Signed, Sealed, and Delivered!

[shark6495]

QUOTE (The Interpreter @ Jul 1 2006, 05:19 AM) QUOTE (ragerunner @ Jul 1 2006, 03:45 AM) I also like how the Cedar Point flag on their opening page is larger than any other parks flags. I hope all of use that are KI fans can except the park not being the flagship of the company. Weather or not you like Paramount they did treat the park differently than the others.

Yep, that they did. Especially for a while there. Let's see...they moved corporate operations from Cincinnati to Charlotte. For quite some time, they led one and sundry to believe that the flagship park was near corporate headquarters, in Charlotte. The busiest Paramount Park in recent years has been Wonderland.

In more Paramount years than not, Kings Island was NOT the park that received the largest capital investment of the five...

Yep, as a sale was coming, in the past couple of years, they started making noises when they were in the Cinci area that Kings Island was the flagship park, but the noises were louder than the actions.

In any event, that was then. During the conference call on the day the acquisition was announced, Mr. Kinzel himself pointed out that Cedar Point is the engine of Cedar Fair and will remain so. This is true even though the company has now acquired two parks that do more business at the gate than does Cedar Point.

It will be interesting to see both who owns the now-current Cedar Fair parks five years and ten years from now, and how the corporate emphasis is placed on the individual parks, in marketing, capital expenditures and prestige.

I really don't buy that the Paramount Parks are going to be treated and run differently long-term than the "original" Cedar Fair parks (of which all were purchased at one time--except, perhaps, depending on one's viewpoint, Cedar Point). Even if that is the current intention (and I am not sure that it is), it may well fade over time as a single corporate culture develops. To me, it speaks volumes that on the map of Cedar Fair properties, there is no differentiation between the old Cedar Fair properties and the old Paramount Parks properties.

Really, though, the bigger question is how much of the Paramount Parks culture makes it into the new company and how much is left behind. Not to even mention the question of how much SHOULD make it.

Much depends on what happens to the middle and upper managers from Paramount. Will they be allowed to stay? If so, for a year or so or permanently? Will they want to? Will their pay remain the same? Will they seek better opportunities elsewhere? Will they get helpers from Cedar Fair? Will their jobs even survive? Or will 'snyergies' in the new Cedar Fair make many of them redundant? If so, will the company find out, too late, what some of these people really did and that it was far more necessary to the company than they thought? And all of this is really on a person by person basis. The one thing I KNOW is that some people WILL leave...and they might not be the ones that the company would prefer did. More likely, they will be among the best and the brightest.

As for directing parking at non-Cedar Point Cedar Fair parks, even Geauga Lake, with the relatively low attendance it is getting, directs guests to parking areas. The last time I was there, they probably had 6 people working the parking lot directing parking! On the other hand, I have never, ever seen a tram in the parking lot at Cedar Point. I am not even sure they own one. Come to think of it, I've never seen a tram in ANY Cedar Fair park. At least I don't remember seeing one. (I have seen the hotel shuttles, but those are not trams in the parking lot...)

Yes, I do think KI was treated as the flagship.

KIs Tomb Raider is much better than KD.

Our kids NC is better than the other parks.

KI is the only park in the chain that has a 200 foot hyper coaster.

We got IJST first. (weather or not you like it)

KIs waterpark is the largest and best out of the other parks.

Think what you may, but I don't think it will be as exciting as some are thinking when CP is getting the largest rides and we get what the other CF properties get. Example: CP gets MF and the other parks only have a Magnum type ride. CP gets Dragster and KBF gets Excelerator. And the list goes on. I can already hear the forums in 3 or 4 years. Why did CP get a 20 million dollar coaster and we got X. Why did they get a new ride this year and we only get new rides every other year?

 

 

Not exactly, almost 10 years later and it seems like things happened slightly different than were feared...

 

QUOTE (adam12 @ Jun 30 2006, 11:04 PM) QUOTE (Flight Of The Dead @ Jun 30 2006, 07:07 PM) whats gona happen to TR:TR ?? and IJST? they are highly theme rides. what will CF do with them?

I hope they remove them, (won't happen wishful thinking) because they are 2 of the worst rides I have ever been on!

-adam12

Adam, please, stop spamming the forums with your anti-paramount propaganda. IJST is one of my favorite attractions in the park. I was at the park just last weekend with several first time PKI visitors who have gone to many other parks, and they LOVED IJST. The very first words out of one of the people's mouth was "That was fun!" And no, these were not kids, these were coaster veterans older than I.

My argument on this forum about you since I first read your post was that you can say you don't like Paramount, or a specific ride, but you can't go around calling rides "the worst rides" in the park and not back it up with hard proof.

I hope IJST spends MANY more years in the park!

 

 

Still going strong....

