Geauga Lake

[KI Kevin]

I searched through several pages and didn't really have the time to search through 25 pages of results. If someone finds something, please post it on here.

A few questions:

-Anyone know the truth of the shutdown? Some say it was Six Flags who destroyed it. CF said they wanted to make it into more of a family, picnic park, then didn't, so I don't know the truth in that. Others say CF thought it was taking away crowds from their beloved flagship, so the gradually removed things here and there until they finally pulled the plug.

-Is the waterpark any good? From the website it doesn't even look as good as Boomerang Bay.

-How many rides are still standing? I know the Big Dipper is, but what are the others? Carousel?

-When were the park's best years to visit? I personally think that when it was Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure it looked pretty neat.

-How long will Wildwater Kingdom last? I think I heard something about this being the last year. Watch them make the announcement after the season ends.

-Is there ANY chance, WHATSOEVER, that the park will EVER open back up its amusement side? It's a great location for a park: circling a lake.

A few thoughts:

-Seeing this really makes me lose some respect for Cedar Fair. 121 years of history, gone.

-It looked like a great park in its SFWoA, SFO, and even earlier Cedar Fair days. Not to mention the years when it was just Geauga Lake, no SF or CF.

Those are just a few of the things I wonder.

A great site is Geauga Lake: Today and Forever.

[Phantom Theater]

Well, I think that the Raging Wolf Bobs is still standing. I think i saw a pic of it on News Plus Notes. Other then that, I really think they shouldve kept it open. But if it was making them lose money they had to to, what they had to do. Couldnt they have tried to sell it to another company?

[KI Kevin]

^Six Flags certainly wouldn't buy it.

[Phantom Theater]

Well, of course not, but their are other not-major companys out their. Like when they sold Hard Rock Park it became Freestyle, I dont think thats a major company, but I could be wrong.

[PhantomTheater]

-Anyone know the truth of the shutdown? Some say it was Six Flags who destroyed it. CF said they wanted to make it into more of a family, picnic park, then didn't, so I don't know the truth in that. Others say CF thought it was taking away crowds from their beloved flagship, so the gradually removed things here and there until they finally pulled the plug.

It is believed attendance was rising in 07 even though CF claimed they were flat.

-Is the waterpark any good? From the website it doesn't even look as good as Boomerang Bay.

The first waterpark at GL was better than WWK

-How many rides are still standing? I know the Big Dipper is, but what are the others? Carousel?

BD is standing, carousel is there "awaiting refurbishment and moved to another CF park" (CF fails at carousel maintenance) and RWB is only wooden frame and cannot run again.

-When were the park's best years to visit? I personally think that when it was Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure it looked pretty neat.

To me the glory years were late Funtime era from 88-95 and the Premier era from 96-99. SF Ohio wasn't bad, Combined Sea World/GL should never have happened IMO, however it did create a mega park which drew over 2 million visitors.

-How long will Wildwater Kingdom last? I think I heard something about this being the last year. Watch them make the announcement after the season ends.

If it last, they need to expand it

-Is there ANY chance, WHATSOEVER, that the park will EVER open back up its amusement side? It's a great location for a park: circling a lake.

There is always a chance, however Bainbridge and Aurora havent been to helpfull

A few thoughts:

-Seeing this really makes me lose some respect for Cedar Fair. 121 years of history, gone.

-It looked like a great park in its SFWoA, SFO, and even earlier Cedar Fair days. Not to mention the years when it was just Geauga Lake, no SF or CF.

It was, it really was and I can never forgive CF and it's CEO for what happened.

[KI Kevin]

Oh and also, incidents have been reported when people asked the GM of Geauga on its last day as an amusement park, if the rumors about shutting down were true, and he said something like "you shouldn't believe a teenager's rant on the internet." I'm sorry but he obviously knew about it, so isn't that a thing called "lying"?

[Browns4life]

Alot of things went into the demise of the park... The cities that the parks were in, hated all of the noise, traffic, and things that go into a major amusement park. Now that the park is closed they are complaining about the lack of tourism and loss of money... You can never make anyone happy.

IMO Cedar Fair knew exactly what they were going to do when they bought it back in 2004... It was so obvious that attendance was starting to rise. I was there closing weekend and all of the major rides had lines...I know Oktoberfest was going on, but still... I dont think Cedar Fair wanted the park to stay open, I think they were more interested in the rides, so they could move them.

