Geauga Lakes El Dorado spotted at KD

[RockRaider]

KI is better than KD in many ways. You have many coasters, that KD fans want, just let KD get their 3 "USED" flat rides, and we get this "NEW" coaster, and STOP arguing. JUST BE COOL!

And KD is the only park I have ever been to.

[KIBeast]

I thought we had beaten that GL horse to death already.

I am saddened by GL's closure as well. It was a nice park that was too large for itself. And Geaugafan, CF did spend a lot on that waterpark, so it's not like they didn't invest. Just because it wasn't a coaster is no reason to be mad. The only thing I see wrong that CF did was not give any notice that GL was closing until after the season ended.

It's over....move on.

I'm kinda shocked that KD is getting El Dorado now instead of Head Spin.

[iChase]

What are you talking about there was so room to expand it was bigger then Cedar Point and if im correct i think its bigger then KI. Plus reasons that they sold was because their CEO was gaining to many park at one...kind of like Cedar Fair buying the Paramount Parks at once. And how could of it been flooded i dont get where you are getting that! And scare villagers away i dont get that either because there was way more people at the park there then there was during Cedar Fair years...i went every year it was Six Flags and i went once in 2004 and 2005 when it was Geauga Lake again and it plain flat out sucked i hated it. I had high expectations when Cedar Fair came in but with the removal of rides to make it a family park maybe you should think about putting in family attractions to still bring in people. Being to big was not the problem it was the company not doing the right things seriously do you think its wise to tear out 2 rides in one year and still expect people to come as much as they were i dont think so. Say an example like Wal-Mart came in and decided to take out all the supercenters and just make them half of what they were do you think the same amount of people would come just to get clothes when they used to be able to get everything i dont think so, or come to get just food when you used to be able to get clothes they just wont come if you do that!

Why don't ya sit the next couple of plays out, chief.

[jzarley]

Why don't ya sit the next couple of plays out, chief.

I don't laugh out loud when reading forums very often, but that line did it for me!

I plan on using that line iChase...in fact, I'm in a meeting this afternoon with a guy that it's tailor made for!

[RailRider]

Well now that we are digging this horse out of its grave let me get a few more kicks in.

Yes its sad that GL is gone. Get over it.

Heres a leasson in logic101. Park is strugling after massive coaster building spree. People aren't showing up and we just bought more land that we must incorporate in the park. More employees to run the park are needed, more rides to opperate, more bathrooms to clean(ok they left that off the list). Realization is park was way to big and the opp expesenses were insane for a park with that kind of attendance.

Solution sell the park or downsize. Wait SF doesnt downsize they sell. CF tries their hand at it.

The ship is unresponsive. So as its heading towards the massive iceberg of loss, the captain sounds the alrams and rides from the park are jetisoned as the ship goes down. Be thankfull you can visit other parks to rides most of GL signature rides and that you still have a nice water park to visit.

Now would you like some pie???

Im still bitter over the demise of OpryLand and no I cant go ride Chaos anywhere becuase it sat in a parking lot and rusted away, thank you SixFlags. But do you see me always complaining and whining? No.

Man up, grow up, and get over it.

Now back on topic Im glad to see these rides are getting utilized at KD. Elderado is a great looking Magic Carpet. I am gready and wish that Americana would have come to KI. I just think KI needs a giant wheel in Coney Mall.

[KDCOASTERFAN]

How do you know they were going to shut down you dont know what they were going to do no one does its not like you can skip to the future and see whats going on. With this new CEO of Six Flags that park could have been great and couldnt of you never know so stop saying that they were going to cause YOU DONT KNOW! Also the park hasnt been demolished yet the last time i checked there is still stuff there.

Looking back at the way SFI ran the park when they were in charge it is clear to see that,had they remained in charge they wouldv'e shut it down just as they did SFAW.It's a safe bet that this is what they outcome would've been,of course we'll never know one way or the other as SFI washed their hands of the park the minute they sold it to CF.

