Honest Geauga Lake review

I finally got to Geauga Lake yesterday (7/7/05) after holding off for a very long time. My opinions are a mixed bag, but I think that generally the park is headed in the right direction. I haven't been to the park since I believe 2002.

The park wasn't crowded exactly, but from what people tell me it was a little above average. Certainly the nice weather helped. Unlike, say, Cedar Point, there isn't a big rush when the gates open. It was more of a trickle.

The first thing I noticed is how generally clean it is. That's a real switch from the Six Flags days. The general condition of the facility as a whole varies from one place to the next, and nothing feels "settled" yet. It's obvious the park is still in transition, and I'm sure we can expect one more year of that. The area around the old water park, for example, has all of those obnoxious walls, and you'll also find them at the edges of the new water park and in front of buildings like the old Shark Encounter. Then there are just ugly things, like a former guess-your-weight stand empty and abandoned by the monorail station, and a little lot across from the big netting play area that I think had a hi-striker, also empty. I certainly realize these are temporary, but the park has to be anxious to get this transition done.

With regards to signage and paint, there's certainly some room for improvement. Painting Thunderhawk was certainly a good start. Super Venom should be next, or they need to put up a logo that matches the ride. I think the whole station of that ride is obnoxious to begin with (the big grid is kinda ugly), but the mismatched color feels cheap. That entire midway area between the Impulse and down to X-Flight on that side needs trees or landscaping or something (the vegetation under Head Spin works).

And that leads me to signage. The Starfish is just kind of there, and unless you look really close at the legal sign, you don't know what it's called. X-Flight's path isn't horribly obvious either. I think the entire park would benefit from having signs a la the Busch parks that indicate the direction to get to major attractions like roller coasters, simulator films, etc.

Some areas of the park are in really nice shape, and should be more or less left alone. Six Flags was good enough to not mess with that entire midway from Thunderhawk back to Double Loop, and actually made it better when they added Villain. Again, that should stay as-is. The wooded area around the swinging ship and that collection of flat rides is really nice as well. The Yo-Yo needs its old signage back. I hope they keep that area as-is and don't decide to banish those rides to the area of the old water park.

Ride maintenance is a mixed bag. The renovation of the first half of Wolf Kabobs resulted in an amazing transformation. Not only is the ride a lot smoother, but it's really kind of fun! The fun ends where the new track ends though. If they retracked/rebuilt that turn closest to Batinator, I think there would be enough speed left in the rest of the ride to really tie the whole thing together. I'm not ready to count that ride out!

Villain is a nightmare. I still think that ride was a top-10 for wood coasters when it opened, but the track gauge is so sloppy at the bottom of every hill that it's beyond uncomfortable and in the realm of causing damage now. I don't think the trains are an issue (though they could certainly use some paint).

Biggest disappointment? Domainator! Since the acquisition, I expected that they'd put new springs and new wheels on the trains, but they have not. Maybe springs, but definitely not wheels. You could feel the bumps just going up the lift, and it's rough for a B&M. That ride could be my favorite floorless if it wasn't jerking me around like that. The saving grace is there's virtually no trim at the mid-course, so you get that pop of air.

Ride operations generally are much better and there are more people. Contrary to other reports, I don't think the ride operators are rude, but they're obviously bored and maybe indifferent. That's a problem because when they get busy, they don't have the hussle they should. While a three-train wait on Steel Venom isn't horrible, why make the guest wait if you don't have to?

To their credit, they are running multiple trains almost everywhere, though Villain had only one with people three-trains deep. Again, not a big deal. In fact, in terms of overall ride availability, I had never seen Time Warp run under Six Flags ownership. On this visit, the only ride I saw down was the Boomerang, and that was only temporary.

The real gem, clearly, is going to be the water park. That's the reason the park will pack in the people for years to come. So far, the transformation is stunning. The big tower of slides looks so much better not being packed into that tight space, and overall there's room to maneuver around. The lazy river and that insanely huge kids play area is awesome. The Tornado looks amazing. I wish they would've opted for older trees to plant (I think it's a Cedar Fair rule not to do that), but other than that the entire area looks fabulous. When phase 2 hits next year, there won't be a lot of water parks anywhere that can compare to this. Rightfully so, their new TV spot focuses on the water park.

Food is kind of a sore spot for me in terms of value and variety. First on value... the $3 sodas again. Make no mistake, the admission price point is a huge value and I imagine that'll start pulling people in like crazy. But when you pay that, then you see $3 sodas, well, that feels all wrong. I realize that per cap spending is the way to grow revenue, but I don't think that's the right approach.

