Wild Frontier Nights - June 3, 4, 10, & 11

You can go to the park pretty much any summer evening and ride coasters past sunset. Outside of Steel Vengeance, Maverick, Millennium Force and sometimes Valravn, unless it's a weekend, they'll all be a walk on or darn close to it.

In the 90s it was the same thing. But back then the rides that weren't a walk on were Magnum, Raptor and Mantis.

Does nobody else remember playing with the beach balls while listening to the DJ spin What Is Love by Haddaway in a 90 minute full Magnum queue at 9pm on a summer Tuesday?

And for someone that claims to no longer go to the park, you sure do love to stalk the webcams to watch for trash cans being moved as a sign that the new Aquatraxx is coming.

Yep, I remember the DJs' in Raptor, Mantis, & Magnum. Then MF came along with a DJ that would take requests.

Power Tower and Mean Streak had a DJ (or at least a music setup in the center of the queue lines) from what I recall. And correct me if I am wrong as I didn't spend a lot of time in the Mantis queue, but wasn't it always a big TV in the center instead of a DJ? Or did they change it to a TV later to replace the DJ?

Mantis had the big screen that played music videos. That playlist stayed the same for almost the entire run of the ride. Long after the screen stopped working, the audio was still the same. I know we created a list of those songs on here at some point, but I still think of Mantis and Cedar Point any time I hear some of those tunes.

Point taken everyone. I just come from the old CP back in the day when it was about riding riding riding. Times have changed, but I still go to ride to my heart's content! Not to blow my paycheck on food!

I think it sounds like a neat idea. $100 for what they're including (three hours on a couple of rides rides albeit probably including the two best in the park, but no food, soft drinks I already have, etc included at that price point) is more than I'm personally willing to spend on it, but if I was a local couple without a season pass and needed a date night, I might think differently. That seems like almost who it's going to appeal to the most. I come from 4 hours away with kids in tow so realistically, what would I do with them during this time?

I'll likely stick with BYOB or maybe a drink or two from the Surf Lounge and a chill party on the beach.

All perspective, I guess.

For $139 you get (some of) the food and libations.

And your kids would be fine. Just leave them at the Thirsty Pony!

Joking aside, with regards to pricing I would assume they just ask a very simple question; what do people spend on a nice night out? With "nice night out" meaning going to an establishment where one will pay for food/drink/entertainment.

I think they got it about right.

I love the idea and get the pricing thought, but compared to their own offerings this seems a little much.

For a CP date for 2, I can buy 2 fast lane plus and a 10 pack drink/food card for frontier fest for roughly the same price, and have all day with more rides and food offerings. Might not be as exclusive, but FLP is pretty much vip lane which makes me it feel exclusive.

Even the similar LBJ foundation first ride event ( actually had 4 hours of ERT in SV and Maverick) was only $75, which included food and soft drink (did have aCash bar at Last Chance) Pretty much half the price of this and you got first public dibs on a new ride. Now I did think that was priced low, but it still took a week or two to sell out.

I will shove out money for premium offerings , but only if I can justify the value vs related experiences ( I.E. I’ve upgraded to first class on airlines more time than not as I figure for $40-50 more an hour gets me a much better experience, plus booze and free bags). To each their own though in seeing if there is relative value for this.

I’m hoping they set the price high here to make sure they aren’t undervaluing it (a refreshing change). If it’s priced right we won’t hear anything, but if their aren’t many takers maybe we’ll see a pass discount pop up.

Cartwright said:

...a recipe for unhappy attendees that this event is taking place the same night as Coastermania.

...overlapping Coastermania with this event, having the Coastermania ERT end significantly earlier, and having the two most popular rides in the park unavailable for evening ERT sessions because of another event just screams like a customer service headache that was easily avoidable.

CM offers:

• 5.5 hours of ERT for $45 (which works out to $8.18/hr, among 10 coasters, at least 4 of which are marquee attractions)
• a cruise
• lunch
• an infield tour of Maverick
• an exclusive Q&A session

WFN offers:

• 3 hours of ERT for $99 (which works out to $33/hr, among 3 rides, 2 of which are marquee attractions)
• live music

Assuming WFN is a success, any CM attendee who is unhappy that others are willing to pay far more for far less is so laughably out of touch with reality that the park is better off without them.

This event is a great idea, and good for the park in recognizing the value of what they offer, though it seems so inconsistent with their pass pricing strategy. And if it is successful, I wonder if similar events might be in store for the area they're currently renovating.

I think Brandon just hit on an important point about this clearly being outside their pass pricing. As a whole, we have become so accustomed to Cedar Point essentially giving away the gate, something like this seems out of touch. Makes sense.

The price also includes park admission with no option to avoid that with a pass. Coastermania has the registration only option.

WFN's $99 price does not include park admission:

Event admission only, daytime park admission and parking is not included. Daytime park admission is not required to attend the event.

I just meant you don't need to pay an extra admission fee for those 3 hours, that part is included in the $99. there is parking, and the whole park isn't open so I'll admit that was a stretch.

It doesn't bother me that they'll be back there riding what we rode for morning ERT, we'll be riding GateKeeper, Valravn, Rougarou, & MF then.

Another question is, what is the exclusivity for this event? How many tickets are sold?

Coastermania sells approximately 1500 - 1700 tickets. That does cut down somewhat on the exclusivity. When Coastermainia originally went to a ticketed event I believe there were 1200 tickets sold. We have been to Coastermania in previous years when there were enough attendees, and Steel Vengence and Maverick were the only rides available, that it was only possible to get two rides on Steel Vengence during the entire ERT session.

If there are only 500 or so tickets sold for this event, the ability to do more in less time may make it worthwhile.

Back in the late 90s'/early 2000s', at the the CM lunch CP announced they had 2200 attendees.

Putting aside the specifics of this event, I’m (pleasantly) surprised that CP is experimenting with an adult event at all. With CGA and VF replacing Haunt with Tricks and Treats, I honestly thought that the entire chain would focus similarly on families (i.e. parents with young kids).

What I find slightly weird is that I would think adult events would work better at parks in urban-ish areas with nightlife minded adults within a short drive. For CP, I have a hard time envisioning adults driving to Sandusky for only a few hours at night (as others have pointed out, I don’t see many parents leaving their kids at nearby hotels for this after a day at the park), but I’m not really a nightlife person myself, so I could be wrong. And I imagine that CP’s general “safety” makes it more suitable for an adult event than elsewhere.

Dennis Urban said:

Back in the late 90s'/early 2000s', at the the CM lunch CP announced they had 2200 attendees.

Cedar Point was a capacity juggernaut at that time...... Now it's almost like a Six Flags on Ambien.

The WFN seems like a good idea for them to venture out of their comfort zone and try new things, as stated above the Adult entertainment option is a good start for them to look at.

Sandusky offers virtually nothing for a nightlife, so if you're staying for a week or so, you get itching for something more than overcrowded pool areas that turn into a giant kiddie pool area at the hotels when park closes.

Cedar Point Announces $99 Season Pass...

"That's Too Cheap!" "They're Giving the Park Away!" "How can they justify this?" "My cat's name is Mittens"

Cedar Point Announces Wild Frontier Nights Exclusive Event for $99...

"Greed!!!!" "That's so Expensive!"

Going back to food quality, and challenging what constitutes park food, you should see Connections Eatery at Epcot. It actually looks like these photos. I think they're over selling a little relative to production capacity, because mobile ordering was full and I waited 20 minutes at dinner time, but that's not horrible.