I loved the Six Flags days...The rides were amazing, and you could see animals and go to a pretty nice waterpark. I mean, you could buy a season pass for 50 bucks!!! Villain was world class from 2000-2003, very good at night, equal to The Beast IMO. Batman/Dominator was the best ride in the park!!! The air you got in the back seat coming off the mid course was nuts!!! Double Loop was a classic. Big Dipper had the most airtime ever, you were standing the whole time on the return trip. I loved the animals it was just a great park to walk around, very nice. Most of the rides side at night was pretty dark, so the rides you got were out of this world. Geauga Lake was also the first North American Park to get a Huss Top Spin back in 1993.

The waterpark they have today is nice, but small, nothing original, just your standard slides and such.

I dont think we will ever see the amusement park open again. Unless i win the biggest Mega Millions jackpot, then I will put most of my money towards it haha!!!

[Browntggrr]

Oh and also, incidents have been reported when people asked the GM of Geauga on its last day as an amusement park, if the rumors about shutting down were true, and he said something like "you shouldn't believe a teenager's rant on the internet." I'm sorry but he obviously knew about it, so isn't that a thing called "lying"?

He never denied it, so it is not lying. It's a grey area, but what would have been accomplished by telling people that it was going to close?

As far as letting everyone know about the park's closing, it's a double edged sword. If the announcement came before the park closed, security could have been an issue. I was at the last Browns game before idiot Modell moved the team, and it was a near riot atmosphere. Granted, the crowds at GL would not even be close to that type of crowd, but the potential is there for incidents to happen.

What type of people will work the closing park? Will they care what is happening?

There are so many questions & opinions about the decision to close. In business, the bottom line is making money. If it's not making money, it's gonna close. Just like people losing their jobs- if there is no work for them to do, the company is not making money; and hence, they get laid-off.

[Tomkatt7]

I searched through several pages and didn't really have the time to search through 25 pages of results. If someone finds something, please post it on here.

A few questions:

-Anyone know the truth of the shutdown? Some say it was Six Flags who destroyed it. CF said they wanted to make it into more of a family, picnic park, then didn't, so I don't know the truth in that. Others say CF thought it was taking away crowds from their beloved flagship, so the gradually removed things here and there until they finally pulled the plug.

-Is the waterpark any good? From the website it doesn't even look as good as Boomerang Bay.

-How many rides are still standing? I know the Big Dipper is, but what are the others? Carousel?

-When were the park's best years to visit? I personally think that when it was Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure it looked pretty neat.

-How long will Wildwater Kingdom last? I think I heard something about this being the last year. Watch them make the announcement after the season ends.

-Is there ANY chance, WHATSOEVER, that the park will EVER open back up its amusement side? It's a great location for a park: circling a lake.

A few thoughts:

-Seeing this really makes me lose some respect for Cedar Fair. 121 years of history, gone.

-It looked like a great park in its SFWoA, SFO, and even earlier Cedar Fair days. Not to mention the years when it was just Geauga Lake, no SF or CF.

Those are just a few of the things I wonder.

A great site is Geauga Lake: Today and Forever.

I think as you get more and more replies to this subject, this is what you will find.

Many people think that Six Flags built the park too quickly, adding coasters to compete with Cedar Point, without maintaining, or remodeling the older parts of the park. The surmounting debt, along with a disgruntled public not willing to pay premier prices for a sub-par park caused it to lose more money than it was worth. Six Flags bailed on the project, selling it to Cedar Fair, who tried to correct the problems, but couldn't. They decided to keep the water park open, but do away with the rides section.

The other group of people will say simply, Cedar Fair is evil. They took a chance to buy a park that was close to their flag-ship. After buying it, they dismantled it with no intentions of ever trying to keep it operating. There was no sense in operating a park so close to their other park. So they moved the coasters out, that they could move, and trashed the rest. History be darned.

You will probably have no luck in finding any facts to support either theory, I just know of these by reading about it on here, and from my own park experience.

I think everyone fits in to one of the these two groups. You just need to figure out what sounds closer to the truth to you.

[BavarianBeatle]

I look at it like this.... If I was in Cedar Fair's position, what would I have done?

[CedarPointer]

If CF didn't want to run it, they would have tried to sell it. Apparently, they didn't.

[Browntggrr]

If CF didn't want to run it, they would have tried to sell it. Apparently, they didn't.

How do you know that they didn't try and sell it?

And who was in the market to even purchase the park?

