The Boardwalk - New for 2023

Positive Vibes!!

I love the look of the refresh of the area, We have waited for awhile since the removal of Oceana for this to come to be and it looks like a nice design. I can not wait to see the pavilion and am curious to see how that interacts with the boardwalk as the boardwalk is open to the public and it appears the pavilion opens onto the boardwalk.

Will the pavilion also have a new entrance to the park? Will the windseeker entrance still be available? Will the pavilion have a purpose outside of the CP operating season?

And then my not so positive vibes...I am still torn that CP will move the Scrambler right next to the other scramber ride (Tiki Twirl) next to another scrambler type ride (Troika) which seems to be a bit redundant in the ride experiences in the area. I agree that it will look awesome and fill the area nice with open areas as well, yet the variety of rides seem to be somewhat disappointing.

I am more exicted about planning a trip to Canadas Wonderland next year with the new ride announcement! That looks like a lot of fun.

I genuinely think, re: negative reax on this board, Cedar Point is often a victim of its own rapid expansion.

Millennium Force and TTD opened within three years of each other. Like ... after Millie broke all the records, TTD just dropped to shattered them again in short order.

Maverick, Gatekeeper, Valravn and Steel Vengeance all opened in an 11-year stretch, even with SV's construction lagging at times. Four coasters that would be the focal points at many other parks. Four radically different coasters.

I think people take for granted what Cedar Point became in the 2000s and 2010s. It's not normal for a park to add that much, that good, that quickly. It's almost set the park up for failure in the public opinion because, especially with limited space, how can you ever follow on that?

You could keep Operational Efficiencies and Ride Operations the way they were, That would go a long way...

While the record breaking coasters are great, the biggest part of the magic that was Cedar Point was how they did operations, that is long gone (I hope it returns).

GBB88 said:

It's almost set the park up for failure in the public opinion because, especially with limited space, how can you ever follow on that?

I don't know anyone that doesn't go anymore because they don't add as many coasters as quickly as they did 10-20-30 years ago. I do know people that stopped going because the hotels were outdated dumps and there was nothing for their families to do outside of coasters.

Outside of the horrible weather policies, operations policies, and lack of emphasis on efficiency, the park is arguably more of a well rounded experience than it ever has been and has truly positioned itself as a multi day resort stay that all members of the family can enjoy, and the park actually has a product that has the potential to deliver on that. They just need to operate it that way. They course corrected on every shortcoming they had in the final decade of the Kinzel era while self-creating bizarre and unnecessary policies for shuttering attractions in weather than absolutely should not affect operations and de-emphasizing simple things like not stacking trains and making sure all rows of a train are filled.

XS NightClub said:

You could keep Operational Efficiencies and Ride Operations the way they were, That would go a long way...

While the record breaking coasters are great, the biggest part of the magic that was Cedar Point was how they did operations, that is long gone (I hope it returns).

I have to agree. It's been harder to love to park and the experience. We just got back from our 4 day trip, Tuesday afternoon through Saturday morning. We missed Valravn of course as it reopened Saturday evening, but they just can't get away from consistent, daily downtime on the major coasters. We observed long periods of downtime for SV, Maverick, Raptor and Magnum multiple times during the week. With how busy the park was, it's tough to manage a great day with all the missing pieces. No TTD or Valravn was definitely noticeable. We spent more time at the beach, Breakers pools and Shores than I had in years. Excited to see the boardwalk, but I'd be much more excited for a reopened TTD and consistent uptime for the major attractions.

The maintenance downtimes don't bother me nearly as much as the unnecessary weather closures. When 80% of the coasters close for rain that's lighter than the misting fans in a queue, that's just unnecessary and terrible guest service.

Must be a corporate thing, Knott's is now known to close the park for a light rain. Used to be able to ride everything in weather that required a slicker and an umbrella.

