Soft Opening?

From long time experience, dry runs without people help you get the feeling for a ride, how it handles and what quirks it might have. And when they had enough of the seasonals on site, we would report to a ride and act as "guests" and go through several hours of operations. I can recall several hours of cycling on the Mine Ride, and the Jumbo Jet at a week before opening. It's better to do it before the park opens, than after it.

The issue for me is that the park does not openly advertise that it's not a full experience until Memorial Day. A simple "please be aware all rides and attractions may not be available on the following dates..." would potentially go a long way.

I totally agree with Cartwright. Some people drive a long way to come here when the park advertises that it is open. I would actually not pay to get in and go elsewhere or home. This is another way of screwing guests.

I think it's kind of a given for anyone who has gone anywhere in the spring/summer before Memorial Day, that things aren't in full swing. That's been the case for me for as long as I can remember. Memorial day starts the summer fun season. Anything before that is a bonus.

I feel like the park experience is being made into an all-or-nothing thing when it really isn't because everybody has their own plans or own things that they enjoy at the park, and I feel like an awful lot of coaster fans are very keen on deciding how much fun other park guests aren't having.

I think most guests from the region that have been going to the park for years and know how much they rely on seasonal workers, also know that of course they're not going to be at full strength if you will until after Memorial Day the earliest, with the same logic (usually) applying to the post-August dates, or at least it used to before Halloweekends really exploded in popularity.

I also don't figure there's too many people making the big once-a-year destination trip to CP this early either, and the ones that are *probably* have enough overlap with the online theme park/coaster enthusiast fandom to know what to expect this early in the season. Also not sure if license plates in the parking lot are really the greatest metric to guess how long somebody travelled for that particular trip. That'd be like implying the car with the Alaska plates I saw driving around Akron the other day came this far to, I dunno, go to the Pro Football Hall of Fame or something.

Well, there is Hall of Fame bruising Running Back Larry Csonka who resides in Alaska these days....

Cartwright said:

The issue for me is that the park does not openly advertise that it's not a full experience until Memorial Day.

In mid-June, you can ride a lot more during your day than you can in mid-August. Does the park openly advertise that? Or do they openly advertise that the water rides aren't open yet? Or Forbidden Frontier? Sure, you can find these things by digging deep into the website, just as you can find out which rides close during different types of inclement weather, but I don't know that they're openly advertising these things either, but I feel like guests this time of year should know to expect these things.

Years back on the CP website they had a sidebar 'today in the park' where they would indicate what they don't expect to be operating. Also a sign, prior to entering the ticket purchase booths, indicating the same.

I'd like to see them openly advertise which restaurants, shops, & shows are open along with wait times. Don't see that happening when they can't even do that accurately with rides.

Hudson said:

I'd like to see them openly advertise which restaurants, shops, & shows are open along with wait times. Don't see that happening when they can't even do that accurately with rides.

Amen.

I would be really disappointed if opening weekend were pushed back to Memorial Day weekend. However imperfect opening weekend normally is it's a great stress release that makes it just a bit easier to get up in the morning and go to school and count down the days until summer break. These last few weeks feel like the longest of the school year in what's been a long school year and my attitude after just a few hour visit to the park on Sunday was greatly improved. It would suck to have to wait until the end of the month for that chance. I prefer a partially ready park experience to no park experience though it would be good for others if there was some sort of mention of rides that are not yet ready to run on the website. Not so much that I would bother looking myself but it would be helpful to others.

One of the downfalls of every Cedar Fair park is the lack of indoor attractions and indoor show venues. This would allow operations in questionable weather and help fill the customers day.

Regional theme parks will never be themed to the level of Disney but they totally ignore two of the many reasons Disney is so well attended.

Indoor attractions guarantee a day of comfortable fun regardless of weather (rain heat Etc)

having attractions everyone can ride together (dark rides transportation rides, slow moving rides) allows entire families and groups to do attractions together

Hudson said:

I'd like to see them openly advertise which restaurants, shops, & shows are open along with wait times. Don't see that happening when they can't even do that accurately with rides.

THIS 1000 times over! I know it may sound crazy to a bunch of coaster enthusiasts, but I find it more frustrating to not know which shops or food sites are open than to know which coasters aren't running. I don't expect 100% full staffing from opening day to last call at Halloweekends, but I'd like to see something in the CP app that gives real time alerts to which food stands and which drink stations (including Freestyle locations) are open and available.