And part of that lack of value comes in the lack of quality and variety of the food. I counted I think five places on the map you could get pizza. The rest of the menu around the park is largely uninspired and bland. The one exception I saw was funnel cakes with fresh strawberries and chocolate. That's an outstanding idea. I think there's opportunity to create more perceived value by offering more quality stuff. That's what makes Busch Gardens' food so great. Yeah, that piece of pie is almost $3 with my $6 spaghetti and meatballs, but it's great stuff. That's value, even by theme park standards.

And finally... $9 parking. Not cool. I don't know how common my situation is, but I'm a CP passholder that bought the $26 upgrade. I didn't buy a $60 GL parking pass because that's insane compared to what I paid for admission, and I doubt I'll go seven times to make it "worth it." So now do I visit the park for a couple of hours where I'll spend money on food and Skee-Ball after I had to drop $9 on parking? Probably not. It's the thing that's holding me back from visiting. The value isn't there. To me it would make more sense to raise admission by a buck or two and drop parking to $5. If that was the case, as a combo passholder, I'd got every other week. There's more value in a $5 visit.

Overall, yes, the park is on the right track. Big time. The marketing focus on the water park is the right one. The key to making it all work will be continued emphasis on the water park, getting through this transitional phase and figuring out how to balance revenue to create more perceived value.

Great...and honest report. I hope some of the Cedar Fair powers-that-be have an opportunity to read what you said.

But, I'm sure you'll still be accused of being a fanboy. :-)

When, or if, a Cedar Fair "Power that Be" reads that they'll probably just shrug it off as one person's opinion.

They know what they're doing. Better than we do.

MrScott

In anything in life things start going backwards when you don't think you need criticism anymore. Six Flags supposedly "knew what they were doing...better than us."

Where did that get them?

$3 soda and $9 parking for a park that is billing itself as being the more economical alternative to the big boys is not exactly endearing.

Jeff made a lot of good recommendations while praising the positives. As a manager that is exaclty the type of feedback I need.

$3 sodas and $9 parking are not endearing wherever you are.

Neither is the $7 parking at MiAdv. But ya gotta pay if ya wanna play. And people still are paying it.

MrScott

The problem is that people aren't paying...at least not in the number Cedar Fair wants. Why is that?

Is it the $9 parking alone? Is it the $3 sodas? Not likely in either case. But when you add it all up it starts to put a big dent in the wallet of an area that isn't exactly living high on the hog when it comes to the economy right not.

And, let's not forget....people don't easily forget bad experiences and Six Flags soured the reputation of Geauga Lake. Cedar Fair didn't exactly come out swinging too...if you'll remember. They got bad press for stupid decisions like not honoring the Reading program and other such things. That didn't help either.

I remember Mr. Kinzel admitting during a conference call that some bad PR decisions were made after the purchase and he took personal responsibility. I agree about the parking and the drinks too. Those kind of things just rub people the wrong way. The admission is a tremendous bargain, but the other prices are going to cause people to forget about the great deal on admission.

During my one visit this year, I was impressed with the direction of the place. The park was clean, there were flowers and fresh paint everywhere, and the operations were improved over the Six Flags days and over last year as well. There weren't very many people there, but the ones that were there seemed to be happy and having a good time. The water park wasn't finished yet at that point. The park is not Cedar Point, but it has a lot to offer at a great price. I think CF might have to be more patient with it than they had hoped. I think the idea of attendance jumping 50% in one year is kind of unlikely. But I could see smaller (~10% or so) gains over the next couple years. I just hope they don't throw all this money at the water park and then budget cut the place to pieces. That'd be kind of the same mistake Six Flags made.

What do you guys think about Cedar Fair trying the free pop idea at GL? I think it'd go a long way toward erasing the bad memories of the Six Flags days and the bad PR of the early Cedar Fair days. Of course they'd probably have to raise up the admission a bit and people might not like a $4 or $5 price jump right after they dropped it $10 this season. Maybe free parking instead, or even in addition. That might entice some of the people loyal to Kennywood to give the place a try. It seems like maybe some of this stuff should have happened from the beginning though. The offerings, names, prices, etc of the park have been changing so much, I think some stability is needed too.

Why not do both? Eliminate the parking fee AND have free Pepsi? Raise the gate to 28.95 and they'll probably make more money in the long run and have happier guests. Something that Holiday World learned long ago.

MrScott

MrScott said:
When, or if, a Cedar Fair "Power that Be" reads that they'll probably just shrug it off as one person's opinion.

It might be impossible for you to believe, but some people do actually care about what I have to say.

I think you're right, Matt, that the park will probably be a work in progress for another year or two, and that perhaps they didn't expect it to take quite that long.

