Hilltopper39 Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 So we made the voyage to the park yesterday for halloweekends. Steel vengeance is still a great coaster! Due to a recent surgery, I did not have to deal with the fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo mess as we had a special access pass. My wife and me just took turns holding loose articles. The standby line was at 2 hours, and the fast lane line was at 50 minutes. A few observations about the park since I was there last(about 2 months ago due to surgery). Other than Steel Vengance how were the lines for most of the other major coasters? I'm heading up this weekend and was curious how the crowds were for the event. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 Queue Times can give you a general idea of this. The big ones: Maverick: 120 minutes most of the afternoon Millennium Force: 90 minutes most of the afternoon Raptor: 120 minutes early getting shorter as the day went on Steel Vengeance: 160 briefly, then down to about 120 minutes Dragster: Between 80 and 90 minutes if not for the (based on my count) 6 or 7 breakdowns Valravn: 90 minutes most of the day Gemini: ummmm... 75??? Running one side I assume or just way over-reporting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilltopper39 Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 75 minutes for Gemini, #worthit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WolfBobs Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 So we made the voyage to the park yesterday for halloweekends. Steel vengeance is still a great coaster! Due to a recent surgery, I did not have to deal with the fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo mess as we had a special access pass. My wife and me just took turns holding loose articles. The standby line was at 2 hours, and the fast lane line was at 50 minutes. A few observations about the park since I was there last(about 2 months ago due to surgery). Other than Steel Vengance how were the lines for most of the other major coasters? I'm heading up this weekend and was curious how the crowds were for the event. Was at the park Sunday from 12-6. SV was the longest wait of the day at about 1.25 hours with 3 trains. MF was at the bottom of the ramp, about 25 mins. Valravn was about 30, TTD was bottom of the ramp and actually ran about 75% of the time I was there. Every other major coaster was a station or less wait. (did not even check out Maverick but probably 60+ mins) Saturday if the weather is decent to good it'll be wise to get a FL+ if it's in the budget and maybe even frightlane. If you're there Sunday you should be fine without it. The shocker was the park was actually decently staffed.. of course about 50% of the foods employees where volunteers doing fundraising. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillrider Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 For all you cedarpoint history buffs.... Who knew that cedarpoint played a roll in the civil war. This sign is located near the lighthouse in the campground. Photo is from Matt Dempsey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gearbm95 Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 CP over the weekend...seriously migjt be the last time I ever give this place a shot during Halloweekends. The average line for any food/drinks seemed to be between 15-30mins which was an absolute joke. If you know you are severaly understaffed in the food service dept this needs to be communicated to patrons. Either bring in some food trucks or allow people to bring snacks. The lines for the rides were long, as to be expected, so we decided to instead focus on the haunts since we've been on all the rides this year. These were the lowest quality haunts I've ever seen in a theme park, however that wasn't the issue. Had these haunts still provided scares I could care less about set design (ie. HHN with amazing sets but a conga line ruining EVERY scare) but theae haunts didn't provide scares either! I didn't see one scare actor make an attempt to scare us in any of the haunts, most were just standing there, with one of them on their phone in Zombie High. We paid for a Fright Lane and it was an absolute waste of money, I truly felt bad for anyone that was waiting in line to do these haunts. The scarezones were just as bad, very few actors in any of them. Also, the Frontier Trail is literally just some bales of hay and a couple lights, its a joke. By far, the worst part of the trip was the condition of the restrooms (honorable mention to the Coke Freestyle locations and that gross-ness). The bathrooms were actually vile in every way. I walked into 2 bathrooms and walked right back out, it was stomach turning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 They brought in a ton of food trucks on the main midway didn't they? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gearbm95 Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 They brought in a ton of food trucks on the main midway didn't they? Yes, they shouldve done a better job dispersing them. If you were back by SV you could either wait 30min for chicken tenders or walk through the crowds to the front of the park and wait 15mins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ytterbiumanalyst Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 ^ I hear you man. I also have never been able to figure out what times of the day I'm likely to be hungry. Man, if I knew that, I'd have this whole planning lunch thing DOWN. Sucks that's just not possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 I feel like as a theme park fan who should really know better you have you exercise a little bit of planning and common sense. If you go to any park during a haunt event then you should expect long food lines and if you stand in a line for crappy park food with employees that don't give a sh*t rather than walking awhile (or riding the train) to get to a food truck that's going to have much better food and much faster service 100% of the time then that's on you. ... or you could go to Fridays ... or Famous Daves If you're at the Dragon Inn (or whatever) waiting for chicken tenders then you deserve to stand in the sun and wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stealth1 Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 Thats why I usually eat at Melt or Chickie and Pete's. If I am going to wait for food I would rather wait inside and get better food then the the offerings at Dragon Inn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillrider Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 I feel like as a theme park fan who should really know better you have you exercise a little bit of planning and common sense. If you go to any park during a haunt event then you should expect long food lines and if you stand in a line for crappy park food with employees that don't give a sh*t rather than walking awhile (or riding the train) to get to a food truck that's going to have much better food and much faster service 100% of the time then that's on you. ... or you could go to Fridays ... or Famous Daves If you're at the Dragon Inn (or whatever) waiting for chicken tenders then you deserve to stand in the sun and wait. So we deserve crappy service? Me and you may know the other options for food(all lines were horrible), but to an average person that visits the park maybe once or twice a year...what do you think there impression of the park is? Besides that, not everyone wants to go to a sit down restaurant just to get decent service. I basically ran into all the same issues as mentioned above. This is a failure by the park. They are aware of how busy the park is during halloweekends. They have had all year to plan for staffing ect... The haunts were a joke, and they should be embarrassed. My kids built a haunted house in there bedroom that was better than anything the park offered. The frontier trail was probably the worst of it all. I'm not sure who got the idea that bales of hay and a few actors was better than what was there before. The shows were basically all recycled shows from the past few years. The ride lines crawled at a painful pace, the food lines were a joke, and the park was filthy. I'm hoping that this was just first weekend jitters, but I'm not holding my breath. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 I get the feeling that most of us don't truly understand the level of difficulty parks(not just CP) are having staffing parks for the last few years now, myself included. I'm sure Cedar Point's goal isn't to have people waiting in half hour long lines for food then wading though sewage to use the bathroom. The quality and quantity of staffing just doesn't seem to be there for many of these parks, especially during the parts of the season where high school and college is in session. I mean, they were advertising for local custodians and school cooks to work at the park. Most people on this forum should be aware of what sort of experience to expect. Maybe some of the GP will be turned off by park experience they get and crowd levels for certain Halloween events will dwindle over time, but it doesn't seem like we've seen any of that yet. Maybe the result will be less haunts and more staffing at food and rides as time goes on. Personally, I'm fine with decorations, halloween music, fall weather, and night rides. I know plenty of people enjoy the haunts and scare zones too, but if the staffing just isn't there, the park can't do much about it. Anyone else have other thoughts about events like this shifting focus or changing over the coming years as staffing surely continues to be problematic? Solutions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 So we deserve crappy service? I'm not saying this that this is okay. I'm saying that as someone who posts on theme park forums and considers themselves a theme park enthusiast should know better and expect this going in. I have some sympathy for people that rarely visit theme parks and were disappointed by excessively long food lines. If you're an enthusiast with a TPR account who clearly follows the industry and you go to the park on a Haunt weekend with beautiful weather and stand in a chicken tender line in the back of the park when there are food trucks lining the main midway and two full service casual dining restaurants on the peninsula and then you complain about how long it took then that's on you. There's a difference between saying "this kind of service is acceptable when charging full price" and "regardless of that, this happens every single year and coaster enthusiasts who consider themselves to be more seasoned than the average guest should know better". Anyone else have other thoughts about events like this shifting focus or changing over the coming years as staffing surely continues to be problematic? Solutions? I would imagine that the "hard ticket" approach that parks like Knott's, Busch Gardens Tampa and Universal have gone to might become more and more popular as this becomes more of an issue. You can open the park for the day until 5:00 or 6:00 with no haunts of any kind. Current staffing levels will likely be fine as crowds will likely be manageable. Then, re-open at night with only rides that are appropriate for the demographic open (Basically adult coasters, Skyhawk, Power Tower, Maxair and flip a coin on Windseeker). That frees up a ton of staff to work elsewhere. I'm sure it's not like the park hasn't considered this so I'm not pretending this is some groundbreaking idea or anything but I wouldn't be shocked if more and more parks go this route as staffing becomes more and more of a problem and they're forced into it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thepoint4life23 Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 My thoughts on Halloweekends. I might not be the same as other since I do not have kids. This is one of my favorite times to go to the park. Yes, I know it’s going to be packed and less things open, but the park to me has a different vibe that I love. I enjoy that it’s a little colder. I get to the park for early entry ride a few things till the park starts to