Cedar Fair buys SFWoA

*sarcasm* Everytime I ride Disaster Transport I come off saying "WOW, REALLY REALLY Great Theming" *end sarcasm*

Yeah, personally I don't like theming. I usually pay more attention to the ride than the theming zipping past me. Theming might be more important if every ride went slow enough to actually enjoy the themeing. But then we would have Top Thrill Snail instead of Dragster. I'm all about letting a ride speak for itself.

As for that gift shop you exit through, I've never seen the building or location, but I can imagine that being a prime location for collecting on Ride photos. And if there already is an on ride photo for Batman, that could probably turned into a gift shop/stand for the ride. Just a small switch there. Ala Woodstock Express like.

------------------
- Chris -
*** This post was edited by Flisk 3/11/2004 9:43:32 AM ***

This topic really exploded with posts these two days! Wow! Anyway, I never really wanted to go to WOA due to the bad reviews I read. Now CF took over this the park should be better so I'll make it a priority.

------------------
Opening Day - May 8, 2004 :) It's coming

Keep Arms Down, Head Back, and Hold On!!

This thread is going all over the place so let me sum up what the Cedar Fair conference call and questions were all about yesterday:

1. Season Passes - as mentioned current pass holders can ask for a refund, Cedar Fair passes would not be good this year at GL, but likely in the future.

2.Animal Park - animals were not part of the deal, CF will not be operating an animal park (not our area of expertise said Kinzel). It's possible some of that land would be sold.

3.Management-the one Cedar Fair manager (Bill S..) will go there and oversee the current SFWOA management staff, permanent employment staffing issues will be dealt with later.

4. Part time staff- Still a big need, CF will hire some younger summer employees just as it does in its other non-resort parks.

5. Water Park - Will be renamed (Hurricane Harbor is a six flag name) and WILL NOT be a separate admission.

6. Current Rides - some with Warner Brother names will have to be renamed, no deal was made for WB rights, Kinzel thought this could be done by opening day. He said all rides would be inspected but that he thought all would open with the possible exception of the Enterprise ride (didn't give a reason for that).

7. Local Motels - A lot of questions from local hotel/motel owners worried their business would go down as GL will no longer be a double park. Many of the hotels have arrangements with SF. Kinzel said they will look into possible arrangements and their concerns, in fact, was setting up a meeting with these motel owners.

8. Campground- Mentioned up grades of the campground were a good possibility.

9. Finances- Will pay for deal with current lines of credit, but exactly what arrangement, not yet known. Some concern about Cedar Fair paying nine times the operating income from last year for the park.. Other parks purchased more like four or five. CF not concerned, last year was down year at SFWOA and obviously CF thinks they could do better.

Thats what I remember, it was very interesting despite the morons from the press asking about season passes over and over again.

Yes, the gift shop that the coaster currently known as BKF empties into is also the on-ride photo shop. The shop can easily be changed over to reflect the ride's new name, or, the park itself.

On a side note, the coaster emptying into a gift shop is not a new thing- Disney makes it common practice, and PKI has done it as well (King Cobra, anyone?). On a lesser note, so does Cedar Point... ever notice the cart of collectibles at the exit of Millennium Force?

On the subject of animals- taking over and running an animal park would be a giant step over Jungle Larry's Sarfari and Oceana. Especially in this day and age when every aspect of these animals is critiqued by the animal watch groups. Look what Six Flags went through to get Shouka, their killer whale. It's a lot easier to get over bad press and publicity announcing you don't want to have an animal park, than taking the animal park over and then having an, "accident." Sadly, then, your park may be, "labeled," for life.

---

I have never ridden a rollercoaster and had my first words at the end of the ride be..."wow, what great themeing."

---

Space Mountain? I think my first words were "that was cool" so it doesn't quite count, but it's not cool because of the thrilling ride. It's cool because it's in Outer Space!
*** This post was edited by Brian Noble 3/11/2004 12:34:34 PM ***

When I first saw this topic I though it was a joke. Then I read into it and found out it was true. This is a great thing that will only help GL. The only bad things that might happen is if they redo Big Dipper and Raging Wolf Bobs like they redid Blue Streak. New air brakes, seat cushions, seat dividers, and operational changes would ruin those two coasters. Leave those two as they are and change everything else and I would be happy.

------------------
Cedar Point Googlism

Mozilla may have taken two years to reach v1.0, but it is more stable and secure than IE will ever be.

Monster, having operated both of those rides I will agree that it would be awful but I am afraid it is inevitable.

------------------
"You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world...but it requires people to make the dreams a reality."

As far as the enterprise ride possibly not opening, I am guessing it has to do with the release handle on the cage/car door. At cp unless you have VERY long arms it would be incredibly difficult to open your own car. At some parks the same ride has a handle which is much more easily accessed and could possibly be opened by a rider. That's just my guess though.

