Aug 18, 2007 - VIP at Cedar Point - Longest TR evAr

The ONLY reason I haven't tried something like this yet and can't currently justify it is because my son is 5 years old and 45 inches.

Once we have a family that meets the requirements and can ride everything together, I look forward to the chance to sample various park VIP/line access plans.

That's why I currently dig Q-bot. Just get one for two people and it doesn't matter who wants to ride - me and my daughter, my wife and my daughter whatever - one of us isn't forced to stand around forever with my unable-to-ride little man while the other adult rides something with my daughter and during that time we can find things we all can do (or my son can do) and he's not standing around bitching that he wants to do something while waiting for the riders. (did that make sense?)

That kind of convenience is totally worth the $50-$80 Q-bot price tag and I imagine the VIP deals would be totally worth it in certain situations too.

---

Ajrides said:
I know if I paid that kind of money and they asked me to leave a ride I would have went to management and asked for a refund. You should be able to do what ever is offered in the VIP package. That means if I wanted to spend the whole day riding TTD I should be able too unless it is specified in the agreement you paid for. I have done the VIP at SF and they never said that to me at any ride i was on that day. Yes people do get pissed but I felt like too bad I paid my money and I'm going to do what I want.

---

I would complain at the end of the day, to make sure if they didnt give me my refund I still would have gotten to ride everything I wanted to.

Not to be I-Fan...but I still think the air-conditioned VIP lounge with a buffet, fountain drink station, leather couches, and "facilities" would be the cherry on top! Anything to prevent popping a handful of Kaopectate's at the beginning of a day at a park!

The Millennium crew has been very uptight this season, for lack of a better word. Not rude (except for one crew member who was dealt with by a supervisor) just uptight.

I am in the same boat as you Gonch. My daughter is only 4, and it'll be a while before she'll be ready for the big rides. She's 41 inches, and looking forward to see if she'll be tall enough for the Phoenix at PPP, or if she's brave enough.

When I goto to CP I usually go at off peak times, stay on site, and that means I never have a problem getting my rides in. They also have the child swap which comes in handy.

Six Flags is different. I always end up there on a weekend day when the Flash Pass, Q-bot, or whatever else it's called now is needed. I do like having that option, and usually get the Gold one because what it the point of spending all that money to get the silver one?

Halltd that sounds like it's worth it. Especially when you only get to make it there once day a year. On a busy day CP is pretty tough to ride all the coaster in a single day. Good trip report.

---

Ajrides said:
I know if I paid that kind of money and they asked me to leave a ride I would have went to management and asked for a refund.

---

We rode Millennium Force nine times on a day the ride had a 2-3 hour queue. I hardly think that's worth asking for a refund.

Gonch, VIP could be worth it for a group with kids too. The kids could hang out on the ride platform with the escort while you ride. Granted, it would suck for a kid almost tall enough to ride. But, they're only going to be waiting the duration of the ride. So, it's not that bad. I can see wanting to wait until the whole family can take advantage of the unlimited ride time though.

---

Gonch, VIP could be worth it for a group with kids too. The kids could hang out on the ride platform with the escort while you ride.

---

That's a good point. Hell, that's about as much as a babysitter costs anymore anyway. ;)

It's mostly a problem because it's just my youngest that's too little still. My daughter rode MF when she was 5, but he's going to be 6 in a month and just misses Iron Dragon at this point. (but was able to ride Powder Keg - go figure!)

I wonder if we could VIP the kids rides? Like front of line access for Jr. Gemini or Woodstock or anything in Camp Snoopy for that matter.

Gotta start them young, you know. ;)

You can front of the line anything they have - including kiddie rides. Like my trip report says, if we had children with us, we could have ridden Jr. Gemini. We tried at least! I've heard from others that adults are permitted to ride Woodstock Express without a kid, so I guess we should have checked that and not just assumed it was the same rule as Jr. Gemini.

I find it a bad reflection on Cedar Point that they do not let their attendants eat during the day. It bespeaks of management not caring about it's employees enough to allow them their basic needs during the day. If it would have been me, I probably would have called out a park manager and had a word with him or her about it.

I hate to use the "Disney standard" here, but I took the Keys To The Kingdom tour last year. I know it isn't an all day VIP program like this, but the tour lasted about five or six hours. Part of the tour includes lunch at a counter service restaurant. That lunch, to be entirely honest, was one of our highlights of the tour because it gave us time to really get to know our tour guide while he sat down and ate with us. He was telling us stories about escorting celebrities through the park and other interesting stories he had gathered working at the park for almost fifteen years. Now, if Disney can let their employees eat on a six hour tour, why can't Cedar Fair allow it's guides to eat during a 13 hour day?

I understand the whole "employees shouldn't be seen eating in the park" concept. To keep along the Disney lines, normal cast members are not permitted to eat while in view of guests. I think this is a good idea because I don't want to see employees on their cell phones, texting, eating or smoking because it just looks lazy. But, as you noted, this is waived (as it should be) for VIP escorts or other cast members where eating is a part of their role.

The other issue my friends and I discussed was maybe it is to give the escort a break? Like, what if the escort absolutely despises the group he/she is with? The "lunch break" really is the only break they'll get from that group. So, we thought that might be one of the reasons as well.

But, to us it seemed pretty ridiculous. Obviously the escort isn't the typical employee because they're walking us around and hanging out with us for the day. So, it only makes sense for them to ride, eat and do whatever else we're doing that day with us. It's almost like saying the escort needs to go back to the office to go to the bathroom. It just didn't make any sense.

Instead of focusing on the escorts eating while in the park, management should really be concentrating on eliminating smokers from the park. The one negative thing I had to say about the park from our day was the smokers. From our group, smoking probably bothers me the most, so I noticed it a lot. Thankfully we didn't experience any smokers in lines - since we weren't in any. But, the midways were absolutely mobbed with smokers. Outside Game Day Grille there were literally 20 people sitting around smoking. It was gross. Emily said something to one of the smokers she saw that day, but I saw a ton of other employees just walk right past people smoking. Management should put up more signs and empower their employees to enforce the policy they've created in the park.

I dont know if I missed, but did she ever want to ride, or have an opportunity if she wanted too?

Escorts are allowed to ride any attraction if asked to by their group. We gave Emily an open invitation to ride anything she wanted with us. Sometimes we were like, "you're riding this with us, right?" She didn't ride everything with us, but she rode quite a bit. It added to our day and hopefully hers as well.

Interesting note - even though she had her name badge off on the rides (to prevent injury), she still had to hold on per the official "riding position". I'm not quite sure I could ride Millennium Force with my hands down, but she did.

---

Kick The Sky said:
I find it a bad reflection on Cedar Point that they do not let their attendants eat during the day. It bespeaks of management not caring about it's employees enough to allow them their basic needs during the day....

...Now, if Disney can let their employees eat on a six hour tour, why can't Cedar Fair allow it's guides to eat during a 13 hour day?

---

I discovered last Summer while working at CP that the food workers don't get breaks either. They have to "steal" fries while preparing the food for example.

I worked in rides, and I had a small problem with being told every day to "hurry up and get all of your breaks done so we can send someone home". We would have our breaks done sometimes by 4 or 5pm, and no one would get a break for the rest of the night (maybe 11pm). It sucks working in the hot summer without a break for 7 hours.

But I am very happy to know that CP saved money by letting a crew member go home early.

Edited for grammar *** Edited 8/28/2007 1:06:46 AM UTC by dexter***