get busy. Then around lunch or when the Ohio state football game starts I leave the park or go sit at the bar at melt for a few hours and get food and drinks, so the long food lines really don’t bother me. After that I know I will not really ride much the rest of the Saturday. I grab a few more beers and just walk around the park do a few hunts depending on the line. Just enjoy the night and all the Halloween stuff even if it can be not so scary. If I wanted a real hunted I would go to one of the many hunts around Ohio that get voted in the top 13 list each year. I also think that you should know the first weekend of all the hunts will not be as good as say a few weekend in. The all need to learn to scare what works what is not working. I guess it go into the night know what I am getting into and that its still better than sitting around at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmyUD06 Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 Someone mentioned not staffing kids rides and having those employees work food stands or clean bathrooms. It doesn't work that way. Employees are trained in one area (for examples, rides, games, foods, grounds, etc.) for the most part, and that's it. You can't even take a random employee from one kiddie ride and put them to work on a coaster; each ride has its own training and certification process. Even for things like foods or grounds, that may not require much training, if I'm a 16 year old kid working rides and they tell me I have to go clean bathrooms or slave over a fryer, especially this close to the end of the season, I'm telling them to pound sand and walking out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 Someone mentioned not staffing kids rides and having those employees work food stands or clean bathrooms. It doesn't work that way. Employees are trained in one area (for examples, rides, games, foods, grounds, etc.) for the most part, and that's it. You can't even take a random employee from one kiddie ride and put them to work on a coaster; each ride has its own training and certification process. Even for things like foods or grounds, that may not require much training, if I'm a 16 year old kid working rides and they tell me I have to go clean bathrooms or slave over a fryer, especially this close to the end of the season, I'm telling them to pound sand and walking out. Obviously they would need to do some cross training and offer some aggressive pay but I mean... okay. Do it. If you're working rides and they tell you to go clean bathrooms you may tell them to go pound sand but If you're a kid and they tell you that if you go and clean bathrooms they'll give you a raise and a bonus at the end of Halloweekends then you might just say yes. They're so desperate for staff that they're begging school janitors and lunch ladies to come and staff Halloweekends. I think they can be desperate enough to ask people to work in a different department (possibly with additional compensation). Honestly, so far it seems like they have offered more aggressive compensation and things seem slightly better than they were last year. They're not good, but they're not this either. Talk to me in a few weeks but so far it's an improvement at least. PS: It looks like Thrillrider and I have this conversation every year. We could save ourselves a lot of time by just quoting old posts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrillrider Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 See Bill, that's an issue I have. Just because I'm an enthusiast and pass holder, does that justify the bad operations and filth just because I'm aware that the park will be buisy? At the end of the day, I am a paying customer. This year is far worse than past halloweekends. I get that there are going to be a lot of people at the park during the event. But to say that it's to be expected, is just giving the park a free pass on this. If they dont have the staff to operate at the needed levels, perhaps it's time to look at certain things not being open during halloweekends. I would have no problem with them getting rid of a fright zone or 2. They were pretty lame, and require a lot of man power. What's weird, is that we have been to another park chains Halloween event, and there was no staffing issues like cedarpoint has. And the effort that they put into the haunts this year was weak at best. The food truck idea is "ok", but when you sell a dinning plan that is only good at certain locations well... Besides that, I looked at a menu for a food truck and they wanted $17 for chicken and waffles. Two of the cheapest items to sell. We waited in line at the smokehouse restaurant for 45 min. They had 3 people working from what we seen. And to top it off, they had an abbreviated menu. I really hate the current state of operations at the park. Its never been this bad. Like someone else said, with the current state of things I would be happy if the entire park was open and maybe some scary music and decorations. Use the scare actors to staff the park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 (edited) I don't have as much experience with the Halloween events as others do; is this basically what King's Island does, only without the separate admission? I didn't really pay any attention when I went last year to anything outside of the best 4 coasters after dark when Haunt had started. Are all of the kids and some family rides closed after they start Haunt? Edited September 17, 2018 by DavidB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coasterbill Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 See Bill, that's an issue I have. Just because I'm an enthusiast and pass holder, does that justify the bad operations Again, I don’t disagree that it’s not acceptable. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that when this continues to happen year after year after year (see your post from last year that I just linked to) at some point you need to adjust your expectations or vote with your wallet and stop going. If enthusiasts who should know better keep going and keep acting surprised by this at some point it becomes partially on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