[flightoffear1996]

I went to GL the year it was closed. While I enjoyed some of the rides they had there such as Dominator I can see why the park wasn't succeful. Instead of staying smaller family park which was what the main midways appeared to be built for. I could only think how crammed the midways must get on a crowded day. The Big Dipper was one of the better rides there. I didnt see too many places to eat or by gifts but I didn't really look as my visit was only a few hours on a Saturday a sunny Saturday. I was able to ride all the coasters and Dominator many many times. It would have been better left as a small family park.

[The Interpreter]

If CF didn't want to run it, they would have tried to sell it. Apparently, they didn't.

And why on earth would you sell property to someone who is going to compete with you?

Unless the buyer was going to pay many times the fair market value, that would make no sense whatsoever.

[Browntggrr]

I went to GL the year it was closed. While I enjoyed some of the rides they had there such as Dominator I can see why the park wasn't succeful.

So you went the year the park was not open and still enjoyed the rides?

That's a pretty good day!

[flightoffear1996]

ok the last year it was opened is what I ment to say.

[Tomkatt7]

I went to the park in 2001. I think thats when it was. It was the first year of the "Batman" rollercoaster.

During that trip I vowed to never return to the park again. It was terrible.

Living in Columbus, there are too many options, too many parks we can visit for us to deal with the B.S. that was going on there.

This was before I was a member of this site. I did not distinguish between Geauga Lake, Six Flags, Cedar Fair, or anything else.

In my mind. Geauga Lake is a horrible park. Why go back?

[faeriewench]

I liked it better before Six Flags took it over. Specially SeaWorld.. If I wanted thrill rides, I just went to Cedar Point.

I only rode Dominator and X-Flight.. Both were walk-ons

[Dalefan]

I was at the park 3 times. Once when it was Six Flags and 2 times when it was a Cedar Fair park. The Cedar Fair park was way better. Six Flags ran it into the ground. Bad employees who was rude, didnt care and the park was dirty. Cedar Fair took it over and made it better or tryed. The park never seemed busy the last 2 times i went. The park price was $24.99 i beleave when Cedar Fair took over. Cedar Fair paid $140 million for it when they bought it from Six Flags. The water park on the otherside of Geauga Lake was to be built in 2 parts. They opened the 1st part the year the park closed and the 2nd one after the park closed. They felt the water park side did better money wise, so they kept it. When i seen the 1st part of the water park, it was bigger then when they had the water park on the ride side of Geauga Lake. Six Flags left Ohio all together when they sold the water park to The Columbus Zoo back in 2007. When Six Flags owned the water park, it was bad. The rides were old, the slides needed replaced, and the park was run down. The only new slides they got in the last 5 years they owned the water park was just the normal ones. The Columbus Zoo took it over and its better. Funny thing is, The Zoo only paid $2 million for the water park when they bought it. And that was for everything.

[PREMiERdrum]

I went to the park in 2001. I think thats when it was. It was the first year of the "Batman" rollercoaster.

During that trip I vowed to never return to the park again. It was terrible.

Living in Columbus, there are too many options, too many parks we can visit for us to deal with the B.S. that was going on there.

This was before I was a member of this site. I did not distinguish between Geauga Lake, Six Flags, Cedar Fair, or anything else.

In my mind. Geauga Lake is a horrible park. Why go back?

Also living in Columbus, I agree wholeheartedly. I visited in the mid 90's as Geauga Lake, SFO, SFWoA, and then Geauga Lake again. The newer rides were decent, but the park just couldn't handle all the visitors they had (especially after the combination of the old Sea World property). The paths were too narrow (and illogically laid out), there weren't enough bathrooms, and the high demand on those facilities ensured that they were hardly ever found clean, and the waterpark that SF built (Hurrican Harbor - renamed Hurricane Hanna's under CF) was way too cramped for the crowds the park was drawing.

The SFO/SFWoA expansions show exactly what was wrong with Six Flags management at the time: they focused on adding big ticket roller coasters (and added 5 coasters in just 2 years at SFO) with little regard to guest experience.

While the attraction list at WWK is a bit slim, the park itself is gorgeous, and it seems like CF is taking baby steps towards improving the park. NewsPlusNotes posted a link to a photobucket album of WWK pictures this season, and the park looked gorgeous.

