Cedar Point Parking

[Captain Nemo]

As great a park Cedar Point is it is not news to anyone they it becomes more and more popular each year especially now as it advertises as a resort destination. Parking and transportation to the park as we all know is unfortunately not the prime entrance we all hope for but what can a park do with it's only entrance to and from is through a 4 lane road and a small town?

From a consumer point of view what do you think needs to be done or wish could be done to create a better parking/transport to and from Cedar Point?

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My ideas:

Segregating parking: As it stands now it's a free-for-all for all public parking spots, that includes the water park and for some the resorts. The back have parking lot should be closed to only waterpark / resort patrons. During the summer while I was there and the waterpark was open, there are absolutely zero spaces left in the back parking lot. As Cedar Point looks to become a resort, they need to make sure that their patrons have adequate parking for all their areas.

New parking garage: On top of separating parking, I do believe both the back parking lot and front need to be replaced with a parking structure garage. they have enough space to create a parking structure with adequate amount of space with many on and off ramps to keep traffic flowing (much how universal uses their parking structure)

Expand the causeway: at the moment it is a four-lane road. Two on and two off. during some of those more crowded days it is not uncommon to see them close one of the incoming lanes to use that has an extra Lane; this however creates a merging traffic issue at the end of The causeway as you need to merge back into two lanes. Additionally there's another merging issue from those entering the causeway from the back parking lot.

Create a new entry parking plaza: much like Kings Island expanded there's, Cedar Point has only 6 toll booths. Considering Cedar Point invests in a parking structure, this new entry parking plaza can better direct people to certain parking based on their desires of the visit. Additionally more toll booths that are built the more cars that go through.

Off peninsula parking: this idea comes as a two part of which all further go into in the next section. While the area outside of the causeways pretty much developed, this comes more as a (if the opportunity arises). But next comes the transportation to the peninsula.

Park transportation: one thing many regional Parks have ceased in the past 20 years is complimentary transportation. The only resort that does this is Disney. Disney has their buses the monorail and now the new skyliner. Cedar Point does not have the budget Disney does but there are definitely options available. I believe some off Park transportation should be made as the peninsula is quite a large area of land. As it stands now a sky ride would be the cheapest option. If a station were to be built at Castaway Bay (can also be a pick-up point for the parking structure off the peninsula), perimeter road between front entrance and Pier, Hotel Breakers, and waterpark entrance.

Lastly it just comes down to working with the city of Sandusky to work on better traffic patterns during peak times. Unfortunately again the entrance to the park is in the middle of a small town, there's no right or wrong way to do it as large projects like these May displace families that have lived in this town for generations. If the city were able to come up with a plan for a direct access to OH-2 (maybe by building a new access ramp between Cedar Point Dr and Cedar Point road)

 

[King Ding Dong]

Last year CP did restrict access to the CPS lot until 9:30 to cut back on early entry guests parking there but it appears they have not done so this year.   There is additional CPS parking back by the old Sand Castle Suites area. 
 

IMO the front lot is sized correctly for the park as when it gets full the park is just jammed packed and really shouldn’t contain more guests anyway.  If anything it is too big already.  
 

This all is really only and issue for Halloweekends and maybe a couple summer Saturdays.  An expanded tollbooth and more parking personnel to guide traffic may help a some, but the major issue CP has is its inability to hire and retain enough staff at the compensation levels they want to provide especially in the fall.  Until that issue can be solved finding a means to get even more guests efficiently into the park is just going to make the overall situation worse. 
 

[Hueney020]

I think a new toll booth would definitely help. The new toll booths could become automatic just like KI. This would create fewer employees working the booths so it would free them up to do other things in the park. Granted it might only free up 3 maybe 4 employees but you take what you can get. 

[flightoffear1996]

I find a lot of people having issues scanning the parking pass at the tolls and have to get the attendant to do it anyway. Maybe build an extra $6.00 into each ticket and have free parking as perk. 

[King Ding Dong]

The couple of times I have experienced a long line on the causeway the problem has not been slow booth attendants but a traffic jam on the other side of the booths preventing people from pulling through.  When the lot is full, people just don't know where to go.  I have had major issues with the scanners at KI in the past but the last 2 years have been much better.

[Kenban]

First a parking garage is just not happening.  Last I heard costs start around $10,000 per a parking space.  Outside of Disney/Universal amusement parks rarely can afford parking garages.  Spending $50 million on a 5,000 space parking garage, or two new coasters, and frankly management is going to build the new coasters until parking becomes a problem more then 4 or 5 times a year.

The causeway is not the problem, when traffic is backed up its an issue at either the park, or the surface streets in the city, but its a lack of ability for the cars in front of you to go not the width of the causeway.  I am not sure how easy it would be to work with the EPA to get permission to expand the road, and due to the costs involved I just cannot see it happening.

A new parking plaza is possible, and I could see it being more automated like the one at Kings Island, not sure how much help it will be though.

 

If anything I could see a new off site parking lot with a bus transportation system.  But I think that management is going to need to see a greater need then just a handful of days a year, maybe if they plan to expand onto portions of the lot, or build a new hotel, etc.  Likely there will always be parking out at the park, it just might end up being premium, handicap, resort, etc parking with the main lot off site.