Opened in 2019, the Forbidden Frontier on Adventure Island was marketed as an experiential attraction. Guests had to come over and partake in the island to truly walk away as a rewarding and worthwhile experience.
Entering from the Frontier Trail, guests walked a long path to eventually get back to the set pieces including a fort, farm, camp and “highground” playground. Once you finally made your way back there, guests had restrooms and a dining facility that offered great promise when it opened.
Throughout the day, guests encountered anywhere from 10-20 actors responsible for acting out a storyline that included everyone doing their part to advance the narrative.
Parents often loved Forbidden Frontier for the Highground, giving kids the chance to run free on the playground while often catching a relaxing chair in the tree covered shade.
Forbidden Frontier also included a new ground-up quick service restaurant called Provisions. When the place first opened, many guests said one of the best meals in the park were had at this dining establishment with the shrimp and steak skewers. There was even unique panini sandwiches and a Buckeye Fizz drink that made guests go crazy when first introduced.
Following the 2019 debut season, Forbidden Frontier showed promise. We spent many days over there, letting our family get lost in the storyline, interacting with character actors, and enjoying the food.
Then of course Covid happened in 2020, limiting access to live entertainment and Forbidden Frontier. This included the reveal of and expanded storyline with the new Snake River Expedition, which had a delayed opening until 2021.
When Forbidden Frontier and Snake River Expeditions finally opened together, it provided a great opportunity for a new kind of entertainment. While Snake River always had a long line, interest in Forbidden Frontier began to wane.
The first nail in the coffin of course had to do with the pandemic itself. Told to stay away from other people, the interactive and up-close nature of the exhibit surely kept some people away.
Second was that despite initially hinting at a revolving storyline, investment was not really made into changing things not only throughout the season, but also from year to year. It sort of became the once you have done it, no need to do it again camp.
Third, the park quickly dropped staffing Provisions until all other locations were manned. Of course staffing has been a concern for Cedar Point for a long time, but the pandemic and lack of work force, including international students exacerbated the problem. While many guests with dining plans would venture into Forbidden Frontier solely for the purpose of grabbing the steak and shrimp skewer meals, trying to decide whether it was worth the trek was often a factor. In 2021, Provisions did not open until July 3 despite Forbidden Frontier opening June 11. In 2022, Provisions did not open until late June; Forbidden Frontier opened June 6.
Lastly, as hinted above, access to the Forbidden Frontier was severely lacking and was one of the ultimate deciding factors to its demise. Cedar Point planners made the decision to only be able to enter the island via the Frontier Trail. This was like putting milk at the back of the grocery store; Cedar Point made you walk a long distance from the park entrances to get to the island. For the target audience, likely many with strollers, this was an undertaking.
The park went to great extents to add a walkable elevated pathway that would traverse the water and go over the Snake River Expedition boats. However, they should have added a secondary access point from Camp Snoopy.
Your target audience is already there, enjoying the kid rides and characters. Guests are also getting onto the boat ride around the island. If you had a secondary access point to Forbidden Frontier, it would have made walking all the more easier for guests.
Thinking back, access was probably the biggest factor for our family actually going back to Forbidden Frontier. It was not the actors or lack of new storyline, because we loved seeing the people that brought the story to life. Visiting the attraction meant a lot of extra walking because of only one entry. When it came to food, going way out of the way to visit Provisions was not high on our priority list, especially with so many better options throughout the park.
Ultimately, while we are sure foot traffic was likely down to Forbidden Frontier, Cedar Point deciding to close Forbidden Frontier in 2023 is also a cost cutting measure. We are already seeing live entertainment being trimmed back at various Cedar Fair properties for 2023. This is a continuation of that measure.
In 2022, Forbidden Frontier operated June 6-August 14, or a total of 70 days. Lets assume it takes 20 people to operate the rafts, Highground and all the actors. The island was open noon to 7 pm each day, but lets assume 8 hours due to prep and closure. While the starting rate was $15/hour for new hires, lets assume most of them returned from the 2021 season and were still making $20/hr.
That means in labor costs, it cost Cedar Point roughly $400/hr or $3200/day to operate Forbidden Frontier.
By comparison, a major roller coaster in the park takes say 10 people to operate? Of course roller coasters are always going to be a major driver of foot traffic, but you can quickly see from the parks perspective, for half the number of operators, they can run a coaster (or man a food stand or gift shop).
We fully expect to see a lot of cost cutting measures taking place in 2023 despite Cedar Fair showing record EBITDA for the year with a slight decrease in attendance compared to 2019 pre-pandemic levels. We think the cuts may have to do more about the future trending patterns of the economy versus their current state.
Regardless, Forbidden Frontier has ultimately met its demise, and for that we are sad to see it go. Had some better decisions been made about its implementation, maybe we could have seen the program grow and continue to pull guests in off the midway.
It should be noted that the park has acknowledged that the Forbidden Frontier area will not be used for the reimagined Top Thrill Dragster.
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I agree that the walk to get to Adventure Island was not favorable, but we made it quite often. My kids were regulars on the island, they knew all of the actors and they all knew my kids. I believe that CP did a poor job advertising this area. There were only a few small posters up but not a single explanation of what forbidden frontier was. How are people supposed to know where it was and what the purpose was if nothing is told to them. Such a shame that all of those great actors are losing jobs and guests are losing a great entertainment piece.
I agree, our first trip back there was a bit confusing, my boys liked the playground and digging in the dirt but it was about the third trip we got into the story.
Eventually we brought grandpa back with us and told him how cool it was, he almost got into a fight with Julian since he thought he was a weirdo bugging him while checking out a walkthrough thing.
Anyways if Otis, Julian, luca or Amelia read this thanks for a fun few years we had a blast and happy truce day.
I personally haven’t ever been to Forbidden Frontier but it sounded cool from the story,I think that if Cedar Point did more advertisment for Adventure Island, then it would have stayed longer.
So disappointed with Cedar Point for closing this unique attraction. My kids loved the actors and us parents loved the rest with a cool beverage. With this and the museum still being closed, there is no quiet chill-out space really left. Big mistake Cedar, BIG mistake!!