Cedar Fair: Imagine This...

Okay, C-Fair has a park in Mich, 2parks in ohio and one in Pa +others.
Imagine if they had a package deal that went like this. 4 parks 4days w/lodging and leave the driving to us.
Think about it: People go on cruises that last a week to two weeks. Sure, it'd be expensive, but it would still be cheaper than making the drive yourself. Now i don't know if CFAir has any hotels in any other park but CP, but there are always motel 6's and the like that the park could reserve at cost and tack that on to the overall package deal...
I'd do it, if for no other reason, just because i wouldn't have to drive....
What do you good people think?

I think I'd sell my shares.

Cruise companies are in the cruise business...

CF is in the Amusement park business...

Two entirely different businesses models - and yes, I know Disney has a cruise line but if anyone could pull it off, they can (and do - I was on a cruise with them 5yrs ago with Da'Wifey and we loved it). But they did it buy working in conjunction with Princess before hiring off some of their people to head up that division.

Redman: I didn't know disney had that... That's something to think about.
Hey, it was just a thought.

Not a bad idea, but it wouldn't be profitable enough for the company. True, just like a cruise, they would transport you from destination to destination. BUT, a cruise ship is a resort in itself. Pools, casinos, events and activities, dancing, live entertainment, gourmet food and drinks, and personalized top-notch service. And the beauty of it is you can do as much or as little as you would like. Plus, since you have your own room, you don't have to pack/repack between stops. You can't fit all that onto a vehicle traveling on the highway.

Your idea might work with one of the parks as a resort hub, with daily shuttles to other parks. Say for example, CP has a park-hopper resort. Guests can stay for $129/night (or some price) with daily shuttles for no additional fee to GL and MA exclusively for guests. Admission to parks would be seperate, or it could be worked into the price of the hotel. But even that would be a stretch.

Good idea for enthusiasts but I think they'd have a hard time getting the general public to sit through all that commuting just to go to amusement parks.

Disney cruise line mixes the best of Cruising with the best of Disney. http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/disneycruiseline/

We went for the four day cruise (Port-Nassau-Day at Sea-Castaway Cay-Port). The service was better than any cruise I had been on. We ate in a different restaurant every evening but our waitstaff was with us for every meal (Breakfast AND dinner). The fact that we can still remember our waiters names (Marco and Yerko from Croatia) five years later gives you an idea of how much we enjoyed them and their service.

The space that most ships set aside for the casino is split into an area for kids called "Disney Oceaneer's Club" which has all kinds of supervised age-specific activities for kids aged 3-12. I hesitate to call it daycare, but it is pretty close. Admittedly, cruises (other than ports) can be boring for kids, this is Disney's solution and it works. We are "planning" on taking Katie with five years from now for our 15th anniversary...

An outstanding package that would appeal to no one! If you could afford that kind of romp, you'd get your ass on a plane, not a bus.

1. With a cruise, you have one big vessel in a given location to which people travel, then sail away. Parkgoers would be scattered all over the place. And at most you could take 40-50 at one time in a bus overland.

2. I doubt CF, or any park, would want the responsiblity of handling the transportation, lodging, feeding, etc. of people between parks. For example, if someone has a problem with a motel room, or the bus linel, (Waaah, we got stuck in traffic and missed half a day at the park...)who would people complain to (and litigate against)? CF of course, along with the others. Even though they wouldn't have any direct control over what those other companies do. And they wouldn't want to get involved with supervising a motel chain or bus line either.

3. Dorney is almost 400 miles from Geauga, with no other CF attractions inbetween (and being Pennsylvania, lots of highway construction). So either the 4-day trip becomes a 5-day trip, or one night "lodging" is spent in a Greyhound. I don't see too many people paying for that.

Now if a charter bus company wanted to offer a 4-5 day trip like that with a package deal from CF, they might get enough takers to make it worthwhile.

I've been on cruises, and there isn't a wheeled transport anywhere in the universe (including the Madden Cruiser) that can come even remotely close to the experience.

Furthermore, as far as I can tell, the only people who take bus tours are AARP members without the scratch to go somewhere interesting. Not exactly the sort of folks you'd want to line up for an amusement park tour. I suppose there is also the Green Tortoise crowd, but that's mostly kids with no money. Again, not the demographic I'd imagine Cedar Fair is targeting.

If you look at something like the American Orient Express, the costs to do this right would be astronomical, and largely without anything interesting out the window to look at along the way. I mean, have you actually *driven* the route between MiA and CP? I have. Booooring, until you get around the lake, anyway.

Since were on the subject of tour buses and such.... I was riding the Villian at GL last week and noticed a bus colored blue with the GL logo real big on the side. What is this bus used for?

That bus is used for a few things that I know of:

To transport employees from their parking lot to rides side.

To transport guests from hotel to park (the park mostly uses their vans though...but I have seen the bus do it).

To tranport material (food, parts, packages, etc.) over to the Happy Harbor side of the park.

It looks A LOT like one of CP's old buses.

There's about .2 percent of the population that would be interested in going to 4 different theme parks that far apart in 4 consecutive days.

Not many people are suicidal trip takers like some of us are.

The most I could ever see them doing is a shuttle from CP resorts to GL as an add on to those packages to encourage guests to stay there an extra night.

Dorney and MiA are regional parks, not resort destinations so most of the GP is not going to go to the added expense to get there no matter who does the driving.

^^ I think .2% is pushing it.

Bad. Idea. Period.

I wouldn't call visting four Cedar Fair parks a vacation in any language. :)

+Danny

I think I'd be numb after visiting 4 CF parks in a row... not to mention being subjected to nightmares about large expanses of concrete.

I do know a gal who spent one summer travelling with a couple busses of kids from the West Coast to the East Coast.

They stopped at just about every significant park from Magic Mountain to Cedar Point to Great Adventure and the parks in between.

It was her "summer camp". Man, when I was younger that would have been awesome. As an adult it sounds like an absolute nightmare.

I'm surprised she didn't get burnt out on coasters or the kids.

Sounds like the Partridge Family run amok.