Mill Race

From those pics, it does actually look like a fun family ride, but I think I prefer Raptor. CP does need a flume though. But where to put it?

Top Thrill 182 said:
Out of curiosity, did they announce the ride would close before hand? blahblahblah

Or better yet, to keep from disappointing people they could have continued to operate it at a loss for many seasons to come, eventually hurting the bottom line so bad that not only was Raptor not built, but the park ceased to exist. That way no one would ever have to know the pain of a world without Geau...I mean Mill Race. At least until the chain went under and everything closed.

raptorqueen said:
Isn't Snake River Falls still "sponsored" by Pepsi (or still have the Pepsi logo by the sign on SRF bridge)? I know they were advertising that with Pepsi when it first opened.

Good point. They do it tastefully to the point I forgot about it until you mentioned it. I think the sign is carved out of wood and not a big billboard so it's done tastefuly no pun intended.

As far as water rides go I think practically speaking they had a limit on how long they would last too because of the water affecting the parts & peces. WWL almost looked like it could fall apart on its own. I heard it was more of a maintenance problem than it looked. But I'd like to see a new one at CP that gave the same slow ride like WWL or Mill Race.

JuggaLotus said:

Top Thrill 182 said:
Out of curiosity, did they announce the ride would close before hand? blahblahblah

Or better yet, to keep from disappointing people they could have continued to operate it at a loss for many seasons to come, eventually hurting the bottom line so yada yada closed.

Or, they could have invested some money into Mill Race. That way they would reduce costs to upkeep it, and make it a better ride at the same time. They could have sold a few of the canoes for example. Even if they decided that Mill Race needed to be closed, for whatever reason, they could at least try to compensate for people's sadness of the closure by announcing to get their final rides in. That way they wouldn't have to lie that they just decided to remove it even though the ride was announced at another park with a new name the next day.

Replacing my well thought out run-on with blah blah blah was really funny actually.

That POV is really great to watch. I never got to ride it so I don't know about its accuracy, but it looked quite good.

^I sure hope you forgot the :) at the end of your post.

I was very tempted to post the same thing John did. It's been a great week as far as less and less garbage has been said about GL's situation. You have a crappy argument and nothing that makes sense in the "real" world of keeping a business running.

You can even stretch that argument to those who believe old wooden coasters should last "forever". Anytime a park wants to get rid of one, the enthusiast community goes wild. All I ask is, "for what?".

I know I'm not alone with this.

For those who said the ride fit perfectly on the midway, how so? Didn't it have more of a frontier town theme to it?

Gomez, I hope the :) was misplaced, and meant for the end of your post.

Crappy? You can say you don't agree with it, but I know there are at least 3,017 people who agree with the argument. But of course people who didn't visit the park a lot probably don't see that. Anyways, I apologize for my original allusion as I know that isn't the point of the thread.

But were there the multiple drops on Mill Race as there are in the POV? I thought that was an interesting feature as there aren't a lot of log rides that I've ridden that have many more drops than two.

^3,017 people? That's from the online petition. Where you can find these great quotes:

This is rediclious to distroy a park like this with great history but keep a park as ****ty as kings island or michigans adventure

I don't want then to close their ride side WTF! Thats gay I Love Geauga Lake!

Completely undemocratic! The very worst kind of management.

Childhood memories, gone for the sake of more money to Cedar Fair.

There's 3000 more, but that sums it up.

*** Edited 10/18/2007 1:45:26 AM UTC by Gomez***

I believe Walt had something is his signature about guys knowing how to barbeque and coaster enthusiasts knowing how to operate amusement parks, or something along those lines. Whatever it did say was absolutely right. So many people criticized Cedar Fair's decision to close the park and say they took the easy way out, but what do those people know about the business? I know that I know nothing about operating an amusement park so I'll say that I'm sad that the park closed, but in no way will I heckle Cedar Fair for it. No one knows the financial and/or business decision behind the closure.

The same principle goes for when a ride is closed and maybe replaced with something new. We don't know a damn thing about working in mangement of an amusement park. We can say all we want "they could have fixed this or they could have invested money to make the ride better" but we don't know. Until the people who post here become the CEO of Cedar Fair, you hardly earn the right to criticize certain business decisions.

I'm not saying there aren't those, which will soon be deleted, but there are plenty of these also:

I sold off 10,000 shares of cedar fair stock today. I also brought this situation to the attention of many well to do friends, some owning stock in cedar fair. Shame on you Mr. Kinzel! This will prove to be a grave mistake in more ways then one im sure. The stock is down and going lower, looks like the numbers will be down at your other Ohio parks next year as well. Does not look good in more ways then one Mr. Kinzel. A restored Geagua Lake Park would be a goldmine, the support is in place.

The Mill Race is what CF should have done with GL. Announce it was closing, get your last rides and visits in. Just as people have fond memories of GL, they have fond memories of Mill Race. I understand business decisions are business decisions, and greediness is basically business, but the way GL was handled was unacceptable, and closing of rides like Mill Race, and other parks, shows how it can be done correctly.

Vince is exactly right. I don't know what GL's real numbers were, and if they didn't want to try and restore the place any longer thats their business. I'm talking about the way the closure was handled and the late announcement, not to mention lies and false hope.

I've yet to change my opinion on any of this. The online petition isn't going to change anything. Give it up.

"Looks like numbers will go down at the other Ohio parks next year?"

How do they know what next year will be like?

"A restored Geagua Lake Park would be a goldmine, the support is in place."

Let's start off by spelling the name of the park right, then will get to the fact what support in place.

Well, the support apparently wasn't in place. No one visited the ride park (although apparently the water park did very well) and if you look at the Cleveland news, no one cares.

There's a small, somewhat vocal minority that thinks parks that operate at a loss should remain open "for the memories". Sadly, memories don't pay the bills.

CPboy77 said:
For those who said the ride fit perfectly on the midway, how so? Didn't it have more of a frontier town theme to it?

CP had to redo the main midway to accomodate Raptor. If you get a chance, watch the Raptor video and they will quickly fly through the changes that happened that winter and then the video will tell you how much of the main midway had to be moved. It is really cool.

If I remember right (someone correct me if I am wrong) but getting in Mill Race queue lines was like getting in line for Cadillac Cars. The Mill Race was right off the main midway, I hardly ever had to wait long to ride it.

If enough people really loved Geagua Lake it would still be around.

It's time to let it go already.

Now back to Mill Race....oh how I miss it! Amazing to think that CP used to have TWO flumes!

For Raptor to fit in its location Midway Carousel, Calypso, and Cedar Downs all had to be moved. Turnpike Cars had to be shortened and Mill Race was removed.

I can't imagine the Main Midway without the green giant.

Disney Mike said:
For those of you too young to remember the Mill Race I quickly made this video for ya.

Nice job, I like the music. Is your animation from Roller Coaster Tycoon?

Gomez, Cedar Downs was not moved.

^Was Midway Carousel the building you can see being taken down at the very beginning of the time-lapse construction video? It was located at the current location of Raptor's entrance. I always assumed it was Cedar Downs, because of the way it looked.

Now that I think of it, Midway Carousel got a brand new location and building when it was moved to its new spot.

My bad.