What would be the best way to expand Soak City?

I know Soak City isn't is as big of an incentive to attract people to the parks so much as a bonus (compared to say, Kings Island or Michigan's Adventure) but I still feel like it's rather behind the times in terms of new slide concepts and the like. It says a lot when I feel that Michigan Adventure's water park feels a lot more cohesive and complete even though it's probably half the size.

If anything it just feels remarkable that Soak City still doesn't have a funnel slide and that I can't for the life of me remember the last slide that was added prior to the replacement of the speed slides with DH2O. Granted SC doesn't have to turn into Schlitterbahn or Wet 'n Wild but you would think there would be at least some incentive to stay competitive especially if they do decide to divest the rest of Geauga Lake in the future.

I know it's been mentioned to remove the go-karts and Challenge Golf before, and honestly, that might really be the only way considering how boxed in Soak City is. Your only other options seem to be cutting into the SC lot or sticking something in the space next to Magnum's turnaround (which I think may have been intruded on by the removal of Camper Village's circle anyway).

It's hard to say. As much as "Cedar Point has a space problem" is a beaten-to-death cliche, you could definitely argue that Soak City does.

As much as it pains me to admit it, I don't see a major expansion to Soak City happening.

The "draw" of the CP Peninsula is the park. Agreed?
In my opinion, Soak City just serves as something extra. There are plenty (WWK in Aurora in "close" proximity) of water parks that utilize the the water park as their focus attraction. Soak City doesn't. It isn't marketed as a key attraction, it isn't used as a main attraction, and the lack of capital expenditures in the area definitely justifies that thinking. It doesn't help that its operating season is a mere three months either.

I compare Soak City to a large resort swimming pool complex.

Previously I would have thought that going to the west was an option but that's where they built the new section of Lighthouse point. Obviously those units could be moved in the future if needed but I think if they had planned to expand into that area, say within the next 5 years, they would have just left it as a campground until then.

One option would be to not only expand into Challenge Park but also into about half of the parking lot. Then take the area currently occupied by Mean Streak and turn it into a new lot to offset the lost parking spaces and provide an additional entrance to the park for the resorts and the general public.

I think the most likely ways to expand Soak City would be to get rid of the volley ball court and build a slide or bowl over that area.

I could also see them constructing slides above the Renegade River.

Tadpole town seems fairly under used; I could see bigger slides installed in that area.

Challenge park offers the most space for Soak City (I don't see them builing into the parking lot).

The mini golf course could possible be relocated elsewhere -- maybe even near the beach. The go carts could also be moved opening up tremendous space for slides.

I always thought Challenge Park is in a bad area. Very few new to the park even know it exists, or even know there is a back entrance. A couple places Challenge Park could go are - to the front by using some beach area and main lot, get rid of the red dorms and Famous Daves, or even tear down Dicks old house and put it there! This would bring more traffic to that area because people would know its there. Then you have a lot of space in the back to upgrade SC.

coasterJay you bring up a good point about Challenge Park being somewhat "hidden" from the general public. Most people come in through the front of the park and have no reason to go back that way since doing so would require them leaving CP. The only reason we knew it was there was because we stayed at Sandcastle Suites and had to walk by it to get to Cedar Point.

There certainly are a lot of possibilities if that space were to become available. They could turn the putt putt and go-kart areas into parking and enhance the existing entrance to CP (that would get people a lot closer to the gate). They could also build a new main entrance to Soak City roughly where the ticket booth for Challenge Park is now so that it would be across from the entrance to CP. Then Soak City could expand into the existing parking lot.

Soak City and Challenge Park mostly exist for the hotel guests who are staying on property. I don't think it is a major goal to increase their appeal with the general public or else there would have been more money thrown at them in recent years.

I believe we will see slow expansion to Soak City over the next few years. CP is attempting to diversify their product. You can see this by a diversion away from thrill rides and roller coasters (though they will continue to be added in the future) towards better lighting and themeing, hotel amenities, movement of the challenge park, and more family options.

To increase profits you have to bring in more people and the region does not have enough people and most of those come only for the day. Having a better water park would give people more reason to stay. Cedar Point is already preparing for this by improving their hotels so people have a nice place to stay for a few days as opposed to one night.

There are hints that the Challenge park is going away. There has been little attention given to this area over the years and it would probably bring more money to slowly move Challenge park rides into the park (see Slingshot).