It's always sad to see a park go, and you'll hear many different people say many different things about why the park closed. I'd say that the park's fate was just about sealed when SF overbuilt the park to be a CP competitor. I think that CF's attempts at rightsizing the park were genuine (I really think it's obvious they were shooting to model the park after Michigan's Adventure: the waterpark had been GL's big draw [apart from that fish next door] for years), but the Paramount Parks purchase caused them to focus their efforts on the new properties. I think had they seen the severity of the coming recession (and subsequent collapse of the real estate market, especially in saturated markets like Aurora), they would have kept a pared-down rides side open for a few more years (Big Dipper, Villian, the flume, rapids ride, and flats). Hindsight is 20/20, and Ohio is still blessed to have 2 top notch regional parks, several world class zoos (including the #1 in the US), and a handful of really nice water parks.

[PREMiERdrum]

Sorry for the double post, but there's a bit more I think I should say about the former management team of SIX and their thought process.

There's another company who has been failed by a critical flaw in their decision making process that is strikingly similar to Six Flags: And that is General Motors.

Both companies, for years, have set their target on their competitors instead of their guests. If you look back about 10 years, to the time when GM was realigning their brands to try to save the customer base of the outgoing Oldsmobile brand, you'll see that they worked hard, and spent tons of money, trying to chase other brands. Cadillac was to become their "BMW fighter." Buick was to be their "Lexus fighter." Investment in the future Chevrolet Malibu was ramped up so that it could be their "Camry fighter." In the last 4 or 5 years, in the wake of Honda, Ford, and Toyota publicly announcing that transaction prices had gone up substantially, indicating strong customer demand for new, expensive options like navigation systems, heated and air conditioned seats, and panoramic glass roofs, GM saw this as a push to take their Saturn brand upmarket. They started throwing all kinds of money into importing and rebranding Opel models from Europe, which were very nice, but expensive. The new Aura, Astra, and new VUE arrived to dealers with critical acclaim, and they sat. And sat.

Where did they go wrong? They set their sights on, and targeted, their competitors instead of their customers. They didn't care that Saturn had been a brand of inexpensive, economical, and reasonably solid cars, for more than 10 years. They saw what others were doing and followed, with no regard for who THIER customers were.

Six Flags did the exact same thing with SFO. They set their sights on Cedar Point, and looked to defeat them by copying them. What they got so very wrong is that Cedar Point isn't just a coaster park. They have a great collection of flats, good shows, 3 solid childrens areas, and a strong resort atmosphere which brings in visitors from a much larger geographical area than Geauga Lake ever had.

What they SHOULD have done is to target Cedar Point's guests... why do they go to Cedar Point? Where does that park have some weaknesses that we can exploit? What can we do different from them that will bring people here instead of there? I see a few weaknesses that could have been exploited - the value proposition, as well as the quality and value of food service. What if Six Flags had only added one or two new headline attractions (instead of 4), and included free parking? Free soft drinks? High quality, affordable food options? All of those things are very marketable, and would have done wonders for retaining customers. SF had no problem getting them through the gates (attracting as many as 2 million a year), but they failed at keeping them as customers. The experience from the view of their target customer (families who come into the park and spend) was not a good one.

I think that offering in the wildlife park was very nice, but I think that if a marine life park in northern Ohio was a money making venture, Sea World would have stayed in the business.

[Coasterfun]

Sorry for the double post, but there's a bit more I think I should say about the former management team of SIX and their thought process.

There's another company who has been failed by a critical flaw in their decision making process that is strikingly similar to Six Flags: And that is General Motors.

Both companies, for years, have set their target on their competitors instead of their guests. If you look back about 10 years, to the time when GM was realigning their brands to try to save the customer base of the outgoing Oldsmobile brand, you'll see that they worked hard, and spent tons of money, trying to chase other brands. Cadillac was to become their "BMW fighter." Buick was to be their "Lexus fighter." Investment in the future Chevrolet Malibu was ramped up so that it could be their "Camry fighter." In the last 4 or 5 years, in the wake of Honda, Ford, and Toyota publicly announcing that transaction prices had gone up substantially, indicating strong customer demand for new, expensive options like navigation systems, heated and air conditioned seats, and panoramic glass roofs, GM saw this as a push to take their Saturn brand upmarket. They started throwing all kinds of money into importing and rebranding Opel models from Europe, which were very nice, but expensive. The new Aura, Astra, and new VUE arrived to dealers with critical acclaim, and they sat. And sat.

