The Beach Waterpark is for sale!

[PKIDelirium]

Only time I was there was for the holiday event in 2006. While not priced into oblivion like WinterFest 2005, there's no arguing the production value of WF2005 totally destroyed the old Beach event. Beach's thing was cheap, but you could tell it was cheap.

The pedal boats on the lazy river were, uh, interesting. Those things couldn't steer well enough to keep up with a winding lazy river, and the length of them was less than the width of the river itself. Just on my one time through that, I encountered several mishaps in the form of boats turned around in reverse with staff seemingly never going out to check, and personally encountered a boat in front of mine that was stuck sideways at a curve. Out in the back part of the river away from the event area, it was quite dark and again the staff they claimed were keeping an eye on the course seemed to be non-existent. Someone on a boat that came up behind mine during that jam had a flashlight and I was able to use my boat to nudge the stuck-sideways one back on track.

Other than that it was just a big tent in the empty wave pool to act like a "festhaus" sort of place, a few small carnival rides, vendors (including KI's glassblower), and a sketchy looking "sled down a slide" thing. 

[BoddaH1994]

I talked to some sources familiar with the situation. This story isn’t over. Hopefully it ends up for the better. Expect an announcement in a couple of months.

[upstop]

Kings Island should invest in the property as an offsite resort. Hotel, motel, camping and resort water park. There’s lots of land over there.

[Benjamin22]

31 minutes ago, upstop said:

Kings Island should invest in the property as an offsite resort. Hotel, motel, camping and resort water park. There’s lots of land over there.

Does anyone know if Kings Island has a non-compete agreement with Great Wolf Lodge? I know they were partial owners at one point.

[BoddaH1994]

19 hours ago, Ben43065 said:

Does anyone know if Kings Island has a non-compete agreement with Great Wolf Lodge? I know they were partial owners at one point.

I don't think they have a non-compete.  I think it comes down to not making sense to build a hotel with a 400 room resort next door.

To clarify what you said about ownership, Paramount traded the land to Great Wolf for a 15% stake in that particular resort. When Cedar Fair purchased the park from CBS, CBS retained ownership of that 15%.  A few years later Great Wolf Resorts purchased that 15% back from them.  

[BeeastFarmer]

The only way I see a resort ever being at KI is for CF to buy GWL.  It could be a pretty sweet set up, I'd say they would expand the waterpark and change the hotel to have a more broad reach.  I don't see that happening, but I didn't see a new woody, a renovated IS, good music back, Winterfest, Grand Carnivale and the removal of Vortex.

 

If they ever add lodging, I'd say it would be a Marriott style hotel near Soak City if zoning would allow it.  There is a large grassy area, close to the waterpark and freeway.  But with the hotel saturation point nearby, I don't see it happening either.

[bengalsguy23]

Does anyone know what's going on with the beach?

[SonofBaconator]

40 minutes ago, bengalsguy23 said:

Does anyone know what's going on with the beach?

I originally thought that CF could Geauga Lake the property and distribute the slides to other parks but the Beach's slides aren't that appealing to be quite honest. I don't know how appealing that land is either because whoever would buy it would have to doze everything if it were to be used as something else

[BeastForever]

To be honest, I actually preferred many of the Beach's slides to those of most parks, if even for their uniqueness.

That having said, their uniqueness (along with their age, I'm sure) is part of what would make them so difficult to relocate into a different park. A lot of them utilize uneven terrain and therefore, couldn't easily be transplanted.

[CoastersRZ]

I only visited The Beach in the summer months one time.  I enjoyed my visit, but it was back in the late 90`s or early 2000`s, and we only went because we got comp tickets to go.  They definitely have (had) some unique attractions.  I also attended a few Holiday Fests.  It was certainly a unique experience riding a pedal boat in the lazy river.

The Beach has seemed to be limping along for the last several years.  I am surprised someone hasn`t bought it and redeveloped the land.  While it does sit right next to the highway, it is kind of in a far off spot from the main road.  

[bengalsguy23]

2 hours ago, SonofBaconator said:

I originally thought that CF could Geauga Lake the property and distribute the slides to other parks but the Beach's slides aren't that appealing to be quite honest. I don't know how appealing that land is either because whoever would buy it would have to doze everything if it were to be used as something else

That makes sense. I was more surprised that none of the slides were going anywhere. As Beastforever said the nature of the terrain would make it difficult to relocate. This is sad to me as I really enjoyed The Beaches water slides.

[bengalsguy23]

2 hours ago, BeastForever said:

To be honest, I actually preferred many of the Beach's slides to those of most parks, if even for their uniqueness.

That having said, their uniqueness (along with their age, I'm sure) is part of what would make them so difficult to relocate into a different park. A lot of them utilize uneven terrain and therefore, couldn't easily be transplanted.

I completely agree. The Beach had some really intense body slides that were a lot of fun. I actually preferred The Beach to Soak City by a great margin. More fun slides, laid back and never any crowds made it a fun time.

[SonofBaconator]

37 minutes ago, bengalsguy23 said:

I completely agree. The Beach had some really intense body slides that were a lot of fun. I actually preferred The Beach to Soak City by a great margin. More fun slides, laid back and never any crowds made it a fun time.

I was the opposite. As a kid I loved the Beach but as I got older I realized Soak City was more convenient and a better option. Yes you could go ride coasters with your admission but there were a lot of extra perks as well. For example, you could go over to the dry park and ride all of the water rides, catch a show, and have a greater access of shops and dinning options. At the Beach you were kinda just stuck with what they had to offer. 

I feel bad that the little waterpark didn't survive under its ownership but when you have a park like KI and SC right down the road, its hard to compete. In short Soak City gives guests more bang for their buck.

