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Old Paramount (Viacom) vs. Cedar Fair Managments at KI


KILateNighter
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We were season ticket holders for many years at the old Geauga Lake Park. The whole experience changed after 6 Flag's bought the place. I don't think they understood the Cleveland market. I think they thought "If they built it, they will come" no matter what it costs.....But they didn't see that NE Ohio lives on smaller earnings than just about anywhere in the country. Where else can you buy a nice 3 bedroom colonial for 60k to 100k in the suburbs.

That is why I believe Kennywood / Idlewild does well, because it is very affordable.....period.

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Kings Island i would have to say has seen better days as a CF park. 4 new attractions since CF took it over. Firehawk, Dimondback, WindSeeker, Dino Unleashed. The only thing that i will say is that the themeing has gone way down. I like Adventure Express for its theming although i will admit the Quality has gone down. It makes the ride more fun.

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I'll give Cedar Fair the edge over Paramount in this debate. It seems like there is a clearer focus now, although they're not just focused on thrill rides and coasters. The investment throughout the park has also improved: Firehawk and Diamondback, a good job converting the kids' area to Planet Snoopy, more shows (compared to the later Paramount days), and now the Coney Mall improvements, like WindSeeker. The appearance standards also seem higher on the employees. I will agree with some, though, that operations and staffing under Paramount was more relaxed, laid back, while still maintaining professionalism- that's not to say the Paramount folks were lax on park and ride safety.

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  • 4 months later...

here here how i see it

Cedar Fair

clean

thrill rides (if CF did not come along Diamondback would not be here)

Paramounts

themeing

Rides

WinterFest

Octoberfest

The Beast

As you can see i am more of a Paramounts fan more then anything from the tv studio that made it (IDR what it's called) to Cedar Fair I've been with paramounts my whole life at kings usland so sad they they singed it over to CF :(

I so agree with you. I love Paramount so much. I was born in 1995 right after Paramount took over the park in 1993. And Cedar Fair will never take away my love for Paramount...ever!

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Guest PizzaBaby027

I have had this debate on this site for ages now. Of course I love Paramount, I grew up with them. Paramount brings back so many good memory's, I did enjoy them. But I must say that looking back now Paramount did not do so well compared to CF.

Cedar Fair-

  • Cleaner
  • Diamondback, WindSeeker, Firehawk
  • 6 live shows along with Fireworks, Starlight Spectacular, Dino's alive
  • With a new ride brings a revamp to the area of the ride
  • Rivertown Junction is more of a restaurant situation. An Area supervisor alone for Junction and Festhaus.
  • The feel of an Amusement Park not a theme park
  • Beautiful Landscaping, and its updated throughout the season, check out the rocks by the starlight
  • BIG events
  • Participating activity's, the Line dancing, the awareness of breast cancer, ect. Coastering for kids

Paramount

  • Nick Celebration Parade
  • Nice Theming
  • Interesting rides
  • Fearfest
  • Re doing Winterfest, something CF won't even attempt

It could go on but as you see I am more for CF,

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I seem to enjoy the park under Cedar Fair's control a lot better. I don't know if it's because they themed an area to my favorite childhood show, or if it's because the park is cleaner. But I feel that Cedar Fair is more family friendly. And it sort of reminds me of Kings Island in the 80's. So for me I'd say Cedar Fair has done a better job.

To me it's cleaner, too. The Peanuts characters that walk around are cleaner looking than I recall the HB characters, but with Capt. Caveman, you could never tell if he were clean or not.

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Re doing Winterfest, something CF won't even attempt

Paramount's comeback of WF, an event they first cancelled less than a year of purchasing the park in 1992, was nothing more than window dressing for a potential suitor.

With the exception of accepting admission, Paramount did not put their heart into WF.

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I still say if RC offers more nickels, whoever owns KI at the time will go there...

It's all about the nickels.

I dont see them going to RC even if they offer more nickels. RC is just not going to sell as good as Coke and Pepsi.

They'd have to have their brain removed to sell a poor product like RC. No major businesses sell RC brand drinks.

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I think the removal of queue TVs that Cedar Fair has initiated is not absurd, its irresponsible and I can't believe the people who have defended them on this. There's absolutely no excuse for removing the TVs.

How is removing queue TV's irresponsible?

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I think the removal of queue TVs that Cedar Fair has initiated is not absurd, its irresponsible and I can't believe the people who have defended them on this. There's absolutely no excuse for removing the TVs.

