Michigan’s Adventure will not be open this fall

[SonofBaconator]

[disco2000]

New direction is chop off part of the season and give you a free entry ticket to make up for it.

Caveat emptor

[IndyGuy4KI]

Is SIX intentionally trying to upset fans at each park in the chain? Tricks and treats is a family event. All this does is upset the families that help them pay all the bills in the winter time with renewed passes in Q4 of the year.

[disco2000]

Stepping over a nickel to pick up a penny.

It is almost like they are purposely accelerating the efforts to make bankruptcy the only option...

[SonofBaconator]

2 minutes ago, IndyGuy4KI said:

Is SIX intentionally trying to upset fans at each park in the chain? Tricks and treats is a family event. All this does is upset the families that help them pay all the bills in the winter time with renewed passes in Q4 of the year.

One could assume that they’re slow-dumping some of their smaller parks; where they’re intentionally taking things away-which will inevitably affect attendance-which will justify them closing down.

[silver2005]

Wait, doesn't MIA already close on Labor Day regardless?

[Timchat2]

I believe it generally had closed around Labor Day until Tricks and Treats was introduced in 2023.

[Outdoor Man]

I look forward to picking up a copy of one Six Flags' new books coming out later this summer:

• How to Step on EVERY "Spikes-Up" Rake in the Guest Experience Yard.  
• How to Effectively Burn Bridges: Loyal Guests & Annual Pass Holder Edition.  How to lose decades of goodwill in a half Summer

[CedarPointer]

I just wonder at what point a state attorney general will go after them for false advertising and/or fraud. "Subject to change" does not cover lopping entire months off the season.

[I...am SteVe]

I think MA has great potential, but isn't a good park. If they smooth out Shivering Timbers, replace Thunderhawk, and start selling food that doesn't taste like it came from a public school cafeteria, they could easily be a huge draw.

They probably did this to force people who only visit MA to hit up CP, and then go "Wow. That was so much better than my home park. What other parks can I visit?" and head to other chain parks.

[disco2000]

11 minutes ago, I...am SteVe said:

I think MA has great potential, but isn't a good park. If they smooth out Shivering Timbers, replace Thunderhawk, and start selling food that doesn't taste like it came from a public school cafeteria, they could easily be a huge draw.

They probably did this to force people who only visit MA to hit up CP, and then go "Wow. That was so much better than my home park. What other parks can I visit?" and head to other chain parks.

Geauga Lake knows the feeling

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

Michigan's Adventure has been in the process of smoothing their wood coasters and doing some other general improvements to the park, but they just haven't received the investment that they should. The lower tier parks have been pushed to the wayside while Cedar Point got three new coasters in three years. It's a charming little park but it could use some of the love the chain is now trying to bring to the Legacy Six Flags parks. 

1 hour ago, CedarPointer said:

I just wonder at what point a state attorney general will go after them for false advertising and/or fraud. "Subject to change" does not cover lopping entire months off the season.

If I recall correctly, MA's Tricks and Treats was just a few weekends instead of every weekend in September and October. That being said, one ticket to Cedar Point hardly seems like just compensation. It also does not sound like a good idea logistically since Cedar Point is always jam packed during the Fall season. I'd rather have seen them offer a ticket where you could choose between going to SF Great America (3h45m away), Cedar Point (4h30m away), or Kings Island (6h away). This also makes me wonder what the compensation ticket will look like for All-Park Passport holders. Do they also get a free ticket? I'd suppose so, but it seems like a useless item unless they can use it to bring a friend to Cedar Point. Is that ticket only able to be used for the passholder? Once again, so many simple questions whose answers are clear as mud.

I'd bet Six Flags is banking on the fact that the customers who could use that complimentary ticket will either a) naturally spread out their visits so not everyone is there during HalloWeekends, or b) not go at all. 

Michigan is probably one of the only states you'd see the state AG go after Six Flags for this, but even then there may not be a good case beyond "You cut nine operating days from the calendar, and did not provide adequate compensation". Court decisions keep bending toward the worse outcome for consumers these days. 

[SonofBaconator]

If I recall correctly, Dick Kinzel originally wanted to build a park in Michigan but ended up purchasing Michigan’s Adventure instead. Most of the park’s major investments - like Shivering Timbers and Wolverine Wildcat - were made before Cedar Fair acquired it in 2001. While Cedar Fair did make some modest improvements early on, like adding flat rides in 2002 and relocating a few attractions over the next few years, they didn’t introduce a major new coaster until 2008 - and even that was a hand-me-down from Geauga Lake. The long stretch from 2001 to 2008 without a significant, original addition is still hard to justify, even from a maintenance and growth standpoint.

The other legacy parks in Cedar Fair’s portfolio received more consistent investment during that time, so you’d think that with Michigan’s Adventure being one of the few original properties, they might have wanted to build it up a bit more than they did. Geographically speaking, it’s actually closer to certain cities than Cedar Point - potentially appealing to day-trippers from northern Michigan, northern Indiana, and even parts of the Chicago area. Whether that would’ve poached attendance from Cedar Point is hard to say, but it does make the minimal investment strategy even more curious.

 

[DJSkyFoxx]

It really does make one wonder what else are they going to take away? How much more are they going to chop up just to save a few dollars? Taking things away won't drive money into their pockets. It will just continue to hurt loyal pass/ticket holders and make them lose faith in the company as a whole.

Imagine purchasing your season pass last year expecting to be able to attend the fall activities of your home park and beyond only to find out one of two things. Either your home park has completely dumped the event all together and will be closed after Labor Day weekend OR your home park and beyond is up-charging to experience the Haunt attractions. This is shaping up to be a very bad model. And this is why I really despise mega chains/corporations. Paying full price for something we've come to expect, regardless of the "subject to change" jargon, is really telling of how they feel about their customers. 

I really won't be surprised if folks try to file some kind of suit against Cedar Flags over all of this. I really wouldn't be sure how well that would go or if there would even be any movement whatsoever, but never say never. 

I love the parks. I really do. And having been a pass holder for so many years like many of you here, it's painful to see headlines that literally seem to be one negative blow after the other instead of positive things. We aren't asking for anything too major. Just don't screw over the loyal paying customers by continuing to take away or devalue the experience any further. 

[Losantiville Mining Co.]

This is one reason why I wish Six Flags and Cedar Fair would have at least tried to introduce themselves as a new company, rather than as the Cedar Flags MegaHyperCorp. This massive corporation should really be three distinct companies with, at most, some form of parent company that can help keep them balanced as competitors. 13 (of the 40+) parks each and a whole lot of region sharing. As much as they deserve a lawsuit over this, I fear that would only harm the parks and not those that made the bad decisions that led the company to do this. 

Instead of smart, confident, and calculated decisions we are seeing the whole chain cowering behind sparse press releases and social media posts. Rollouts are rushed and sloppy while overall operations have suffered severely. One of the earliest bad decisions they made was taking the Six Flags name for the combined company. It was used because of the brand recognition, but it seems nobody realized that Six Flags was recognized as a bad brand. At least United Parks & Resorts is still sometimes referred to as SeaWorld. We could've had people referring to HyperGiga Entertainment Corporation by still calling it Cedar Fair. The use of the Six Flags name is why there are still a ton of people who believe Six Flags bought out all of the Cedar Fair parks, and is likely a major factor as to why some feelings were majorly soured by the merger.