I got an email today from Kings Island asking about the souvenir cup and season long dining plan. Basically asking if I purchased one if I'm aware of it and if I would support a change in the current system. The new system they proposed in the Survey would affectivily remove the souvenir cup in favor of the plan being added to your park pass which you redeemed you would receive your drink but also a disposable cup. Anyone else support this change?

Absolutely, as long as they don't try and do it with Kinzel Cups.   Honestly I would probably buy 3 of these plans instead of sharing 1 souvenir cup.    Dang it, there go my plans to Decrease my per cap spending at the parks next year.   Foiled again.  Those corporate bean counters in Sandusky have to much free time during the off season.

Absolutely, as long as they don't try and do it with Kinzel Cups.   Honestly I would probably buy 3 of these plans instead of sharing 1 souvenir cup.    Dang it, there go my plans to Decrease my per cap spending at the parks next year.   Foiled again.  Those corporate bean counters in Sandusky have to much free time during the off season.

but think of all those savings from locker rental fees!

I live on the wild side, no lockers for me.

I got the same thing. I'm all for the throw away cup. I said that after the first day this year. And again each time I put that darn bottle in a locker. And again when I left it at BLSC mid way through.

Supporting the change...

I just want to say, I've heard many stories about the all-season bottles being stolen from ride-stations, and the only solution was to simply get a locker, which costed a bit more money. It felt as if parks were sucking money out of your pockets, but they were trying to offer solutions to problems that were occurring.

Beyond the controversial topic in the industry of the lockers. (Trust me, you guy's make it sound really controversial.)

This could be a very important change. Now obviously when you go to an amusement park, you want to get a souvenir for your visit, and getting a bottle for drinks can usually be a good idea, take a piece of the park with you for around $30. So I think it would be nice that we would get a mixture of both, have a souvenir bottle to take home with you,. But for seasoned guests, you get the all year.

As I think about the idea, yes this does sound like what it should be doing. But please do this change Cedar Fair. As a guest, it's a good day to go from the Best Day Ever, to a bad day at an amusement park because someone stole the cup that they spent money on. Having the disposable cups would mean that guests have more mobility. (Plus we can FINALLY take a drink in a 30 minute to an hour long line for Banshee or Firehawk, or other rides that may not have loose articles in the line.)

 

I agree with all of the above. It is like they have listened to us, as the comments I made early on in the survey were the same direction I wanted it to go.  I have already signed up for the cup, so I am I hoping that if they go this route, I can change it over.  I posed this as my question at Other Questions section

Right now I'm still waiting for a link to come up.

While i support this change and think this is a wonderful idea, I will say i don't like the idea of not having a souvenir cup

I would rather carry my souvenir cup around than throw away a paper(form/plastic) cup every 90 or so minutes in the middle of the summer. My family(of 3) buys one cup, we also purchase a locker nearly every visit. During Preseason and Postseason when it is cooler we have less need for a locker and cup because the waterpark isn't open, it isn't as hot and we have more pockets(less stuff too).

This would also result in more trash, which will hopefully all make it into trash cans. Trash Cans will need to be changed more often too.

In the free comments of the survey I recommended that they merge the two ideas into one.  Give everyone a souvenir cup, but don't make it mandatory to have the cup on your person in order to use the season-long-drink pass.  Let folks choose what works best for them.

This has been something I've been trying to get them to do since Winter Chill out in February of this year. It makes me happy that they're exploring the opportunity. 

Just so no one thinks more of this than it is, the park has done surveys like this before. Survey questions are research; they don't necessarily indicate business plans.

 

If more drink options are introduced, hopefully guests are channeled to the dedicated drink stands. For me, guests holding up food lines to refill multiple drink bottles is the most annoying part of the current setup.

KI and to a lesser degree CP do not have enough dedicated drink stands. I drink more than I eat at a park. For me, guests holding up drink lines to order multiple chicken strips is the most annoying part of the current setup.

I got the survey and I really hope the chain makes this change.  It would frankly fix almost all of my complaints about the drink program.  My only remaining complaint would be about just how frequently the freestyle machines are out of a beverage, and it typically seemed to always be what I want, the diet lemonade.

 

I get the feeling that the parks are planning on having more rides with a no loose articles policy similar to Banshee.  For Kings Island it has been rumored the bins in the Diamondback station will be gone for 2017.  Plus I suspect that Mystic Timbers will also have a similar policy.  

Last summer I took a trip up to Cedar Point and purchased and all you can drink plan that did not require a souvenir cup, it used wrist bands and I thought it was a fantastic idea.  I hate the idea of buying your refillable cup and then some rides but force you to put them in a locker or leave them with a non rider.  Seems like such a scam.  We have been allowed to leave cups, bags etc in the ride station for forever but in the last couple of years it is suddenly a problem....

 

I do really like the idea of still getting a cup with your season drink purchase also.