Where did they go wrong? They set their sights on, and targeted, their competitors instead of their customers. They didn't care that Saturn had been a brand of inexpensive, economical, and reasonably solid cars, for more than 10 years. They saw what others were doing and followed, with no regard for who THIER customers were.

Six Flags did the exact same thing with SFO. They set their sights on Cedar Point, and looked to defeat them by copying them. What they got so very wrong is that Cedar Point isn't just a coaster park. They have a great collection of flats, good shows, 3 solid childrens areas, and a strong resort atmosphere which brings in visitors from a much larger geographical area than Geauga Lake ever had.

What they SHOULD have done is to target Cedar Point's guests... why do they go to Cedar Point? Where does that park have some weaknesses that we can exploit? What can we do different from them that will bring people here instead of there? I see a few weaknesses that could have been exploited - the value proposition, as well as the quality and value of food service. What if Six Flags had only added one or two new headline attractions (instead of 4), and included free parking? Free soft drinks? High quality, affordable food options? All of those things are very marketable, and would have done wonders for retaining customers. SF had no problem getting them through the gates (attracting as many as 2 million a year), but they failed at keeping them as customers. The experience from the view of their target customer (families who come into the park and spend) was not a good one.

I think that offering in the wildlife park was very nice, but I think that if a marine life park in northern Ohio was a money making venture, Sea World would have stayed in the business.

One of the best posts I've read, I think you are right on the money.

[bkroz]

Anyone know the truth of the shutdown? Some say it was Six Flags who destroyed it. CF said they wanted to make it into more of a family, picnic park, then didn't, so I don't know the truth in that. Others say CF thought it was taking away crowds from their beloved flagship, so the gradually removed things here and there until they finally pulled the plug.

Six Flags did not destroy the park. It was unquestionably among their top three parks as far as its ride-priority (it got new rides before a lot of other parks), investment, and attendance. The county line runs right down the center of the lake, and it turns out that the side SeaWorld was on didn't allow structures over x amount of feet, thereby eliminating the addition of roller coasters. All of the other SeaWorld parks had started adding coasters (like Kraken in Orlando, Steel Eel in San Diego, etc.), and the Ohio park was getting left behind. On top of that, it simply costs a LOT of money to operate a marine animal park for about five months, then move each and every animal down to Florida for seven. That's expensive. So SeaWorld offered to buy Six Flags Ohio. Six Flags denied, but instead offered to buy SeaWorld, who accepted.

As you know, that made the world's largest Six Flags: Complete water park, complete amusement park, and complete marine park. It really was quite spectacular. In their first two years of owning the park, Six Flags added an unprecedented five coasters (Batman: Knight Flight, Superman: Ultimate Escape, The Villian, X-Flight, and Road Runner Express), which to my knowledge is still the largest expansion ever to occur at a seasonal park. On top of that, they also brought in new whales, dolphins, penguins, sharks, flamingos, every single animal that SeaWorld had left with. Six Flags was dead serious about this park.

Cedar Fair is responsible for ruining it no questions asked. There's a lot of debate as to how exactly, but there are so many reasons. They removed all the licensed characters (as they had to), but half-heartedly, renaming the rights seemingly overnight with no regard to the park's atmosphere. For example, Superman: Ultimate Escape was renamed Steel Venom. The structure remained red and blue with a S-Shield shaped sign, simply changed out for a black, purple, and silver snake logo inside of it. Batman: Knight Flight became Dominator, with the Batman symbols literally burned off of the seatbacks, and giant "W"s for Wayne rusted and burnt onto the building. Loony Toons Boomtown, instead of bringing in a new character base, was simply stripped of Loony Toons and renamed KidzWorkz.

Not to mention they halted all regional advertising. Six Flags advertised in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, even New York, and got visitors from all areas. Cedar Fair wanted to have more of a local feel to the park, so they only advertised locally. Why you'd want to reduce your demographic is beyond me, but it's a fact that they did. And, since Six Flags and Kings Island were arguably Cedar Point's only competition, buying them (albeit, one at a time) literally created a monopoly. Though many don't consider it, Ohio truly was a Mecca of theme parks. Besides California and Florida, we truly were next in line. We had the world's largest Six Flags, Cedar Fair's flagship, Paramount's flagship, and an Busch Adventure Park. Today, they're all owned by Cedar Fair, and all have been downgraded in one way or another for it.

