Another Reason to Scream in Both Parks?

I was wondering yesterday if CF will host Halloweekends at both parks or have something different at GL to give added value to Northern Ohio to visit both parks in the fall??

I stated in another thread that I believe at CF will market GL mostly to families with young kids. Maybe CP will have a Halloweekends for teenages and up and GL will have more of a Trick-or-Treat style Hallowwekends geared for young children and families. What do you guys think??

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Final 2003 counts:
Millennium Force Laps: 9
Magnum Laps: 9
Raptor Laps: 7
Trips to CP: 10

That isn't a bad idea. In Orlando Universal does the full out Halloween in all its gore while the Magic Kingdom has Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween. There are certainly different crowds attracted to both.

I think Octoberfest at Geauga Lake used to be a great event and kind of stood on it's own. I don't know if you really need a Halloween event there.

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"You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world...but it requires people to make the dreams a reality."

I honestly don't understand why everyone is jumping on the bandwagon of moving everything family-oriented from CP to GL. Why cut out your largest customer base - families - from your flagship park? That makes absolutely no sense, even when it comes to Halloweekends.

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2003 - Wicked Twister Crew
2004 - Wicked Twister Crew

Yeah, I don't agree with that either. Cedar Point will continue to be Cedar Point. Geagua Lake will be what it is. The parks will autonomous. Cedar Point is one of the most successful amusement parks in the world. Why change what works?

Besides, they are still two hours apart. It's not like Geauga Lake is across the street. While Geauga Lake shares a portion of Cedar Point's market, Cedar Point's market is much more reaching. People coming in from Indiana or Michigan aren't going to make that choice.
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Walt Schmidt
Virtual Midway

Either way, I don't see the marketing potential in having two Halloweekends 2hrs. apart from each other. The Old World Oktoberfest is a strong possibility that I did not consider, and might even be better.

Gravity said:
I honestly don't understand why everyone is jumping on the bandwagon of moving everything family-oriented from CP to GL. Why cut out your largest customer base - families - from your flagship park? That makes absolutely no sense, even when it comes to Halloweekends.

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I think people are on a bandwagon about GL being family oriented because more than half the park tends to be geared for young children. Plus, GL is alot smaller (minus the Sea World area) than CP which makes it better for small children who tire easily from walking.

I have to disagree with Gravity on CP's biggest customer base being families. Most of the people I see roaming the CP midways on a typical summer day are either teenagers (12-18) or young adults (18-35) or older. Families with young children not yet able to ride big rides are hard to come by at CP. Most of the families that do go to CP and stay at the resorts all have older teenage kids in the group.

My brother just this last summer took his 10yr. old son to CP for the first time since he is now tall enough (and primed enough on GL's smaller coasters) to ride the big rides. Before then, he always took him to SFWoA since it had more for his son to do not being tall enough for large rides.

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Final 2003 counts:
Millennium Force Laps: 9
Magnum Laps: 9
Raptor Laps: 7
Trips to CP: 10
*** This post was edited by Vince79 3/12/2004 5:21:15 PM ***

There might be more teenagers/young adults, but it's the families that pump up the per-capita spending. When I went to parks in my 20s, I'd drive out and back in a day, and pack a big cooler with food and drinks. I *might* get one order of fries, maybe a hat.

Now, it's three nights on-point, two meals times four people per day in the parks, a stack of on-ride photos every year ('cause the kids change every year), shirts, hats, games, etc. etc. etc.

You need a *lot* of people who buy tickets at a discount and drink lots of icewater to make up for losing even one family.

IMO Fright Fest at Six Flags was much better than Halloweekends at Cedar Point. The theming was always better, it was more scary, and it seemed like there was always more to do. Plus, all the rides were open.

Mr Noble, I second that.

When I was younger, We would get up at 4 in the morning and make the 5-5 1/2 hour drive to the Point, ride all day (and into the night) and then make the drive back to West Michigan.

We only did that twice. It hurt too much.

Then came the tent camping years. That God awful train in the middle of the night, the Drive Thru Party Store, the 3/2 Beer, the watered down vodka for Screwdrivers.

We only did that twice. It hurt more.

Ah, the inexpensive hotels of downtown Sandusky.

We did that once.

Cedar Point Resorts. We did that once a few years ago. Never went any other way since. More expensive? Yeah, it is. But it is worth it.

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"If we go any faster, she'll blow apart for sure!"

being a server, i can attest to families spending more money in the park. Atleast at Johnny Rockets.

The typical table of 4 teenagers will order 1 pop and 3 waters, 2 or 3 burgers, and maybe a fry.

Whereas with a family, each person will get a drink, burger and fry.

Not to mention families are usually bigger than just mom, dad, and 2 kids. The grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, friends, etc. usually come along.

And they stay at CP resorts.

If they made no other changes to GL other than cleaning the park up and running it to CP standards... they'd make their investment back in 10 years. And it would only help both parks with more repeat visits from season pass holders.

The only thing worse than competition from rival park 2 hours away is competition from a park you own 2 hours away.

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:james
magnum crew 2002
johnny rockets 2003, 2004