Thoughts on the park...

I went to GL today and despite it being a Saturday I was able to do everything(minus water park) by 2pm. I enjoyed getting a amusement park fix but noticed a few things...

Operations - It felt like a Six Flags park. One train operation on every roller coaster. Granted the park wasn't packed, but still one train operations is annoying. For the most part employees were slow(there were some great ones). On Thunderhawk I waited in my seat for atleast a minute after the gates were closed until the operator, who was busy talking to another employee, decided to lock the harnesses. Another annoying thing were the safety gates. I don't mind them, its just how they were operated. Why on every ride do they wait for the entire platorm to be cleared until the open the gates to let you in? I know at Cedar Point they open the gates right after the lap bars are unlocked.

Since when did Steel Vernom stop holding the train on the back tower?

What happened to the Villian? When I rode it in 2000 it was one of the best coasters I've been on. I even rode it many times that day. Last year it was pretty rough. Today it was worse than Mean Streak. At the bottom of every drop the ride was so rough it felt like the skin on my body was being ripped off. Now I'm no expert but it appeared the train was having way too much side-to-side play. Very disappointing. It was a great all around ride. It had great airtime, was pretty smooth for a wooden and now it makes Mean Streak seem enjoyable. Hopefully the park changes this soon but I have a bad feeling that nothing will change soon(except for the ridership... while the other rides very on the most part running full trains, the Villian was nearly empty).

The look of the park - very nice except for the old waterpark. Its strange how parts of it is open and parts of it is not. When I rode the monorail I heard many people wonder why the waterpark was closed and looked "run down". I know, I know they are in the process of moving it and all... so throw a sign or two up on the ugly construction type walls around it saying "construction in progres" so not to "confuse" people who have no idea what is going on. The 50s area by Mr. Hydes has always looked and still looks cheesy. Thats one thing I dislike about the park. From the entrance gate to the old waterpark the buildings(with an exception of a few) look old and cheesy(I will say from the entrance gate to RWB is very nice... minus the area around Dominator.)

Being "welcomed" - there was a greeter outside the main gate who welcomed me to Geauga Lake and told us to have a great day. Those annoying photographers also welcomed us and told us to have a nice day. I know not a big deal but it was nice.. I can't remember the last time someone welcomed me into an amusement park. (I know this is a GL thread... but I say have a few people greeting at CP's main entrance would be great, and it may help put people in a better mood after droping 9 bucks on parking).

Food - The food I had tasted good, but this park needs different types. I remember last year they still had Subway in the park(which, while I'm not a big fan of fast food in parks, I liked)... where did it go? It seems like the only thing you can get in the park is pizza and hot dogs.

Sea World side - The Sea World side with the new waterpark looks very nice. Very first class.

The park is a nice place to get your amusement park fix but I don't see anyone taking vacations there unless a few more rides are added(while I know the park is headed more in the direction of a having fun park with focus on the waterpark and not a vacation spot, if they should ever add another coaster... a nice steel, non-looping one is needed IMO). I actually left the park wanting to come back next summer to see just the waterpark, hopefully others who visit will feel the same way.

Before anyone gives me crap about this being a trip report more than a post... I wanted to post it here thinking maybe more people would read it and comment on the issues I saw.

One train operation when you have to wait one train is not a big deal.

Yeah I guess I'm just used to 3 train operation at Cedar Point even on the super slow days.

GL is a great park, but I agree that they need a new coaster and better food. I get better stuff at my local Dennys....

They don't need a new coaster. The collection they have doesn't attract a crowd. The water park does, and it costs less to build.

Six Flags tried and failed to bring in people by just builing thriller rides. As said above, the waterpark is whats bringing people back, along with better management. As for the one train operation, its like that almost every day of the season. Steel Venom usually holds the train on the back tower, but there are a few days where it might not.

ytowncpfreak said:
GL is a great park, but I agree that they need a new coaster and better food. I get better stuff at my local Dennys....

Really thats neat can you name some...lol. They have like 10 coasters but people just crowd the midways instead of riding the coasters. I don't know what the problem is but people should ride the coasters!!

I wish everyone would stop complaining about GL It takes time to get a park back in shape. Once CF rehabes everything and finishes the water park and put in some new rides then everyone can start complaining

I wasn't complaining I was just saying more people should ride the coasters, instead of just walking around. People need to create lines and ride these coasters. Its their Fault!

"One train operation when you have to wait one train is not a big deal."

Exactly Jeff. My brother and I on our recent trip met some Acers in line for Dominator. They were complaining to the ride op about one train operation. Of course, I said it wasn't a big deal since there weren't many people in line anyway.

it makes Mean Streak seem enjoyable

Mean Streak is enjoyable! Stop complaining Cedar Fair is trying their best to turn the park around for the better. It takes more than one off season of improvements to turn a park around. I think the water park is an excellent idea for Geauga Lake. People just don't seem to go to Geauga Lake for the roller coaster thrills like they do Cedar Point. So I don't think a new roller coaster is in the outline right now. A few new flats would be nice. But I think the thing that will turn Geauga Lake around will be Wildwater Kingdom. But I do agree about the food though they do need a bigger selection.

