GL Bag Search/Unattended Bag Questions

I excercised my CP Combo Pass benefit of free adission to GL and headed to Aurora with my two young sons for the first visit to GL in about ten years today.

In a nutshell:

I was impressed by the cleanliness and variety of attractions at the park. As far as rides: Enjoyed a rough ride on Raging Wolf Bobs, which reminded me of my many rides on Rye Playland's Dragon Coaster in my youth; we enjoyed back-to-back walk on rides of Thunderhawk, which kind of reminds me of CP's Raptor. My GOES status & 54" chest preclude me from riding Raptor, so it was especially enjoyable to ride Thunderhawk with my sons. Then came a couple of great walk on rides of X-Flight. We had never been on a ride like this, and BOY were we thrilled by this ride. We then headed to Wildwater Kingdom, and were very happy we waited through the 30 min. wait for Liquid Lightning-another great ride.

Enough of the trip report, and now to my questions:

When we entered the Wildwater Kingdom Gate, my big ugly yellow Gym bag, which has been through the CP & Soak City turnstiles at least 100 times without a second look from any park employee, was physically searched by a uniformed & armed Police officer. I had some Goldfish crackers & a few Diet Cokes along with the towels & sunscreen, but he didn't seem concerned & let us pass. My question is: do they always search incoming bags at GL? There were very few people entering at the time of our arrival, & the officer did check the bags of the teenagers in line in front of us. Still, it was a little uncomfortable.

Second question:

When we took our rides on Thunderhawk, I left the ugly yellow bag on a bench outside the Midway entrance to the ride (I am much too cheap to pay for a locker). When we emerged after the rides the bag was gone. I went to Guest Services at the GL entrance, & lo & behold, there was my bag.

Guest Services explained that bags left in the open for more than 15 minutes are brought to lost & found to prevent them being stolen. Is this true? Sounds like a load of crap to me. If someone is going to steal my bag, they're not going to wait around for 14 minutes to swipe it, they're going to grab it as soon as they see me getting on a ride.

Anyway, we had a great day at GL, until the rains came at 6PM. I'd love to visit GL more, but a 250 mile round trip means $25 in gas, plus parking.

GOES

I signed up just to post in this thread...

But anyway, something similar happened to me also. While at WWK, my friend bought a locker. Both out bags wouldnt fit, so i just put my important things in with his locker (camera, wallet) And left my bag with just clothes and watch on the chair (my sandals were also under the chair). This turned out to be a mistake. When we came back to grab a bite to eat, everything was gone. It was extremely strange, and we told a worker about it, and they called a police officer over. they had me file a police report, and told me to check with the missing bag place. Nothing was there, and I thought, "Im not going to let this ruin my day" So we went and had more fun, when we came back, we checked with the bag place again, and there it was, EVERYTHING WAS THERE. They seemed to think it wasnt stolen, and was removed by a worker. I still dont understand why, and what you said that they said doesnt really make any sense either.

I bet they search bags at GL just because it is so close to Cleveland, and the perception that a big urban area equals more potential problems.

They do the same at Jacob's Field in Cleveland.

Geauga Lake has probably had more than it's share of troubles over the years so extra precautions make sense.

It could be that someone turned your bag in thinking it was mistakenly left behind.

Even at Cedar Point is found unattended by an employee they are supposed to turn it in to lost and found, regardless of the amount of time it has been left unattended. In town hall I would frequently have sweeps bring in lose items that were left laying near the lockers at Snake River Falls. The guest would get there, their stuff was gone, they were directed to Town Hall (lost and found for the back of the park) and I'd give them their stuff back. In today's society, you never want a bag left unattended, and many of those people who leave their bags laying around would be irate if their things were stolen by another guest. (I'm not saying this is true of you GOES)

I have never had my bags checked at the gl entrance since six flags when they had metal dectors and security was like an airport. I am quite surprised that they let you through; they have a strict no food or drink from the outside policy. Oh well done and over with. Their loss!!!

Who needs to pay for a locker? GL employees will watch your stuff at lost and found for free! They even deliver! ;)