------------------
Rides 2001
Guest Services 2002
www.veronicaspreciousgifts.com

Someone asked if they had pepsi products at all the C.F. parks... answer: Yes, as far as I know. In fact at Worlds of Fun, they had the same vending machines that are at Cedar Point, with the 4 cedar point coasters on them (corkscrew, magnum, Milennium force, and I foget the other one, I think it's raptor, but I'm not sure)

------------------
Arms down.....Arms down.....Arms down.......Arms down.....Arms down....Arms down...(you think they would get it the first time?!)

2003-TTD-15 Rollbacks-1
2004- Demon Drop (first year)

Well, I'm not sure I ever thought I would see a section called Geauga Lake on the GTTP website.

Jeff, did you set any records on Coasterbuzz yesterday?

------------------
"You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world...but it requires people to make the dreams a reality."

Wow! Me too.
------------------
cyberdman

As Bugs Bunny sometimes says, "Eh, if you can't beat them, Join them!"

------------------
"Let's Ride!" ~ Nicholas Cage from Gone in 60 Seconds

hmmm so much to say... this is coming from a former SFWOA employee who jumped ship to go to Cedar Point. Don't get me wrong Ilove that park, and everything about it, expcept for the Six Flags name and some of the full time employees it produced! It will be sad to see the wildlife side gone but its been unsuccessful for quite some time, so why continue to beat a dead horse? But on crazy days I was glad to work over there it was so peaceful and instead of hearing the screams from rides you'd hear laughter from kids feeding the smelly flamingos and ducks.. It was a nice change every once in awhile.

Needless to say i think this is the best thing that could happen to that park, I think Cedar Fair will do great things with it, and it will be successful!

Oh yeah and the enterprise/witches wheel I'm assuming was the Sliver Bullett and its been down since last year...i think the rumor was that one of the cars flew off during a morning test run, and landed in Geauga Lake and they've been waiting for someone to put on a scuba suit and fight the mongral carp to get the car back... just kidding but it sounds better than whatever reason its really been non operational for the past year!!!

------------------
dont do what makes you money, do what makes you happy!

---

Lord Gonchar said:

---

Shane Denmark said:
Chew on this for a minute. If SixFlags season passes are accepted at CP this year, how crowded are those midways gonna be? The SF passes are dirt cheap.

---

Well, that just doesn't make sense. Why would CP suddenly accept SFGAdv or SFMM or SFDL passes because they bought Geauga Lake?

There's no logic there at all.

------------------
Coasterimage.com

---

I meant SFWoA specifically. Moot point though, since the season pass scenario has already played out.

------------------
But then again, what do I know?

I personally don't see why they would want to sell land. I know Cedar Point doesn't have a land problem, but I think Cedar Fair should keep the Geauga Lake land. Although they may have something better in mind. It might be nice to make a forested midway like the Frontiertown of Cedar Point.

I think it would be nice to have some animals at the park. Maybe not as much as SF used to have, but still use the animal infastructure that is already there. Regardless of if Geauga Lake keeps the animals or not, I trust they will make the best choice to attract the most people to the park.

First I will say that I am glad CF will be restoring Geauga Lake to a quality park. I loved going there as a kid, but as the neglect and lack of decent employees took over, the park was not enjoyable anymore.

I will be glad to see clean bathrooms there and emptied trash cans.

Good Luck to the people who will oversee GL's success. They have their work cut out for them, but I'm confident they can do it.

Commenting on the ride exits into gift shops. Disney and Universal do this on very attraction they can. Its catching you on your emotional enjoyment of the ride increasing your odds of buying something.

I've been to other SF parks and asides from their ride efficiency, the parks were pretty clean and well kept up.

I'd like to see Coke stay but Im sure Pepsi is eager to work something out fast to solve that problem.

Wow, look at all the transition that needs to happen here! Ride names, shows, animal side, extra charge for the water park, removal of theming. This will be a big transition!

------------------
Blue people fly sideways when it rains....

I'm still bothered by Sea World leaving in the first place. The notion that that kind of a park couldn't survive in the so-called mid-west seems absurd to me. There were only 4 of them operating in the entire U.S. with the closest one being 1200 miles away. It was packed every time I ever went there and was always a fun day and a nice change. Kinzel might want to re-think his strategy. You're bringing back Geauga Lake.....Hire the experts and bring back Sea World under Sea-der Fair.
------------------
I was super before Superstew was cool!

Sea World was not successful here - at least not during the final years. There's a reason they sold the park. If, at the end of the day, Busch couldn't make it work, what makes you think Cedar Fair could?

------------------
Walt Schmidt
Virtual Midway
*** This post was edited by Gemini 3/12/2004 8:44:26 PM ***

---

Travis said:
extra charge for the water park,

---

They already stated in the conference call that they will market it as "two parks for the price of one" and will not charge a seperate fee for the waterpark.

------------------
2003 Season Visits: 42 Dragster: 27 Rollbacks:0