For the first time ever (or so I'm told) Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio has reached capacity and all roads leading to it have been closed by the Sandusky Police Department. Drivers already on those roads will be allowed to enter the park (assuming they can find a place to park) but Cedar Point is encouraging people to come back tomorrow or next weekend for the last days of HalloWeekends for 2019. A combination of events has probably caused this to happen- the premier of the $99 Gold Pass for 2020 which allows admission and parking for the rest of this year, and beautiful weather today in Northern Ohio.
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And on the opposite end of the spectrum, Kings Dominion had to plead on social media to let guests know that the park was open yesterday amidst torrential rains in the morning the eventually let up into a light mist in the afternoon with a cool, relatively dry evening. It actually worked for us as we were initially planning to visit, but were ready to call off our drive down I-95 because of the heavy rains until mid afternoon when the park tweeted out that they were open. When we eventually arrived after 5:30 there was probably no more than 1,000 guests there, and virtual walk-on for every major ride and minimal lines for the haunted houses, which were fully staffed.
This is the problem with regional parks and non-summer operating days. Guests are so unpredictable as to what they are willing to tolerate in terms of weather and visiting a theme park during what used to be the "off-season". It's so difficult for parks to plan ahead when guests can visit on a whim or a slight turn in the weather can shift the attendance numbers by the thousands. Even with parks shifting to date-specific tickets, parks cannot control the flow of pass holders, who come and go as they please. I'm not necessarily advocating for parks to limit or control the days that pass holders can visit, but perhaps they need to off incentives to those that commit in advance to coming to the park on specific days and actually show up (maybe rewards points to be traded in for perks/prizes, or some other incentive program).
I was at CP on Sunday (another achingly beautiful October day) and it was packed, but the biggest issue was that it *also* seemed to be the day that all of the Platinum pass holders showed up and redeemed their FastLane Plus passes... the waits for Fast Lane were nearly as long as the standby lines. Steel Vengeance was about an hour in FL each time we rode. Never seen Fast Lane lines like that before. Only the Maverick crew seemed to keep the FL line moving at a satisfactory speed.
Here's hoping CP tweaks the passholder incentive to renew for 2021, as the "bonus" of Fast Lane Plus nearly turned out to be a minus yesterday.
I agree John. KD offers the same FastLane perk for renewing Platinum pass holders, but here, because the FastLane has to be used by the end of the season, it doesn't give guests much of an option, which for us was completely useless to activate on a day where every major ride was walk-on.
The way I look at it, Cedar Fair is incentivizing guests to renew their passes before the end of the season to get the FastLane perk (along with a Bring a Friend for Free ticket), but to force them to use it before the end of the season devalues it. Why can't the FastLane be traded in during the following season for which the pass is being renewed? Why can't the perk be used for Fright Lane instead if it has to be used immediately? For me, the perk isn't going to change my routine of continuously renewing my Platinum Pass, but it certainly would be nice if what those of us paying 2x what any other passholder spends received a bonus that was actually valuable if Cedar Fair truly appreciates our business.
I remember when CF first started doing Fastlane and Matt Ouimet said it was important for the company to not "be greedy" (his words) and sell too many of them to ensure it doesn't affect the flow of the lines.
...and then, just like everything else, they realized they were sitting on a cash cow and now none of that matters.
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Looks like the perfect storm. Sadly for these seasonal parks the busiest days of the year always seem to be Saturdays in October when they have the least amount of staff because everyone goes back to school.
On CP's website it says their onsite housing is free during Halloweekends so as a kid in Cleveland or Toledo that seems like a pretty sweet gig. Drive up and work Friday night, stay at housing Friday and Saturday night, make like $300 over the weekend, then drive back Sunday night. Not sure what else CP can do at this point I think it just is what it is.