Changes to Geauga Lake from being Six Flags

The hard seat backs aren't comfortable. That was the real reason that Hercules was so hard to ride, and part of the reason that Mean Streak is so hard to ride.

The trade-off with Gerstlauers is that they beat up your legs in the turns, which is why they're tolerable on Villain but absolutely sucked on The Legend.

hey Avalanche Sam, Im the guy with the Conneaut Lake Park shirt you talked to the today at Geauga Lake. Sorry I didn't tell you my username, I usually post at Zero-G Network and usually don't post here.

What rides do you work at? I am going to try to apply there again next year. Anyway, G-Trains on Villain are definately not good with all the turns. PTC's would be much better and CF will probably purchase them. The Villain strangely only ran one train today (8/6) which was fine because no one was there, just like it has been all year.

This may not be the appropriate place to ask this, but...

Have Mr. Hyde's Fear Fall and Head Spin been operating, and have rides been opening on time? During my visit (a Friday in July) rides were opening around 3:00 PM and Hyde and Head Spin didn't even open.

Just curious.

Just a note about Shivering Timbers. The way that coaster runs has absolutely nothing to do with Ms. Jourdan-Mark, (The VP) and everything to do with safety. The reason why the trains stop outside the station and stack is becuase the ride is programmed that way. You will never see it go THROUGH the final break run to the station. Also, if you notice, most of the time, the train in the station is ready to go WAY before the other train gets back. The operatior is required to wait for that train to enter the helix before dispatching the next train. You'll commonly hear in the operator say "There it is, and there you go, see you back here in 2 minutes and 45 seconds." (refering to the train entering the helix, then dispatching the next train.)

And why is this being brought up in a Geauga Lake thread?

MrScott

I would love to see some PTCs on RWB and the Villain for that matter. Anyway you shake it (literally) I'll never be a fan of those G-trains...

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Froshy said:

Have Mr. Hyde's Fear Fall and Head Spin been operating, and have rides been opening on time? During my visit (a Friday in July) rides were opening around 3:00 PM and Hyde and Head Spin didn't even open.

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I was at Geauga Lake on Sunday 8/8. Head Spin was running just fine. Hyde appeared to be down for the day, which was fine with me. One of my less-than-happy moments during the Six Flags occupation was waiting in line while they "fixed" Hyde, only to find out AFTER I got off the ride that it was not really in fact fixed. That scared the heck out of me. Needless to say, that was my last visit to the park until now.

Personally, I am thrilled that CF took over. Yeah, it's a shame that there are no animal shows any more for those that enjoy that kind of thing, but hey...if I want to see animals, I'll go to the zoo. It's cheaper and closer for me. I just want to RIDE.

Speaking of which, the lines were pretty much non-existant, with the exception of X-Flight. I waited a 1/2 hour in queue because they only had one train/loading station running. Still, a far cry from the wait times at CP (which is still my favorite park).

The park is MUCH cleaner and (gasp) I actually received smiles and pleasant greetings from most of the employees. There is still some work to be done, but overall, I am a very happy camper. Makes me think that if they offer a combined pass for both parks next year, I'll plunk down the extra money. It might actually be worth it.

Alesha

A few thoughts:

Wow, three trains on Batman??

Yes the original plan was to build a large cafeteria style restaurant in the central park of the 50's area to place the Rocket Ships on top. I don't know why it didn't happen, but i remember the troubles we had trying to make a round floor plan work. Anyway it has been a shame watching the ships rot away in various storage places around property grounds.

Isn't it true that the Rotors have been removed from most parks over time because of maintenance difficulties?

And I think this is the first time i didn't agree with the Rideman. And it's on the Lococos. Yes they (and the other two of the Funtime founders) were from CP, and they definately wanted to beat them at their game. But they definately didn't run their parks like CP. It is clear to me that they were perfectly content to let GLP coast along and make them a ton of cash with little to no capital investment. Just enough to hold the attendance steady.

