Park Review
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Sandusky, Ohio October 5, 2001 Josh, Nate, and Brian (AFLAC!) can all verify this one since they were with me, along with a couple of other guys. This was our pre-PPP park, and my one opportunity to visit Cedar Point, so I was extremely excited. Boy did they let me down. Talk about unbelievable! In addition to the complaints, I'll get into the rides a little bit too. We arrived at Cedar Point Friday night, when it was supposed to be open from six to midnight. When we left Wadsworth, OH (near Akron), weather was a little rainy but not bad. We got up to Cedar Point at about 6:15. Challenge Park is closed, but there are no signs saying anything about closed rides, the weather, or anything. I went up and paid my $24, and they certainly gave me the impression that everything should be open, even though it's raining. We started to walk around and realized that absolutely everything we are walking by was closed. Everything. We stopped at the Cedar Creek Mine Ride, which they were cycling, but still was closed. One of the ride operators got our attention and shook his head - closed and not going to open. That very quickly became the pattern of the night. After a bunch of walking, we finally found an open ride - the swings! We were so desperate already for a ride that we all hoped on. Afterwards we made our way around the park and finally found a coaster open!
IRON DRAGON- Arrow steel inverted coaster. We then walked around a little more and found one other ride open: Power Tower. I love these things, and we took a couple of rides on each side - both the turbo drop and the space shot. But at this point, I was also starting to get a bit upset, as were some of the other guys. By seven we realized they weren't opening much of anything. Power Tower, Iron Dragon, Cedar Downs, and the swings were the only rides that we saw open besides some kiddie rides. Only two of their haunted houses opened, which I couldn't care less about anyway. Otherwise, absolutely nothing was opened. Thirteen coasters all closed!! So, after a quick ride on the incredibly fun Cedar Downs (like a merry-go-round, but the horses go forwards and backwards, too) I go to park ops to complain. First thing out of their mouth when I walked in the door: "No refunds or rain checks." Excuse me? Then while I'm standing there they make the decision to close at 9pm instead of midnight. They absolutely refused to offer me any compensation in any way at all, in spite of the fact that there were no warnings posted on the outside, no indications that everything would be closed, and in short ripped me off my $24. Worse, at 7:30 as we're walking out the park, they are still charging people $24 to go into a closed park for an hour and half. Talk about ripping people off! Just to contrast, we went to Six Flags Worlds of Adventure Sunday, and just missed them being open. They closed two hours early due to weather, light crowds, and I'm betting due to our attacks taking place, though they didn�t' say that. So they lost two hours out of a 12-hour operating day that had everything running (we could see coasters running as we pulled in). Every single person that walked out of the gates was given a pass for a free admission. Every single one! For losing only two hours and having had every ride open. Cedar Point couldn't do that for 1/2 their day and no rides open. Additionally, I was given a free return pass at Six Flags Marine World when I visited and V2 wasn't running. A free return for one coaster being closed. CP couldn't do it for twelve being closed. Sorry, but it's sad when Six Flags customer relations makes Cedar Point look like it really bites the big one! I'm sending in complaints and letters, but after that crap I got there, I doubt they'll do anything. They almost seemed like they enjoyed sticking it to the people that walked in the gate. I was extremely disappointed after hoping to get in rides on what are often called some of the top coasters around. Looks like I'll never know for sure now. Thanks, Cedar Point, for a lousy way to start the trip.
Now if only the poor guys in park ops had the discretion to do that in the first place. Oh well, it was nice getting the phone call, knowing my voice was heard, and having them do what they could to make it right. At least now if I ever manage to get out there again I'll consider visiting Cedar Point :-) Hehe.
Keep on ridin'
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