-----------------------------------------------

Cory Marshall

What GL needs to do rather than build a new coaster is to continue to fix the ones they have. It's a given that the RWB retracking will continue this offseason. So far, the results of this project have been good. While not the most thrilling ride out there, it's slowly starting to grow on my as a solid fun ride (except the high turn by the station). Now, it's about time that the Villain gets some TLC as well. My ride this past Sunday was downright brutal. The worst part is that it's not the whole ride, but just the bottom of the first drop and the trick track. Fix those and you'll have a world-class ride again. As for the Big Dipper, it's running the best it has in years. Don't touch a thing there!

Look at it this way, at least everything is running under CF. You can't knock them for running at minimum capacity if no one is in the park. Back in the SF days, how many times would you see half the rides not operate at all?
*** Edited 9/14/2005 3:24:34 PM UTC by ShiveringTim***

I haven't been to the park since 02 when it was then a Six Flags park and I finally went yesterday (Sunday the 18th) and quite a bit has changed around the park.

IT WAS CLEAN!

A huge difference in the park immediately was felt when I realized I wasn't smelling rotting garbage while walking throughout the park. The park itself looked well-kept despite all the changes that were made to the park over the last 5 years.

ALL OF THE RIDES WERE RUNNING!

That is something I haven't seen since the old days of Geauga Lake. Granted I visited in 2000, 2001, and 2002 and after my last visit in 2002 I simply didn't want to put up with the crappy ride operations. If you're going to put in all these new coasters, you might as well have them all running right?

The one-train op and the two or three person ride teams that I saw does seem a bit disappointing. However I think the park is suffering from Six Flags' mistake of throwing in all these high capacity coasters in a park that shouldn't have so many rides in one place. There are simply too many people eating rides at this park, which means virtually no lines for waiting. To me, I can see why they would only run one train on everything and only have two or three ride ops.

The coasters themselves were running pretty decently. The Villain has a few problems with the base of all the drops, which I'm sure will be fixed this off-season and there is this "kink" at the final turnaround that just causes the train to feel like its about to derail and causes pain your left side ribs.

I was completely shocked to ride Wolf Bobs, since the last tiem I rode was when the PTC train was still running on it. There is a new drop that I don't even remember being on the ride. Also I finally got to ride Legend's train, even though it isn't on Legend anymore ;).

Big Dipper is a gem! I forgot why seat dividers are in place, but it took me only one ride to remember. Riding the backseat by yourself is the nuttiest thing you can do on Big Dipper. You can definately feel the retracking that was done on the turn around, the rest of the ride isn't that bad. Just a few jack hammering spots and that's about it.

Dominator is odd in the second half as I've never ridden a B&M that feels like there is a rock stuck in one of the wheels and its just dragged along. Steel Venom is odd as well. I don't know if its me, but I feel like when you are walking through the whole entrance I felt like I was in a restricted area because there was no handrails, no garbage cans and no signage indicating that I was in line.

The park has improved as far as operations go compared to the Six Flags days. One thing I was happy to see (as everyone noted) was seeing Bill Spehn walking around the park. Seeing how a park is operated first hand is probably the best thing that GL needed.

While I still miss the "old" Geauga Lake and the rides and character that made GL in the first place. I'll take this park.

~Rob Willi

Jeff said:
They don't need a new coaster. The collection they have doesn't attract a crowd. The water park does, and it costs less to build.

Some people will never understand this.

People would rather go to CP if they wanted thrills. GL should get the Sea World thing back too.

I went to Geauga Lake a few weeks ago, and I thought the park was in great condition! Everyone was friendly, the park was clean, all of the rides were running, and it wasn't crowded. I loved it! It was definetly much more laid back than a trip to CP. (which is what I'm used to)

Despite the fact that most of the rollercoasters were only running one train, I can't really complain because I didn't wait longer than 10 minutes to ride any of the rides. So I guess it compensates. If the park was crowded and they were doing that, I would have been pissed.

The new water park area totally blew me away. It is really nice! I'm eager to go back there next year to see it!

And I had fun on the new Dinosaur Ride. That was really scary and insane and they sprayed you! Definetly a lot better than that Bermuda Triangle crap.

Geauga Lake is on it's way. It looks so much better than it did two years ago! Give it time though.

Yeah you should come to Geauga Lake sometime in the Spring of next year, you'll see Phase II of Wildwater Kingdom completed. The waterpark this year is simply amazing, you could spend all day over on that side of the park, I did that once this summer and finished the evening off by riding every coaster in the park. I have some great pictures of Dominator if anyone is interested in seeing them. It's definately worth the $24.95 all day for two parks. I'm sure next year it will be the same since they are finishing Phase II of Wildwater Kingdom, unless they are building a new coaster for next season. ::Wishful thinking::

gomez is right!

Give the CF a few years while they finish WWK and do whatever else thay have planned I believe that they will get the park back to what is was before SF bought it. I am not surprised to hear of ACERS complaining about one train operation this is not a knock to ACERS in general but I have met some who were total jerks (I call them ACEholes). then again I have met more cool ACERS than jerks.

I wasn't too pleased the day that I went when we were standing in line for Time Warp and the employees didn't even acknowledge that they had a line or even make it look like they were working (they stood there talking and taking pictures of eachother) until we finally saw them working from El Dorado.

Other than that GL is a quaint little park. Their Dodgems is the best bumper cars I've ever been on. Dominator is easily the best ride in the park.