Plus, before Six Flags came, the park had a boomerang, a double loop, and two woodies... Not much to destroy, is it? And I don't see how adding five coasters could destroy it any way.

-Is the waterpark any good? From the website it doesn't even look as good as Boomerang Bay.

In short, no. It is part of the waterpark that Six Flags had built on the Wild Rides side of the lake (Hurricane Harbor). They just transferred it over to the other side to market it as "new". Six Flags' water park was Hurricane Harbor. When Cedar Fair bought it, it was renamed Hurricane Hannah's (that sign, of course, is now used for the restaurant just inside the entrance to Cedar Point.), and when they moved it to the other side of the lake, they renamed it Wildwater Kingdom to match Dorney Park.

-When were the park's best years to visit? I personally think that when it was Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure it looked pretty neat.

Six Flags was undescribable. As a kid, I have distinct memories of being at Six Flags, terrified, and wishing I was across the lake at SeaWorld. To look across the lake and see those signature whale stadiums was so sad. Of course, when I grew up, it was quote the opposite... Stuck at SeaWorld watching Batman roaring through the cobra roll and Serial Thriller flying down the hill... It sucked. When it was Worlds of Adventure, it was so amazing to walk between the two.

-How long will Wildwater Kingdom last? I think I heard something about this being the last year. Watch them make the announcement after the season ends

.

Who knows. Water parks in Ohio are about as hard to maintain as marine parks in Ohio, and have an even shorter season. Plus, revenue at water parks is entirely different - People don't carry money on them when they're in a bathing suit, so they buy less drinks, less food, fewer t-shirts, etc. Plus, the costs of running waterpark are about the same as running a roller coaster... One uses a chain lift, one uses recycled, pumped, and chlorinated water.

Essentially, Cedar Fair ruined it. Six Flags: Worlds of Adventure truly was incredible. Though to a lesser extent than Kings Island, it was another example of a theme park bought by an amusement park company. And every single thing that Cedar Fair did led to its demise. Removing Loony Toons was necessary, but they brought in no replacement. Insisting on limiting advertisement was a ridiculous step. Simply relocating the old water park and marketing it as "new" was stupid.

And let's not forgot, just when the park needed the most, they removed X-Flight and Superman / Steel Venom, arguably the park's two star rides, and then with true insanity (insanity defined as doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result), couldn't understand why attendance wasn't at its highest the next season.

Everyone complains that Six Flags employees weren't high quality. Well I guess you've made your point, because now there are no employees. I'd rather have Batman: Knight Flight back in Ohio than a warm smile and greeting from a ticket-taker. Sorry, I just would. The pathways were narrow, yes. But the park also was empty while Cedar Fair owned it. Literally, a five minute wait on Dominator. I believe that the year it closed, Geauga Lake was the third worst-performing Cedar Fair park. Even during its infamous last seasons when it was arguably a walk-on for each and every ride, it performed better than Michigan's Adventure and Great America.

We went from this:

To this:

And it's embarassing.

[jzarley]

^ You make some interesting points, and I agree SF WoA was an amazing concept. SF put an incredible amount of capital into the park, and I've also never agreed with the argument that SF "destroyed" the park. (If anything, they overbuilt it for what the market could realistically bear...)

However, I do think customer service means more than just a "smiling ticket taker", and that was an ongoing issue for the "old" Six Flags. (I do believe Shapiro & company have made definite strides in this area...) I found food service (in particular) to be pretty bad at both SFO and SFWoA. (The only consistently worse food service I've found is at the Columbus Zoo, which I find odd because everything else there is top notch, but I digress...)

I'm certainly no CF fan-boy (I criticize them quite frequently, actually), but it's not like CF performed a hostile takeover of the park. So, the question remains that if SFWoA really had such potential under SF's ownership, why did they sell? More specifically, why did they sell it so cheaply? (CF paid $144M for the whole SFWoA property, which was actually less than what SF paid for just the Sea World property a few years earlier...) Granted, the writing was already on the wall about SIX's serious financial situation, but there were lots of other parks they could have unloaded for the cash if SFWoA had long term viability.

[PREMiERdrum]

As you know, that made the world's largest Six Flags: Complete water park, complete amusement park, and complete marine park. It really was quite spectacular. In their first two years of owning the park, Six Flags added an unprecedented five coasters (Batman: Knight Flight, Superman: Ultimate Escape, The Villian, X-Flight, and Road Runner Express), which to my knowledge is still the largest expansion ever to occur at a seasonal park. On top of that, they also brought in new whales, dolphins, penguins, sharks, flamingos, every single animal that SeaWorld had left with. Six Flags was dead serious about this park.

