Castaway Bay to sell day passes targeted to local residents

Yeah some chance. Monday -Thursday only. No Holidays. Now thru March. Yeah, $18 for after school hours for the kiddies.

Seems like this would devalue the experience for those guests who pay to stay.

Methinks the point is that people are NOT paying to stay... at least not in significant enough numbers on weekdays to make their intial business model work out. This looks like a way to try and make something unprofitable profitable.

No... they're doing pretty well booking the place, especially on weekends. I'm sure this is just a play to get a little more.

I don't think anyone expected Castaway Bay to sell out every night of the year. There's going to be a slow time of year, just like anything else. They don't expect to have 60,000 guests every day at Cedar Point. It seems to me, though, they're doing well for "slow."

I bet the profit and numbers are way up over the Radisson's from previous off-seasons.

This comes as no surprise. How many families can leave for vacation during the middle of the week during school? I suspected they would try to come up with a local plan to get people in there during the week.

Great Wolf's occupancy rate is 65% at its five resorts. That's not all that high but it's the same problem as Castaway it seems as in its booked solid over the weekends and school breaks and then barren during the week.

By doing this during the week, when the hotel is less than half-booked, the few who do come by to take Castaway up on the offer won't create a problem for those paying overnight rates to stay there (besides, I haven't pulled up a quote but I trust it follows the same Wolf-Bear pattern of charging $60 less during the week -- so it's not as if those who are there as overnight guests are being hosed).

Good move by Cedar Fair methinks. At the very least, it's promoting the place for locals to book later.