 

I would bet that IJST will not be the first ride currently in the park to be removed by Cedar Fair. Rethemed? Perhaps. Removed first? Very, very, very doubtful. It's not a bad ride. Not at all.

It certainly could have been sited better, but it's by no means a bad or even unpopular ride.

 

TERP you either are a really really good guesser or you may know some people in the park business....

 

This has been discussed left and right. While Paramount Parks signed a seven year deal with Coke back in the first part of this year, it is believed that all Cedar Fair parks will serve Pepsi products next season. (Much to my chagrin, I prefer Coke over Pepsi).

 

I love the new Coke Stand...

QUOTE (TheKlockster @ Jul 1 2006, 09:06 PM) QUOTE (CoastersRZ @ Jul 1 2006, 09:04 PM) Yes, why would they remove a ride that is only two years old, simply because it isn`t a "great" ride.

Because it cannot be easily de-themed and the land could be better be used for a different project. Even if they got rid of the name ITALIAN JOB - it is still a Mini cooper ride - and still themed to Italian Job movie - even if the name is different. Take away all the theming - and you have nothing.

If they removed IJST, there would only be about 2 or 3 people that wouldn't go to Kings Island anymore and I think they are members of this site. I really hope CF strips Kings Island of ALL (except Nickelodeon stuff, that crap draws a lot of guests) things Paramout including theming.

-adam12

 

Sadly or not, IJST lasted longer than both these posters...

 

As a proud member of the Cedar Fair family since 2001, when my local park (Michigan's Adventure) was purchased by the chain, I have one thing to say:

WELCOME!

You'll love it, the first few years it's rough, as they do a LOT of work behind the scenes with management, operations, and infrastructure. You'll probably see more capital spent on bathrooms and other amenities than you will in rides for the next few years. But after that (and believe me, Michigan's Adventure just got past that), the chain does wonders for giving the parks charm and class.

So, on behalf of the fans of Michigan's Adventure, I welcome you to the Cedar Fair fan family (whether you like Cedar Fair or not ).

 

Under new management, charm and class may be retruning, sort of...

Uh...no.

I was at Michigan's Adventure many, many times before CF bought it. CF NEEDED to make massive improvements to that park's infrastructure. If anything, the bathrooms and infrastructure at the Paramount Parks are far superior to those at even Cedar Point. No such massive capital expenditures prove to be in the cards (except possibly replacing asphalt---and CP has some of that, too--with concrete).

To be honest, comparing PCWi or PGA with Michigan's Adventure is comparing apples to oranges, not to mention PKD, PCWo or PKI.

It's a whole different scenario. As Mr. Kinzel himself noted, the Paramount Parks do not need the massive investments that Geauga Lake did, for instance.

 

Funny, that GL was destroyed because of this deal...

 

QUOTE (The Interpreter @ Jul 4 2006, 08:36 PM) CF NEEDED to make massive improvements to that park's infrastructure.  If anything, the bathrooms and infrastructure at the Paramount Parks are far superior to those at even Cedar Point.

Hence why the execs at Cedar Fair agreed that the Ecology Department at Kings Island was the best in the business. No joke.

QUOTE (adam12 @ Jul 3 2006, 09:06 AM) I really hope CF strips Kings Island of ALL (except Nickelodeon stuff, that crap draws a lot of guests) things Paramout including theming.

-adam12

So what you're saying is that you'd want to ride Tomb Raider out in the open with absolutely NO shade, lighting effects, and killer soundtrack, and with just cheap, half-assed water fountains below guests' feet?

 

 

Well the theming did get stripped... and then the ride did...

 

Perspective.

Nearly a decade later...

 

So a decade later (and new management later) how we looking?

 

 

I will say that the park still has some distance to go to recapture some of the charm it had years ago.  The landscaping (personally) doesnt look as great as it once did.  The Floral Clock and the Floral Calendar always disappoint me.  At one point they were great, last year and so far this year, nothing photo worthy....

 

Then again, I look at the park through my son's experiences and its one of the greatest thing on this earth.

[jcgoble3]

The Floral Clock and the Floral Calendar always disappoint me.  At one point they were great, last year and so far this year, nothing photo worthy....

To be fair, I was surprised to see the floral calendar planted, with date, this evening (the clock is still empty). Usually those aren't planted until around Memorial Day, both to avoid the possibility of a hard freeze at night, and presumably to give the flowers time to grow (the date pieces in the calendar this evening looked like they had barely begun growing, which made the numbers hard to read). I think by June, they'll look much more like what we're used to.

[shark6495]

I really hope so. By July and August last year the clock was not as great as in years past, and I believe the calendar was way below par as well.

[KIBeast]

By far BSLC is not my favorite coaster, but it does serve a niche at Kings Island. I think you need some intermediate ones like The Racer, BSLC for the kids who aren't quite ready for the larger,  more intimidating coasters.

 

I like the direction that CF has taken with the chain as a whole, overall.