Cedar Point has been like this with rain since 2007 when Magnum had that train bump. Being more conservative with wind is newer though. Meanwhile down in Mason or Charlotte you can power ride anything with all the trains still running in a pretty significant downpour.

Rain, maybe. Lightning, never. When Orion was brand new I waited in a non-moving line due to lightning ‘in the vicinity’. It was gorgeous and sunny over the park but still no rides.

Cartwright said:

Cedar Point has been like this with rain since 2007 when Magnum had that train bump. Being more conservative with wind is newer though. Meanwhile down in Mason or Charlotte you can power ride anything with all the trains still running in a pretty significant downpour.

I had a painful rain ride on Banshee that would rival anything even in the last days of Mean Streak...

Yeah, riding in the rain on certain coasters is definitely a "just because you can, doesn't necessarily mean that you should" sort of thing. While fantasizing about riding in poncho and umbrella-level rain sounds nice in theory, in practice it's more akin to riding MF front row during a mayfly hatch.

has truly positioned itself as a multi day resort stay that all members of the family can

As long as the members of said family aren't north of (say) 42" and south of 48". Too big for kiddie rides. Too small to ride coasters. Yeah, there are some flats. And, yeah, the beach if you're there for multiple days. But, our experience is that the park itself doesn't have sustained fun for people in that height range--even over the course of one day. The wild mouse is a great step, but they need a bunch more steps like that before they're credibly catering to everyone in the family. At least based on our experience.

mallman said:

has truly positioned itself as a multi day resort stay that all members of the family can

As long as the members of said family aren't north of (say) 42" and south of 48". Too big for kiddie rides. Too small to ride coasters. Yeah, there are some flats. And, yeah, the beach if you're there for multiple days. But, our experience is that the park itself doesn't have sustained fun for people in that height range--even over the course of one day. The wild mouse is a great step, but they need a bunch more steps like that before they're credibly catering to everyone in the family. At least based on our experience.

I mean, personally, I would take more dark rides!

I know that's not really the spirit of Cedar Point, which is fine. But where others have clamored for a 400-footer or whatever for five years ... I've just wanted to fill a Disaster Transport sized hole in my heart.

I'd like to see a log ride. And a real one too, not crap like the STR remake.

A dark log ride could be interesting with the tech available now, and theme it to the pirate ride as a nod to the past similar to the new boardwalk.

I’m pleasantly surprised the mouse is at 42”. Let’s hope it stays that way.

While they are at it they should revisit some of their height requirements, especially ones that were lower in the past. I was just at Hersheypark and they have a ton of “big” rides that the whole family can do. Their spinning mouse, Schwarzkopf looper, and PTC woody with buzz bars were at 42”. Their Arrow Flume and Arrow mine train were at 36”!

A dark log ride, you mean like this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_Mountain_Log_Ride

Yes, that's a great log ride. Especially after the (somewhat) recent refurb. I'd be very happy for CP to get one similar.

Yep, Timber mountain, Splash mountain, Jurassic park river adventure are the obvious examples. Jurassic Island looks interesting with the video element. Personally I'd prefer something like those or a dark coaster to something like the original pirate ride. Anyone have a favorite manufacturer for something like that? No idea what effect STR has on CP's opinion of log rides in general, parallels the whole discussion on the the TTD incident.

A log ride would probably fit in better near frontier town, putting aside the 'running out of room issue' and if that was the case, theming around the SV characters would probably make more sense. Wonder if they could fit pirates into that story.

As long as we're dreaming, a 400/500 foot enclosed disaster transport remake would also be cool, make it feel like we were actually going to space.

Edit: After I said that, now I'm imagining a dragster sized 12E box on the skyline... ugh.

As much as I agree that a log rides fits the Frontier Town theme, I believe that area's transformation is finally complete. I really like it as is now and wouldn't want them to change/remove anything. To be honest, now that I think more about it I'm unsure where a log flume should go. I just know I'd like to see one as I've always loved log rides and they're great for families to ride together.