BoddaH1994

Here are some notes from the 1:00 conference call: Cedar Fair will own 12 properties after this deal. The total will be 25million guests for the chain. The cost of the parks was 1.24 billion dollars. Will the arms race continue between CP and PKI? -They are marketed seperately, so they don't see the "high thrills" vs. "family fun" being a problem. The license for Nickelodeon will last for another 4 years. The Paramount themes are licensed up to 10 years, but they're not sure if they're going to use them after this year. Cross-marketing is possible, but Kinzel had to remind peopel (repeatedly) that the parks are 5 hours apparrt. There will be no changes at all in the operating schedules for the Paramount Parks for this year. CF intends to "cross-incorperate" great ideas that were successful for both parks. CF intends to keep PP up to the same quality that they've had in past years. 2007 Capital and additions are already in place and CF will honor PP's commitements, although we know there will be no major attractions added over $20 million. The concept of Winterfest will be "Looked at" and determined whether it'll be back. Cedar Fair LLC, will likely not expand into other parks outside of this deal for 3 or 4 for years. This deal was awarded to CF late last night and voted on by CBS this morning. Wonderland will be CF's first investment outside of the USA. Job cuts will be "looked at" after the deal closing. This deal will have no immediate effect on Geauga Lake. CBS will retain its stock in the Great Wolf Lodge. CF now owns 4 parks that gross more than 3 million: PKI PCW CP KBF CF plans to keep up Paramount's safety record. CP's marketing range is mainly Detriot, Cleveland, Toledo while PKI's is mainly to the south. Sorry if not all makes sense, I'm trying to do this quickly!