The camping circle has become cabins so the only logical direction for expansion is into the challenge park or parking lot. Hell the Mini golf course does not even operate consistently. They make more money by spreading the Challenge park rides in the Main park and simultaneously make space for gradually expanding the challenge park.

I don't really see a need for major expansion at Soak City. It's not the main attraction, it's an add on. Also, how much water park can you really deal with in one day? Maybe it's just me but when we went to Soak City by about 6 I was sunburned (after much sunscreen) and my eyes were itchy and sore from chlorine and I was just plain done with water. When we suggested we go home we got no arguement from the kids, they were done too. Instead of expansion I would suggest just focussing on making what's there already the best experience possible. I would love some simple things like a sprinkler system to periodically wet the pavement along the paths so that you could walk the park barefoot without burning your feet.

I know there will be many to disagree, but honestly the best thing they could do with Soak City would be take it out. As previously stated they have no new stunning rides making it worthy to go. On top of that, why would I go to a very subpar water park when a world class amusement park is right there. I prefer Kalahari and in the summer WWK. They could level Soak City and expand the main attraction, Cedar Point, or even relocate Soak City to the mainland if they wanted to keep it and make it into some huge 5 year plan. Those are just my thoughts.

Gatekeeper2013 said:
I know there will be many to disagree, but honestly the best thing they could do with Soak City would be take it out. As previously stated they have no new stunning rides making it worthy to go. On top of that, why would I go to a very subpar water park when a world class amusement park is right there. I prefer Kalahari and in the summer WWK. They could level Soak City and expand the main attraction, Cedar Point, or even relocate Soak City to the mainland if they wanted to keep it and make it into some huge 5 year plan. Those are just my thoughts.

One thing to remember before you say level $$$ it makes money. It would be nice to see some new slides and its really a value for the company as the cost is so much lower.

I don't see relocating it to the mainland. People at the on site hotels aren't going to want to pack up and go to the mainland for the waterpark. They want to walk from the hotel. Platinum pass holders probably want to be able to go between the two parks without having to drive the causeway. I've never seen the numbers but I wouldn't be surprised if these two groups make up the majority of Soak City's guests.

Gatekeeper2013 said:
I know there will be many to disagree, but honestly the best thing they could do with Soak City would be take it out.

Yeah, having something there to print money is a horrible waste of space.

Maybe CF doesn't take Soak City to the next level, but it's definitely not going anywhere and has to be a key draw for the park guests staying on the peninsula!

With a 2013 attendance of 379,000 people Soak City was in the top 20 (no. 17) water parks in North America - albeit just barely. Cedar Point's attendance during 2013 was 3,382,000.

By comparison Knott's Berry Farm's Soak City, which operates from May to September, was 368,000 and their year round amusement park had 3,683,000.

It's difficult to make conclusions based solely on those numbers, but I thought it would be fun to share.

Does Soak City need to expand? I suspect it does very nicely as an additional attraction for resort guests (mostly; it would be interesting to know the breakdown of overnight resort guests/day visitors to Cedar Point of SC guests).

As a waterpark, SC competes with Castaway Bay, Kalihari and Great Wolf (and to a lesser degree with whatever hotels in the area offer smaller water park attractions (such as the Quality Inn & Rain Water Park*)). Could Cedar Fair develop Soak City sufficiently to draw in more of those families that currently use Kalihari or Great Wolf as their "home base" in Sandusky?

*On the Choice Hotels website, it's listed as Quality Inn & Suites Rainwater Park. A Rainwater Park doesn't sound nearly as exciting :)

I think with the refurbished Hotel Breakers next year, they could entice people away from Kalihari with Soak City remaining as it is now.

I don't necessarily think Soak City needs to expand, but maybe just to renovate and update things a bit. We visit Soak City fairly frequently and it is definitely starting to look a bit tired and need of some attention. A great example is a lot of the chairs at Bubbles are broken.

All Soak City needs is some refurbishment over the next few years. More lounge seating and some pavement enhancements would be greatly appreciated. As much as I would like to see a bowl or tornado slide, I don't think a major expansion is necessary. The last expansion of Dragster H2O doesn't seem to be that successful. It always has the shortest line and really is not that fun. This is kind of crazy, but I think it would be cool if the second half of Zoom Flume would be converted into a half-pipe style attraction.

Maybe Dragster H2O has the shortest line is because it is a 6 slide complex opposed to a single slide complex. Not to mention, I believe Dragster H2O was intended to be family friendly so it could provide a "race" against friends and family. It's a good concept l, but I will say, the name is still annoying to me.