VIP at CP

With the VIP Lounge at CP being outside and overcrowded, what if the moved the lounge to the old Melt building? At least it would be air conditioned.

I had to check, thought you were yanking our chains, but CP does have a VIP “lounge”.

VIP?

Cedar Flags hates poor people.

Very Indigent People.

I'd rather see the return of full service restraunts than VIP areas.

A missed opportunity at SIX/FUN continues to be growing their “Prestige” level consumer, folks with the financial resources to pay for an elevated experience. I would argue there is a strong aspirational consumer, whether the cost is an afterthought or one that is budgeted for, who want to experience a park like Great America or Cedar Point, in a way that is better than general admission or entry level priced pass holders.

They do offer VIP tours, at least at Cedar Point, which give you a dedicated escort and up the exit access to rides. I would say that is the offering for people with a lot of disposable income that want to experience the park in a way that is elevated. The price is steep, starting at $699 per person for admission (minimum of 2 people, maximum of 10), food and drink, preferred parking, Funpix, and the escort. Maybe they need to advertise them more.

I would argue that the middle class is sort of squeezed out and that's where I fall. I can afford to pay more for my season pass or for smaller incremental upgrades to have a better than budget experience. But by the same token, springing for $189*4 for Fastlane multiple times a season in order to have acceptable visits is not really in the cards for me either. The single use Fastlane that comes with Prestige is a good benefit, and Fastlane seems to work much better at some of the other parks than it does at Cedar Point where both the buyers and the non-buyers of it end up being unhappy since too much of the capacity is dedicated to Fastlane and the Fastlane lines are still too long. It doesn't seem the same at Kings Island, Great Adventure, or Carowinds. The problem with selling all of the season long products good at all parks is you have no idea how many of them are going to show up on any given day and as a result, they don't seem to be able to get the math behind it right in terms of ratios that keep the buyers and non-buyers happy - at least at Cedar Point.

After COVID and all the limited capacities, visit reservations and stuff, I figured the industry would move more toward reserving days even if you have a pass, dated tickets, etc so that they can staff appropriately for the expected crowd. That definitely hasn't happened though. It's pretty much the opposite. In the old days, CP used to always staff for a big crowd and then cut back if it didn't materialize. In a recent earnings call, it was mentioned they really don't do this anymore. They try to better predict the crowd using their analytics and historical data, but if more people show up than they expected or were staffed for, I think the experience will suffer because it isn't that easy to just call extra people in to work once the day is in full swing.

Whatever CP is charging for FastLane, it’s not enough. It leaves an “overpromise, underdeliver” bad taste in everyone’s mouth: the standby line and the FastLane line. I realized that the operations aren’t that much worse than anywhere else. There are just too many people and especially there are too many people with FastLane.

Mr. Phantom:

With the VIP Lounge at CP being outside and overcrowded, what if the moved the lounge to the old Melt building? At least it would be air conditioned.

ApolloAndy:

Whatever CP is charging for FastLane, it’s not enough.

I’d be interested to know the annual vs day-of mix in the fast lane returns. The Annual version sold out, which suggests that at least the price of that one is too low.

CP usually sells out of ASFL extremely quick, while other parks don't. I've twice had to buy my pass at another park in the Spring in order to get ASFL.

There's also a huge difference in price between parks. CP is $999 while SFOG is only $599. My plan was to buy at SFOG this spring but I never made it, despite basically living at the ATL airport for 1.5 months. Ended up buying at SFGrAm for roughly the same price as CP. (Forced into Prestige Pass since it's what I needed to get into CP, my home park)

I also find the VIP lounge at CP to be extremely lacking. Some nice patio furniture under an open air tent. Doesn't even have phone chargers. (Kings Island does) And you can choose from a tiny back of chips, Cheetos or Grandmas cookies. (barf)

Tommytheduck:

There's also a huge difference in price between parks. CP is $999 while SFOG is only $599.

Is this the all-park option? I've read online that even the all-park varies wildly (by several hundred dollars) depending on the home park. That's a major flaw in the entire thing.

I agree. I feel like they should offer all season Fastlane for home park only so they can set the price that makes sense for the park quality and market. If you visit another park and want Fastlane, buy a daily one - which again should be priced based on park quality and crowd level. They're leaving money on the table and opening themselves up to negative guest satisfaction scores at the more in demand parks like CP and Canada's Wonderland by letting a $499 all season Fastlane be used there.

The all-season for one park should be, at minimum, $1,000 for a season. Chainwide? $1,800 for a season/calendar year. Take the money from the limited number of people that want it enough to pay without affecting the day to day park experience for everyone else.

I haven't been to CP yet this season (and I have a Prestige pass) but I can't say I'm itching to go based on the recent reports. We just got back from a week at WDW, and one of the more noticeable things is that, over the past year or two, the Standby lines there are moving a lot more crisply. Part of that is switching from free to paid VQ, and fewer people are using it. Part of it is also that they've cracked down on how many disability access passes they are handing out.

We'll see what happens as the season unfolds, but if I end up not renewing for next year, that'd be fine with me.

We are hoping to get down to Kings Island maybe for Labor Day; my partner's extended family is in Cincinatti, so there is some nostalgia there.