Cedar Point sets attendance record; Parking a mess

[TTD-120-420]

On Saturday, October 12th, Cedar Point set a park record with 53,100 people in attendance. This number has been told to me by multiple employees.

With this number comes parking problems: http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/local_news/oh_erie/hundreds-of-people-were-stuck-in-the-cedar-point-parking-lot-saturday-night-after-halloweekends

Pictures of traffic off of twitter:

[TheBEASTunchained]

Wow!....

I kind of saw that coming though, after CP's tweet yesterday about "being patient when parking."

[malem]

It sounds like they should have extended the park hours.

[coasterfanatic83]

Is there any chance of them turning people away if something like this were to happen again? Like a maximum capacity limit?

[thedevariouseffect]

^They can just like KI does, but I have never seen it happen, and I don't think that happened this weekend either

This is practically what happens EVERY Columbus Day weekend...Me and Lindzey met up and had our first CP trip together in 2011 during this weekend while I was still working, needless to say we really didn't get to hang out and do anything as the park was ridiculously packed. Traffic was backed up to rt 2/rye beach and even on 250. They were even parking people in the grass on the causeway before the tolls it was that crazy...

I avoid this weekend like the plague

[Joncars05]

Boy am I glad we switched days for my wife and my trip to CP. We were going to go up there this weekend and decided not to on Wednesday this past week. We ended up doing a 3 day trip to KI (which Fri and Sat were pretty bad). I would rather spend a packed day at KI (takes us 1:50 to get to KI) than travel 4:30+ hours to CP and be met with record crowds... We are headed to CP next weekend and expect similar crowds on Saturday. But the weather should hold some people away (Mid 50s for high and low 40s for lows.) Though after reading this I doubt the crowds will be that much smaller... :-/

All I know is we rode two rides after 4pm at KI and I hated it. But I took it as a positive as well because days like this past weekend are what puts rides like Banshee in the park (FL,food, parking sales were through the roof).

[Joncars05]

This is the latest facebook post from Cedar Point. It is just a cover photo update from a family that they posted yesterday morning.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151665111211463&set=a.10150582435226463.375429.10625691462&type=1&theater

Not sure if you can see these comments or not but there are about 154 comments as of now (10:30PM) and I have yet to read one positive review about what happened saturday. This is seriously making me consider NOT going to CP this upcoming weekend. Part of CP response to this situation was "While guests were attempting to park their vehicles, and subsequently, leave the park at the end of their day, they experienced a longer than normal delay in our parking lot and on our causeway. Like sporting events, concerts and other events where large crowds gather, guests leave around the same time creating a backup."

I have been to many sporting events Pacers games, Colts games (including a bar outside across the block from the Super Bowl that was in Indianapolis), and large concerts such as Lollapalooza (Which hits capacity around 70,000 concert goers, not including the employees and volunteers working the concert) and I have NEVER had to wait more than 45 minutes (that was at Lollapalooza) to leave an area by car. I understand there are few ways in and out of CP but they have to have a better plan in place to accommodate crowds like this. I feel terrible for the families that had young children stuck in their cars for 4 hours...and for the people who decided to come with their families, spend hundreds of dollars (stories say anywhere from $300-$700)to run into a mess like this past Saturday. Just awful.

[KI-ORIG-EMP]

Sporting venues that draw very large crowds, plan for it. They have multiple access routes to it to accommodate the heavy traffic and ample parking lot capacity and access. Amusement parks like KI does have overflow parking in the grass, which CP does also. But the problem is both the long lines of cars attempting to park and when they do park, there are very long lines for everything in the park, from waiting in line for rides, food and using the rest rooms. I think that heavy crowds will turn a lot of people off and swear never to come or come on those crowded days. I don't see how people can have fun when they have to wait in line the whole day in an attempt to only ride a handful of rides. I will never wait in line more than 2 hours, and then only on a new ride that has just opened. I know from an employee standpoint, it can lead to a very stressful day with long, hard hours and working very late after the park closes. I have seen when KI had reached capacity and signs were posted on the interstate that the park was full and parking was shut down. I am sure that KI has a capacity limit that the Mason Fire Department has set but that is a very closely guarded secret. I am sure CP has one also. Every venue of all types have capacity limits that have been set by the fire department of the city that they are located. But if I was going to an amusement park, I will never go on a day that has extremely large crowds and traffic backups like this. It is not fun being stuck in the huge traffic jams, then parking in the boon docks, and then once inside the park, having to endure very long wait times to ride the rides. That does not count the long lines for the food stands and the long lines for the rest rooms.

[coasterfanatic83]

Another major difference between Cedar Point and Kings Island, in terms of exiting the parking lot, is that there is really only one major way to leave the peninsula. At Kings Island. traffic jams would be much shorter and easier to sort through.

I feel bad for the people who were stuck for hours, especially after a long night of waiting in line as is.

[malem]

From a quick scan of Saturday night's Twitter posts about Cedar Point, it seems that many had a good time despite long lines at attractions.

Tweets turn rather angry in hours 2, 3, and 4 of waiting to exit the parking lot. With ~11,000 parking spaces (according to cedarpoint.com) and ~2500 cars/hour maximum causeway capacity, traffic management could only do so much.

If the park's near capacity at the scheduled closing time, they should keep attraction(s) open later to spread out the exiting crowd. Running Millennium and Gatekeeper until 2:00am might have prevented much frustration at a relatively low cost.

