Six Flags Worlds of Adventure or Geauga Lake?

I've been to the park under all of the four flags it's been under in the past 15 years and I honestly have to say that the Six Flags era was the saddest.

People forget that Geauga's charm was slowly fading long before SF came around. Several classic rides had already been removed and few new rides were added. Premier parks remember bought out Six Flags. Before 1999 six flags had a decent reputation and has been around since 1961 and many of the theme park rides we enjoy today were first introduced by Six Flags.

Simply put Geauga Lake was never meant to be a theme park. It is the last surviving amusement park in the Cleveland metropolitan area. What it did best was entertain nothern Ohio residents and offer a slower paced alternative to Cedar Point and offer some rides that CP no longer found to fit in with the modern point.

In conclusion we should probably put the past behind us and enjoy what the park is today.

The biggest loser in all of this is Sea World and fans of that park. It was a nice place

thanks guys. I agree.. poor shamu..:(

Regarding Six Flags. I went to Geauga Lake before and during the Six Flags era. While I enjoyed the new rides, ride ops were rude, the park was filthy and ride maintenance was poor. In 2002, I moved to Colorado Springs and haven't been able to go back since.

Yesterday, I made a trip to Six Flags Elitch Gardens in Denver. It really was like deja vu. Ride maintenance was TERRIBLE. For two of the coasters, I actually wished they would stop running so I could get off. Never in my life had I ever wanted to get off a roller coaster once I was on (with the exception of being scared when I was little). I walked under the wooden coaster there and was afraid it was going to fall apart that day. Several ride supports shook when the ride was in operation and it really was an uncomfortable feeling. Many rides had rust stains all over and looked like they hadn't been painted in 10 years. Admission was nearly $50 for a park I would consider to be 1/4 the size of Cedar Point and parking was upwards of $15. The ride ops were rude and the ones that weren't rude were either trying to be funny or just didn't care.

Yeah, Cedar Fair is doing such a great job that they still run one train on major attractions, line cutting is a bigger problem now than before, and it now seems to be the "thug" hangout more than ever. Has someone ever gotten threatened by a line cutter under Six Flags because it happened to my friend under Cedar Fair's watch when he called them out on it? The park still isn't anywhere near what it should or could be, but I liked Six Flag's direction better because at least they weren't going to make it a huge waterpark.

I'd just like to point out Holiday World. They have focused on building a water park, and have had double digit growth just about every year.

^^As a matter of fact Rebel Brad, I have had A LOT of little thugs "line cutting" me at six Flag Parks. Every single one that I've been to as a matter of fact!! The worst of these was at SFGADV where I pretty much had to scare the living hell out of 4-5 teenage kids because when I called them out on it they "thought" they would be tough and try to intimidate a 6'2" grown man that goes at a SOLID 280lbs. Neddless to say that DIDN"T happen. These same things have happened at SFWOA, SFA, SFKK, and SFDL. In all of my years of going to cedar fair parks (not just CP but DP,GL,MIA), I have never had this happen. Sure you have kids line-jumping but park security is usally very good at handling these problems when you report them. When after dealing with these problems at great adventure the park security pretty much said "Oh well, So sad so bad" and did nothing about it.

Rebel Brad, if you want a Cedar Point like park, go to CEDAR POINT. It's only a two hour drive from Akron. To be honest, I don't want another roller coaster park in Northern Ohio. Cedar Point has everything I want and if I don't want to spend the money or want a change in pace, I will go to Geauga Lake. It's more of a family park. I'm sorry you don't like it but you can always just not go. I'm sure Cedar Fair won't care if they have one bitter customer because they aren't trying to make two Cedar Points.

As someone who lived through the flagging and fall of Geauga Lake i have to say a couple of things.

First I would take Six Flags Ohio over all incarnations of the park. (2000)

The park died in 2002 after the disapointing 2001 merger of the two parks. In 2001 Sea World was bought, the old Geauga Lake guard was shipped out or fired and the park lost all tradition. It was Premier's chance to finally clean house and they turned a blind eye to the actions of the newly appointed BEC management from a failing Sea World franchise. And the lack of planning and management skill turned around and brought down the park. Plain and simple.

Geauga Lake worked really hard to break the one million mark in attendance during the ninties. By the time the park was SFO in 2000 it finally eclipsed Sea World for the first time. 2001 was a strong season attendance, but the 2.4 mil is somewhat misleading. First the season pass purchases were through the roof. The success of SFO in 2000 has a record number of passes purchased BEFORE the purchase of Sea World. The fact that most don't consider is that as the season wore on, and it became apparant to everyone that Six Flags didn't have a clue how to run this mega park, the daily numbers slid through August into the fall. The next two years were a downward spiral of decreasing attendance numbers leading to operational cutbacks, leading to lower attendance and so on. SFI had to bail to get out from under their mistakes.

