The Ouimet years: some early thoughts

I really like what I see so far, and really digging this "ignite the night" campaign. Didn't like the big screen since day one, and now that's it's gone, makes me realize how it was really an eyesore and out of place. It sure looks like park officials are taking a look at what's there already and what can be done to improve it before building any new major attraction.

Micromanaging is a bad practice in any business, only resulting in losing great talented staff.

Not to discount what everyone else has said, but I think Rideman said perhaps the most impactful words:

"We're going to have a chance to see what kind of talent that company really has."

Some of the talent left or got chased out before Kinzel's farewell...but for those that remained, and for the fewer of those who I knew personally, this is what I am most excited for. I've always known there were great people in that organization who loved Cedar Fair as much, if not more than, Dick. But, they were often handcuffed. Heck, look at the good work that has come out of Planning and Design over the years. Really, I' m not kidding. There has been some good stuff. But then think about the idea that what we are seeing is the 10% that actually made it past Dick's scrutiny or budget conscious eyes.

As a unitholder I sure want the investment to be sound but if you are going to have a sports car you have to take it out and get it dirty once in a while. I think we see Ouimet doing just that.

To add to that, maybe it's possible that with Kinzel gone, the new management can attract more and better talent to augment what they managed to keep through his tenure.

Since we're talking aesthetics...Please repaint the sky ride stations back to their original colors. The bright blue looks like a cheesy roadside attraction. Cedar Point...You are classier than that!

I don't think that will happen, but they would look nice in an earthtone color.

I think we can all agree that for far too long, there has been a complete and utter disregard for the importance of atmosphere and the proverbial "little things" that set a world-class park apart from the others.

CPcyclone said:
Since we're talking aesthetics...Please repaint the sky ride stations back to their original colors. The bright blue looks like a cheesy roadside attraction. Cedar Point...You are classier than that!

I have to disagree. I thought the brown colors with the flags made the area look very outdated.

I really think Kinzel had great intentions, but they never came out as planned for a few reasons. In my opinion, it seemed that he wanted to get every one of his visions out of his head and onto the midways in as short time as possible, and in this process, the final outcome came out very sloppy and not as beautiful as he had first planned, especially when it came to scenery and live entertainment (example: Disaster Transport, Starlight Experience, let's repeat the same Snoopy ice show with a different name every year.) Another problem was probably the fact that he tried to improve things with the least amount of money as possible, probably to build up for the next new coaster.

And right there is Kinzel's best intention: "The biggest and best in the nation must be in my parks." Magnum attracted so much attention to him and the park, that he wanted to continue the attention in the park, and followed-up with Mean Streak, Raptor, Millennium Force, Wicked Twister, and Top Thrill Dragster. These rides are what made Cedar Point in the recent years.

Ouimet has saw the biggest problems with Cedar Point, and have set out to fix them almost immediately. I have very, very high hopes for Ouimet and I can't wait to see what he makes of Cedar Point, and the rest of the Cedar Fair parks at that, in the coming years. As Mike also said, I too have never been so excited for something at Cedar Point as I am for the Ouimet era.

I'm not going to start bashing Kinzel just yet. Kinzel turned Cedar Point into the best amusement park in the world. Are there things he could have done better? Without question. That being said, I don't think a less aggressive owner would have brought Cedar Fair to the forefront in the industry like he did.

Ouimet is going to do some great things for the park and the rest of the chain. This "ignite the night" campaign seems like something that could really help the atmosphere at Cedar Point. Ouimet seems to put a lot of effort into the little stuff Kinzel ignored. Personally, I'm hoping for a combination of the two, because I want more scream machines.

I am very excited for ignite the night. The only thing Im not sure of is where they decided to put the stage for ignite the night. Im not really sure where else they would have been able to put it though, so im not gonna complain.

Renegade said:
Kinzel turned Cedar Point into the best amusement park in the world.

I would argue that if you believe that, you haven't been to many parks, or all you care about is roller coasters. It's a great park, but once the afterglow of Millennium Force wore off, I felt there were better parks.

I would say that he put it near the top, but no it's defiantly not THE top park in the world. (contrary to what Amusement Today says) :D

Yeah I would somewhat agree Jeff, after that installation is when the overall nighttime appearance started to suffer with the major lack of lights on the rides up keep started to severely slide.

Morté615 said:
(contrary to what Amusement Today has been paid to say) :D

Fixed that for you. ;)

The golden tickets are a nice marketing tool for parks, but they are more or less a tool for Amusement Today to generate a ton of ad revenue.

DK did a lot of good for the park. But as CEO of a chain of parks, he shouldn't have been hands on with any of the parks. One has to wonder where Cedar Point and Cedar Fair would be today if he had stepped back 5 or 10 years ago.

I just find it interesting that when Kinzel first planned to retire, a lot of us wondered if the company could survive without him.

A few years later, we were wondering if the company would survive *with* him.

I'm not entirely sure what changed. Did his priorities change from ensuring the future of the company to insuring his own retirement? (if the terms of the Apollo deal were not specifically designed to be a 'golden parachute' then I don't know what is...). At this point it doesn't matter. What matters is that he took the biggest amusement park in the business and turned it into the second largest, and most profitable chain of amusement parks in the business. It really is a pretty remarkable achievement, and it is a very nice platform for his successors to build on.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

Jeff said:

Shades said:
Folks used to knock Kinzel for having too much of a dictatorship role, one that people were afraid to offer up ideas. Now folks are praising Ouimet for putting a curve onto a midway.

Only that's not what happened. Ouimet is an enabler. He says, "This would be cool, what do you think? It's your budget." It's a far cry from endless paperwork where every little thing had a line on it that said "RDK" and required initials. No joke, it used to be that ridiculous. In particular, I can only imagine what this new leadership will mean for the P&D folks, because they're going to have a whole lot more room to breathe.

I like that. But if that is the case then I say we give a big Hip Hip Hooray to Ouimet and be done with it. The ongoing kudos need to be going to the park GMs. It just seems like there is godlike praise for the CEO when he is not the one doing the real work.

But I guess that is how life goes.

RideMan said:
I'm not entirely sure what changed.

Nothing changed about him, and therein lies the problem. Micromanagement does not scale, so when the company went from big-ish, to bigger with Geauga Lake, and then really big with the Paramount Parks acquisition, things started to fall apart.

I remember a story that an ex-PP manager told me about, where there was some kind of big operational issue that came up that required a big order for some ride part, or food, or fuel, or something... I don't remember. Dick and Jack were both apparently on a plane for four hours, and they couldn't act on the problem to get it resolved without their approval. The company literally was stopped while they were in the air. You have enough issues like that and the company eventually starts to slip.

I think we're lucky that the company is where it is today. They way-overpaid for PP, should never have picked up Geauga Lake, and God only knows where the company might have ended up if Apollo bought it.

I want to say one thing about Dinos alive. I do not have a problem with it, as it can be a good way for people and families to enjoy the park......but Ouimet, please rethink your plan and INCLUDE the Dinos alive WITH park admission. Other than that, everything else is a great addition, esp. Luminosity, and those LED lights for Giant wheel and the main midway :)

Include the dinos with admission!

If I'm not mistaken, Dino Alive is operated by a seperate company and that company charges the admission to DA. Cedar Fair just gets a royalty from the tickets.

Purely idiotic to put this man in charge. He is already on pace to turn this into Disney North. I freaking hate it. What a bunch of garbage. I give 3-5 years before he trys to say Magnum and Raptor need removed. He sucks send him back to Disney.