Very bad parking management on July 4 after fireworks.

We have platinum passes. We looked forward to taking the family (including three young children) to the fireworks on July 4. Since we'd been at the water park all day, we remained parked in the water park lot and walked over to the beach behind the hotel to watch the fireworks.

When the fireworks were over, we and everyone else in the Splash Zone parking lot were in total gridlock from 11 pm to 1:15 pm, a total of 2-1/4 hours. It was the worst. Traffic management was non-existent. When people finally started calling 911 to get help to get some way out of the lot, the Cedar Point Police Department finally showed up to direct traffic. Once we finally got out of the Splash Zone lot, we discovered the all of the parking lots at the front of the park were completely empty and deserted, completely vacant. The hold up seemed to be from the cars leaving the hotel lots first, and we could not even move until all of the Breakers and back-of-the-park traffic had finally emptied. Very, very poor response by bicycle cops who weaved through the gridlocked traffic in the Splash Zone lot: pretty much "it's not our job" when patrons deluged them with requests to get help with traffic management. Got home at 2:30 in the morning. Ridiculous. The Park Management owe us a huge apology. Adults and children were forced to urinate in the lot. Kids crying. Angry adults. Everyone hungry, tired, exhausted, and frustrated. Worst experience at Cedar Point EVER.

Wait... People called 9-1-1 because of a traffic jam in a parking lot?

I'm not sure what's worse - abusing the service for that, or because Burger King ran out of your favorite sandwich.

The parking/traffic problems from the back of the part on busy nights is known problem as others have complained in the past. The problem is that there is only the two lanes of traffic around the peninsula and this single road has to service the soak city lot, lighthouse pointe and the hotel lots. It's terrible that CP didn't have traffic management at the intersection where these lots connect allowing equal flow from all the lots, but to be honest leaving your vehicle in the Soak lot on a busy weekend is probably just not recommended. Soak City closes at 8pm so that lot should be mostly empty by 9pm. If you're staying to enter CP then my recommendation is to have somebody in your party move the vehicle to the front lot and then meet back inside the park. This is what we usually do to avoid the situation you encountered. If you didn't have a ticket to enter CP but wanted to get back to the beach after parking in front you could use the free shuttle to take the trip from the front gate back around to Lighthouse Pointe or Breakers.

Where the heck is the Splash Zone anyway?

Traffic problems on the 4th of july after the fireworks, who
could have predicted that. I am shocked!!!!!

I feel your pain. This happened to us 4 years ago. We fixed the problem. We never park in that lot on a crowded day.

I hope you learn from this.

~Rob

The interesting thing is that folks rarely seem to hesitate to complain online about a poor experience. If those people used that energy to plan ahead, they'd likely have avoided the problem in the first place. In other words, coming to an online community to complain isn't productive. Coming to an online community to find out what to expect at CP on the 4th is productive.

This isn't necessarily directed at you, Kay. It seems to be a pretty common issue.

We were stuck in the lot that night as well. I'm a long time passholder so we knew it was going to be a long time getting out of the lot, but we stay past closing so it wasn't a big deal.

I think what added to the traffic this year was the extended airplane demonstrations before the fireworks. The airplane show went on for about half an hour, then the fireworks were about half an hour long. The fireworks show ended around 11:30pm and the park closed at midnight. In years past, the fireworks seemed to end around 11pm which gave more time for the fireworks crowd to depart before the park closed. This year it seemed like everyone left at the same time.

At one point, medical responded to a vehicle parked over by the sky coaster. It was a mess trying to get rescue into the parking lot to attend to the patient because people were all backed up at the exits/entrances. It was entertaining watching people lay on their horns for 2 hours. Society breaks down quickly... It was surpising that no one was at the intersections to regulate traffic.

On the 4th of July we parked in the back of the main lot. Fireworks ended at 10:50. We put our chairs in the car, started the motor and drove out. At 10:56 we were going over the bridge on the causeway. What parking jam?

Almost the same here, but better. We just went to the campgrounds and went to bed.

Where is this Splash Zone, and its parking lot? Agreed, busier days might mean more traffic in any of the parking lots. That's typical with any popular venue and local attractions. The date or holiday is irrelevant. It's timing, research & planning. Myself, even after 10 visits this year, every visit is planned to a degree. That includes arrival time, parking strategy,budget & optimizing personal enjoyment(events, late closing and less crowded days). Buckle up-surely prior to this 'madness', there was fun to be had!

Why was anyone forced to pee in the parking lot? There are bathrooms next to the lot. Between the Splash Zone and the parking lot. There are also bathrooms in challenge park near the other soak city entrance that could have been used once it became clear you were not going anywhere any time soon.

The problem is that you have a parking lot with 1,000 vehicles and only one small exit.

http://i.pointbuzz.com/parking-lot.jpg

But it really isn't a problem ... unless all 1,000 vehicles want to leave at the same time. And that's just about guaranteed to happen every July 4. Even though the park stays open late, fireworks still seem to have this, "everyone go home right now" effect.

Throw in the bottleneck that exists at the pedestrian crossing near the marina gate and it ends up being a mess every year.

I've parked in that lot on July 4. I know the frustration. Unless it's completely redesigned -- and I'm not sure what practical solutions are available and I'm not convinced it's necessary for a limited problem -- the best answer is to park in the main lot. But most don't know to do that until you experience it first hand or read about it here.

We got caught in the traffic jam in 2005 for 1+ hr and we were in the middle of the front lot. Ever since then we stayed at CV or Breakers for 4-5 nights before and over the 4th. The change at CV this year caught me off guard and I did not get a full hook up campsite this year. Boy was the 4th a real bummer without the CP experience.:-( This won't happen next year!