The CF Geauga Lake is much better than the park in the post merger years. The fools from BEC are mostly gone. And a company that thinks about their actions is in charge now. If i can't have my old GLP back (and i can't) then i'll take my chances with this bunch.

WOA was a joke from begining to end; and it destroyed the tradition and old time atmosphere of the park. SFI is only to blame because they stood by and let it happen through their incompetence.

OH, and one more thing. The typical park goer in GLP hasn't changed one bit through the years. There are actually three groups that have been the staple of GLP. 1) Suburban families from the east side. Mostly nice and there for the kiddie park and water park. It was always cheaper and easier to take their kids to GLP instead of CP. And really does a five year old care one way or another? 2) Poor Whites from the sticks out east. These were the folks running around smoking pot and drinking and then getting into fights. Most often you see large packs coming in for company picnics. 3) Poor blacks from the Cleveland. Not as dramatic as the country folk, but equally as distracting. The last two groups obviously went to GLP because it was affordable. Anyone else looking for amusement park thrills over the last thirty years went to CP if they could.

When the park no longer was affordable to these people and it was DEFINATELY not of the same value of CP they stopped spending their money like any good consumer. If you have to spend that kind of money one might as well go to the better valued park. That's how we all know without a doubt that WOA didn't work. Because if it did work, the park would have had people in it, and they would have made money and SFI wouldn't have had a reason to sell.
*** Edited 5/21/2006 3:15:37 AM UTC by gener***

This is my first post so go easy on me. I was looking through some of the older posts on here and came across this thread. Being that I am 39 years old and I have been going to GL since about 1975, it is very easy for me to have seen all the transformations that the park has gone through. In the early 80's GL was one of the best local amusement parks out there. It was never their intention to compete with CP or PKI(CFKI). I felt that the park always had great character in those days and was a great place to spend the day. As the park moved into the 90's and ownership changed I feel that the new owners lost focus on what made GL great and thought they could compete with CP.

Now that CF owns the park it will be interesting to see how they run things. i believe that their focus of returning GL to it regional roots is the way to go. If they can introduce some new flat rides and one-of-a-kind rides to attract people with families GL will return to its glory days of the past.

The one thing that gripes me more than anything though is people who bad mouth the park now. CF is doing a wonderful job of trying to turn things around. This is not something that can be done in a year or even two. It may take 5 to 10 years for GL to make a full recovery from years of bad management through the 90's and the first part of the new millenium.

LONG LIVE GEAUGA LAKE.

Welcome to Pointbuzz, and a good first post.

I agree with almost everything you said. One thing I do want to point out is that most people on this forum aren't really bad mouthing GL. This is the choir here, and nobody wants to see GL fail. Almost unanimously the criticisms are things perceived as problems, and presented as an opportunity for improvement. I myself have said a few negative things about the park, but that is only because, like you, I remember the glory days of GL and want to see it recapture that spirit and spark. And we all really, really want CF to make it work. :)

Thanks Mike,

I know I am preaching to the choir on here, but on some other groups that I am a member they are tearing GL apart. It just gets to me after while.

^Well, I never went to GL when it was SFWOA. I had considered going, and then heard about how bad it was. Obviously, operations were horrible since there was such a decrease in attendance every year until they bailed out. I can't believe that some on here can complain about CF when they've only operated it for a couple of seasons. And, from what I hear lately, attendance has been better. I hope that CF will clean out the old water park and put some new flats in that area. It just looks trashy now.

I have it from a fairly reliable source that they are going to work in the off season at revamping the old water park area. I guess we will have to wait and see what they do with it.

^did your source say anything about what they might be putting in there?

No, but he did it was going to be used as part of the park. I don't think he really knew what was going to go there just that they were going to make it useable for next year.

I just wish everyone would get over SFWOA it's Geauga Lake now

I too agree with mot of PSYCHO67's first post. I would like to say that all of the 90's were much like the old days for the park. Very little changed internally under Premier until after the SWO purchase. Essentially the same people who were running the park in 2000 were the same people who were there in '91. Even if there were new coasters and attractions being built for a change it was still the same old Geauga Lake. But it all changed with the 2001 season, and that's were the decline started. By the begining of 2002 there were less than ten full time staff left in the park from the old Funtime days (compared to nearly all of the 89 before).

It was the flagging and merge that did in GL.

I was at Geauga Lake last year. They we're running more then one train on every major coaster. And, I didn't see a huge line cutting problem. Mainly because it was pointless, how short the lines were because they we're running two or more trains.

I perfer Geauga Lake over SF:WOA. I really think that Cedar Fair is really starting to turn that park around. Operations have been the best I have seen since before Six Flags bought the park. They really seem to care about what the guests think. Overall I really see this park getting back the way it used to be before the whole Six Flags "era". I just really think that Cedar Fair needs to try harder at getting the word out that they own it. People need to know that it is no longer Six Flags. I hear guests all the time call the rides by their older names. But this is all my opinion take it however you want.
*** Edited 7/16/2006 1:02:29 PM UTC by RaptorTwister***