Cedar Fair to acquire Paramount Parks

no problems with housing develpments, except when they tear down an amusement park for one.

Ghostrider was in the works before Cedar Fair purchased Knott's.

If you are trying to tell me Cedar Fair wooden coasters are better maintained than the Beast, I invite the big league posters on this site to agree. The rest of the wooden coasters at Paramount parks already ride like Cedar Fair coasters, so they are not part of my issue.

Please do your homework. Knott's Berry Farm planned and built Ghostrider right before the park was sold to Cedar Fair.

Yeah, because the planning of a ride has a lot to do with how it's maintained down the road.

They're all terribly maintained if you ask me. It's like trying to tell the difference between between two different piles of crap. Sure, one might not smell as bad as the other, but they both pretty much stink.

Why are the opinions of certain posters valued over others? And what the hell qualifies someone as a "big league poster" anyway? I've been here five years and made nearly 2,000 posts. Does that mean I win?

-Nate
*** This post was edited by coasterdude318 5/22/2006 3:46:14 PM ***

coasterkitty, your being really silly. Neither Cedar Fair NOR Paramount have done a great job with their wooden coasters, so you aren't losing anything. The Beast is not that great anymore under Paramount, so what's your beef? At least Ghostrider and Blue Streak remain enjoyable woodies. I can't think of *one* in a Paramount park i'd enjoy riding again.

The name "Paramount" has little to do with the Beast's maintenance. PKI still retained many of the folks on staff that originally built the coaster.

Shaggy*** This post was edited by Shaggy 5/22/2006 3:49:31 PM ***

Paramount's Dorney Park? Knott's Kings Dominion?

Is Cedar Fair reaching a size where corporate management feels it necessary to uniformly brand all the parks with an umbrella brand?

Just wondering.

I doubt it. If the "brand" were important anywhere it might have been in Northeast Ohio. But, when CF bought Six Flags Worlds of Adventure...what did they do? They went back to Geauga Lake.

I suspect you will have King's Dominion, King's Island, Carrowinds, and Canada's Wonderland. Out at Great America is the only place I think you might see the Knott's branding since they have done that with the waterparks and Knott's is a pretty established brand in California.

I'm just hoping that Cedar Fair can get their debts paid off in a few years and then build that desparately needed park in Houston. That would ultimately be a good addition because this is one of the few regions with a major population where Cedar Fair lacks a park. Another is Florida which needs a good thrill park with lots of coasters.

One thing I've admired about Cedar Fair is that they haven't created one overarching brand for their parks. I've long felt that, since one of the key strengths of an effective brand is consistency, park chains created through acquisition simply can't deliver a consistent experience.I'm just afraid some fellow in a Sandusky office is crunching numbers and realizing how much money they could save by buying national advertising for "Knott's -- America's Favorite Parks!"
*** This post was edited by slithernoggin 5/22/2006 4:11:25 PM ***

My thoughts on the expected buy,

Knowing how Cedar Fair handles its current season passes, IE CP-GL, we will probably see more of that with the new parks. I hope to still be able to get a system wide pass at Michigans Adventure for $95

I hope smoking areas are added to CF parks. I am a non-smoker who gets very annoyed at smokers blowing their bad breath/smoke in my face on purpose. Yes, this has happened to me more than once at an amusement park, one time in line!

What about ride sharing similar to what SF parks have been doing? Do you think CF will move some rides based on competition or area demographics? How about theming? I know CF is not famous for their theming, but we will see with the 2007 new ride.

In my opinion.....I think this is horrible news for Ohio, no competition means no quick progressions in parks, there wont be alternatives sort of speak. On the other hand Cedar Fair will fix up the other parks and make them much nicer, it would be even better if CF acquired the Viacom license too...

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Jan Frederick said:

Well, I'm not sure if I'd say Knott's was a theme park in 1920. I think it took on that status when Walter (wow, just like that other theme park guy) built Ghost town in 1940.

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Well, if you knew the answer, why did you ask the question?

And for all of you out there correcting me about the years I posted, they are directly from the Cedar Fair press release.

Six Flags went smoke free, did they not? I think there will come a time when that will happen at Cedar Fair parks. But, that would be pretty shocking to see at Carrowinds which is basically on Tobacco Road.

Disney has designated smoking areas and it is better than nothing.

By 'smoke free', SF means "designated smoking areas" - I doubt any park will go totally smoke free anytime soon.

I applaud CF parks for being the last bastion of freedom in the industry for smokers. I truly am curious if there will be any changes with it in either direction.

It occurs to me that 1.25 billion is a lot of .25 cent cotton candy.

I think the only question marks that come to mind immediately on this deal were alluded to in the conference call. Those investors who were tickled by the distribution increases might be getting jittery. But, if you are in it for the long haul then you have to feel pretty confident about where this is heading.

The only park where there might even be some question marks is Great America and they still hold their own in Northern California.

This seems a no-brainer...in as much as $1.25 billion can be a no-brainer.

In my park system we have a "no smoking within 100 feet of a playround, ball field, court, or building" policy and I don't think I have fielded one complaint on that policy in the five years I've been here.

I don't applaud Cedar Fair for that move...or lack thereof.

I'm not a smoker, and I do think that parks have the right to restrict smoking (unlike cities and states), but still am glad they haven't put a no smoking policy in place. It just seems like to big an intrusion to me.

I work for a City...and we restrict smoking so cities DO have that right. Florida has a law that restricts smoking in public places. Land at any of our airports and you will hear that over the pa systems. You can't smoke in restaurants that do more than 20% of their sales in food.

I think that there are a ton of children at theme parks and restricting their exposure to smoke is the morally correct thing to do. Now, I don't think you should eliminate all smoking but put it off the beaten path is all I'm asking.