Season Pass Preview Night and Dining Plan

Pete said:

I wouldn't be surprised if the MF issues have to do more with the supplier shipping the bodies late than a screwup on CP's part. Especially if the bodies came from Intamin.

I'd be surprised if the bodies came from Intamin. Regardless, if we're to assume it was the supplier's fault, they had to know before Saturday that they weren't going to arrive. Couldn't they have assembled the train with the old bodies for opening weekend, then installed the new bodies during the week, when two train operation would be adequate?

^^^ You've already given your anecdotal opinion of the opening day situation twice before this one. I happen to disagree with you (each time) in that this particular weekend was very atypical on the bad side. Everyone can agree though, that if you want to reduce your risk of such things, you go later in May.

WolfBobs said:

Not sure if this was posted yet as I'm on my phone at the park and don't feel like scrolling. But my meal plan was accepted at Midway Market. However, it's an $8 up charge. Includes the drink. But basically you're getting the whole buffet for $8. Not a bad deal.

No, basically you're getting the whole buffet for $8 + (# of times you use the plan in a year/$ cost of plan). Whether that's a good or bad deal depends on the # part.

I've read most of your posts up above, and here's how I look at the slight failire of opening day.

Rides break, I'm cool with that, 2 train on MF, so be it, atleast for the most part it was running.

Mean streak being down, it was running empty all day, I think it should have been tested a lot sooner.. but we never know what really is the problem.

WT, that was just weird, like they just dumped the trains, and left it there.

I guess this is how I look at it. Problems happen, but it seemed like they almost had more time this spring to get stuff running then usual. I would also like not to be left in the dark, yes they have no right to tell us, but if there is a broken part for WT that they just can't get, or they have to mill out by hand, it would be cool to know. If a retrofit went wrong (Yellow tain getting a new body) it would be cool just to know, even if I can't do anything.

Also Sky Hawk was only at 50%.. but that was a lot last year, Gemini too!

I just I , just like anyone else here, would like to be informed.

even if we can't do anything about it.

Scottyf, who are you even talking to? And because you disagree with whoever the heck you're talking to, that means they can't give their opinion more than once? Huh.

Given everything that the company is doing so very right these days (Rougarou, Amusement Dark, Breakers renovation and so on), I'm willing to give it a pass on a SNAFU-filled opening day.

djDaemon said:
Couldn't they have assembled the train with the old bodies for opening weekend, then installed the new bodies during the week, when two train operation would be adequate?

Sounds like a good idea unless Cedar Point threw out the old bodies in the winter because the new bodies were promised to be at the park on time. Situations like this are not that uncommon when a supplier tells you it will take a month and 4 months later you are still without your product. But there isn't much you can do when there isn't anyone else willing to take on your job that you need done. Or it very well could have been that their priorities were shifted to a much bigger problem that we will never know about.

Has anyone checked the lake for the yellow train? Maybe it ended up next to the green train. Pretty hard to get the state certification if your trains keep ending up in the lake.

Is anyone else over this green train joke? I mean we are not even beating a dead horse anymore, we are beating the dead horses ancestors at this freakin point.

And the lemon chill guy joke. You see it coming every time :)

99er said:
Sounds like a good idea unless Cedar Point threw out the old bodies in the winter because the new bodies were promised to be at the park on time. Situations like this are not that uncommon when a supplier tells you it will take a month and 4 months later you are still without your product.

In that case, I would seriously question the intelligence of whoever made/approved the decision to trash the old bodies. "A bird in the hand..." after all.

I wonder though if they would change the bodies after the ride is certified by the state, if they would have to go through the entire certification process again because that would be a big enough change to the ride. If that were to be the case, it's probably more efficient to run the ride with 2 trains until the 3rd train comes online.

What if the old metal body sections could not be easily re-installed after their removal? What if parts had to be cut off, ground off etc? What if the new body panels have absolutely nothing to do with the absence of the yellow train? What if people just decided to ride MF and enjoy it on the operating trains instead of coming up with speculative ideas of how they screwed up the yellow train?

There should be 3 trains ready to go by opening day, no ifs ands or buts about it. I just think the park bit off more than they could chew this off-season between Rougarou, new Maverick restraints, relocating Dodgem and Calypso, installing new bodies on MF trains removing SRADT's and TPC's along with the usual off-season maintenance.

But you have no idea that they bit off more than they could chew, you don't know why the yellow train isn't there. Unfortunately things break, did you ever think there could have been a mechanical failure on the yellow train during testing? I have seen multi-million dollar refurbishments on industrial pumps and compressors suffer mechanical failures when being re-started. How do we know the yellow train didn't have a mechanical failure prior to opening?

Saying that everything should be up and running in tip top shape on opening day - no ifs, and, or buts about it - can only be said by someone that has no experience dealing with mechanical equipment.

On the positive side though, aren't the new wet floor signs in the bathrooms awesome?

It does not sound as if they were operationally prepared for the season. Some say CP should have considered postponing the preview/opening date. Another says the colleges had late graduation dates affecting hiring. Others think CP overextended themselves for maintenance, refurbishments, and ride relocations.

