXX\_/XXXXXXX\_/XXX\_/XXXXXXX\__/XXX\__/XXXXXX
I appreciate the shades of Yogi Berra in your post, Rideman.
The path you tread is narrow, and the drop is sheer and very high.
Now I know this would be a rather large and ongoing project, but if someone had the time and willpower, they could make it happen. I say that a willing person creates a thread or some way of recording data. Each time someone visits the park, they could report back here and say how crowded it was (ie wait times), the weather, etc. Someone could organize all of the data at the end of the season, and see what they come up with for each day of the week, and see trends in the time of year they go. Obviously this is a large task, and I'm not going to push anyone to do this. But if you're willing, I say give it a shot.
The "how crowded" post I linked to was written by a former PointBuzz staffer who has gone on to bigger and better things. I would never question his logic or wisdom. :)
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