Park Offsets High Gas Prices

Amusement Park Lowers Fee To Lure Cash-Strapped Patrons

(CBS)  Well they knew something was up here at the Cedar Point Amusement Park on the shores of Lake Erie. Most of the visitors drive here from four or five hours away.

With gas prices way up and attendance 4 percent down, the people who run the park did something they've never done before: cut the price of admission, CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod reports.

Never before really means something when you're talking about the second oldest park in North America.

But seniors and kids under three are now getting into Cedar Point for under $10.

"We can't give them free gas, but what we can do is reduce the price of the park to get in," says Cedar Point chief executive officer Dick Kinzel.

Marlene Smalley spent $25 more on gas driving here from Tennessee, but she's saving $35 bucks on admission.

"I was going to come anyway, but it sure is helpful to know I can stay over now," Smalley says.

Of course, the discounts don't help Kelly Mulinix, who's here with her family celebrating their daughter's 5th birthday. A shorter trip than she would have liked.

"Normally we would have been here a whole week," Mulinix explains, "but because gas prices and because we couldn't bring our camper with us, we had to cut down to only two days."

Well at least she's filling up in Ohio, which is averaging $2.57 for a gallon of unleaded regular, about the same as Pennsylvania, where we filled up this morning. It's 20 cents cheaper than in New York yesterday.

"$46 even. That gives us just a shade under 18 gallons," Axelrod notes as he fills his gas tank.

"That, by the way, was our second tank since leaving New York City. We're $100 in the hole and we're only halfway through Ohio," Axelrod adds.

Of course all this worry about gas prices you could always choose the Kozlowski family strategy: have fun now. Think about it later.

The family says it could affect them at Christmas time.