Well, that was fun - Mantis farewell

Kind of off topic but I thought this was interesting. When I was at the park on Mantis' last day, I was in line for Millennium during early entry, (it was broken down so I was in a line outside the queue line) and they started testing Mantis. It went through a bunch of test runs and then on one run the train almost valleyed on the turn-around right after the first corkscrew following the block brakes. After this the ride did not test for about 10 minutes, and then they sent a train out, which did not come close to valleying.

I had fun on Mantis and I did get my button and I am tankful for that! I will miss standing on Mantis but I do love the idea of riding on what my kids call the flying couch.

thedevariouseffect said:
I see where people get that logic, and if they did, honestly, smart move. Why take traffic away from CP, admission there is more, and isn't a joint park. Smart business move

Yeah, because boy was CP hurting. It was practically on its death bed. Good save. They pissed away hundreds of millions of dollars in the process, but whew! Good save. Because it's nothing like owning two businesses and keeping the profits from both either. That would be nutty.

coasterJay said:

Jeff said:
THEY BAWT IT TO CLOZE IT!!!!11!!ONE!!!

Spelling, grammar, and chat shorthand I guess doesn't apply here?

Your sarcasm detector is borken.

Yep. That whole owning Bellagio and Luxor and Mandalay Bay and The Mirage has worked out horrible for MGM in Vegas. :)

Come on, don't y'all know that GL was just raking in the dough when SIX decided to dump it?

Of course. What smart business would want to keep a moneymaker? :p

Jeff said:

Your sarcasm detector is borken.

It went out at the same time your spell check did. :)

Something I found interesting was that when I read the archived Geauga Lake threads at least a year before the park was closed there were quite a few people pointing out that the ride side is never busy and that it would be a good business move to run just the waterpark and close the amusement park side.

Jeff said:

Yeah, because boy was CP hurting. It was practically on its death bed. Good save. They pissed away hundreds of millions of dollars in the process, but whew! Good save. Because it's nothing like owning two businesses and keeping the profits from both either. That would be nutty.

Not that CP was ever hurting, but hey if I owned two businesses, and one really was starting to tank, but could with alot of tools & effort could be somewhat salvaged..eh..that's a risk.

I'd rather shut down a park and make them go to another park and hey guess what, more money in my pocket that way, sweet.

I wish GL was around, but it was failing for several reasons, then SIX & CF just nailed the coffin. Honestly I blame the city more than the company..Want to stay at a hotel or enjoy touristy things, good luck. Don't enjoy traffic? Too bad. Grew too slow too late, or just were stubborn. Then when they leave, then the locals complain..oh the hypocrisy.

Chuck Wagon said:
If there are complaints, let's keep them a bit more current eh? Space Spiral and Wildcat both closed unceremoniously. Oh the humanity!

Space Spiral did go out with a bang though.

We rode Mantis once this year, and that was enough. No last stand for us.

I can't imagine this hasn't been talked about but it looks like Rougaru has the same restraints as Mantis. I don't know if the forces will be the same sitting down but no Rougaru for us either if it is the same action as Mantis, unavoidable head bang and pain.

I really don't know if we'll ever go back to Wild Water Kingdom. They never have enough tubes and actually offer some for rent while Soak City has an over abundance for free. We went one time last year and when we got there were closing the hot tub/whirlpool/basketball side and re-opening the lazy river. It was a mad dash with everyone going for the tubes while we were finding this out. Needless to say, walking the lazy river is not as fun and I don't like slides all that much and I didn't get my hot tub. It also has a sad view across the lake.

I'm going to have to disagree with you about the restraints being the same. From the animation flyover, it appears that Rougarou will have the typical B&M floorless restraints. They are narrower above the shoulders, leaving less room for your head to bang around. Mantis had so much headbanging because the restraints were pretty wide above the shoulders, allowing the head to slam into the restraint. I know that an animation flyover may not be the most accurate source, but I'm pretty sure that they will have the much more comfortable floorless restraints.

I was always of the opiniom that SeaWorld leaving town was the first nail in the coffin, and should've been a red flag for SF and CF...

Having said that, we did visit SFWoA once (on our way to CP) and enjoyed it. The staff was lousy, we had finished our ice cream at Ben & Jerry's before we reached the cashier due to the non-moving line, and nobody seemed to care about their job (I see this more and more everywhere, but that's another rant). But the park itself was incredible. Wish someone could've made it work.

SeaWorld left because they wanted to expand to the GL site, but rather than selling, Six Flags turned around and offered to buy out their park. That's the story I've heard, anyway.

I originally thought Sea World left because it was only a seasonal park and less profitable than their other parks, which are open year round.

Basically the story I keep hearing was Sea World/Busch Gardens decided that to help get their attendance up, they wanted to include rides & stuff in their parks. They offered to buy the park off of SIX, when they turned around and spent 110 million to buy it off of Busch Gardens, which they accepted & SIX turned it into SFWoA.

SeaWorld left because running a seasonal animal theme park isn't a great business to be in.

I'm glad their decision did change. Some of their coasters are absolutely incredible. Plus I don't go to a park to learn, I go for fun. Stop telling me about their ecosystem, splash the hell out of me and let me ride some coasters

Before, you weren't their target market. Now, they've realized you're the kind that pays better. ;)

True there. I wish the parks were just a teeny bit closer though.