Camp Cedar No Longer Listed On KI’s Website

[SonofBaconator]

If you go to “Places to stay”, Camp Cedar is gone. Additionally, Kings Island is gone from Camp Cedar’s website when you go to “area attractions”. Was there a break up that we missed?

[PKIDelirium]

Weird, I expected Cedar Fair to outright buy it after a couple seasons.

[BeeastFarmer]

I was planning a weekday stay to get grad school crap done next month.  Couldn't do online reservation, so I called and was told they are only booking weekends until further notice, effective January first. 

[CoastersRZ]

I`d imagine since there is not much going on in the area in January and February, that the demand for weekday stays is not high.

It is interesting that they apparently decided not to renew the management contract with Cedar Fair.  I guess we will see how successful they are once the spring season kicks things back up.

[BoddaH1994]

I went on KI’s web site as a quicker way to get to Camp Cedar’s. Found out that they aren’t listed ANYWHERE on the web site. Does Cedar Fair still manage it? Has anyone heard anything about the deal being terminated?

Also, they originally were scheduled to be open every day in the winter but it appears they are now weekends only. 
 

Something is up. 

[brenthodge]

I was able to "book" a weekday stay. I didn't go through to payment (as I was just testing) but seemed to be open. Where did you see that were only open weekends?

 

 

[disco2000]

16 minutes ago, brenthodge said:

I was able to "book" a weekday stay. I didn't go through to payment (as I was just testing) but seemed to be open. Where did you see that were only open weekends?

 

 

@BeeastFarmerposted in another thread they tried to make a weekday reservation online and it wouldn't go thru and when they called Camp Cedar, they said they are only booking weekends until further notice.

When I tried what you did, it was only RV spots that showed up in a half-dozen attempts I made in Jan thru March.  The actual cabins were not available until April.

[BeeastFarmer]

Something is up. The website has scrubbed the words Kings Island from the logo ...

[Taylor.B03]

Their facebook and instagram pages both seem to have been deleted. The site is very stripped down compared to the latest archived page from the wayback machine. It seems like there is little to no relationship with the park anymore. 

[Coasterteam]

Could just be the site going into “winter mode” where it’s not at all related with the park until it opens again in the spring. 

 

Edit: Digging into the code more, there's still a lot of references to Cedar Fair and Kings Island present. It is running on CF CDN servers still, 
I'm unsure if the park is cutting contact entirely or if they're just not related until we near the re-opening day. Time will tell once again if that's true.

Additionally, CF Corporate site no longer shows any open job offers for Camp Cedar whereas there were many earlier. 

Edit 2: I found a subsection of the site that still displays the nav-bar with Kings Island. https://reservations.visitcampcedar.com/campcedar/

Edit 3: While the site uses the basic Cedar Fair design, it's domain references a host in Canada. 

[Taylor.B03]

Looking at the site from January 2022, the site is as normal.

Luxury Outdoor Resort | Camp Cedar (archive.org)

22 minutes ago, Coasterteam said:

Could just be the site going into “winter mode” where it’s not at all related with the park until it opens again in the spring. 

 

[Coasterteam]

1 minute ago, Taylor.B03 said:

Looking at the site from January 2022, the site is as normal.

Luxury Outdoor Resort | Camp Cedar (archive.org)

 

That's very interesting. Leaning more towards the disconnect between KI and CC now. 

[IndyGuy4KI]

I merged the 2 threads that were created.

[SonofBaconator]

From what I gather, Cedar Fair isn’t super interested in operating resorts in the southwestern Ohio region. KI benefits from the hotels in the area because they get the potential revenue from hotel guests who chose to go to the park. In addition, KI/CF doesn’t have to invest any money into the neighboring hotels since they are all owned by different companies: no spending on construction, utilities, staff, etc. 

I’m assuming the chain would rather spend their money elsewhere and continue to indirectly make money on neighboring hotels as opposed to putting money into a property that might or might not have turned them a profit. If anything the park benefits from not having anything to do with the campground in my opinion- they minimize the risk and still reap the reward from travelers who travel to the area.

[FUN&ONLY!]

2 hours ago, SonofBaconator said:

From what I gather, Cedar Fair isn’t super interested in operating resorts in the southwestern Ohio region. KI benefits from the hotels in the area because they get the potential revenue from hotel guests who chose to go to the park. In addition, KI/CF doesn’t have to invest any money into the neighboring hotels since they are all owned by different companies: no spending on construction, utilities, staff, etc. 