From Yahoo News: Press Release Source: Cedar Fair, L.P. Cedar Fair, L.P. to Acquire Paramount Parks Monday May 22, 8:58 am ET - One of the largest regional amusement park operators in the world - Combined annual revenues to approach $1 billion - Combined annual park attendance to approach 25 million visitors SANDUSKY, Ohio, May 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cedar Fair, L.P . (NYSE: FUN - News), a publicly traded partnership which owns and operates seven amusement parks and five water parks, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement for the acquisition of the Paramount Parks. Cedar Fair, L.P. will acquire the stock of Paramount Parks, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS - News; NYSE: CBSA - News) for a cash purchase price of $1.24 billion. The five Paramount Parks consist of Canada's Wonderland near Toronto, Canada; King's Island near Cincinnati, Ohio; King's Dominion near Richmond, Virginia; Carowinds near Charlotte, North Carolina; and Great America located in Santa Clara, California. "This transaction offers a unique opportunity for us to acquire a world- class asset portfolio," said Dick Kinzel, Cedar Fair's chairman, president and chief executive officer. "It is not every day that we have the chance to purchase five great family-oriented parks that fit extremely well with our existing parks. This acquisition will provide exciting new growth opportunities and the potential for meaningful incremental free cash flow as we realize $20-$30 million in annual cash flow synergies over the next 3-5 years. It will also add significant geographic diversity to our portfolio of parks and improve our position as one of the largest regional amusement park operators in the world." In 2005, the Paramount Parks generated revenues of approximately $423 million while entertaining 12.2 million guests. Cedar Fair reported $569 million in revenues and 12.7 million guest visits. On a combined basis, the two companies generated almost $1 billion in revenues and entertained approximately 25 million guests in 2005. The transaction is subject to conditions, including regulatory approval and other terms and conditions customary for transactions of this type, and is expected to close during the third quarter. Further details were not disclosed. Cedar Fair was advised by Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. and Rothschild, Inc., and Bear Stearns is providing $2.0 billion in committed financing in support of the transaction. Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP provided legal counsel to Cedar Fair. Cedar Fair's seven amusement parks are Cedar Point, located on Lake Erie between Cleveland and Toledo; Knott's Berry Farm near Los Angeles in Buena Park, California; Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom near Allentown, Pennsylvania; Valleyfair near Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota; Worlds of Fun, located in Kansas City, Missouri; Geauga Lake & Wildwater Kingdom near Cleveland, Ohio; and Michigan's Adventure near Muskegon, Michigan. The Partnership's water parks are located near San Diego and in Palm Springs, California, and adjacent to Cedar Point, Knott's Berry Farm and Worlds of Fun. Cedar Fair also owns and operates the Castaway Bay Indoor Waterpark Resort in Sandusky, Ohio. Cedar Fair's flagship park, Cedar Point, has been voted the "Best Amusement Park in the World" for eight consecutive years in a prestigious annual poll conducted by Amusement Today newspaper. Mr. Kinzel will host two conference calls and webcasts to discuss the acquisition. The first call will be to answer investor and analyst questions and is to be held at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Monday, May 22, 2006. The second call to answer questions from the media as well as follow up on any additional questions from the investment community will be held at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time. These calls can be accessed at 1-800-231-5571. The live conference call and presentation slides may be accessed in "listen only" mode via the Cedar Fair web site (http://www.cedarfair.com). Both conference calls will be made available for replay starting at approximately 4:00 p.m. ET, Monday, May 22, 2006, until 11:59 p.m. ET, Monday, June 5, 2006. In order to access the replay of the conference call, please dial 1-877-519-4471 followed by the access code 7426624 for the investor call and access code 7426623 for the media call. Editors: B-roll of Cedar Fair's flagship amusement park, Cedar Point, is available for download via satellite: Date: May 22, 2006. Time: 10:00 to 10:15 EDT. Satellite: AMC 2. Transponder: 1. Audio: 6.2 MHz. 6.8 MHz. Down Link: 11720 Vertical Down. Trouble #: (440) 838-5377 Ext 254. Technical Contact: Jerry Patton, Classic Worldwide Productions, 5001 East Royalton Road, Cleveland, OH 44147. Phone: (440) 838-5377. Fax: (440) 838-1240. Some of the statements contained in this news release constitute forward- looking statements. These statements may involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such statements. Although the Partnership believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Important factors, including general economic conditions, competition for consumer leisure time and spending, adverse weather conditions, unanticipated construction delays and other factors could affect attendance at our parks and cause actual results to differ materially from the Partnership's expectations. In addition, risks and uncertainties concerning the acquisition include, but are not limited to, regulatory approval, the timely receipt of financing and the fulfillment of other specified closing conditions. PARK FACTS Cedar Fair, L.P. Paramount Parks Cedar Point & Soak City Kings Island - Sandusky, Ohio - Cincinnati, Ohio - Founded 1870 - Founded 1972 - 3.5 million visitors - 3.1 million visitors (includes water park) - more than 55 rides and - more than 65 rides and attractions attractions - 453 acres - 365 acres Knott's Berry Farm Canada's Wonderland - Buena Park, California - Toronto, Ontario - Founded 1920, Acquired 1997 - Founded 1981 - 3.6 million visitors - 3.3 million visitors - 755,000 visitors at three - more than 70 rides and California Soak City water parks attractions - more than 40 rides and attractions - 295 acres - 160 acres Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom Kings Dominion - Allentown, Pennsylvania - Richmond, Virginia - Founded 1884, Acquired 1992 - Founded 1975 - 1.5 million visitors - 2.1 million visitors - more than 75 rides and - more than 55 rides and attractions attractions - 200 acres - 264 acres Valleyfair Carowinds - Shakopee, Minnesota - Charlotte, North Carolina - Founded 1976, Acquired 1978 - Founded 1973 - 986,000 visitors - 1.9 million visitors - more than 40 rides and attractions - 45 rides and attractions - 160 acres - 246 acres Worlds of Fun & Oceans of Fun Great America - Kansas City, Missouri - Santa Clara, California - Founded 1973, Acquired 1995 - Founded 1976 - 1.1 million visitors - 1.8 million visitors - more than 40 rides and - more than 50 rides and attractions attractions - 350 acres - 180 acres (leased) Geauga Lake & Wildwater Kingdom - Cleveland, Ohio - Founded 1888, Acquired 2004 - 700,000 visitors - more than 50 rides and attractions - 670 acres Michigan's Adventure - Muskegon, Michigan - Founded 1988, Acquired 2001 - 550,000 visitors - more than 50 rides and attractions - 235 acres This press release and prior press releases are available online at http://www.cedarfair.com. ----------------------------------- Source: Cedar Fair, L.P. Regards, Ryan PKICentral.com - You know that last comment about not giving a darn about how they do it on America's Roller Coast? I was just kidding Mr. Kinzel.

