Cedar Point announced changes for 2016

Also the price rose by $3 to $65, the Ride Warriors Club costs $120, and Chick Fil-A has left and is being replaced by Frontier Inn.

I'm wondering if the Challenge Park changes might suggest a Soak City expansion in the not too distant future...

Are there no details on this Ride Warriors Club? This being my local park I might be interested in it.

Wow! I soooo want to climb Valravn! We're definitely doing that one day.

The new cars on Dodgem scares me a little bit. Something tells me they will be slower, softer, and all around more "insurance friendly." Perhaps now our son will not want to spend 3 hours a day on them. But who am I kidding, I love bumper cars.

Someone makes new cars that look like the old vintage models. That would be a good fit for CP's ride. But the cop cars and taxis are cute. They have lap bars and headrests, maybe that's as insurance-friendly as they'll go.

I don't want to get into a full-on discussion about a controversial topic, but let me just say that I am giddy with great joy that Chick-fil-A is gone. Is getting rid of Chick-fil-A locations something that Cedar Fair is doing within the chain?

A few years ago when Banshee opened, Chicken Shack was added to the park. The food was pretty similar to Chick-fil-A, and I suspected the Chick-fil-A was on the chopping block at that park. Now a few years later, it's still there.

Hopefully, the new chicken place in Cedar Point's Frontier Town will be similar to Chicken Shack at Kings Island. The food is really good there!

People love Chick-fil-A, especially in Cincinnati.
Chicken Shack is actually more similar in concept to Raising Cane's- same bread, same fries, kind of the same sauce, and not really the same chicken tenders. Well, not quite as good, anyway.

Cedar Point's original chicken stand was Chicken Patio, around where Midway Market is now. It was basic deep fried chicken (pieces) and they had boxed dinners like KFC or something. My CP roommate and another good friend worked there and I ate there a lot. When the Frontier Inn opened, originally as Plantation Inn, it had the same menu, so chicken dinners were available at each end of the park. The Cedar Point Food Blog mentions Frontier Inn as the location for pizza, subs, etc., but that came later.

I may be wrong, but Midway Market is the only place that serves fried chicken, and otherwise we're left with those Sam's Club/GFS pre-breaded, flat tenders. Ugh. I'll be ok with this new Frontier Inn as long as the food tastes freshly made, and honestly, the Chicken Shack-style tenders would be fine. I guess we'll see.

Here's an official run down of new stuff:

https://www.cedarpoint.com/blog-article/online-fun/All-The-New-Things

A limit of 1,200 at CoasterMania. That should be interesting.

Tony Clark, during his presentation at NoCoaster, said last year's Coastermania just plain had too many people attending; they instituted a limit to make it a more exclusive experience.

I went once and there was no "ERT". Lunch took forever. It needs scaled back.

^That's exactly how I felt about last years. That was my first one so I have no other's to compare it to. The check-in was a disaster and took about 45 minutes for me to get in and then I went in for the morning ERT and got only 1 ride in. But alot of it was wasted because of the long check-in line. The night ERT's I got alot more done. I think most people are tired and don't even bother with night ERT. The lunch wasn't too bad. The food was good and the line was long but it moved fast. And there's also the issues of people acting like jerks at these events because they're not happy with the free stuff. Charging and limiting should fix alot of the issues.

If my math is right Winter Chill Out had 800 people attend, and sold out pretty quick. Does it stand to reason 1,200 CoasterMania tickets will sell out really fast? I wish they would release pricing and details ahead of time so I can try to recruit a buddy to go with me... I have a couple people interested but won't commit until they know pricing, etc.

I agree they definitely had to implement some changes to make it more manageable. For me personally, living an hour away from the park, I get my fill of coaster time throughout the season, so it's hard to justify getting up at 4 a.m. to ride coasters I've done hundreds of times, let alone paying extra for it. I mainly went to CoasterMania to visit with out-of-town friends, but it's hard to say if I'll do that in the future. I would probably just go during regular park hours to see my friends and not worry about lunch or ERT. This year it's moot anyway since it's the same weekend as HoliWood Nights. :)

ShaneDenmark said:

If my math is right Winter Chill Out had 800 people attend, and sold out pretty quick. Does it stand to reason 1,200 CoasterMania tickets will sell out really fast?

I don't think they announced attendance, but $40K\$50 per person = 800 people.

Tickets went on sale January 7th and the event was sold out by January 18th.

That being said, it's an event that has been selling out year after year, and people know that. I think it will still sell out quick, but I don't think it will be that quick.

I thought I heard somewhere that registration would begin in March.

This is basically why I stopped going to coaster events a long time ago. Maybe I just had bad luck or went to the wrong ones but I frequently felt like I was a) paying extra b) to stand in longer lines c) to ride rides with people I didn't know.

I like HWN because it doesn't feel like that. I liked the one Knotts Solace I went to and the ones at Carowinds. Coaster mania was too packed as is PPP in my opinion.

I've never been an ACE member, so I haven't been to a lot of events either. That said I was a coasterbuzz club member and had a few great experiences at Beastbuzz 2003, Boobuzz(The year Maverick opened. I think 2007,) and coastermania that same year.

Guess I was fortunate to have actual ERT. We got like 6 laps on maverick in the morning without really trying hard, and when the coaster opened to the general public it was easily 3.5 hours or longer the rest of the day. After Maverick we were able to get 2 laps on Millennium Force before the line got long.

Same with Beastbuzz. The night ERT was truly that ERT. I also enjoyed that we got to go to several rides throughout the park and then finish with night rides on the Beast.

We'd like to go to Coastermania this year if they are limiting tickets. Last year we were there is when Gatekeeper opened.

BeastBuzz 2003 was one of the most epic events ever. I'm sure the beer didn't hurt.