Remember how The Beast TVs looked before they were removed this year? Mostly broken? It would have cost a TON to replace all those with the Pantel ones as they broke like The Beast's ones did. http://panteltv.com/...orproducts.html

Also, more people have their own entertainment with them now, so having TVs playing ads and some music videos isn't as important.

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Also, more people have their own entertainment with them now, so having TVs playing ads and some music videos isn't as important.

Of course it's about money, but I think you hit the nail on the head with this, too. I, for one, would probably be upset if the Q-TV's were there, playing advertisements for Gillette and replaying the same 3 or 4 music videos while I was trying to listen to my iPod or play a game on it. Too many people have their own entertainment devices with them today, so even the cheapest flat-screen TV's and programming wouldn't even be worth it.

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The Peanuts characters that walk around are cleaner looking than I recall the HB characters...

Possibly because not as many kids are running up to hug them. ;)

Haha, you got me there. If I saw a weird bigheaded smirking kid meandering towards me, I'd go the other way, too.

(And yet, there's that rumored doll factory haunt, the difference would be...?)

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I still say if RC offers more nickels, whoever owns KI at the time will go there...

It's all about the nickels.

I dont see them going to RC even if they offer more nickels. RC is just not going to sell as good as Coke and Pepsi.

They'd have to have their brain removed to sell a poor product like RC. No major businesses sell RC brand drinks.

I suppose you wouldn't consider US Bank Arena a major business then, even though it is the home of the Cincinnati Cyclones and holds many major concerts and events in the city? See below:

RC is the official drink of the USBank Arena downtown. its all over the place down there!

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  • 9 years later...

Quite a bump, but....

Now that it's been a solid 9 years, any change in feelings in management, especially now after Area 72. Would you say Area 72 is better than anything Paramount could have done, or was Top Gun, Action Zone, TR:TR still much better than anything Cedar Fair could attempt? And is the new atmosphere better than before?

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5 hours ago, CoasterJack said:

Quite a bump, but....

Now that it's been a solid 9 years, any change in feelings in management, especially now after Area 72. Would you say Area 72 is better than anything Paramount could have done, or was Top Gun, Action Zone, TR:TR still much better than anything Cedar Fair could attempt? And is the new atmosphere better than before?

Here’s the thing about Paramount, they were able to theme the rides but they weren’t able to fit them into the parks atmosphere. Take Backlot for example, it’s a better themed coaster then anything CedarFair has built (at least on ride) however it completely ruined the looks of the surrounding area. Having a parking garage & shipping container themed coaster in the center of the park is a major eyesore. Another example of this is TRTR with its massive building in the middle of Rivertown. Cedar Fair on the other hand has been improving the atmosphere of entire areas of the park such as A72 & I-Street. I’ll take Cedar Fairs execution of themed attractions over Paramounts. I hope Cedar Fair & Park management continue to invest in renovating & theming areas of the park.

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4 hours ago, Benjamin22 said:

Here’s the thing about Paramount, they were able to theme the rides but they weren’t able to fit them into the parks atmosphere. Take Backlot for example, it’s a better themed coaster then anything CedarFair has built (at least on ride) however it completely ruined the looks of the surrounding area. Having a parking garage & shipping container themed coaster in the center of the park is a major eyesore. Another example of this is TRTR with its massive building in the middle of Rivertown. Cedar Fair on the other hand has been improving the atmosphere of entire areas of the park such as A72 & I-Street. I’ll take Cedar Fairs execution of themed attractions over Paramounts & I hope Cedar Fair & Park management continue to invest in renovating & theming areas of the park.

I agree with you on this!

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I will say Paramount made Action Zone work out pretty nicely, at least in concept when they topped it off with Son of Beast and later Delirium.  Nick Universe and Boomerang Bay were also pretty good from them.  

But yeah...

Action Theater- random building between Racer turnarounds

Flight of Fear- random building behind Racer

Tomb Raider- Random building in Rivertown

Backlot- Urban LA themed coaster just kinda there

They had that affect at some of the other parks as well.  Hypersonic was pretty much plopped in the middle of the midway at Kings Dominion, not to mention the amalgamation of rides around Volcano that shared no theme whatsoever.  They didn't do much to spruce up Stealth when it was at Great America.   I also thought Carowinds had kind of a bland look under Paramount, at least looking at pictures.  And they pretty much made Canada's Wonderland the flat ride capital of the world.  Pretty sure HUSS made CW their stomping grounds.  They seemed to also favor Vekoma's a lot.   

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