Finally i definately think SFI priced itself out of its traditional market of blue collar, beer drinking folks who loved to go to the park because it was more affordable than CP (even if it wasn't a better value in my opinion). I remember that as late as 1999 we priced things like hot dogs for about a buck eighty-five, or a 20 oz for two dollars. Very competitive when compared to other summer venues. But with the flaggin came the gouging. I would bet dollars to dougnuts that CF would see much better and quicker results if they were to price that park in accordance to the percieved value of the park.

gener, I don't think we disagree as much as you think on the Lococos. I think they ran their parks in an effort to copy Cedar Point. But they didn't put the cash into the parks to do it right. My inclination is to think they didn't have the cash to really do it Cedar Point's way. The difference between us is that you assume the money was there but they didn't spend it; I'm inclined to believe the money wasn't there. Just like it isn't there now for Six Flags.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

I agree about the price thing. I'd be MUCH more inclined to go to Geauga Lake if I could get in AFTER something like a AAA discount for about $20 or so. The ONLY reason I went there under Six Flags's pricing is that the season pass made it a great deal, especially after they bought and fully utilized the Sea World side. But without the animals this year (and $5 more to boot on the pass price), I just didn't see the point. Yes, they lowered the regular admission by $5, but I still don't think it's worth it to me when I could go to CP for a few bucks more (and CP has a lot of coasters that I love whereas GL only has a few I like and even most of them I could take or leave. The shorter drive and maybe the water park is the only real incentive for me to pick GL over CP. For a lower price, I'd do it. But there is no way on earth that GL is worth only $5-8 LESS than CP.

For rides, there is NO comparison (even with all those new coasters SF added) and I think THAT is one reason why Six Flags did not do well with Geauga Lake. When it was still premier they must have been doing OK or they woulndn't have kept dumping money into it. I think it's when they tried to charge almost as much (within $1) of CP that they ran into problems as it was never CP caliber on the rides side to justify it. You had to want both a mix of animal shows and rides to get your money's worth, IMO. There was also no option for a lesser priced ticket to just visit the animal side or just the amusement side and I think the Sea World crowd would have liked it better if they could have just watched the animal shows for $10 less or something. I personally wouldn't want to see the sides separated again, but I can see how that could be frustrating (I don't remember what Sea World's pricing was the last several seasons it was still Sea World).

I personally think parking is starting to get out of hand at most theme parks. $8 to park at CP a couple of weeks ago? Sheesh. Between that and the two tickets I had to buy + gas at almost $2 a gallon, it cost me well over $100 for two people to go up there for a day. I miss the days when I could go to GL during Oktoberfest and cost about half that.

One, SW priceing was higher than GLP or even SFO i think. But it was definately about 10 dollars or more to get into SWO when it was still Geauga Lake. BEC definately didn't view themselves as a cheaper option.

Two, Funtime was making good money. GLP always did good numbers. We were the cash cow for Funtime and then again for Premier in the pre-six flags days. There were always full time bonuses (based on park preformance) (at least until 2001). And look at the type of investment made in Darien during the last decade of Funtime when compared to GLP. The money was there, but they didn't look to re-invest any more than they had to at GLP.

I guess that doesn't explain the Sea World crowd drop-off then, but certainly the price increase pitted SFWOA against CP and in that department, Six Flags / Geauga Lake isn't going to win on sheer rides, IMO. Sometimes, less is more. I kind of liked the old Geauga Lake better in some respects (less coasters, but more classic flat rides and considerably lower prices). I just hope they go for more general/family, flat and dark rides in the future and get some animals for next year. I need some reason to go there over another visit to CP and the coasters aren't likely ever going to do it, IMO. I think GL is Cedar Fair's chance to go in a different direction than CP's "more is more" direction (just look at all the talk lately about how people would like to see better service, more family rides, more classic and newer flat rides, more kids rides and some dark rides in the area (the areas CP overlooks more than other parks like PKI or KW).