The Blog is Gone?

There are plenty of good people at Cedar Point (and in Cedar Fair) so I don't want these thoughts to be any reflection on them. But, there are plenty of other good people who could not reach their potential while working for Cedar Fair...in many cases because of things that were not in their control.

John Hildebrandt and Robin Innes bent over backwards to help my group on short notice this past weekend (the phobia group in the news section)...it seems that everyone always wants to point a finger at Kinzel, whom I have never met...but to a person, every single administrative/behind-the-scenes employee...past or present...I have ever met has been nothing but kind.

You have certainly named two of the good ones. Some people will thrive in spite of their leaders...not because of them.

I agree, those two seriously are really are the best at Cedar Point. I wouldn't mind if those two did a blog.

I'm glad to see Tony doing well, and glad to see him post again on here. His job was to connect on a personal level with fans of the park, while promoting and protecting the interests of the park. That's a difficult tightrope for anyone to walk, and I think he did it well, never coming across as a corporate lackey, and certainly never coming across as disloyal to the park.

Cedar Fair needs to take a hard look at the positive things he brought them. Without a charismatic intermediary between the park and its fans, CF takes one step closer to being just another faceless mega-corporation.

They need an Ombudsmen. Someone on the inside who is allowed to be critical and act as the conscience, if you will, of the company. ESPN has been doing that for the last couple of years and I was very impressed with recent criticisms that their representative had in regards to the whole Lebron James announcement show fiasco.

I'm not saying that person should be authorized to share competitive secrets but they should be able to respond to criticisms or inquiries with thoughtful discussion (and no repercussion from above).

The blog is back on the website. Tony and Tyler's picture is gone from the top of the page but the blog is back under online fun. No new post, just the last one that Tony posted. Maybe it isn't quite dead?

Interesting. Tony sure made it seem like id would fade away. Perhaps they noticed a drop in their web traffic and decided to revive it. That is total speculation of course.

That was my initial reaction, Jason, but then it dawned on me that CP doesn't benefit (the way most sites do) with increased traffic.

In fact, so long as it doesn't impact how frequently you visit, I'm sure CP would rather not have to pay for the bandwidth (which may be part of the reason the blog is being allowed to go softly into that good night).

They could benifit indirectly from online ticket or store sales though.

Living eight hours away, the blog was one of my only real connections to the park :(

I just went on the Cedar Point Website, and the OnPoint blog is in the pull-down menus, don't know if it will stay, but its there right now with Tony's last post.

I just realized this past weekend that the blog had returned, but no new post. I'm not worried though. I have a feeling that they'll bring somebody in to take over the Blog duties that Tony & Tyler did once before. I mean why else would they bring the blog back? Plus once they start construction on Wind Seeker, I'm sure they'll be keeping us posted.

I think it's more so people who missed the blog update the first time around know why there aren't any new updates. Personally I don't see it coming back any time soon.

Well in the very least it's good to see they can still keep us enthusiasts in touch (in someways) with the facebook page. They're still doing videos and still taking pictures so I'm sure they'll post pics and vids of Windseeker's construction so they can promote it. The thing we've lost (obviously) is the personality that left with Tony. It's up to upper management to decide if they "need" to pay someone who can make videos, manage the blog and facebook, interact with guests, etc, while bringing personality to all of it.

Insider sources have disclosed to me the future of the blog. Since five different Cedar Fair parks are going to receive the exact same ride during the offseason, they're consolidating all the blog operations into one construction blog. The same photos of a Windseeker construction site will be used, only photo-shopped onto different park backgrounds. It'll be called the Fun and Only Construction Cam: Only at _____________ (insert park name).

;)

^I can hear the Kings Island crowd now... "They put a giant lake in right behind Windseeker!"

^LOL

It's not a lake David, it's an "ocean". ;)

I noticed OnPoint! is one of the options under Online Fun again. It's nice to at least be able to search through all of the old posts, but does this mean the blog may make a come back?

And I have to say that Youtube and Facebook appear to not really have missed a beat since Tony left... though I still miss huge blog updates during the off season.