Top Thrill STILL closed
I was there last year mid July and it was so hot that the park had a rolling blackout. Some rides were running until I'd get in line (I swear it was just when I got in line) then it'd go down and a train would be stuck somewhere on the track. Instead of shutting everything down, they ran the rides whenever they could. Sometimes only 2 or 3 trains would make it through. Then they announced that they were staying open an extra hour. Everybody who got in line at the end of that extra hour was still guarenteed a ride. Obviously a blackout isn't the parks problem, they didn't have to do anything for us. I had fun anyway. At first I was getting pretty angry because every ride I got in line for broke down, but after learning what the problem was I just stayed in line instead of going to another ride. I live in Tennessee and drive 10 hours to get to the park, we spend close to a grand on the trip every year. Here's a tip, if your going to make a long trip, go for the 2-day pass, you'll have a better chance of riding everything.
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-Mike
The Fast and the Fearless
*** This post was edited by IntegraGSR 5/29/2003 5:24:36 PM ***
fruity said:
Scream! - dumb-ass name, kick-ass ride
*** This post was edited by fruity 5/29/2003 4:52:23 PM ***
EHHHH...NE? Not really a kickass ride when you get bored of it on the 2nd ride. I been on medusa which already aged a little and got some intensity to it and it still bores me .
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- Dennis
When I die, They'll read this And say a genius wrote it.
http://drinkduff.com/
I agree with Shane completely. No, CP does not know when their rides will fail, nor how long it will take to fix the problem, but Wednesday was a horrible day for my three friends and I. Cedar Point is in the "make people happy business", if a customer is not happy they must make them happy, handing out front-of-the-line passes dont cut it. On a day when a number of their greatest rides are down, a refund or discount should be given. People pay almost $50.00 to get in the park, every guest is not a season pass holder, and $50.00 a pop, is a lot of money to most families, and going to the park on a terrible day like Wednesday is just not worth it.
If Cedar Point is having this many problems, in the early part of the season, a reduced ticket price should be considered. I know the park can't hand out mass-refunds, but there is no excuse for a day like Wednesday. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but Cedar Fair is a multi-billion dollar corporation, and losing sight of your customer to build extreme rides, and break records, could cost them in the long run. Just my thoughts.
*** This post was edited by jeremymj 5/29/2003 5:33:59 PM ***
Chief Wahoo said:
I certainly am not lashing out at him, I am just stating the other side.I was making a general assesment on most of the postings, not targeting anyone's in particular...
Chief Wahoo said:
You said, "One is entitled to enjoy most of the rides you pay for." 4 of the biggies were down at some point of the day. Only 1 was down ALL DAY. He had 65 other rides (not too mention the shows) to enjoy so I would say that he got what he was entitled to.True, but (hypotetically speaking of course) what if all roller coasters were down... will anyone, especially from this forum, be willing to spend the day on the kiddie rides and shows?? I honestly doubt it... Again, it is a matter of personal expectation.
Chief Wahoo said:
I work hard for my money and I support a family too. If a game is rained out in the 5th inning I don't expect a refund for the other four innings. If I pay for a pay-per-view boxing match and it is over before the end of the first round, I don't expect my money back. If I take a flight and it is delayed for 4 hours because of a mechanical issue I don't get a partial refund on my ticket.
All good examples, but... The first one has to do with the weather, which also applies to Cedar Point... This is called an Act-of-God, which is slightly different from 5 mechanical failures, rendering the rides out of service. No refunds will ever apply to weather because weather is not controlled by anyone. The opposite can not exactly be said about 5 mechanical failures... As for your second example... you get to see your fight, completely. It just lasted one round. As for your third example... you are right, you may not be entitled to a refund for just THAT flight, but... if you had two more connections to make and all of them are delayed because of mechanical problems, wouldn't you ask for some compensation in return??? Again, it was not only TTD...
Chief Wahoo said:
I don't know your definition of risk management but this has nothing to do with risk management. Actually, many large corporations, specifically in retail, are making their refund policies more strict because they are being abused and it is costing the companies.
What I am referring to here is that risk is a fact in all businesses and risk management is used to assess any potential losses or mishaps prior to their occurence... including loss of income for whatever reason. And for the retail industry toughen its refund policies... very true, but I don't see how anyone could abuse Cedar Point on this. This is not like returning merchandise, so the example cannot fairly apply. But even then, you are entitled to some sort of compensation (cashback, credit, etc.)retail stores if you can make your case, most of the time on the same amount already spent...
Chief Wahoo said:
Seriously, where do you draw the line? If all the rides are working and group A was able to get on 30 rides but group B was only able to get on 20 rides...should Group B get a refund?
On this example you are assuming that all rides WERE working... not the same we are discussing here.
Again, it is a matter of personal expectation and OPINION.
pfranco said:
Therefore, the remark about people using their brains or not is completely irrelevant, not to mention offensive.Amen. Thanks
And the capacity per hour for the rides are on the Cedar Point webpage. They sure get talked about a lot in here.. Funny how when I bring them up, they are immediatly shot down.... but they are talked about in every other thread.
I feel like I'm really misunderstood :-/
Even a free parking pass... SOMETHING... The point is to make the customer HAPPY... if they are not HAPPY they will not be coming BACK. Coming back = more money... Eaten at coasters lately? over $10 for a meal that cost a buck to make if that. They make lots of money on everything that its worth it to have people come back, at a reduced cost. Im not the CFO for Cedar Fair, so I don't have numbers or anything in front of me, but im guessing that theres an average profit per person.. and if you reduce the admission price $15 (or 5 in a lot of cases.. meijers..) you will still make an outrageous profit on each person.
