Cedar Point Trip Report 07/11 - 07/12 2020

[WoodCoasterManiac]

Hi guys, figured I would give you a heads up on my experience.I will start by saying current handling of ride operations in my opinion makes this park not ready to be open at the moment.

 

Let me explain. For starters,  I will say that from an enforcement of mask and social distancing policy standpoint, mostly Cedar Point nailed it. They were clearly the best enforcers of this in all 5 parks I have been to post covid (Indiana Beach, Holiday World, Six Flags St Louis, Kings Island, and now Cedar Point). Multiple associates using their best ability and diligence to make sure people are wearing their masks, distancing in the lines, and generally following the rules. There were bathroom attendants making sure people weren't all flooding the bathrooms with too many people with clickers. Signs and stickers in que lines enforcing distancing were everywhere, even in food lines and outside restrooms. I loved this. Very much appreciated and overall good job on this front!

 

Now, let's get to the nitty gritty about the actual days there. I'm not going to talk about how the pass reservation system needs updated in this post, but we had reservations on Saturday at 12 and Sunday at 10 because one was planned and one was a bonus day we decided later when they allowed 2 days. 

We knew we weren't able to get to the park at noon Saturday but that was the latest reservation so that's what we got. We arrived at 215pm. Getting through the touchless temp check and security checks easily, all walk right through. Off to ride a ride, we said! I always avoid the first visible rides in the beginning of the day so we headed to Millennium Force.  We went up and went to ride, was stopped by the ride attendant. He asked for a ticket and I didn't know what he was talking about. I told him we just arrived. He looked at the line and at that point it was short so he just let us on the ride sans attraction pass. This turned out to be the only thing going for us on Saturday. Got our ride on millenium and then headed back to Steel Vengeance / Maverick. Got there, and was told that there are no Attraction passes and they sold out at noon. Bust. Couldn't ride. We ended up going defeated to Cedar creek mine ride, magnum Xl 200, and then GateKeeper. All about 30 min lines or so, and we avoided  Valravn and Raptor due to them showing 120 minutes.

Along the way rides that were down all day that we couldn't ride were as follows: Blue Streak, Gemini, Top Thrill Dragster, Rougarou, Wicked Twister. Some were not that big of a deal, others very much so. Top Thrill in particular was a complete deal-breaker for me. These never opened and according to guest services Gemini and Top Thrill at least have not opened all season . This is one of my major issues. I get that rides can go down, but it's clear that these rides were never opening any time in the near future. Top thrills trains aren't even on the track, they are all on the transfer area and were both days. They also have zero social distancing markers in the que and station / exit. It's clear Cedar Point knew it wasn't opening. There was zero communication about this on their website, app, or email / Twitter / Facebook blasts. This is unacceptable in my opinion, it's one thing to inform us and say some rides will not open until further notice, but no such notice was given. Also, no notice of the attraction passes being handed out when they were or that they would be needed to ride. I would not have driven to the park on Saturday or Sunday knowing half of this.

I did have an amazing conversation with a Cedar Point guest services supervisor upon leaving the park and talked about suggestions to fix obviously broken things and the room for improvement and that was nice. All the employees are helpful and nice. Well trained!

 

Now this gets us to Sunday, but first let me remind you that Saturday they passed out passes to ride the three big rides: maverick steel vengeance, and millenium force. They were all gone by noon. Sunday, we have the earliest reservation at 10am, to hopefully snag some reservations. We arrived before 10am, a few minutes before and are one of the first people in for the day.