^I'm a coaster enthusiast myself, but I honestly don't think your idea is that crazy. It's pretty frustrating to ride a bunch of coasters and then come off incredibly hungry and having to wait in more long lines. Honestly, all you want to do is get out of the heat, sit and eat. I'd love to know which restraints are open so I could make a decision of where to get a quick meal so I can get back to riding. I'm not going to hold my breath on them implementing it though.

Skyhawk06 said:

I'd love to know which restraints are open so I could make a decision of where to get a quick meal so I can get back to riding.

Wow... I guess I haven't had any days where food service was so busy they weren't even letting people off the rides until they had reached their place in line for food!? What is this coming to?!

*Just had to have fun with a brilliant typo!

So I was there last Friday May 13th and was pretty pleased for the most part. Honestly think the crews did a kick a** job only being week #2. There were a few hiccups but nothing crazy. Only one I could not understand was Gemini (my favorite ride) at one point they had both red and blue going then all of a sudden one (1) red train running making the line 45 minutes! Only ride that was down was TTD (obviously) and Windseeker. Food and drink lines were good. Little shocked at how crowded the park was this early, full of students, I could only wish I had teachers that would take me to CP for a day!!

Crews were starting to bond already, slapping high fives when they get a train loaded and ready to rock. That was nice to see for sure. It will only get better as the summer progresses!

I like what they did where antique cars used to be, that area really looks nice. Even though I wish it were a new ride, but it is a nice area to sit and chill with some nice views for sure.

And Maxair was running finally!

Looking forward to a fun summer and fall at the point!

Ride on!

Was at the park yesterday, focused less on rides and more just on photography and taking in the ambience since it was my first time back since pre-COVID, and aside from some coasters being down repeatedly it seemed like things were settling in pretty decently for the ride crews and such. None of the coasters stayed down all day, by the time I left at closing I think pretty much everything was sending trains, even if Gemini was only running the red train all day.

Gatekeeper and Magnum definitely had the best crew energy so far, didn't make it onto Raptor but they seemed like they were sending trains pretty frequently so figure it was running well too. Agreed with the post above me in the sense of the ride crews already starting to gel together. From random banter in line to ride Gatekeeper just before closing, sounds like there's a decent amount of ride crews from last summer returning so that bodes well for crew consistency and chemistry too.

Food service and a lot of flats having single ride host operations were probably the most evident understaffed areas at the moment, though even pre-covid I feel like you'd never see all the food stalls open this early in the season. Curious if they're back to doing the marching band trips this year or not, since that's another thing I tend to associate with May and June at CP.

For other random observations, Dragster definitely is giving off some serious Drachen Fire vibes right now with just how utterly desolate that area is looking right now. The fenced off area where WT was at least has a "keep your eyes on this space" feeling that Dragster, well, doesn't.

Walked the beach boardwalk for the first time and I'm still amazed it took so long for CP to actually put in a proper public walkway along the beach. Couldn't have asked for better weather, was probably the most calm I've seen the lake for ages.

One of my rides on Magnum was completely trimless and one of the most rambunctious rides I've had on it in years, in the best possible way. I swear I've seen more phones go flying on the Magnum bunny hops than on any other ride in the park, this time from the gaggle of high school girls a few rows in front of me, though at the very least it didn't hit anyone.

If all rides and activities are not available, the price should be discounted to reflect that.

CoasterHawk said:

If all rides and activities are not available, the price should be discounted to reflect that.

I would only agree if they know the ride/activity will be down for sure all day. CP does a pretty good jon trying to get down rides up, it's been a long time since I've seen signs st the entrance stating "XXXX Ride will not operate today". Props to CP for always making their best effort to get all rides running.

That Crazy Dan said:

Walked the beach boardwalk for the first time and I'm still amazed it took so long for CP to actually put in a proper public walkway along the beach. Couldn't have asked for better weather, was probably the most calm I've seen the lake for ages.

Love their boardwalk. Such a nice break for the hustle and bustle of the park. Only thing that sucks this year is you can;t take it all the way to the parking lot up front due to the WT construction area. Still a super nice walk, calming and peaceful and well maintained.