You can keep a park clean with drink cups. See Holiday World. Free drinks with 12 oz cups and if you see a drink cup thrown down it does not stay there long. I hope they do make the change to an optional paper cup or souvenir cup. I know I would add add it to my pass if it was the paper cup. Right now when at the park I don't have a non rider to hold the souvenir cup to justify buying one. I will just get water out of the fountains at the rest rooms.  I refuse to carry anything around the park. I have a phone, car key, and wallet in the park.

You can keep a park clean with drink cups. See Holiday World. Free drinks with 12 oz cups and if you see a drink cup thrown down it does not stay there long. I hope they do make the change to an optional paper cup or souvenir cup. I know I would add add it to my pass if it was the paper cup. Right now when at the park I don't have a non rider to hold the souvenir cup to justify buying one. I will just get water out of the fountains at the rest rooms.  I refuse to carry anything around the park. I have a phone, car key, and wallet in the park.

I could see Cedar Fair going to a smaller paper cup dedicated to drink plan holders.

There is the problem. The current souviner cup is probably about 32oz, if the paper cups are 12oz theoretically people will be filling them more than twice as often. You think lines are bad now?

Something else I thought of this morning. With the plan tied to your SP think of all the $15 lanyards they will be able to sell!

Last summer I took a trip up to Cedar Point and purchased and all you can drink plan that did not require a souvenir cup, it used wrist bands and I thought it was a fantastic idea.  I hate the idea of buying your refillable cup and then some rides but force you to put them in a locker or leave them with a non rider.  Seems like such a scam.  We have been allowed to leave cups, bags etc in the ride station for forever but in the last couple of years it is suddenly a problem....

 

I do really like the idea of still getting a cup with your season drink purchase also.

 

Cedar Point has been that way for years, especially with coasters that have dual stations and you haven't been able to leave cups, bags, etc. in the ride station. As each new ride has been introduced they have not allowed any loose articles in the station. The Gatekeeper/Valravn stations sort of have bins, but those mainly are for loose shoes and/or glasses. 

 

 

There is the problem. The current souviner cup is probably about 32oz, if the paper cups are 12oz theoretically people will be filling them more than twice as often. You think lines are bad now?

Something else I thought of this morning. With the plan tied to your SP think of all the $15 lanyards they will be able to sell!

 

I'll continue to use my free FunPix layard!

I like the throw away cup idea but the amount of extra trash this is going to make.  Hopefully the park can handle it well.

It's possible the park could start using cups made from recycled materials and then encourage more recycling if trash is something they're worried about.

In my visits to HW and KK (free drinks/free drinks if SP renewed by deadline-then $1.00 drinks), I did not notice an inordinate amount of trash from cups.  With the the amount of trash cans CF puts in the parks, I don't see it being much of a problem.

 

I filled out the survey and think it's a great idea.  Maybe the powers that be listen to patrons!

 

Now if they could link your Funpix to your season pass so it would be one less thing to carry around...that being said, I did not have Funpix, but my understanding is it is a seperate card with a lanyard.

Now if they could link your Funpix to your season pass so it would be one less thing to carry around...that being said, I did not have Funpix, but my understanding is it is a seperate card with a lanyard.

 

As I've stated before......our Funpix plan is linked to all 3 of the passes in my family.

There is the problem. The current souviner cup is probably about 32oz, if the paper cups are 12oz theoretically people will be filling them more than twice as often. You think lines are bad now?

It's actually 26oz. I drank 6 in about 6 hours one day and wanted to know how much it was. [emoji23]

I think a 20oz cup would be the sweet spot on just enough drink at one time.

http://coaster-nation.com/cedar-point-to-potentially-eliminate-souvenir-drink-bottles/

We may see the elimination of All Season bottles. Likely it will be like Kentucky Kingdom in which the season pass barcode is scanned.

Funny. I suggested this same program to certain people from Cedar Fair nearly a year ago and was essentially called an idiot. I guess it sounded different when Cedar Point suggested it. Oh well.

Every idea sounds better when it comes from people deemed "more important" than you.

It's possible the park could start using cups made from recycled materials and then encourage more recycling if trash is something they're worried about.

 

Unlikely, cup manufacturers have always been worried about sanitation and very few are willing to use recycled material in a location where it could possibly come in contact with the drink.  The other side of this issue is that the paper cups are actually plastic lined which is what makes them waterproof, and makes them almost impossible to recycle.

 

But do not think it is always better to use a plastic cup, you can make 50 paper cups for just the energy used to make one reusable plastic cup.  If this was really an environmental issue the park would sell high quality plastic cups and allow them to be used for multiple years.  Just pay an activation fee each year.

I've had conversations like this at work before:

 

Me: "We should do it X way, it will work better"

Boss: "No, that's not how our customers will want that to work. We should do it Y way."

Me: "Alright, since that's how you want it, I'll do it like Y"

(weeks pass)

Boss: "We're getting complaints about the way this module works. Why didn't we do it like X?"

Me (smiling on the outside, raging on the inside): "I'm not sure. I'll fix it to work like that."

 

It happens to the best of us...

If this is true, I do hope they wait to make this change until 2018 passes go on sale. 2017 all-season bottles have been available to purchase for a while now. This doesn't need to be another example of selling something and changing the rules later.