Question Regarding Park Opening

I had a question regarding the park's opening procedures and was hoping you guys and girls would have some insight. I live far enough away that I only get to visit Cedar Point once or twice a year. So of course when I visit, I strive to be there when the park opens and my question is this:

Several years ago when I visited the park, they let people go through the entrance like 45 minutes to a half hour prior to the park opening and had us stand in a holding area (for lack of a better term). I know the CP peninsula is not perfectly north/south but if it were, we were able to enter in the main entrance and were held on the east side of the midway. They had barriers set up to block people from going too far and also barriers placed between the flower areas blocking people from going onto the other side (the "west" side). I want to say the barriers went all the way to the Raptor entrance (albeit we were on the other side of the midway). They were still running ERT, which utilized the "free" side of the midway.

This setup was nice because it allowed a lot of people to enter the park prior to opening and once 10 AM rolled around (or whenever), everyone was already through the bottleneck of the entrance ticket booths.

However, last year when I attended, I had to wait outside the entrance until 10 o'clock and although he had gotten to the park at about 9, we still had to wait in line for about 20 minutes to enter the park. We didn't really mind waiting in line to enter (for obvious reasons) but it made me curious as to why they had done it differently than the previous year. Nothing was different in the visits as both years were a Saturday, early in the season, and had beautiful weather for the day, so it was nothing like that.

Does it have to do with the front entrance renovations in 2013 and the belief that it created more efficiency and alleviated bottlenecks? Or do they just do it at random sporadic times?

My personal opinion is they made the change because the new entrance can better accommodate people waiting outside, which also eliminates the "running of the bulls", which was the mad dash to try to get to the front of a line at opening.

The resorts gate hasn't been rebuilt yet the procedure changed there as well. On a sparsely attended late August weekday almost half of the highly touted early entry time was wasted just getting in. At the off season event we were told it was a safety issue due to the running, but is far more likely just cost cutting in disguise.

I was talking with workers at different gates and they all said the same thing....safety! I like getting in early up to where Magnum crosses the path, but i do see why it was a safety issue with people getting bumped, pushed, run over etc., by people running at the rope drop.

You better be up front by the gate when they open or it could take 10+ minutes to get in, depending on what gate you are at and the amount of people in front of you.

It is absolutely a safety thing. I was up shortly after they changed the policy and was told by one of the gate workers that an older woman had to be taken to the hospital because she got run over. No idea if that's true or not, but having seen (and participated) in the running of the bulls, I can absolutely see it happening.

One thing I noticed at Kings Island last weekend was they had people stationed along the walkway to Banshee to police running. There simply wasn't any. I've also been to Canada's Wonderland where they walk you back to the big rides and you aren't allowed to pass the security guard. Not sure I want to see CP go to something like this, but I'm also sure I don't want to get run over either.

That woman clearly was in the way. Darwin would disapprove.

I witnessed an employee get knocked off her feet, and her head hit the pavement....HARD! She was almost knocked unconscious. I emailed CP about her, and never received a reply.

Pretty sure employee health isn't something shared with the public.

You mean they can't at least let you know someone is okay? :)

No, because by not posting someone is ok, you are possibly indicating someone is not ok. There's no good to come from CP giving any information about these kinds of things to the unwashed masses.

Besides her medical history or anything is not up to the park to disclosed as protected by HIPPA.

Just about all they could have done was thanked you for your concern, that would have been it.

I didn't think about the privacy thing. I wish they would have at least acknowledged my email. I still think about that poor girl.