What's done is done & there's simply no going back. Crying about it on a messageboard won't change it.You still have CP & KI to go to,and I'm sure that you will once you get over your anger at the situation.

I can remember how EVERYONE said they'd forever boycott SF parks after SFAW's closure & yet in three years how many of those people who swore they'd never return to another SF park have gone to one?Quite a lot,that's how many.

[RecaraceR]

What a weird coincidence.

1. I was wondering what happened to El Dorado

and

2. I was planning on going to Busch Gardens Europe again at the end of this summer. Looks like a trip to Kings Dominion is in my plans now. But then again, the ride will probably not be installed until next year, so I'm not sure what to do in that situation. Probably wait it out. El Dorado/Mirage was my first 1001 Nachts ride, and to see it not being scrapped is great.

About the Geauga Lake closure thing, I won't get too far into that, but it's kinda suspicious how there wasn't much of an effort made to fix the park's rides when Cedar Fair owned it (which doesn't bode well because of word-of-mouth running rampant, causing people to not visit) until it was way too late, and it's also weird how the attendance went up in the '07 season, but CF decided to close the park anyway, giving the excuse that attendance was way down, when in fact it was up from past years. I'm sure there being a shopping center across from its former spot for the past two years might have actually helped more traffic get to the park's general area.

On the other side, I can kinda see why CF decided to close the park, but it was CF who didn't really try to improve the park much. The last two times I visited (in 2005 and 2007, respectively), I counted no less than 5 rides each time that were not running on those days. It was ridiculous. That's one of the best ways to lose customers.

Six Flags improved it too much too fast. All those coasters they added, and the extreme renovations, really put a dent in their profits. But at least they still had lots of people visiting the park. Almost none of the coasters were walk-ons (except Mind Eraser/Head Spin-- but that ride's painful anyway), and most flat rides had good ridership, even the ones in Happy Harbor. I'm guessing in the later years of SF owning the park that visitation dwindled since my last visit; I don't know if that's true 'cause the last time I went to SFWoA was back in '03 sometime, right before Cedar Fair got the park.

So yeah, both sides have immensely good points, but something just didn't seem right about this whole thing. I don't really believe there was a conspiracy as much as I believe they made a knee-jerk reaction.

[KIBeast]

Are you sure about GL's attendance being up? From all I know, CF does not release park by park attendance figures.

About the Geauga Lake closure thing, I won't get too far into that, but it's kinda suspicious how there wasn't much of an effort made to fix the park's rides when Cedar Fair owned it (which doesn't bode well because of word-of-mouth running rampant, causing people to not visit) until it was way too late,

The only ride really left unfixed was Raging Wolf Bobs and that was in the last season. You also have to take into consideration that park's budget. They just don't tap other parks' cash flows to fix a problem at another. I know they have a maintenance budget, but we have no way of knowing what that was.

[RecaraceR]

Are you sure about GL's attendance being up? From all I know, CF does not release park by park attendance figures.

The only ride really left unfixed was Raging Wolf Bobs and that was in the last season. You also have to take into consideration that park's budget. They just don't tap other parks' cash flows to fix a problem at another. I know they have a maintenance budget, but we have no way of knowing what that was.

Yep, it was in a few links which I can't find right now. I'll keep looking for them, but apparently, the attendance went up by a little over 100,000, which is pretty sizable for a park like that.

And they also left Steel Venom there to rot, pretty much, until Cedar Fair could install it at Dorney. But heck, they had it fixed later when it was installed there.

But my main point here is, you can't close a park because it's not doing as well as you expected it to, when you're part of the reason why the park isn't doing so hot. If CF had tried a bit harder to fix some of the broken rides, and keep at least some of the animals, the ride side would have still been open for a little while. But then they built that waterpark, saw the apparently high attendance at said waterpark, took the easy way out, and got rid of the ride park.

And if they didn't have enough of a maintenance budget, why bother buying the park in the first place? I don't see why they'd buy another park if they couldn't afford maintenance charges. After all, accidents happen, and rides break down.

[KIBeast]

If the 100,000 is true, then you have a point.

