Virus Impact on CP

I also keep hearing that you're not guaranteed entry the day of arrival for reservations at Breakers? What's the deal with that? We (generally) go Thursday to Sunday, so that means I can't even go in park Thursday? That's kind of lame

Re: Halloweekends. I went a couple of times last year and one of the reasons I think people avoid it is that a lot of the food kiosks are understaffed or closed. That creates HUGE lines everywhere else.

I'm not sure how CP is handling staffing this year, in light of the fact that they can't get international workers. But if they get rid of Halloweekends, but leave the park short-staffed, it's still going to be a lot of waiting.

I also think they need to leave the park open during at least part of the week during September and October. Typically they close it except for the weekends, and that has in past pushed all the crowds into Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Having the park open more would distribute the crowds more evenly.

MrJohnJLewis said:

I also keep hearing that you're not guaranteed entry the day of arrival for reservations at Breakers? What's the deal with that? We (generally) go Thursday to Sunday, so that means I can't even go in park Thursday? That's kind of lame

From my understanding, you're guaranteed access to the park for one day for each night you stay, beginning the day after check-in. So, if you want to go into the park the day of check-in, you'd have to make a separate reservation for the park for that day.

I thought I read somewhere as part of this year full week operations were extended, one of their announcements. But that might be voided with the pass extension. Although I'd suspect since people have bought tickets they are going to try and make those as useful as possible if that means extended weekly operations. Just a theroy though.

That's the most concise answer on the hotel yet and lines up with what I was told. I have a two night stay so when we check in we can pick the tow days we want to be in the park. If we wanted an extra day then we would need to make separate reservations through the normal system.

Any extension of full week operations or partial weekdays would be contingent on actually having sufficient staff and do it with no international associates. Hearing KI is having issues with getting the experienced supervisor level employees back, many have moved on to other jobs or don’t want the risk.

If we do decide to go at some point I will certainly have some sandwiches packed in the trunk.

TwistedCircuits said:

I thought I read somewhere as part of this year full week operations were extended, one of their announcements

I think this was a thought back when they thought that, at most, parks would lose a couple days or weeks from May but still be opened by Memorial Day mostly business as usual. If you lost a small handful of days you could have extended weekday operations by a week or tacked on an extra weekend of Haunt to the first full weekend of November and called it a day. Once they realized this wasn't going to be over by May, they just added 2021 and consider anything 2020 operations an added bonus.

I can see Halloweekends (as we know it) being either cancelled or extremely scaled down (meaning, some light theming spread throughout the park), but with the park maintaining some operational weekends simply due to cost.

Some of us are old enough to remember Halloweekends before it became what it is today. They were essentially bonus weekends with some cool decor spread throughout the park, hot cider stations here and there, and (at least in our experiences) very manageable crowds. That's what I can picture happening this year.

It's just a guess, but I would assume that going full-tilt on all the haunted houses and decorations comes at a fairly large price tag year after year. So far, Cedar Point seems to be making wise decisions about this operating season to save where they can, and that seems like a logical choice.

Now that sounds like a Halloweekends I can stand fully behind if it means those old lines come back

It was 2006 I believe, I arrived at the park on a Friday night around 9pm, and the park was mostly a ghost town. If I remember correctly, there was only 7 or 8 rows of cars in the main lot, and the line for TTD was right up into the station. We rode everything in those 3 hours.

It felt like a secret that only 578 people knew about.

Saturdays were always packed, but those Friday nights and Sundays were always special.

Yes, I miss those days. Not as much as the the bonus weekend Friday that used to fall directly after Labor Day. The park was only open from 6pm to 10pm but that was always my favorite day to visit each year. I remember two things happening on one of the last ones:

1. Being the only person on a Raptor train.

2. The line for Dragster being so empty they had to tell people waiting for the front seat to fill remaining rows so the ride could dispatch. Otherwise we'd have to wait for people to fill the train.

I was so sad when those empty Fridays went away after they started closing that weekend for Honda.

NOT doing ride reservations actually makes sense from a crowd control/social distancing perspective. All the people in the park have to be *somewhere*. Standing in line is a more controlled environment than standing on the midway.

I'm not a fan of the "scare" stuff for Halloween. I tend not to do haunts because I tend to ruin them for both the people with me and occasionally for the monsters who wonder if they are doing something wrong. Then there was that time at a (different) park where I, a generally non-violent person, nearly knocked a monster into the next county when he swung a sledge hammer at me. Sorry, I'm just not into that stuff. But the Halloween events are a great opportunity to keep riding in the late season, and that I like...a lot. Hearing that parks are planning to operate into the Fall, with or without the Halloween overlays, makes me a little happier.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Fall at Cedar Point is my absolute favorite. That I may have a chance to participate with early 2000s level Halloweekend crowds -and- not have to deal with midways packed with actors and scare zones sounds amazing.

I could see Halloweekends just being decorations only this year. I don't see how they can have haunts and scare zones where screamsters get into close proximity of guests. And other guests can get bunched up sometimes.

RideMan said:

. All the people in the park have to be *somewhere*. Standing in line is a more controlled environment than standing on the midway.

I actually had that buzzing around in the back of my mind and forgot to mention it. I was thinking about the time Disneyland lost power and you couldn't walk in the midways. Queues are a form of crowd control even with social distancing. Really glad you pointed that out.

I, a generally non-violent person, nearly knocked a monster into the next county when he swung a sledge hammer at me.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

This also is a reason I'm not a huge fan. I've learned with family scaring me or surprise me, I have to be very careful with that stuff. Worst case scenario to date is I reflexively countered an uncle picking on me (I certainly deserved the teasing I was being a goofball) and he wound up with a broken big toe.

I've sworn up and down for years I avoid haunted houses as much for my sake as for the actors. I don't want to hurt someone for doing their job. Glad to hear I'm not the only one.

I remember those early years of Halloweekends well.... We would take a group of students from the school I work at. We'd leave right after school and bus the kids out - attendance was so sparse they ran some great deals. A Friday night "Starlight" ticket was about $24, and you could print BOGO tickets off their website - so we would xerox a bunch of those, and the kids could get in for $12 apiece.

I remember the same crowds at Geauga Lake 1.0 in the late 90s when they first unveiled HallowScream. Especially that first year or two when many people didn't likely realize the place was still open. Plenty of memories of Big Dipper, Serial Thriller and Double Loop rerides on frigid October Friday nights.

It’s hilarious how fondly everyone (myself included!) remembers those times where the park failed HORRIBLY in attracting customers, operating at a huge loss, and complains when they did an excellent job at bringing in those customers and actually being able to remain profitable to continue operations.

I may be speaking for myself here, but I think the reason most complained about the large crowds was the park's inability to properly handle them.