Geauga Lake letter on Website

Why not add more waterpark to te ride side?

It's a shame that it has to come down to this, but I saw it coming a couple years ago just by riding a few of the popular coasters. People hardly rode Dominator; it was walk on all the time. X-Flight a couple years ago was the only coaster people actually wanted to ride. What I mean by that is that X-Flight was they're key attraction. Steel Venom was also a walk on ride. You could pick any seat you wanted on that. The Villian is still a great ride, but it didn't fill up the queue either. Thunder Hawk is a nice coaster and that one actually had a line wait, just because it had a 2 train operation. Big Dipper will probably be scrapped even though It's part of ACE History. Head Spin now and days is boring to most people which is why you could ride that all day as well. So this sucks in a way, but if your not making money off it, why keep it?

I saw it coming. I have said for the past year now in all the GL topics that they are going to try and make it into a Schlitterbahn. CF finally listened to me. :)

I have dibs on the Cornhole Toss.

JuggaLotus said:

Jamie the Crazy said:
I know of a certain user on this site that will be absolutely devastated by this news.

Lemme guess, its VariousLatinos.

No.

Ok, maybe VerfiedLaziness.

No? Hmm.

Oh, I know. VillifiedLoser.

No again?

I'm stumped, who is it.

LOL. ;)
I'm surprised they haven't said anything yet.

I wish they would have announced which rides were being moved already. It will be interesting to see.

CPboy77 said:
Why not add more waterpark to te ride side?

Because there is more than enough land that they havn't even used still left from what was once Sea World.

bholcomb said:
Coasterdad - I assume you'll be submitting a domain name change request for wildwaterkingdomtoday.com? :)

Nah, instead of the site headlines being, "We remember: X-Flight" and "We remember: Steel Venom" it'll just be "We remember: Geauga Lake".

I bet Kennywood and Waldameer are doing cartwheels in thier front yards. Even the people that want Conneaut Lake are ecstatic I bet.

I live near Kennywood, and I think I heard firecrackers going off from that direction this afternoon.

Wow, just saw it on the news. Sorry Ensign, I know you enjoyed that park.

This is about the most dissapointing this i've heard since, well, since the Browns left town.

It's an absolute joke that they would acquire the property just to shut it down. Either it was the plan all along or they're just as innept as Six Flags. But if it was the plan all along it's even more dissapointing for me since they led people to believe that they were trying to keep it running.

There is absolutly no evidence that i've seen that they couldn't run the park as it was before the six flags years, sea world or no sea world. There's nothing wrong with the park or its rides, it's all in the management. And they did little to really move the park back to where it was before the worlds of adventure mess.

If you feel as strongly as i do make sure that you contact the company and let them know. I can't think that it would have any effect on the parks course of action, but they should know how large of a portion of the market they are alienating.

This is the article from ohio.com

The legendary Aurora amusement park Geauga Lake is closing.
that the 119-year-old park will coast off into the sunset starting with the 2008 season. But the water park will remain.
''After four years of operating Geauga Lake as a combined water park/amusement park attraction, we have concluded that its future should be entirely as a water park,'' said Dick Kinzel, the head of Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., in a news release.
He said that, as opposed to amusement parks, which depend on wide geographic areas to attract visitors, water parks typically draw well in the immediate vicinity. The water park has drawn well from the Akron-Canton, Cleveland and Youngstown areas.

^^ Other than the fact that they've been losing money ever since they bought it.
*** Edited 9/21/2007 10:32:43 PM UTC by Jason Hammond***

I guess my bulldozer comment was less sarcastic than some thought.

Im just glad i got to visit GL for the last time this year, Rest in peace Geauga Lake :'-(

My first and last Oktoberfest. I only have myself to blame for that one. I wish I had made it to more of them.

The closure of Geauga Lake's amusement side opens the floor for alot of questions about the future of this park, as well as Cedar Point.

Pertaining to GL, I am curious to see if/how the park gets rebranded. Since it is now just the waterpark, I suppose Cedar Fair will find a way to drop the "&" from "Geauga Lake & Wildwater Kingdom." My guess is GL will become something along the lines of "GL's Wildwater Kingdom" or "Wildwater Kingdom at GL".

I am also curious as to where the rides and attractions will be moved to, what the land will be used for in the future (expansion, subdivision, open space, etc?), and what will be done for longterm employees of the park who intended on working there for future seasons if the park had not closed (priority in regards to employment at other CF parks?).

As for Cedar Point, I am wondering how attendance will be affected and if any GL rides will be added in order to keep some of the attractions in northern Ohio.

Another point (I know it's alot of questions) I'd like to raise concerns the future of Soak City. Wildwater Kingdom is newer and closer to Cleveland, and if expanded further, may reduce admissions to SC. Also, with all the improvements to Wildwater Kingdom I'd have to wonder how long it will be until SC is due for a facelift.

Edited for spelling.
*** Edited 9/21/2007 11:00:56 PM UTC by flip_my_chips***

They've already made it Geauga Lake's WWK.

Someone on CB quoted a post they said was from Yahoo Finance that they let more than 50 year around employees go.

Link to Yahoo finance discussion

How would SC be affected by GL? It's the same park it's been for years and they have both been in operation.

SC has been due for a face lift for too long.

EDIT to add the link and correct my quoting.

*** Edited 9/21/2007 11:37:26 PM UTC by Loopy***

Certainly this will have no effect on Soak City. Soak City is as much a part of the resort draw as it is as a stand alone water park.

Jason Hammond, simply running a firm in the red is not any indication on its own that the business cannot be run for a profit. Believe it or not there are all kinds of businesses that are taken over by new management and the bottom line goes from red to black. It's called managing. And we've certainly seen a lot of bad management decisions at this property over the past six years.

Just because they dumped the animals and brought back the GL name doesn't mean that they really went back to the old management model of GLP. For those who care that model was 1) group/company picnics, 2) season pass holders, and 3) affordability. The key point they blew horribly was to make it affordable for those who can't go to CP. They also didn't seem to be doing much to draw the groups either. It's not like CP was ever known for their fantastic picnic offerings. IF it was an honest attempt, then it's clear to me that they made the same mistakes that SFI did.

I am curious as to what will be done with the "leftovers". I believe this is Cedar Fairs first time closing a park. Will the scrap everything leftover: rides, signs, collectables? Or will they have Nortons give collectors a chance?

coasterdad said:
Wow - who saw this coming? Jeff and Walts complete silence on the matter clinched it for me - ding ding ding.

It's 8:40 p.m. right now. I found out at 8:35 p.m.

I never really followed Geauga Lake. Outside of Rob, I'm not sure I really even know anyone who works out there. Our half day visit a few weeks ago was my first and only since Six Flags Ohio. Nothing against the park, I just have a pretty busy schedule and can't even get to Cedar Point often enough.