 

This already was my least favorite part of the day at Cedar Point, and it became more annoying than normal. My normal park MO for any theme park is go on a lighter day if possible but always arrive before open, scope out coasters that are low capacity / new and popular and lap those in the early hours before crowds flood in. Cedar Point is the absolute worst at this, because of Hotel Breakers entrance even in an non pandemic year. The worst offenders for lines and two of the three attraction pass rides are just after that entrance, that opens at the same time the regular entrance is. This year, you cannot enter that entrance unless you are a hotel guest and have got a red band that shows you were temp screened because it does not have a mobile temp checking tent. These people have a 3 minutes walk to Steel vengeance and maverick and can get in line easily. Anyone else enters from the front of the park, and forced to walk all the way back to the ride and get in a line to get a pass. We were one of the very first people through on Sunday, power walked all the way there, and were in the last 10 of the passes passed out in the morning.to alleviate the tickets running out so fast they now release some every hour for about two hours out or so A group 2 groups behind us was the cut off. This means unless you stay at breakers as operations stands currently your chances of getting a steel vengeance attraction pass is slim to none. Better odds winning the lottery. You had to be all together in your party to get a ticket one per physical person, so couldn't get two different ride passes.

 

When we got our steel vengeance passes, there was a line still past the freestyle drink pass and almost to Cedar creek mine ride.  This brings me to another point. They have all these social distancing signs and markers for everything, and none of it for these attraction passes. Long lines of people were camping out in lines just to get tickets to ride later. It was creating worse social distancing than having the people wait in line a long time and monitoring the lines with the markers. Also, by the time we got through steel vengeance line we couldn't get to mavericks line it was sold out and passes weren't being passed out again till an hour from then, at noon. This means you basically choose the one of the three that you can maybe get a ride on in the morning and maybe at best you can get a second pass after waiting in the attraction pass lines for a large chunk of your day.

It had unintended consequences in the walking category. We got a pass to ride steel vengeance from 12 to 1, and it was just past 11 and we can't ride any major ride nearby, so we headed off to do some rides that were busy yesterday. Valravn. Problem is, its at the other side of the park. We do this and get a 15 min wait on Valravn. So before noon we had essentially lapped the park. We also ride corkscrew and then rush to get to Steel vengeance as it was now 1240. We wanted to get in line before they let the next group in but while the line was thinned out. This worked, line was only to the stairs. Now comes the next issue, fast passes. I get that they aren't sold right now but they were sold previously and they're allowing those people to completely avoid this pass in continuously ride all of these rides. They said my opinion is a huge miss they need to turn off all fast passes for these rides pretty much every train had at least two rows of fast passes making the line move very painfully slow because they only have half of the trains capacity. I get that they paid for it but it will be good next year when it's actually something that is a fair measure based on the amount of volume. For regular guests to basically have to choose which ride is the most important in order to maybe secure a ride on it with one action pass and others leisurely just walk on these rides is complete lunacy. 

 

After riding Steel Vengeance, we tried to get a ticket for maverick. It was about 120, and they said the next tickets wouldn't be available to get for maverick until 3pm. Again, not many rides near that area so we again had back towards the front of the park, to this time get some lunch and talk with guest services. By this time it was going on our second lap of the park and us going to have to lap it again to potentially ride maverick. We talked again with guest services about the setup and how it needs serious improvement and then headed back on the skyride because our feet were tired then walked the rest of the way to mavericks action pass que. We managed to secure one of the last tickets for the 6pm to 7pm time slot. At this point it was 3pm, we decided to go ride magnum (since gemini was down) and it was a great second ride. 30 min wait. People were either using fast passes or accessibility passes and it definitely made the line move slow.

 

After riding, we decided that we just needed to get some liquid and chill and relax in the shade in frontier City area. We used our drink passes and day at a bench chair in the shade, resting our feet from walking back and forth so much. We sit until 530. We then head to mavericks social distancing markers just outside the ride, and sit down. To our surprise, the ride attendant calls us up at 545 to get in line and we rip up the attraction pass and get in line. Yet again, see many people using fast passes. This really hurts the line speed and is overall not a good experience for anyone. These people have an advantage that you cannot buy and its causing others to suffer. About an hour later we get on maverick, and then head towards the exit. Talked with guest services again and went on our way home.