I understand your train of thought, but I don't think the concept is unfeasable. Why not own your competition? That's kind of a win-win situation really. In response to those of you who are saying that they'll drop the Paramount name, I wouldn't count on that. I'm not saying that they'll probably remain PKI, I'm just saying that we simply don't know. If PP were to be bought out by an investment group, I wouldn't be shocked at all to still see the paramount name on the parks.

I know this is a bit late, but here it goes... I got to the park bright and early around 5:30am-ish to find that there weren't too many people there yet. Fortunately the crowds filtered in right on time so we weren't really short anyone. Around 5:45, Nathan (DirtySteve) showed up and not long after my good friends the Simon family showed up (their dad is my boss' boss' boss' boss' boss' at Best Buy, if that isn't awkward enough). Nonetheless, I had surrounded myself by some good people. Of course, to perfect the circle, Coaster N Sich and the one and only Karen showed up as well. We met up with Jennifer from marketing who asked me to lead a portion of the group to Reptar while the others went to Planton's Plunge. I must admit that it was nice being able to hand-pick my entire train. lol Long story short - we got in about 30 rides on Reptar, plus countless rides on Plunge and of course Avatar. I got to meet lot of nice and interesting people from different news agencies around the midwest, which is always thrilling. Around 9:00 we got a "break" (can't really call it a break when we're just riding rides, now can I?) and we took the opportunity to roam the park. Seeing the park in its dead and shut down phase is something that I have become accustomed to as I am up there often with my work on this site, but I must admit that I'll never entirely be used to it. Anyway, as we made our way back to NU still thinking that we had another hour or so to kill, we were asked to ride Avatar. (Darn... more work??) So we did. After a while, the rain started to come down so riding was over. SOB_Tom (oh yeah, forgot to mention that I gave him a ride up there), DirtySteve and I killed some time by tossing around a baseball under the old Nick Ampetheatre. Eventually we were given the all clear to leave. As we were walking out during a break in the storm, a guy came up to me and complemented the site. Of course, I graciously thanked him and made some small talk as we walked out of the park. Then he mentioned that he used to work for the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks and then it donned on me that this was Don Helbig that I was talking to. I know a lot of you know him, but I hadn't yet and found it to be quite an honor. We got along great considering the whole PKI thing and the fact that I was a Ducks season ticket holder for years. I thought that was cool. So then I went to Chipolte, and finally made it home. Long day, but quite a blast!

Seriously, hold your celebration to the end. You're not right quite yet. This was simply a small blurb as part of a big article. Also, weren't the parks on sale as one unit? Wouldn't CBS be more interested in dumping them all at once? This simply doesn't stack up. I think Kinzel was playiing the numbers game.

It's really hard to say. It all comes down to the demographic. People go to CP because they know it's a big thrill park while PKI seems to bank on the notion that they have a lot of season passholders and their organic growth would stem from keeping them in the park longer. It's really two totally different worlds.

Despite this news, I'd still be SHOCKED if CF was the loan buyer.

I can't wait to see how this all unfolds. You can love or hate Cedar Fair, but you have to admit, this is all exciting!

You very likely did. In fact, they were testing it yesterday around 10am or so... with 5 cars...

I totally agree. NOBODY should assure anything simply based off of what was posted in any forums unless it was a post by someone official, and no I don't take general employee heresay as being offical. Don't think I was knocking your site, I think you guys are doing a good job.

I can tell form the fourms of f of extremepki.com it will be opening This weekend and it has gone threw retracking if you call it that and from my sources say it will have only 5 cars instead of 6. So I hope it is open this weekend and alot more smoother. Oddly enough, yesterday at the filming PKI marketing as well as other employees were saying it was opening in June. Hmm... who to trust?

Despite the fact that it would take "thousands" getting the eagles going again, I still think that a lot of parks could afford them. It would even be nice to see PKI get them (although from what I understand they're un-snappable). In all of the negativity, let's take this time to appreciate that fact that despite the fact that Cincinnati amusements are at a loss, we still do have a wonderful park that continues to grow and change every year. You can claim you love or hate it, but if they didn't continually change, this would be the fate of our dear park.

