SANDUSKY, Ohio — Cedar Point visitors are sharing their frustrations after finding long lines, closed rides and understaffed areas during opening weekend at the Sandusky theme park.
One Twitter user, who goes by the name "mtgcommander_nyc," expressed his distaste for the acclaimed "Roller Coaster Capital of America," after he allegedly drove hours to the park only to experience "insane lines for everything."
"@cedarpoint needs to get it together. We drove across the country and paid hundred of $$ just to find most coasters closed and insane lines for everything, including food! For the second time we’re leaving a line after 45 minutes bc the coaster is down. Why did I pay for this?!"
He was not alone in his claims.
Hundreds of other tweets on the social media app share the consensus of the "nightmare" conditions within the park during opening weekend.
"@CedarPoint My daughter was starting to feel ill from low sugar," wrote one woman on Twitter. "Stuck in the 3rd ride of the day where it's broken down. Just miserable."
"#cedarpoint this is insanity. All lines for food," said one Twitter user on Saturday.
"Don't even get me started on the ride wait times WITH FAST PASSES for the rides that ARE working."
Similar to Twitter, Reddit users were not holding back their thoughts on the park's "disaster" of an opening weekend, with many begging the park to lower capacity, open more rides, and work to fully staff the park.
"They should NOT allow more guests in than they can accommodate. If you cannot give each guest what they pay for, lower the capacity," wrote one Reddit user on a Cedar Point opening weekend board. "Granted, it appears tix are lower than previous years, but people want reasonable lines, working rides, and decent access to food. I would pay normal tix price for that."
"How can opening weekend go so horribly? Been here since early access, have ridden 2 rides (maverick and gatekeeper) with FP+ and it seems like everything else goes down when we try to get in line or has been down from the start of the day," said another Reddit user. "The food experience is terrible as well, but more understandable with employment issues."
"I'm not expecting perfect everything, but having all of the top billed coasters down for significant amounts of time, with more than half of the food or drink stands closed, is not acceptable for the costs being charged. If I pay $120 for FP+ I expect to be able to actually use it for the plus coasters."
One Reddit user even told others on a thread that they "left the park for food," saying the lines were too long to wait in.
"All of the food and drinks lines are so long because there's only a few places open," confirmed Silverrainn on Reddit. "I get that they might be understaffed, but I'm not sure why they have people working the games instead of opening more freestyle stations."
3News reached out to Cedar Point Communications Director Tony Clark, who released the following statement:
"It’s a beautiful first weekend for Cedar Point and everything at the park is understandably popular as our guests are anxious to return to a sense of normalcy. Like many other businesses, we’ve adjusted our operation based on the current employment environment. As the season progresses, we anticipate opening more locations. The majority of our guests are enjoying our opening weekend, but we’re always happy to address guest concerns on an individual basis."
When asked to elaborate on the "current employment environment," Clark offered the following response:
Like businesses in our area, in Ohio and across the country, Cedar Point is not immune to hiring challenges. However, we’ve increased wages, enhanced employment incentives like a $500 sign-on bonus and introduced dozens of new full-time, year-round positions. We continue to recruit all year, just as we have in the past, and we will open more park locations as our workforce increases.
With new health guidelines coming out just this week and consumer confidence rising, visitation trends continue to evolve, and we will adjust our operation accordingly. We are committed to providing our guests the experience they expect from Cedar Point. We acknowledge that some guests may not have had the visit they hoped for, and we will work with them individually to make it right.