PS: did anyone else notice the new announcements page they put up on cedarpoint.com?
pfranco said:
other posts for that matter), you will see that not only TTD was down, but 4 more of their more important rides were also down at some point during the day. I also mentioned that one should not base a trip on 1 ride only, that is just plain dumb. But to have 4 other rides down during the day?
How did we go from it being a bad thing that Dragster is closed .. to ... having downtime of any kind demands at least a partial refund? As has been mentioned, Cedar Point has 96% uptime during the season. If you really stop to think about it, that's an incredible number.
Check out Eric's trip report from yesterday. Sounds like his group had a lot of fun, including spins on the "important" rides. Even ShaneM admitted he had a good time. If your argument for compensation is that other rides were down too, you're not going to win over many people. Complaining about Dragster being closed is one thing (though I don't buy that either), but to make it sound like no one could ride anything else "important" ... that's ridiculous.
I think Chief Wahoo makes some great points is his post on page 3 that starts "If Cedar Point had a total power failure ..." Who gets to decide where you draw the line?
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Virtual Midway
http://www.virtualmidway.com
*** This post was edited by Gemini 5/29/2003 6:06:28 PM ***
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If beating old people is wrong, i don't want to be right! hehe
trips to CP:3 Dragster:1 MFer:4 Magnum: 8 doesn't get any better then a nice day in may!
Now I'm not saying that C.P. should do this, but is just another perspective of what another park did in what I feel is a similar issue with a new ride going down. And no, I didn't go to PKI just to ride SoB. The only reason that I visit the park twice a year (which is only a hour away compared to C.P. which is 2 1/2 hours) is to ride the Beast.
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If beating old people is wrong, i don't want to be right! hehe
trips to CP:3 Dragster:1 MFer:4 Magnum: 8 doesn't get any better then a nice day in may!
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Eric Morrison (Coast)
Drag Races: 6
Point Hype
http://www.pointhype.com
Cedar Point also offers a nice sign outside the admissions booths when Dragster is down. I've see two versions of this sign (not to mention the little ones at the entrace as well): "Dragster will open later today" and "Dragster may open later today"
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"I can't make a movie or write a song either, but that doesn't mean I'm not entitled to think they suck."
-Jeff
Dragster: 1 Force: 2 Twister: 3 Raptor: 3 Magnum: 4
Cedar Point is in the "make people happy business", if a customer is not happy they must make them happy, handing out front-of-the-line passes dont cut it.
If Cedar Point is having this many problems, in the early part of the season, a reduced ticket price should be considered. I know the park can't hand out mass-refunds, but there is no excuse for a day like Wednesday. Sorry if this sounds harsh, but Cedar Fair is a multi-billion dollar corporation, and losing sight of your customer to build extreme rides, and break records, could cost them in the long run. Just my thoughts.
First of all, Cedar Point is not a "make people happy business". No where in this world has Cedar Point distinguished themselves as such. They are an amusement park. If you want to get technical, amusement does not mean that you have to be made happy. "Muse" means think and with the "A" in front of it it means do not think. Cedar Point declares themselves as a park where you can go and not have to worry about things so you can go relax from the world. I am sorry, but to you that may mean that you will be happy, but that is not stated. They do not have to make you happy. The way you are talking if I went to the park and was mad because I did not find a million dollars laying on the ground, Cedar Point must supply me with it because they have to make me happy. I'm sorry but that is just crap.
It is not like Cedar Point wanted those rides to be down. No rides were down all day! Not one! Out of almost 70 rides, that is remarkable! There are parks with half as many rides that rarely accomplish that. Cedar Point never promises that their rides will be open all day. Although they strive for it, machines will be machines. They cannot hand out thousands of free admission tickets or discounts because one ride was down for a small amount of time. Not everyone would have rode that one ride or any of the rides that were down, so they would still deserve one?
Second of all, there are excuses for four of almost seventy rides to be down. It happens. Just because irony set in and they were all popular attractions does not mean that there is not an excuse for it. If Chaos, Trioka, Calypso, and the Antique Cars would have been down yesterday, you would have been overjoyed. I'm sorry your "If 6% of the rides are down for any amount of time during the day that is unacceptable" theory is what is unacceptable.
And don't give me crap about the other rides being down... each was a temporary situation and the rides ran the majority of the day.
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Jeff
Webmaster/GTTP - Sillynonsense.com
"Pray that your country undergoes recovery!" - KMFDM
Cedar Point markets the heck out of Dragster, Millennium Force, and Raptor, only not to have them operating during my visit, and the visits of many others. CP holds themselves to a such a high standard, and thats why im so suprised and dissapointed. This board is an enthusiasts place, and I think a few of you have missed the point, enthuisist dont pay the parks bills, the average family and guest does. Cedar Point should at the very least offer a return pass, or some type of compensation. If they dont, put a sign at the ticket booth that say's 40% satisfaction guarenteed.
Those of you saying "Everyone has a bad day"; should that be on the day my family makes the one single 400 mile trip to the park? If my company had a bad day we couldnt say "Oh were sorry we had a bad day and our work is incomplete, and crappy but you have to pay the $900.00 bill anyway, but we will come back next week and try again" Dont make sense. The customer is #1. Wednesday was unacceptable, but I hold any grudges towards the park, I just think their guest service policy needs some revision.
Jeremy.
As far as I can remember Cedar Point does not have a sign at the ticket booth saying that 100% satisfaction guarenteed that all rides will be up on any given day, but 96% up time is pretty good. That is a chance that we all take going to any amusement park.
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MF Circuts=336 (20 This year)
TTD Launches=11
Launch that sucker...Yeah!
*** This post was edited by Tony 5/29/2003 9:29:14 PM ***
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