Sun-Sentinel.com:

Cypress Gardens files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

Associated Press

Posted September 12 2006, 1:52 PM EDT

WINTER HAVEN -- Cypress Gardens, the 70-year-old theme park saved from the wrecking ball two years ago, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing debts incurred after it was hit by three hurricanes in 2004.

The park, one of the oldest in Florida, will remain open and no major cutbacks are planned, said Ward Stone Jr., a Macon, Ga., attorney who filed the bankruptcy petition Monday in federal court in Georgia.

``All passes will be honored, all discounts will be honored,'' Stone said Tuesday. ``There will be no interruption or changes in operations. It will be business as usual.''

Cypress Gardens opened in 1936 and was a hit for decades, but it was unable to compete with the sophisticated attractions at nearby Walt Disney World, Universal Studios and Busch Gardens. It closed in 2003.

Valdosta, Ga., theme park operator Kent Buescher bought Cypress Gardens for $7 million under a complicated deal that involved state and local government and a nonprofit conservation group. It reopened in December 2004, after delays caused by the hurricanes.

Thats a shame. That was one of my first parks - and the place where I rode my first ride. I was only like 3 or 4 but I still remember the ride to this day.

I was there a year ago and it was a fun little park. There was no waiting in line for anything. They had one ride op running two rides. I never seen anything like it before. The ride op would run a cycle on one then go to the other and run a cycle. They was giving double rides on the coasters. They didn't stop in the station you just went through for the second ride.