[KI-ORIG-EMP]

I think if they did stay open an extra 2 hours, people will just stay until the end and then all leave at once. Look at what happen at the Kentucky Speedway a couple of years ago with that mother of a traffic jam getting into the speedway. The speedway and the state worked together to increase the parking lots and the access into the speedway with additional lanes and advised all to arrive earlier at the speedway. CP needs to improve the access into the park. That is the problem. The current roads can not handle the increased traffic due to limited access into the park. At Kings Island, the State of Ohio, City of Mason, and Warren County are currently in the design and planing stage of improving the Kings Island Drive and Kings Mills Road interchange and and making the Western Row Road and Kings Island Drive interchange going south onto I-71 into a full interchange going both north and south. Who knows, maybe wit this, Kings Island might add additional exit points leaving the park and improve the flow of traffic inside the parking lot.

[The Interpreter]

And just how, oh wise one, is this to be done at Cedar Point? The causeway is what it is, and is not likely to be widened or double-decked.

Well?

[TTD-120-420]

Let's start using boats again!

[KI-ORIG-EMP]

If CP has reached its capacity or even exceeded it and nothing can be done due to its geographical location, then maybe announcements that it has reached capacity and post and announce this on the various social media sites, its own web site, radio and TV and highway signs. I remember a couple times at Kings Island when they had signs on the interstate stating that the park was full. This was one of the reasons why Taft Broadcasting moved and located to Kings Mills due to the limited access into Coney Island. But this would be unfeasible in the case of Cedar Point. It would be better to state the park was full and to come back another day during the season if the park can't handle all of the excess parking.

[The Interpreter]

At a destination park.

Yep. That's going to go over real well.

[coasterfanatic83]

Are they allowed to use Cedar Point Road more effectively?

[malem]

I think if they did stay open an extra 2 hours, people will just stay until the end and then all leave at once.

Some would. Many more would leave much earlier.

Adding causeway lanes to CP in 2013 would be very, very expensive. A much easier solution to this problem is to prevent too many people from leaving at the same time.

It would be better to state the park was full and to come back another day during the season if the park can't handle all of the excess parking.

The newsworthy problems happened when people started leaving.

You do raise a good point though. Although closing a single-gate destination park isn't workable, as Terp noted, perhaps highway signs noting delays would have helped. Some guests might have chosen not to wait if there was a 1-hour delay to get onto the peninsula.

Are they allowed to use Cedar Point Road more effectively?

According to Terp, it's currently posted private property. Cedar Fair owns both ends of it, and supposedly it's (officially) reserved for residents.

In any case, those residents would not be happy to have 900 cars per hour shoved down their way.

[The Interpreter]

Are they allowed to use Cedar Point Road more effectively?

No. It's a private road. People paid a lot of money to live on that private road.

What WILL happen:

* Dynamic pricing. Tickets for days expected to be busy are going to cost more. Perhaps much more.

* Dynamic pricing: look for passes with black-out dates for less, and much more for passes that don't.

* Upcharges for some or all haunts.

* Remote parking off the peninsula, with buses, trams and yes, perhaps even boats.

[ZeroGee]

I blame Kinzel ! The causeway is named after him !

[thedevariouseffect]

It sounds like they should have extended the park hours.

Just no...Days when the park does extend hours or special events/ect..people still say, or people will moreover go because more bang for their buck...

The only problem is rt 6 is a two lane road and handles a good bit of traffic. 250 is a great road but it also serves Sandusky and has multiple stoplights/venues. Then even so you still get bottlenecked into a two lane road until you hit the causeway to CP...There is no highly direct route to CP to take all the traffic coming off of the highway straight to the point, you either take one of four routes that eventually lead to a bottlenecked opening...

Also mind you attendance on CBus day weekend is always ridiculous...Always avoid this weekend, it's one of those "last visit of the season" weekends for most people and being a holiday people have it off. We even have a parking ban where employees can't park that day, what's that tell you..

[flightoffear1996]

I would love to see some pictures from inside park.

[Ki Man]

I bet the Thirsty Pony ran out of beer that night.

[TTD-120-420]

Sad thing is, a lot of businesses around Cedar Point closed down for the winter already.

We were going to eat at Margaritaville Friday afternoon and it had a sign that said they closed the last week of September and wouldn't open again until May.

They lost a lot of business this weekend.

[thedevariouseffect]

It's easier to close business down before hand when it's good, than keep it open during a week and only make decent money two/three nights...It's why you don't see the parks open during this time too..

You think dusky is dead now, wait till December/January...

You can make record time going from 250/6 up to the causeway and there is NO traffic ANYWHERE

[The Interpreter]

Even most of the motels shut down.

Sandusky is pretty bleak in winter.

[thedevariouseffect]

yup, and the ones that do are dirt cheap

Two times I've stayed at the knights inn up off of rt 6 and stayed in the kings bed suite w jacuzzi, couch, full fridge, and huge room...28 dollars, one time for CP inprocessing prior to the opening of the season, and once during an off season event...

Great place to stay btw

[PhantomTheaterKiss]

My parents go to CP every year in October, and last year they went during Columbus day weekend and said it was absolutely horrible.. to the point that they changed their arrangements for the night and stopped at the first place that was open until the crowds cleared a bit.

My parents, husband, and I will be going this coming weekend and I'm praying it will not be as bad. Husband has never been to CP and it's been about nine years for me, so I'm really hoping we can have a good time without excessively long wait times both in the park and out. This is a graduation/anniversary present and I have high hopes!

[PyroKinesis]

4 hours leaving the parking lot? And I thought the wait to go East across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in the Summer was long.

[malem]

^ Here's my favorite spot to park:

I'm out of that lot and onto the causeway within a minute!

[Captain Nemo]

The only time I have ever seen KI close its gates was the very first bring a friend free day during the paramount era. All lots were full and parking extended to the grass past Boomerang Bay.

TRTR had a 3 hour line, Beast had a 4 hour line, Even the train had a line all the way to white water. If I remember correctly the count of the day at peak was almost 70K.