Cedar Fair answers questions about Geauga Lake acquisition

Posted | Contributed by Jeff

Cedar Fair today announced the acquisition of Six Flags Worlds of Adventure, with the intention of opening it in May as Geauga Lake. A conference call today revealed some additional points beyond the issued press release.

In opening comments, Cedar Fair CEO Dick Kinzel said that the company intends to operate Geauga Lake as a “traditional family park, not a theme park,” and added that the decision not to sustain the animal park came out of their belief that operating animal attractions is not in their expertise. He said there was a lot of history in the name and that it was the obvious choice.

The current vice president of operations at Cedar Point, Bill Spehn, will be Geauga Lake’s new general manager. The full-time staff will be “evaluated” and the seasonals this year will still draw from the local pool of teenagers and college students.

Marketing VP John Hidebrandt at Cedar Point explained that the park would have a more regional focus. Their long-term plan is to create synergies that encourage guests to visit both parks in terms of pricing and ticketing.

Current customers that have purchased season passes at Six Flags Worlds of Adventure may choose either a refund or to redeem those passes at Geauga Lake passes. Cedar Fair season passes from other parks, including Cedar Point, will not be valid at Geauga Lake. Specifics about combination deals between the two parks have not yet been determined.

The trademarks under license by Six Flags will not be used at the rebranded park, so many rides and attractions will be renamed. A decision on whether or not to use the licensed Peanuts characters at Geauga Lake has not been made.

CFO Bruce Jackson said on the call that this deal will not have any impact on quarterly distribution to Cedar Fair unit holders.

Cedar Fair expects to open the park on May 1. Kinzel said after a tour of the park today that they expect all rides to open with the park if they pass detailed inspection, the only question mark being the Enterprise ride.

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Maybe they can move some of the rides to Michigans Adventure. That would be nice.

If Cedarfair is so concerned about losing money on CP Pass holders they should offer the Cedar Point Season pass with a slightly Discounted Geauga Lake add-on option. I would pay it.

I am envisioning something similar to the Soak City add-on.

How long before Batman:KF (or whatever they're going to call it) gets dismantled and moved to CP? heh...

As soon as they tear up some of the parking area.

Perhaps "Family Park" is relative to that other CF park in Ohio. You know, the one with three coasters taller than 200 feet? "Family" rides in comparison with the four monster coasters and several other mid-sized coasters at CP would be things like Villian and B:KF.

It's all relative, you see.

Actually, its four coaster over 200 feet (unless you are a purist and don't count Wicked Twister).

But the point being that GL can be a family park without removing anything. I see 'family' oriented meaning more of a pricing strategy. Cheaper one day tickets, cheaper season passes (that are not good at other CF parks), water park not an extra charge, etc. But don’t except CF to be building any 400 coasters anytime soon either.

I think CF figures there is enough families who consider CP to expensive that would be willing to go to GL if it was significantly cheaper.

The full-time staff will be “evaluated”

Think they'll bring in the Bob's for this job? ;)

I dunno, Jan...with the ride op quality as low as it is, the computers are probably used to bad messages. Some of the crew might get confused...

Why does it say "train stacking" when there IS no train stacking?! I swear, one day, I'm just going to take this piece of s...

I am commenting from a regular patrons point of view. Years ago the main reason for traveling to that area of ohio was for Sea World. Some vacations we would venture to the Geauga lake side. Then when Six Flags turned it into the Worlds of Adventure a lot of dissapointment arouse, but still we made it there on vacation after seeing the ads claiming it to be one big super park. To make a long vacation short, there were lots of disapointments, the biggest being the lack of animals and the expense. It's been about 2 years since my family went up to six flags, but I've heard there have been some improvements. I was glad to hear about cedar fairs aquisition of the park. I was also glad to hear they are going to bring back the traditional feel to the park, however i am very disapointed to hear that the animal area of the park will not be developed. The main tourist draw will be gone. And really, they have the money to get people in there that can get the animal park going, even if it takes some time. In all reality, to a non-amusement park enthusiasts, there is nothing that park has to really get excited about, except the unique animals. I am truly saddened with the news.

Now Cedar Fair will try to advertise to people for two different parks for the weekend. Kinzel said himself that the ideal situation would be people come to CP and stay for 2 days, and then a third day at Geauga lake. There will definitely be perks between the two parks. Maybe not as soon as the season begins because of the short period of time to get things organized, but in time there will be some appealing combo packages between the parks.

All i have to say is wow. The one thing i don't know about is if CF is going to being the park out of the whole that the park is in. There not building a new ride this year so it is going to be hard for them but i think CF can do it.

Think they'll bring in the Bob's for this job?

That's classic.

I am glad I waited to buy my season pass to Wyandot Lake in Columbus. It will no longer be Valid at the new "Geauga Lake". And Wyandot Lake is a dump of a park with mostly water atractions and a Coaster that is shorter than the water slides. Sad also to see the Wild Life side go..... Was a nice place to chill out. Hope the New owners keep most of the coasters where they are.

Ok, well i really hope that they don't tear down any rollercoasters. If they tear down any coasters I will be very sad. I like to hang out at Six Flags Worlds Of Adventure during the summer because I live 5 minutes away from it. If they tear any down it will detract customers from the park. If they are going to do anything to any of the rollercoasters they should dis-assemble X-Flight and move it to a new location to creat more parking spaces. I think that it's a good thing not to have qnimals if you don't know anything about them because you will most likely neglect them, and Six Flags did not take care of there animals very well. I hope no coasters get torn down because it would be very sad to see one go.

I think it is a good idea to sell seperate passes to each park and a combo pass because for the people who can't make it to Cedar Point it will be a waste of money for them. And I certainly don't wanna pay an extra amount of money for something I will never get to use.

How didn't six flags take care of there animals well? They did an AMAZING job with them IMO. Top notch animal care.

I honestly enjoyed the park overall the last couple of years and only wished that they would have got around to adding the Lost World, the dark ride, the hyper coaster, etc. Six Flags basically gave up, because that park really would have had promise if they did all these things, and like I said, I still liked it anyway and will be sad to see the penguins, reptiles, acquarium, etc. go. Barring of course Cedar Fair is smart and instead of getting rid of that side, uses it for further development to create a truly remarkable megapark by adding say some dark rides. :)

Steve: My biologist wife and her bionerd friends would be to differ.

just wondering....what is going to happen to Wyandot Lake???

What parks did they sell in Europe?

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