operative_me Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 For all you cedarpoint history buffs.... Who knew that cedarpoint played a roll in the civil war. This sign is located near the lighthouse in the campground. There is some info about the battery on CP online if you dig around enough. You can also drive around to the Marblehead peninsula and visit the Confederate Cemetary on Johnson Island. Pretty much all traces of the prison is gone, but the cemetary is nicely maintained. My girl and I were approached by a friendly security guard for the island and we chatted about Civil War stuff. Ot isn't a huge place but if you are a history nerd like me it's pretty cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaceBoarder Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 See Bill, that's an issue I have. Just because I'm an enthusiast and pass holder, does that justify the bad operations Again, I don’t disagree that it’s not acceptable. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that when this continues to happen year after year after year (see your post from last year that I just linked to) at some point you need to adjust your expectations or vote with your wallet and stop going. If enthusiasts who should know better keep going and keep acting surprised by this at some point it becomes partially on them. I really have to wonder how many people are speaking with their wallets though... I mean, you figure for every 1 of us (enthusiasts) there are 10-15 "GP'ers"... Those are the people that will rip Guest Services a new one with an experience like ThrillRider's. But the parks are still packed to insane levels, so why should parks raise payroll? It's just flushing profit down the toilet if they are not losing guests because of unsatisfactory experiences. I honestly don't believe that the public has spoken with their wallets yet, so parks will keep on moving forward with the current plan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FeelTheFORCE Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 (edited) This definitely came up in the beginning of the year also, but finding workers is not easy right now for many employers. It's not just a Cedar Point issue, it's happening everywhere in our society right now. Edited September 17, 2018 by FeelTheFORCE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anonymouscactus Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 (edited) Some comments about Halloweekends on Sunday: The weakest of all the years we have been so far. The parade song got stuck in my head in a loop at 4pm. Please get rid of Zombie high already. Please. Oh and why did you remove the jock straps I don't understand the point of "lights-out" hexed when it has great visuals... and the fact you have Deprivation, another dark house, across the park... Longest line for a house was 10 minutes for FreakShow, and the rest were shorter, so that was a plus, like it always is the first Sunday. Deprivation opened a little after 3 so we waited 10 min for that to open. No communication though, and no signs to get back there for that matter. Maverick's camera was all messed up... lol I did enjoy my 3 rides on Steel Vengeance and my very small $12 raspberry electric lemonade. Waited 10 minutes for Miss Keets smokehouse, which is my usual go-to as I have the dining plan, it is air conditioned, and most of the time I have gone the line isn't bad. There was an abbreviated menu, as mentioned above. I did Raptor and Millennium Force for early entry with 0-3 minute waits, we pretty much stayed in Frontier town the entire rest of the day until the haunts opened so I'm not sure how lines were around the park. Maverick had a line across the bridge, but not in the beginning switchbacks. Still pretty long even at the tail end of early entry. I didn't ride a lot of the other majors on this visit, but it was definitely more crowded than any other "First Sunday" we've done for Halloweekends. At least the haunts that started at 3 had no waits for us and we were out of the park by 5p for the drive home. OH!!! I almost forgot. So there are two camouflaged/hidden plants in the eery estate house, but rather than just saying "boo" or making a sound, they yelled out "PHOTOSYNTHESIS!" and "Top Soil!". I found that entertaining, at least... Felt bad for those that bought FRIGHT Lane... especially now that they nixed the skeleton key rooms... So overall I had a great time but the actors and haunts were severely lacking and they seem to go more downhill each year. Not just because it's more repetitious, but the employees make or break the haunts and they were definitely broken this time around. Back in 2014 I thought the event was amazing and way above average. Now I'd put it in the needs improvement category. Edited September 17, 2018 by anonymouscactus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WolfBobs Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 See Bill, that's an issue I have. Just because I'm an enthusiast and pass holder, does that justify the bad operations Again, I don’t disagree that it’s not acceptable. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that when this continues to happen year after year after year (see your post from last year that I just linked to) at some point you need to adjust your expectations or vote with your wallet and stop going. If enthusiasts who should know better keep going and keep acting surprised by this at some point it becomes partially on them. I really have to wonder how many people are speaking with their wallets though... I mean, you figure for every 1 of us (enthusiasts) there are 10-15 "GP'ers"... I think you're giving "enthusiasts" way too much credit here. For every 1 enthusiast I would say there is probably 1000-2000 members of the "GP." For every 1 obnoxious, foul smelling,entitled enthusiast its probably more like 1 for every 5,000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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