Shuttles

Cedar Point runs at least two types of shuttles: a consumer shuttle (shuttling between Breakers, campground, marina, and the front gate) and an employee shuttle (which shuttles between the employee parking lot and various locations through the park). I wish the park would simply combine these two systems into one system (with an arterial route running a bus between the employee parking lot and front gate -- where employees could connect to the main route). As it is operated now, there is always unused capacity in one or the other shuttle systems throughout the day. By combining the two, you could increase the total possible buses employees and consumers could use while likely decreasing unused capacity. The current system is too inefficient (My two cents).

If the park is ok with the cost to run the shuttles as-is, efficiency doesn’t matter. It’s a fixed expense. Since you don’t pay to use the shuttle, cramming it full of guests and employees doesn’t do anything for you except make those employees and guests uncomfortable.

Shane Denmark said:

cramming it full of guests and employees doesn’t do anything for you except make those employees and guests uncomfortable.

I'm not sure how you made such a conclusion. "Cramming" riders would be the exact opposite effect. By combining two systems the park would provide more opportunities for consumers and employees to "catch" a shuttle while better dispersing riders per shuttle. When combining two systems you would not be magically increasing ridership.

You can tell daily operations has ended. We are now talking about how to increase capacity and efficiency of the shuttles.

I doubt the park has any desire to have Guests ride shuttles with employees. It seems to be a better form of customer service to provide shuttles exclusive to guests. Whereas making them share to me says "yea, you're paying $100+/night for our hotel but here's a shuttle loaded with some employees cause we wanna save a buck." Or "Before we drop you off at your hotel we need to drop off a bunch of kids at some dorms where lots of interesting activities take place..." It's just not good customer service.

Sometimes perception is better that efficiency.

Combining the shuttles makes absolutely no sense. The guest shuttle uses a nice bus where employee shuttles use re purposed school buses. If I'm paying buku bucks to stay at the resort, I'd want the nice bus, not some old school bus.

Thabto said:

Combining the shuttles makes absolutely no sense. The guest shuttle uses a nice bus where employee shuttles use re purposed school buses. If I'm paying buku bucks to stay at the resort, I'd want the nice bus, not some old school bus.

Two weeks ago, the park was not using the old buses for "around the island" shuttling. The main visual difference between the on-the-island employee buses and the guest shuttle buses were that the guest shuttle buses had the cedar point logo. I'm not referring to the brightly colored "school" buses that seem to shuttle employees from the employee parking lot to the island.

WolfBobs said:

I doubt the park has any desire to have Guests ride shuttles with employees. It seems to be a better form of customer service to provide shuttles exclusive to guests. Whereas making them share to me says "yea, you're paying $100+/night for our hotel but here's a shuttle loaded with some employees cause we wanna save a buck." Or "Before we drop you off at your hotel we need to drop off a bunch of kids at some dorms where lots of interesting activities take place..." It's just not good customer service.

Sometimes perception is better that efficiency.

You didn't read what I wrote. I specifically stated that the combined routes would not include the "arterial route running a bus between the employee parking lot and front gate -- where employees could connect to the main route."

What I wrote was that the routes shuttling people between front gate-marina-campgrounds-breakers (the same route currently being used for guest shuttles) should be combined.

Urumqi said:

Shane Denmark said:

cramming it full of guests and employees doesn’t do anything for you except make those employees and guests uncomfortable.

I'm not sure how you made such a conclusion. "Cramming" riders would be the exact opposite effect. By combining two systems the park would provide more opportunities for consumers and employees to "catch" a shuttle while better dispersing riders per shuttle. When combining two systems you would not be magically increasing ridership.

If you take a half full employee shuttle and a 2/3 full guest shuttle and try to put all those people on the same bus, that sounds like sardines in a can to me... It also sounds like everyone would potentially be on the bus longer. If I get picked up at Famous Dave’s and want to go to Breakers, we might stop at Lighthouse Point on the way. Now we may have to go out to the employee dorms etc before returning to the park area then back to Breakers, in an overfilled bus.

