Mt. Olympus buys up and improves hotels on Dells strip

License plateds on cars are not even remotely a valid metric for estimating the interest in overnight stays.

^So what? They don't need every car in the lot from NY, NJ, PA, and DE to stay. Just enough to fill 200 rooms (or whatever size hotel they'd build).

You yourself said that people are likely to go to their closest regional theme park, and even though that thinking is somewhat flawed in this circumstance, since that's a densly populated area where people can chose to go elsewhere when they get tired of their 'home park', the closest regional park is Dorney at 2 hours away.

And for many people, a 1 hour drive with kids puts them into overnite status. So again, the park doesn't need everyone every day to stay, just around 1000 or less every day to stay.

That's not only not impossible, it's likely that there are at least that many dailey that would like to stay on property that would be willing to pay, especially if they offered discounts and/or tickets.

And the Cedar Point Parking lot Has more Michigan plates in it then Ohio plates, what is your point? You seem to think people stay in Sandusky to do things other then Cedar Point. While that may be true for some, the vast majority of "tourists" who come to Sandusky come ONLY for Cedar Point.

I live an hour and a half to two hours away, I stay overnight on a lot of occasions and as I said before I have plenty of coworkers who are most definitely not "enthusiasts" who do the same.

Cedar Point is 2 hours from 3 very large metropolitan areas, seems to me that GADV is 2 hours from 3 even larger metro areas.

Your argument or whatever you are trying to say makes absolutely no sense at all.

That may work... it would have to be a good one on the order of Great Wolf Lodge, and not one of those little ones like they have near me (CoCo Key or Sahara sams). I wouldnt stay overnight to go to those pieces of crap

An hour drive puts you in overnite status? That's just absurd in the age of portable DVD players Nintendo DS's and Ipods

I used to take day trips to Wildwood with an infant and a toddler, with no problem.

Tekwardo said:
... the closest regional park is Dorney at 2 hours away.

...and they have a hotel. ;)

Lord Gonchar said:
License plateds on cars are not even remotely a valid metric for estimating the interest in overnight stays.

Neither are personal anecdotes...

Great Adventure isn't "2 hours from 3 larger metro areas"

It's about 45 minutes from Philly, 1:20 or so from NYC and probably an hour or so from Atlantic City. That's what I'm saying its an easy car ride for the most densly populated area in the country,.

billb7581 said:

That's ass backwards from what I have been saying.

But, everything you have been saying is ass backward, so that must make it correct?

billb7581 said:
Neither are personal anecdotes...

billb7581 said:
I used to take day trips to Wildwood with an infant and a toddler, with no problem.

Yeah. :)

Anyway...

The point of contention seems to be what constitutes a day trip and when that line is crossed.

You say 3 hours is no problem. Everyone else still hanging in here disagrees.

I guess that's where it ends. One person's experience and anecdotal evidence against several people's.

But if I had to decide, I tend to play the odds.

Well heck, I USED to think 4 hours one way constituted a day trip. I don't any more. Same for my parents growing up. It all depends on the family.

There is no 'One Size Fits All' here that you seem to keep demanding exists, and for the people who don't fit into the 'daytrip' category, as long as there are enough of those, which as has been stated ad nauseum isn't some huge number compared to the amount of people in the park on any given day, then a hotel would work.

And again, as has been stated, the park got zoning permission to build a hotel, so apparently at some point they thought it was a good idea. We don't know why they haven't built it...yet.

And besides, I know people who live IN New York City that go rent a hotel room once in a while just to get away and do a spa day or something. If GADv built a hotel with a spa, then they'd get all the more business and have even more days to offer.

You keep stretching the limit of how far GA is. It's less than 2 hours for tens of millions of people, in a densley populated area with tons of other stuff to do rather than go to Great Adventure, the probable reason why a hotel chain has never bothered building one in Jackson Township New Jersey. For the majority of people that go there Great Adventure is a day trip. In order to create demand for a hotel you'd need some other compelling reason to go there.

In Sandusky Ohio there is nowhere near the competition for your entertainment dollar. If you're going there, you're likely going to Cedar Point.

I came off the 3 hour number a long time ago... I was wrong about that... Great Adventure is closer to NYC than I thought, which strengthens my case, it doesnt weaken it.

So your final answer is that there are tens of millions of people close (in terms of time) to SFGAdv so there's no need for a hotel there?

My final answer is that they should build a hotel there because elephant.

We're in the same ballpark with our logic. :)

All kidding aside...

billb7581 said:
For the majority of people that go there Great Adventure is a day trip.

A majority of people as in...say...99%? Seems fair, huh?

I'll give you that 99% of people visiting the park have no need for a hotel.

Luckily that other 1% is enough to fill our hypothetical 200 room hotel every night the park is open (using crude averages).

Look at Kings Dominion. The large population of DC, Norfolk, Richmond, and Baltimore all within your idea of a "day trip". Yet they have a hotel in their parking lot for years and they have just opened two or three others over the last few years. Obviously they're making money mostly as a seasonal business because I don't see anyone going to Doswell during January.

Hi Fist, I would like you to meet Dead Horse...proceed with your beating.

It's dead! (I hope) :)

kpjb said:

Tekwardo said:
... the closest regional park is Dorney at 2 hours away.

...and they have a hotel. ;)

Brutal. What's Dorney's attendance figures vs. GAdv's? Pretty much what I thought... :)

Lord Gonchar said:
I've only seen the animals from Medusa's lift - and even then I felt ripped off. :)

Yeah, me too. And from Toro (briefly.) And Maverick.

I've been going to Great Adventure since it opened 37 years ago. I have never been through the safari. As a kid...and an "adult"...I simply had/have absolutely no interest in it.

Lord Gonchar said:
My final answer is that they should build a hotel there because elephant.

Nah, the elephant's already further south in Margate, near Atlantic City. Her name's Lucy.