I’m assuming the chain would rather spend their money elsewhere and continue to indirectly make money on neighboring hotels as opposed to putting money into a property that might or might not have turned them a profit. If anything the park benefits from not having anything to do with the campground in my opinion- they minimize the risk and still reap the reward from travelers who travel to the area.

Kings Island actually did get paid to manage the resort, so they did benefit form that extra money. If I had to guess, I think the whole falling out between Kings Island and Camp Cedar is because the resort may be underperforming. I know that it was originally announced that there would be 100 additional cottages added to the resort after the initial 70, but I have yet to see any signs of construction on those new cottages. I know Terra Firma Associates currently has land right by the existing campground for sale. Also, the elimination of weekdays in the winter also cannot be a good sign. I hope the campground succeeds, but I am skeptical. Maybe Terra Firma Associates will look to sell it to Cedar Fair after all if it gets bad enough.

[terry wass]

not sure what is going on I visited last summer in the first week of august sun thru wed and none of their food places by the pool were opened. Wasn't a terrible inconvenience as we spent most of the time in the park. just seemed odd. stayed at one of the 8 person cabins and it was great. i still haven't been able to see if any of the smaller cabins are available yet, none seem to show as available . maybe they aren't built yet. not sure. I have to wonder if staffing is an issue. was on the shuttle bus and they dropped off several workers at the dorms behind great wolf so maybe CF has decided staffing a resort and the park isn't in their best interest. doesn't really affect me except for the season pass discount on the reservation whether they are affiliated with KI or not. 

 

okay so upon further review if you type in pass for reservation you still get a discount. 

[BoddaH1994]

So here is some food for thought:

Current:

January 2022:

I also had a weird glitch while looking at the web site. When clicked on, "Places to stay" it showed, "Kings Island Camp Cedar" as an option briefly. I clicked on it and it just looped back to the main page of Kings Island. This could mean everything or absolutely nothing.

I don't want anyone to fall into the fallacy that this is because Kings Island is closed. This is the time of year that many people plan their vacations. If this was some sort of oversight it would be detrimental to Camp Cedar. 

 

 

[terry wass]

16 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

I also had a weird glitch while looking at the web site. When clicked on, "Places to stay" it showed, "Kings Island Camp Cedar" as an option briefly. I clicked on it and it just looped back to the main page of Kings Island. This could mean everything or absolutely nothing.

I don't want anyone to fall into the fallacy that this is because Kings Island is closed. This is the time of year that many people plan their vacations. If this was some sort of oversight it would be detrimental to Camp Cedar. 

 

i had the same thing happen yesterday, i thought it was just me.  My guess is someone is updating their websites. maybe we are all just jumping the gun. who knows.

[cdubbs727]

My sister's stayed at Camp Cedar a few times, and her experiences were largely positive. Said it's clean and the cabins are nice, although didn't care for the food that much. 

But isn't this place kind of notorious for trouble? I seem to recall hearing about a lot of fights (stabbings?) in the two years it's been opened, and there was a whole thing last year where someone drove a car into the pool. Wonder if CF just decided it's not worth having their names linked with a place in the news for so much trouble (when, after all, KI is already in the news in the spring sometimes for its own altercations). 

[BoddaH1994]

I’ve heard from a source within Camp Cedar that the contract with Cedar Fair was terminated as of January 1, 2023, and pretty much the entire full time staff was let go. I do not have any further information. 

[terry wass]

16 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

I’ve heard from a source within Camp Cedar that the contract with Cedar Fair was terminated as of January 1, 2023, and pretty much the entire full time staff was let go. I do not have any further information. 

i can see the logic from camp cedar as far as staffing goes. So now instead of depending on Cedar Fair deciding how many staff they need they can make those decisions on their own. Of course they probably loose the ability to house workers at the Cedar Fair dorms. this may not be as bad as it seems. It could simply be a business decision on both sides to what is best for their own businesses. Of course now their management company will have to deal with all the messy stuff like payroll, benefeits etc. But I actually look forward to it. 

[Coasterteam]

19 hours ago, BoddaH1994 said:

I’ve heard from a source within Camp Cedar that the contract with Cedar Fair was terminated as of January 1, 2023, and pretty much the entire full time staff was let go. I do not have any further information. 

Oh wow. 

Cedar Fairs experiment did not go as planned? Something else? Not happy with all the bad PR that happened since opening? Looking to build on-site hotels maybe? So much to consider! 

[CoastersRZ]

Or maybe Cedar Fair was asking more for the contract this year and the owners decided that the cost of the services Cedar Fair was offering were not worth the benefits.  Or they received a better deal from another company.  Or Cedar Fair decided the cost of the management contract was not worth the benefits.  We may never know the true answer.