Adding lots of roller coasters is not an indicator of a quality park experience. Having lots of rides is great, but if the time you spend in between them is miserable, the people aren't coming back. The paths were too small. There weren't enough facilities. I had probably 20-30 visits to the park under Six Flags (we used to get Wyandot Lake season passes for only $40, which were good for all Sis Flags parks), and a great number of the employees were rude. Not just lacking smiles, but downright rude. Knight Flight, Superman, and X Flight were great rides, few dispute that. Six Flags succeeded in concept and failed in execution. Their projections for SFWoA as a combined property were decided by adding the reported attendance from Sea World to that of SFO. I thought this was a rumor until I spoke to someone who did consulting for the park. They figured that any guest duplication in the projections would be offset by new guests brought in by their new ad push.

Like I said earlier, the wildlife park was most impressive, and the only area of the park that could handle the crowds. The money associated with operating the marine life park year round obviously wasn't compensated for in the open-season revenues.

I'd argue that if the park were as successful as you portray it, it would still have six flags flying at the entrance... there's no argument here that the park was impressive, but I think SIX had to get out from under the operational costs that were crushing them.

[bkroz]

I can obviously understand why it closed - marine park in Northern Ohio? It is a bit crazy. But so is a water park when you think about it. The operational costs for a marine park are just much higher. The narrow pathways thing is true, but hardly crippling to the park, considering that by the time Cedar Fair owned the park, there weren't enough patrons to crowd the pathways, so that certainly wasn't the main reason for the park's downfall. Cedar Point has some cramped areas, as well, and a rather laborious and tiring layout. Even two "closely located" rides like Maverick and Magnum are a good fifteen minute walk from each other.

I believe that were Six Flags Worlds of Adventure located in California or even a southern state not known for amusement parks, it would've been incredibly successful. The cost of transporting killer whales, dolphins, sea lions, seals, and walruses to a from California every six months would be crippling to any park. Did Cedar Fair come into possession of the most perfect park on Earth? No. Was Six Flags overexpanded? Arguably. But you can't honestly tell me that Cedar Fair wanted their newly aquired Geauga Lake to be tied with, or even comparable with Cedar Point.

Like people who are saying "Shouldn't Intimidator305 be like Millennium 2.0 and fix all the issues Millennium had and be better than Millennium?" I ask you, do you think Cedar Fair was pushing Intamin to create a roller coaster that the public would consider better than Millennium Force? Do you think that Intamin was challenged to far overshadow Millennium? Because something tells me that Cedar Fair didn't push too hard for that. Cedar Fair doesn't want its flagship overshadowed by a random Virginia park. It just doesn't.

In the same vein, Cedar Fair's intention was never to make Geauga Lake a destination. They bought it likely with one of their primary intents to make sure it didn't have a chance of competing with Cedar Point, or that at the very least the money would go right back into their pockets. And they've done it now.

They bought each and every park in Ohio. So now, we aren't the state with a Paramount, Cedar Fair, and Six Flags park (each of them being the flagship of their respective chain). Now Ohio is the state with some formerly Universal-esque ex-movie park, a locals-only water park, and Cedar Point: AMERICA'S ROLLER COAST. Do you think they object to people having that view? I don't think so.

[westcoaster]

but hey

Kings Island where else:

i'll tell you over all out west at knotts or north at americas roller coast

Both parks better food and atmosphere

better yes than my beloved Kings Island!!! for sure!!!

I love Kings Island

but you have to have good food and a resort like atmosphere to be a major player

[PREMiERdrum]

I can obviously understand why it closed - marine park in Northern Ohio? It is a bit crazy. But so is a water park when you think about it. The operational costs for a marine park are just much higher.

True, but the huge problem here is that during the offseason for a water park, they turn off the water, shut down the lights, and essentially come back in the spring and turn it back on. During the offseason for a marine life park, those animals still have to eat, see doctors, get medicine, play and exercise. Although both scenarios have expenditures during the offseason, I would guess the cost of animal care for the 8 (?) months that the park is closed is multiple times that of the waterpark.

