Cedar Point guests experience traffic jams, complain on the Internet

I think you may have read a little more into that than I intended. :)

I simply pointed it out because it's an example of a Cedar Fair park actively differentiating between their daytime and nighttime events - which is something I suggested should be done at Cedar Point.

In fact, you can find all the little parts and pieces happening at various parks throughout the chain. All they need to do is bring those pieces together and create an overall plan.

RCMAC said:

I don't see a cryptic message that bodes any future plans or road trips in that tweet. :-)

Nor do I. But...

Their best bet is to charge everyone 120 bucks to get in, that's for all day, forget the deep discounts and company picnics, and hope and pray the weather is good so that enough show up so that it's manageable crowd-wise but still contributes to the overall profitability of the park.

Exactly what I suggested. Exccept I don't think you need to even go as high as $120.

Allow me to repeat myself. My plan as detailed earlier:

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1. Passes and regular season tickets are good until the end of the 'regular' season - Labor Day. The entire Halloween time of the year (mid-September through the end of October) becomes a 'separate ticket' admission.

2. You call the day and night events each by something different - not really a big deal as it's kind of like this already. Kings Island pushes this idea pretty hard. The idea is to create separation in the customer's mind - even if nothing inside the park has actually changed.

Let's call the day time event, "Happy Fun Halloween." This would be the normal family friendly stuff - costumes contests, trick or treat, petting zoo, toned down kiddie houses and the full compliment of rides. Exactly what you'd find on any Saturday or Sunday afternoon at CP.

Let's call the night event, "Super Scary Halloween." This would be the PG-13 stuff. Monsters roam the midways, all the houses are in full force, the lighting and fog come out the more adult things happen. Exactly what you'd find on any Friday or Saturday night at CP.

Again, nothing here has changed except the branding and presentation of the product.

3. Currently, prices are $38/$59 for Friday and Sunday and $46/$59 for Saturday. So they're already tiering the pricing. We just need to play off of what we did in step #2 with branding each 'event' differently and bump the tier to shift the crowds. I propose:

You can visit on Friday night and do the "Super Scary Halloween" event for $46/$59.

You can visit on Sunday and do the "Happy Fun Halloween" event for $46/$59

Or you can double up and do both events on Saturday for $79/$99 - a savings of as much as $19 over doing the events separately!

And that's pretty much it.

We haven't changed the gate on Friday or Sunday a single penny. We've bumped the online/discount price a modest amount to what the current Saturday discount is.

On Saturday the magic happens. The higher pricing thins out the herd a bit. We'll lose a few, but we'll shift even more to the other two weekend days (eliminating the dead time those days usually are) and we'll make the crowds on Saturday much more manageable and be able to offer shorter lines and a better overall experience to the guest.

*All pricing is speculative, simply an example and for demonstrative purposes only - there's no way to know what actual numbers work without actually seeing this in practice. However, the core point remains about the prices in regard to each other and when each level is used - the actual dollar numbers are irrelevant in terms of describing the plan and would be adjusted accordingly.

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Pointing out that KI tweet was simply reinforcing the idea that treating each half of the day as something different isn't unheard of within the company.

A couple of the other parks already do the separate ticket thing.

Cedar Point is already doing a slightly tiered pricing structure.

We just need to combine the ideas, adjust pricing and apply it to Sandusky...and then watch the win happen.

Well, ok, that sounds good. I wasn't trying to argue or anything, I've seen your point all along.

Now I'm thinking maybe 140 bucks and everyone gets FastLane. :-)

Well, I'm kind of curious to see how tonight works out for Cedar Point...

I was up there last night (not bad crowds at all), and I noticed a TON of things they implemented:

It looks like they went and bought millions of traffic cones and are trying to break the record for how many they can fit in to a small space.

They created many parking lots all up and down the causeway (it appears everywhere they was a grass spot they created a parking lot)

They went and placed LOTS of those construction lights all in those mini "Mini Parking Lots"

All of those mini parking lots also appear to have their own traffic flow, in and out.

I'm not sure how yet, but CP would have to have some type of transportation to get those people from their parked cars to the front gate....considering the farthest "mini parking lot" I saw set up was right after you cross over the bridge...And that's a long walk :)

I have to say, Gonch, that just made a lot of sense.

There has been two things about Cedar Point that has mystified me for some time (although as a consumer I have not officially complained).

1) The price of my Platinum Pass

2) That Halloweekends continues to be included in my Platinum Pass

Again, no complaints. That said, we're starting to see a slight up-tick in the Platinum Pass, and I think it's a safe bet that the days of Halloweekends being included are numbered.

I have a hard time calling Cedar Fair's Platinum Pass underpriced given just how low Six Flags prices their Gold Passes. ;) I'm not necessarily saying that the Platinum Pass is priced appropriately, but I feel like it at least requires some dedication on my part to get my money's worth out of it. I feel like my Six Flags Gold Pass has paid for itself if I even watch a TV show that features a Six Flags park in it. ;)

The problem is that you're using the most woefully underpriced pass as a comparison point.

