Scheduling

Why is everything closing so early any more? The traditional season used to be Memorial Day to Labor Day. Now many of the parks are closed (weekdays) by August 15th! Since we are taking our vacation in mid-August, we are EXTREMELY disappointed in what our schedule is looking like right now. Does anyone know the reason for this?

perhaps, school for children????????????????

Come down to Florida, were open all year long.

Those Floridians always have to rub it in our face... ;)

Seriously though, I have found that the Midwest parks have been staying open later every year. The thing is that college kids go back to school and, for the parks that prefer them, they're in a world of hurt during the week. Ditto for high school kids as you get in to September.

Last year I went to PKI late in October and SFDL on Halloween. Cedar Point is even staying open a weekend longer than usual this year.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

This is true,Jeff, but check the park operating schedules. You'll find quite a few cease daily operation around mid August. They are open Friday evenings,Saturday and Sunday only. The "bonus" weekends are apparently an attempt to recoup for those "lost" August days. There seems to be more and more schools starting before Labor Day, both public and colleges. You can see why the IAAPA is lobbying hard against year round schools. Not only would you lose your help, but your patrons,too.

I too have noticed this... And trying to schedule August trips is proving dificult. To actually find enough parks still open DAILY after August 12th is proving daunting at best. Coming from Florida, I grew up thinking ALL parks were pen ALL year... Using the Internet now to compare schedules, it's amazing the wide discrepancies in closing days. As it stands I'm moving my Southeast trip BACK to August 5th... then trying to get in ONE more Northeast trip before every park is closed. (Gotta get on Boulder Dash again this year!) Thank God Texas, Nevada and California are more flexible, so I can put them off awhile longer.

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"You have to scale a lot of lift hills to coast easily..."

Jason

I guess I'm spoiled... my parks will be open daily through the end of August. :)

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com

Us California's gotta rub it in too! Our NorCal parks are open daily through Labor Day, and as everyone knows, SoCal parks are open every day year round!

If it's college kids (help) problems, perhaps the parks might consider Cedar Point's soution: have housing available & bring in kids from schools that have different schedules ("early" dates - out of school early in May, but back to school in August vs. "late" dates - out of school in June, but not back until September). ESPECIALLY if the public schools go to year-round schools, it seems to me that parks are going to have to get creative to solve this problem!

My guess is it is based on how much money a park can bring in as to how much it cost to be open in a day. When you get into August not only do you lose workers but you also lose attendance. A park may stay open an additional weekend but those are the only days they can draw enough people to make it profitable.

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#1 Steel-Incredible Hulk
#1 Wood--Timber Wolf

Very true... there's little point in keeping the park open if there's no one around to spend money.

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Jeff
Webmaster/Admin - CoasterBuzz.com