Closed Early?

Just curious if anyone knows why GL closed early this year and is not having any type of Halloween event. Does this have to do with CF taking over and perhaps they are thinking about where to go in the future with the park?

It's not a very good sign for a park that is trying to revive itself.

Is GL really hurting that bad? When I went there this year, it was really packed. That is too bad to hear that. I hope they rebound and fast! I really think that park has tons of potential.

All the negativity here surprise me. I visited the park about five times last year, I thought it was in great shape and the water park was very popular and nice.

Reduced operating days are simply a cost cutting measure to move to improve the park's bottom line. The water park is what brings people in, not early May or Fall operations.

I bet the average daily attendance was better this year than last. And, it'll improve again next year as the word gets out about how nice the water park is from all the people that enjoyed it this year.

I see a good future ahead for Geauga Lake, I think all the doom sayers will be surprised.

I really hope I'm surprised, but when they lost the trust of the unions, they lost a HUGE chunk of their market. It just hasn't been the same since.

I really want to see the waterpark thriving. The first thing it needs is the swim-up bars. :) The 2nd? The "vertical" slide with the "double downs" beside it most definitely need to come back in some form.

Oh how wrong you are. The unions weren't THAT much of a draw, granted they had their picnics here, but there are camps, picnics, Progressive, and Cleveland Clinic coming back. Did the unions affect them? NO! The park is in a good state right now. People are coming back again. The word is out there about our park. But I feel that the word isn't getting out to more than just the Enthusiast community. I was talking to people from Illinois who never even knew our park existed. So people are coming back again so doom-sayers be suprised!!!! *** Edited 9/22/2006 8:10:43 PM UTC by Villainboi***

Then explain to me why attendance went down so fast when the unions decided to stop having their company picnics at GL/SFWoA or whatever it was when that happened.

Actually, 2004 is the year attendance went to the pits. It wasn't until after they announced WWK for 2005 that the Unions boycotted due to them having no part in the project.

Then, over this last off-season, after discussions with the park, some of those very same Unions were involved with the Tidal Wave Bay project. So some broken ties had to of been mended.

The park was much busier this year than the previous 2. Literally visably much busier. It was no question in the difference of attedance compared to years past.

Sorry, but until GL does something about that Rest Room / Changing Room disaster I'll never rank the water park very high. Give me a good old locker room any day over the stupidity they have there now.

Not only did Geauga Lake close early for the 06 season but according to the GL web site opening day 07 is set for Memorial day weekend! Whats next, they open mid June and close end of July? This is not a good sign.

Sadly, I'm not all that surprised.

It's not a bad sign at all. GL has a great product in their waterpark and just about everyone at the park is there for it. They ride the rides, too, but the waterpark is the attraction. Having the park open only when the weather is suitable for visiting a waterpark makes a lot of sense. That time happens to coincide with the time that is easiest to recruit staff and attract guests. It's not a sign that they've given up on the park, but rather that they are willing to try new things to perfect its operation. I think CF is doing a great job with GL, even though it is a slow process.

They are not having a halloween event due to Cedar Point having one. Its been like this since Cedar Fair bought it. I think they looked at the numbers for GLs and saw that Cedar Points had more people and went with closing GL early. That and Cedar Point being a hr away they felt no use for GL to have a halloween event too. The only park that closes early but opens back up in oct. is Kings Island. I know that when Six Flags owned GL it was the worst park i been to and when Cedar Fair bought it, it was one of the best i been to.

If there's no use for GL to have a Halloween event when CP is only an hour away, by the same rationale why have an amusement park when the Point is only an hour away? This goes to the heart of previous comments I've made about Geauga Lake becoming redundant. I'm not at all pleased that the focus is shifting almost entirely to the waterpark and away from the rides. If I want to get wet, I'll turn on a sprinkler.

Well, there are millions of people in Wisconsin (and several other cities in the US) that don't share your opinion. So, it would appear that CF doesn't really care what you think.

GL's Haunt was great.....In my opinion, I think that their Fright Zone was better then CP's.

dj, I'm not sure I really understood your response. What does Wisconsin have to do with it, other than it's not a city?

Also, I never stated that Cedar Fair cared one way or the other what I thought. It would be ridiculous of me to think otherwise. All I was doing was spouting off about my pet theme: amusement parks closing or curtailing operations. This is a legitimate grievance on this forum. So why the curt reply?

I'm pointing out that its irrelevant whether or not you think using the water park as the main draw is intelligent. If it works, then it works - its as simple as that.

Wisconsin Dells

Okay. Gotcha now. Yeah, you're right, waterparks seem to be very much the in thing right now, and will probably only increase in their popularity for the foreseeable future. I don't have to like it, and I can post my opinion to that effect. And of course you can respond that it doesn't matter what I think, which could probably be said about 90% of the posts on this site.

It's cool. :)
*** Edited 10/16/2006 6:44:18 PM UTC by Ensign Smith***