We can only surmise what caused the failures. We are not privy to the actual facts.

I'm sure they have received and are reviewing guest feedback. I hope there are meetings taking place to look for processes improvements to drive performance/operational preparedness and reliability.

In my business when failures happen, we have to complete reports to determine the root cause. It also must include the corrective action and or an action plan to implement changes. We have meetings with the Leaders, Managers, General Manager, and sometimes our Director.

Let's hope the same is happening behind the scenes at Cedar Point.

Scottyf said:

No, basically you're getting the whole buffet for $8 + (# of times you use the plan in a year/$ cost of plan). Whether that's a good or bad deal depends on the # part.

True, value in the meal plan is dependent on the number of visits and usage of the plan.

Compared to a burger/chicken tenders and fries and a $5 drink twice a day, a $8 all you can eat buffet which includes the drink that normally costs about $20 is, to me a decent deal. If you look at it that way, where you'd have to purchase a drink at the other stands, you're in a way getting the buffet for about $4. I'm a glass half full kinda guy.

In a sense I was throwing out the knowledge that there is a "discount" on the meal at Midway Market for those who have the meal plan.

JUnderhill said:

But you have no idea that they bit off more than they could chew... did you ever think there could have been a mechanical failure on the yellow train during testing?

...

Saying that everything should be up and running in tip top shape on opening day - no ifs, and, or buts about it - can only be said by someone that has no experience dealing with mechanical equipment.

Oh, cool. I have plenty of experience dealing with malfunctioning equipment, so I guess I'm qualified. ;-)

The folks making excuses for the park are looking at each incident in a vacuum. Yes, there's certainly a reasonable root cause for MF's yellow train not being ready. And there's certainly a legitimate root cause for WT being in pieces on opening day. And I'm sure there are root causes for MS not being ready, for Skyhawk being only half ready, for Maverick's seemingly high downtime over the weekend, and for stuff like roped-off rows on coasters.

I don't see anyone here saying any individual failure is unacceptable. Rather, the issue seems to be that there were so many failures. It could have been a perfect storm of unfortunate events that were entirely unavoidable, though that seems pretty unlikely. As Jeff said a few pages back, there are probably a lot of "lessons learned" among park staff from this sub-par opening weekend.

WolfBobs said:

Scottyf said:

No, basically you're getting the whole buffet for $8 + (# of times you use the plan in a year/$ cost of plan). Whether that's a good or bad deal depends on the # part.

True, value in the meal plan is dependent on the number of visits and usage of the plan.

Compared to a burger/chicken tenders and fries and a $5 drink twice a day, a $8 all you can eat buffet which includes the drink that normally costs about $20 is, to me a decent deal. If you look at it that way, where you'd have to purchase a drink at the other stands, you're in a way getting the buffet for about $4. I'm a glass half full kinda guy.

In a sense I was throwing out the knowledge that there is a "discount" on the meal at Midway Market for those who have the meal plan.

I know your initial point was to talk about the inclusion of Midway Market as an add-on for $8, which is not insignificant, and certainly not the only cost. Also, you're implying that there's a subjective way to look at these things. If you're looking at this situation as "half full" then you're not looking at all the facts. a) it's a total cost analysis that determines the value, and b) you don't ever "have" to purchase a drink elsewhere. Water is readily available and free.

But I will agree with your overall point, in that the Midway Market is nice to have as an option. Options are always welcome.

^^

And just so nothing gets lost in translation here, I believe both Pete and I said that we're not giving the park a pass, but merely this seems like the typical opening day/week(s) misfires. Granted, it does indeed seem like this year was filled with an unfortunate perfect storm of things going badly. Put it this way, right or wrong, Cedar Point has lowered my expectations for early season operations in nearly every aspect. By late May/early June it's humming, but not so much in the first couple weeks. We still have a blast, though, and typically end up doing everything we wanted over a week at the park. On any given day, though, it could vary from great day to not-very-good day.

Jeff also mentioned a philosophy a few pages back that I would wholeheartedly agree with; that is, (and I'm paraphrasing here) each day at the park needs to be treated as if it was a guest's first (and perhaps only) visit. Certainly any park with the customers as their primary focus would embrace this.

From my perspective, though, this philosophy doesn't truly kick in at Cedar Point until sometime in late May. I don't think it's for a lack of trying, but just that the staff as a whole, while typically very friendly and customer-focused, seems to still be figuring things out. Then again, how many of them just got there from their respective colleges, hometowns, and countries, etc.?

But that's the seasonal staff that makes ride operations shaky, food lines longer, etc. What seems to have occurred this weekend is something that seems more and more common and related to ride prep and maintenance (which I assume includes a different category of employee).

Wouldn't the simplest answer to this situation be the manpower being stretched too thin?

I've never looked behind the curtain of maintenance as Cedar Point, but I have this image of someone like Scotty (from Star Trek) running around on opening day screaming (insert Scottish accent here) "I'm doing the best I can McClure, but I can't change the laws of physics!"