Next time I go, I'm going with a friend and his kids (members of the Cedar Fair family), and the plan is to fully enjoy the water park. I think that will make more of a day-long thing.

And let me say that I did have a good time while I was there. There weren't any real deal-breakers that had me running for the gates. There's a lot of depth and serious criticism because I want the park to succeed (I've got too much money tied up in FUN for it to fail).

It is impossible for me to believe that that Cedar Fair would care what one person would have to say, Jeff.

Are you so full of yourself to believe that that person is you?

I love the park like it is and think that they are doing a great job. Room for improvement? Of course! Doesn't every business have that? Cedar Fair knows what they are doing.

MrScott
*** Edited 7/8/2005 9:56:01 PM UTC by MrScott***

They do care. Just not always.

Look, I'm not going to start name dropping or whatever, but you don't have the slightest clue about my relationships with people in the company. If the people running the company weren't listening to customers, they'd be Six Flags.

Parking is the one part of that park that just really pisses me off. You can go to the park and not eat food, but you can't go to the park and not pay for the parking. It's impossible. I think, that if you pay $60 for a parking pass it should be good at any CF park. But I was there on Tuesday and the water park does just look absolutely amazing. My only complaint was that there has to be a better way to run the tornado than one boat at a time making capacity 400 pph. That 45 minute wait was barely not worth it. That airtime at the end was sweet though. ;)

I agree, I would visit more often in the parking was cheaper.. Perhaps the suggested $5? For some reason, $9.00 just seems way to high for Geauga Lake.

Funny how $4.00 difference for parking makes a difference in my mind. Especially when I would drop that $4.00 on ice cream as soon as I entered the gate. Oh well...

Parking is easily the biggest annoyance, the biggest rip-off, and the thing that aggravates me probably more than anything else that some of these parks do. You talk about how cheap it is for me to get into the park and spend the day, then you charge me $9 to park a half a mile from the gate ...and part of the reason I have to park so far out is because the oil well is taking up all the close spaces.

Parks know how many cars are coming into their lots, and parks know how many people are coming through the gate. What is stopping them from figuring a parking per-cap on every price-level of ticket sold (yes, including season passes and Cedar Point comps) and adjusting the ticket prices accordingly? Geauga Lake should bulldoze the parking ticket kiosks, drop the parking charge to $0, roll the parking fee into the ticket price, cut their operating expenses slightly, make themselves a better neighbor to the shopping center across the street, and eliminate a major source of aggravation and ill feeling from their customers all in one simple action.

I have a season pass that is good at Geauga Lake. But what possible incentive do I have to use it when I could take a shorter drive to Cedar Point where they will honor the parking pass I paid a large fortune for last fall? Something tells me it isn't the waterpark...if Wildwater Kingdom is run anything like Soak City, then I'll stick with Wyandot Lake. Where parking is only $4, and included (no extra charge) with my season pass.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Jeff, I think your review of GL was perfect. I agreed with it completely and it was a really honest picture of the park. Something does need to be done with Dominator.

Dave-

The operations at WWK were beyond frustrating when I was there a few weekends ago. Also, the shortage of free intertubes and the over-abundance of rental tubes (which people were renting to use on the slides since there is nobody forcing anyone to give up their tubes after a slide) was frustrating.

Bad operations example: On the body slides on the big slide complex (the only slides in the park, btw) the lifeguard at the top gives the same spiel to each individual rider before they hop on the slides. "Keep your arms crossed, don't kill yourself, blah blah blah. Go to the blue/green/pink slide." Wouldn't it be easier (and quicker) to give the speech once to all three riders at the same time, especially when the slides have been cleared for a good 30 seconds by the time all the riders get to their positions?

Oh, and the DARK BROWN bridge gets REALLY HOT when you walk on it in bare feet. Can't they at least put some of that textured carpeting down to keep it from getting too hot? That's a long bridge.

Finally, why is there only one drinking fountain in the park?

Michael Darling said:Finally, why is there only one drinking fountain in the park?

Probably the same reason why Dorney is removing their's and Blizzard Beach already removed their's: Drinking fountains are pretty much one of the dirtiest, germ-attracting facilities ever invented.

Mr. Scott, remove the bug from your rear. Every thread is starting to turn into you being the bigshot shooting everyone else down, including the moderators.

S2Kster, just what is your problem?

If I could get you out of my rear, I would.

MrScott

I was at geauga lake a month ago. My two biggest complaints were this.

1< the $9 parking, I was going to go to the park for another half day but the parking fee changed my mind. Why should it cost me $9 to park my car?

2> I wanted to go camping, but the geauga lake campground was $40 a night FOR A TENT!!!. Disney charges only $30 a night. For that price, I could stay at a super 8 hotel.