[silver2005]

It would help if the slides there used enough water to where you don't have to move yourself with your arms and legs.  

[Oldiesmann]

I worked at the main Dippin' Dots stand at The Beach in the summer of 2006 and at the Donut Shop (in the Blue Ash Chili stand) during Holidayfest that winter. It was definitely a unique place, though I only went that one summer (went with my family using free tickets I got for working there). The people who ran things were nice and it definitely had quite a fan base (helped by a big season pass sale late in the season I'm sure - season passes purchased then were good for the rest of the current season, Holidayfest and the entire next season also including Holidayfest). I'm not sure what their financial situation was like back then, but I enjoyed my time working there. The only thing that kept me from returning was the cost of gas - commuting 20-something miles each way in a minivan wasn't cheap.

[bengalsguy23]

23 hours ago, SonofBaconator said:

I was the opposite. As a kid I loved the Beach but as I got older I realized Soak City was more convenient and a better option. Yes you could go ride coasters with your admission but there were a lot of extra perks as well. For example, you could go over to the dry park and ride all of the water rides, catch a show, and have a greater access of shops and dinning options. At the Beach you were kinda just stuck with what they had to offer. 

I feel bad that the little waterpark didn't survive under its ownership but when you have a park like KI and SC right down the road, its hard to compete. In short Soak City gives guests more bang for their buck.

Being in a situation last year where I didn't buy a season pass to Ki,( Relied solely on the free tickets of friends who worked at the park.) I shelled out $10 to go to the beach last year and it was definitely worth it. Kings Island great if you want the whole package but if you are a family that doesn't care about amusement parks and just wants a water park, Kings Island is not a very good option IMO. That's a lot of money to spend to wait in really long lines. I love Kings Island but man Soak City is not what it should be. The capacity on the waterslides is horrible (compare it to a park like holiday world) The metal on the swimsuit policy is very hard to deal with for most swimsuits. The water park is very spread out and has very hot concrete. There is not a lot of seating and a waterpark this size should have more than one lazy river.

[westcoaster]

Dream pipe dream what if Kings Island bought the Beach water Park 

Built a modefn day chair lift to their added a hotel ..n Ki gets a 3rd wave 

Pool n many other features. 

Pipe dream i know. 

[silver2005]

^Said chair lift would have to be a mile long going 1 way and would have to go across I-71 and above several restaurants and hotels, and I imagine a lot of headaches getting it approved.  

[CoastersRZ]

Especially, given the history of the sky ride at KI.  I think The Beach suffered from lack of investment some too.  I went to Holidayfest a couple of times.  While there was no Winterfest back then, there really wasn`t much to Holiday Fest.  Riding around the lazy river in a pedal boat was interesting, although the pedal boats couldn`t quite maneuver the bends properly.

[medford]

OK, how about a tunnel under 1-71 and a Hogwards Express like train ride b/w the 2 parks Purchase GWL, the new campground area, the hotel by The Beach and some extra land behind The Beach to add dry attractions over there as well.

[flightoffear1996]

2 hours ago, silver2005 said:

^Said chair lift would have to be a mile long going 1 way and would have to go across I-71 and above several restaurants and hotels, and I imagine a lot of headaches getting it approved.  

I'm not sure but how long is Disney Sky Liner? 

[teenageninja]

6 minutes ago, flightoffear1996 said:

I'm not sure but how long is Disney Sky Liner? 

Maybe not a great comparison considering it's had lots of problems.  However, it says it's 6 miles round trip.  Not a chance they would allow it to go over I-71 though.

[DeltaFlyer]

1 hour ago, teenageninja said:

Maybe not a great comparison considering it's had lots of problems.  However, it says it's 6 miles round trip.  Not a chance they would allow it to go over I-71 though.

Bring in Elon Musk's Boring Company to dig a tunnel 

[SnakePlissken]

Both Holiday World and Kennywood have tunnels going under roads so tunnels could happen but if one was going to do that it would be better to bulldoze the Beach and use it for parking then use existing Soak City parking for expansion.

[SonofBaconator]

Here's a hypothetical "what-if":

Cedar Fair acquires the land and turns it into an off-property sports complex for tournaments and scrimmages. It would compliment the campground that's being built on the other side of the highway and bring in more out of town guests.

 

[DeltaFlyer]

13 minutes ago, SonofBaconator said:

Here's a hypothetical "what-if":

Cedar Fair acquires the land and turns it into an off-property sports complex for tournaments and scrimmages. It would compliment the campground that's being built on the other side of the highway and bring in more out of town guests.

 

A $171M sports complex/conference center/hotel is being constructed in Hamilton- not sure how much they’d be able to compete against that. 

[SonofBaconator]

10 minutes ago, DeltaFlyer said:

A $171M sports complex/conference center/hotel is being constructed in Hamilton- not sure how much they’d be able to compete against that. 

I was unaware of that. I'll have to look into this more since that stuff is up my alley!

[BoddaH1994]

On 8/9/2020 at 3:00 PM, SonofBaconator said:

I was unaware of that. I'll have to look into this more since that stuff is up my alley!

I had almost forgotten about it myself. 
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/10/26/spooky-nook-hamilton-butler-county-sports-complex/1772078002/

[amapan]

I liked that place. Only visited once in 2007. Always meant to go back, but never did

[LuckyluvsKI]

On 8/5/2020 at 1:49 PM, teenageninja said:

Maybe not a great comparison considering it's had lots of problems.  However, it says it's 6 miles round trip.  Not a chance they would allow it to go over I-71 though.

and it's also all on private property,  it would probably take a lot of $$ for KI/CF to persuade to cross into and over so many other parcels of property.  Now you could do a tunnel under I75 and L type shape connect to the campground and then a private drive into the back part by The Bat and do trams back and forth or small transport buses.