Look almost anywhere else and CF's platinum pass is stupid-cheap in comparison.

Annual passes to WDW, without blackouts, are almost $500 with no water parks. A platinum Cedar Fair pass seems like a great deal from my view.

To add onto the Gonch model, you could add on the "Plus October" option to your season pass for only $25. That includes unlimited admission to both "Happy Fun Halloween" and "Super Scary Halloween" for less than the price of one day of either!

That would defeat the purpose of not including it into the pass in the first place, Andy. The point is to get less people to come to the park when it is really busy, not to make more money. They might even make more money than before if they could find the "sweet spot" as Gonch calls it.

I find the Platinum Pass to be perfectly priced for what I use it for. I went two days at Kings Island and one day at Cedar Point with my pass. I planned a trip to Kings Dominion that fell through, but three park visits including parking for $180 is still a great deal, especially when you include the early entry. I feel like I got my moneys worth. Next year, maybe I will get to do more park visits than just three so I can get an even better value.

I don't necessarily see them having to pull Halloweekends from the platinum pass. At Carowinds, only gold and platinum get haunt access. It looks as though all passes at CP get it, correct? Since this isn't a separate event?

Make it a separate event and start by limiting it to gold and platinum. Then limit to only platinum if need be. Then black all of them out if that still didn't solve a problem.

People couldn't leave. This is a money making opportunity! What they need is a Fast Pass for exiting the park. I can see it now, Fast Pass Exit Gold with Police escort just $99.95

The point is to get less people to come to the park when it is really busy, not to make more money.

The real trick would be to do both.

Ideally, you do both. Seems entirely reasonable to me.

I know. That's what I was getting at in the next sentence in the quoted post. But the problem to be solved is not to make more money this time around. The problem is how to make sure the parking situation runs to prevent traffic problems. Hopefully the act of raising profit will not hinder the solution.

I think you're viewing it too one-dimensional. If the solution involves making more money in the process, it's a double win.

Of course it is, but you are falling into the same trap I am warning that park management could fall into. Making more money should not be the focus. Traffic should be the focus. If making more money is a side effect of solving the traffic problem, then great, but it shouldn't be a factor in finding a solution.

I don't know if you guys are disagreeing with me or you do not understand what I am saying, which is why I just reworded what I said previously. Whichever it is, no biggie.

Do people who run businesses really get this sidetracked by profits?

LostKause said:
Do people who run businesses really get this sidetracked by profits?

Is that a joke?

Any business that's getting "sidetracked" by profits is doing it wrong. They're in business to make profits.

Here, Cedar Point would clearly like to find a way to facilitate getting people out of the parking lot on a crowded day, rather than having a bunch of angry people. But that has to be balanced with attention to the bottom line.

Lord Gonchar said:

2. You call the day and night events each by something different - not really a big deal as it's kind of like this already. Kings Island pushes this idea pretty hard. The idea is to create separation in the customer's mind - even if nothing inside the park has actually changed.

Let's call the day time event, "Happy Fun Halloween." This would be the normal family friendly stuff - costumes contests, trick or treat, petting zoo, toned down kiddie houses and the full compliment of rides. Exactly what you'd find on any Saturday or Sunday afternoon at CP.

Let's call the night event, "Super Scary Halloween." This would be the PG-13 stuff. Monsters roam the midways, all the houses are in full force, the lighting and fog come out the more adult things happen. Exactly what you'd find on any Friday or Saturday night at CP.

I get the concept but am struggling with how to implement it. How do you make people leave if they only bought the happy fun Halloween ticket? What if I am in line for MF and it has a 1.5 hour line? It seems like logistics would be a problem.

Lord Gonchar's proposal is predicated on Halloween events not being included on season passes; the season pass season ends Labor Day.

One thought. Each person buying the daytime ticket is told the Marina Gate and Soak City gates will close at 5 pm. (One employee could be at the Marina Gate to facilitate any guests who have boats in the marina.) Hotel and Camper Village guests could exit by Windseeker or take shuttles from the front gate after 5.

Anybody buying a ticket for a Halloween event wears a color coded wristband.

Scarier haunts located in the front of the park could be moved back to Frontiertown, along Frontier Trail and so on.

The front of the park remains family friendly into the evening hours. The back of the park becomes the scare zone, if you will and re-opens for the evening.

Thinking "out loud" here so I'm just making it up as I write. If you have one entry to the scare zone just past MF's entrance, and the other around, say Witches Wheel, security could sweep that area of guests, such re-setting and setting up as needs to be done could be done, and evening event guests could be admitted to the back of the park.

It occurs to me what I'm groping my way towards isn't daytime and nighttime events, but family friendly and scary events. Families enjoy the whole park during the day and the front of the park at night. The scary event could ramp up the scare (and the ticket price) for the evening visitors.

Speculation is fun!