Cedar Point last major seasonal park to open?

I'm pretty sure all Six Flags parks have been open since early March/April, and it seems like all the former Paramount parks have been open for a week or two as well, so I guess I'm wondering why Cedar Point doesn't open at the beginning of April like most other parks. Yeah it's by the lake and can get cold, but its also pretty cold the last few weekends in October too.

As has been mentioned on other threads, there is no comparable draw to Halloweekends to justify opening the park in April.

Of the other CF parks that are at or above Cedar Point's latitude, Valleyfair opens May 10th as well, Michigan Adventure opens for one half day on May 14 then opens for the weekend on May 17th. Only Canada's Wonderland opened for one day on May 4th.

Other parks in the Lake Erie region:
Kennywood: May 3
Waldameer: May 10
Seabreeze: May 17
Martin's Fantasy Island: May 10

To me, it looks like Cedar Point's operating calendar is pretty average, given its climate.

Some of these probably wouldn't be considered major, but here:

Michigan's Adventure May 17th

Valleyfair May 10th

Great Escape May 10th

Lake Compounce May 10th

Seabreeze May 17th

Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom May 10th

Waldameer Park May 10th

Idlewild Park May 22nd

Fun Spot Park June 12th

La Ronde opens may 17th this year, which is very late!

It can still be cold up there too. I've been sponsoring teams in the Red Cross mini-golf thing now for nine years, always the Wednesday before the park opens, and some years it has been downright cold (looks like this year will be too). They're opening about the right time.

I've always thought that Cedar Points "late" opening is because they rely on college students for the majority of their employees, they stay at the Point, and many aren't available until May. (that is if they attend a school on semesters, students on the quarter system don't show up until early June) That and the unpredictable weather don't make it feasable for them to open weekends in the early spring. The bonus is once they are open, they're open everyday. While staffing the first few weeks is limited, hours are short, and a few food and retail locations stay shuttered until the weekend, it's still the ideal time to go. Crowds are light, the Breakers is cheap, and you can get a full days worth of rides in only 9 hours. Most rides are walk-on, TTD and MF maybe 15 minutes wait. Every year since 1994, Raptor's first season, we've scheduled a weeks vacation to go to Cedar Point, and besides the occasional crappy weather day, we've never been disappointed.

So to me it's worth the wait. Besides, back in the day the traditional amusement park season was from Memorial Day to Labor Day, and that was pretty much all parks including those in the deep south. I'd say with the "bonus" weekends and holiday events that most parks offer at the beginning and the end of their season, we're spoiled!