The narrow pathways thing is true, but hardly crippling to the park, considering that by the time Cedar Fair owned the park, there weren't enough patrons to crowd the pathways, so that certainly wasn't the main reason for the park's downfall. Cedar Point has some cramped areas, as well, and a rather laborious and tiring layout. Even two "closely located" rides like Maverick and Magnum are a good fifteen minute walk from each other.

I completely agree that the layout of GL was just fine for the size of the CF era crowds, but that wasn't my point. All these things (paths, employees, facilities) added together to create a solidly negative perception of the park. A lot of those people who visited under SFWoA weren't come back (as evidenced as the lower attendance in the last season as that park), no matter what name was on the marquee.

I believe that were Six Flags Worlds of Adventure located in California or even a southern state not known for amusement parks, it would've been incredibly successful. The cost of transporting killer whales, dolphins, sea lions, seals, and walruses to a from California every six months would be crippling to any park. Did Cedar Fair come into possession of the most perfect park on Earth? No. Was Six Flags overexpanded? Arguably. But you can't honestly tell me that Cedar Fair wanted their newly aquired Geauga Lake to be tied with, or even comparable with Cedar Point.

I think Cedar Fair had a much better understanding of what the park should be: A picknick / water park with some great rides. I wish it would have worked out differently, and I still maintain that had they not purchased the Paramount Parks we'd still have a Geauga Lake of some form.

[Browns4life]

Isnt it funny, people complained about the rude employees at six flags, now you go to Cedar Point or Kings Island and you seem to run into them everywhere you go. ALthough i have found a few nice people here and there.

Six Flags had a great atmosphere most of the time, it was a giant bottleneck on busy days, but it was so huge people would spread out...

If Geauga Lake was the third worst performing park, why close it when you had two other parks that were worse? Im telling you when they bought it they had no intention of keeping it open more than the 4 years they did, they wanted the rides. You guys can say what you want about Cedar Fair, but IMO they are turning into the Six Flags that everyone used to hate...

[Tomkatt7]

Thanks for posting the map, I decided to use it, to try and make everyone understand why I hated my GL trip.

As I've said, it was 2001. They were still 2 parks, so admission only got you in to one park. We towed the camper up, stayed a few days, wanted to hit Seaworld, and Geauga Lake.

Our first impression of the park was nice. Had a real "Old World" feel to it. We had little kids with us, so the first thing they saw was the cars that you can drive, right inside the gate. Closed....Should have been a sign to turn and run right there, but nope, we stayed all day.

Some things I noticed during our trip:

The Batman roller coaster was new. They had a Batmobile out front, and even had a little show going on. Someone Dressed up as Batman fighting someone dressed up as the Riddler. It was cool, except for the fact that they did the show to showcase their new ride which was closed all day.

Big Dipper was a ride that I had heard of before, a classic woodie that has stood the test of time. Well, almost, closed all day.

It was a nice little treat to be walking through the park, holding the hand of my 5 year old daughter, trying to enjoy the park, well all of it except for the employee dragging his dust pan behind him across the pavement as he walked along past the litter, and rapping, bouncing to his own little beat. He was good too. Didn't miss a sing "F" bomb in the song he was singing.

Double Loop, Raging Wolf Bobs? Nope, no dice. Closed.

World Class Water area? maybe, it looked nice from the monorail, but it was closed all day too. I was told by park employees that a small girl had drowned the day before in the wave pool. OK, no joke here, that is horrible. Was it nessasary to close the whole water park down though? I can understand closing the wave pool to investigate, but the whole water park?

We got to ride Villian, I thought it was great, and ThunderHawk. Very Cool also. Woody Woodpecker mini coaster. That was a fun small coaster to take my kid on. Really though, thats pretty much it. Every other major attraction was closed.

When I got home, I was so upset that I wrote a letter to Six Flags. Not an E-Mail, I feel those are so easy to fire off that a real letter might be taken more seriously. I told my terrible story. The poor staff, the broken rides,the HUGE lines for the few rides that were open. My hope was to get an apology, and maybe, hopefully, some discounted tickets to try again. I guess they figured that my experience was as good s it was gonna get, because I never even got a response from them. Yes, I included my e-mail address and phone number in the letter, just to make it easier on them. I even called about 2 weeks later, to make sure they got my letter. The girl on the phone assured me that I used the correct address, and that there would probably be no response. They read all mail, compliments and complaints, but can't reply to every letter.

So, having gone through all of that, I ask you. If this trip happened to you, would you go back?

Didn't think so.

Here is my custom rendering of what the park looked like during our visit.