Kalahari resorts to be purchased? (by cedar fair?)

Pete said:
I did hear a comment about the financial strength of Kalahari which said it was "built like a house of cards".

Maybe CF only bought the Kalahari Sandusky property, not the entire company?

One thing is for sure, Kalahari will NEVER be owned by Cedar Fair LP! Todd Nelson, the owner of Kalahari, will not sell America's largest indoor waterpark.

Before this gets too out of hand what is happening is the vendor that provides the arcade games at Kalahari is being replaced with the same vedor that Cedar Point uses in Castaway Bay. It is as simple as that. No Cedar Fair is not buying Kalahari.

Josh M. said:

Speaking of Dells-esque atmosphere in Sandusky, has anyone noticed the new electronic sign for Ghostly Manor on 250?

The one that I watch instead of the road?

Precisely...

SoakCity2006 said:
Before this gets too out of hand what is happening is the vendor that provides the arcade games at Kalahari is being replaced with the same vedor that Cedar Point uses in Castaway Bay. It is as simple as that. No Cedar Fair is not buying Kalahari.

That's what I figured was happening - funny how the old game of "operator" is still alive and well.

I will miss the Namco arcade at Kalahari, me and my kids spent quite a few hours there over the past few years.... I have never been to Castaway Bay, can anyone comment on the arcade there?

I think the arcade at Castaway Bay is very good. I can't really say wether it was better than the one at Kalahari or not. I think they are quite similar overall. I would say that the arcade at Kalahari is a little larger.

Actually, I think they're pretty similar in size, or Castaway may actually be larger, or maybe just more packed with games. I felt like there was more to do in the Castaway arcade than Kalahari's.

Kalahari's arcade is way too small...I hate how your forced to go through just to get to the water park.

I wouldn't really say you're forced to go through it, more like right by it.

factory81 said:
Than what, buy Great Wolf Lodge and the other indoor water park going up?
Makes no sense to have 2 indoor water parks in the same town owned by the same company.

Wouldn't that be creating a monopoly?

RTurb0 said:

SoakCity2006 said:
Before this gets too out of hand what is happening is the vendor that provides the arcade games at Kalahari is being replaced with the same vedor that Cedar Point uses in Castaway Bay. It is as simple as that. No Cedar Fair is not buying Kalahari.

That's what I figured was happening - funny how the old game of "operator" is still alive and well.

I will miss the Namco arcade at Kalahari, me and my kids spent quite a few hours there over the past few years.... I have never been to Castaway Bay, can anyone comment on the arcade there?

I think the arcade at Castaway is a waste of time and space there. There is absolutely nothing there to do. I do like GWL's arcade! Its about the same size, well almost, of kalahari's. The arcade at kalahari is going to be the same, just with a new company though.

DFMatt said:

factory81 said:
Than what, buy Great Wolf Lodge and the other indoor water park going up?
Makes no sense to have 2 indoor water parks in the same town owned by the same company.

Wouldn't that be creating a monopoly?

Yes and no. Yes they would own all the indoor waterparks in the Sandusky area, and so would have a monopoly on IWP in that area, but that is far from illegal and doesn't even come close to violating anti-trust laws..

Out--Clever theming
In--201 foot tall slides that 45% of Americans cannot ride.

SAVE US MR. LASSITER!

Arcades died about 15-20 years ago when they (for the most part) quit putting pinball machines in them. And don't get me started on those stupid Dane Dance machines that all the, um, large girls play...

Actually cptedsdisciple2, Castaway Bay has nicer theming than Kalahari in my opinion. To me, Kalahari always looked too much like a big warehouse with some water slides in it.

Dan, that is something I miss about arcades are the pinball machines. You just don't see many of them anymore. I thought the machines from the late 80's to the mid 90's were some of the fun machines to play. I'm sure these complex machines with moving parts became more difficult and costly to maintain. To others it became a "been there, done that" and I think introducing the "Pinball 2000" format, where there is a video screen projected onto the playing field was a neat idea but something that I personally wasn't into. If Cedar Point still has "Revenge from Mars" machine that's an example of the mentioned format.

I have a 1981 Williams Black Knight Gold Edition machine and while the voice is cheesy, it's still very fun to play. I would love to collect more machines in the future but funds are limited and this was more of a high school hobby back in the day.

~Rob Willi

My Dad has a Fireball machine in his basement. There is one on the back wall of the main arcade, however my Dad's has an electronic scoreboard, not the rolling numbers as in the arcade. I like the older simpler pinball machines over the ones with multiball and ramps all over (they are fun too, but not the same as a good old-skool machine).

There's only one company making pinballs anymore (Stern), and I wonder just how profitable they are. I love them, and I have a Jurassic Park machine, but they just don't have the wide appeal they used to.

DDR is the shiznit. It's the only interesting thing to come into arcades in a very long time.

I tried playing the mechanical machines on the back row of the arcade at CP and I have to say I wasn't into it as much as I was with the machines from the 80's and 90's that had multiball, ramps, and multi-level playing fields. Jeff's Jurassic Park machine is pretty darn cool, those are the era of machines that I'm a big fan of. Unfortunately it's a lot to maintain. I know I have to put some work into our machine every once in a while before I have people over to play it and it's not just limited to light bulbs. But I love the lights, sounds, and the action the game provides.

I'm a huge fan of DDR though, I built my own pads 5 years ago which have been played to death and need a lot of work to get them in working order again. It would be nice for me to get back into it again, but life's too busy.

~Rob Willi

I play Visual Pinball with VPinmame a lot at home. It is an emulator of actual pinball machines. Some of them are very life like.

After listening to several interviews with former employees of Williams the Pinball 2000 format was never given a chance by the "powers that be" at Williams. They were going to close the pinball division whether it worked or not and that's just what they did. October 25, 1999 is a sad day in the history of pinball :(