September 6

Shhhhhh

Yes its Honda. I was invited by a friend at school today. Im hoping there wont be many people there, but it will still be fun to go with a friend when its closed to the rest of you. ;)

Bonus weekend was a great time to get a lot of rides in. Note to self: Get a job at Honda on Sep 4th and quit after Sep 6th :) Seriously it's good to know who bought it out. It satisfies my curiosity and clears up whether the web site or the brochure were incorrect.

::Circles September 7th on Calendar::

That will certainly be one of my trips this year :)

Just for fun facts sake. Cleveland Clinic (formerly The Cleveland Clinic Foundation) has held their company picnic at GLP for over a decade. It was never a buyout as far as I remember (maybe some time after 2001 it was, but I know that it definately wasn't in '06 & '07).

In the begining it was one day for EVERY Clinic employee, which I would guess was at least 20,000 (conservativly) in the early '90s. Not only that but people could get as many cheap tickets to bring family and friends. It was a mess every time in the early years. It was then expanded to two days and then different days for the main campus employees, east side and west side locations. It still were the busiest days of the early summer since the employee growth in the Clinic was dramatic over the last ten years.

One last thought. I wonder if CP would ever really turn away a paying customer if they showed up at the gate on Sept 6th. It seems like a bad idea. I know from experience at GLP that even if the park was a buyout they would still take random single day guests who showed up. They just advertised the park as closed to the general public. It never caused a problem as far as I know with the buyout company. Perhaps they didn't even know about it. I would think that for CP a company would want to have at least 15,000 people to make it worth it to buyout the park. Who would notice another couple of thousand.

To that point maybe I'm missing something. The Bonus weekend is slow attendance-wise. At least it was this past year. Short lines mostly filled with season pass holders - just about everyone I recognized or met during the course of the season. Not too many others.

So then, what's the concept of "buying out" the park? Compared to if Honda had a company outing and there's only a couple thousand other non-Honda visitors that would normally be in attendance that particular weekend anyway? In other words if the park was listed as open to the GP, there wouldn't be that many non-Honda employees there those two days. Honda employees & friends wouldn't even notice. Lines woudln't be that much longer. So why close it to the GP?

Is there any advantage for Honda employees other than the getting whole park "to themselves" - which is what? An estimated 15k of there closest friends and co-workers?

I'm not complaining. Sunday should be a nice slow day to ride. I don't understand the concept of "buying out" the park compared to just having it promoted internally at Honda perhaps as a discounted ticket with lunch served in the Coral Courtyard and a buy one-get-one-free game or whatever the perks might be.

Don't other companies have outings during the season without buying out the park? I've seen tables set up outside the main entrance in the past with let's say "Whirlpool Employee Day Tickets Here".

Someone enlighten me. What's the advantage Honda gets for closing the park to a couple thousand GP visitors which really amounts to season pass holders that weekend? Purely psychological as in we're Honda - you're not? :)

HalloWeekends! said:
To that point maybe I'm missing something. The Bonus weekend is slow attendance-wise. At least it was this past year. Short lines mostly filled with season pass holders - just about everyone I recognized or met during the course of the season. Not too many others.

So then, what's the concept of "buying out" the park? Compared to if Honda had a company outing and there's only a couple thousand other non-Honda visitors that would normally be in attendance that particular weekend anyway? In other words if the park was listed as open to the GP, there wouldn't be that many non-Honda employees there those two days. Honda employees & friends wouldn't even notice. Lines woudln't be that much longer. So why close it to the GP?

. . .Someone enlighten me. What's the advantage Honda gets for closing the park to a couple thousand GP visitors which really amounts to season pass holders that weekend? Purely psychological as in we're Honda - you're not? :)

"a couple thousand?" I haven't been there on bonus weekend, but I doubt that. A "slow" day at CP is 10,000+. And that would be noticed.

I just meant a really "small crowd" not to be taken literally. I debated about even saying a couple thousand. Bonus weekend last year it sure felt like a "couple thousand" - or at least number lower than even 10k. I have no idea that actual attendance number. I should have just said that. But still, there's not that many GP on a weekend like that in a park so large. So is that the only reason they can buy out the park. So they seem to have it to themselves? Or do they have something else going on or other perks? They're really banking on a lot of their employees actually wanting to go or having time to go is what's also odd to me.

HalloWeekends! said:They're really banking on a lot of their employees actually wanting to go or having time to go is what's also odd to me.

Well when I worked for The Longaberger Company, when we rented the park out, there were enough employees and friends & family of employees to fill the park. The park was full as if it were just another Saturday in May. It was no where near feeling like you had the run of the park to yourself. I know every year before it was announced that Longaberger would buy out Cedar Point, a survey was handed out to all employees asking what they wanted to do. Some of the choices were Kings Island, Geauga Lake, a concert, and I think maybe some sports games. But for 5 years the employees picked Cedar Point. I am guessing Honda feels that they have enough employees wanting to go to make it worth buying out the park.

I don't know about Honda but with Longaberger, just about every employee had the day of the buyout off. All employees received four (4) free tickets with the option to buy more at I think $20 each.

Edit for spacing.

Did Honda buy out September 5th as well? I noticed on the website calender that the park is closed on that day but Challenge park is open.

They probably figured it wasn't worth being open Friday with Saturday being closed to the public.

JuggaLotus said:
They probably figured it wasn't worth being open Friday with Saturday being closed to the public.

Thats what I had thought as well before seeing that Challenge Park was scheduled to be open on the 5th. It would seem silly to have Challenge Park open without the main park being open but maybe I am missing something.

Having Challenge Park open requires a far smaller effort than having the entire park open though.

Presumably, some people from the buyout will be staying in the resorts. Challenge park gives them a place to spend some money.

I hate to reopen a dormant thread but having received the Getaway Guide yesterday, I noticed that it also lists Challenge Park as being closed 9/5 and 9/6 (more specifically, it says open Friday evenings, Saturdays, and Sundays beginning 9/7) and none of the resorts are listed as open that weekend.