 

Takeaways:

 

Attraction Pass system is a joke, and needs to be part of your reservation or something else digital. Smaller parks like holiday world did it, you have zero excuses 

 

They knew Top Thrill Dragster and other rides wouldn't be open for the foreseeable future. They don't even have the social distancing markers or the trains even in a position on the track. No work happened while we were there  this should have been advertised to potential guests on the website.i would not have visited knowing this.

 

Breakers hotel guests and fast pass holders have way too much advantage this year to make anything of a fair experience for normal guests this year. This needs to be rectified. 

 

All this is subject to change per Cedar Point. undoubtedly they will tweak things to make a better experience for future guests. I would have said this was an ok trip knowing the anxiety it would cause and lack of open rides beforehand with notice vid online so it website or Facebook or Twitter, but alas there was none. And therein lies the problem. 

 

 

- Jon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[IndyGuy4KI]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[Browntggrr]

That was a well done post- insightful & honest.

I expect many experiences to be similar, not only with CP, but most parks.

[SnakePlissken]

11 hours ago, WoodCoasterManiac said:

Hi guys, figured I would give you a heads up on my experience.I will start by saying current handling of ride operations in my opinion makes this park not ready to be open at the moment.

 

Let me explain. For starters,  I will say that from an enforcement of mask and social distancing policy standpoint, mostly Cedar Point nailed it. They were clearly the best enforcers of this in all 5 parks I have been to post covid (Indiana Beach, Holiday World, Six Flags St Louis, Kings Island, and now Cedar Point). Multiple associates using their best ability and diligence to make sure people are wearing their masks, distancing in the lines, and generally following the rules. There were bathroom attendants making sure people weren't all flooding the bathrooms with too many people with clickers. Signs and stickers in que lines enforcing distancing were everywhere, even in food lines and outside restrooms. I loved this. Very much appreciated and overall good job on this front!

 

Now, let's get to the nitty gritty about the actual days there. I'm not going to talk about how the pass reservation system needs updated in this post, but we had reservations on Saturday at 12 and Sunday at 10 because one was planned and one was a bonus day we decided later when they allowed 2 days. 

We knew we weren't able to get to the park at noon Saturday but that was the latest reservation so that's what we got. We arrived at 215pm. Getting through the touchless temp check and security checks easily, all walk right through. Off to ride a ride, we said! I always avoid the first visible rides in the beginning of the day so we headed to Millennium Force.  We went up and went to ride, was stopped by the ride attendant. He asked for a ticket and I didn't know what he was talking about. I told him we just arrived. He looked at the line and at that point it was short so he just let us on the ride sans attraction pass. This turned out to be the only thing going for us on Saturday. Got our ride on millenium and then headed back to Steel Vengeance / Maverick. Got there, and was told that there are no Attraction passes and they sold out at noon. Bust. Couldn't ride. We ended up going defeated to Cedar creek mine ride, magnum Xl 200, and then GateKeeper. All about 30 min lines or so, and we avoided  Valravn and Raptor due to them showing 120 minutes.

Along the way rides that were down all day that we couldn't ride were as follows: Blue Streak, Gemini, Top Thrill Dragster, Rougarou, Wicked Twister. Some were not that big of a deal, others very much so. Top Thrill in particular was a complete deal-breaker for me. These never opened and according to guest services Gemini and Top Thrill at least have not opened all season . This is one of my major issues. I get that rides can go down, but it's clear that these rides were never opening any time in the near future. Top thrills trains aren't even on the track, they are all on the transfer area and were both days. They also have zero social distancing markers in the que and station / exit. It's clear Cedar Point knew it wasn't opening. There was zero communication about this on their website, app, or email / Twitter / Facebook blasts. This is unacceptable in my opinion, it's one thing to inform us and say some rides will not open until further notice, but no such notice was given. Also, no notice of the attraction passes being handed out when they were or that they would be needed to ride. I would not have driven to the park on Saturday or Sunday knowing half of this.

I did have an amazing conversation with a Cedar Point guest services supervisor upon leaving the park and talked about suggestions to fix obviously broken things and the room for improvement and that was nice. All the employees are helpful and nice. Well trained!

 

Now this gets us to Sunday, but first let me remind you that Saturday they passed out passes to ride the three big rides: maverick steel vengeance, and millenium force. They were all gone by noon. Sunday, we have the earliest reservation at 10am, to hopefully snag some reservations. We arrived before 10am, a few minutes before and are one of the first people in for the day.

 

This already was my least favorite part of the day at Cedar Point, and it became more annoying than normal. My normal park MO for any theme park is go on a lighter day if possible but always arrive before open, scope out coasters that are low capacity / new and popular and lap those in the early hours before crowds flood in. Cedar Point is the absolute worst at this, because of Hotel Breakers entrance even in an non pandemic year. The worst offenders for lines and two of the three attraction pass rides are just after that entrance, that opens at the same time the regular entrance is. This year, you cannot enter that entrance unless you are a hotel guest and have got a red band that shows you were temp screened because it does not have a mobile temp checking tent. These people have a 3 minutes walk to Steel vengeance and maverick and can get in line easily. Anyone else enters from the front of the park, and forced to walk all the way back to the ride and get in a line to get a pass. We were one of the very first people through on Sunday, power walked all the way there, and were in the last 10 of the passes passed out in the morning.to alleviate the tickets running out so fast they now release some every hour for about two hours out or so A group 2 groups behind us was the cut off. This means unless you stay at breakers as operations stands currently your chances of getting a steel vengeance attraction pass is slim to none. Better odds winning the lottery. You had to be all together in your party to get a ticket one per physical person, so couldn't get two different ride passes.

 

When we got our steel vengeance passes, there was a line still past the freestyle drink pass and almost to Cedar creek mine ride.  This brings me to another point. They have all these social distancing signs and markers for everything, and none of it for these attraction passes. Long lines of people were camping out in lines just to get tickets to ride later. It was creating worse social distancing than having the people wait in line a long time and monitoring the lines with the markers. Also, by the time we got through steel vengeance line we couldn't get to mavericks line it was sold out and passes weren't being passed out again till an hour from then, at noon. This means you basically choose the one of the three that you can maybe get a ride on in the morning and maybe at best you can get a second pass after waiting in the attraction pass lines for a large chunk of your day.

It had unintended consequences in the walking category. We got a pass to ride steel vengeance from 12 to 1, and it was just past 11 and we can't ride any major ride nearby, so we headed off to do some rides that were busy yesterday. Valravn. Problem is, its at the other side of the park. We do this and get a 15 min wait on Valravn. So before noon we had essentially lapped the park. We also ride corkscrew and then rush to get to Steel vengeance as it was now 1240. We wanted to get in line before they let the next group in but while the line was thinned out. This worked, line was only to the stairs. Now comes the next issue, fast passes. I get that they aren't sold right now but they were sold previously and they're allowing those people to completely avoid this pass in continuously ride all of these rides. They said my opinion is a huge miss they need to turn off all fast passes for these rides pretty much every train had at least two rows of fast passes making the line move very painfully slow because they only have half of the trains capacity. I get that they paid for it but it will be good next year when it's actually something that is a fair measure based on the amount of volume. For regular guests to basically have to choose which ride is the most important in order to maybe secure a ride on it with one action pass and others leisurely just walk on these rides is complete lunacy. 

 

After riding Steel Vengeance, we tried to get a ticket for maverick. It was about 120, and they said the next tickets wouldn't be available to get for maverick until 3pm. Again, not many rides near that area so we again had back towards the front of the park, to this time get some lunch and talk with guest services. By this time it was going on our second lap of the park and us going to have to lap it again to potentially ride maverick. We talked again with guest services about the setup and how it needs serious improvement and then headed back on the skyride because our feet were tired then walked the rest of the way to mavericks action pass que. We managed to secure one of the last tickets for the 6pm to 7pm time slot. At this point it was 3pm, we decided to go ride magnum (since gemini was down) and it was a great second ride. 30 min wait. People were either using fast passes or accessibility passes and it definitely made the line move slow.

 

After riding, we decided that we just needed to get some liquid and chill and relax in the shade in frontier City area. We used our drink passes and day at a bench chair in the shade, resting our feet from walking back and forth so much. We sit until 530. We then head to mavericks social distancing markers just outside the ride, and sit down. To our surprise, the ride attendant calls us up at 545 to get in line and we rip up the attraction pass and get in line. Yet again, see many people using fast passes. This really hurts the line speed and is overall not a good experience for anyone. These people have an advantage that you cannot buy and its causing others to suffer. About an hour later we get on maverick, and then head towards the exit. Talked with guest services again and went on our way home.

 

Takeaways:

 

Attraction Pass system is a joke, and needs to be part of your reservation or something else digital. Smaller parks like holiday world did it, you have zero excuses 

 

They knew Top Thrill Dragster and other rides wouldn't be open for the foreseeable future. They don't even have the social distancing markers or the trains even in a position on the track. No work happened while we were there  this should have been advertised to potential guests on the website.i would not have visited knowing this.

 

Breakers hotel guests and fast pass holders have way too much advantage this year to make anything of a fair experience for normal guests this year. This needs to be rectified. 

 

All this is subject to change per Cedar Point. undoubtedly they will tweak things to make a better experience for future guests. I would have said this was an ok trip knowing the anxiety it would cause and lack of open rides beforehand with notice vid online so it website or Facebook or Twitter, but alas there was none. And therein lies the problem. 

 

 

- Jon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm really getting tired of people on this forum bashing us Fast Lane users. We paid for a product Pre Covid. The park took our money. I bought all season chain fastlane last Aug for 850. Couldn't use it until yesterday. That is almost a whole year the parks had my money. If they had said nobody who bought them can use them then that is a huge lawsuit on their hands. If I pay for a product  in 2019 that is supposed to be good in 2020 and they said hey its not good till 2021 now that is breaking the contract. Rides like Orion would no longer be new a year later and therefor the fastlane bought would have less value. There was someone else on this forum on another forum complaining about some of us "abusing" fastlane by using it over and over. Well that is not abusing. Its paying for a product and using it as intended. Anybody could have bought these fastlanes last year or last winter.

 

The only problem I have is I guess people can still buy all season fastlane even though those were supposed to be limited and they were not supposed to be selling them at all this summer. People are now paying the 550/850 just to skip the lines on Orion. This is going to create a problem like the gold pass Cedar Point problem by overselling them and next year fastlane lines will be longer than they should be.

[Browntggrr]

^ You are taking it personal.  Don't.  This is a whole new World for everyone, including the park(s).  The park system as we used to know it under the current restraints will likely fail more than succeed.  I implore patience with park visits this year.

With all the uncertainties this year, every park should have eliminated their version of Fastpass/ Fastlane etc.  The park would have either made you whole for the money spent, or extended the Fastlane availability to 2021 (when hopefully everything is normal again). 

[SnakePlissken]

7 minutes ago, Browntggrr said:

^ You are taking it personal.  Don't.  This is a whole new World for everyone, including the park(s).  The park system as we used to know it under the current restraints will likely fail more than succeed.  I implore patience with park visits this year.

With all the uncertainties this year, every park should have eliminated their version of Fastpass/ Fastlane etc.  The park would have either made you whole for the money spent, or extended the Fastlane availability to 2021 (when hopefully everything is normal again). 

I would be happy with a fastlane refund plus interest. But just simply a refund or saying hey you can't use it in 2020 at all but its good for all of 2021. That isn't good enough. You are taking it personal by making the post I am replying too. I drove 2 hours to ride Orion yesterday for the first time and used my fastlane twice while I waited.  At 12:30pm Onion Mystic, Diamondback and Beast were still not running. So I left and drove back home. I had somewhere to be and couldn't stick around till pay close and hope the one new ride I drove there for opens. As of right now I don't know if I will be back to any Cedar Fair park at all this year or until things go back to normal next year. The masks restrictions, The slow lines and slow ops, the rides all being half closed at King's Island and Cedar Point and the mixed reviews of Orion make me think it may just not be worth my time. When my passes run out my money is going to a park like Holiday World who is handing everything so much better.

[flightoffear1996]

In all honesty Cedar Fair didn't have to legally give anyone thing. You buy a pass/ticket at your own risk 

[WoodCoasterManiac]

30 minutes ago, flightoffear1996 said:

In all honesty Cedar Fair didn't have to legally give anyone thing. You buy a pass/ticket at your own risk 

this. very much this. it is a difference to say you pay to wait 5 minutes instead of 60 minutes per ride, and to say you can ride it 6 times today when others wait 4 hours of their day to hope to ride once, at a time when capacity is cut to a third or so for most rides.  this severely affects the lines and overall structure they have in place.

[King Ding Dong]

21 minutes ago, flightoffear1996 said:

In all honesty Cedar Fair didn't have to legally give anyone thing. You buy a pass/ticket at your own risk 

Is that your expert legal opinion?  Can you site precedent?  It isn’t that simple. Just because a contract says something doesn’t make it so and binding.  Contract law is a large part of our legal code and case law.  Provisions in a contract must conform and courts can invalidate sections of contracts and routinely do.  Both parties are expected to make good faith efforts to honor the terms of the contract.  If one party does not or cannot all bets are off. 

As a practical matter even a Platinum Pass and Platinum FL+ are small potatoes in the world of litigation even though it doesn’t seem small to a individual purchasing them. 
 

CF is under a legal obligation to provide a service for payment received.  It is incorrect to say they have no legal obligation to provide a “thing”.  

[robintodd]

32 minutes ago, King Ding Dong said:

Is that your expert legal opinion?  Can you site precedent?  It isn’t that simple. Just because a contract says something doesn’t make it so and binding.  Contract law is a large part of our legal code and case law.  Provisions in a contract must conform and courts can invalidate sections of contracts and routinely do.  Both parties are expected to make good faith efforts to honor the terms of the contract.  If one party does not or cannot all bets are off. 

As a practical matter even a Platinum Pass and Platinum FL+ are small potatoes in the world of litigation even though it doesn’t seem small to a individual purchasing them. 
 

CF is under a legal obligation to provide a service for payment received.  It is incorrect to say they have no legal obligation to provide a “thing”.  

Whereas I agree with you there is also good faith effort to be considered which in my opinion they have made.  Plus the fact that the Platinum and FL+ holders are small potatoes and so would the amount of money they could put up for lawyers compared to what CF could fund.  Our legal system is always tilted against the middle class.  I the end they would probably just refund the money to those involved (minus any times used).

Bottom line is Cedar Fair went over and above what any other major chain did.  They did it first, and in my opinion, they did it best.  

[SnakePlissken]

54 minutes ago, robintodd said:

Whereas I agree with you there is also good faith effort to be considered which in my opinion they have made.  Plus the fact that the Platinum and FL+ holders are small potatoes and so would the amount of money they could put up for lawyers compared to what CF could fund.  Our legal system is always tilted against the middle class.

That is why class action lawsuits are a thing.

[robintodd]

21 minutes ago, SnakePlissken said:

That is why class action lawsuits are a thing.

And I've been involved in quite a few and never gotten what it was worth out of it because of lawyer fees. (PS3 comes to mind.  Thanks for the $20 bucks :))

[WoodCoasterManiac]

You guys talking about lawsuits and I just want a digital park reservation system at Cedar Fair parks and top thrill dragster to open...