Breakers bonfire

Miss_Maverick07 said:

The park then needs to go back to having separate prices for everything, like how it used to be, separate tickets for rides.

Why? Doing so would negatively affect the company's profits. Cedar Fair is a business.

This is also a benefit for people who may not be able to ride the big rides, like grandparents or just spectators with their families who may have a disability.

Why? Cedar Point offers a broad range of activities. Your focus may be riding "the big rides", but you are not everyone. Some people want to ride rides, some people want to play games, and some people are happy to just sit and relax.

The park is beginning to feel like it's a place that wealthier higher income people can go to feel important.

The park has always been a place that wealthier, higher income people go to. Amusement parks, by definition, are places that those with sufficient disposable income can enjoy.

Amusement parks are places to relax and spend quality family/friends time with each other.

Amusement parks are for-profit businesses that cater to self-identified groups of people.

Miss_Maverick07 said:

National/State parks are places to relax and spend quality family/friends time with each other.

Fixed that for you.

And City/County parks, if you don't have a car and can't afford greyhound.

Or there's your own back yard, even closer to home. And it comes with lawn chairs, hotdogs, s'mores, and a swingset.

Or for some people....this website.

Or Kings Island...where they have free fireworks every night and on the 4th of July!

But then you have to spend the whole day at King's island just to see the fireworks.

And that's a pretty long time to be there without getting bored and wanting to leave.

Miss_Maverick07 said:

15 to park in a lot is outrageous.

You've obviously never been to a sporting event. Or a major city.

Parking is a convenience. You have to leave your car somewhere, and it costs money to maintain the lots and parking structures.

I once paid $35 to park in one of the cheap, uncovered lots at PNC Park in Pittsburgh for a concert, and we still had to walk a pretty far distance to get to the gate.

You don't know how good you have it at Cedar Point. Aside from admission and parking, no one is forcing you to pay for anything else.

Chris49 said:

But in the newest interview that Walt posted today from the Sandusky Register roasting s'mores is listed as an activity on the beach!

There may be some confusion here... There are "open pit" natural gas fires for atmosphere and relaxation up by the hotel. They also have small campfires on the beach that you can enjoy while watching the Toes in the Sand Band during the Beach Blast. The s'mores are offered at the Beach Blast.

(Thanks for the photo Invertalon)

e x i t english said:

Parking is a convenience. You have to leave your car somewhere, and it costs money to maintain the lots and parking structures.

I think Miss_Maverick07 is right. $15+ is a lot of money just to park a vehicle. Anywhere. Convenience or not. A parking lot in downtown Cleveland has 50 spots available charging $10 for Indians games. It has 2 employees making approx. $8/hour for 6 hours. That lot fills up every game, so the net profit is $400. Multiply that by 80 games that's $32K for JUST Indians season. That doesn't include what they charge the every day downtown parkers or any other events in that area. (For the Cavs Finals they were charging $50)

Cedar Point has 5000+ spots (that's a low estimate). Subtract 1000 Platinum Pass holders, add in a few Preferred Parking suckers, $2K for employee pay (15 empl. @ $8/h for 12h) and that's around $60K profit when the lot is full. A DAY. Sure, we can knock that number in half for weekdays, but that's still plenty of money to resurface every lot in the park. And there's 110+ days in a season.

This is why I get a Platinum Pass. I've been to the park 10 times this year. The benefit is well worth my hard earned cash.

It all depends on how much convenience you want and how much you want to spend. There are also $25 and $30 parking spaces very close to the ballpark, not the mention the $50 parking spaces that were sold (and sold out) for the Cavs playoff games at the Q.

A flaw with the sporting venue analogy is that you can park farther away and simply walk more. At CP that's not an option.

Willijs3 said:

I think Miss_Maverick07 is right. $15+ is a lot of money just to park a vehicle... that's around $60K profit when the lot is full. A DAY.

Is profit immoral? I don't understand what your point is.

My point is that $15 is a lot of money just so I can leave my car somewhere.

I understand that it's a business, they can charge what they want, and people will pay it. But maintenance on the parking lot (and the causeway and all of the walkways inside the park) doesn't cost $2 Million each year. They can easily come down on their price. Captain Hawkeye above you said it, they are pretty much forcing you to to pay whatever they want you to pay and I don't agree with that portion of it. Which is why I don't pay for parking and I opt into the Platinum Pass.

What you don't understand is that the parking fee is a profit area, not just for maintenance of the parking lot. If they lower the parking, they will raise ticket prices or the price of other products in the park. They have certain revenue targets.

Take Holiday World. Do you think the sunscreen and soda is really free? Nope, the cost of those products is built into the ticket price. Everyone pays for sunscreen and soda whether they drink/use it or not. At Cedar Fair, the primary reason a Platinum Pass costs more is because they build the parking cost into the pass.

Remember, it's not as if CP makes a parking profit because they provide better parking value for the money--they make as much as they do because they have a MONOPOLY on parking on the point.

Some would say "them's the breaks," others would say it's unfair. C'est la vie

You could always park somewhere on the mainland and walk to Cedar Point to avoid the parking charges if you think it is that unfair of a price.

Also saying what the maintenance costs are or aren't per year is very misleading. When the time comes to re-surface the parking lot, roads, and concrete walkways inside the park the costs add up quickly.

The bottom line, Cedar Point is a business and they are there to make money, not give you things for free. If you do not like how much they charge for something then it is simple, don't go.

---> On topic, I find the bonfires to be quite nice. I like how you don't have to stay at the hotel to enjoy them.

Willijs3 said:

My point is that $15 is a lot of money just so I can leave my car somewhere.

Again, you've never been to a major city. Parking is mostly wasted space, so they have to charge something for it. Some places in NYC are in the $50+ rate for a day.

Besides, the money for the new rolly-coasties has to come from somewhere - not to mention the upkeep/infrastructure of the lot and roads and things outside of the park.

Would it be better if they just added the $15 to the admission price and advertised "free parking"?

Willijs3 said:

...but that's still plenty of money to resurface every lot in the park.

Why don't you go out and get a quote of how much it costs to resurface 64 acres of asphalt. Theres a reason you don't see freshly paved parking lots at amusement parks every few years, rather patches of new asphalt. Plus Cedar Point has to maintain 3 bridges that cross water, those are definitely not cheap. Plus the money from parking might not all go directly back to the parking lots and roadways itself. That money could pay for other capital improvements each year as well, like new sewer lines around property, painting of old rides, etc.

I am not trying to defend Cedar Point here, rather I guess I just understand in this case that the money is used for things and that it is not 100% profit just for the purpose of making money. Sure they have a monopoly on parking, a lot of parks do, but if they just wanted your money then the price would be a lot higher than $15. As others have said, its still a good deal compared to sporting events, city parking, and even other amusement parks. Hell, my option to park at a hotel I was staying while in downtown Chicago was $60 A NIGHT! A hotel I was already paying for, inside the hotels own garage where it was reserved for hotel guests...$60!