Time for extended hours on Fridays?

The crowds on Halloweekends seem to be getting bigger and bigger every year. Is it time for Cedar Point to extend the hours on Friday from 12-12, like Saturday?

Have you not read the other threads and trip reports saying that Fridays are dead?

Why on earth would they extend hours on a day that they're already dead?

It might be worth a try, but it's never very busy on a Friday. You can ride most every open ride in just a few hours as is.

Most people have to work on Fridays and kids are in school on Fridays during this time of the year. I'm happy they switched back to the midnight close on Fridays. It was 11 for a few years wasn't it?

Maybe its not crowded because of the limited rides or limited hours. We were going to go on a Friday, but decided not to because the ride and hour issue.

Have you ever read the otherthreads that said Cedar Point does not draw much locally because there are no big cities nearby?

Why in the hell would someone travel a few hours to go to a park for six hours?

^Well some people will drive far out on Friday to stay for the weekend.

Do you guys realize how short staffed the park is at this time of year? College students have class on Friday, or at least some do.

*** Edited 10/7/2007 11:36:03 PM UTC by Gomez***

MIA-Mike said:

Why in the hell would someone travel a few hours to go to a park for six hours?

[raising hand] Me! And while Im enthusiast, I would like to point out that I also took 6 non enthusiasts with me that night and that they choose to go. The main deciding factor being a tie between us reading how dead the park was on Fridays, and the price (I had B1G1F starlight coupons for them.) We managed to do 21 rides/haunted attractions in those 6 hours, which was far more then I accomplished in 12 yesterday at the park.

While I would love a whole day of full operation on Friday (BGE does this, and I had my best day/night ever there thanks to it) it really doesnt make much sense for CP to do it because people don't get out of work until 5 usually, so they arent going to take a day/half day off to drive out to Sandusky when the park is open the next two days.

I drove it!!! and I had a blast on Friday! Saturday aswell. Cedar Point is short staffed on fridays and to me its fine to be open 6p-12a it Worked for years and still working.

I saw somewhere that CP was offering $10.00 off for Holloweekends and I can not remember where I saw it....Can someone help?

Yeah MIA-Mike, you do realize the reason the rides are limited on Friday evening to begin with, right? It's not only because the crowds don't warrant it.

Are you going to find staff for all the rides for the entire afternoon and then find even more for the unopened rides in the evening?

I don't have class on Fridays, in fact, most people at my university don't. Thats where the name thirsty Thursday comes from.

They're obviously short handed on Fridays. They had a member of marina management working Raptor.

That's pretty funny, and Mike wants them to open at noon.

Good luck with that request.

I did not know staffing was such a problem at the park. I thought thier were some locals that may work at the park.

Well, considering all the rides supervisors and a whole bunch of full time employees from marketing and other departments were working rides this weekend, I'd say staffing is pretty bad. They really screwed themselves cutting the bonus in half this year. That was the only thing keeping people from bailing out those last few weekends. I'm scared to see what the next couple weeks will bring. I've never seen it this bad this early.

So CP should strive to become a year round destination and pay their people a living wage. Then the locals would be glad to work there. I was a college student for half of my life and I would never consider a job that wouldn't be there for me year round. CP depends upon college students too much IMHO. Some of the best ride ops that I have come across were nontraditional CP employees, i.e. retirees and other folks older than most of your parents.

^^ Pretty much all of the foreign employees left after last weekend, so that's a large part of why they were so short this weekend. They did have an abundance of ride prides this weekend, although that doesn't help ride operations much.

^^ - And who would want to go to an outdoor amusement park during a Lake Erie winter?

Not to mention, most of the rides can't operate well when the temp drops below 40 or so. So what in the world are you going to do?

Second, the people who are full time do get paid a living wage. When you're a summer worker, you don't need to be supporting a family of 4 on the wage. You need to make enough to pay for your housing, some food and your bar tab.