Or are you saying keep the 4 (guessing) guest busses and the 2 (again guessing) employee busses but instead of each running a single loop, now all six busses run a figure 8 between the park stops and the employee stops? I don’t think that will happen either.

Can we work on optimizing the placement of the parking lot cones and attendants next?

Shane Denmark said:

Urumqi said:

Shane Denmark said:

cramming it full of guests and employees doesn’t do anything for you except make those employees and guests uncomfortable.

I'm not sure how you made such a conclusion. "Cramming" riders would be the exact opposite effect. By combining two systems the park would provide more opportunities for consumers and employees to "catch" a shuttle while better dispersing riders per shuttle. When combining two systems you would not be magically increasing ridership.

Or are you saying keep the 4 (guessing) guest busses and the 2 (again guessing) employee busses but instead of each running a single loop, now all six busses run a figure 8 between the park stops and the employee stops? I don’t think that will happen either.

Yes, this is the idea (although last Wednesday the park was running one guest shuttle and 2-3 employee shuttles). Instead of having employee buses drive by famous daves without stopping for guests, every bus would make the loop and pick up people (staff and guest) as needed.

Urumqi said:
You didn't read what I wrote. I specifically stated that the combined routes would not include the "arterial route running a bus between the employee parking lot and front gate -- where employees could connect to the main route."

What I wrote was that the routes shuttling people between front gate-marina-campgrounds-breakers (the same route currently being used for guest shuttles) should be combined.

I misunderstood what you said as well then. But now I have no idea what you want combined. Don’t they have X number of guest shuttles working on a loop to all their stops? I’ve never had to not get on a shuttle because it wasn’t going where I wanted to go...

Cedar Point has two distinct bus routes circling the park all day: a route for guests and a route for staff. But, everyone, regardless of class (staff or guest) has to wait for his or her designated bus. My idea would simply allow anyone who needs or wants a ride around the park to sit on any bus that is passing instead of making him or her wait for the "proper" bus.

They did restructure their bus\shuttle operations last year which likely resulted in a lower budget for that area of operations. They entered into that agreement with Sandusky Transit, where the CP busses no longer transport employees off campus to Rt. 250 stores. Money saved on fuel and perhaps even insurance for that route.

There is nothing to be desired seeing all of the employees with tired eyes and potentially smelling the non-brushed-teeth breath of the stale alcohol and cigarettes from the night before at Louie’s looming in the shuttle air.

As a frequent user of the shuttles the current system is not efficient and at times you can be waiting 30 minutes for a shuttle and then drive around the point and finally 45 minutes later get to your destination. I would tell anyone don't make plans to meet anyone at a specific time if you are using the shuttle.

The current system is inefficient and causes frustration from the guests and drivers. Not so much for me and my family as we have come to expect it. At any rate, I put my suggestion in the box titled Shuttle Route efficiency. Maybe the park will take notice and explore the route system and the guest can at least have somewhat of a departure and destination timeline. My two cents....

By the way the is a public service announcement if you are new to the shuttle system.

Part of the problem stems from the fact that the shuttle was advertised at 1200 riders per hour, but in reality it only carries 800 riders per hour. I believe this is caused by the following factors:

*incorrect wheel installation

*drone dangers

*the implementation of Fast Lane Bus™

*those dirty Gold Pass freeloaders.

WolfBobs said:

I doubt the park has any desire to have Guests ride shuttles with employees.

This is exactly right. CP fancies itself as a world-class resort. Now, whether or not they actually meet that bar is of course debatable. But a sure way to fail miserably would be to have guests sharing shuttles with employees.

Is there any to points that you can’t walk between on the shuttle route? MAYBE Front Gate to Lighthouse Point if you really shuffle your feet...

Every day I’m shufflin’...

Here's one of the new employee/guest shuttle buses: