Cedar Point is still keeping its exact plans for 2017 under wraps, but it offered a clue on Tuesday when a giant flip-flop was mailed to the media.
The flip-flop simply says “Something’s afoot” and promises more details about the park’s plans for next season will be released Aug. 18.
Gone are the days when amusement parks simply announced a new attraction around Labor Day.
Announcements of major new rides at parks like Cedar Point are marketing events, with enthusiasts looking for clues on a park’s social media account and signage within the park months in advance.
Kings Island began teasing its new coaster for 2017 — the Mystic Timbers — not long after the park opened for the season.
Tweets speculating that something was happening in the woods in the park’s Rivertown section were an almost daily occurrence.
The park even encouraged its guests to ride its railroad to take a gander at the trees falling to make way for the new signature attraction.
The campaign — like Cedar Point’s flip-flop — culminated with a mailing of a child’s pickup truck with trees in the bed.
When the final announcement of the new attraction was made at Kings Island, thousands of guests gathered at the construction site within the park at closing time and others watched on a live stream on the internet. So many people clicked to watch it from home that the live stream crashed.
Cedar Point’s mailing of a flip-flop comes on the heels of another announcement that the Mean Streak roller coaster was getting the “ax” and would close Sept. 16.
Many amusement park observers speculated that the park’s 2017 new attraction would be a conversion of the wooden roller coaster — adding steel track and new elements like loops and inversions to mix with sections of the Mean Streak.
It now appears that project, if it goes forward, could be pushed to 2018 to give the massive undertaking enough time to be completed.
Speculation that the flip-flops mean an expansion for the Soak City water park has been fueled by last year’s removal of two attractions in the Challenge Park area located between the amusement park and Soak City.
The removal of the Skyscraper and go carts, which both charged a separate fee, opened up room for a water park expansion.
Soak City, which also requires a separate admission, opened in 1988 with 10 slides.
The last addition to the water park that now covers 16 acres came in 2012 when the Dragster H2O mat slide was added.
The water park now has five pools, 12 water slides and four children’s areas.
Cedar Point’s sister park Kings Island in Mason opened a major expansion of its water park this year.
Kings Island added the Tropical Plunge, a seven-story complex that has six water slides including three Aqua-Launch chambers where riders climb inside and the floor drops out below, plunging them 65 feet down.
Craig Webb can be reached at cwebb@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3547. Visit his Airtime blog on Ohio.com or Facebook or on Twitter @CraigWebb68.