Here's an idea Klocke: Go see School of Rock once it opens and then decide whether or not it's dumb. Trust me, the concept may "look" dumb to you for one reason or another, but it's rare that anyone is displeased with the show at all.

^ Unfortunately, a lot of new stations go on at 4:30-7am-ish so it would have been unfeasable to have it later. Then again, if any of you know me, you know that I HATE getting up early and I totally didn't regret this. It honestly was an awesome time!

This topic has run its course.

A very special thank you to everyone who showed up today.

I just wanted to thank everyone who got up bright and early to attend the media event at PKI today. For those of you who didn't go, you missed quite a good time. Some of us go upwards of 30 rides on Reptar! I'm sure they'll be doing different TV and commercial filmings in the future, and you guys will be the first to know. I'd recommend doing it at least once. A very special thank you goes out to Maureen and Jennifer for such a great opportunity and such a fun day! Regards, Ryan PKICentral.com - Jealousy, is that what it is?

Keep being a big kid Ryan. Based on what I've seen here you're becoming a fine young man. Woooooaaahh! What have you heard???

I think I understand what you mean... I'm almost 38, and the idea of being 21 again doesn't appeal to me at all. I think about the things I did and thought when I was that age, and realize how misplaced my priorities were. I think the absolute best thing about getting older is how much more comfortable you become with yourself and who you are. It also gives you the sense of presence to realize that I know a lot more than I did at 28, and I currently know a lot less than I will at 48. (And, to be honest, I'm in a lot better shape today than I was when I was 21...not nearly as much beer and junk food ) Of course, there are certainly some events that make me stop and say "I can't believe I'm that old!" For instance, my rapidly approaching 20-year high school class reunion, realizing that Ronald Reagan was President when I started college, and that a girl I went to high school with is now a grandmother!!! (Although, in fairness, she also had her first baby when we were 16, so she's always been on a somewhat accelerated course ) Ronald Regan was president when I was born. By the way, I'm 23 and that's like the worst age ever. It's definitely that "too old to be a boy, too young to be a man" age. But deep down inside, I'm just a big kid. Have a good day, Ryan

My exact thoughts. I have thought about this from the beginning of the season, I have just been afraid to say anything because I figured it would start a flamefest because no one wants to admit anything is wrong. Face it, Jeff was an awesome guy and he made everyone he talked to feel like he knew them and wanted to make sure THEY were having the best time in the park. JEFF WAS ONE PERSON! Doing the job of 10 PR people if you ask me. Now here is food for thought for your statement. Has things suffered BECAUSE Jeff has left? I doubt it, because we all know its about the money, but im sure there is a part of it. Also, how many CP commercials have you seen lately? And how many PKI commercials? No, Jeff was one of four people over the past few years doing the work of ten people (Jeff, Maureen, Stevie B, and Taney) just from the perspective of the outside PR as a guest. On the other hand, Maureen is one of two people (along with Jennifer) doing the job of ten people. I don't know how much her takehome is, but it's definitely not enough.

Actually, I'm willing to say that more people than not aren't familiar enough with the ride to know when things are working. i do however feel sorry for those people because they are being robbed of the true Tomb Raider experience.

I think they did it in 1996, does that sound right?

Are you talking about a "Fondest memories of PKI" thread or forum?

I still don't buy the idea that all of the Paramount themeing will be gone next year or any time soon. Unless another media company buys it, it's going to be less about promotion and more about money. I think licensing rights will definitely be part of the package.

I just got an email from Maureen Kaiser of Paramount's Kings Island marketing communications requesting your assistance. She is looking for 40 people: men, women, and children to participate in Nickelodeon Universe's satellite media event. She needs you bright and early at PKI at 5:45am and the filming will start around 6am and last through 8am. THEN she needs people at 11:30am to ride for about an hour. The rides that will be covered are Planton's Plunge, Avatar, and Rugrat's Runaway Reptar. Thanks in advance for those of you who decide to get there so early and help out. Maureen said breakfast would be provided but hey, what more can we ask than being able to get to the park on a day when it's closed, ride rides for hours, and get free breakfast? If you are interested, please make your reservations with Maureen Kaiser (Maureen.Kaiser@paramountparks.com). Thanks a billion everyone. Regards, Ryan PKICentral.com - Because we don't give a darn how they do it on America's Roller Coast.