Cedar Fair drops suit to challenge 49ers stadium next to California's Great America

LostKause said:
I heard that rumor like 20 years ago. lol

But there's way less room than 20 years ago, how much room will there be 20 years from now? By then a parking deck might be probable.

Lol... The park doesn't need to grow. Attendance has leveled off, am I right? The only reason the park would need to grow into the parking lot is if attendance kept rising substantially in order to justify the area of the park to grow. Maybe in a hundred years, but not in our lifetime.

I heard the rumor a long time ago. I had that daydream once too, where I would park inland and be jetted by monorail to the peninsula. A monorail alone would cost way too much to be probable.

This rumor is being perpetuated by a certain non-famous employee who has worked there for many years. He told an older friend of mine the same rumor he told me ten years later, and keeps telling seasonal employees year after year. He always says that it will be happening within the next five years.

The fact is, if CP needs to go to off-site parking, the cheapest way to do it is to run a ferry. Almost no infrastructure required, they already have a dock or two on the peninsula.

And it's not as though the park doesn't already have some experience with this. For many years ferries were the only way to get there. And you could still take a ferry to the park right up into the 1990's at least, possibly later.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

The Final run for the steamship G. A. Boeckling was on September 3, 1951. Not sure about the others.

Well, yeah. The steamers have been out of service for decades. But they ran the smaller steel boats until many, *many* years later. Cedar Point eventually abandoned the ferry business, but another company picked it up for a while, actually operating from the Cedar Point dock in Sandusky, then that service ended just a few years ago. And I think for a time the park was running or was talking about running a ferry from the Radisson (what is now Castaway Bay) back up to the park, but there was a problem with the water level for getting under the Causeway.

(edit):
Somebody shot video aboard the Cedar Point ferry in 1997 and posted it on YouTube.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Employees who lived in downtown Sandusky regularly rode the ferry to work in the 80s and 90s. I believe they could by a pass for it if memory serves. It left people off right near the Boathouse (Famous Daves).

Does Jet Express stop at the park? If not, did they ever?

No. If it did, it would be the Jet Local. :) Not unless they do a special excursion or something; it's certainly not part of their regular Port Clinton/South Bass Island service.

Port Clinton, where the Jet Express is based, is a considerable distance to the West of Cedar Point, and more important is on the lake shore. For the geographically challenged, Sandusky Bay extends East and West across the North coast. It's bounded on the South by the bay shore, on the North and East by the Marblehead Peninsula, and on the West by Cedar Point. Port Clinton is on the Northwest lakeshore of the Marblehead Peninsula and to the West of Catawba Island, meaning it is a long and roundabout trip from there to Cedar Point by boat.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

[url][url]I also remember some small boat service. In fact I have a couple brochures tucked away somewhere. So, since I couldn't recall the correct name, I dug and found it. It's a brochure for the Island Rocket.

http://www.islandrocket.com/"]http://web.archive.org/web/20030424080129/http://www.islandrocket.com/

Ok, I can't get the link to work right, you'l have to copy and paste

This appears to be the latest available snapshot. But based on them talking about the newest boat being available in May of 2002, I wonder if they even ran in 2002. 2001 may have ben their last season.

RideMan said:
Port Clinton, where the Jet Express is based...

Jet Express has had a Sandusky-Kelly's-PIB service for a couple of years now. Although the point still stands that they don't stop at CP, but you get some good views as the boat goes right along side the peninsula.

I remember riding a boat over to CP from Sandusky when I was young. It would've have been in the late 70s, early 80s. It was something different so my parents were like, why not.

I am not following how the ferry solves the off-site parking infrastructure issue. The people taking the ferry have to park their car somewhere so that infrastrucure is the same. Are ferrys that much cheaper to buy/operate as compared to buses like Disney uses between the hotels/parks?

Ah, but Disney also uses ferries. Not only the giant boats to the Magic Kingdom, but there are smaller boats that go between Epcot/MGM and the waterfront resorts.

The ferry doesn't solve the parking problem. The discussion started because someone mentioned having an off-site parking facility and having a monorail bring people to the park. The Ferry was discussed as an alternative to the monorail.

As if any of this will ever happen anyway . :)

Right. I just am not understanding Dave's comment that ferrys will have almost no infrastructure. Compared to a monorail, yes. But why not go with buses? What infrastructure would buses require that ferrys do not? Maybe buses simply are not practical?

I'm thinking the only practical answer to that question lies in the fact that there's a huge body of water there, so why not put it to use. Busing only adds to the traffic, but - if the main parking lot is off site, then that doesn't matter, either.

I guess it only makes sense if you look at it as utilizing the water because they can.

I heard that in the future, Cedar Point will build a roller coaster so big, that it will start near the main entrance, and reach all the way down to McDonald's and the new Dairy Queen, then turn around and make it's way back. It will be called Magnum 3000

It could happen. ;)

The problem isn't the space required for parking, the (alleged) problem is the amount of space available *on the peninsula*. The peninsula is 365+ acres, but a significant amount of that is taken up for parking. The original claim was that some or all of the parking would be moved off the peninsula. My comment is that the easiest way to get all those people from the mainland parking area to the park is to put them on a large boat.

Of course, the theory is not helped if Magnum Management sells off chunks of its waterfront property (some of which is, indeed, for sale and has been for years).

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Why do we end up talking about parking problems every year that generally occur once, maybe twice each season?

Heck, do they even happen that often? I was just trying to debunk the whole train set idea! 8-)

--Dave Althoff, Jr. <- Who had no trouble parking at CP on 7/4/2011, though getting *off* the peninsula was a bit of an issue...