Steel Venom was worked on several times that I observed, so I would hardly call that left to rot.

But my main point here is, you can't close a park because it's not doing as well as you expected it to, when you're part of the reason why the park isn't doing so hot. If CF had tried a bit harder to fix some of the broken rides, and keep at least some of the animals, the ride side would have still been open for a little while. But then they built that waterpark, saw the apparently high attendance at said waterpark, took the easy way out, and got rid of the ride park.

CF did admit that they underestimated the draw of the animals. However, Sea World dipped out when they sold it to SF. Many specualte (and are more than likely correct) that it was way too much money to feed and house the animals year round when the payoff was just mere months. CF was not the reason GL wasn't doing so hot. SF left a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths and it obviously was not something that could have been easily fixed. You also admit that keeping some of the animals would have helped keep the ride side open "for a little while". Sounds to me like you concede that the ride side would have closed eventually, but maybe not exactly when it did. They built that awesome waterpark because waterparks draw families and to try and bring back some of that "good feeling" that GL had pre-SF. It worked to an extent, but it still was not enough.

I'm finished debating about GL. The dead horse told me, "Hey! Wasn't I beaten enough when I was alive?"

[KDCOASTERFAN]

At least the park lives on in the form of some rides continuing to operate at other locations.

[The Interpreter]

People do keep posting here as if Six Flags Worlds of Adventure did not have a marine side and the animals. It did. It was Cedar Fair who decided NOT to acquire said animals. Mr. Kinzel rather famously observed that "Cedar Fair is not in the animal business." Six Flags would have been happy to sell said animals to Cedar Fair...rather than move them to New Jersey and California. Every move a whale? It's not easy.

http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-n...308/021302.html

[iChase]

Why don't ya sit the next couple of plays out, chief.

I don't laugh out loud when reading forums very often, but that line did it for me!

I plan on using that line iChase...in fact, I'm in a meeting this afternoon with a guy that it's tailor made for!

Heh, use it to it's fullest extent!

[RailRider]

People do keep posting here as if Six Flags Worlds of Adventure did not have a marine side and the animals. It did. It was Cedar Fair who decided NOT to acquire said animals. Mr. Kinzel rather famously observed that "Cedar Fair is not in the animal business." Six Flags would have been happy to sell said animals to Cedar Fair...rather than move them to New Jersey and California. Every move a whale? It's not easy.

http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-n...308/021302.html

Now this is how you move a whale...

Seems easy enough...

Seriously I greatly enjoyed GL the first year it was SFWoA, unfortunately after that year it was all downhill.

[KIBeast]

People do keep posting here as if Six Flags Worlds of Adventure did not have a marine side and the animals. It did. It was Cedar Fair who decided NOT to acquire said animals. Mr. Kinzel rather famously observed that "Cedar Fair is not in the animal business." Six Flags would have been happy to sell said animals to Cedar Fair...rather than move them to New Jersey and California. Every move a whale? It's not easy.

http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-n...308/021302.html

I read the entire thread again and have yet to find anyone who said SFWOA didn't have an animal side. What I did read, however, is that a couple of folks mentioned Sea World selling off the animal side to SF. Just wondering where you got that.

[KDCOASTERFAN]

People do keep posting here as if Six Flags Worlds of Adventure did not have a marine side and the animals. It did. It was Cedar Fair who decided NOT to acquire said animals. Mr. Kinzel rather famously observed that "Cedar Fair is not in the animal business." Six Flags would have been happy to sell said animals to Cedar Fair...rather than move them to New Jersey and California. Every move a whale? It's not easy.

http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-n...308/021302.html

I read the entire thread again and have yet to find anyone who said SFWOA didn't have an animal side. What I did read, however, is that a couple of folks mentioned Sea World selling off the animal side to SF. Just wondering where you got that.

It was sold prior to the 01 season hence the name change that year from SFO to SFWOA.

[KIBeast]

Yeah, I know. That wasn't the point. Show me where anyone stated that Sea World and the animals were not part of SF.