[BeeastFarmer]

It seemed like the relationship was odd at times at best, strained at worst. Had the park and corporate name and great synergy at times, but if there was any controversy, the park distanced itself from the lodging complex. 

 

Maybe they will do a rename to Camp Redbud or Camp Pawpaw. 

[BoddaH1994]

6 hours ago, terry wass said:

i can see the logic from camp cedar as far as staffing goes. So now instead of depending on Cedar Fair deciding how many staff they need they can make those decisions on their own. Of course they probably loose the ability to house workers at the Cedar Fair dorms. this may not be as bad as it seems. It could simply be a business decision on both sides to what is best for their own businesses. Of course now their management company will have to deal with all the messy stuff like payroll, benefeits etc. But I actually look forward to it. 

From a business standpoint, an investment company will pay dearly to not have to deal with running the park. They know where their expertise is and isn’t. There are some other factors but the above fact is the lump sum.

4 hours ago, Coasterteam said:

Oh wow. 

Cedar Fairs experiment did not go as planned? Something else? Not happy with all the bad PR that happened since opening? Looking to build on-site hotels maybe? So much to consider! 

I don’t know if I’d call it an experiment. This isn’t their first BBQ. No matter the reason, I think they knew exactly what they were getting into. 
 

4 hours ago, CoastersRZ said:

Or maybe Cedar Fair was asking more for the contract this year and the owners decided that the cost of the services Cedar Fair was offering were not worth the benefits.  Or they received a better deal from another company.  Or Cedar Fair decided the cost of the management contract was not worth the benefits.  We may never know the true answer.

I’m not sure what the effort level was for Cedar Fair. I know the associates were CF employees. My GUESS is that CF got a percentage of revenue as payment. Does anyone have any insight as to how busy it was? Was it hard to get a cottage or RV spot? If CF was paying the payroll then maybe it wasn’t profitable under that model? The truth is probably among your speculation above if I had to guess.

2 hours ago, BeeastFarmer said:

It seemed like the relationship was odd at times at best, strained at worst. Had the park and corporate name and great synergy at times, but if there was any controversy, the park distanced itself from the lodging complex. 

 

Maybe they will do a rename to Camp Redbud or Camp Pawpaw. 

I noticed that too. They were proudly Kings Island Camp Cedar, unless something happened then KI’s PR would clarify that Cedar Fair doesn’t own it. 

Especially since CF managed it, so if something went wrong it would have been CF that handled it? Why does it matter who owns it? If there was an incident at a Wendy’s, would Wendy’s PR respond to media inquiries saying, “Although Wendy’s staffs and manages the property, it is owned by Northshore Holdings, LLC.” 

Also, doesn’t Camp Cedar have a mention in Tower Gardens? Is that going to stay?

[gforce1994]

If you look at Google’s listing of reviews, many claimed the resort was dirty and not at the quality they expected. The criticism with guests came back and hurt KI’s bottom dollar, as a displeased guest is less likely to spend money.

I’ve always thought they should have used the old Inn site and build a hotel like Springhill Suites. Would have worked much better than the campsite.

[robintodd]

CF knows what they are doing when it comes to hotels, camp grounds, etc.  Just look at the campground at CP.  Always full during peak season.  I think the probelm here may have been overestimating the amount of people who come to camp.  CP is a destination with the park, beach, watersports, etc.  People usually go for more than a day or two so camping makes sense from a money standpoint.  KI has no beach and can usually be tackled in 1 day (especially with a fastpass).  Plus the campsites are not a walk to the park like the ones at CP are.

Completely agree that the old KI Inn site should have been used for a Hotel.  However it would have to be a "Breakers Express" type pricing because of Great Wolf Lodge so close.

 

[MDMC01]

1 hour ago, robintodd said:

Completely agree that the old KI Inn site should have been used for a Hotel.  However it would have to be a "Breakers Express" type pricing because of Great Wolf Lodge so close.

Speaking of that, does anyone (on here ) know why that sign is still up when the hotel has been gone for years? ? I like seeing the sign, but was wondering why it’s still there after all these years. Perhaps there were plans to build a new hotel using that name, but plans fell through?

[robintodd]

1 hour ago, MDMC01 said:

Speaking of that, does anyone (on here ) know why that sign is still up when the hotel has been gone for years? ? I like seeing the sign, but was wondering why it’s still there after all these years. Perhaps there were plans to build a new hotel using that name, but plans fell through?

Aside from being a great place for birds to nest, not sure  

[PKIDelirium]

When it comes to KI having their own resort, Paramount shot the feet off that by selling the old campground land to Great Wolf.