Reasons Cedar Point is going downhill

halltd said:
If you look closely at the set up at Pecos Bill Cafe, the efficiency is amazing. The wall between the kitchen and serving area is double-sided. So, the coolers open on both sides. That way they can keep them full from the kitchen, and the serving staff can just pull the stuff from the front. They also probably have close to 50 people working in there. :)

I love me some Pecos Bills. Best thing to get it the taco salad because with all the toppings you can nearly double the size of it!

During busy times they do have around 50 people working there. Even more impressive is Cosmic Rays in Tomorrowland... they serve more people than any other fast food restruant in the world (well they are second, right behind a new McDonalds in Russia). I know people who have worked at both and to hear some of the stats regarding the places is amazing.

Say what you want about the food at CP, cheese on a stick should be a staple of every American's diet.

Well, looking at most American's, Cheese on a Stick already is a staple in their diet.

Cedar point is not a family park. Yes I see families there with kids and they have camp snoopy and kiddy kingdom, but to me from what I have seen and heard about CP it's not a family park.

^^ I just have to run an extra mile or 2 the day after a cheese on a stick indulgence. Of course, it's a long heavy mile... :)

I have to disagree and say CP "IS" a family park. It just has trouble getting its image across.

And family park doesn't mean everything has to be for little kids, or something for the whole family to ride together.

Cedar Point has some of those, plus they've got some extreme rides, some moderate rides, some slow rides, some kid rides, some little kid rides and even shows for those who don't like the rides. I'd say they have stuff for everyone, even though most of it is stuff everyone can't do together.

My family can do everything together. You guys just need better families. :)

Pre WDW, Orlando was basically an undeveloped swamp with no infrastructure to speak of. Disney got to play Theme Park Tycoon for real. Need an airport? A superhighway? Hotels? A huge sewage system? Just dig and build. No one to stop you from filling in the wetlands back then. When you have an existing community you have to play by their rules.

CP has long suffered from traffic management on route 250 and poor quality hotels in the area (if you doubt me just read the appalling reviews on hotels.com). Make it easier to stay at a nice place close to the point and it would help. Here's an idea: A new large floating barge hotel on the little section of lake between the causeway and the chausee. Beautiful views, easy access to the park, and it doesn't really use up much space. Make it close to the existing parking lot with a little entryway on the land for people to drop off their bags to the bell station. Think it isn't practical? It's being done all over the world in Holland, Hong Kong, etc.

I really don't think that location is CP's problem. Compared to other parks, they're in a great location.

I disagree, CP is not in a great location in respect to how you get to CP. 250 is a disaster set for the world books, and the causeway is not much better. There are very big problems with traffic flow, and like its been mentioned, theres not much to stay at on point or off point without much of a drive.

Location is awesome, but "mainland" Sandusky maybe could use some work.

The exact location provides views all over of the lake known as Erie. Who wouldn't love that?

Part of making CP into a more resort-like destination would indeed be having better hotels.

As far as US-250, where to start, where to start..... :)

US-250 is just like any tourist drag in the US. There's no prior planning, and it usually takes something really bad to happen before anyone fixes it. Just look at 192 outside of Disney. It took decades before they actually had a master plan for that street. It's better, but still sucks. I think Sandusky lacks a good planning department to come up with any kind of comprehensive plan for around Cedar Point. It always amazes me how run down and just gross everything outside of Cedar Point looks. Thankfully we always enter via Rye Beach Road and the Chausee and very rarely venture outside of the park.

I believe Cedar Point had a big hand in redesigning the roads in the immediate area of the Causeway entrance on the mainland. So I'm guessing that if anything is going to seriously be done about roads in Sandusky that funnel people to Cedar Point, its going to be Cedar Point that finally effects the change. It seems to me that Sandusky and Perkins just sit on their butts and expect everything to happen magically, and has seemed that way ever since I lived just an hour away. Although I will say they actually appeared to want to do something when they were (rather stupidly) considering closing the Butler Street ramp for a while, though I wouldn't say it was in the interest of CP or the tourists coming to the city for CP.

halltd said:
US-250 is just like any tourist drag in the US. There's no prior planning, and it usually takes something really bad to happen before anyone fixes it. Just look at 192 outside of Disney. It took decades before they actually had a master plan for that street. It's better, but still sucks. I think Sandusky lacks a good planning department to come up with any kind of comprehensive plan for around Cedar Point. It always amazes me how run down and just gross everything outside of Cedar Point looks. Thankfully we always enter via Rye Beach Road and the Chausee and very rarely venture outside of the park.

I don't find the area around CP that bad at all.

The reason why the Causeway is so jam packed all the time, is because most people don't bother to use the Chausee. A lot of people are in a hurry to get to Cedar Point, and they don't think of alternative routes. Anyone remember how it was on Saturdays this past Halloweekends? It took most people an hour to get out of the park, but if you went down the Chausee it took somewhere around 5 - 10 minutes.

I don't think 250 impacts how well the park does at all. I've never heard anyone say, "I love Cedar Point, but that road leading up to it looks bad."

250 doesn't look that bad in my opinion, I'd say Butler and Cleveland Road look worse.

I think we have to get away from comparing CP to Disney. They are two very different parks in two very different location with two VERY different sized wallets. *** Edited 11/20/2007 12:25:06 AM UTC by Gomez***

The reason why the Causeway is so jam packed all the time, is because most people don't bother to use the Chausee.

You assume they know it's there. All the major signing does not point it out; it must be discovered.

The major signing does, however, call out the Causeway very clearly.

Besides you can always take Strab Rd to Perkins, and that will lead you right there pretty much.

How can 250 look bad? It's got Kalahari and farms.